Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of 1 John 2:24
Let that therefore abide in you, which ye have heard from the beginning. If that which ye have heard from the beginning shall remain in you, ye also shall continue in the Son, and in the Father.
24. Let that therefore abide in you ] The ‘therefore’ is undoubtedly to be omitted: it is a mistaken insertion in many of those inferior MSS. which omit the second half of 1Jn 2:23. This verse begins with a very emphatic pronoun; As for you (in contrast to these antichristian liars), let that abide in you which ye heard from the beginning. The pronoun in the Greek is a nominativus pendens: comp. Joh 6:39; Joh 7:38; Joh 14:12; Joh 15:2; Joh 17:2; Rev 2:26; Rev 3:12; Rev 3:21. The verb is an aorist and should be retained as such, as in 1Jn 2:7: it points to the definite period when they were first instructed in the faith. ‘Hold fast the Gospel which ye first heard, and reject the innovations of these false teachers’.
If that which ye have heard shall remain in you, ye also shall continue ] Better, as R. V., if that which ye heard abide in you, ye also shall abide. Here the arbitrary distinctions introduced by the translators of 1611 reach a climax: the same Greek word ( ) is rendered in three different ways in the same verse. Elsewhere it is rendered in four other ways, making seven English words to one Greek: ‘dwell’ (Joh 1:39; Joh 6:56; Joh 14:10; Joh 14:17), ‘tarry’ (Joh 4:40, Joh 21:22-23), ‘endure’ (Joh 6:27), ‘be present’ (Joh 14:25). The translators in their Address to the Reader tell us that these changes were often made knowingly and sometimes of set purpose. They are generally regrettable, and here are doubly so: (1) an expression characteristic of S. John and of deep meaning is blurred, (2) the emphasis gained by iteration, which is also characteristic of S. John, is entirely lost. ‘Let the truths which were first taught you have a home in your hearts: if these have a home in you, ye also shall have a home in the Son and in the Father’.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Let that therefore abide in you – Adhere steadfastly to it; let the truth obtain a permanent lodgement in the soul. In view of its great importance, and its influence on your happiness here and hereafter, let it never depart from you.
Which ye have heard from the beginning – That is, the same doctrines which you have always been taught respecting the Son of God and the way of salvation. See the notes at 1Jo 2:7.
Ye also shall continue in the Son, and in the Father – Truly united to the Son and to the Father; or having evidence of the favor and friendship of the Son and the Father.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
1Jn 2:24-25
If that which ye have heard from the beginning shall remain in you, ye also shall continue in the Son, and in the Father
The guileless spirit abiding through the Word in the Son and in the Father, so as to receive the promise of eternal life
I.
Let that therefore which ye have heard from the beginning abide in you. The phrase from the beginning must here refer to the first preaching of the gospel. Let all of Christ you have ever known, seen, heard, handled, tasted, abide in you. Let all you have learned of Christ–as being with the Father, from everlasting, in His bosom–as coming forth from the Father to reveal and reconcile–as purging your sin with blood, and bringing you to be all to the Father that He is Himself to the Father–let it all abide in you; always, everywhere.
II. So ye also shall abide in the Son and in the Father. First, Ye shall abide in the Son. What the Lord elsewhere enjoins as in itself a duty, Abide in Me (Joh 15:4), the apostle describes as the consequence of another duty being rightly discharged. We abide in the Son, as we may be said to abide in anyone when his words abide in us–or when that which we have heard of him, or from him, from the beginning, abides in us; when we understand and know him by what he says and what we hear; when what we thus understand and know of him takes hold of us, carries our conviction, commands our confidence and love, fastens and rivets itself in our mind and heart, and so abides in us. Thus we abide in the Son precisely as we abide in a friend whom we know, and trust, and love. Let us turn all that we learn into the materials of that personal communing of Him with us and us with Him, which is indeed the essence of our abiding in the Son. All the rather let us do so because, secondly, this abiding in the Son is abiding in the Father; for the Father and the Son are one. Into all that the Son is to the Father, in these and other similar views of His mediatorial character and ministry as the Son, we enter when we abide in the Son. And so we come to be to the Father all that the Son is to the Father. We abide in the Father as the Son abides in the Father. So we abide in the Son and in the Father. And still all this depends on our letting that which we have heard from the beginning abide in us. It depends on that faith which cometh by hearing, as hearing cometh by the Word of God.
III. Of all this the fruit is unto holiness, and the end everlasting life. For this is the promise that He hath promised us, even eternal life. The meaning here may be that the promise of eternal life is superadded to the privilege or condition of our abiding in the Son and in the Father, that it is something over and above that held out to us in prospect; or it may be that our abiding in the Son and in the Father is itself the very life eternal that is promised. The difference is not material; the two thoughts, or rather the two modifications of the same thought, run into one. (R. S. Candlish, D. D.)
Christian doctrine, duty, privilege, and hope
I. Christian doctrine. It is the doctrine of the Father and of the Son. Christianity, while it by no means robs the eternal Father of His honour, at the same time promulgates the Saviours declaration, that it is the pleasure of the Father that all men should do honour to the Son even as they do honour to the Father. It is a dispensation of which Christ is the head, is the chief subject, is the principal Person, to whom all eyes are to be directed; while all honour, and glory, and majesty, and worship, and thanksgiving are poured out upon the Father in all ages, at the foot of the mediatorial throne.
II. The duty and privilege of the Church. What is the duty? Let them abide in you. And what the privilege? If that which ye have heard from the beginning shall remain in you, ye also shall continue in the Son, and in the Father. Let it abide in you: but it must first obtain admission. Ah! and not only so, it must take its mighty grasp of the heart. And so it does wherever it comes in truth; it enters there to have its own way, first, to resist sin, then to imprison sin, and ultimately, by the grace of God, to cast it out.
III. The Christian hope. This is the promise, even eternal life. We are not content to live here always. No; we know there is a better land, a land of peace, of purity, and perfect bliss. (T. Mortimer, B. D.)
Vital godliness
There is a peculiar importance attached to these three little ins. There is a blessed union, a holy identity, an inseparable oneness between the persons and experience of real Christians and the persons and perfections of all the glorious Trinity in unity. Doctrinal godliness is union with Deity; experimental godliness is the enjoyment of Deity; practical godliness is the glorifying of Deity.
I. The antiquity of our religion. That which ye have heard from the beginning. What beginning? The beginning of the gospel? I grant that, if you wish; the beginning of the Christian dispensation. But go a little further back; the beginning of the prophetic vision–the beginning of the Mosaic economy–the beginning of the Abrahamic covenant–the beginning of the creation–go back as early as you will, and we will bear testimony that our faith is the faith of the ancients. If not, we will abandon it. Mark that beautiful account of the patriarchal faith recorded in the seventeenth of Genesis, and compare it with what is recorded by Paul in the Epistle to the Galatians, and the Epistle to the Romans and the Epistle to the Hebrews, and inquire whether they are not precisely the same faith, taught to both of them by the Holy Ghost. What was this ancient system? Our Lord tells us in plain terms, that Abraham rejoiced to see His day, and he saw it and was glad. Well, then, Abrahams religion, Abrahams faith, that which was from the beginning, simply consisted in seeing everything in Christ, beholding all he wanted in Christ, the Substitute, the Surety, the Daysman, the Sponsor of His whole Church. But we go further back than we have hitherto gone. Where then? say you? Up to the eternal councils of peace. I mean to.. say that all the religion worth having originated in heaven; it is the offspring of Deity. All that pertains to real godliness originates with God. Now here are certainties; here are securities. These are old-fashioned truths. Old-fashioned guineas, you know, are almost obsolete; but when we find them, we know they are valuable. Blessed be God, these truths are of sterling value and infinite importance; that which we have heard from the beginning our souls delight to dwell upon.
