Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of 1 John 5:20
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.
20. And we know ] This introduces the third great fact of which believers have certain knowledge. The first two Christian certitudes are that the believer as a child of God progresses under Christ’s protection towards the sinlessness of God, while the unbelieving world lies wholly in the power of the evil one. Therefore the Christian knows that both in the moral nature which he inherits, and in the moral sphere in which he lives, there is an ever-widening gulf between him and the world. But his knowledge goes beyond this. Even in the intellectual sphere, in which the Gnostic claims to have such advantages, the Christian is, by Christ’s bounty, superior.
The ‘and’ ( ) brings the whole to a conclusion: comp. Heb 13:20; Heb 13:22. Or it may mark the opposition between the world’s evil case and what is stated here; in which case should be rendered ‘but.’
is come ] This includes the notion of ‘is here’ ( ); but it is the coming at the Incarnation rather than the perpetual presence that is prominent in this context.
hath given us an understanding ] Or, hath given us understanding, i.e. the capacity for receiving knowledge, intellectual power. The word ( ) occurs nowhere else in S. John’s writings.
that we may know ] Literally, ‘that we may continue to recognise, as we do now’ ( with the indicative; see on Joh 17:3). It is the appropriation of the knowledge that is emphasized; hence ‘recognise’ ( ) rather than ‘know’ ( ). The latter word is used at the opening of these three verses: there it is the possession of the knowledge that is the main thing.
him that is true ] God; another parallel with Christ’s Prayer; ‘ that they should know Thee the only true God ’ (Joh 17:3), where some authorities give with the indicative, as here. ‘True’ does not mean ‘that cannot lie’ (Tit 1:2), but ‘genuine, real, very,’ as opposed to the false gods of 1Jn 5:21. See on 1Jn 2:8. What is the Gnostic’s claim to superior knowledge in comparison with this? We know that we have the Divine gift of intelligence by means of which we attain to the knowledge of a personal God who embraces and sustains us in his Son.
and we are in him ] A fresh sentence, not dependent on either preceding ‘that’. ‘Him that is true’ again means God. It is arbitrary to change the meaning and make this refer to Christ. ‘The Son has given us understanding by which to attain to knowledge of the Father.’ Instead of resuming ‘And we do know the Father,’ the Apostle makes an advance and says: ‘And we are in the Father.’ Knowledge has become fellowship (1Jn 1:3, 1Jn 2:3-5). God has appeared as man; God has spoken as man to man; and the Christian faith, which is the one absolute certainty for man, the one means of re-uniting him to God, is the result.
even in his Son Jesus Christ ] Omit ‘even’ which has been inserted in A.V. and R.V. to make ‘in Him that is true’ refer to Christ. This last clause explains how it is that we are in the Father, viz. by being in the Son. Comp. 1Jn 2:23; Joh 1:18; Joh 14:9; Joh 17:21; Joh 17:23. Tyndale boldly turns the second ‘in’ into ‘through’; ‘we are in him that is true, through his sonne Jesu Christ.’ We have had similar explanatory additions in 1Jn 5:13 ; 1Jn 5:16.
This is the true God ] It is impossible to determine with certainty whether ‘This’ ( ) refers to the Father, the principal substantive of the previous sentence, or to Jesus Christ, the nearest substantive. That S. John teaches the Divinity of Jesus Christ both in Epistle and Gospel is so manifest, that a text more or less in favour of the doctrine need not be the subject of heated controversy. The following considerations are in favour of referring ‘This’ to Christ. 1. Jesus Christ is the subject last mentioned. 2. The Father having been twice called ‘the true One’ in the previous verse, to proceed to say of Him ‘This is the true God’ is somewhat tautological. 3. It is Christ who both in this Epistle (1Jn 1:2, 1Jn 5:12) and also in the Gospel (Joh 11:25, Joh 14:6) is called the Life. 4. S. Athanasius three times in his Orations against the Arians interprets the passage in this way, as if there was no doubt about it (III. xxiv. 4, xxv. 16; IV. ix. 1). The following are in favour of referring ‘This’ to the Father. 1. The Father is the leading subject of all that follows ‘understanding.’ 2. To repeat what has been already stated and add to it is exactly S. John’s style. He has spoken of ‘Him that is true’: and he now goes on ‘This (true One) is the true God and eternal life.’ 3. It is the Father who is the source of that life which the Son has and is (Joh 5:26). 4. Joh 7:3 supports this view. 5. The Divinity of Christ has less special point in reference to the warning against idols: the truth that God is the true God is the basis of the warning against false gods: comp. 1Th 1:9. But see the conclusion of the note on ‘from idols’ in the next verse: see also note k in Lect. v. of Liddon’s Bampton Lectures.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
And we know that the Son of God is come – We know this by the evidence that John had referred to in this Epistle, 1Jo 1:1-4; 1Jo 5:6-8.
And hath given us an understanding – Not an understanding considered as a faculty of the mind, for religion gives us no new faculties; but he has so instructed us that we do understand the great truths referred to. Compare the notes at Luk 24:45. All the correct knowledge which we have of God and his government, is to be traced directly or indirectly to the great Prophet whom God has sent into the world, Joh 1:4, Joh 1:18; Joh 8:12; Joh 9:5; Heb 1:1-3; Mat 11:27.
That we may know him that is true – That is, the true God. See the notes at Joh 17:3.
And we are in him that is true – That is, we are united to him; we belong to him; we are his friends. This idea is often expressed in the Scriptures by being in him. It denotes a most intimate union, as if we were one with him – or were a part of him – as the branch is in the vine, Joh 15:4, Joh 15:6. The Greek construction is the same as that applied to the wicked one, 1Jo 5:19, ( en to alethino.)
This is the true God – o There has been much difference of opinion in regard to this important passage; whether it refers to the Lord Jesus Christ, the immediate antecedent, or to a more remote antecedent – referring to God, as such. The question is of importance in its bearing on the doctrine of the divinity of the Saviour; for if it refers to him, it furnishes an unequivocal declaration that he is divine. The question is, whether John meant that it should be referred to him? Without going into an extended examination of the passage, the following considerations seem to me to make it morally certain that by the phrase this is the true God, etc., he did refer to the Lord Jesus Christ.
(1) The grammatical construction favors it. Christ is the immediate antecedent of the pronoun this – houtos. This would be regarded as the obvious and certain construction so far as the grammar is concerned, unless there were something in the thing affirmed which led us to seek some more remote and less obvious antecedent. No doubt would have been ever entertained on this point, if it had not been for the reluctance to admit that the Lord Jesus is the true God. If the assertion had been that this is the true Messiah; or that this is the Son of God; or that this is he who was born of the Virgin Mary, there would have been no difficulty in the construction. I admit that his argument is not absolutely decisive; for cases do occur where a pronoun refers, not to the immediate antecedent, but to one more remote; but cases of that kind depend on the ground of necessity, and can be applied only when it would be a clear violation of the sense of the author to refer it to the immediate antecedent.
