Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of 1 John 5:18
We know that whosoever is born of God sinneth not; but he that is begotten of God keepeth himself, and that wicked one toucheth him not.
18. We know ] This confident expression of the certitude of Christian faith stands at the beginning of each of these three verses and is the link which binds them together. We have had it twice before ( 1Jn 3:2 ; 1Jn 3:14; comp. 1Jn 2:20-21, 1Jn 3:5; 1Jn 3:15): and perhaps in all cases it is meant to mark the contrast between the real knowledge of the believer, which is based upon Divine revelation in Christ, and the spurious knowledge of the Gnostic, which is based upon human intelligence.
The triple ‘we know’ at the close of the Epistle confirms the view that Joh 21:24 is by the Apostle’s own hand, and not added by the Ephesian elders.
whosoever is born of God ] Better, as R.V., whosoever is begotten of God, It is the same verb, though not the same tense, as is used in the next clause: A.V. changes the verb and does not change the tense. The sentence is a return to the statement made in 1Jn 3:9, where see notes. Once more the Apostle is not afraid of an apparent contradiction (see on 1Jn 2:15). He has just been saying that if a Christian sins his brother will intercede for him; and now he says that the child of God does not sin. The one statement refers to possible but exceptional facts; the other to the habitual state. A child of God may sin; but his normal condition is one of resistance to sin.
but he that is begotten of God keepeth himself ] Rather, but the Begotten of God keepeth him. The first change depends upon a question of interpretation, the second on one of reading; and neither can be determined with certainty. The latter is the easier question and it throws light on the former. ‘Him’ ( ), on the high authority of A 1 B and the Vulgate, seems to be rightly preferred by most editors to ‘himself’ ( ). This ‘him’ is the child of God spoken of in the first clause: who is it that ‘keepeth him’? Not the child of God himself, as A. V. leads us to suppose and many commentators explain, but the Son of God, the Only-Begotten. On any other interpretation S. John’s marked change of tense appears arbitrary and confusing. Recipients of the Divine birth are always spoken of by S. John both in his Gospel and in his Epistle in the perfect participle ( or ); 1Jn 3:9, 1Jn 5:1 ; 1Jn 5:4; Joh 3:6; Joh 3:8; also the first clause here. In the present clause he abruptly changes to the aorist participle ( ), which he uses nowhere else (comp. Mat 1:20; Gal 4:29). The force of the two tenses here seems to be this: the perfect expresses a permanent relation begun in the past and continued in the present; the aorist expresses a timeless relation, a mere fact: the one signifies the child of God as opposed to those who have not become His children; the other signifies the Son of God as opposed to the evil one. It is some confirmation of this view that in the Constantinopolitan Creed, commonly called the Nicene Creed, ‘begotten of the Father’ ( ) is the same form of expression as that used here for ‘begotten of God’ ( ). Moreover this interpretation produces another harmony between Gospel and Epistle. Christ both directly by His power and indirectly by His intercession ‘keepeth’ the children of God: ‘I kept them in Thy Name’ (Joh 17:12); ‘I pray not that Thou shouldest take them out of the world but that Thou shouldest keep them from the evil one ’ (Joh 17:15).
that wicked one toucheth him not ] Better, the evil one toucheth him not: see on 1Jn 1:2 and 1Jn 2:13. Strangely enough the Genevan Version has ‘that wycked man.’ The original is perhaps less strong than the English; ‘layeth not hold on him’ ( ); see on Joh 20:17. The evil one does assault him, but he gets no hold. ‘No one shall snatch them out of My hand’ (Joh 10:28). ‘The ruler of the world cometh: and he hath nothing in Me’ (Joh 14:30). Therefore whoever is in Christ is safe.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
18 20. The Sum of the Christian’s Knowledge
18 20. The Epistle now draws rapidly to a close. Having briefly, yet with much new material, retouched some of the leading ideas of the Epistle, eternal life, faith in Christ and boldness in prayer united with brotherly love (13 17), the Apostle now goes on to emphasize once more three great facts about which Christians have sure knowledge, facts respecting themselves, their relations to the evil one and his kingdom, and their relations to the Son of God. Each verse is a condensation of what has been said elsewhere. 1Jn 5:18 is a combination of 1Jn 3:9 with 1Jn 2:13; 1Jn 5:19 a combination of the substance of 1Jn 1:6, 1Jn 2:8; 1Jn 2:15 and 1Jn 3:10; 1Jn 3:13: 1Jn 5:20 condenses the substance of 1Jn 4:9-14 and 1Jn 5:1-12. “Hence we have in these last verses a final emphasis laid on the fundamental principles on which the Epistle rests; that through the mission of the Lord Jesus Christ we have fellowship with God; that this fellowship protects us from sin; and that it establishes us in a relation of utter opposition to the world ” (Haupt). Fellowship with one another is not mentioned again, but is included in the threefold ‘ we know’.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
We know that whosoever is born of God sinneth not – Is not habitually and characteristically a sinner; does not ultimately and finally sin and perish; cannot, therefore, commit the unpardonable sin. Though he may fall into sin, and grieve his brethren, yet we are never to cease to pray for a true Christian: we are never to feel that he has committed the sin which has never forgiveness, and that he has thrown himself beyond the reach of our prayers. This passage, in its connection, is a full proof that a true Christian will never commit the unpardonable sin, and, therefore, is a proof that he will never fall from grace. Compare the notes at Heb 6:4-8; Heb 10:26. On the meaning of the assertion here made, that whosoever is born of God sinneth not, see the notes at 1Jo 3:6-9.
Keepeth himself – It is not said that he does it by his own strength, but he will put forth his best efforts to keep himself from sin, and by divine assistance he will be able to accomplish it. Compare the 1Jo 3:3 note; Jud 1:21 note.
And that wicked one toucheth him not – The great enemy of all good is repelled in his assaults, and he is kept from falling into his snares. The word toucheth ( haptetai) is used here in the sense of harm or injure.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
1Jn 5:18
We know that whosoever is born of God sinneth not; but he that is begotten of God keepeth himself, and that wicked one toucheth him not
Three views of the truly regenerate man
1.
He sinneth not. As regenerate, he has a new nature. The power of sin is broken in his soul, and therefore its influence over his character and conduct is subdued.
2. He keepeth himself. The Holy Spirit, indeed, regulates his mind. But still, his own faculties and affections are in exercise; he voluntarily and earnestly endeavours to avoid sin and to practise righteousness; he steadily and energetically sets himself in opposition to the temptations by which he is beset, and, by the grace of God, he is successful.
3. The wicked one toucheth him not. The devil may stand up against him; he may even sometimes gain an advantage over him. But to overpower–to conquer–him, is beyond the utmost of Satans arts and efforts. (A. S. Patterson, D. D.)
Whosoever is born of God sinneth not
John closes his letter with a series of triumphant certainties, which he considers as certified to every Christian by his own experience. We know that whosoever is born of God sinneth not we know that we are of God and we know that the Son of God is come.
I. Who is the apostle talking about here? We know that whosoever is born of God–or, as the Revised Version reads it, begotten of God–sinneth not. This new birth, and the new Divine life which is its result, co-exists along with the old nature in which it is planted, and which it has to coerce and subdue, sometimes to crucify, and always to govern. This apostle puts great emphasis upon that idea of advancement in the Divine life. So the new life has to grow–grow in its own strength, grow in its own sphere of influence, grow in the power with which it purges and hallows the old nature in the midst of which it is implanted. And growth is not the only word for its development. That new life has to fight for its life. There must be effort, in order that it may rule. Thus we have the necessary foundation laid for that which characterises the Christian life, from the beginning to the end, that it is a working out of that which is implanted, a working out, with ever-widening area of influence, and a working in with ever deeper and more thorough power of transforming the character. There may be indefinite approximation to the entire suppression and sanctification of the old man; and whatsoever is born of God manifests its Divine kindred in this, that sooner or later it overcomes the world. Now if all this is true, I come to a very plain answer to the first question that I raised: Who is it that John is speaking about? Whosoever is born of God is the Christian man, in so far as the Divine life which he has from God by fellowship with His Son, through his own personal faith, has attained the supremacy in him. The Divine nature that is in a man is that which is born of God. And that the apostle does not mean the man in whom that nature is implanted, whether he is true to the nature or no, is obvious from the fact that in another pal! of this same chapter he substitutes whatsoever for whosoever, as if he would have us mark that the thing which he declares to be victorious and sinless is not so much the person as the power that is lodged in the person. That is my answer to the first question.
II. What is asserted about this divine life? Whosoever is born of God sinneth not. That is by no means a unique expression in this letter. For, to say nothing about the general drift of it, we have precisely similar statements in a previous chapter, twice uttered. Whosoever abideth in Him sinneth not; whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin, for his seed remaineth in him, and he cannot sin, because he is born of God. Nothing can be stronger than that. Yes, and nothing can be more obvious. I think, then, that the apostle does not thereby mean to declare that unless a man is absolutely sinless in regard of his individual acts he has not that Divine life in him. For look at what precedes our text. Just before he has said, and it is the saying which leads him to my text, If any man seeth his brother sin a sin which is not unto death, he shall ask, and he shall give him life. And do you suppose that any man, in the very same breath in which he thus declared that brotherhood was to be manifested by the way in which we help a brother to get rid of his sins, would have stultified himself by a blank, staring contradiction such as has been extracted from the words of my text? I take the text to mean–not that a Christian is, or must be, in order to vindicate his right to be called a Christian, sinless, but that there is a power in him, a life principle in him which is sinless, and whatsoever in him is born of God, overcometh the world and sinneth not. Now, then, that seems to me to be the extent of the apostles affirmation here; and I desire to draw two plain, practical conclusions. One is, that this notion of a Divine life power, lodged in, and growing through, and fighting with the old nature, makes the hideousness and the criminality of a Christian mans transgressions more hideous and more criminal. The teaching of my text has sometimes been used in the very opposite direction. There have been people that have said, It is no more I, but sin, that dwelleth in me; I am not responsible. The opposite inference is what I urge now. In addition to all the other foulnesses which attach to any mans lust, or drunkenness, or ambition, or covetousness, this super-eminent brand and stigma is burned in upon yours and mine, Christian men and women, that it is dead against, absolutely inconsistent with, the principle of life that is bedded within us. To whomsoever much is given, of him shall much be required. Another consideration may fairly be urged, as drawn from this text, and that is that the one task of Christians ought to be to deepen and to strengthen the life of God, which is in their souls, by faith. There is no limit, except one of my own making, to the extent to which my whole being may be penetrated through and through and ruled absolutely by that new life which God has given. It is all very well to cultivate specific and sporadic virtues and graces. Get a firmer hold and a fuller possession of the life of Christ in your own souls, and all the graces and virtues will come.
III. What is the ground of Johns assertion about Him that is born of God? My text runs on, But he that is begotten of God keepeth himself. If any of you are using the Revised Version, you will see a change there, small in extent, but large in significance, It reads, He that is begotten of God keepeth him. Let me just say in a sentence that the original has considerable variation in expression in these two clauses, which variation makes it impossible, I think, to adopt the idea contained in the Authorised Version, that the same person is referred to in both clauses. The difference is this. In the first clause, He that is begotten of God is the Christian man; in the second, He that is begotten of God is Christ the Saviour. There is the guarantee that Whosoever is begotten of God sinneth not, because round his weakness is cast the strong defence of the Elder Brothers hand; and the Son of God keeps all the sons who, through Him, have derived into their natures the life of God. If, then, they are kept by the only-begotten Son of the Father, then the one thing for us to do, in order to strengthen our poor natures, is to take care that we do not run away from the keeping hand nor wander far from the only safety. When a little child is sent out for a walk by the parent with an elder brother, if it goes staring into shop windows and gaping at anything that it sees upon the road, and loses hold of the brothers hand, it is lost, and breaks into tears, and can only be consoled and secured by being brought back. Then the little fingers clasp round the larger hand, and there is a sense of relief and of safety. If we stray away from Christ we lose ourselves in muddy ways. (A. Maclaren, D. D.)
The keeping
A lady was leaving home, and was concerned for the safety of a jewel box too precious to be left in an empty house. Asking a friend to undertake the charge, responsible as it was, and receiving a promise that she would do so, she left it with her. But, reflecting that in her absence she might wish to wear some of her trinkets, the lady took three of them with her. On her return home, her first concern was with the box which contained so many precious things. It was safe. Yes, there it was; and one by one the jewels were examined and found all there. The friend had been faithful; she had kept them all in safety. But of the three which had been taken with her, one had been dropped somewhere on the journey and could not be found! Who was to blame? Was it the fault of the friend who took charge of the box? Nay, she could only keep that which had been committed to her. She would, no doubt, have kept this other also, had it been left in her care. That which you have not committed to Christ you cannot expect Him to keep. (J. B. Figgis.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 18. Whosoever is born of God sinneth not] This is spoken of adult Christians; they are cleansed from all unrighteousness, consequently from all sin, 1Jo 1:7-9.
Keepeth himself] That is, in the love of God, Jude 1:21, by building up himself on his most holy faith, and praying in the Holy Ghost; and that wicked one-the devil, toucheth him not-finds nothing of his own nature in him on which he can work, Christ dwelling in his heart by faith.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
The great advantage is here signified of the regenerate, who, by the seed remaining in them, {as 1Jo 3:9} are furnished with a self-preserving principle, with the exercise whereof they may expect that co-operation of a gracious Divine influence by which they shall be kept, so as
that wicked one, the great destroyer of souls, shall not mortally touch them, to make them sin unto death.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
18. (1Jo3:9.)
We knowThrice repeatedemphatically, to enforce the three truths which the words preface, asmatters of the brethren’s joint experimental knowledge. This 1Jo5:18 warns against abusing 1Jn 5:16;1Jn 5:17, as warranting carnalsecurity.
whosoeverGreek,“every one who.” Not only advanced believers, but everyone who is born again, “sinneth not.”
he that is begottenGreekaorist, “has been (once for all in past time) begotten ofGod”; in the beginning of the verse it is perfect. “Isbegotten,” or “born,” as a continuing state.
keepeth himselfTheVulgate translates, “The having been begotten of Godkeepeth HIM” (so oneof the oldest manuscripts reads): so ALFORD.Literally, “He having been begotten of God (nominative pendent),it (the divine generation implied in the nominative) keepethhim.” So 1Jo 3:9, “Hisseed remaineth in him.” Still, in English Versionreading, God’s working by His Spirit inwardly, and man’s workingunder the power of that Spirit as a responsible agent, is what oftenoccurs elsewhere. That God must keep us, if we are tokeep ourselves from evil, is certain. Compare Joh17:15 especially with this verse.
that wicked one toucheth himnotso as to hurt him. In so far as he realizes hisregeneration-life, the prince of this world hath nothing in himto fasten his deadly temptations on, as in Christ’s own case. Hisdivine regeneration has severed once for all his connection with theprince of this world.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
We know that whosoever is born of God,…. Who is regenerated by his Spirit and grace, and quickened by his power; who has Christ formed in him, and is made a partaker of the divine nature, and has every grace implanted in him:
sinneth not; the sin unto death; nor does he live in sin, or is under the power and dominion of it, though he does not live without it; [See comments on 1Jo 3:9];
but he that is begotten of God; the Vulgate Latin version reads, “the generation of God keeps or preserves him”; that is, that which is born in him, the new man, the principle of grace, or seed of God in him, keeps him from notorious crimes, particularly from sinning the sin unto death, and from the governing power of all other sins; but all other versions, as well as copies, read as we do, and as follows:
keepeth himself; not that any man can keep himself by his own power and strength; otherwise what mean the petitions of the saints to God that he would keep them, and even of Christ himself to God for them on the same account? God only is the keeper of his people, and they are only kept in safety whom he keeps, and it is by his power they are kept; but the sense is, that a believer defends himself by taking to him the whole armour of God, and especially the shield of faith, against the corruptions of his own heart, the snares of the world, and particularly the temptations of Satan:
and that wicked one toucheth him not; he cannot come at him so as to wound him to the heart, or destroy that principle of life that is in him, or so as to overcome and devour him; he may tempt him, and sift him, and buffet him, and greatly afflict and grieve him, but he can not touch his life, or hurt him with the second death; nay, sometimes the believer is so enabled to wield the shield of faith, or to hold up Christ the shield by faith, and turn it every way in such a manner, that Satan, who is here meant by the wicked one, because he is notoriously so, cannot come near him, nor in with him; cannot work upon him at all with his temptations, nor in the least hurt his peace, joy, and comfort: the saints know their perseverance from the promises of God and declarations of Christ; Ps 125:1.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
| Privileges of Believers. | A. D. 80. |
18 We know that whosoever is born of God sinneth not; but he that is begotten of God keepeth himself, and that wicked one toucheth him not. 19 And we know that we are of God, and the whole world lieth in wickedness. 20 And we know that the Son of God is come, and hath given us an understanding, that we may know him that is true, and we are in him that is true, even in his Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God, and eternal life. 21 Little children, keep yourselves from idols. Amen.