II. The living participation of this old-fashioned religion. If it shall remain in you. It must be in you in order to remain there. So that here is a religion put in a man, and of such a nature, and of such value, that it remains–abides, continues. What, then, is it? It is nothing less than a communication made from the throne of God, by the Holy Ghost, to the sinners heart. I should never be the better for what God my Father has given and God my Saviour has done, but for God the Holy Spirits communications to my soul. Every act of quickening is from His power; every whisper of love is by His voice. It is nothing less than the indwelling, the witnessing, the comforting, the instruction, the anointing of the Holy Ghost, resting upon the soul of man, that imparts one spiritual motion. I pass on to the term remain: If that which ye have heard from the beginning shall remain in you. The Spirit of truth, whom ye know; for He dwelleth with you, and shall be in you. The Father shall give you another Comforter, that He may abide with you forever. He never gives up His charge; He never forsakes His residence; He never abandons His work. It is a remaining religion. Now for the words–remain in you. Blessed be God, then there is no possibility of alteration. What is round about me, I cannot secure. But what is within me, secures me. It remains within: a vital principle, the life of God in the soul. It is Christ in you, the hope of glory; and the world and the devil must conquer Christ before they can turn Him out. Therefore He remains–remains in you.
III. Wherever this remaining, abiding, unconquerable, unchanging religion dwells in the soul, a lasting union between jehovah and that soul is demonstrated. Continue in the Son and in the Father! An inheritor of all the Sons merit and of all the Fathers love; an heir of God, a joint heir with Christ; interested in all that Christ did and suffered, and interested in all that paternal love planned, ordained, and predestinated. The warrior may boast of his fame, the statesmen may carry their projects, the merchants may secure their fortunes, the pleasure taker may revel in his wickedness, worldlings of all sorts may have their gods; but give me mine. An interest in all that covenant love has bestowed, and all that covenant blood has bought, and all that covenant grace can impart. But, say you, how am I to know this? I am to know it by something remaining in me; I am to know it by having a covenant gift; I am to know it by having an old-fashioned religion remaining in my soul that the devil and earth and sin cannot turn out. And, therefore, if thou hast the earnest, the pledge given by Jehovah, the Spirits work in thy soul, thou hast all that constitutes assurance of interest in the Son and in the Father. If children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ. (J. Irons.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 24. Let that therefore abide in you] Continue in the doctrines concerning the incarnation, passion, death, resurrection, ascension, and intercession of the Lord Jesus, which you have heard preached from the beginning by us his apostles.
Ye also shall continue in the Son, and in the Father.] Ye who are preachers shall not only be acknowledged as ministers of the Church of Christ, but be genuine children of God, by faith in the Son of his love; and ye all, thus continuing, shall have fellowship with the Father and with the Son.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
He only exhorts them to persevere in that faith which they at first received, whereby their union with God in Christ would be preserved entire.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
24. Let thattruth respectingthe Father and the Son, regarded as a seed not merely dropped in, buthaving taken root (1Jo 3:9).
yein the Greekstanding emphatically at the beginning of the sentence. YE,therefore, acknowledge the Son, and so shall ye have theFather also (1Jo 2:23).
from the beginningfromthe time of your first hearing the Gospel.
remainTranslate asbefore, “abide.”
ye alsoin your turn,as distinguished from “that which ye have heard,” the seedabiding in you. Compare 1Jo2:27, “the anointing abideth in you . . . ye shallabide in Him.” Having taken into us the living seed ofthe truth concerning the Father and the Son, we become transformedinto the likeness of Him whose seed we have taken into us.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Let that therefore abide in you,…. Meaning the word of God, 1Jo 2:14; the Gospel of Christ, which there was reason to believe had a place in their hearts, and which they had embraced and professed; and therefore the apostle exhorts them to perseverance in it; and particularly not to let go the doctrine concerning the Father and the Son, and this their relation to each other, which is the foundation of the doctrine of the Trinity, and of the distinct personality of Father, Son, and Spirit; the contrary to which leaves the three without either name, or distinction from each other: the arguments to enforce this exhortation follow,
which ye have heard from the beginning; they had heard it not externally only, but internally; they had hearkened to it, and from the heart obeyed it; they had mixed it with faith, and received the love of it; they had heard it from the apostles of Christ, who were eye and ear witnesses of the word; and this they had heard at the first preaching of the Gospel to them, at the first of their conversion: the apostles of Christ began their ministry with the sonship of Christ, and greatly insisted on it, in it, and required a profession of it before baptism, and which was made in order to it; and these believers had been baptized in the name of the Father, and of the Son, as standing in such a relation to each other; see Ac 9:20; and therefore ought not to relinquish this truth, and receive a new and upstart notion: and for further encouragement to continue in it, it is added,
if that which ye have heard from the beginning shall remain in you,
ye also shall continue in the Son, and in the Father; as those that are once in either always will; what is here said is not either the cause or condition of men being in the Father, and in the Son, or of their continuance in them, but is descriptive of the persons that are in them, and is an open and manifest evidence of their being and continuance in them. Such are in union with Christ, and at times enjoy sensible communion with him, and shall never be finally and totally removed from it; they are in the love of Christ, from whence there is no separations, and in the arms and hands of Christ, out of which none can pluck them; and they abide by him in the exercise of faith and love, and cleave unto him with full purpose of heart, and will hold on and out, professing his name to the end: and they are, and abide in the love of God the Father, which is from everlasting to everlasting; and in the covenant of his grace, which is sure and inviolable; and in the participation of all the blessings and promises of it, among which, the following one, eternal life, is a principal one.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
As for you (). Emphatic proleptic position before the relative and subject of , a familiar idiom in John 8:45; John 10:29, etc. Here for emphatic contrast with the antichrists. See 1:1 for ‘ (from the beginning).
Let abide in you ( ). Present active imperative of , to remain. Do not be carried away by the new-fangled Gnostic teaching.
Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament
As for you [] . This is the rendering of the Rev. The force of the emphatic you at the beginning of the sentence is utterly lost in the A. V., which takes the pronoun simply as nominative to ye have heard. You is emphatic by way of contrast with the false teachers (ver. 22).
From the beginning. See on 1 1. Notice the change in the order of the repeated sentence, that which ye heard from the beginning : o hjkousate ajp’ ajrchv, that which ye heard; the emphasis being on their reception of the message : o ajp ajrchv hjkousate, that which ye heard from the beginning; emphasizing the time of the reception as coincident
Fuente: Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament
1) “Let that therefore abide in you” John exhorts the believers to let remain, abide, or dwell with and in them certain basic, factual truths.
2) “Which ye heard from the beginning. These brethren had heard from the beginning of the Gospel to them – that Jesus Christ was very God of very God – in creation, in revelation, in birth, -life and death. Joh 1:1-3; Joh 1:14; Joh 1:17; Joh 3:14-16.