(2) This construction seems to be demanded by the adjunct which John has assigned to the phrase the true God – eternal life. This is an expression which John would be likely to apply to the Lord Jesus, considered as life, and the source of life, and not to God as such. How familiar is this language with John, as applied to Christ! In him (i. e. Christ) was life, and the life was the light of people – giving life to the world – the bread of life – my words are spirit and life – I am the way, and the truth, and the life. This life (Christ) was manifested, and we have seen it, and do testify to you, and declare the eternal life which was with the Father, and was manifested to us, 1Jo 1:2. – Prof. Stuarts Letters to Dr. Channing, p. 83. There is no instance in the writings of John, in which the appellation life, and eternal life is bestowed upon the Father, to designate him as the author of spiritual and eternal life; and as this occurs so frequently in Johns writings as applied to Christ, the laws of exegesis require that both the phrase the true God, and eternal life, should be applied to him.
(3) If it refers to God as such, or to the word true – () ton alethinon (Theon) it would be mere tautology, or a mere truism. The rendering would then be, That we may know the true God, and we are in the true God: this is the true God, and eternal life. Can we believe that an inspired man would affirm gravely, and with so much solemnity, and as if it were a truth of so much magnitude, that the true God is the true God?
(4) This interpretation accords with what we are sure John would affirm respecting the Lord Jesus Christ. Can there be any doubt that he who said, In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God; that he who said, all things were made by him, and without him was not anything made that was made; that he who recorded the declaration of the Saviour, I and my Father are one, and the declaration of Thomas, my Lord and my God, would apply to him the appellation the true God!
(5) If John did not mean to affirm this, he has made use of an expression which was liable to be misunderstood, and which, as facts have shown, would be misconstrued by the great portion of those who might read what he had written; and, moreover, an expression that would lead to the very sin against which he endeavors to guard in the next verse – the sin of substituting a creature in the place of God, and rendering to another the honor due to him. The language which he uses is just such as, according to its natural interpretation, would lead people to worship one as the true God who is not the true God, unless the Lord Jesus be divine. For these reasons, it seems to me that the fair interpretation of this passage demands that it should be understood as referring to the Lord Jesus Christ. If so, it is a direct assertion of his divinity, for there could be no higher proof of it than to affirm that he is the true God.
And eternal life – Having life in himself, Joh 5:26, and the source and fountain of life to the soul. No more frequent appellation, perhaps, is given to the Saviour by John, than that he is life, and the source of life. Compare Joh 1:4; Joh 5:26, Joh 5:40; Joh 10:10; Joh 6:33, Joh 6:35, Joh 6:48, Joh 6:51, Joh 6:53, Joh 6:63; Joh 11:25; Joh 14:6; Joh 20:31; 1Jo 1:1-2; 1Jo 5:12.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
1Jn 5:20
We know that the Son of God is come
The gospel of the Incarnation
He is coining is the word of the Old Testament; He is come is the better word of the blew.
John knew Jesus as the Son of God; and in his writings he only tells us what he knows. We know that the Son of God is come. Weft, this is a simple fact, simply stated; but if you go down deep enough into it, you will find a whole gospel inside.
I. By His coming He has given us an understanding that we may know Him that is true. Now this does not mean, of course, 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. By word and life He has given us ideas about Fatherhood, holiness, pity, kindness, and love, that we had not before. Purity, meekness, patience, and all the graces, mean more now than they did before Christ lived and died. The horizon of language has been widened, and its heaven lifted higher than before.
II. Well, for what purpose has Christ given us these new ideas and opened the eyes of our understandings? In order that we may know Him that is true, in order that we may know God. In Christ you will find the truth about God. There are mysteries still? Yes, but they are all mysteries of goodness, holiness, and love. In a recently published book of travel the authoress tells of gigantic camellia trees in Madeira, and says that one man made an excursion to see them, and came back much disappointed, having failed to find them. He was desired to pay a second visit to the spot, and was told by his friends to look upwards this time, and was much surprised and gladdened to see a glorious canopy of scarlet and white blossoms fifty feet overhead! Is not that the story of many more in our days? They grub and moil amid molluscs and ocean slime; they turn back the strata granite, limestone, coal and clay, concluding coldly with, Here is law! Where is God? I have swept the heavens with my telescope, said Lalande, but have nowhere found a God! Sirs, you are looking in the wrong direction: look higher l Look as Ezekiel looked–above the firmament. In the presence of Christ Jesus you will find what you shall in vain seek elsewhere, God, in all that He is, made manifest in the flesh.
III. We know that the Son of God is come, and we are in Him that is true, in His Son Jesus Christ, i.e., in Christ we are in God. Dr. Arnold used to say that though the revelation of the splendour of God in the infinite fulness of His nature may be something awaiting him in the world to come, he felt sure that in this world he had only to do with Christ. Yes! it is with Christ we have to do. God Himself is the ultimate, but Christ is the immediate object of our faith. In our penitence we go straight as the Magdalene went, and, sitting at the feet of Jesus, we know that we are confessing our sins to God. Our prayers are as direct as that of Peter, when, beginning to sink in the boiling sea, he cried, saying, Lord, save me! and we know that we are crying to God for help.
IV. Lastly, 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. Victor Hugo said on his deathbed in a fit of great pain, This is death: this is the battle of the day and the night. Yes, but for those who are in Christ the day wins, not the night, and death is the gate leading to a larger life. (J. M. Gibbon.)
Three greatest things
In this verse we have three of the greatest things.
I. The greatest fact in human history. That the Son of God has come. There are many great facts in the history of our race. But of all the facts the advent of Christ to our world eighteen centuries ago is the greatest. This fact is the most–
1. Undeniable.
2. Influential.
3. Vital to the interests of every man.
II. The greatest capability of the human mind. What is that? An understanding, that we may know Him that is true. Men are endowed with many distinguishing faculties–imagination, memory, intellect. But the capacity to know Him who is true is for many reasons greater than all.
1. It is a rare faculty. The mighty millions have not this power, O righteous Father, the world hath not known Thee.
2. It is a Christ-imparted faculty–He hath given us. What is it? It is love. He that loveth not, knoweth not God. Christ generates this love. Love alone can interpret love, God is love.
III. The greatest privilege in human life. We are in Him that is true, even in His Son Jesus Christ. This means, Jesus Christ is the true God. (Homilist.)
Soul evidence of the divinity of Christ
Christ was Divine. As there can be no argument of chemistry in proof of odours like a present perfume itself; as the shining of the stars is a better proof of their existence than the figures of an astronomer; as the restored health of his patients is a better argument of skill in a physician than laboured examinations and certificates; as the testimony of the almanac that summer comes with June is not so convincing as is the coming of summer itself in the sky, in the air, in the fields, on hill and mountain, so the power of Christ upon the human soul is to the soul evidence of His divinity based upon a living experience, and transcending in conclusiveness any convictions of the intellect alone, founded upon a contemplation of mere ideas, however just and sound. (H. W. Beecher.)