Here we have,
I. A recapitulation of the privileges and advantages of sound Christian believers. 1. They are secured against sin, against the fulness of its dominion or the fulness of its guilt: We know that whosoever is born of God (and the believer in Christ is born of God, v. 1) sinneth not (v. 18), sinneth not with that fulness of heart and spirit that the unregenerate do (as was said 1Jn 3:6; 1Jn 3:9), and consequently not with that fulness of guilt that attends the sins of others; and so he is secured against that sin which is unavoidably unto death, or which infallibly binds the sinner over unto the wages of eternal death; the new nature, and the inhabitation of the divine Spirit thereby, prevent the admission of such unpardonable sin. 2. They are fortified against the devil’s destructive attempts: He that is begotten of God keepeth himself, that is, is enabled to guard himself, and the wicked one toucheth him not (v. 18), that is, that the wicked one may not touch him, namely, to death. It seems not to be barely a narration of the duty or the practice of the regenerate; but an indication of their power by virtue of their regeneration. They are thereby prepared and principled against the fatal touches, the sting, of the wicked one; he touches not their souls, to infuse his venom there a he does in others, or to expel that regenerative principle which is an antidote to his poison, or to induce them to that sin which by the gospel constitution conveys an indissoluble obligation to eternal death. He may prevail too far with them, to draw them to some acts of sin; but it seems to be the design of the apostle to assert that their regeneration secures them from such assaults of the devil as will bring them into the same case and actual condemnation with the devil. 3. They are on God’s side and interest, in opposition to the state of the world: And we know that we are of God, and the whole world lieth in wickedness, v. 19. Mankind are divided into two great parties of dominions, that which belongs to God and that which belongs to wickedness or to the wicked one. The Christian believers belong to God. They are of God, and from him, and to him, and for him. They succeed into the right and room of the ancient Israel of God, of whom it is said, The Lord’s people is his portion, his estate in this world; Jacob is the lot of his inheritance, the dividend that has fallen to him by the lot of his own determination (Deut. xxxii. 9); while, on the contrary, the whole world, the rest, being by far the major part, lieth in wickedness, in the jaws in the bowels of the wicked one. There are, indeed, were we to consider the individuals, many wicked ones, many wicked spirits, in the heavenly or the ethereal places; but they are united in wicked nature, policy, and principle, and they are united also in one head. There is the prince of the devils and of the diabolical kingdom. There is a head of the malignity and of the malignant world; and he has such sway here that he is called the god of this world. Strange that such a knowing spirit should be so implacably incensed against the Almighty and all his interests, when he cannot but know that it must end in his own overthrow and everlasting damnation! How tremendous is the judgment of God upon that wicked one! May the God of the Christian world continually demolish his dominion in this world, and translate souls into the kingdom of his dear Son! 4. They are enlightened in the knowledge of the true eternal God: “And we know that the Son of God has come, and has given as an understanding, that we may know him that is true, v. 20. The Son of God has come into our world, and we have seen him, and know him by all the evidence that has already been asserted; he has revealed unto us the true God (as John i. 18), and he has opened our minds too to understand that revelation, given us an internal light in our understandings, whereby we may discern the glories of the true God; and we are assured that it is the true God that he hath discovered to us. He is infinitely superior in purity, power, and perfection, to all the gods of the Gentiles. He has all the excellences, beauties, and riches, of the living and true God. It is the same God that, according to Moses’s account, made the heavens and the earth, the same who took our fathers and patriarchs into peculiar covenant with himself, the same who brought our ancestors out of Egypt, who gave us the fiery law upon mount Sinai, who gave us his holy oracles, promised the call and conversion of the Gentiles. By his counsels and works, by his love and grace, by his terrors and judgments, we know that he, and he alone, in the fulness of his being, is the living and true God.” It is a great happiness to know the true God, to know him in Christ; it is eternal lie, John xvii. 3. It is the glory of the Christian revelation that it gives the best account of the true God, and administers the best eye-salve for our discerning the living and true God. 5. They have a happy union with God and his Son: “And we are in him that is true, even (or and) in his Son Jesus Christ, v. 20. The Son leads us to the Father, and we are in both, in the love and favour of both, in covenant and federal alliance with both, in spiritual conjunction with both by the inhabitation and operation of their Spirit: and, that you may know how great a dignity and felicity this is, you must remember that this true one is the true God and eternal life” or rather (as it should seem a more natural construction), “This same Son of God is himself also the true God and eternal life” (John i. 1, and here, ch. i. 2), “so that in union with either, much more with both, we are united to the true God and eternal life.” Then we have,
II. The apostle’s concluding monition: “Little children” (dear children, as it has been interpreted), “keep yourselves from idols, v. 21. Since you know the true God, and are in him, let your light and love guard you against all that is advanced in opposition to him, or competition with him. Flee from the false gods of the heathen world. They are not comparable to the God whose you are and whom you serve. Adore not your God by statues and images, which share in his worship. Your God is an incomprehensible Spirit, and is disgraced by such sordid representations. Hold no communion with your heathen neighbours in their idolatrous worship. Your God is jealous, and would have you come out, and be separated from among them; mortify the flesh, and be crucified to the world, that they may not usurp the throne of dominion in the heart, which is due only to God. The God whom you have known is he who made you, who redeemed you by his Son, who has sent his gospel to you, who has pardoned your sins, begotten you unto himself by his Spirit, and given you eternal life. Cleave to him in faith, and love, and constant obedience, in opposition to all things that would alienate your mind and heart from God. To this living and true God be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen.“
Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary
We know (). As in 1John 3:2; 1John 3:14; 1John 5:15; 1John 5:19; 1John 5:20. He has “ye know” in 1John 2:20; 1John 3:5; 1John 3:15.
Sinneth not ( ). Lineal present active indicative, “does not keep on sinning,” as he has already shown in 3:4-10.
He that was begotten of God ( ). First aorist passive articular participle referring to Christ, if the reading of A B is correct ( , not ). It is Christ who keeps the one begotten of God ( as in 3:9 and so different from here). It is a difficult phrase, but this is probably the idea. Jesus (Joh 18:37) uses of himself and uses also of keeping the disciples (John 17:12; John 17:15; Rev 3:10).
The evil one ( ). Masculine and personal as in 2:13, not neuter, and probably Satan as in Mt 6:13, not just any evil man.
Touchest him not ( ). Present middle indicative of , elsewhere in John only Joh 20:17. It means to lay hold of or to grasp rather than a mere superficial touch (, both in Col 2:21). Here the idea is to touch to harm. The devil cannot snatch such a man from Christ (Joh 6:38f.).
Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament
We know [] . John uses this appeal to knowledge in two forms : we know (iii. 2, 14; 1Jo 5:18, 19, 20); ye know (ii. 20; 1Jo 3:5, 15). He that is begotten of God [ ] . Lit., was begotten. This exact phrase does not occur elsewhere. Some refer it to the man who is born of God, making it parallel with oJ gegennhmenov ejk tou Qeou, he that is begotten of God. Others to Christ, the only – begotten of God. The later is preferable.
That wicked one [ ] . See on 2 13. Rev., the evil one.
Toucheth [] . See on Joh 20:17, the only other passage in John’s writings where the verb occurs. Both this verb and qigganw (Col 2:21; Heb 11:28; Heb 12:20) express a touch which exerts a modifying influence upon the object, though qigganw indicates rather a superficial touch. On yhlafaw (Act 27:27; Heb 12:18; 1Jo 1:1), see on Luk 24:39. Compare Col 2:21. The idea here is layeth not hold of him.
Fuente: Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament
1) “We know that whosoever is born of God sinneth not.” John affirmed that he and true disciples knew, that (pas ho geggenemenos) the one having been begotten of God sins not, or misses not the mark. This seems to be directed concerning the “inner whosoever”, as declared, 1Jn 3:9; Eph 3:16; 2Co 4:16. Man’s spirit, begotten of God’s Spirit, constitutes the sinless inner man. Joh 3:6; Joh 6:63; 2Pe 1:4.
2) “But he that is begotten of God keepeth himself.” The one having been begotten of God, the inner-man, the sinless “whosoever” of Divine nature, (Greek terei) guards himself.
3) “And that wicked one toucheth him not.” And the (poneros) evil one (apeptai) touches him (the begotten one) not. He is sealed unto the day of redemption of the sinful outer man. Eph 1:13-14; Eph 4:30. Satan may touch the body of the redeemed as he did Job and Paul, but the whole man belongs to God by virtue of the new birth and indwelling Spirit, 1Co 6:19-20. The outer man should be in subjection to the inner man, quickened of the Spirit, to subdue and use the body to the glory of God. Rom 7:1-25; 1Co 9:26-27; Gal 5:25; Job 1:1-22; 2Co 12:7. Our security is in Christ who is in the hand of God and the new man, new creature is in us, the believer, Joh 10:29; Joh 17:21; Joh 17:23; 2Co 5:17.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
18 We know that whosoever is born of God If you suppose that God’s children are wholly pure and free from all sin, as the fanatics contend, then the Apostle is inconsistent with himself; for he would thus take away the duty of mutual prayer among brethren. Then he says that those sin not who do not wholly fall away from the grace of God; and hence he inferred that prayer ought to be made for all the children of God, because they sin not unto death. A proof is added, that every one, born of God, keeps himself, that is, keeps himself in the fear of God; nor does he suffer himself to be so led away, as to lose all sense of religion, and to surrender himself wholly to the devil and the flesh.
For when he says, that he is not touched by that wicked one, reference is made to a deadly wound; for the children of God do not remain untouched by the assaults of Satan, but they ward off his strokes by the shield of faith, so that they do not penetrate into the heart. Hence spiritual life is never extinguished in them. This is not to sin. Though the faithful indeed fall through the infirmity of the flesh, yet they groan under the burden of sin, loathe themselves, and cease not to fear God.
Keepeth himself. What properly belongs to God he transfers to us; for were any one of us the keeper of his own salvation, it would be a miserable protection. Therefore Christ asks the Father to keep us, intimating that it is not done by our own strength. The advocates of freewill lay hold on this expression, that they may thence prove, that we are preserved from sin, partly by God’s grace, and partly by our own power. But they do not perceive that the faithful have not from themselves the power of preservation of which the Apostle speaks. Nor does he, indeed, speak of their power, as though they could keep themselves by their own strength; but he only shews that they ought to resist Satan, so that they may never be fatally wounded by his darts. And we know that we fight with no other weapons but those of God. Hence the faithful keep themselves from sin, as far as they are kept by God. (Joh 17:11.)
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
CRITICAL AND EXEGETICAL NOTES
1Jn. 5:13-21 may be treated as a summary and conclusion. They divide into three parts:
1. Faith in the Son of God, eternal life, and love of the brethren showing itself in intercession, are recalled to mind.
2. Three great facts which believers know are restated.
3. A last practical warning is given. In the first part the new thought is, the association of boldness in prayer with the love of the brethren (1Jn. 5:14-17).
1Jn. 5:21. Idols.Better, the idols; or your idols. This parting word is suggested by the thought of the true God. Every scheme of thought, every object of affection, which is not of Him, is a rival of His empire, a false god, a delusive appearance only, without solidity or truth. Every street through which St. Johns readers walked, and every heathen house they visited, swarmed with idols in the literal sense; and magnificent temples and groves, and seductive idolatrous rites, constituted some of the chief attractions at Ephesus. Of the strictness which was necessary in order to preserve Christians from the attractions of idolatry the history of the first four centuries is full. St. John hints that Jesus is no idol. The Son of God, who was manifested in the flesh as the Son of man, was a Being not only altogether worthy to be worshipped and served, but a Being whose worship and service are supremely ennobling.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.1Jn. 5:18-21
Things about which we ought to be sure.The expression we know, as indicating something that is unquestionable, something that is settled and indisputable, something which has been so confirmed by evidence, observation, and experience, that it has become a persuasive power on our life, is applied to three things:
1. The actual fact that, the children of God do not sin wilfully.
2. The actual fact, that those who have not the new life in Christ do sin wilfully.
3. The spiritual fact, that the new life we have is a spiritual life communicated to us through faith in Jesus Christ the Son of God. St. John states these three things that we ought to know, as a kind of summary of his epistle. We ought then to know
I. The actual fact that the children of God do not sin wilfully.We know that whosoever is born of God sinneth not. If we treat this expression with simple common sense, it will occasion no difficulty. No doctrine of human sinlessness is suggested. It can be said of every child who is in right relations in a Christian home that he sinneth not. Such a child has no sort of disposition to do any wrong thing, and, wilfully, never does any wrong thing. He must lose the sweet spirit of his sonship ere it can be possible for him to do anything to grieve his father or his mother. And he who is born of God, and stands fully in the sonship, never wants to do wrong, to grieve the heavenly Father. He wants to find fitting expression for his life, and he never can find it save in submissive and loving obediences, and kindly services, and righteous-doing. He cannot sin, for that would be to be unnatural. The Revised Version gives an alteration of the second clause of 1Jn. 5:18 which seems to explain how it is that the man born of God does not commit sin. But he that was begotten of God keepeth him [margin, himself], and the evil one toucheth him not. This, however, introduces quite a new subject, and the watchfulness of a man over himself is much more in the line of St. Johns thought here, than any reference to the preserving power of Christ. The child of God keeps himself in the estate of a child of God simply. The true ideal frame is the absence of wilful sin.
II. The actual fact that those who have not the new life in Christ do sin wilfully.1Jn. 5:19 : The whole world lieth in the evil one. Lieth in his power, because, there being no new life, there is no steadfastly set will towards obedience and righteousness. It is just as natural for the man with only the earthly life to please himself, as it is for the man with the spiritual life to please God. Then St. John says, if it is thus natural for everybody to act wilfully, and to please themselves, then we may assure our hearts that we have experienced the great change, and are of God, if we never can think of acting wilfully or wickedly, if we cannot bear the idea of pleasing ourselves, when so doing can in any way be unpleasing to God. We know that we are of God, because our contrast with the world is so strongly marked.
III. The spiritual fact, that the new life we have is a spiritual life communicated to us through faith in Jesus Christ, the Son of God.1Jn. 5:20 : And we are in Him that is true, even in His Son, Jesus Christ. The idea of St. John may be made somewhat clearer by recalling what St. Paul could say he knew. I live, yet not I, Christ liveth in me. I knew a man in Christ. It is the Christian mystery that a Divine life was in Christ, and found its expression through all human activities and relations, guaranteeing a life in absolute conformity with the will of God. That Divine life is imparted to believers, and they become, within the creaturely limitations, what Christ was, men in whom is a spiritual and Divine life, which, finding expression in all the details, of life, enables them to live lives free from wilful sin. We have in these last verses a final emphasis laid on the fundamental principles on which the epistle rests: that we through the mission of the Lord Jesus Christ have fellowship with God; that this fellowship protects us from sin, and establishes us in a relation of perfect opposition to the world.
SUGGESTIVE NOTES AND SERMON SKETCHES
1Jn. 5:18. Keeping Ourselves.The Revised Version reads this verse thus, But he that was begotten of God keepeth him, and the evil one toucheth him not, with the marginal addition himself, instead of him. The idea may therefore be either the Son of God preserves him, or he watchfully keepeth himself. The latter seems more precisely in the line of St. Johns teaching here. He is speaking of the virtue that lies in the new Divine life of the soul. Whosoever is born of God sinneth not; for it is in the very nature of that life to be jealous of its own integrity and purity. This point may be opened out and illustrated on the following lines.
I. Every creature having life has life in trust.It is the one thing which every animal and every man properly regards as his chief treasure. Skin after skin, yea, all that a man hath will he give for his life. How much more must the spiritual and Divine life be a trust.
II. Keeping here means guarding, but much more than guarding.It is quite true that the Christian is kept by the power of God, but it is also true that Gods keeping is effective when it goes along with his keeping himself. How little a parent can do for his boy if the boy will do nothing for himself.
III. Guarding must be the mans own work, but for it he may accept auxiliary aids.He must work out his own salvation, but he may and should realise how fully the Divine help is at his command.
IV. He only knows his particular perils, and the self-weaknesses that bear such relation to his perils.It is in the spiritual as in the physical world. A man gets to know his own body, and learns how to preserve health, by the wise management of himself. But the question may be asked, Is there usually such self-knowledge in the spiritual life as inspires a man to this keeping himself.
