The Pulpit Commentary — 1 John — Section 27

before the Gospel; (2) from the beginning more, it shows thnt, iu spite of his l111ving of your career as Christians. 'l'his new and nominnlly entered iho compnuy of tho yet old k>mmand rnms up tl:Je practice.I side childron of light, he ho.s reo.lly ncvcl' left of tlw ,.flspcl wl,ich h~<l bl'en preached to the darkness. "If ye loved only your them ltom the first. The second dw' apx;js bretbren, ye would not yet be pel'fcct; but it spurious. if ye hate your brethren, what are ye? whe1·e Ver. S.-Again. The ,rci>..,v indicates aro ye?" (St. Augustine). anoth,-r point of view-what in one sense Ver. 10.-Whel'en.s he who lo1•ca his wo.s not fresh, in another sense was so. It is brother !ms not only cnt•,red lhe region of impossible to be certain as to the mco.niug light, but has made it his home : he abideth of ii ,u--,w ,b.-11Bh, 1<.-r.>... It may mean (I) in the light, It is difficult to deterwiue " which thing (the newness of the commnnd) whcthcl' the "occasion of stumbling'' (v1Cdv- u frue;" or (2) "as n fresh commandment I lla;\ov) is in reference to himself ol' to others, nm writing to you a thing ,cliich is true." The context here nnd Jol:Jn :i:i. 9, 10 are in But for the prncticul example of the life of favour of the former, It is n man's own Christ, and men's acceptance of it, the com- salvation that is under consideration here, mand to love one's neighbour might have not ~)s influen:a o!er ~there : an~ "'!ov1</nr- remnined old and become obsolete. "On is TE"I, oT, .,.~ t.pcvs ov,c EUTUI Jv aur~ seems almost certainly "becnusc," not "that ; " it exuctly parallel. To have no light in one is introduces the ree.son why he writes, not the to be in danger of stumbling; to have light substance of, the fresh commandment. How in one is to have no occasion of stumbling ron "the darkness is passing away," etc., be (comp. :Ezek. xiv. 3, which is very parallel). a commandment? The light, the true light But elsewhere in the New Testa1nent v1Cd11- (.,-1, ,pws -ro a>..178wov); i.e. the real, the perfect, lia.>..ov means a stumbling-block or snare in the very light, that which most fully realizes another's way, not in one's own way; nnd tLc ideal of ligl,t; in opposition to those this makes sense here. There is yet a third "wandering stars, for whom the blackness explanation. 'Ev airrq, may mean "in it," of da1·kucss hath been reserved for ever" i.e. " in the light there is no occasion of (Jude 13; cf. John i. 4, 9; vi. 32; xv. 1). 6tumbling." This makes a good antithesis Christ is the perfect Light, as he is the per- to the <'lose of ver. 11, "knoweth not whither fect Bread and the perfect Vine. he goeth." Yers. 9-11.-Walkir.g in the light ex- . Ve1·. 11.-Note the alternation: ver. 10 is cludes all hatred towards brethren, for such the antithesis of ver. 9, and ver. 11 of ver. hatred i~ a form of darkness. These verses 10, repeating and enlnrging ver. 9. Note set forth in a Yariety of forms the affinity also the cliuiax effected by the gradual between love and light, hatred nnd darkness, increase of predicates : in ver. 9 one, in ver. and the consequent incowpatibilily between 10 two, in ver. 11 th1·ee. The brother-hater liatred and ligLt. "Hate" (µ.urii,,) is not to lias darkness as his habitual condition and WI be watered down into "ne«lect" 0 or" fail to the atmosphere in which he lives nnd works; love." St. J uhn knows nothing of such o.nd long ago (aorist) the continual dark- compromises. Love is love, end hate is ness deprived him of the very power of sight, hate, and between the two there is no so that lle is in ignorance as to the course neutral ground. any more ihan between life he is ta.king. Cf. " They know not, neither and death, or between Christ and antichriat. will they understnnd ; they wallc on in darlc- "He that is not with me is age.inst me." ness" (Ps. lxx:i:ii. 5); "The fool wallceth in "Love is tLe moral counterpart of intel- durkness" (Eccles. ii. 14). ,; St. John scouts lectual light. It is a modem fashion to all the pretences of men to illumination represent these two tempera as necessarily which do not involve the practical ncknow- opposed. But St. John is at once earnestly ledgment of brotherhood. A wan may say dogmatic and earne.stly philanthropic; for he is in the light as much o.s he pleases; tLe Incarnation has taught him both t.he but to be in the light implies that he is ablo preciousue,s of Illll.n and the preciousness of to see his bretLren, and not to stumble truth" (Liddon). against them" (Maurice). YGr. 9.-He that B&ith. For the fifth Vera. 12-14.-Before passing on t.o tho time St. John points out a glaring in~on- second thiog which walking in the light ex- sistency which is poaaible between profes- cludes, viz. love of the world (vers. 15-17), sion and fact ( ia.v ,r,,..,,,,,,..,, eh. i. G, 8, 10 ; o the aposlle twice makes a threefold address, >..,-ywv, eh. ii. 4. 9); cf. eh. iv. 20. In all these fir,t stating why he writes (-ypcitpr,,), and peBBages the case is pnt hypothetically; hut secondly why he wrote (l-ypa,[,a), to the three in aorue of the Gnoiiti.c teaching of the age classes nametl. 'fhis suggests several ques- this incoD.BiBtency existtd beyond a doubt. tions. (1) W7iat is the difference between Is in darlmet111 even llll.til now. His suppos- "I 'IIITite" (or," am writing") and" I wrote" ing t.w.t hatred is compatible with light (or," have written;" for this is a case where proven the darkness in which he is. Nay, the English perfect may represent the Greek 011, II, 1--20.] THE FIRST EPrnTLE GENERAL OF JOHN. 23