The Pulpit Commentary — 1 John — Section 165

va111e of fhc testimony of the Holy Spirit. "The Spirit, is the truth; 11 ' ' The Spirit of t.uth" (John xiv. 17; xv. 26); "When he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he shall guide you into all t,he truth." His testimony is of the utmost value and importance, because it is perfectly free from error or fraud; proceeding from the Spirit of truth, tho Spirit who is the truth, it is light without any darkness truth with"ut any error, And hie testimony is that Jesus is the Messiah and the So~ of God. IV. THE TESTIMONY OF ms BELIEVING l'EOPL&. "He that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in him . . . . And the witness is this, that God gave unto ua eternal life, and this life is_ in his Son." "The object of the Divine testimony being,'' says Alford, "to produce faith in Christ, the apostle takes him in whom it .has wrought this its effect, one who habitually believes in the Son of God, and says of such a one that he possesses the testimony in himself." All genuine believers in Jesus. Christ have the witness of their own consciousness "that God gave unto us eternal life, and this life is in his Son." '!'hey are conscious that the life of love-love to God and to man-is theirs. "We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brethren." And we know that this life was quickened within us through the exercise of faith in Christ. '.ro us individually this is the most convincing of all witnesses. "One thing I know, that, whereas I was blind, now I see;" V. THE TESTIMONY OF ALL THE BEFORE-MENTIONED COMBINED. All the foregoing witnesses are unit.ad and concurrent in their evidence. "The three agree in one," We may say that the four agree in one. Their testimony is unanimous. There is no contradiction, no discrepancy in their evidence. With one voice they declare, "Rabbi,- thou art the Son of God, thou art the King of Israel." " Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God." Notice two points in conclusion: 1. The claim which this tes~imony has upon our acaptance. "If we receive the witness of men, the witness of God is greater," etc. We receive human testimony, notwithstanding that (1) : The witness. may unintentionally be untrue. Human observations and impressions and recollections are 1;1ot always accurate; hence the witness of men is sometimes undesignedly incorrect. But in the manifold a.nd Divine testimony to the truth that Jesus is the Son of God there cannot be any inaccuracy or imperfection. (2) The human witness may intentionally be untrue. Man may endeavour to deceive; he may wilfully bear false witness. But "the witness of God is greater." The Spirit of truth cannot lie. Therefore. this testimony has the most commanding claims upon our acceptance. 2, The issue involved in the 'Tum-acceptance of this testimony, " He that believeth not God bath made him a liar ; because he .bath not believed in the witness that God !lath borne concerning his Son." ls any one prepared to discredit God? Will any one implicitly charge him with falsehood.? Be it ours to Ieceive his testimony with.larger,fuller con- fidence, and to rest in his Son with deeper, more lo:ving, and more reverent ti:u$t.,...,.-W. J, Ver. I2.-1V1e supreme possession. "He that bath the Son hath the life," etc. In our text the apostle expresse&- I. .A. SPECIAL RELATIONSHIP TO THE LoBD JEsus CHRIS'!'. "He that hath the Son." What are we to understand by these words ? What is involved in them ? 1. Realizing faith in him. (I) In Ms existence. Saving faith in Christ is faith, not in his historic reality only, but in his present existence-that he is. "He ever liveth." (2) In hu perfection. It will profit me nothing to believe in Jesus as an ordinary Man, having the imperfections, weaknesses, and sins of our human nature. Faith in such a being would not result in any accession of strength. Faith must be exercised in him as "holy, harmless, undefiled," etc. Th118 believing in him we are, as it seems .to us, necessarily led on to faith in his proper Divinity-" that Jesus is the Son of God" (ver. 5). (3) In his interest in us. Faith in his existence aQ.d perfection and Divinity will not benefit us unless we believe in his rf;lgard for us-that he cares for us,- desires to bless and save us. Now, we need what I have called a realizing faith in him, The faith of which St. John and St. Paul wrote, and which our Lord required in him- self, is a far greater and deeper thing than intellectual assent, "With tho heart man believeth unto righteousness." "When the soul in very truth responds to the message 0f God," says Canon Liddon, "the complete responsive act of faith is threefold. This act proceedB simultaneously from the mtelligence, from the heart, and from tho will en. v. 1-21.] THE FIRST EPIS'l'LE GENERAL OF ,JOHN. 163