1Jn. 5:20. The Gospel of the Incarnation.St. John simply mentions the great things that lie inside this fact: The Son of God is come.
I. By His coming He has given us an understanding that we may know Him that is true.This does not mean that Christ gives men any new intellectual power, that He adds to the faculties of the mind any more than to the senses of the body. Understanding here signifies rather the means of knowing, the power of understanding. The Son of God has given us the means of knowing God. By word and life He has given us ideas about Fatherhood, holiness, purity, kindness, and love, that we had not before. The horizon of language has been widened, and its heaven lifted higher than before.
II. For what purpose has Christ given us these new ideas and opened the eyes of our understanding?That we may know Him that is true, even God. It is needful that we should know God. In Christ you will find the truth about God.
III. We know that the Son of God is come, and we are in Him that is true, in His Son Jesus Christi.e. in Christ we are in God.Union with Christ by faith, obedience, and love is perfect union with God.
IV. The Son of God is come, and to be in Him is to have eternal life.This is the true God [the God in Christ], and eternal life. Christ tells the truth: believe Him. Christ is the life: accept Him.J. Morgan Gibbon.
1Jn. 5:21. The Ever-recurring Temptation to Idolatry.As the epistle is addressed to Christians, this last exhortation to keep themselves from idols could not refer to gross idolatry; such a dehortation would most inharmoniously fit the tenor of the whole document. The are rather the ideas of God entertained by the false prophets of whom the apostle has spoken, the antichrists, who, because they have not the Son, have not the Father also, without therefore being atheists in the common meaning of the word. All the heretics of that time would serve God. Against them is held up the proposition that , that is, this God revealed in Christ, is alone the true God; all else is an . But not only is God robbed of His honour, not only does man serve a false god when he seeks another god than the God revealed in Christ, but he also trifles away his own salvation, for this only is eternal lifehe that hath Him hath thereby life (Eric Haupt). But while it may be helpful thus to follow the precise meaning and allusion of St. John, it is permissible, for homiletic purposes, to follow the suggestions of his words, and we may therefore recognise the fact that the temptation to idol-service in some form has been the temptation of men in every age, and is their temptation still.
Striking Contrasts.This is the last of the contrasts of which the epistle is so full. We have had light and darkness, truth and falsehood, love and hate, God and the world, Christ and antichrist, life and death, doing righteousness and doing sin, the children of God and the children of the devil, the spirit of truth and the spirit of error, the believer untouched by the evil one, and the world lying in the evil one; and now at the close we have what in that age was the ever-present and pressing contrast between the true God and the idols. There is no need to seek far-fetched, figurative explanations of the idols when the literal meaning lies close at hand, is suggested by the contrast, and is in harmony with the known circumstances of the time.A. Plunmer, D.D.
Christian Idolatry.The first commandment forbids us to have any god, but the one true God. The second forbids us to make any image or likeness of any created thing, for the purpose of bowing down to it and worshipping it. These two commandments may be regarded in a manner as parts of one and the same commandment. For there is hardly any way in which mankind have been drawn off from the worship of the one true God to the worship of false gods, so much as by the setting up of images, and the falling down to them, and worshipping them. (See book of Wis. 14:12, The devising of idols was the beginning of spiritual fornication, and the invention of them the corruption of life.) In the time of our Lord every nation, except the Jews, was sunk in idol-worship. The yoke of idolatry lay heavy upon every people, and nation, and language. After our Saviours teaching, one might have thought things would have gone on better, at least in His own Church. But the same causes will ever produce the same effects. Instead of the images of heathen gods, which had been overthrown, the Churches after a time were again filled with the images of apostles, evangelists, martyrs, and other holy men. These were not introduced with any design of worshipping them. Yet they came to be worshipped. We may not be falling into this error, but we may have set up idols in our hearts, and this may prove to be a worse evil than bowing down before images. It is if, instead of keeping our souls pure, as befits temples of the Holy Ghost, we profane and pollute them to vain and perishable, or, as too many do, to abominable, things. The root and essence of idolatry is the worshipping and serving Gods creatures more than God Himself. Whoever then serves any one of Gods creatures more than he serves Godwhoever loves any one of Gods creatures more than he loves Godwhoever makes any of Gods creatures more an object of his thoughts, and allows it to fill a greater space in his mind than God fillsthat man is guilty of idolatry, in the spiritual and Christian sense of the word. When it is said, Gods creatures, it is meant, not living creatures merely, but creatures of every kindeverything which God has made for us, or enabled us to make for ourselvesall the sweet and relishing things we can enjoy in this worldpleasures, honours, riches, comforts of every kind. Therefore, if any man is foolish and wicked enough to give up his heart to any one of these creatures, and suffers himself to be drawn away from serving God by it, he is an idolater in the sight of heaven. Then if the goods of this world may all become so many idols, luring our hearts away from God, then is the land full of idols of a thousand kindsidols for all ages, for all classes, for all tempers, for all hearts. There are idols for the worldly-minded, and idols for the generous; idols for the intemperate, and idols for the prudent; there are idols for the affectionate; and again there are idols for the selfish. Young and old have their idols; married and unmarried have their idols; rich and poor have their idols. The covetous man is an idolater (Col. 3:5). The insatiable and greedy man is an idolater. Mammon is not the only heathen god whose worship is carried on in the hearts of men to-day. What shall we say of Belial, the fleshliest spirit that ever seduced man to sin? He is the god of lust, of riot, of uncleanness, of unruliness. Or look at Moloch, the god of hatred and every fierce passion: has he no children, no worshippers, nowadays? Men who pay him the service he is best pleased withthe service of an envious, rancorous, malicious, and festered heart. But the commonest idol of all, which has the most constant, the devoutest worshippers, which reigns indeed in every heart, unless it has been cast out by the Spirit of God, is the idol of self. It is almost impossible to get rid of him, unless we starve him out. So long as we feed him and strengthen him by gratifying his wilfulness and whim, so long will he continue in possession. Nor will even starving him out be enough of itself, unless we add frequent prayer thereto. For this is the spirit of which our Lord said, that it goeth not out, except by prayer and fasting. Mortify yourselves therefore, brethren: strive to crush every feeling within you that would lift up its head against the will of God: strive to break the neck of your own will, and to make it bend meekly and patiently under the yoke of Christ.A. W. Hare, A.M.
ILLUSTRATIONS TO CHAPTER 5
1Jn. 5:20. The Deity of Christ.Two gentlemen were once disputing on the Divinity of Christ. One of them, who argued against it, said, If it were true, it certainly could have been expressed in more clear and unequivocal terms. Well, said the other, admitting that you believed it, were you authorised to teach it, and allowed to use your own language, how would you express the doctrine to make it indubitable? I would say, said he, that Jesus is the true God. You are very happy, sir, rejoined the other, in the choice of your words; for you have happened to hit upon the very words of inspiration. The apostle John, speaking of the Son, says, This is the true God, and eternal life. The Rev. Charles Buck says, I was once arguing with a person on the same subject; and when I quoted the scripture, he was quite confounded, and said he was not previously aware that there was any such passage.
1Jn. 5:21. Christian Idols.This idea is a general and very comprehensive one: it embraces all things and everything which may be opposed to the God revealed in Christ, and to His worship in spirit and in truth. Pre-eminently, therefore, it embraces the delusive and vain idols of the Cerinthian Gnosticism, whether ancient or modern; but it includes also the idols and false mediators of superstition, to whom the confidence is transferred which is due only to God in Christbe their name Madonna, or saints, or Pope, or priesthood, or good works, or pictures, or office, or church, or sacraments. The one Being in whom we have the life eternal is Christ. And this Christ we possess through the Spirit of God, whose marks and tokens are not priestly vestments, but faith and love. In this meaning the apostles cry sounds forth through all the ages in the ears of all Christians, Little children, keep yourselves from idols. The holiest things may become a snare, if their letter is regarded, and not their spirit. Every Christian Church has a tendency to worship its own brazen serpents. Happy are they who have a Hezekiah to call them Nehushtan (a piece of worthless brass).Ebrard.
Modern Forms of Idolatry.In the Russo-Greek Church solid images are not permitted, and the symbols of faith are generally worthless pictures, made to represent images as much as permissible, by having stuffs wrought in thin gold or silver stuck upon the painting. The celebrated gate in the wall of the Kremlin is famous because a picture of this sort. The Redeemer of Smolensk, as it is called, is suspended above the high archway of brick. With an opera-glass one can discern a representation of the typical face of Christ decked in golden garb and nimbus. Even in these degenerate days it is scarcely permitted that any one shall pass under this archway except uncovered. Jews and Mohammedans generally find some less sacred gate when they wish to enter the Kremlinthe Acropolis of Moscow. The Czar himself never passes by any other way, and never with his hat upon his head. But it is upon the outer side of the Voskreneski Gate, in the Kitai-Gorodi, or Chinese town of Moscow, that the most. remarkable exhibition of religious feeling may be witnessed. Before the stout wall of brickwork which separates the outgoing from the incoming way is the Iberian Chapel (Iverskaya Chasovnia), architecturally nothing but a large-sized hut of stone, on a platform raised by two steps above the roadway. From morning till night this platform is thronged, and the chapel overflows with a crowd, chiefly composed of men, pressing, all bareheaded, and all with money in their hands, toward the narrow doorway of the little sanctuary. We were some time getting into the chapel, which will hold about ten people abreast, and is lighted by the flickering glare of a score of candles. There is a step at the farther end, and the wall opposite the door is resplendent with shining metal, except where the object of this extravagant devotion looks grimy through its framework of gold. On the left side of the Iberian Mother of God, which is the name given to this commonplace daub, supposed to possess miraculous powers, stands a long-haired priestnow and then relieved by another long-haired priestwho, hour by hour, in the name of the tinselled and jewelled picture, and with blessings, consecrates the prayers and offerings of the faithful. Only the face of the Madonna is visible, and it is not easy to distinguish her features beneath the dust of years. But not a minute passes in which the rattle of money falling to the uses of the Russian Church is not heard, or in which lips are not pressed upon the framework, or upon the rudely wrought robes of beaten gold which conceal the picture to the neck. Surely no lower depth of superstitious degradation was ever reached in connection with Christian worship! One cannot be surprised that to a Turk a Russian seems to be an idolatrous worshipper of pictures. The refining explanation which the most enlightened fathers of the Greek Church offer concerning this exhibition is precisely of the sort, and differs only in degree, from that which might be offered for the idol-worshippers of more southern and eastern lands. The picture has no historic reputation. It was brought from Mount Athos, that pleasant wooded hill peopled with monkish drones. A sum of about 12,000 a year is collected, and from this the salary of the Metropolitan of Moscow is paid. Time was when in the ceremonies which precede Easter the Czar used to lead the donkey upon which the Patriarch of Moscow rode, carrying a sacred chalice, and a copy of the four gospels. Nowadays that ceremony is neglected, but we are given to understand that the Czar never enters Moscow without assisting the revenues of this high ecclesiastical officer by praying at the shrine of this Iberian Mother of God.Frasers Magazine.
Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell
(3) SOME PRACTICAL POINTS RECAPITULATED (1Jn. 5:18-21).
(a)
Gods sons do not sin (1Jn. 5:18).
St. John refers back to that ye may know in 1Jn. 5:13, and sums up three points from former portions of the Epistle, describing the true consciousness of the Christian. Each begins with We know.
(18) Sinneth not.There is no reason to supply unto death. (Comp. the Note on 1Jn. 3:9.) St. John means strongly to insist, in this the solemn close of his Letter, that the true ideal Christian frame is the absence of wilful sin. Stumbles there may be, even such as need the prayers of friends, but intentional lawlessness there cannot be.
But he that is begotten of God keepeth himself.Rather, he that is begotten of God keepeth him: that is, the Son of God preserves him. (Comp. Joh. 6:39; Joh. 10:28; Joh. 17:12; Joh. 17:15.)
And that wicked one toucheth him not.The last mention of the devil was in 1Jn. 3:10. The devil and his angels attack, but cannot influence so long as the Christian abides in Christ. (Comp. 1Pe. 5:8; Eph. 6:11; Rev. 3:10.)
(3 b.) Personal assurance that we are Gods sons (1Jn. 5:19).
Next after the cardinal point that righteousness is the characteristic of the new birth comes the necessity that the Christian should make up his mind that he has been, or is being, born again, and is really different from the world. The proofs would be seen in 1Jn. 1:6; 1Jn. 2:3; 1Jn. 2:5; 1Jn. 2:29; 1Jn. 3:9; 1Jn. 3:14; 1Jn. 3:19; 1Jn. 3:24; 1Jn. 4:7; 1Jn. 4:13; 1Jn. 4:15; 1Jn. 5:1; 1Jn. 5:10.
(19) The whole world lieth in wickedness.Rather, the wicked one. There is a constant danger lest Christians should forget this. (Comp. Gal. 1:4.)
(3 c.) Personal assurance of the Incarnation, of the gift of the spiritual sense, and of abiding in the God of Truth through His Son (1Jn. 5:20).
The series ends with a climax: the Son is indeed come; He gave us the faculty of seeing the true God; and in that Almighty Being we actually are. through the Son. The greatest fact of all to St. Johns mind is that his Friend and Master of sixty years ago was the very Word made flesh. (Comp. 1Jn. 1:1-2; 1Jn. 2:13; 1Jn. 2:22-23; 1Jn. 3:5; 1Jn. 3:8; 1Jn. 3:16; 1Jn. 3:23; 1Jn. 4:2; 1Jn. 4:9-10; 1Jn. 5:1; 1Jn. 5:5; 1Jn. 5:9; 1Jn. 5:11.)
(20) And hath given us an understanding.Comp. Act. 26:18; 1Co. 2:12-15; Eph. 1:18. This spiritual faculty of discernment was one of the gifts of that Spirit which Christ was to send. (Comp. 1Jn. 2:20; 1Jn. 2:27; Joh. 14:26; Joh. 16:13.)
Him that is true.The personality of God. Amid all the deceptions and fluctuations of the world, St. John felt, with the most absolute and penetrating and thankful conviction, that the followers of Christ were rooted and grounded in perfect, unshakable, unassailable truth. This could not be unless they were resting on the living Son and holding fast to Him.
This is the true God, and eternal life.A most solemn and emphatic crown to the whole Epistle. This God, as seen in His Son, is the true God. If the Word had not been God, God could not have been seen in Him. And God, seen in His Son, is eternal life. This is only another way of putting Joh. 17:3. (Comp. 1Jn. 5:11-13.) To make this is the true God refer only to the Son is equally admissible by grammar, but hardly suits the argument so well.
(4) LAST WARNING (1Jn. 5:21).
(21) Little children, keep yourselves from idols.This parting word is suggested by the thought of the true God. Every scheme of thought, every object of affection, which is not of Him, is a rival of His empire, a false god, a delusive appearance only, without solidity or truth. We cannot conclude better than in the words of Ebrard: This idea is a general and very comprehensive one: it embraces all things and everything which may be opposed to the God revealed in Christ and to His worship in spirit and in truth. Pre-eminently, therefore, it embraces the delusive and vain idols of the Corinthian Gnosticism, whether ancient or modern; but it includes also the idols and false mediators of superstition, to whom the confidence is transferred which is due only to God in Christbe their name Madonna, or saints, or Pope, or priesthood, or good works, or pictures, or office, or church, or sacraments. The One Being in whom we have the life eternal is Christ. . . . And this Christ we possess through the Spirit of God, whose marks and tokens are not priestly vestments, but faith and love. In this meaning, the Apostles cry sounds forth through all the ages, in the ears of all Christians, LITTLE CHILDREN, KEEP YOURSELVES FROM IDOLS! The holiest things may become a snare if their letter is regarded and not their spirit. Every Christian Church has a tendency to worship its own brazen serpents. Happy are they who have a Hezekiah to call them Nehushtan!
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
4. Summarizing conclusion, with final admonition, 1Jn 5:18-21.
18. Sinneth not The continuous present again. For the very case presented above of a sin committed by a brother, which is not unto death, presupposes that the regenerate can and does commit a sin. He does not live in the practice of sin as an unregenerate does. See notes on 1Jn 3:8-9. He does not, like the Nicolaitan, live in unrighteousness, and say it is not sin. He does not, like the regular sinner, sin without repugnance or repentance, as if it were natural and congenial to him.
Keepeth himself Watches and guards himself. Unless he does this he loses his regenerate character. the character incompatible with free sinning.
Wicked one The devil.