3) “If that which ye have heard from the beginning. conditioned upon their having heard, from the beginning of their profession, that Jesus Christ was the Son of God, redeemer of men, caretaker in Glory, John desires that the believers persevere.
4) “Shall remain in you”. (Greek meine) should remain abide or persevere in you. This refers not only to Jesus Christ as truth, but also to the body of revealed truth from Him, Joh 17:17.
5) “Ye also shall continue in the Son, and in the Father.” This continuity in the Son and in the Father embraces the believer’s continuity or perseverance in a fruitbearing and good soldier life. Joh 15:5; Col 1:22-23; Eph 6:10-11.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
24 Let that therefore abide in you He annexes an exhortation to the former doctrine; and that it might have more weight, he points out the fruit they would receive from obedience. He then exhorts them to perseverance in the faith, so that they might retain fixed in their hearts what they had learnt.
But when he says, from the beginning, he does not mean that antiquity alone was sufficient to prove any doctrine true; but as he has already shown that they had been rightly instructed in the pure gospel of Christ, he concludes that they ought of right to continue in it. And this order ought to be especially noticed; for were we unwilling to depart from that doctrine which we have once embraced, whatever it may be, this would not be perseverance, but perverse obstinacy. Hence, discrimination ought to be exercised, so that a reason for our faith may be made evident from God’s word: then let inflexible perseverance follow.
The Papists boast of “a beginning,” because they have imbibed their superstitions from childhood. Under this pretense they allow themselves obstinately to reject the plain truth. Such perverseness shews to us, that we ought always to begin with the certainty of truth.
In that which ye have heard Here is the fruit of perseverance, that they in whom God’s truth remains, remain in God. We hence learn what we are to seek in every truth pertaining to religion. He therefore makes the greatest proficiency, who makes such progress as wholly to cleave to God. But he in whom the Father dwells not through his Son, is altogether vain and empty, whatever knowledge he may possess. Moreover, this is the highest commendation of sound doctrine, that it unites us to God, and that in it is found whatever pertains to the real fruition of God.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
CRITICAL AND EXEGETICAL NOTES
1Jn. 2:24.Omit therefore. Which ye have heard.Concerning Christ, and Christs truth, on the authority of His apostles. Remain continueIn both cases prefer the word abide. Dr. Plummer paraphrases thus, Let the truths which were first taught you have a home in your hearts: if these have a home in you, ye also shall have a home in the Son and in the Father. Developments of the primary truths there must be, but all developments, adjustments, and adaptations must be in the strictest harmony with the primary truths.
1Jn. 2:27. Any man teach you.That is, any man who claims personal authority to teach, and does not speak by the inspiration of the Holy Ghost. Anointing.Which implies and involves that the Spirit is in you, leading you into all truth. St. John seems to suggest that the Spirit dwelling in the disciple will always make him sensitive to the recognition of the Spirit in his teacher. As he has shown that the new Divine life will keep us from sin, so now he shows that it will keep us from error.
1Jn. 2:28. Ashamed before Him.Better, shamed away from Him; or, shrink in shame from Him.
1Jn. 2:29. Ye know.Better, know ye. Doeth righteousness.Note the emphasis on doing: see chap. 1Jn. 3:7. A sober, righteous, and godly life is the fruit, and consequently the proof, of spiritual birththe token by which the sons of God by adoption and grace are distinguished from other men.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.1Jn. 2:24-29
Persuasions to letting the Truth abide in us.Abiding is one of St. Johns key-words. What had to be feared in the early Church has to be feared in every age of the Church. It is restlessness, that tends to shift men from their foundations. Nothing more effectually hinders Christian living than perpetual uncertainty about the grounds of our confidence and hope. Souls are like plantsthey cannot thrive if their roots are continually being shaken. They grow in atmospheres of quietness and peace. They must abide as they have begun.
I. Abiding in Christ is holding fast the truth received concerning Him.That which ye have heard from the beginning. Apostles, and all true teachers, never attempted to shift the foundations of primary truth concerning Christ which they had laid. They are willing enough to build on those foundations, but absolutely unwilling to alter the foundations. It would be useless and mischievous work for Englishmen now to try and alter Magna Charta, which is the basis of English liberty. Holding fast the profession of our faith without wavering is abiding in Christ. The primary truths about Christ concern His Divine-human person, and Divine-human mission: Son of God; Son of man; and God saving man.
II. Abiding in Christ is the guarantee of continuous spiritual life.It brings the eternal life. That life can be ours only by vital union with Him. It is the communication of His own Divine life through the channels of our faith. Break the connection, and the life can but flag and fail. Our Lord Himself said, Without Me ye can do nothing.
III. Abiding in Christ is the work for us done by the Holy Spirit, who is with us.This appears to be the idea St. John tries to express under the figure of the anointing. The believer is sealed by the anointing of the Spirit. That Spirit has, for His supreme mission in the believer, to keep him in vital relations with Christabiding in Christ.
SUGGESTIVE NOTES AND SERMON SKETCHES
1Jn. 2:24. Jealousy concerning Primary Truths.In our day it has been anxiously asked, What is the minimum of evangelical truth which must be accepted to constitute a saving belief? The answer is difficult, and will probably vary according to the religious school to which the answerer belongs. It is quite clear that there were some primary and essential truths to which apostles required full assent and absolute faithfulness; but they are much more simple truths than we usually admit, and they are sufficiently general to allow of various unfoldings and expressions. We may see how simple the truth required to be witnessed before baptism was in the case of Philip and the eunuch. If the words of Act. 8:37, I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, are a later addition to the text, they meet our case by representing the earliest tradition. The primary truth, of which we must be supremely jealous, and which constitutes the minimum of the Christian demand, is thisJesus of Nazareth is the Christ of God, the Son of the Father, sent by Him to be the Saviour of the world from sin.