Christ manifested in the heart the life of His people
I. The character here given of our Lord Jesus Christ–Him that is true, the true God and eternal life, the Son of God.
1. The first object in this glorious description which claims our notice refers to the truth of our Saviours character and mission–Him that is true. This title is descriptive of our blessed Lords faithfulness, and His punctuality in the performance of every engagement; He is true to His word of promise, though heaven and earth shall pass away, yet His word shall not pass away till all be fulfilled. This title also refers to the validity of His claim to the character of Messiah. He was no pretender to a station which did not of right pertain unto Him–He was the true Messiah. Jesus Christ is also called true, to express that all the types and shadows of the Levitical dispensation received a complete fulfilment in Him, who is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believeth.
2. The next appellation is, the true God. This epithet is not conferred upon the Redeemer merely as an honorary distinction–no, it is given to Him as asserting His Divine nature; a declaration, that He is very God of very God. If Christ be not truly and properly God, He cannot be the Saviour of sinners.
3. Another epithet here applied to Christ is, eternal life. He is so called with reference to His glorious work, as the Saviour of sinners. By the gospel He has abolished death, and brought life and immortality to light,–has opened the kingdom of heaven to all believers; and by His meritorious death has obtained life for them; hence He is called the Prince of life. By His mighty power spiritual life is revealed in the hearts of His people.
4. The concluding words of the clause now under consideration are, His Son Jesus Christ, which confirms His claim to the Divine character. The Father and the Son are one in nature, as well as in affection.
II. The present state of true believers. We are in Him that is true, even in His Son Jesus Christ. To be in Christ is to be united to Him by faith, which worketh by love. The nature and necessity of this union with the Lord Jesus are most beautifully illustrated in His last discourse with His disciples previous to His sufferings: I am the true vine, etc. Believers are cut out of the olive tree which is wild by nature, and are grafted contrary to nature into a good olive tree, the influences of Divine grace flow into their souls, they bring forth fruit unto perfection, and are at length gathered into the garner of God.
III. The knowledge and experience of believers.
1. We know that the Son of God is come. The import of these words appears to be this–we are satisfied the promised Christ has actually made His appearance in the flesh; and believe that Jesus of Nazareth was that person. I apprehend that these words refer to the revelation of our Lord Jesus, in the believers heart, by the Holy Spirit of God.
2. He hath given us an understanding that we may know Him that is true. We have already observed that Jesus is the truth. Now we are not naturally acquainted with Him; we know not His glorious excellences; hence, when beheld by the eye of carnal reason, the Redeemer seems to have no beauty in Him; there is no form or comeliness, that we should desire Him. This darkness remains upon the mind till dispersed by a light from heaven, and when that light shineth, Jesus is revealed in the soul, and becomes the supreme object of the believers affections. Men may, by dint of application, become systematic Christians; they may understand the theory of the gospel; but they cannot thus become wise unto salvation. (S. Ramsey, M. A.)
Johns triumphant certainties
This third of his triumphant certainties is connected closely with the two preceding ones. It is so, as being in one aspect the ground of these, for it is because the Son of God is come that men are born of God and are of Him. It is so in another way also, for properly the words of our text ought to read not And we know, rather but we know. They are suggested, that is to say, by the preceding words, and they present the only thought which makes them tolerable. The whole world lieth in the wicked one. But we know that the Son of God is come. Falling back on the certainty of the Incarnation and its present issues, we can look in the face the grave condition of humanity, and still have hope for the world and for ourselves.
I. I would deal with the Christians knowledge that the Son of God is come. Now, our apostle is writing to Asiatic Christians of the second generation at the earliest, most of whom had not been born when Jesus Christ was upon earth, and none of whom had any means of acquaintance with Him except that which we possess–the testimony of the witnesses who had companied with Him. We know; how can you know? You may go on the principle that probability is the guide of life, and you may be morally certain, but the only way by which you know a fact is by having seen it. And even if you have seen Jesus Christ, all that you saw would be the life of a man upon earth whom you believed to be the Son of God. It is trifling with language to talk about knowledge when you have only testimony to build on. Well I There is a great deal to be said on that side, but there are two or three considerations which, I think, amply warrant the apostles declaration here, and our understanding of his words, We know, in their fullest and deepest sense. Let me just mention these briefly. Remember that when John says The Son of God is come he is not speaking about a past fact only, but about a fact which, beginning in a historical past, is permanent and continuous. And that thought of the permanent abiding with men of the Christ who once was manifest in the flesh for thirty years, runs through the whole of Scripture. So it is a present fact, and not only a past piece of history, which is asserted when the apostle says, The Son of God is come. And a man who has a companion knows that he has him, and by many a token, not only of flesh but of spirit, is conscious that he is not alone, but that the dear and strong one is by his side. Such consciousness belongs to all the maturer and deeper forms of the Christian life. Further, we must read on in my text if we are to find all which John declares is a matter of knowledge. The Son of God is come, and hath given us an understanding. I point out that what is here declared to be known by the Christian soul is a present operation of the present Christ upon his nature. If a man is aware that through his faith in Jesus Christ new perceptions and powers of discerning solid reality where he only saw mist before have been granted to him, the apostles triumphant assertion is vindicated. And, still further, the words of my text, in their assurance of possessing something far more solid than an opinion or a creed in Christ Jesus, and our relation to Him, are warranted, on the consideration that the growth of the Christian life largely consists in changing a belief that rests on testimony for knowledge grounded in vital experience. Now we believe, not because of your saying, but because we have seen Him ourselves, and know that this is indeed the Christ, the Saviour of the world. That is the advance which Christian men should all make from the infantile, rudimentary days, when they accepted Christ on the witness of others, to the time when they accepted Him because, in the depth of their own experience, they have found Him to be all that they took Him to be. The true test of creed is life. The true way of knowing that a shelter is adequate is to house in it, and be defended from the pelting of every pitiless storm. The medicine we know to be powerful when it has cured us.
II. Note the new power of knowing God given by the Son who is to come. John says that one issue of that Incarnation and permanent presence of the Lord Christ with us is that He hath given us an understanding that we may know Him that is true. Now, I do not suppose that He means thereby that any absolutely new faculty is conferred upon men, but that new direction is given to old ones, and dormant powers are awakened. That gift of a clarified nature, a pure heart, which is the condition, as the Master Himself said, of seeing God–that gift is bestowed upon all who, trusting in the Incarnate Son, submit themselves to His cleansing hand. In the Incarnation Jesus Christ gave us God to see; by His present work in our souls He gives us the power to see God. The knowledge of which my text speaks is the knowledge of Him that is true, by which pregnant word the apostle means, to contrast the Father whom Jesus Christ sets before us with all mens conceptions of a Divine nature, and to declare that whilst these conceptions, in one way or another, fall beneath or diverge from reality and fact, our God manifested to us by Jesus Christ is the only One whose nature corresponds to the name, and who is essentially that which is included in it. But what I would dwell on especially is that this gift, thus given by the Incarnate and present Christ, is not an intellectual gift only, but something far deeper. Inasmuch as the apostle declares that the object of this knowledge is not a truth about God but God Himself, it necessarily follows that the knowledge is such as we have of a person, and not of a doctrine. Or, to put it into simpler words, to know about God is one thing, and to know God is quite another. To know about God is theology, to know Him is religion. That knowledge, if it is real and living, will be progressive. More and more we shall come to know. As we grow like Him we shall draw closer to Him; as we draw closer to Him we shall grow like Him. So, if we have Christ for our medium both of light and of sight, if He both gives us God to see and the power to see Him, we shall begin a course which eternity itself will not see completed.