Toucheth him not Rather, gets not possession of him; that is, so long as he keepeth himself. Keepeth and toucheth are instances of the continuous present tense.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
They Are To Look To The One Who Has Begotten Them to Eternal Life Through Jesus Christ And Keep Themselves from Sin And From The World ( 1Jn 5:18-20 ).
‘We know that whoever is begotten of God does not continue in sin, but he who was begotten of God keeps himself (or ‘him’), and the evil one touches him not. We know that we are of God, and the whole world lies in the evil one. And we know that the Son of God is come, and has given us an understanding, that we know him that is true, and we are in him that is true, even in his Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God, and eternal life.’
John concludes by stressing what we can know with assurance. The first thing we can know is that those who are begotten of God do not continue in sin. They hate sin. They long to be rid of sin. They mourn over sin. They bring it to God and agree with His condemnation of it. (1Jn 1:9) They seek its removal by cleansing in the blood of Jesus Christ (1Jn 1:7). Thus do they keep themselves within His love and His Kingly Rule so that the Evil One cannot touch them. Alternately the meaning may be that ‘He Who was begotten of God keeps him’, that Jesus the One Who was uniquely begotten of God acts as his Saviour and Redeemer.
The second thing that we know is that we are of God, while the whole world lies in the Evil One. This was indeed the picture portrayed at Jesus temptations, where the Devil had such unseen power that he could control nations (Mat 4:8-9). The world thinks that it gets its own way. In fact it is deceived and led along by the Evil One. He is the hidden, but true ruler of this world. It is in his arms. Yet not because of his supreme power, but because man in his foolishness chooses for it to be so. Worldly behaviour and trends and attitudes come because of the deceitful activity of the Evil One. And those who love the world are of him, and can only be delivered by response to Jesus Christ and being begotten of God.
The third thing that we know is that the Son of God is come, and has given us an understanding (through the Spirit) so that we know Him Who is true, in contrast with the deceit and lies of the Devil. We have come to the light. And we have entered into Him Who is true, dwelling in Him Who is true, even in His Son Jesus Christ. Notice the closeness of relationship between Father and Son. To dwell in One is to dwell in the Other. This (the Father and the Son) is the true God, and eternal life.
So he finishes with this huge contrast. On the one hand the world. Lying in the Evil One, (not ‘in him’ but as good as), deceived, without understanding, alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them because of the hardness of their hearts (Eph 4:18), existing in darkness, dead in trespasses and sins (Eph 2:1), lulled into a false sleep. And on the other being in the One Who is true, given understanding, knowing the truth, dwelling in God, and in His Son Jesus Christ, walking in the light (1Jn 1:7), enjoying in and through Him eternal life. This is what the true believer has to rejoice in over against the false ‘believer’, the fact that he has life, spiritual understanding and knowledge of God. Indeed this last situation is the reason for the final exhortation.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
1Jn 5:18. We know that whosoever is born of God, &c. “We, who have received Christ, and enjoy his gracious presence, are well assured, both from the word of God and from the indwelling of the Holy Ghost in our hearts, that whoever is really regenerated by the Spirit of God, and continues in that grace, does not live in the practice of any known iniquity whatsoever, either internally or externally; but he who is spiritually begotten of God, and so born again, has an utter detestation of, and abiding contrariety of heart against, such ways of sinning, insomuch, that by watchfulness and prayer, and by strength derived from Christ, he takes care to keep himself from them: and Satan, that wicked spirit, has not power to influence him in such a manner, as to lead him into sin.”
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
, it is true, is closely connected with the foregoing, but at the same time forms the commencement of the conclusion of the Epistle, which is indicated as such by the successive thrice-repeated (Ebrard), and in which the apostle describes the position of believers in brief vigorous strokes
1Jn 5:18 , it is true, is closely connected with the foregoing, but at the same time forms the commencement of the conclusion of the Epistle, which is indicated as such by the successive thrice-repeated (Ebrard), and in which the apostle describes the position of believers in brief vigorous strokes.
As in 1Jn 5:16-17 it was admitted that even in Christians , and hence , still exist, the apostle finds himself compelled to repeat, confirmingly, what was said in chap. 1Jn 3:6-10 , as a truth known to Christians ( , in which there does not lie “an appeal to the fact that he has already said it,” Ebrard), in order that it may be thoroughly impressed on them that all sin is in the sharpest antagonism to their essential principle of life.
, , ] This appears to be in contradiction with what is previously admitted; John does not solve the contradiction; many commentators seek to do so by supplying as a more particular definition of , or by interpreting it of remaining in sin; both are, however, arbitrary; the solution lies rather in the fact that the apostle wants simply to emphasize the antagonism between being born of God and sinning. Though sin is still found in the life of the believer, who as such is , yet it is nevertheless foreign to him, opposed to his nature, and in the strength of his faith he is ever becoming more and more free from it. [328]
] This second clause is not dependent on , but is to be regarded as an independent sentence (Dsterdieck, Braune). Bengel erroneously states the difference between the form and the preceding thus: Praeteritum grandius quiddam sonat, quam aoristus: non modo qui magnum in regeneratione gradum assecutus, sed quilibet, qui regenitus est, servat se; it is rather the same distinction that occurs here as that by which these two verbal forms are generally distinguished; is: “he who was born,” regarded as a historical fact.
In 1Ti 5:22 , , and in Jas 1:27 , , are put with as more particular definition. It is, however, unnecessary to supply such a predicate (de Wette); denotes the self-preservation of the believer in his proper character (so also Braune); [329] the more particular definition results from the following; ] is the result of the ; Ebrard incorrectly: “Satan dare not touch him; God does not permit it;” the present simply expresses the fact, but this, according to the context, is the case, because the devil is prevented from by the of him who is born of God. With , comp. chap. 1:13. By we are to understand touching in order to do harm; Psa 105:15 , LXX. (see Raphelii Annot. ex Polybio ). Compare Jas 4:7 : . It is true the believer is still tempted by the devil (comp. 1Pe 5:8 , etc.), just as sinful desires still arise in him; but being in his most inner nature redeemed from the fellowship of sin, he suffers from these temptations no injury to the life that has come to him from God: in the he is protected against all the (Eph 6:11 ff.). [330]
[328] It needs no proof that the thought of the apostle is perverted by the explanation of de Wette: “the apostle expresses his confidence that the occurrence of the sin unto death and of sin in general cannot often (!) take place in the Christian Church.”
[329] It is less suitable to explain here, with Ebrard = , “to be on guard, to take care;” for, in the first place, it is opposed to the usus loquendi of the N. T. to assign this meaning to the word; and secondly, it is not expressive enough for the context.
[330] Calvin: Utut malignus renatum ad peccatum solicitet, tela tamen illius irrita cadunt, quoniam renatus scuto fidei munitus ea repellit et diabolo per fidem resistit.
Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary
18 We know that whosoever is born of God sinneth not; but he that is begotten of God keepeth himself, and that wicked one toucheth him not.
Ver. 18. Sinneth not ] sc. That sin to death, 1Jn 5:16 , nor other sins, as other men do. See Trapp on “ 1Jn 3:9 “
And that wicked one toucheth him not ] viz. Tactu qualitativo, as Cajetan expoundeth it, with a deadly touch; he thrusts not in his sting so far as to infuse the venom of that sin that is properly his sin,Joh 8:44Joh 8:44 , and with which he toucheth their spirits that become the serpent’s seed. He toucheth them not so as the needle is touched by the loadstone; so as to partake of his devilish spirit, and to be wholly carried after him.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
18 20 .] Three solemn maxims of the Epistle regarding sin, and the children of God and the world, and our eternal life in Christ, are repeated as a close of the teaching of the Apostle. 1Jn 5:18 seems to be not without reference to what has just been said concerning sin. In actual life, even our brethren, even we ourselves, born of God, shall sin, not unto death, and require brotherly intercession: but in the depth and truth of the Christian life, sin is altogether absent. It is the world, not knowing God, which lies under the power of the wicked one: God’s new-begotten children he cannot touch: they are in and they know the True One, and in Him have eternal life. These maxims are introduced with a thrice-repeated , the expression of full persuasion and free confidence. They form a triumphant repetition of and anticipation of the attainment of the purpose expressed in 1Jn 5:13 , .
Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament
18 .] We know that every one who is born of God, sinneth not (see on ch. 1Jn 3:9 , from which place our words are almost repeated. As explained there and in our summary of these verses there is no real inconsistency with what has been just said. And that there is none the second member of the verse shews): but he that hath been born of God ( , aor. this time. The perf. part. expresses more the enduring abidance of his heavenly birth, and fits better the habitual : the aor. part., calling attention to the historical fact of his having been born of God, fits better the fact that the wicked one toucheth him not, that divine birth having severed his connexion with the prince of this world and of evil. So Dsterd. and Huther. See also the construction according to the true reading below. Sander, in apparent ignorance of the force of the tenses, has curiously taken them exactly vice versa: and Bengel has failed to hit the difference when he says, “Prteritum grandius quiddam sonat quam Aoristus: non modo qui magnum in regeneratione gradum assecutus, sed quilibet qui regenitus est, servat se.” The distinction is ingenious, but is not contained in the tenses) it keepeth him (“ it ,” viz. the divine birth, pointed at in the aor. part. . So the vulg., but omitting the pendent nom., “sed generatio Dei conservat eum.” It is this, and not the fact of his own watchfulness, which preserves him from the touch of the wicked one: as in ch. 1Jn 3:9 , where the same is imported by , . , . The rationalistic Commentators insist on , as shewing, as Socinus, “aliquid prstare eum atque efficere, qui per Christum regeneratus fuerit:” and the orthodox Commentators have but a lame apology to offer. Dsterd. compares ch. 1Jn 3:3 . But the reference there is wholly different viz. to a gradual and earnest striving after an ideal model; whereas here the must be, by the very nature of the case, so far complete, that the wicked one cannot approach: and whose self-guarding can ensure this even for a day? Cf. Joh 17:15 , , which is decisive. There is a possible construction of the clause which I do not remember to have seen suggested, but which should hardly be left out of account. might be taken as meaning the Son of God: “He that was begotten of God keepeth him.” But this would hardly suit the analogy of the Epistle: see e. g. 1Jn 5:1 and note), and the wicked one (Satan: see reff. and notes) doth not touch him (Dsterd. approves of Calvin’s paraphrase, which is self-condemnatory “continet se in Dei timore, nec se ita abripi patitur , ut exstincto pietatis sensu diabolo et carni totum se permittat ” as the meaning of . . Of course the words must not be understood as saying that he is not tried with temptation by the evil one: but imply that as the Prince of this world had nothing in our blessed Lord, even so on His faithful ones who live by His life, the Tempter has no point d’appui, by virtue of that their by which they are as He is. “Malignus appropinquat,” says Bengel, “ut musca lychnum, sed non nocet, ne tangit quidem”).
Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament
1Jn 5:18-20 . The Certainties of Christian Faith. St. John has been speaking of a dark mystery, and now he turns from it: “Do not brood over it. Think rather of the splendid certainties and rejoice in them.”
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
1Jn 5:18 . Our Security through the Guardianship of Christ. , see note on 1Jn 3:6 . The child of God may fall into sin, but he does not continue in it; he is not under its dominion. Why? Because, though he has a malignant foe, he has also a vigilant Guardian. , i.e. , Christ. Cf. Symb. Nic. : , , . As distinguished from the aor. refers to the “Eternal Generation”. The rendering “he that is begotten of God (the regenerate man) keepeth himself ( ), qui genitus est ex Deo, servat seipsum (Calv.), is doubly objectionable: (1) It ignores the distinction between perf. and aor.; (2) there is no comfort in the thought that we are in our own keeping; our security is not our grip on Christ but His grip on us. Calvin feels this: “Quod Dei proprium est, ad nos transfert. Nam si quisque nostrum salutis su sit custos, miserum erit prsidium”. Vulg. has generatio Dei , perhaps representing a variant . , see note on 1Jn 2:3 . , stronger than “toucheth,” rather “graspeth,” “layeth hold of”. A reference to Psa 105 (LXX 104):15: , Nolite tangere christos meos (Vulg.).
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
1 John
I.-TRIUMPHANT CERTAINTIES
1Jn 5:18
John closes his letter with a series of triumphant certainties, which he considers as certified to every Christian by his own experience. ‘We know that whosoever is born of God sinneth not . . . we know that we are of God . . . and we know that the Son of God is come.’ Now, that knowledge which he thus follows out on these three lines is not merely an intellectual conviction, but it is the outcome of life, and the broad seal of experimental possession is stamped upon it. Yet the average Christian reads this text, and shrugs his shoulders and says, ‘Well! perhaps I do not understand it, but, so far as I do, it seems to me to say a thing which is contradicted by the whole experience of life.’ ‘We know that whosoever is born of God sinneth not’; and some of us are driven by such words, and parallel ones which occur in other places, to a presumptuous over-confidence, and some of us to an equally unscriptural despondency; and a great many of us to laying John’s triumphant certainty up upon the shelf where the unintelligible things are getting covered over with dust.
So I wish, in this sermon, to try, if I can, to come to the understanding, that in some measure I may help you to come to the joyful possession, of the truth which lies here, and which the Apostle conceives to belong to the very elements of the Christian character.
I. First, then, I ask the question-of whom is the Apostle speaking here?
‘We know that whosoever is born of God’-or, as the Revised Version reads it, ‘begotten of God’- ‘sinneth not.’ Now we must go back a little-and sometimes to go a long way from a subject is the best way to get at it. Let me recall to you the Master’s words with which He all but began His public ministry, when He said to Nicodemus, ‘Except a man be born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.’ There is the root of all that this epistle is so full of, the conception of a regeneration, a being born again, which makes men, by a new birth, sons of God, in a fashion and in a sphere of their nature in which they were not the sons of the Heavenly Father before that experience. Jesus Christ laid down, as the very first principle which He would insist upon, to a man who was groping in the midst of mere legal conceptions of righteousness as the work of his own hands, this principle,-there must be a radical change, and there must be the entrance into every human nature of a new life-principle before there is any vision, any possession of, or any entrance into, that region in which the will of God is supreme, and where He reigns and rules as King. John is only echoing his Master when he here, and in other places of this letter, lays all the stress, in regard to practical righteousness and to noble character, upon being born again, subjected to that change which is fairly paralleled with the physical fact of birth, and has, as its result, the possession by the man who passes through it of a new nature, sphered in and destined to dominate and cleanse his old self.
Then there is a further step to be taken, and that is that this sonship of God, which is the result of being born again, is mediated and received by us through our faith. Remember the prologue of John’s Gospel, where, as a great musician will hint all his subsequent themes in his overture, he gathers up in one all the main threads and points of his teaching. There he says, ‘To as many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the sons of God.’ Long years afterwards, when an old man in Ephesus, he writes down in this last chapter of his first epistle the same truth which he there set blazing in the forefront of his Gospel when he says, in the first verse of this chapter, ‘Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God.’ On condition, then, of a man’s faith in Jesus Christ, there is communicated to him a new life direct from God, kindred with the Divine, and which dwells in him, and works in him precisely in the measure of his personal faith. That is the first point that I desire to establish.
You will remember, I suppose, that this same conception of the deepest result of the Christian faith being no mere external forgiveness of sins, nor alteration of a man’s position in reference to the Divine judgments, but the communication of a new life-power and principle to him, is not the property of the mystic John only, but it is the property likewise of the legal James, who says,’ Of His own will begat He us by the word of truth, that we should be a kind of first-fruits of His creatures’; and it is set forth with great emphasis and abundance in all the writings of the Apostle Paul, who insists that we are sons through the Son, who insists that the gift of God is a new nature, formed in righteousness ‘ after the image of Him that created Him,’ and who is ever dwelling upon the necessity that this new nature should be cultivated and increased by the faith and effort of its recipient.
Keeping these things in mind, I take the second step, and that is that this new birth, and the new Divine life which is its result, co-exist along with the old nature in which it is planted, and which it has to coerce and subdue, sometimes to crucify, and always to govern. For I need not remind you that if the analogy of birth is to be followed, we have to recognize that that Divine life, too, like the physical life, which is also God’s gift, has to pass through stages; and that just as the perfect man, God manifest in the flesh, ‘increased in wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and man,’ so the Divine life in a soul comes to it in germ, and has its period of infancy and growth up into youth and manhood. This Apostle puts great emphasis upon that idea of advancement in the Divine life. For you remember the long passage in which he twice reiterates the notion of the stages of children and young men and fathers. So the new life has to grow, grow in its own strength, grow in its sphere of influence, grow in the power with which it purges and hallows the old nature in the midst of which it is implanted. But growth is not the only word for its development. That new nature has to fight for its life. There must be effort, in order that it may rule; there must be strenuous and continuous diligence, directed not only to strengthen it, but to weaken its antagonist, in order that it may spread and permeate the whole nature. Thus we have the necessary foundation laid for that which characterizes the Christian life, from the beginning to the end, that it is a working out of that which is implanted, a working out, with ever widening area of influence, and a working in with ever deeper and more thorough power of transforming the character. There may be indefinite approximation to the entire suppression and sanctification of the old man; and whatsoever is born of God manifests its Divine kindred in this, that sooner or later it overcomes the world.