1Jn. 2:25. The Promise of Eternal Life.The term eternal life is a figurative one. Mere continuance is not the manifestly most desirable thing; and all time-measures are unsuitable to the after-life, time being strictly one of the present earthly conditions of thought. As a figure, the term eternal represents, in part, what we mean by spiritual; or perhaps it would be more precise to say that it stands for the highest conceivable, the best that is attainable. When applied to life, it suggests full, unhindered life in God, life unto God. From the point of view of the tripartite division of human nature into body, animal soul, and spirit, what is meant by eternal life can readily be apprehended. It is the Divine quickening, and consequently the holy activity, of the spirit which man really is. Much has been missed by the confounding of the eternal life with the after-life. It may be found in the after-spheres, but it may also be found in the present earthly spheres. A man may have the eternal life now. As soon as this is clearly seen, the figurative character of the word comes to view, and the impossibility of its being strictly descriptive is recognised. There are many passages in which the time idea is manifestly unsuitable; in them the idea of quality is prominent. As instances see Deu. 33:27The eternal God is thy refuge; where it is evidently intended to suggest high and inspiring estimates of God, as the infinitely trustworthy One. In Isa. 60:15, the prophet, speaking in the name of God to Israel as a nation, says, I will make of thee an eternal excellency. Continuity of existence cannot be predicated of any nation. A supreme excellency is evidently meant. St. Paul, in Rom. 1:20, refers to Gods eternal power; and in 2Co. 4:17 he writes of an exceeding and eternal weight of glory. Save as a figurative expression, an eternal weight can have no intelligible meaning. The following suggestion deserves consideration: One of our common notes of value is the length of time that a thing will last. Ephemeral things are regarded as worthless; enduring things are estimated as valuable. The nettle is worthless; the oak is valuable. The gnat of a summer evening is worthless; the elephant of a century is valuable. The coal that burns through in an hour is worthless; the diamond that outlasts all the generations is valuable. God, then, would impress on us the very highest conceivable value, as attaching to His gift to us in Christ Jesus. So He meets us on our own level, fits His figure to our usual thoughts and estimates, bids us realise what must be the value of a thing which can not only outlast all generations, but even outlast all world-stories, and so apprehend the infinite value of that gift which He gives to us, even eternal life. The eternal life is the life which cannot be measured by years or days, but is the enjoyment of the blessedness of virtue. This is a present fact, begun as soon as the believer begins to be in Christ, growing more and more as he walks more and more closely with God, secured for ever when he enters his rest, and perfected in the glory of heaven. But this life, depending on knowledge of God, as begun here, does not lessen the reasonableness of its being perfected hereafter, any more than its future completion prevents its present beginning. F. D. Maurice took a firm stand in resisting the association of the idea of duration with the term eternal. A striking passage from his Theological Essays may be given: The word eternal, if what I have said be true, is a key-word of the New Testament. To draw our minds from the temporal, to fix them on the eternal, is the very aim of the Divine economy. How much ought we then to dread any confusion between thoughts which our Lord has taken such pains to keep distinctwhich our consciences tell us ought to be kept distinct! How dangerous to introduce the notion of duration into a word from which He has deliberately excluded it! And yet this is precisely what we are in the habit of doing, and it is this which causes such infinite perplexity in our minds. Try to conceive, the teachers say, a thousand years. Multiply these by a thousand, by twenty thousand, by a hundred thousand, by a million. Still you are as far from eternity as ever. Certainly I am quite as far. Why then did you give me that sum to work out? What could be the use of it, except to bewilder me, except to make me disbelieve in eternity altogether? Do you not see that this course must be utterly wrong and mischievous? If eternity is the great reality of all, and not a portentous fiction, how dare you impress such a notion of fictitiousness on my mind as your process of illustration conveys? But is it not the only one? Quite the only one, so far as I see, if you will bring time into the questionif you will have years and centuries to prevent you from taking in the sublime truth, This is life eternalto know God. The eternal life is the perception of His love, the capacity of loving; no greater reward can be attained by any, no higher or greater security. The eternal punishment is the loss of that power of perceiving His love, the incapacity of loving; no greater damnation can befall any. Bishop Weslcott, writing of the phrases used in St. Johns epistles, says: In considering these phrases it is necessary to premise that in spiritual things we must guard against all conclusions which rest upon the notion of succession and duration. Eternal life is that which St. Paul speaks of as , the life which is life indeed (1Ti. 6:10), and , the life of God (Eph. 4:18). It is not an endless duration of being in time, but being of which time is not a measure. We have, indeed, no power to grasp the idea except through forms and images of sense. These must be used, but we must not transfer them as realities to another order. The life which lies in fellowship with God and Christ is spoken of as eternal life, in order to distinguish it from the life of sense and time, under which true human life is veiled at present. Such a life of phenomena may be death, but eternal life is beyond the limitations of time; it belongs to the being of God.From Handbook of Scientific and Literary Bible Difficulties.
1Jn. 2:26. False Teachings as Spiritual Seduction.Concerning them that seduce you. The term which St. John uses brings out very prominently that the moral mischief of false teachings is of much more serious concern than the intellectual. We need not undervalue the importance of correct opinion on religious subjects. But as mere intellectual differences, keeping in the mental range, they are too often little more than logomachies. Every shape of opinion bears some direct relation to moral conduct, and every wrong setting of Christian truth has an evil influence on morals, and can be fairly judged in the light of that influence. Concerning all teaching submitted to us we can ask two questions:
1. Is it true? That question is often beyond all our power of solution.
2. Does it work out unto righteousness? That can always be answered.
CHAPTER 3
Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell
24. Let that The sure apostolic tradition. Note on 1Jn 1:1. The true historic doctrine of the real, genuine Jesus Christ you have heard from us, the apostles, who were his chosen witnesses. You have that truth enriched by the chrism of the Holy One.
Let it abide in you Otherwise you will become antichrists, and abandon the apostolic body.
Heard from the beginning It came from Christ himself; whereas the Nicolaitan dogma came from Simon Magus or from Nicholas the deacon.
Note on Act 6:5. If Here is the dread alternative of perseverance or apostasy; which, your own free will must decide.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
‘As for you, let that abide (remain) in you which you heard from the beginning. If what you heard from the beginning abide (remain) in you, you also will abide in the Son, and in the Father.’
The way of knowing the truth is to allow to continue to remain in them what they first heard when they responded to Christ for salvation. Then the Holy Spirit came to them and applied the word in their hearts, and if they keep hold of that there will be no danger that they cease to remain in the Father and the Son. This latter idea may mean doctrinally or in spiritual experience. In fact the two go together. As earlier, the secret is to go back to their foundations (1Jn 2:7).
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
1Jn 2:24. Let that therefore abide in you This verse contains an inference from what was said before; namely, “As they who received the doctrine of the false teachers, did in effect hold neither the Father nor Son, therefore the true Christians were to hold fast the pure, primitive, and apostolic doctrine, which they had heard from their first conversion to Christianity, and not regardthe false teachers.” The pure doctrine of the gospel is that which was from the beginning; that which was preached by the apostles and evangelists, and which is with certainty to be found in their writings, andno where else: accordingly Tertullian says, “That is true which was first; that was first which was from the beginning; that was from the beginning, which was from the apostles.”
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
1Jn 2:24-25 . Exhortation to the faithful keeping of the gospel. 1Jn 2:24 . ] By the Recepta the correct relationship of this verse is taken away; it is not a conclusion from what immediately precedes (Dsterdieck, Braune), but with the emphasized it is put in contrast with what is said of the false teachers; Theophylact: .
In regard to the construction: , , Beza and Socinus, it is either an attraction ( . for ., so also Bengel: antitheton est in pronomine; ideo adhibetur trajectio; de Wette: “ is properly no doubt the subject of the relative clause placed first;” Jachmann) [175] or an ellipsis ( = quod ad vos attinet); Paulus and Ebrard regard as the pure vocative; but it is more correct to admit an anacolouthon which has its natural origin in this, that the apostle’s thought in opposition to the false teachers was first directed to his readers, but equally also to the word which they had heard from the beginning; accordingly the apostle begins with , but does not follow it up by or a similar expression, but by . . ., as a new subject; comp. Winer, p. 506; VII. p. 534; Buttmann, p. 325. The same anacolouthon in 1Jn 2:27 . [176] With , comp. 1Jn 2:7 ; thereby, of course, the whole gospel is meant, but here specially the fundamental doctrine of it: that Jesus is the Christ.
] Theophylact interprets by ; Luther: “among;” but the preposition must be retained in its proper meaning; for upon that it depends that what was heard “abides in the soul as something that determines the life” (Neander; comp. Joh 15:7 ), because only then does that take place which the apostle expresses in the sequel.
] The before the concluding clause brings out more clearly its corresponding relationship to the preceding clause; here it is so much the more significant, as in both clauses the same verbal idea is used: If the Word remain in you, ye also will remain in the Son, etc. [177] That our remaining in the Son is the immediate result of the Word remaining in us, is explained by the fact that “the words of Christ substantially contain nothing else than a self-revelation or explanation of His person and His appearing, and similarly the evangelical proclamation of the apostles is only the copy of this preaching of Christ Himself” (Weiss). is put first, because fellowship with the Father is conditioned by fellowship with the Son.