III. Lastly, note here the Christian indwelling of God which is possible through the son who is come. We are in Him that is true. Of old Abraham was called the Friend of God, but an auguster title belongs to us. Know ye not that ye are the temples of the living God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? But notice the words of my text for a moment, where the apostle goes on to explain and define how we are in Him that is true, because we are in His Son Jesus Christ. That carries us away back to Abide in Me, and I in you. John caught the whole strain of such thoughts from those sacred words in the upper room. And will not a man know that? Wilt it not be something deeper and better than intellectual perception by which he is aware of the presence of Christ in his heart? (A. Maclaren, D. D.)
That we may know Him that is true—
Ultimates of knowledge and beginnings of faith
How can we now reach such heights of assurance as are marked by these words of St. John? First of all, we need to go straight through our own experiences, thoughts, and questionings, until we find ourselves facing the ultimates of our life and knowledge. Many a young man comes nowadays to church in a state of mental reserve; and this is one of the real practical hindrances to clear, bright discipleship. It hinders the progress of the Church as fogs hinder navigation. Men in this state listen to the great commandments of the gospel–repent, believe, confess Christ before men–and while not intentionally or deliberately rejecting them, they receive them and lose sight of them in this great fog bank of mental uncertainty which lies in their minds all around the horizons of present and near duties. Back, then, let us force ourselves to the ultimates of our life! Back in all honesty and urgency let us go, until we face the flaming bounds of the universe! I find four ultimates, then, upon which to stand; four fundamentals of human life and knowledge from which to survey all passing clouds and turmoil. One of these ultimates–the one nearest to the common sense of mankind, and which I only need to mention–is the final fact that there is some all-embracing Power in the universe. This is the last word which the senses, and the science of the senses, have to speak to us–force. But when I look this physical ultimate of things in the face, and ask what it is, or how I have learned to give this name of power to it; then I find myself standing before a second ultimate of knowledge. That is the fact of intelligence. I cannot, in my thought, go before or behind that last fact of mind, and reason compels me to go up to it and admit it; there is mind above matter; there is intelligence running through things. Upon the shores then, of this restless mystery of our life are standing, calm and eternal, these two ultimates of knowledge, Power and Reason, Intelligence and Force; and they stand bound together–an intelligent Power, a Force of Mind in things. But there is another line of facts in our common experience, the end of which is not reached in these ultimates of science and philosophy. You and I had not merely a cause for our existence; I had a mother, and you had before you a fact of love in the mother who gave you birth. Love breathes through life and pervades history. It is the deathless heart of our mortality. Moreover, this fact of love in which our being is cradled, and in which, as in our true element, man finds himself, has in it law and empire. In obedience to this supreme authority men will even dare to die. There are, then, for us such realities as love, devotion, duty. And with this it might seem as though I had gone around the compass of our being and said all that can be said of the last facts of our lives. But I have not. There is another last fact in this world which not only cannot be resolved into anything simpler than itself, and with which, therefore, we must rest, but which, also, is itself the truth abiding as the light of day over these fundamental facts of our knowledge. It is the illumination of mans whole life. I refer, of course, to the character of Jesus Christ. The Person of the Christ is the ultimate fact of light in the history of man. We cannot resolve the character of Jesus into anything before itself. We cannot explain Him by anything else in history. The more definite we make the comparison between Jesus and men the more striking appears His final unaccountableness upon the ordinary principles and by the common laws of human descent. We can bring all human genius into organic line with its ancestry, or into spiritual unity with its nationality or age. Rome and the Caesar explain each the other. Human nature in Greece, vexed by the sophists, must give birth both to an Aristotle and a Socrates. These two types of mind are constantly reproduced. And the Buddha is the in carnation of the Oriental mind. But Jesus is something more than Judaea incarnate. Jesus is something unknown on earth before incarnated in a most human life. He was in this world but not of it. He was the fulfilment of the history of God in Israel, yet He was not the product of His times. He chose to call Himself, not a Hebrew of the Hebrews, not a Greek of the Gentiles, but simply and solely the Son of Man. And we can find no better name for Him. He is for us an ultimate fact, then, unaccounted for by the lives of other men, unaccountable except by Himself; as much as any element of nature is an original thing not to be explained by any thing else that is made, so is the character of Jesus Christ elemental in history, the ultimate fact of Gods presence with man. Now, then, such being the fundamental facts of our knowledge–the ultimates of bureau experience–it is perfectly legitimate for us to build upon them; and any man who wishes to build his life upon the rock, and not upon the sands, will build upon them. A Power not ourselves upon which we are dependent–a first intelligence and love, source of all our reason and life of our heart–and Jesus Christ the final proof of God with us and for us–such are the elemental realities upon which our souls should rest. He who stands upon these Divine facts in the creation and in history shall not be confounded. (N. Smyth, D. D.)