Now, if all that which I have been saying is true- and to me it is undeniably so-I come to a very plain answer to the first question that I raised: Who is it that John is speaking about? ‘Whosoever is born of God’ is the Christian man, in so far as the Divine life which he has from God by fellowship with His Son, through His own personal faith, has attained the supremacy in Him. The Divine nature that is in a man is that which is born of God. And that the Apostle does not mean the man in whom that nature is implanted, whether he is true to the nature or no, is obvious from the fact that, in another part of this same chapter, he substitutes ‘whatsoever’ for ‘whosoever,’ as if he would have us mark that the thing which he declares to be victorious and sinless is not so much the person as the power that is lodged in the person. That is ray answer to the first question.
II. What is asserted about this Divine life?
‘Whosoever is born of God sinneth not.’ That is by no means a unique expression in this letter. For, to say nothing about the general drift of it, we have a precisely similar statement in a previous chapter, twice uttered. ‘Whosoever abideth in Him sinneth not’; ‘whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin, for His seed remaineth in him, and he cannot sin, because he is born of God.’ Nothing can be stronger than that. Yes, and nothing can be more obvious. I think, then, that the Apostle does not thereby mean to declare that, unless a man is absolutely sinless in regard of his individual acts, he has not that Divine life in him. For look at what precedes our text. Just before he has said, and it is the saying which leads him to my text, ‘If any man seeth his brother sin a sin which is not unto death, he shall ask, and he shall give him life.’ So, then, he contemplated that within the circle of sons of God, who were each other’s brethren because they were all possessors of that Divine birth, there would exist ‘sin not unto death,’ which demanded a brother’s brotherly intercession and help. And do you suppose that any man, in the very same breath in which he thus declared that brotherhood was to be manifested by the way in which we help a brother to get rid of his sins, would have stultified himself by a blank, staring contradiction such as has been extracted from the words of my text? I say nothing about inspiration; I only say common-sense forbids it. The fact of the matter is that John, in his simple, childlike way, does not wait to concatenate his ideas, or to show how the one limits and explains the other, but he lays them down before us, and the fact of their juxtaposition limits, and he does not expect that his readers are quite fools. So he says in the one breath, ‘If any man see his brother sin a sin,’ and in the next breath, ‘Whosoever is born of God sinneth not.’ Surely there is a way to bring these two sayings into harmony. And it seems to me to be the way that I have been suggesting to you-viz., to take the text to mean-not that a Christian is, or must be, in order to vindicate his right to be called a Christian, sinless, but that there is a power in him, a life-principle in him which is sinless, and whatsoever in him is born of God overcometh the world and’ sinneth not.’
Now, then, that seems to me to be the extent of the Apostle’s affirmation here; and I desire to draw two plain, practical conclusions. One is, that this notion of a Divine life-power, lodged in, and growing through, and fighting with the old nature, makes the hideousness and the criminality of a Christian man’s transgressions more hideous and more criminal. The teaching of my text has sometimes been used in the very opposite direction. I do not need to say anything about that. There have been people that have said ‘It is no more I, but sin, that dwelleth in me; I am not responsible.’ There have been types of so-called Christianity which have used this loftiest and purest thought of my text as a minister of sin. I do not suppose that there are any representatives of that caricature and travesty here, so I need not say a word about it. The opposite inference is what I urge now. In addition to all the other foulnesses which attach to any man’s lust, or lechery, or drunkenness, or ambition, or covetousness, this super-eminent brand and stigma is burned in upon yours and mine, Christian men and women, that it is dead against, absolutely inconsistent with, the principle of life that is bedded within us. And whilst all men, by every transgression, flout God and degrade themselves, the Christian man who comes down to the level of living for flesh and sense and time and self, has laid the additional and heaviest of all weights of guilt upon his hack in that he has done despite to the Spirit of grace, and grieved and contradicted and thwarted the life of God that is within him. The deepest guilt and the darkest condemnation attach to the sins of the man who, with a Divine life in his spirit, obeys the flesh. ‘To whomsoever much is given, of him shall much be required.’
Another consideration may fairly be urged as drawn from this text and that is that the one task of Christians ought to be to deepen and to strengthen the life of God, which is in their souls, by faith. There is no limit, except one of my own making, to the extent to which my whole being may be penetrated through and through and ruled absolutely by that new life which God has given.
‘‘Tis life, whereof our nerves are scant, Oh life, not death, for which we pant; More life, and better, that I want’
It is all very well to cultivate specific and sporadic virtues and graces. Get a firmer hold and a fuller possession of the life of Christ in your own souls, and all graces and virtues will come.
III. Now, I have one last question-what is the ground of John’s assertion about him ‘that is born of God’?
My text runs on, ‘but he that is begotten of God keepeth himself.’ If any of you are using the Revised Version, you will see a change there, small in extent, but large in significance. It reads,’ He that is begotten of God keepeth him.’ And although at this stage of my sermon it would be absurd in me to enter upon exegetical considerations, let me just say in a sentence that the original has considerable variation in expression in these two clauses, which variation makes it impossible, I think, to adopt the idea contained in the Authorized Version, that the same person is referred to in both clauses. The difference is this. In the first clause, ‘He that is begotten of God’ is the Christian man; in the second, ‘He that is begotten of God’ is Christ the Saviour.
There is the guarantee that ‘ Whosoever is begotten of God sinneth not,’ because round his weakness is cast the strong defense of the Elder Brother’s hand; and the Son of God keeps all the sons who, through Him, have derived into their natures the life of God. If, then, they are kept by the only begotten Son of the Father, who, that ‘He might bring many sons unto glory,’ has Himself worn the likeness of our flesh apart from sin, then the one thing for us to do, in order to nourish and deepen and strengthen, and bring to sovereign power in our poor natures that previous and enduring principle of life, is to take care that we do not run away from the keeping hand nor wander far from the only safety. When a little child is sent out for a walk by the parent with an elder brother, if it goes staring into shop windows, and gaping at anything that it sees upon the road, and loses hold of the brother’s hand, it is lost, and breaks into tears, and can only be consoled and secured by being brought back. Then the little fingers clasp round the larger hand, and there is a sense of relief and of safety.
Dear brethren, if we stray away from Christ we lose ourselves in muddy ways. If we keep near Him, as merchantmen in time of war keep near the men-of-war convoy, or as pilgrims across a dangerous desert keep close to the heels of the horses of their escort, ‘that wicked one toucheth us not.’ And so we may be sure that ‘ that which is born of God’ will come to the sovereign power within us, and He that was born of the Spirit will cast out him that was born of the flesh.
Fuente: Expositions Of Holy Scripture by Alexander MacLaren
NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: 1Jn 5:18-20
18We know that no one who is born of God sins; but He who was born of God keeps him, and the evil one does not touch him. 19We know that we are of God, and that the whole world lies in the power of the evil one. 20And we know that the Son of God has come, and has given us understanding so that we may know Him who is true; and we are in Him who is true, in His Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God and eternal life.
1Jn 5:18 “We know” See notes in second paragraph at 1Jn 5:13.
“no one who is born of God sins” This is a perfect passive participle. This is the black and white assertion of 1Jn 3:6; 1Jn 3:9. Eternal life has observable characteristics. The antinomian false teachers’ lifestyles reveal their unregenerate hearts (cf. Matthew 7)!
John was addressing two different kinds of false teachers. One who denied any involvement in sin (cf. 1Jn 1:8 to 1Jn 2:1) and another group that simply made sin irrelevant (cf. 1Jn 3:4-10 and here). Sin must be initially confessed and existentially avoided. Sin is the problem, a problem, and continually a problem (cf. 1Jn 5:21).
Bruce Metzger, A Textual Commentary of the Greek New Testament (p. 718) asserts that the manuscript variation is based on what the copyist thought the phrase “born of God” referred to.
1. Jesus – then auton fits best (A*, B*
2. believers – then eauton fits best (, Ac)
The UBS4 gives #1 a “B” rating (almost cetain).
“but He who was born of God keeps him” The first verb is an aorist passive participle, which implies a completed act accomplished by an outside agent (i.e., the Spirit cf. Rom 8:11). This refers to the Incarnation.
The second verb is a Present active indicative with “him” (auton). This is literally, “the One who was born of God continues to keep him.” This refers to Christ’s continual sustaining of the believer. This translation follows the ancient Greek uncial manuscripts of A* and B*. This interpretation is found in the English translations NASB, RSV, and NIV.
Manuscripts and Ac have another pronoun, “keeps himself” (eauton) which implies that the one born of God has some responsibility in keeping himself. The verb used here for “was born” is not used elsewhere of Jesus. The reflexive concept is used of believers in 1Jn 3:3; 1Jn 5:21. This is followed by the English translations KJV and ASV.
NASB”and the evil one does not touch him”
NKJV”the wicked one does not touch him”
NRSV”the evil one does not touch them”
TEV”the Evil One can not harm them”
NJB”the Evil One has no hold over him”
This is Present middle indicative which means the evil one cannot continue “laying hold of him.” The only other use of this term in John’s writings is in his Gospel, Joh 20:17. It is obvious from the Bible and experience that Christians are tempted. There have been three major theories about the meaning of this phrase.
1. believers are free from the condemnation of the evil one based on violation of the law (justification)
2. Jesus prays for us (cf. 1Jn 2:1; Luk 22:32-33)
3. Satan cannot wrestle our salvation from us (cf. Rom 8:31-39), though he can thwart God’s testimony in our lives and possibly, based on 1Jn 5:16-17, take a believer out of this world early!
1Jn 5:19 “We know that we are of God” This is the confident faith assurance, the worldview of a believer in Christ Jesus (cf. 1Jn 4:6). All else is based on this wonderful truth (cf. 1Jn 5:13). See note at 1Jn 5:13.
“the whole world lies in the power of the evil one” This is a present middle (deponent) indicative (cf. Joh 12:31; Joh 14:30; Joh 16:11; 2Co 4:4; Eph 2:2; Eph 6:12). This was made possible through (1) Adam’s sin; (2) Satan’s rebellion; and (3) each individual’s personal choice to sin.
1Jn 5:20 “We know” See full note at second paragraph of 1Jn 5:13.
“the Son of God has come” This Present active indicative affirms the incarnation of the divine Son. Deity with a human body was a major problem for the Gnostic false teachers who asserted the evilness of matter.
“has given us understanding” This is another perfect active indicative. Jesus, not the Gnostic false teachers, has provided the needed insight into Deity. Jesus has fully revealed the Father by means of His life, His teachings, His actions, His death and His resurrection! He is the living Word of God; no one comes to the Father apart from Him (cf. Joh 14:6; 1Jn 5:10-12).
“we are in Him who is true; in His Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God and eternal life” The first phrase “in Him who is true” refers to God the Father (see Special Topics at Joh 6:55 and Joh 17:3), but the person referred to in the second phrase, “the true God,” is harder to identify. In context it seems to also refer to the Father, but theologically it could refer to the Son. The grammatical ambiguity might be purposeful, as it is so often in John’s writings, for one to be in the Father one must be in the Son (cf. 1Jn 5:12). The deity and trueness (truth) of both the Father and the Son may be the intended theological thrust (cf. Joh 3:33; Joh 7:28; Joh 8:26). The NT does assert the full deity of Jesus of Nazareth (cf. Joh 1:1; Joh 1:18; Joh 20:28; Php 2:6; Tit 2:13; and Heb 1:8). However, the Gnostic teachers would have also affirmed the deity of Jesus (at least by the indwelling of the divine spirit).
Fuente: You Can Understand the Bible: Study Guide Commentary Series by Bob Utley
sinneth not. i.e. does not practise, or continue in sin. Compare 1Jn 3:6, 1Jn 3:9. Rom 6:1-12. App-128.
He that, &c. This refers to the Lord. As the Jehovah of the O.T. He was the keeper of Israel (Psa 121:4, Psa 121:5, &c). See also Joh 17:12. 2Th 3:3. Rev 3:10.
himself. Most texts read “him”.
wicked one. App-128. Compare 1Jn 2:13, 1Jn 2:14; 1Jn 3:12.
toucheth. Greek. haptomai. In John’s writings only here and in Joh 20:17. Thirty-one times in the three other Gospels, generally in connection with the Lord’s miracles. Elsewhere, 1Co 7:1. 2Co 6:17. Col 2:21.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
18-20.] Three solemn maxims of the Epistle regarding sin, and the children of God and the world, and our eternal life in Christ, are repeated as a close of the teaching of the Apostle. 1Jn 5:18 seems to be not without reference to what has just been said concerning sin. In actual life, even our brethren, even we ourselves, born of God, shall sin, not unto death, and require brotherly intercession: but in the depth and truth of the Christian life, sin is altogether absent. It is the world, not knowing God, which lies under the power of the wicked one: Gods new-begotten children he cannot touch: they are in and they know the True One, and in Him have eternal life. These maxims are introduced with a thrice-repeated , the expression of full persuasion and free confidence. They form a triumphant repetition of and anticipation of the attainment of the purpose expressed in 1Jn 5:13, .
Fuente: The Greek Testament
1Jn 5:18. , we know) An instance of the figure Anaphora:[26] see the next verses.- , that every one) Now he takes care that no one abuse, verses 16, 17, to the purpose of (carnal) security.-) Shortly afterwards . The Perfect has a loftier sound than the Aorist. An old lexicon says, , , . Not only does he who has made great advancement in regeneration, but any one who has been born again, keep himself.- , keepeth himself) he is not wanting to himself from within.- , toucheth him not) The regenerate is not ruined from without. The wicked one approaches, as a fly does to the candle; but he does not injure him, he does not even touch him. The antithesis is lieth, 1Jn 5:19.
[26] See Append. on this figure.-E.
Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament
1Jn 5:18-21
DIVINE ASSURANCES
(1Jn 5:18-21)
18 We know that whosoever is begotten of God sinneth not; but he that was begotten of God keepeth himself, and the evil one toucheth him not.–Verses 18, 19 and 20, each begins with the verb “we know,” (oidamen). Compare also, 3:2, 14; 5:15. It is a term which indicates full persuasion and complete confidence. For the meaning of the phrase, “begotten of God,” see the comments on 1Jn 3:9. For the meaning of the verb “sinneth not,” see the notes on 3:6. For the manner in which one who is begotten of God keeps himself from sin, see on the phrase, “and his seed remaineth in him, and he cannot sin.” (3:9.) The “evil one,” of this passage is the devil. See notes on 3:8.
19 We know that we are of God, and the whole world lieth in the evil one.–“Of God,” is, literally, “from God” being begotten of him, we are his offspring. (1Jn 3:10; 1Jn 4:6.) The word “world” here is not the material universe in which we live, but the race of wicked men about us. These, because they have abandoned themselves to a life of sin, are in the “evil one.” The evil one–the devil–is the prince of this world, the ruler of its citizens. (Eph 2:2; 1Pe 5:8; Eph 6:11; Col 1:13.)
20 And we know that the Son of God is come, and hath given us an understanding, that we know him that is true, and we are in him that is true, even in his Son Jesus Christ.–“Is come,” of the first clause is in the present tense, but it has the force of the perfect, has come, and such is its significance here. By supplying us with credible testimony, the Father has enabled us to know him, to accept him as true, and thus also to accept his Son Jesus Christ, and to be in him. (Rom 6:3 Gal 3:27.)
This is the true God and eternal life.–To know–to have an understanding of the true God, and to be in his Son, Jesus Christ,–is to have the assurance of eternal life. (1Jn 2:25.) These words are an echo of those in his prayer in the shadows of Gethsemane. “And this is life eternal, that they should know thee the only true God, and him whom thou didst send, even Jesus Christ.” (Joh 17:3.) And thus, at the close of the Epistle, the apostle reemphasizes that with which it began: the eternal life which has been manifested: “That which was from the beginning, that which we have heard, that which we have seen with our eyes, that which we beheld, and our hands handled, concerning the word of life (and the life was manifested, and we have seen, and bear witness, and declare unto you the life, the eternal life, which was with the Father, and was manifested unto us.”) (1Jn 4:1-3.) This is the paramount theme of both the Gospel and the epistle of John.