[175] The idea of an attraction is erroneous, because “ , if attracted to the relative clause, would be too strongly emphasized in this position” (Winer).
[176] Myrberg’s reply, that is rather to be regarded as nominative absolute, is met by the fact that the use of the nominative absolute is precisely an anacolouthon.
[177] Dsterdieck: “By before John specifies the promised consequence which will correspond to the condition which is stated, while at the same time he brings out the nice point which is contained, in the significant interchange of and .”
Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary
Abiding In Christ
1Jn 2:24-29 ; 1Jn 3:1
IN this verse the Apostle is bound down in his mind to one thought, and almost to one word. He varies the word, and yet it is the same. “Abide,” “remain,” “continue.” These are in some sort an old man’s words. John will have no shifting, no experimenting: he will not have us as butterflies in the garden of God, here and there, a moment on the wing and a moment resting, and then flying again; and doing all simply because the sun is shining. The Apostle insists upon abiding, remaining, continuing, enduring, holding on. “He that endureth unto the end shall be saved.” This is true in all things that are honest and right; even in commerce; also in scholarship; also in the highest life known to heaven. Salvation is in continuance. There are those who want to be saved and completed as if by one magical act. This cannot be done; such is not the Divine plan. The economy of God is an economy of growth, of slow progress, of imperceptible advance; but the growth, the progress, and the advance being assured. How many there are upon whom no reckoning can be made! We do not know where they are, we cannot tell what they believe; not that we want to know the detailed particulars, but we do want to know the inner, constant, unchangeable quantity of faith: given that, and afterwards great liberty may be enjoyed as to imagination, and proposition, and formulation, and the like. The point of constancy must be found in the living faith of the soul. So then all new religion is forbidden. No religion can be new. If “religion” be taken in its Latin derivation, if it mean binding back upon, or binding down to, duty, it is an eternal term. Duty was never born. The incidents or accidents of duty may come and go, so that this shall be the incident to-day, and tomorrow the incident shall undergo modification: but the constant quantity is duty, binding back, a fettering to certain acknowledged and unchangeable principles. Eternal terms have eternal rewards:
“This is the promise that he hath promised us, even eternal life” ( 1Jn 2:25 ).
So, whether it be duty or whether it be promise, in each case we go back to eternity. There is nothing in time’s garden worth plucking except for one moment. What we pluck we kill. No man ever plucked a flower and kept it. He praised it, he became wisely and gratefully poetical over it; he called it lovely, sweet, beautiful, fragrant: and as he was pouring out his eulogistic epithets upon it the flower was dying all the time. But the promise which we have of God is a promise of eternal life. Who can explain the word “eternal” in this connection? It is not an arithmetical term, it is not a term of time, of extended, expanded, immeasurable time. Eternity has no relation to time; infinity has no relation to space, it mocks it, swallows it up, and spreads itself beyond all measuring lines, yea, and beyond the scope and bend of inspired imagination. It is difficult for the human mind to think of eternity in any other way than as a continuation of time. If eternity can begin, it can end; if eternity can end, it is a paradox in phrases, it is a palpable irony and self-contradiction. So life eternal is not life never ceasing only, it is a qualitative term, it indicates a species and kind and value of life. As John Stuart Mill has said, immortality in the mere sense of duration may become a burden. Duration is a low and literal term; eternal life means quality of life, divinity, blessedness, completeness, music, restfulness. Along the line of such explanatory terms must we find the real significance of the word “eternal.”
But there is to be an eternal element in us: that is to say we must love the eternal before we can enjoy it.
“Let that therefore abide in you, which ye have heard from the beginning. If that which ye have heard from the beginning shall remain in you” ( 1Jn 2:24 ).
What is that “beginning”? An unbeginning period; it is, as we have seen, a favourite word with John, both in his Gospel and in his Epistle. “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God” that same unmapped, unmeasured, unimagined Deity. If we are filled with theories, inventions, conjectures, and even hypotheses whatever that dubious Greek may mean we cannot go from these into eternal life. If we have taken up with that which was in the beginning, if it be in us, and we be in it, then this eternal life is not an arbitrary reward, it is a logical sequence, the infinite pressure of infinite laws. There may be some who suppose that the gift of heaven is extraneous, arbitrary; that it is given where something else might have been given in its stead. Such is not the reasoning of the Bible. Heaven is the culmination of all we have been passing through, as noon is the culmination of dawn, as the fruit is the culmination of all the mysterious, chemical action of spring and summer, the outcome and benediction of all. Some men are now nearly in heaven. Their translation can occasion but small surprise to themselves; they have daily fellowship with God through his Son Jesus Christ, by the power of the Eternal Spirit; they walk with God; they awake in the morning to praise him, they fall asleep with their heads pillowed in his promises, and in all the hours between waking and sleeping their one inquiry is, “Lord, what wilt thou have me do?” After such experience, heaven comes not as a novelty or a startling surprise, but as a necessary and blessed crowning of the whole process.
“These things have I written unto you concerning them that seduce you” ( 1Jn 2:26 ).
John was not only in a hortatory temper, he was also disposed to give caution and warning to those who were in danger of being craftily handled. In this connection “seduce” means, Lead you into by-paths. Observe the quaintness and the fulness of that expression. By-paths have a relation to the great turnpike, they are not wholly cut away, they are close at hand but they are not on the main thoroughfare: and I know not any promise that is given to those who are in by-paths, in out-of-the-way lanes and turnings and sequestered places; if there are such promises attached to such places they have wholly escaped my memory. The blessing is upon those who keep in the way, the old paths, the frequented way; and the young shepherdess is warned in the Song of Songs to keep close by them whose tents are builded by experienced hands. She is told to keep in company with those who have rich experience in shepherding, not to take her little flock away into by-paths, and to make roads and tracks for herself. The song says, Keep the old ones in sight; follow the way-worn, toil-worn shepherds, never be far away from them, so that if the wolf should come you may have assistance within call. John would therefore not have us try any by-paths. Some men cannot do without irregularity and incoherency; they cannot do with uniformity, they seem to be most in company when they are most alone, and they do not understand the mystery and helpfulness, the genius and inspiration of fellowship, comradeship, mutual exchange of love and trust. We must get out of this enfeebling and ultimately ruinous isolation. This caution is not directed against independency, courage, fearlessness, or heroism of mind. There is a leadership that is connected vitally with all the following body, there is also a leadership that cuts itself away from the body that has to be led, and therefore ends in loss of influence and ultimate ruin of soul and body. At the same time we must not think that a man is utterly lost because he has been seduced, led away into some leafy lane, where he thinks the flowers are brighter and the berries are sweeter than on the open turnpike; we need not pelt our lane-loving friends with cruel epithets, with murderous criticisms; we must not let them suppose that they are exiled and forgotten. The Son of man came to seek and to save that which was lost; let us say, even we ourselves who are now in God’s open sunny thoroughfare and are going straight up to heaven by the power of the Spirit, even we were like sheep that had gone astray, we had turned every one to his own way, but now we have returned to the Shepherd and Bishop of our souls. They may follow our example; some day we may find the lanes or by-paths all deserted, and our friends who have been momentarily lost may rejoin our friendship, and not know how to make enough of it because of their remembered loneliness.