The Holy Trinity
The Son of God is come and hath given us an understanding that we may know Him that is true. That advent lays open Gods judgment on good and evil as it is involved in the Divine nature. That advent gives us the power of an ever-increasing insight into an eternal life and the strength of an eternal fellowship. It teaches us to wait as God waits. To this end, how ever, we must use ungrudging labour. The Son of God hath given us an understanding that we may know He does not–we may say, without presumption, He cannot–give us the knowledge, but the power and the opportunity of gaining the knowledge. Revelation is not so much the disclosure of the truth as the presentment of the facts in which the truth can be discerned. It is given through life and to living men. We are required each in some sense to win for ourselves the inheritance which is given to us, if the inheritance is to be a blessing. We learn through the experience of history, and through the experience of life, how God acts, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, and by the very necessity of thought we are constrained to gather up these lessons into the simplest possible formula. So we come to recognise a Divine Trinity, which is not sterile, monotonous simplicity; we come to recognise a Divine Trinity which is not the transitory manifestation of separate aspects of One Person or a combination of Three distinct Beings. We come to recognise One in whom is the fulness of all conceivable existence in the richest energy, One absolutely self-sufficient and perfect, One in whom love finds internally absolute consummation, One who is in Himself a living God, the fountain and the end of all life. Our powers of thought and language are indeed very feeble, but we can both see and to some extent point out how this idea of the Father revealed through the Son, of the Son revealed through the Spirit, one God, involves no contradiction, but offers in the simplest completeness of life the union of the one and the many which thought has always striven to gain: how it preserves what we speak of as personality from all associations of finiteness; how it guards us from the opposite errors which are generally summed under the terms Pantheism and Deism, the last issues of Gentile and Jewish philosophy; how it indicates the sovereignty of the Creator and gives support to the trust of the creature. We linger reverently over the conception, and we feel that the whole world is indeed a manifestation of the Triune God, yet so that He is not included in that which reflects the active energy of His love. We feel that the Triune God is Lord over the works of His will, yet so that His Presence is not excluded from any part of His Universe. We ponder that which is made known to us, that when time began the Word was with God in the completeness of personal communion; that the life which was manifested to men was already in the beginning with the Father (1Jn 1:2) realised absolutely in the Divine essence. We contemplate this archetypal life, self-contained and self-fulfilled in the Divine Being, and we are led to believe with deep thankfulness that the finite life which flows from it by a free act of grace corresponds with the source from which it flows. In this way it will at once appear how the conception of the Triune God illuminates the central religious ideas of the Creation and the Incarnation. It illuminates the idea of Creation. It enables us to gain firm hold of the truth that the becoming which we observe under the condition of time answers to a being beyond time; that history is the writing out at length of that which we may speak of as a Divine thought. It enables us to take up on our part the words of the four-and-twenty elders, the representatives of the whole Church, when they cast their crowns before the throne and worshipped Him that sits thereon, saying, Worthy art Thou, our Lord, and our God, to receive the glory and the honour and the power; for Thou didst create all things, and because of Thy will they are and were created; they were absolutely in the ineffable depths of the mind of God, they were created under the limitations of earthly existence. The same conception illuminates also the idea of the Incarnation. It enables us to see that the Incarnation in its essence is the crown of the Creation, and that man being made capable of fellowship with God, has in his very constitution a promise of the fulfil meat of his highest destiny. It enables us to feel that the childly relation in which we stand to God has its ground in the Divine Being; and to understand that not even sin has been able to destroy the sure hope of its consummation, however sadly it may have modified in time the course by which the end is reached. Anyone who believes, however imperfectly, that the universe with all it offers in a slow succession to his gaze is in its very nature the expression of that love which is the Divine Being and the Divine Life; who believes that the whole sum of life defaced and disfigured on the surface to our sight means intensely and means good; who believes that the laws which he patiently traces are the expressions of a Fathers will, that the manhood which he shares has been taken into God by the Son, that at every moment, in every trial, a Spirit is with him waiting to sanctify thought, and word, and deed; must in his own character receive something from the Divine glory on which he looks. What calm reserve he will keep in face of the perilous boldness with which controversialists deal in human reasonings with things infinite and eternal. What tender reverence he will cherish towards those who have seen some thing of the King in His beauty. With what enthusiasm he will be kindled while he remembers that, in spite of every failure and every disappointment, his cause is won already. After what holiness he will strain while he sees the light fall about his path, that light which is fire, and knows the inexorable doom of everything which defiles. So we are brought back to the beginning. The revelation of God is given to us that we may be fashioned after His likeness. God first loved us that knowing His love we might love Him in our fellow men. Without spiritual sympathy there can be no knowledge. But where sympathy exists there is the transforming power of a Divine affection. (Bp. Westcott.)
This is the true God and eternal life.
The eternal life
These are the strongest words that can be used in reference to any object.
I. The apostles knowledge of Christ.
1. John knew that the long expected and earnestly looked for Saviour had made His appearance among men. What mere man could talk of going to and coming from heaven, as though he were speaking of going into and coming out of a room in a house and claim to be sane? He was Emmanuel, God with us, who, while here below, remained there always. And we know that the Son of God is come.
2. The apostle received a priceless gift from the Son of God. And hath given us an understanding. The importance of the understanding that Christ gives may be seen in the object which it understands. A teacher who succeeds in making a great and difficult subject clear to our minds deserves our profoundest gratitude and highest admiration. The Son of God gives mankind an understanding that apprehends the greatest of all objects–Him that is true. The Son comprehends God and He gives us understandings to apprehend Him. Such an understanding is truly a great gift, the greatest of its kind possible. When we bear in mind that by it Christ places us in the light in which we may see and know God, we cannot fail to feel that it is indeed such. For, like all objects of the mind, God can only be known in His own light. The only way we can possibly understand a great author is to possess the light in which he wrote his work–we must see with his intellectual eyes as it were–then we shall understand him, not otherwise. The understanding which Christ gives us includes much more than a mere capacity to apprehend an object, it includes a suitable spirit in which to enter upon the study of it. Indeed, unless we are in fullest sympathy with the spirit of the object we are studying we shall fail to understand it. It is something to be able to understand the great works that have been produced by the illustrious men of the different ages; their sublime and inspiring poetry, their wise and informing philosophy, their splendid pictures, their fine statuary, and their grand architecture. But the understanding which the Son of God gives apprehends God; it knows Him that is true. Such a mind must be capacious indeed.
II. The apostles relation to Christ and God.
1. And we are in Him that is true, even in His Son Jesus Christ. A closer relationship than these words describe cannot be conceived; they imply that the most thorough and vital union subsists between God, Christ, and the Christian. That is a triple union the strong hand of death cannot sever, nor will the damps and chills of the grave impair the golden cord that binds the Christian to God and the Saviour. Eternity will only add to its power and perpetuity. To be in Him that is true is to know Him.
2. They possessed an intelligent assurance of the intimate relation which they sustained to Christ: And we are in Him that is true, even in His Son Jesus Christ. They had entered into the close union with God by means of Christ, but they had not severed themselves from Christ in order to keep up the union with God; they were in Him that is true, even in His Son Jesus Christ. All who are in His Son Jesus Christ see God from the only standpoint from whence it is possible for the soul to see Him really and satisfactorily. A visitor who went to Trafalgar Square to view Landseers lions, selected a position on low ground from which he could look up at them, where the stately proportions of the whole column could be seen to the greatest advantage. Quite another effect is produced by looking down upon them from the terrace in the front of the National Gallery; the column seems dwarfed and the lions out of proportion. The standpoint made all the difference in the view. Christ is the only standpoint from which we can see God really: in Christ we stand on the mount of God, with sunlight in our souls, and see the Father of our spirits.