21 My little children, guard yourselves from idols.–Idolatry was rampant in the land and age when John wrote, and the danger exceedingly great that some of the saints would succumb to the seductions and allurements of the worship which attended it. They were thus admonished to be evermore vigilant against any effort which would involve them in this awful evil. Though the apostle must have had primarily in mind graven images, those fabricated by men, we must not overlook the fact that anything is an idol which supplants the place of deity in our hearts whether persons, property or pleasure.
Commentary on 1Jn 5:18-21 by E.M. Zerr
1Jn 5:18. See the comments at 1Jn 5:1 for the meaning of born and begotten. For the verse in general see the comments on 1Jn 3:9.
1Jn 5:19. We means those who have been begotten of God. Whole world lieth in wickedness. World means the inhabitants of the earth as it does in 1Jn 2:15. The italicized words mean the same as “all that is in the world” in 1Jn 2:16, which explains why the world is said to lie in wickedness.
1Jn 5:20. The word know is frequently used by inspired writers to mean a strong assurance, not that it is intended to take the place of faith. It is true that the apostle John could use the word in its technical sense concerning Christ. That is because he was with Him in person during all of his personal ministry. He also knew that Christ had given him the (inspired) understanding which he promised, for just before leaving this world Jesus told his apostles he would send the Spirit upon them which would guide them into all truth (Joh 16:13). The true God is said in contrast with the false ones that were worshiped by many people. He also is the source of eternal life in that He gave his only begotten Son into the world for that purpose.
1Jn 5:21. Little children is explained at 1Jn 2:1. Even the best of disciples need to be cautioned against evils that we would not ordinarily expect them to commit. John tells his readers to keep themselves from idols which is one of such warnings. Paul told the brethren in Corinth to “flee from idolatry” (1Co 10:14).
Commentary on 1Jn 5:18-21 by N.T. Caton
1Jn 5:18-We know that whosoever is born of God.
One born of God sinneth not; that is, does not sin habitually, does not live a life of sin. He will not sin the sin which is unto death because overtaken in a fault. Being begotten, he guards himself, and the wicked one can not lay hold upon him, so as to enslave him, or make him his subject. Such an one may be restored.
1Jn 5:19-And we know that we are of God.
By keeping ourselves from sin, we know that we are of God, that we are God’s children, belong to his family, the church of Christ. While this is true, the world, those who refuse to confess Christ, and accept, obey and follow him, are under the dominion of the wicked one.
1Jn 5:20-And we know that the Son of God is come.
That Christ is come in the flesh we know, not only from the testimony of men, but by the testimony God has fur- nished us, by himself, his Son, and the Holy Spirit. Thus we have the witness of ourselves that we have life in Christ, and that Christ dwells in us. We have this understanding. All this we know to be true, because we are in him who is true, and we know from these immovable sources, that in Christ Jesus the only true God is revealed to the children of men, and that in him, and in him alone, is eternal life, and that through him alone God’s children have eternal life bestowed upon them.
1Jn 5:21-Little children, keep yourselves from idols. Amen.
Keep yourselves from worshiping idols is the thought. Flee from it! There have been idols in every age of the world’s history; there are idols now; these, the Christian must shun. Whatever leads us away from the true worship of God is an idol to be avoided. John, having so spoken, concludes his letter with a solemn Amen.
Commentary on 1Jn 5:18-21 by Burton Coffman
1Jn 5:18 –We know that whosoever is begotten of God sinneth not; but he that was begotten of God keepeth himself, and the evil one toucheth him not.
Keepeth himself … The ASV marginal note on this is: “Some ancient authorities read him instead of himself.” This change from the KJV was adopted in RSV, Phillips, New English Bible (1961), Weymouth, and Goodspeed. The New English Bible, although not a translation in the strict sense, nevertheless appears to give the meaning thus:
We know that no child of God is a sinner; it is the Son of God who keeps him safe, and the evil one cannot touch him.
Sinneth not … This may not, in any absolute sense, be said of any Christian; and yet John affirmed it here. How then is it the truth? Simply because, in the broad outlines of the Christ-centered life it is profoundly true in the relative, if not in the absolute sense. “The heathen is the man who has been defeated by sin and has accepted defeat. The Christian is the man who may sin but never accepts the fact of defeat.”[26]
He that was begotten of God … The importance of this change from “himself” to “him” as noted above is seen here. If “him” is the right reading, then this clause is a reference to the Son of God; but if “himself’ is correct, this clause refers to Christians. The meaning given by the change is far better, because it is only in a very limited way that any man can “keep himself.” The concept of Jesus keeping them whom he has received from the Father is fully in harmony with Joh 17:12.
It is the Son of God who keeps him safe … This rendition (New English Bible) stresses that the Christian’s safety is not of himself but of the Lord. Jesus promised that he would be with his followers “even unto the end of the world” (Mat 28:20), and a glimpse of that providence is in this.
And the evil one toucheth him not … On almost every page of the New Testament, the spiritual foe of Christians is identified, not as a mere principle, but as personal, intelligent, malignant and cunning. Current theology which does not take this into account is hopelessly crippled. In the modern departure from New Testament teaching on this subject lies much of the incompetence which has fallen upon so-called “Christianity” today.
ENDNOTE:
[26] William Barclay, op. cit., p. 121.
1Jn 5:19 –We know that we are of God, and the whole world lieth in the evil one.
We know … This is the second of three great certainties stressed by the apostle in 1Jn 5:18-20 : (1) We know that we are guarded from the evil one by Jesus Christ our Lord. (2) We know that we belong to God in a hostile, Satan dominated world. (3) We know the great basic of divine revelation, especially the Incarnation of God in Christ.
That we are of God … To what other source, indeed, could the joyful life in Jesus Christ be attributed? Those who have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come are in no doubt whatever regarding the fountain source of their blessings.
The whole world … Here the word “world” does not apply to the natural creation at all, but to the evil inhabitants of the world who continue under the dominion of the evil one. Macknight defined these as, “the idolaters, infidels and wicked men, who having made themselves the subjects of the devil … they lie under the wicked one, and are under his dominion.”[27]
Lieth in the evil one … Calvin’s comment on this was: “By saying that it lieth in the evil one, he represented it as being under the dominion of Satan.”[28] Of particular interest is the word “lieth” as used here.
Because Homer used the word (lieth) to denote the bodies of men lying on the ground slain, Doddridge thinks the apostle, by using the word here, represents the wicked men of the world as lying slain by the devil, to give us an affecting idea of the miserable and helpless state of mankind fallen by the stroke of that malicious merciless enemy.[29]
Paul’s references to being dead in trespasses and sins, etc., are also fully in harmony with this conception.
The following New Testament references regarding Satan are examples of the extensive Biblical teaching regarding the devil:
The prince of the power of the air, the spirit which now inwardly worketh in the children of disobedience (Eph 2:2).
The god of this world (who) blinds the eyes of unbelievers (2Co 4:4).
Our adversary going about as a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour (1Pe 5:8).
(Wicked men) are held in the snare of the devil (2Ti 2:26).
We are not ignorant of (the devil’s) wicked devices (Eph 6:11).
Through his subtlety (Satan) seduced the mother of all living (Eve) (2Co 11:3).
Christians are delivered from the power of darkness and translated into the kingdom of the Son of God’s love (Col 1:13).SIZE>
[27] James Macknight, op. cit., p. 124.
[28] John Calvin (quoted by A. Plummer), op. cit., p. 143.
[29] James Macknight, op. cit., p. 125.
1Jn 5:20 –And we know that the Son of God is come, and hath given us an understanding, that we know him that is true, and we are in him that is true, even in his Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God, and eternal life.
This is the third of the three great certainties with which John concluded his epistle; and it is rather an extensive certainty. Note:
We know that the Son of God is come in the person of Jesus of Nazareth.
He hath given us an understanding (of all things that pertain to life and godliness).
We know Christ who is the true one.
We are “in Christ,” having believed in him and having been baptized into the “one body,” Christ’s spiritual body.
This is the true God (an unqualified designation of Jesus Christ as God).
As a result of Christ’s redemptive work, we enjoy eternal life (presently, in the joys of Christian service, and ultimately, throughout all eternity).SIZE>
The dispute among scholars as to whether the last sentence of this verse is an affirmation of Christ’s deity or not may be resolved quite easily: (1) Grammatically, there can hardly be any doubt the “true God” is a reference to Christ. (2) Theologically, it is absolutely in keeping with all that John wrote, both here and in the Gospel, to read it as a reference to Christ; and that is exactly the meaning this writer has always understood as being in the verse. Due to the extensive New Testament teaching elsewhere affirming in the most unequivocal manner the deity of the Son of God, we are compelled to agree with Plummer who wrote that, “It is of not much moment whether this particular text contains the doctrine of the Divinity of Christ or not”;[30] and, of course, this is surely true in a sense. However, the very prevalence of the doctrine so frequently in view throughout the rest of the New Testament should also enter into one’s willingness to see it here. It is exactly what one should have expected from the apostle John. The very discerning scholar, J. W. Roberts, pointed out the use of “eternal life” in this whole paragraph. Indeed, throughout the epistle, the fact of Jesus himself being “eternal life” is reiterated. “Jesus is eternal life.”[31] With that in mind, we may view the affirmation of Christ’s deity here as “the climax of John’s claim for the person and work of Jesus Christ in this epistle, just as Thomas’ exclamation, My Lord and my God (Joh 20:28) is the climax of the Gospel.”[32]
[30] A. Plummer, op. cit., p. 143.
[31] J. W. Roberts, op. cit., p. 147.
[32] Ibid., p. 148.
1Jn 5:21 –My little children, guard yourselves from idols.
The simple and obvious meaning of this is, “Keep yourselves from the pollutions of heathen worship.”[33] Some of John’s readers probably lived in Ephesus (where John himself labored); and all of the great pagan cities of that period (including Ephesus) were strongholds of paganism. As Plummer said, “Where the literal interpretation makes good sense, the literal interpretation is probably right.”[34] And, taking Ephesus as an example of all the great cities of that era, such an exhortation certainly makes good sense.
Ephesus was dominated by the Temple of Diana of the Ephesians, that temple being the center of immorality and licentiousness. The temple institution was a force of incredible power in pagan civilization. The right of sanctuary for criminals of all classes had crowded it with the vilest men on earth. It was the financial center of the pagan culture, occupying about the same status in that ancient culture that the Bank of England enjoyed during the 19th century. “To have anything to do with the Temple of Diana was to be associated with the very dregs of society … and to be brought into contact with commercialized superstition and the black arts.”[35]
Beyond the literal and immediate application of this final apostolic edict, however, the spiritual overtones of such an admonition are universal and timeless. No Christian must ever set up in his heart any idol which usurps the place rightfully belonging to the Lord. The gods of the ancients lie buried under the debris of millenniums; but people still worship sex, gold, wealth, power, fame, “success,” youth, humanity, self, pleasure, wine, or even their families, instead of the Lord Jesus Christ. The citadel of the heart belongs to the Son of God who died for us and loosed us from our sins in his blood. The final word of this epistle is directed to the guardianship of that citadel. May the child of God never forget that it belongs to the Lord Jesus Christ.
[33] William Barclay, op. cit., p. 123.
[34] A. Plummer, op. cit., p. 143.
[35] William Barclay, op. cit., p. 125.
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
whosoever: 1Jo 5:1, 1Jo 5:4, 1Jo 2:29, 1Jo 3:9, 1Jo 4:6, Joh 1:13, Joh 3:2-5, Jam 1:18, 1Pe 1:23
keepeth: 1Jo 5:21, 1Jo 3:3, Psa 17:4, Psa 18:23, Psa 39:1, Psa 119:101, Pro 4:23, Joh 15:4, Joh 15:7, Joh 15:9, Act 11:23, Jam 1:27, Jud 1:21, Jud 1:24, Rev 2:13, Rev 3:8-10
wicked: 1Jo 2:13, 1Jo 2:14, 1Jo 3:12
Reciprocal: Lev 11:37 – sowing seed Lev 22:25 – because Rth 2:9 – touch thee Psa 37:40 – from Psa 97:10 – delivereth Psa 119:3 – General Pro 22:5 – he Zep 3:13 – not Mat 6:13 – deliver Mat 13:19 – the wicked Mat 24:24 – insomuch Joh 3:3 – Except Joh 10:28 – they Joh 17:15 – keep 2Th 2:8 – that 1Pe 1:3 – hath 1Jo 3:6 – whosoever 1Jo 5:19 – in wickedness
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
1Jn 5:18. See the comments at verse 1 for the meaning of born and begotten. For the verse in general see the comments on chapter 3:9.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
The Apologists Bible Commentary
1 John 5
18We know that no one who is born of God sins; but He who was born of God keeps him, and the evil one does not touch him.
C O M M E N T A R Yfrom John Gill’s Commentary … 1Jo 5:18 – We know that whosoever is born of God,…. Who is regenerated by his Spirit and grace, and quickened by his power; who has Christ formed in him, and is made a partaker of the divine nature, and has every grace implanted in him: sinneth not; the sin unto death; nor does he live in sin, or is under the power and dominion of it, though he does not live without it; See Gill on 1Jo 3:9; but he that is begotten of God; the Vulgate Latin version reads, “the generation of God keeps or preserves him”; that is, that which is born in him, the new man, the principle of grace, or seed of God in him, keeps him from notorious crimes, particularly from sinning the sin unto death, and from the governing power of all other sins; but all other versions, as well as copies, read as we do, and as follows: keepeth himself; not that any man can keep himself by his own power and strength; otherwise what mean the petitions of the saints to God that he would keep them, and even of Christ himself to God for them on the same account? God only is the keeper of his people, and they are only kept in safety whom he keeps, and it is by his power they are kept; but the sense is, that a believer defends himself by taking to him the whole armour of God, and especially the shield of faith, against the corruptions of his own heart, the snares of the world, and particularly the temptations of Satan: and that wicked one toucheth him not; he cannot come at him so as to wound him to the heart, or destroy that principle of life that is in him, or so as to overcome and devour him; he may tempt him, and sift him, and buffet him, and greatly afflict and grieve him, but he can not touch his life, or hurt him with the second death; nay, sometimes the believer is so enabled to wield the shield of faith, or to hold up Christ the shield by faith, and turn it every way in such a manner, that Satan, who is here meant by the wicked one, because he is notoriously so, cannot come near him, nor in with him; cannot work upon him at all with his temptations, nor in the least hurt his peace, joy, and comfort: the saints know their perseverance from the promises of God and declarations of Christ; Psa 125:1.
G R A M M A T I C A L A N A L Y S I S gennhqeiV ek tou qeou thpei {auton (NA27/UBS4) / `eauton (TR)} hO GENNTHEIS EK TOU THEOU TPEI {AUTON / hEAUTON} The [one] born out of (the) God keeps {him(self) / himself} AUTOS (G846) 1) himself, herself, themselves, itself; 2) he, she, it; 3) the same (Thayer ). “he,” also means “self,” in the reflexive pronouns “myself, thyself, himself,” etc. (see, e.g., HE), expressing distinction, exclusion, etc. (Vine ). The reflexive pronouns emautou, seautou, heautou and heautn (1st, 2nd, 3rd person plur…) have surrendered some of their original function to the simple personal pronoun in the NT (BDF , 283). Abbott holds that in John autos never means ‘he,’ either emphatic or unemphatic, but always ‘himself.’ But in Jo. 2:12 (autos kai mtr autou) there is little difference between the emphatic ‘he’ and ‘himself.’ ….The use of the personal pronoun in the reflexive sense survived longest in the vernacular. It is not “abnormal” therefore to find in the N.T. (vernacular koin) the personal pronouns where a reflexive form might have been used (Robertson , p. 680).