The Apostle continues in the 28th verse in the same tone
“And now, little children, abide in him.” ( 1Jn 2:28 )
“Little children” is the same word that has been already used as a term of endearment. But the exhortation is unchanged abide, continue, watch, wait, keep on. We need all these exhortations; we are the victims of sudden passion. Imagination itself is challenged sometimes to go to the very pinnacle of the temple and behold the possibilities of religious progress and conquest, and all the progress and conquest may be realised by simply worshipping at some forbidden altar, or taking some ruinous leap. Blessed are they who have no imagination; they who know only the letter have no doubt, no fear, no trouble: other minds are all imagination, not in the nightmare sense of supposing that things are real which are non-existent, but in the high ideal sense of multiplying the actual into the possible, and that mysterious power which puts back the horizon and makes larger heavens every day. These are the men who are so various in mental action as sometimes to be accused by those who never dreamed a dream or saw a vision. On the other hand, it is within the power of the Spirit of God to direct the imagination which he has created, and in being so directed we owe to that imagination, some of our richest treasures of Christian poetry and spiritual thought. Evermore, therefore, the Apostle says you must abide in him.
John was familiar with this word “abide.” He caught it from the lips of the Master; he chronicled it as part of the discourse delivered by the Saviour about the vine and the branches and the husbandman; said Christ, “I am the Vine, ye are the branches; as the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me.” And when the Paraclete was promised, John says he was promised to abide. He came to stay till the work was completed. Some one must come from heaven to remain. Jesus came, and we hardly saw him before he vanished: and when he was going, he said, I am going for your sake, it is expedient for you that I go away; but I will send the abiding Personality: and no personality could abide with us that could be seen by us; familiarity would ruin even the ministry of God; Christ himself could have stayed so as to have survived himself: such is the mystery of all fleshly action and all fleshly contact and vision: we become familiar with it, we want some new wonder, some novel fame, some miracle of revelation: blessed be God, here is one of the subtlest, profoundest proofs of the divinity or the inspiration of Christianity, that it relies upon the presence of the invisible, upon the action of the impalpable, upon the ministry of One who is called the Ghost, the Spirit, the fleshless One, unseen, almighty. Even if this be but a conception, it is one of the finest, grandest conceptions of the human mind. It is more than a conception to the Christian heart, it is a distinct revelation. Again John becomes gently practical:
“If ye know that he is righteous, ye know that every one that doeth righteousness is born of him” ( 1Jn 2:29 ).
Here we have a claim which the Church has forgotten to insist upon. We ought to claim every good man as belonging to God “every one that doeth righteousness is born of God.” Never admit that there can be righteousness outside the Church. You must enlarge your Church to take in all righteousness. If your walls are too narrow to accommodate with sufficient hospitality all the good men of the world, you must put your walls farther back, at what cost soever; it is the wall that must be extended, not the man that must be kept outside. “Every one that doeth righteousness is born of God,” whether he technically and formally acknowledge it or not; whether indeed he is conscious of it or not: we must not allow even human consciousness to be the measure of all things, we must not so exalt human consciousness as to outbuild God from his own human creation. God is doing many things for us that we do not recognise in all their simplicity and reality. Whenever a man lifts his eyes to heaven in religious expectancy, though he has no words, he is under divine influence. If a man shall say to himself, “I will try to be good, without having any connection with churches and religious organisations,” he cannot perform that miracle except God the Holy Ghost be with him. Never admit that morality can be grown in any garden but the garden of God. If you find good in heathenism, it belongs to Christ. If ever Confucius or Buddha or Mahomet spake one living, loving, true, musical word, it belongs to him whose are the riches of the universe. The Church must make larger claims. Do not take some ecclesiastical standard with you and say, “Except you come up to this standard you have no relation to the Kingdom of heaven”; it is your standard that must go down, not God’s kingdom that must be narrowed and humiliated. Along this line I feel as if God’s ministers might house many who are apparently outside the Church, and who suppose themselves to be heterodox and outcast and alien. Nothing of the kind. If you ever yearn for your Father in heaven, take heart, hope on, yearn on: such yearning ends in vision and benediction. Once let the notion get rooted that men can be good without Christ, and the whole Christian argument is surrendered. Jesus Christ never allowed any good worker to go unrecognised. Whenever he heard of persons doing good, though they followed not with him, he would not have them forbidden; he knew that whoever was trying to help a child was in that form praying; whoever was struggling to shake down a boundary that he might enjoy a healthier liberty was really beating upon the door of the kingdom of heaven. This larger definition must give hope to the world.
“Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God” [literally, the children of God ( 1Jn 3:1 )].
There is but one Son of God, yet somehow the Lord hath made his household so capacious and inclusive that there may be many children of God. What happens when human character is so sublimated as to be made akin to the very nature and quality of God? Agnosticism happens. Hear the argument “therefore the world knoweth us not.” This is practical agnosticism. The Christian is in his own degree as great a mystery to the world as Christ was. There be those who say they do not know God; and these same people do not know God’s children. They deny their existence, they smile upon them as fanatics, they dismiss them in literary footnotes, they give them a humble place in the marginalia with which they adorn their literature; but they do not know the Christian, the man who prays, the man who trusts, the man who endures as seeing the invisible: that is as great a mystery to the worldly mind, whether it be mercenarily worldly or vainly worldly, in an intellectual and literary sense, as is the Godhead itself. Observe the same word is used “knoweth us not, because it knew him not”: not “know” merely in the sense of recognising; not “know” merely in the sense of saluting, as who should say, There are certain figures there the existence of which we must acknowledge, if we would not suffer our politeness to be extinguished; not that kind of knowledge, social, conventional and complimentary; but “knoweth us not” as to the secret of our action, the motive which impels us, the consideration which governs us. Christians are the misunderstood men of the world. Why are Christians misunderstood? Because Christ is misunderstood. Why are good men not known? Because God is not known. Only he who knows God can know God’s children. Blessed is the time, come when it may, when God’s children shall be such examples of moral beauty and nobleness as to confound the imagination of the worldly mind. This weapon is always left to us in the great spiritual warfare. We may be so good as to pass beyond the ken of low minds, worldly minds, vain, self-conceited minds. We can be so lowly minded, so longsuffering, so patient, so gentle, so forgiving, as to be counted fools. Wise are they who are fools for Christ’s sake. You may not convince agnosticism or any form of scepticism or question-asking, by sheer intellectual argument, but you can confound all enemies by the sublimity of unselfishness, by consummating in obedience to the Holy Spirit the whole character of him who died upon the Cross to save the world. The fate of Christianity often seems to depend upon the character of Christians. Awake! As the battle is ours, ours through the Holy Spirit may be the victory!
Fuente: The People’s Bible by Joseph Parker
24 Let that therefore abide in you, which ye have heard from the beginning. If that which ye have heard from the beginning shall remain in you, ye also shall continue in the Son, and in the Father.
Ver. 24. Let that therefore abide ] Persevere and hold fast the faith of the gospel without wavering in it, Eph 4:14 , or starting from it,2Pe 2:202Pe 2:20 . Be as the centre, or as Mount Sion, stedfast and unmovable. Stand fast; for ye are sure to be shaken: the tree must be shaken, that rotten fruit may fall off.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
24, 25 .] Exhortation to perseverance in the truth delivered to them, and statement of the promise connected with it : connected with the foregoing by the , as involving an : see the concluding sentence of Dsterd. above.