III. The apostles sublime testimony to Christ. This is the true God and eternal life. Jesus Christ was not a Divine man merely: if He were not more than that John would not have said that He was the true God. He was the best of men, but He was infinitely more; He was the true God and eternal life. As the earth is the source of the life of all the fields and forests–as much the source of the life of the majestic oak as the sweet and fragrant violet–so Christ is the source of the souls life. Separated from the earth, the most vital plant or tree would wither, droop, and die; no plant, however vigorous and beautiful, has life in itself. Jesus Christ is, in the fullest sense, the source of the souls life; For it pleased the Father that in Him should all fulness dwell. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. As the fountain of eternal life He imparts it to all who possess it. I give unto them eternal life. The source of all the waters of the world must be an immense reservoir. If it were possible for the question to be put to all the waters found on the earth, to all streams, rivers, and lakes, Where is your source? do you think that they would answer, Oh, some spring that takes its rise at the foot of a distant little hill. No, if anyone hinted that such a spring was their source they would scout the idea at once as the very acme of absurdity. Their united answer would be, Our source must be an inexhaustible ocean. Then can a mere man be the author of eternal life? Impossible. (D. Rhys Jenkins.)
The last words of the last apostle
I. Here we have the sum of all that we need to know about God. This is the true God. When he says, This is the true God he means to say, This God of whom I have been affirming that Jesus Christ is His sole Revealer, and of whom I have been declaring that through Jesus Christ We may know Him and dwell abidingly in Him. This–and none else–is the true God. What does John mean by true? By that expression he means, wherever he uses it, some person or thing whose nature and character correspond to his or its name, and who is essentially and perfectly that which the name expresses. If we take that as the signification of the word, we just come to this, that the God revealed in Jesus Christ, and with whom a man through Jesus Christ may have fellowship of knowledge and friendship, that He and none but He answers to all that men mean when they speak of a God; that He, if I might use such expressions, fully fills the part. If we only think that, however it comes (no matter about that) every man has in him a capacity of conceiving of a perfect being, of righteousness, power, purity, and love, and that all through the ages of the worlds yearnings there has never been presented to it the embodiment of that dim conception, but that all idolatry, all worship, has failed in bodying out a person who would answer to the requirements of a mans spirit, then we come to the position in which these final words of the old fisherman go down to a deeper depth than all the worlds wisdom, and carry a message of consolation and a true gospel to be found nowhere besides. Whatsoever embodiments men may have tried to give to their dim conception of a God, these have been always limitations, and often corruptions of it. And to limit or to separate is, in this case, to destroy. No Pantheon can ever satisfy the soul of man who yearns for One Person in whom all that he can dream of beauty, truth, goodness shall be ensphered. This is the true God. And all others are corruptions, or limitations, or divisions, of the indissoluble unity. Then are men to go forever and ever with the blank misgivings of a creature moving about in worlds not realised? For, consider what it is that the world owes to Jesus Christ in its knowledge of God. Remember that to us as orphaned men He has come and said, as none ever said, and showed as none ever showed: Ye are not fatherless, there is a Father in the heavens. God is a Spirit. God is love. And put these four revelations together, the Father; Spirit; unsullied Light; absolute Love; and then let us bow down and say, Thou hast said the truth, O aged Seer. This is our God; we have waited for Him, and He will save us. This–and none beside–is the true God. I know not what the modern world is to do for a God if it drifts away from Jesus Christ and His revelations.
II. Here we have the sum of his gifts to us. This is the true God, and eternal life. By eternal life He means something a great deal more august than endless existence. He means a life which not only is not ended by time, but which is above time, not subject to its conditions at all. Eternity is not time spun out forever. That seems to part us utterly from God. He is eternal life; then, we poor creatures down here, whose being is all cribbed, cabind, and confined by succession, and duration, and the partitions of time, what can we have in common with Him? John answers for us. For remember that in the earlier part of this Epistle he writes that the life was manifested, and we show unto you that eternal life which was with the Father, and was manifested unto us, and we declare it unto you; and we declare it unto you, that ye also may have fellowship with us, and our fellowship is with the Father, and with His Son. But we are not left to wander about in regions of mysticism and darkness. For we know this, that however strange and difficult the thought of eternal life, as possessed by a creature, may be, to give it was the very purpose for which Jesus Christ came on earth. I am come that they might have life, and have it more abundantly. And we are not left to grope in doubt as to what that eternal life consists in; for He has said: This is life eternal, that they might know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom Thou hast sent. Thus, then, there is a life which belongs to God on His throne, a life lifted above the limitations of time, a life communicated by Jesus Christ, as the waters of some land locked lake may flow down through a sparkling river, a life which consists in fellowship with God, a life which may be, and is, ours, on the simple condition of trusting Him who gives it, and a life which, eternal as it is, is destined to a future all undreamed of, in that future beyond the grave, is now the possession of every man that puts forth the faith which is its condition.
III. Lastly, we have here the consequent sum of Christian action. Little children, keep yourselves from idols–seeing that this is the true God–the only One that answers to your requirements, and will satisfy your desires. Do not go rushing to these shrines of false deities that crowd every corner of Ephesus–ay! and every corner of Manchester. Is the exhortation not needed? In Ephesus it was hard to have nothing to do with heathenism. In that ancient world their religion, though it was a superficial thing, was intertwined with daily life in a fashion that puts us to shame. Every meal had its libation, and almost every art was knit by some ceremony or other to a god. So that Christian men and women had almost to go out of the world in order to be free from complicity in the all-pervading idol worship. You and I call ourselves Christians. We say we believe that there is nothing else, and nobody else, in the whole sweep of the universe that can satisfy our hearts, or be what our imagination can conceive but God only. Having said that on the Sunday, what about Monday? They have forsaken Me, the Fountain of living water, and hewed to themselves broken cisterns that can hold no water. Little children–for we are scarcely more mature than that–little children, keep yourselves from idols. And how is it to be done? Keep yourselves. Then you can do it, and you have to make a dead lift of an effort, or be sure of this–that the subtle seduction will slide into your heart, and before you know it you will be out of Gods sanctuary, and grovelling in Dianas temple. But it is not only our own effort that is needed, for just a sentence or two before, the apostle had said: He that is born of God–that is, Christ–keepeth us. So our keeping of ourselves is essentially our letting Him keep us. Here is the sum of the whole matter. There is one truth on which we can stay our hearts, on God in whom we can utterly trust, the God revealed in Jesus Christ. If we do not see Him in Christ we shalt not see Him at all, but wander about all our days in a world empty of solid reality. (A. Maclaren, D. D.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 20. We know that the Son of God is come] In the flesh, and has made his soul an offering for sin; and hath given us an understanding-a more eminent degree of light than we ever enjoyed before; for as he lay in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him unto us; and he hath besides given us a spiritual understanding, that we may know him who is true, even the TRUE GOD, and get eternal life from him through his Son, IN whom we are by faith, as the branches in the vine, deriving all our knowledge, light, life, love, and fruitfulness from him. And it is through this revelation of Jesus that we know the ever blessed and glorious Trinity; and the Trinity, Father, Word, and Holy Ghost, in the eternal, undivided unity of the ineffable Godhead.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
It is here signified how satisfying a knowledge and certainty sincere Christians had, that Christ was indeed come, by that blessed effect they found upon themselves, viz. a clear and lively light shining, by his procurement and communication, into their minds, whereby they had other apprehensions, more vivid and powerful than ever before, of
the true God, as Joh 17:3, so as thereby to be drawn into union with him, and to be in him: or, which in effect is the same thing, (so entire is the oneness between the Father and the Son), we are in his Son Jesus Christ, who also
is the true God, as Joh 1:1,
and eternal life, as he is called, 1Jo 1:2.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
20. Summary of our Christianprivileges.
is comeis present,having come. “HE ISHEREall is full of HimHis incarnation, work, and abidingpresence, is to us a living fact” [ALFORD].
given us anunderstandingChrist’s, office is to give the inner spiritualunderstanding to discern the things of God.
that we may knowSomeoldest manuscripts read, “(so) that we know.”
him that is trueGod,as opposed to every kind of idol or false god (1Jo5:21). Jesus, by virtue of His oneness with God, is also “Hethat is true” (Re 3:7).
even “weare in the true” God, by virtue of being “in His SonJesus Christ.”