O T H E R V I E W S C O N S I D E R E DJehovah’s Witnesses objection: Witness apologist Greg Stafford writes: “1 John 5:18 is referring to Jesus Christ, and therefore shows that the idea of Jesus’ ‘birth’ from God was well known to John” (Stafford , p. 360). He considers the arguments presented by scholar Gerard Pendrick, but ultimately finds them unconvincing. response: Pendrick considers this example to be “uncertain.” He refers his readers to commentator and author Raymond Brown for “evidence and arguments” regarding the various ways this verse has been understood by scholars, and therefore of the “uncertainty” of its referent. Mr. Stafford does not engage Brown’s arguments at all, instead apparently thinking that if he can demonstrate that the variant “him” (Greek: auton) is more likely than “himself” (Greek: heauton), he has successfully rebutted Pendrick. Let’s consider Mr. Stafford’s arguments in order, supplying counterpoints from Brown and others, as necessary. First, Mr. Stafford acknowledges that the variant “himself” occurs in a number of manuscripts, but “him” (Greek: auton) is the preferred reading, citing Metzger . Metzger and the UBS Translation Committee rated auton as a {B} variant (“almost certain”), but the reading “himself” is very widely exampled. It exists in: Codex Sinaiticus, the corrector of Alexandrinus, the Byzantine tradition, the Peshitta, Sahidic, Armenian, and by Origen, Epiphanius, Didymus, Theophylact and the critical version of Merk, Vogels, and von Soden. It appears the UBS Committee did not give “him” an {A} rating due to this wide range of witnesses reading “himself.” But the textual variant tells only part of the story. Even if one regards auton as the “almost certain” variant, this does not preclude the understanding that believers are the ones “born of God.” Indeed, auton may be used as a reflexive, and – as Brown notes – this was the interpretation of many Greek church fathers. Thus, we must turn to internal evidence to determine just how likely it is that John here uses “begotten” of Jesus. This brings us to Mr. Stafford’s second argument; namely that that if “himself” is the preferred reading, “we have a case where the believer who is spiritually ‘born’ from God ‘protects himself'” (Stafford , p. 360). Mr. Stafford apparently believes that because elsewhere, (John 17:15 and 2 Thessalonians 3:3) it is God that protects sinners, this meaning is unlikely. However, it should be noted that the all translations of the Bible based on Textus Receptus (including the KJV, ASV, and RSV) read “himself,” and yet no commentators using these versions found this reading to be theologically difficult. John Gill provides a typical example: keepeth himself; not that any man can keep himself by his own power and strength; otherwise what mean the petitions of the saints to God that he would keep them, and even of Christ himself to God for them on the same account? God only is the keeper of his people, and they are only kept in safety whom he keeps, and it is by his power they are kept; but the sense is, that a believer defends himself by taking to him the whole armour of God, and especially the shield of faith, against the corruptions of his own heart, the snares of the world, and particularly the temptations of Satan (Gill ). Further, modern scholars such as Raymond Brown who argue for “himself” as either the preferred textual variant or the preferred meaning have also had no trouble reconciling the sense of this verse with the Bible’s teaching. Indeed, Brown notes that John himself speaks of Christians as “overcoming” the Evil One in 1 John 2:13-14. It would seem, then, that Pendrick’s assertion that Jesus is never indisputably described by John as “begotten” is confirmed by the evidence. While it is possible that John uses “begotten” of Christ in this verse, it is not certain enough upon which to base a firm decision. As Brown notes: I find it hard to believe that if the Johannine writers thought that Jesus had been begotten by God, they would never elsewhere have used that language in the many passages on the subject. Notes ___________________________________________________ 1. Raymond Brown, The Epistles of John, p. 621. 2. BDF , 283. 3. Brown, p. 621. 4. Ibid. 5. Ibid, p. 622.
Fuente: The Apologists Bible Commentary
The Epistle winds up with three summarizing declarations, each of which repeats the watchword, we know, taken, but in a better sense, from the Gnostic we know: the first, 1Jn 5:18, asserts the fundamental opposition between life and sin; the second, 1Jn 5:19, the fundamental opposition between the regenerate and the world; the third, 1Jn 5:20, pays its final homage to the Son of God, in whom we are through an intelligent faith wrought of God. These three are linked, as always, one with the other; the evil one toucheth us not in the first, but in the second the world lieth in his arms, and in the third we, rescued from him, are in God and His Son. The final words close the whole, and close the Bible, with an exhortation against every false conception of God. Hence fellowship with God is the keynote into which all melts at the last: individually, it is communion with His holiness; collectively, it is perfect separation from the world; and both these go up to the Son in whom we are one with God, and safe from idols. This final we know is therefore an exhibition of the Christian privileges in their highest form.
1Jn 5:18. We know that whosoever is begotten of God sinneth not; but he that was begotten of God keepeth himself, and the evil one toucheth him not. Having admitted that the children of the Divine birth may sin, both unto death and not unto death, the apostle reminds them most solemnly of what had been established before, that the regenerate life is in itself inconsistent with both kinds. The characteristic and privilege of a child of God is to live without violation of law: all sin is of death, and there is no death in the regenerate life. This is a repetition of what had been said in chap. 3, but the apostle never repeats himself without some change in his thought. Here is said for the first time, that not only he who has been and is born of God, but he who has been once born of God, sinneth not. He has not been, therefore, all along speaking of the un-sinning state as the fruit of a finished regeneration, however true that may be. Again, as his manner is, he gives a specific reason for the assertion. The act of regeneration sundered the Christian from the empire of Satan; and it is his privilege to keep himself, in sedulous watchfulness and dependence on the Keeper of his soul, from the approach of the tempter; not from his approach as a tempter, but from any such approach as shall touch him to his hurt. It is wrong to limit this great saying by interpolating sin wilfully or sin unto death or sin habitually; it must stand as the declaration of a privilege which is an ideal, but an attainable ideal, that of living without that which God shall call sin. St. John does not rise to the word which only One could say, He hath nothing in Me. Concupiscence is in the Christian still, and it may conceive and bring forth sin; not, however, if the wicked one toucheth him not. And the concupiscence that the enemy has in us must die if it have not its desire in the soulpurified as He is pure. This we know to be the privilege of the Christian estate, as in the middle of the Epistle the apostle has established it. We know is not without protest against all future doubt; it is like one of the faithful sayings with which St. Paul sealed his final doctrine. To understand he that is born of God of the Only-begotten who keepeth the saint, is contrary to the analogy of New Testament diction; and to suppose that the principle of regeneration keepeth him, introduces a certain harshness without obviating any difficulty. There is indeed no difficulty to the expositor who remembers that St. John never disjoins the Divine efficiency in man from mans own co-operation.
1Jn 5:19. We know that we are of God, and the whole world lieth in the wicked one. The exquisite propriety of the words must be noted here. There is no but, as before: we know by infallible assurance of our regenerate life that we are of God. This is all we are assured of, and there is no emphatic we opposed to the world: it is as if the apostle would avoid even the semblance of exultation against the ungodly. But the awful contrast is laid down. It is the same wicked one as in the preceding verse holds the entire world, so far as the new life has not transformed it, in his power. It is not said that the world is of the wicked one: if the children of the devil had been spoken of in a similar connection (chap. 1Jn 3:10), that is here explained and softened. The men of the world are in him that is false; but the in is not used in its bare simplicity, but lieth in, a phrase nowhere else occurring, and to be interpreted according to the tenor of the Epistle. The whole world is not, however, the men of the world only; but its entire constitution, its entire economy, its lusts and principles and motives, and course and end: all that is not of God lies in the power and bondage of the wicked one. This the apostle adds as an old truth, never so fearfully expressed as here. The diametrical contrariety between the regenerate who have fellowship with God, and the unregenerate whose fellowship is with Satan, could not be more keenly defined.
1Jn 5:20. And we knowmoreover, we know finallythat the Son of God is come: this word is come St. John reserves for the end. He who was sent and was manifested is here said to be present with us; and His abiding presence is as it were a sun which reveals and approves itself to all who have eyes to see. We are reminded of the only occasion on which the word is used in this sense, when our Lord declared to the Jews in one sentence the mystery of His eternal Sonship, His presence in the world by incarnation, and His mediatorial mission: I proceeded forth from GodI have comeHe sent me (Joh 8:44). The children of God know with an assurance that is above all doubt that the Son of God is incarnate with the human race and dwells among us: this is the triumphant close of the Epistle, both as it is a testimony to the manifestation of the eternal life, and as it is a protest against all anti-christian error. Keeping both these objects still in view, the apostle goes on: and hath given us an understanding that we may know him that is true: this new word understanding signifies the inner faculty of the Spirit which discriminates in order to know, which is the result of the unction from the Holy One. Thus inwardly enlightened by Him who is the Truth, through His Spirit, we know Him that is true, that only true God whom thus to know, in His unapproachable distinction from all false gods or objects of hope, is eternal life. In the words of Jesus, which St. John here quotes, and Jesus Christ whom Thou hast sent, is added. But He is come as the revelation of the Father, and St. John hastens from the spiritual knowledge to the spiritual experience of fellowship with that Father, not and Jesus Christ, but in Him.
And we are in him that is true, in his Son Jesus Christ. The absence of the and, leaving the plain assertion that we are in the true God by being in His Sonthus making the true God and His Son oneis the solution of the question to whom the next clause refers: This is the true God and eternal life. This His Son Jesus Christ is Himself the true God, His revelation and presence with us; nor know we any other. Those who see not God in Him, since He has come, serve a god of their own imagination. When the apostle adds and eternal life, he turns from the protest against anti-christian error, which was silently involved in the former part of the clause, to the happy privilege of all believing Christians. They have in the Son that perfect life which was with the Father and was manifested unto us. Thus the end of the Epistle revolves back to the beginning. Christian doctrine is the revelation of the true God in Christ; and Christian blessedness is life everlasting in the Father and the Son.
1Jn 5:21. Little children, keep yourselves from idols. This brief but all-comprehensive sentence closes the Epistle, the entire apostolical testimony, and probably the entire revelation of God. Accordingly it must have a large interpretation. It is a solemn warning, most affectionate but most rigorous, against everything that may invade the supremacy of the true God as revealed in His Son Jesus Christ, whether in the doctrine and worship of the Church or in the affections of the regenerate heart. External idols, as still retained in heathenism, though fast passing away, are not excluded from the exhortation of course; but there has been no allusion to them throughout the Epistle, nor did the danger of the little children lie in that direction. Though St. John does not use the Pauline expression that Christians are the temple of the Holy Ghost, the idea of this pervades his whole doctrine. He that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God and God in him: therefore every thought of the mind, every feeling of the heart, and every movement of the will must be faithful in all homage to Him. As addressed to the first readers of the Epistle, the warning was against the false theosophy of the Gnostics; as a prophetic exhortation, it foresaw and guarded against all violations of the doctrine of the Mediatorial Triunity; and, as spoken to the inmost soul of every regenerate Christian, it proclaims the one immutable principle of the Christian religion, that God must be to him. All in all.
Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament
That is, we are all well assured that sincere Christians, who are begotten and born of God, do not commit this sin unto death, namely, apostacy from Christianity to the Heathen idolatry: But he keepeth himself, and the wicked one toucheth him not: that is, he preserveth himself from the contagion of idolatry, into which the devil was so busy to seduce a great part of mankind.
It may be further added, that he that is born of God, so far as he is a partaker of the divine nature, sinneth not; that is, suffers not any sin to have dominion over him, but takes care to preserve himself, through the assistance of divine grace, from Satan’s deadly wound. He toucheth him not; that is, doth not touch him so as to leave an impression of his devilish spirit upon him. Non tangit tactu qualitativo, vel tactu lethali et martifero; “He shall not mortally touch them, to make them sin unto death.”
Fuente: Expository Notes with Practical Observations on the New Testament
1Jn 5:18-19. We know, &c. As if he had said, Yet this gives no encouragement to sin. On the contrary, it is an indisputable truth, that whosoever is born of God That is, regenerated and made a new creature; see on 1Jn 2:29; sinneth not Doth not commit any known sin, so long as he lives by faith in the Son of God, and by that faith has union with Christ; but he that is begotten of God By the word of truth, (Jas 1:18; 1Pe 1:23,) accompanied by the influence of the Divine Spirit; keepeth himself By the aid of divine grace watching unto prayer, denying himself and taking up his cross daily; and that wicked one Namely, the devil; toucheth him not So as to overcome and lead him into known, wilful sin. And we know By the testimony of the Holy Spirit and our own consciences; that we Who believe in Christ, (1Jn 5:13,) and are born of God, and made partakers of the divine nature; are of God Belong to him, as his children and his heirs; and the whole world All the rest of mankind, that are not such, all who have not his Spirit, are not only touched by him, but very generally are guilty of idolatry, fraud, violence, lasciviousness, impiety, and all manner of vice; lieth in wickedness Rather, in the wicked one, as signifies. They are under his dominion: just as it is said of believers in the next verse, that they are , in the true one. The power of Satan in this lower world, and over its inhabitants, is often spoken of in Scripture. Thus Eph 2:2, he is called the spirit which now worketh in the children of disobedience: 2Co 4:4, he is termed the god of this world, and is said to blind the minds of them that believe not: 1Pe 5:8, he is called our adversary, and is said to be going about as a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. Further, 2Ti 2:26, wicked men are said to be held in the snare of the devil, who (Eph 6:11) is said to use wiles for the destruction of mankind, and (2Co 11:3) to have beguiled Eve by his subtlety.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
5:18 {17} We know that whosoever is born of God sinneth not; but he that is begotten of God keepeth himself, and that wicked one toucheth him not.
(17) A reason why not all, or rather why no sin is mortal to some: that is, because they are born of God, that is to say, made the sons of God in Christ, and being ended with his Spirit, they do not serve sin, nor are they mortally wounded by Satan.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
VI. CHRISTIAN CERTAINTIES 5:18-21
John concluded this epistle by synthesizing the major thoughts he had presented to reinforce and review them for his readers. "We know" many things as a result of what Jesus taught and what John taught.
"The writer’s fundamental thought here is that if the readers perceive the truths he mentions, they will be fortified against the allurements of the idolatrous pagan practices around them." [Note: Hodges, The Epistles . . ., p. 241.]
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
"We know" introduces this verse and the following two verses. John probably meant, We apostles know (understand) and now you readers also know in view of what I have written in this epistle.
As in 1Jn 3:9, John affirmed that the basic nature of one who has God for his spiritual Parent is not to sin. The regenerate person as such is incapable of any sin. Furthermore because the new man in Christ possesses the sinless nature of the indwelling Christ, John could say that Christ keeps him from sin (cf. Joh 17:12; Rev 3:10). Another view is that "he who is born of God" refers to the believer who keeps "himself" from sin. [Note: See Marshall, p. 252, footnote 37, for further discussion of the problem.] In addition, Satan cannot touch him. Evidently John restated this fundamental truth because people normally behave in harmony with what they believe themselves to be. Our behavior as Christians will be more holy when we view ourselves as children of God rather than as children of the devil.
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
Chapter 4
THE IMAGE OF ST. JOHNS SOUL IN HIS EPISTLE
1Jn 5:18-20
Much has been said in the last few years of a series of subtle and delicate experiments in sound. Means have been devised of doing for the ear something analogous to that which glasses do for another sense, and of making the results palpable by a system of notation. We are told that every tree, for instance, according to its foliage, its position, and the direction of the winds, has its own prevalent note or tone, which can be marked down, and its timbre made first visible by this notation, and then audible. So is it with the souls of the saints of God, and chiefly of the Apostles. Each has its own note, the prevalent key on which its peculiar music is set. Or we may employ another image which possibly has St. Johns own authority. Each of the Twelve has his own emblem among the twelve vast and precious foundation stones which underlie the whole wall of the Church. St. John may thus differ from St. Peter, as the sapphires azure differs from the jaspers strength and radiance. Each is beautiful, but with its own characteristic tint of beauty.
We propose to examine the peculiarities of St. Johns spiritual nature which may be traced in this Epistle. We try to form some conception of the key on which it is set, of the colour which it reflects in the light of heaven, of the image of a soul which it presents. In this attempt we cannot be deceived. St. John is so transparently honest; he takes such a deep, almost terribly severe view of truth. We find him using an expression about truth which is perhaps without a parallel in any other writer. “If we say that we have fellowship with Him and walk in darkness we lie, and are not doing the truth.” The truth then for him is something co-extensive with our whole nature and whole life. Truth is not only to be spoken-that is but a fragmentary manifestation of it. It is to be done. It would have been for him the darkest of lies to have put forth a spiritual commentary on his Gospel which was not realised in himself. In the Epistle, no doubt, he uses the first person singular sparingly, modestly including himself in the simple “we” of Christian association. Yet we are as sure of the perfect accuracy of the picture of his soul, of the music in his heart which he makes visible and audible in his letter, as we are that he heard the voice of many waters, and saw the city coming down from God out of heaven; as sure, as if at the close of this fifth chapter he had added with the triumphant emphasis of truth, in his simple and stately way, “I John heard these things and saw them.” He closes this letter with a threefold affirmation of certain primary postulates of the Christian life; of its purity, of its privilege, of its Presence, -” we know,” “we know,” “we know.” In each case the plural might be exchanged for the singular. He says “we know,” because he is sure “I know.”
In studying the Epistles of St. John we may well ask what we see and hear therein of St. Johns character,
(1) as a sacred writer,
(2) as a saintly soul.