Ye (the stands alone, serving to mark more distinctly the change of person. We have a similar anacoluthon in 1Jn 2:27 . Khner, Gram. ii. p. 156, says: “The word which exceeds in significance the other members of the sentence, is sometimes with rhetorical emphasis not only put at the beginning of the sentence, but also expressed in a form calculated to shew that it is the subject underlying the whole sentence, although the grammatical structure would require another and dependent case. So Plato, Cratyl. p. 403, A, , : and ib. p. 404, , .” Some however explain the position of here by a trajection: so Bengel, “antitheton est in pronomine, ideo adhibetur trajectio;” and so Beza, Socinus, and even De Wette. But the other is more probable), let that which ye heard from the beginning, abide in you (i. e. not merely as Thl., , but as in ch. 1Jn 3:9 , , the truth respecting the Father and the Son once heard is regarded as a seed, dropt in and abiding in the man. , necessarily bound here to the subjects of , just as it is necessarily bound in ch. 1Jn 1:1 , to the subject of , as Beza, “Ex quo institui cpistis in primis christian religionis rudimentis”). If that which ye heard from the beginning abide (aor. in the sense of the futurus exactus, “shall have abode.” The result in the apodosis will be brought about by the accumulative accomplishment of the supposition) in you, ye also (on your part; vicissim , as Bengel. If it abide in you, ye too shall abide.) shall abide in the Son and in the Father (here again the rationalizing Commentators, Socinus, Grotius, Hammond, Semler, have endeavoured to explain away the close personal relation and immanence in God expressed by the Apostle’s words: “ita cum Patre et Filio conjunctum esse, ut bonorum ab utroque proficiscentium quis sit particeps,” Socinus, and similarly Semler: “summo eorum favore et amicitia fruemini,” Grot., Hamm. But here as every where else, they entirely miss the sense. He in whom abides the message of life in Christ which he has heard, not only has received the tidings of that life, but is transformed into the likeness of Him whose seed he has taken into him: is become a new creation: and the element in which and by which he lives and acts is even He in whom and by whom this new lite comes, even Christ the Son of God. And thus living in the Son, he lives in the Father also: for Christ the Son of God is the manifestation and effulgence of the Father, himself abiding ever in the Father, as His people abide in Him. See the same truth declared Joh 6:56 ; Joh 15:1 ff; Joh 17:23 ( Eph 3:17 ; 1Co 3:16 ; 1Co 6:17 )). And ( is the simple copula: not put , as c., Thl.) the promise (the preceding naturally carried the mind onwards into the future. The result of that abiding will be the fulfilment, not only in partial present possession but in complete future accomplishment, of Christ’s promise to us. This taking up again and explaining of something expressed (see ch. 1Jn 3:23 , 1Jn 5:11 ) or implied (see ch. 1Jn 1:5 , 1Jn 4:21 , 1Jn 5:14 ) before, is often found in our Apostle’s style) which He Himself (Christ; cf. , ch. 1Jn 1:1 ; cf. , 1Jn 2:8 ; , 1Jn 2:27 ; , 1Jn 2:28 ) promised to us (in many passages of the Gospel: e. g., Joh 3:15 ; Joh 4:14 ; Joh 6:40 ; Joh 6:47 ; Joh 6:57 ; Joh 11:25-26 ; Joh 17:2-3 ) is this , (even) eternal life (accus. instead of nom., by a common attraction of the subject of the sentence into the case of the relative clause: “urbem quam statuo vestra est.” The fact of being put in logical apposition with must not make us suppose, that means the thing promised . The aor. plainly enough shews that . is to be taken in its usual sense of a spoken promise. Then, when the purport of this promise comes to be explained, it is not “that we should inherit eternal life,” but, instead, the subject of the spoken promise is expressed, as very commonly in ordinary discourse. “He promised me such or such a price” is a case in point).
Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament
1Jn 2:24 . , as in 1Jn 2:7 . The significant iteration of is lost in A.V. (“abide remain continue”). : observe the order. The Son is the manifestation of the Father; through Him we reach the Unseen Father ( cf. Joh 14:9 ).
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
remain. Same as “abide”, 1Jn 2:6.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
24, 25.] Exhortation to perseverance in the truth delivered to them, and statement of the promise connected with it: connected with the foregoing by the , as involving an : see the concluding sentence of Dsterd. above.
Ye (the stands alone, serving to mark more distinctly the change of person. We have a similar anacoluthon in 1Jn 2:27. Khner, Gram. ii. p. 156, says: The word which exceeds in significance the other members of the sentence, is sometimes with rhetorical emphasis not only put at the beginning of the sentence, but also expressed in a form calculated to shew that it is the subject underlying the whole sentence, although the grammatical structure would require another and dependent case. So Plato, Cratyl. p. 403, A, , : and ib. p. 404, , . Some however explain the position of here by a trajection: so Bengel, antitheton est in pronomine, ideo adhibetur trajectio; and so Beza, Socinus, and even De Wette. But the other is more probable),-let that which ye heard from the beginning, abide in you (i. e. not merely as Thl., , but as in ch. 1Jn 3:9, , the truth respecting the Father and the Son once heard is regarded as a seed, dropt in and abiding in the man. , necessarily bound here to the subjects of , just as it is necessarily bound in ch. 1Jn 1:1, to the subject of ,-as Beza, Ex quo institui cpistis in primis christian religionis rudimentis). If that which ye heard from the beginning abide (aor. in the sense of the futurus exactus, shall have abode. The result in the apodosis will be brought about by the accumulative accomplishment of the supposition) in you, ye also (on your part; vicissim, as Bengel. If it abide in you, ye too shall abide.) shall abide in the Son and in the Father (here again the rationalizing Commentators, Socinus, Grotius, Hammond, Semler, have endeavoured to explain away the close personal relation and immanence in God expressed by the Apostles words: ita cum Patre et Filio conjunctum esse, ut bonorum ab utroque proficiscentium quis sit particeps, Socinus,-and similarly Semler: summo eorum favore et amicitia fruemini, Grot., Hamm. But here as every where else, they entirely miss the sense. He in whom abides the message of life in Christ which he has heard, not only has received the tidings of that life, but is transformed into the likeness of Him whose seed he has taken into him: is become a new creation: and the element in which and by which he lives and acts is even He in whom and by whom this new lite comes, even Christ the Son of God. And thus living in the Son, he lives in the Father also: for Christ the Son of God is the manifestation and effulgence of the Father, himself abiding ever in the Father, as His people abide in Him. See the same truth declared Joh 6:56; Joh 15:1 ff; Joh 17:23 (Eph 3:17; 1Co 3:16; 1Co 6:17)). And ( is the simple copula: not put , as c., Thl.) the promise (the preceding naturally carried the mind onwards into the future. The result of that abiding will be the fulfilment, not only in partial present possession but in complete future accomplishment, of Christs promise to us. This taking up again and explaining of something expressed (see ch. 1Jn 3:23, 1Jn 5:11) or implied (see ch. 1Jn 1:5, 1Jn 4:21, 1Jn 5:14) before, is often found in our Apostles style) which He Himself (Christ; cf. , ch. 1Jn 1:1; cf. , 1Jn 2:8; , 1Jn 2:27; , 1Jn 2:28) promised to us (in many passages of the Gospel: e. g., Joh 3:15; Joh 4:14; Joh 6:40; Joh 6:47; Joh 6:57; Joh 11:25-26; Joh 17:2-3) is this, (even) eternal life (accus. instead of nom., by a common attraction of the subject of the sentence into the case of the relative clause: urbem quam statuo vestra est. The fact of being put in logical apposition with must not make us suppose, that means the thing promised. The aor. plainly enough shews that . is to be taken in its usual sense of a spoken promise. Then, when the purport of this promise comes to be explained, it is not that we should inherit eternal life, but, instead, the subject of the spoken promise is expressed, as very commonly in ordinary discourse. He promised me such or such a price is a case in point).
