The Pulpit Commentary — 1 John — Section 84

~ce<l. of another life is in him. 4-. It is impossible to a child of God. "He cannot ein, hecausc be is born of God." Impossibility of sinning is one mark of tho new birth. "He can~ot sin." Ble~se<l. inability I Cannot be sinning, or living a life out of harmony with Gods will 11nd \Vord. Cannot! \Vhy? Because in the new product of God's Spirit_ the pri~cipl~ of righteousness_ is so ootive that a sinning life is enlirely out of tho question. Virtue 1s so strong that 1t expels its opposite. A true child of God cannot be in alienation of spirit from bis Father in heaven, even for one moment. So nn honest servant cannot steal, a faithful husband cannot be unfaithful. One passionately fond of accuracy cannot be systemA.tica.lly inaccurate. So, also a child of God cannot be opposed to his l<'ather's will, simply because, ex hypotl1esi, the product of the new hirth is a child who will will ~s his Father wills. Into errors of judgment he may fall, by sudden gusts of temptation he may be overtaken and so surprised into a fault• but from sin, from the sin of living alien to God, he was delivered once and for ever' when, by the change in his nature, he was born again! He was "renewed. , , afte; the image of him that created him." IV. THE SINXING LIFE IS OPPOSED TO THE EVERLASTING STATUTE OF THE GOSPEL; So the apostle argues here. The siuning life is one of lawlessness, one of selfishness. Unlo,in:-'Iless and unrighteousness are not of God. He who drifts away from loyalty to God will soon drift away also from consideration to man. Disloyal self-will Godwarcl, breeds selfish isolation man ward. And this is contrary to the commandment that we heard" from the beginning," i.e. from the beginning of Divine revelation (Gen. ix. 9), or from the beginning of our Saviour's teaching (Matt. v. 44), or from the beginnincr0 of our Christian profession (Gal. vi 10). Consequently, one who receives and obeys the gospel began to unlearn selfishness the moment he was won for God. He is bound by his Lord's precepts to do good unto all men. 1 h"FERENCES A...'ffi APPLICATION. 1. How very serious a matter sin is I It is not a mere question of a few wrong deeds, but of a false bias of the will, which turns the entire life into a wrong channel E.g. think of the prodigal son. During his guilty wanderings he may have been entirely faithful to the citizen who hired him, but he was sinning against his father all the while he was away from him. So the disloyal man. He may do acts that are right as towards A and B and C; but so long as he is disloyal to God, be is sinning against him all the while. 2. How manifold are the forces employed against sin! A Law to condemn it, a Saviour to redeem from it, a Spirit to destroy it, a gospel to testify against it, a whole family of new-born sons to be living witnesses of his deliverance from its power. 3. How blessed and honour- able to be a child of God, and so to be numbered &mong the forces which God would bring to bear against sin I God's children are enlisted on his side, that they may be workeri; together with their Father in declaring eternal war against sin. Even under the Mosaic economy this principle was recognized. Jehovah called for the united voice of the people to join with him in branding sin with a. curse (see homily on Deut. xxvii.). But then the more prominent force was a law without; now it is a lifo within. 4. How distinctively Divine is the life of the true child of God I and how clear and manifost a proof of the reality of redemption and of regeneration! Of tho former, because he is redeemed out of the region of sin altogether; of the latter, because a new life, higher than nature knows, has been actually begotten in him, and is being sus- tained by the power of God. 5. How sure the triumph of God's children! They have to fight against the world's selfishness and sin, and in doing this they fight a.long with One who was manifested that be might destroy the works of the devil. 'l'he purport of that manifestation shall be realized; and when their Lord triumphs, his victory will be theirs. 6. What a sorry outlook/or those who are not the children of God/ What can they be thinking of to fight against so much? But ah I they do not think. They pause not to ask-What am I doing? How forlorn their prospect I Alien from God, rushing against hie Law, neglecting hie gospel, despising the Son of God: to w~at humiliation and destruction are they rushing on? Siding with the evil one, like him they must be cast down (Luke x. 18) and cast out (John xii. 31). 1 A writer in the .A.gnostic .Annual for 1884 declares that the morality of agnosticism is purer than that of Ch:l'istianity, since the latter bids us strive merely after oui:: own personal welf,.rt I If the writer of that article has been trying to we how vast an maceuracy he could i,en, he bas succeeded to perfection. No one coul<l pen a greater. ou. m. 1-24.J THE FIRST EPISTLE GENERAL OF JOHN. 81