I We consider first the indications in the Epistle of the Apostles character as a sacred writer. For help in this direction we do not turn with much satisfaction to essays or annotations pervaded by the modern spirit. The textual criticism of minute scholarship is no doubt much, but it is not all. Aorists are made for man; not man for the aorist. He indeed who has not traced every fibre of the sacred text with grammar and lexicon cannot quite honestly claim, to be an expositor of it. But in the case of a book like Scripture this, after all, is but an important preliminary. The frigid subtlety of the commentator who always seems to have the questions for a divinity examination before his eyes, fails in the glow and elevation necessary to bring us into communion with the spirit of St. John. Led by such guides, the Apostle passes under our review as a third-rate writer of a magnificent language in decadence, not as the greatest of theologians and masters of the spiritual life-with whatever defects of literary style, at once the Plato of the Twelve in one region, and the Aristotle in the other; the first by his “lofty inspiration,” the second by his “judicious utilitarianism.” The deepest thought of the Church has been brooding for seventeen centuries over these pregnant and many-sided words, so many of which are the very words of Christ. To separate ourselves from this vast and beautiful commentary is to place ourselves out of the atmosphere in which we can best feel the influence of St. John.
Let us read Chrysostoms description of the style and thought of the author of the fourth Gospel. “The son of thunder, the loved of Christ, the pillar of the Churches, who leaned on Jesus bosom, makes his entrance. He plays no drama, he covers his head with no mask. Yet he wears array of inimitable beauty. For he comes having his feet shod with the preparation of the Gospel of peace, and his loins girt, not with fleece dyed in purple, or be dropped with gold, but woven through and through with, and composed of, the truth itself. He will now appear before us, not dramatically, for with him there is no theatrical effect or fiction, but with his head bared he tells the bare truth. All these things he will speak with absolute accuracy, being the friend of the King Himself-aye, having the King speaking within him, and hearing all things from Him which He heareth from the Father; as He saith-you I have called friends, for all things that I have heard from My Father, I have made known unto you. Wherefore, as if we all at once saw one stooping down from yonder heaven, and promising to tell us truly of things there, we should all flock to listen to him, so let us now dispose ourselves. For it is from up there that this man speaks down to us. And the fisherman is not carried away by the whirling current of his own exuberant verbosity; but all that he utters is with the steadfast accuracy of truth, and as if he stood upon a rock he budges not. All time is his witness. Seest thou the boldness, and the great authority of his words! how he utters nothing by way of doubtful conjecture, but all demonstratively, as if passing sentence. Very lofty is this Apostle, and full of dogmas, and lingers over them more than over other things!” This admirable passage, with its fresh and noble enthusiasm, nowhere reminds us of the glacial subtleties of the schools. It is the utterance of an expositor who spoke the language in which his master wrote, and breathed the same spiritual atmosphere. It is scarcely less true of the Epistle than of the Gospel of St. John.
Here also “He is full of dogmas,” here again he is the theologian of the Church. But we are not to estimate the amount of dogma merely by the number of words in which it is expressed. Dogma, indeed, is not really composed of isolated texts-as pollen showered from conifers and germs scattered from mosses, accidentally brought together and compacted, are found upon chemical analysis to make up certain lumps of coal. It is primary and structural. The Divinity and Incarnation of Jesus pervade the First Epistle. Its whole structure is Trinitarian. It contains two of the three great three-word dogmatic utterances of the New Testament about the nature of God (the first being in the fourth Gospel)-“God is Spirit,” “God is light,” “God is love.” The chief dogmatic statements of the Atonement are found in these few chapters. “The blood of Jesus His Son cleanseth us from all sin.” “We have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the Righteous.” “He is the propitiation for the whole world.” “God loved us, and sent His Son the propitiation for our sins.” Where the Apostle passes on to deal with the spiritual life, he once more “is full of dogmas,” i.e., of eternal, self-evidenced, oracular sentences, spoken as if “down from heaven,” or by one “whose foot is upon a rock,”-apparently identical propositions, all-inclusive, the dogmas of moral and spiritual life, as those upon the Trinity, the Incarnation, the Atonement, are of strictly theological truth. A further characteristic of St. John as a sacred writer in his Epistle is, that he appears to indicate throughout the moral and spiritual conditions which were necessary for receiving the Gospel with which he endowed the Church as the life of their life. These conditions are three. The first is spirituality, submission to the teaching of the Spirit, that they may know by it the meaning of the words of Jesus-the “anointing” of the Holy Ghost, which is ever “teaching all things” that He said. The second condition is purity, at least the continuing effort after self-purification which is incumbent even upon those who have received the great pardon. This involves the following in lifes daily walk of the One perfect life walk, the imitation of that which is supremely good, “incarnated in an actual earthly career.” All must be purity, or effort after purity, on the side of those who would read aright the Gospel of the immaculate Lamb of God. The third condition for such readers is love- charity. When he comes to deal fully with that great theme, the eagle of God wheels far out of sight. In the depths of His Eternal Being, “God is love.” Then this truth comes closer to us as believers. It stands completely and forever manifested in its work in us, because “God hath sent” (a mission in the past, but with abiding consequences) “His Son, His only begotten Son into the world, that we may live through Him.” Yet again, he rises higher from the manifestation of this love to the eternal and essential principle in which it stands present forever. “In this is the love, not that we loved God, but that God loved us, and once for all sent His Son a propitiation for our sins.” Then follows the manifestation of our love. “If God so loved us, we also are bound to love one another.” Do we think it strange that St. John does not first draw the lesson-“If God so loved us, we also are bound to love God”? It has been in his heart all along, but he utters it in his own way, in the solemn pathetic question-“He that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, God whom he hath not seen how can he love?” Yet once more he sums up the creed in a few short words. “We have believed the love that God hath in us.” Truly and deeply has it been said that this creed of the heart, suffused with the softest tints and sweetest colours, goes to the root of all heresies upon the Incarnation, whether in St. Johns time or later. That God should give up His Son by sending Him forth in humanity; that the Word made flesh should humble Himself to the death upon the cross, the Sinless offer Himself for sinners, this is what heresy cannot bring itself to understand. It is the excess of such love which makes it incredible. “We have believed the love” is the whole faith of a Christian man. It is St. Johns creed in three words.
Such are the chief characteristics of St. John as a sacred writer, which may be traced in his Epistle. These characteristics of the author imply corresponding characteristics of the man. He who states with such inevitable precision, with such noble and self-contained enthusiasm, the great dogmas of the Christian faith, the great laws of the Christian life, must himself have entirely believed them. He who insists upon these conditions in the readers of his Gospel must himself have aimed at, and possessed, spirituality, purity, and love.
II We proceed to look at the First Epistle as a picture of the soul of its author.
(1) His was a life free from the dominion of wilful and habitual sin of any kind. “Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin, and he cannot continue sinning.” “Whosoever abideth in Him sinneth not; whosoever sinneth hath not seen Him, neither known Him.” A man so entirely true, if conscious to himself of any reigning sin, dare not have deliberately written these words.
(2) But if St. Johns was a life free from subjection to any form of the power of sin, he shows us that sanctity is not sinlessness, in language which it is alike unwise and unsafe to attempt to explain away. “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves.” “If we say that we have not sinned and are not sinners, we make Him a liar.” But so long as we do not fall back into darkness, the blood of Jesus is ever purifying us from all sin. This he has written that the fulness of the Christian life may be realised in believers; that each step of their walk may follow the blessed footprints of the most holy life; that each successive act of a consecrated existence may be free from sin. And yet, if any fail in some such single act, if he swerve, for a moment, from the “true tenour” of the course which he is shaping, there is no reason to despair. Beautiful humility of this pure and lofty soul! How tenderly, with what lowly graciousness he places himself among those who have and who need an Advocate. “Mark Johns humility,” cries St. Augustine; “he says not ye have, nor ye have me, nor even ye have Christ. But he puts forward Christ, not himself; and he says we have, not ye have, thus placing himself in the rank of sinners.” Nor does St. John cover himself under the subterfuges by which men at different times have tried to get rid of a truth so humiliating to spiritual pride-sometimes by asserting that they so stand accepted in Christ that no sin is accounted to them for such; sometimes by pleading personal exemption for themselves as believers.
This Epistle stands alone in the New Testament in being addressed to two generations-one of which after conversion had grown old in a Christian atmosphere, whilst the other had been educated from the cradle under the influences of the Christian Church. It is therefore natural that such a letter should give prominence to the constant need of pardon. It certainly does not speak so much of the great initial pardon, as of the continuing pardons needed by human frailty. In dwelling upon pardon once given, upon sanctification once begun, men are possibly apt to forget the pardon that is daily wanting, the purification that is never to cease. We are to walk daily from pardon to pardon, from purification to purification. Yesterdays surrender of self to Christ may grow ineffectual if it be not renewed today. This is sometimes said to be a humiliating view of the Christian life. Perhaps so-but it is the view of the Church, which places in its offices a daily confession of sin; of St. John in this Epistle; nay, of Him who teaches us, after our prayers for bread day by day, to pray for a daily forgiveness. This may be more humiliating, but it is safer teaching than that which proclaims a pardon to be appropriated in a moment for all sins past, present, and to come.
This humility may be traced incidentally in other regions of the Christian life. Thus he speaks of the possibility at least of his being among those who might “shrink with shame from Christ in His coming.” He does not disdain to write as if, in hours of spiritual depression, there were tests by which he too might need to lull and “persuade his heart before God.”
(3) St. John again has a boundless faith in prayer. It is the key put into the childs hand by which he may let himself into the house, and come into his Fathers presence when he will, at any hour of the night or day. And prayer made according to the conditions which God has laid down is never quite lost. The particular thing asked for may not indeed be given; but the substance of the request-the holier wish, the better purpose underlying its weakness and imperfection-never fails to be granted.
(4) All but superficial readers must perceive that in the writings and character of St. John there is from time to time a tonic and wholesome severity. Art and modern literature have agreed to bestow upon the Apostle of love the features of a languid and inert tenderness. It is forgotten that St. John was the son of thunder; that he could once wish to bring down fire from heaven; and that the natural character is transfigured, not inverted, by grace. The Apostle uses great plainness of speech. For him a lie is a lie, and darkness is never courteously called light. He abhors and shudders at those heresies which rob the soul first of Christ, and then of God. Those who undermine the Incarnation are for him not interesting and original speculators, but “lying prophets.” He underlines his warnings against such men with his roughest and blackest pencil mark. “Whoso sayeth to him good speed hath fellowship with his works, those wicked works”-for such heresy is not simply one work, but a series of works. The schismatic prelate or pretender Diotrephes may “babble,” but his babblings are wicked words for all that, and are in truth the “works which he is doing.”
The influence of every great Christian teacher lasts long beyond the day of his death. It is felt in a general tone and spirit, in a special appropriation of certain parts of the creed, in a peculiar method of the Christian life. This influence is very discernible in the remains of two disciples of St. John, Ignatius and Polycarp. In writing to the Ephesians Ignatius does not indeed explicitly refer to St. Johns Epistle, as he does to that of St. Paul to the Ephesians. But he draws in a few bold lines a picture of the Christian life which is imbued with the very spirit of St. John. The character which the Apostle loved was quiet and real; we feel that his heart is not with “him that sayeth.” So Ignatius writes-“it is better to keep silence, and yet to be, than to talk and not to be. It is good to teach if he that sayeth doeth. He who has gotten to himself the word of Jesus truly is able to hear the silence of Jesus also, so that he may act through that which he speaks, and be known through the things wherein he is silent. Let us therefore do all things as in His presence who dwelleth in us, that we may be His temple, and that He may be in us our God.” This is the very spirit of St. John. We feel in it at once his severe common sense and his glorious mysticism.
We must add that the influence of St. John may be traced in matters which are often considered alien to his simple and spiritual piety. It seems that Episcopacy was consolidated and extended under his fostering care. The language of his disciple Ignatius, upon the necessity of union with the Episcopate is, after all conceivable deductions, of startling strength. A few decades could not possibly have remove Ignatius so far from the lines marked out to him by St. John as he must have advanced, this teaching upon Church government was a new departure. And with this conception of Church government we must associate other matters also. The immediate successors of St. John, who had learned from his lips, held deep sacramental views. The Eucharist is “the bread of God, the bread of heaven, the bread of life, the flesh of Christ.” Again Ignatius cries-“Desire to use one Eucharist, for one is the flesh of our Lord Jesus Christ, and one cup unto oneness of His blood, one altar, as one Bishop, with the Presbytery and deacons.” Hints are not wanting that sweetness and light in public worship derived inspiration from this same quarter. The language of Ignatius deeply tinged with his passion for music. The beautiful story, how he set down, immediately after a vision, the melody to which he had heard the angels chanting, and caused it to be use in his church at Antioch, attests the impression of enthusiasm and care for sacred song which was associated with the memory of Ignatius. Nor can we be surprised at these features of Ephesian Christianity, when we remember who was the founder of those Churches. He was the writer of three books. These books come to us with a continuous living interpretation more than seventeen centuries of historical Christianity. From the fourth Gospel in large measure has arisen the sacramental instinct, from the Apocalypse the esthetic instinct, which has been certainly exaggerated both in the East and West. The third and sixth chapters of St Johns Gospel permeate every baptismal and eucharistic office. Given an inspired book which represents the worship of the redeemed as one of perfect majesty and beauty, men may well in the presence of noble churches and stately liturgies, adopt the words of our great English Christian poet-
“Things which shed upon the outward frame
Of worship glory and grace-which who shall blame
That ever lookd to heaven for final rest?”
The third book in this group of writings supplies the sweet and quiet spirituality which is the foundation of every regenerate nature.
Such is the image of the soul which is presented to us by St. John himself. It is based upon a firm conviction of the nature of God, of the Divinity, the Incarnation, the Atonement of our Lord. It is spiritual. It is pure, or being purified. The highest theological truth-“God is Love”-supremely realised in the Holy Trinity, supremely manifested in the sending forth of Gods only Son, becomes the law of its common social life, made visible in gentle patience, in giving and forgiving. Such a life will be free from the degradation of habitual sin. Yet it is at best an imperfect representation of the one perfect life. It needs unceasing purification by the blood of Jesus, the continual advocacy of One who is sinless. Such a nature, however full of charity, will not be weakly indulgent to vital error or to ambitious schism; for it knows the value of truth and unity. It feels the sweetness of a calm conscience, and of a simple belief in the efficacy of prayer. Over every such life-over all the grief that may be, all the temptation that must be-is the purifying hope of a great Advent, the ennobling assurance of a perfect victory, the knowledge that if we continue true to the principle of our new birth we are safe. And our safety is, not that we keep ourselves, but that we are kept by arms which are as soft as love, and as strong as eternity.
These Epistles are full of instruction and of comfort for us, just because they are written in an atmosphere of the Church which, in one respect at least, resembles our own. There is in them no reference whatever to a continuance of miraculous powers, to raptures, or to extraordinary phenomena. All in them which is supernatural continues even to this day, in the possession of an inspired record, in sacramental grace, in the pardon and holiness, the peace and strength of believers. The apocryphal “Acts of John” contain some fragments of real beauty almost lost in questionable stories and prolix declamation. It is probably not literally true that when St. John in early life wished to make himself a home, his Lord said to him, “I have need of thee, John”; that that thrilling Voice once came to him, wafted over the still darkened sea-“John, hadst thou not been Mine, I would have suffered thee to marry.” But the Epistle shows us much more effectually that he had a pure heart and virgin will. It is scarcely probable that the son of Zebedee ever drained a cup of hemlock with impunity; but he bore within him an effectual charm against the poison of sin. We of this nineteenth century may smile when we read that he possessed the power of turning leaves into gold, of transmuting pebbles into jewels, of fusing shattered gems into one; but he carried with him wherever he went that most excellent gift of charity, which makes the commonest things of earth radiant with beauty. He may not actually have praised his Master during his last hour in words which seem to us not quite unworthy even of such lips-“Thou art the only Lord, the root of immortality, the fountain of incorruption. Thou who madest our rough wild nature soft and quiet, who deliveredst me from the imagination of the moment, and didst keep me safe within the guard of that which abideth forever.” But such thoughts in life or death were never far from him for whom Christ was the Word and the Life; who knew that while “the world passeth away and the lust thereof, he that doeth the will of God abideth forever.”
May we so look upon this image of the Apostles soul in his Epistle that we may reflect something of its brightness! May we be able to think, as we turn to this threefold assertion of knowledge-“I know something of the security of this keeping. I know something of the sweetness of being in the Church, that isle of light surrounded by a darkened world. I know something of the beauty of the perfect human life recorded by St. John, something of the continued presence of the Son of God, something of the new sense which He gives, that we may know Him who is the Very God.” Blessed exchange-not to be vaunted loudly, but spoken reverently in our own hearts-the exchange of we, for I. There is much divinity in these pronouns.