This is the true God“ThisJesus Christ (the last-named Person) is the true God”(identifying Him thus with the Father in His attribute, “theonly true God,” Joh 17:3,primarily attributed to the Father).
and eternal lifepredicatedof the Son of God; ALFORDwrongly says, He was the life, but not eternal life.The Father is indeed eternal life as its source, but the Sonalso is that eternal life manifested, as the very passage (1Jo1:2) which ALFORDquotes, proves against him. Compare also 1Jn 5:11;1Jn 5:13. Plainly it is as theMediator of ETERNAL LIFEto us that Christ is here contemplated. The Greek is,”The true God and eternal life is this” Jesus Christ, thatis, In believing in Him we believe in the true God, and have eternallife. The Son is called “He that is TRUE,”Re 3:7, as here. This naturallyprepares the way for warning against false gods (1Jo5:21). Jesus Christ is the only “express image of God’sperson” which is sanctioned, the only true visible manifestationof God. All other representations of God are forbidden as idols.Thus the Epistle closes as it began (1Jn 1:1;1Jn 1:2).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
And we know that the Son of God is come,…. That the second Person in the Godhead, who is equal to the Father, and of the same nature with him, is come from the Father, from heaven into this world, not by local motion, but by assumption of nature; that he is come in the flesh, or is become incarnate, in order to work out salvation for his people, by his obedience, sufferings, and death; and this John and others knew, for they had personal knowledge of him, and converse with him; they saw him with their eyes, heard him, and handled him: he dwelt among them, preached to them, wrought miracles before them, which proved him to be what he was; and it may be known that the Messiah must become, since Daniel’s weeks, which fixes the time of his coming, are long ago up; the sceptre is departed from Judah, and the second temple is destroyed, neither of which were to be till the Messiah came; and that Jesus of Nazareth is he who is come may be known by the characters of him, and the works done by him:
and hath given us an understanding; not a new faculty of the understanding but new light into it; a knowledge of spiritual things of himself, and of God in him, and of the truths of the Gospel, and of all divine and heavenly things; for he, the Son of God, is come a light into the world, and gives spiritual light to men:
that we may know him that is true; or “the true God”, as the Alexandrian copy and some others, and the Vulgate Latin, Arabic, and Ethiopic versions read; that is, God the Father, who is the true God, in opposition to the false gods of the Heathens, though not to the exclusion of the Son and Spirit; and the spiritual knowledge of him as the Father of Christ, and as a covenant God and Father in him, is only given to men by Christ, and this is life eternal; see
Mt 11:27;
and we are in him that is true, [even] in his Son Jesus Christ; the words “Jesus Christ” are left out in the Alexandrian copy, and in the Vulgate Latin version; however, certain it is, that Jesus Christ is meant by his Son, who is the Son of the true and living God, and is himself “true”; not only true God, as hereafter asserted, but true man, having a true body and a reasonable soul, and was true and faithful in the discharge of his offices, as prophet, priest, and King; he faithfully declared the whole will of God, and taught the way of God in truth; he was faithful to him that appointed him, by securing his glory when he made reconciliation for the sins of the people; and all the administrations of his kingly office are just and true; yea, he is truth itself, the substance of all the types, in whom all the promises are yea and amen, and who has all the truths of the Gospel and treasures of wisdom in him; now his people are in him; they were secretly in him before the world was, being loved by him, chosen in him, put into his hands, preserved in him, and represented by him; and openly, at conversion, when they are anew created in him, brought to believe in him, and live upon him, and he lives in them, and they are in him as branches in the vine; and this is known by his Spirit being given them, by the communication of his grace unto them, and by the communion they have with him.
This is the true God and eternal life; that is, the Son of God, who is the immediate antecedent to the relative “this”; he is the true God, with his Father and the Spirit, in distinction from all false, fictitious, or nominal deities; and such as are only by office, or in an improper and figurative sense: Christ is truly and really God, as appears from all the perfections of deity, the fulness of the Godhead being in him; from the divine works of creation and providence being ascribed to him; and from the divine worship that is given him; as well as from the names and titles he goes by, and particularly that of Jehovah, which is incommunicable to a creature; and he is called “eternal life”, because it is in him; and he is the giver of it to his people; and that itself will chiefly consist in the enjoyment and vision of him, and in conformity to him.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
Is come (). Present active indicative, but the root has a perfect sense, “has come.” See in Joh 8:42.
An understanding (). Here alone in John’s writings, but in Paul (Eph 4:18) and Peter (1Pe 1:13). John does not use (knowledge) and (mind) only in Rev 13:18; Rev 17:9.
That we know ( ). Result clause with and the present active indicative, as is common with and the future indicative (Joh 7:3). It is possible that here was pronounced as a subjunctive, but many old MSS. have (plainly indicative) in Joh 17:3, and in many other places in the N.T. the present indicative with occurs as a variant reading as in Joh 5:20.
Him that is true ( ). That is, God. Cf. 1:8.
In him that is true ( ). In God in contrast with the world “in the evil one” (verse 19). See Joh 17:3.
Even in his Son Jesus Christ ( ). The refers clearly to (God). Hence this clause is not in apposition with the preceding, but an explanation as to how we are “in the True One” by being “in his Son Jesus Christ.”
This (). Grammatically may refer to Jesus Christ or to “the True One.” It is a bit tautological to refer it to God, but that is probably correct, God in Christ, at any rate. God is eternal life (Joh 5:26) and he gives it to us through Christ.
Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament
An understanding [] . Only here in John’s writings. The faculty of understanding. See on Luk 1:51. Westcott remarks that nouns which express intellectual powers are rare in the writings of John. We may know [] . Apprehend progressively. Compare Joh 17:3.