Fuente: The Greek Testament
1Jn 2:24. , you) There is an antithesis in the pronoun: therefore a transposition is used, as in 1Jn 2:27.-) that which, respecting the Father and the Son.-, ye have heard) This is to be pronounced with emphasis.-, let it abide) He uses exhortation. Wherefore, if it abides, has this meaning; If you shall be of the character of those in whom it abides.- , that which is from the beginning) Now this is to be pronounced with emphasis.- , ye also) in your turn. Thus, in you, in Him, 1Jn 2:27.
Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament
abide: Psa 119:11, Pro 23:23, Luk 9:44, Joh 15:7, Col 3:16, Heb 2:1, Heb 3:14, 2Jo 1:2, 3Jo 1:3, Rev 3:3, Rev 3:11
which: 1Jo 2:7, Luk 1:2, Joh 8:25, Phi 4:15, 2Jo 1:5, 2Jo 1:6
ye also: 1Jo 1:3, 1Jo 1:7, 1Jo 4:13, 1Jo 4:16, Joh 14:23, Joh 15:9, Joh 15:10, Joh 17:21-24
Reciprocal: Pro 3:21 – let Joh 8:31 – If Joh 14:1 – ye Joh 15:4 – Abide 1Co 13:13 – abideth 2Co 1:20 – all Jam 1:25 – and 1Jo 5:12 – that hath the 1Jo 5:20 – and we 2Jo 1:3 – the Son
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
1Jn 2:24. Heard from the beginning refers to the truth given to the world through Him who is “from the beginning” (chapter 1:1). If this truth remains in us we will be in fellowship with both the Father and the Son.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
1Jn 2:24-25. As for you, let that abide in you which ye heard from the beginning. If that which ye heard from the beginning abide in you, ye shall also abide in the Son and in the Father. And this is the promise that he promised us, even life eternal. The false teachers introduced novelties: their doctrine was opposed to the stedfast message or promise of the Gospel; and the apostle introduces a new element here; that is, the apostolic teaching as the standard to which every form of doctrine, good or evil, must be brought. The unction of the Holy One gives spiritual discernment to every sanctified believer, by which he can perceive the contradiction of error. But the security is deeper even than that. The apostolic doctrine is an indwelling word which is the condition of abiding in the Father and the Son. This abiding in God is the whole substance of the truth as a promise: this is the promise which He promised; and this promise is eternal life.
Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament
These words are an exhortation to hold fast, and not to forsake the doctrine of Christianity, which from the beginning they have received, and not to turn to novelties. Let that abide in you which ye have heard from the beginning; that is, from the first preaching of the gospel .
Note here, What is truth and true doctrine, namely, that which was delivered from the beginning. Truth is error’s elder, though error is not much truth’s younger.
Note, 2. By what means they received the evangelical doctrine, namely, by hearing let that which ye have heard abide in you, No sense more needful than that of hearing, for the benefit and advantage of man; both as he is by nature a reasonable creature, by converse a sociable creatue, and may be by grace a new creature; Faith cometh by hearing.
Note, 3. The duty required with reference to what they had heard; let that which ye have heard abide in you, namely, by a careful remembrance of it, and by resolute adherence to it. The sum of this exhortation is, that we retain and maintain the ancient catholic and apostolic faith; and verily when we consider how tenacious heretics are of their novel errors, it may bring a blush into our faces to consider how ready we are to be withdrawn from primitive truths.
Observe next, The motive with which our apostle doth enforce and back his exhortation If that which ye have heard remain in you, you shall continue in the Son, and in the Father; that is, in the love and favour of the Son, and of the Father, and in communion with both.
Quest. But why is the Son put before the Father here? Partly to insinuate, that the Son is no less in essencce and dignity than the Father, but equal in both; accordingly, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ in the apostolical benediction, is mentioned before the love of God the Father: And partly, because no man cometh to, or continueth in the Father, but by the Son, He is the way, the truth, and the life.
The doctrine of the gospel comes from Christ; it leads to Christ, and by him unto the Father. If a man keep my word, we will make our abode with him. Joh 14:23
Fuente: Expository Notes with Practical Observations on the New Testament
Possessing Eternal Life
We possess eternal life in prospect through God’s promise ( Mar 10:29-30 ; Tit 1:2 ; Rom 8:24-25 ). It is ours if we hold fast the gospel we heard from the beginning. Joseph understood that God’s promise would be accomplished and based his instructions concerning his body upon that confidence ( Gen 50:24-26 ). Similarly, we can fully trust God’s promise and should order our lives on that basis. John wrote his book to warn against those false teachers who would lead Christians out of Christ and cost them the wonderful promise of life eternal ( 1Jn 2:25-26 ).
Fuente: Gary Hampton Commentary on Selected Books
1Jn 2:24-25. Let that therefore abide in you Namely, that doctrine concerning the Father and the Son; which ye have heard from the beginning Of the preaching of the gospel: retain a firm belief of it, and let your minds be so impressed with a sense of its certain truth and infinite importance, that it may have the desired influence on your spirit and conduct. If that which ye have heard, &c., shall remain fixed and rooted in you If you persevere in the faith of the gospel, and show that you do so by your life and conversation; ye also shall continue in the Son and in the Father Genuine members of Christs mystical body, and consequently in the love of God, and in communion with him. And, to encourage you in this, remember the promise, that he, the Son, hath made to us, if we abide in him, even eternal life.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Verse 24
Let that therefore; that belief.
Fuente: Abbott’s Illustrated New Testament
2:24 {24} Let that therefore abide in you, which ye have heard from the beginning. If that which ye have heard from the beginning shall remain in you, ye also shall continue in the Son, and in the Father.
(24) The whole preaching of the prophets and apostles is contrary to that doctrine, therefore it is utterly to be cast away, and this wholly to be held and kept, which leads us to seek eternal life in the free promise, that is to say, in Christ alone, who is given to us by the Father.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
Signs of living in the light 2:24-25
John now called on his readers to abide in the true doctrine of Jesus Christ to enable them to abide in fellowship with God.
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
Christians should not reject the truth that they believed that resulted in their salvation (cf. the warning passages in Hebrews). Such faithfulness enables us to continue to abide in fellowship with God. John used "abide" in the same sense in which Jesus did in the Upper Room Discourse. Abiding refers to an intimate relationship with God determined by the extent to which we walk in the light of God’s will that we have. Abiding, fellowship, and knowing God refer to the same thing, and we experience them by degrees rather than either completely or not at all (Joh 15:1-8). John’s insistence that his readers really did know God and His truth would have strengthened them to resist the false teachers (1Jn 2:12-14; 1Jn 2:21).