Him that is true [ ] . Compare Rev 3:7, 14; Rev 6:10. On true, see on Joh 1:9. “God very strangely condescends indeed in making things plain to me, actually assuming for the time the form of a man, that I at my poor level may better see Him. This is my opportunity to know Him. This incarnation is God making Himself accessible to human thought – God opening to man the possibility of correspondence through Jesus Christ. And this correspondence and this environment are those I seek. He Himself assures me, ‘This is life eternal, that they might know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom Thou hast sent. ‘ Do I not now discern the deeper meaning in Jesus Christ whom Thou hast sent? Do I not better understand with what vision and rapture the profoundest of the disciples exclaims, ‘The Son of God is come, and hath given us an understanding, that we might know Him that is true?'” (Drummond, ” Natural Law in the Spiritual World “).
This. God the Father. Many, however, refer it to the Son.
Eternal life. See on 1 2. 69
Fuente: Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament
1) “And we know that the Son of God has come.” (oidamen de hoti) we, indeed, know that (ho huios tou theou ekei) the Son of God has come. John begins a final affirmation that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, had come. To deny or question this was to join hands with Antichrists, gnostics, agnostics, and infidels, 1Jn 4:2-3.
2) “And hath given us an understanding.” (Kai dedoken hemin dianoian) and has given (doled out to us of His own accord) an understanding or comprehension of His being, who He is and who His Father is. Mat 16:17; 1Co 2:13-16. The believer is therefore said to have been given “the mind of Christ.” 1Co 2:16.
3) “That we may know Him that is true.” (Greek hina) in order that, as an aid to, or to the end that -purpose clause – (ginoskomen ton alethinon) we might know or recognize the One that is true – the true God and the true Christ is the one true God, as revealed by the Holy Ghost. Joh 17:3; 1Jn 2:20, 1Co 8:5-6.
4) “And we are in Him that is true.” The true believer born or begotten child of God is in (abides in (Greek Alethinon) the true One – the true God by abiding in His Son, for the Son is in the Father, the sphere of His spiritual being.
5) “Even in His Son Jesus Christ.” To be in God is tautologically, to be in His Son, Jesus Christ, Joh 17:20-23; Joh 14:10-11; Joh 14:20; Joh 10:38.
6) “This is the true God, and eternal life.” There be “gods” false, and “the God” true. This is the Hebrew-Christian concept. Exo 20:1; Exo 20:3; Psa 115:2-8; 1Co 8:5-6; Eph 4:4-6. The true God self-existing with life as a Divine attribute, who can not lie and can not die, gives to believers “eternal life,” of His self-existing nature and kind – this is given thru faith in Jesus Christ His Son, Joh 10:27-28; Joh 3:14-16; 1Jn 5:13.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
20 And we know that the Son of God is come As the children of God are assailed on every side, he, as we have said, encourages and exhorts them to persevere in resisting their enemies, and for this reason, because they fight under the banner of God, and certainly know that they are ruled by his Spirit; but he now reminds them where this knowledge is especially to be found.
He then says that God has been so made known to us, that now there is no reason for doubting. The Apostle does not without reason dwell on this point; for except our faith is really founded on God, we shall never stand firm in the contest. For this purpose the Apostle shews that we have obtained through Christ a sure knowledge of the true God, so that we may not fluctuate in uncertainty.
By true God he does not mean one who tells the truth, but him who is really God; and he so calls him to distinguishing him from all idols. Thus true is in opposition to what is fictitious; for it is ἀληθινὸς, and not ἀληθής A similar passage is in John
“
This is eternal life, to know thee, the only true God, and him whom thou hast sent, Jesus Christ.” (Joh 17:3)
And he justly ascribes to Christ this office of illuminating our minds as to the knowledge of God. For, as he is the only true image of the invisible God, as he is the only interpreter of the Father, as he is the only guide of life, yea, as he is the life and light of the world and the truth, as soon as we depart from him, we necessarily become vain in our own devices.
And Christ is said to have given us an understanding, not only because he shews us in the gospel what sort of being is the true God, and also illuminates us by his Spirit; but because in Christ himself we have God manifested in the flesh, as Paul says, since in him dwells all the fullness of the Deity, and are hid all the treasures of knowledge and wisdom. (Col 2:9.) Thus it is that the face of God in a manner appears to us in Christ; not that there was no knowledge, or a doubtful knowledge of God, before the coming of Christ,, but that now he manifests himself more fully and more clearly. And this is what Paul says in 2Co 4:6, that
God, who formerly commanded light to shine out of darkness at the creation of the world, hath now shone in our hearts through the brightness of the knowledge of his glory in the face of Christ.
And it must be observed, that this gift is peculiar to the elect. Christ, indeed, kindles for all indiscriminately the torch of his gospel; but all have not the eyes of their minds opened to see it, but on the contrary Satan spreads the veil of blindness over many. Then the Apostle means the light which Christ kindles within in the hearts of his people, and which when once kindled, is never extinguished, though in some it may for a time be smothered.
We are in him that is true By these words he reminds us how efficacious is that knowledge which he mentions, even because by it we are united to Christ; and become one with God; for it has a living root, fixed in the heart, by which it comes that God lives in us and we in him. As he says, without a copulative, that: we are in him that is true, in his Son, he seems to express the manner of our union with God, as though he had said, that we are in God through Christ. (97)
This is the true God Though the Arians have attempted to elude this passage, and some agree with them at this day, yet we have here a remarkable testimony to the divinity of Christ. The Arians apply this passage to the Father, as though the Apostle should again repeat that he is the true God. But nothing could be more frigid than such a repetition. It has already twice testified that the true God is he who has been made known to us in Christ, why should he again add, This is the true God ? It applies, indeed, most suitably to Christ; for after having taught us that Christ is the guide by whose hand we are led to God, he now, by way of amplifying, affirms that Christ is that God, lest we should think that we are to seek further; and he confirms this view by what is added, and eternal life. It is doubtless the same that is spoken of, as being the true God and eternal life. I pass by this, that the relative οὗτος usually refers to the last person. I say, then, that Christ is properly called eternal life; and that this mode of speaking perpetually occurs in John, no one can deny.
The meaning is, that when we have Christ, we enjoy the true and eternal God, for nowhere else is he to be sought; and, secondly, that we become thus partakers of eternal life, because it is offered to us in Christ though hid in the Father. The origin of life is, indeed, the Father; but the fountain from which we are to draw it, is Christ.
(97) It is rendered by some, “through his Son Jesus Christ.” Our version, “even in his Son Jesus Christ,” seems not to be right, as it makes “him that is true,” to be the Son, while the reference is to God, as in the previous clause. The true meaning would be thus conveyed, “And we are in the true God, being in his Son Jesus Christ;” for to be in Christ, is to be in God. Three MSS., the Vulgate, and several of the Fathers, read thus, “and we are in his true Son Jesus Christ”. — Ed.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
20. Is come Literally, cometh. This does not allude to any perpetual coming of Christ; but the present is used to indicate what takes place in the divine order. Adam falls and Christ comes. It refers to his first advent, as the past tense of hath given shows.
Him that is true Rather, the true One, God. The word true does not signify veracious or truthful, but genuine or real, in opposition to the idols of next verse, which are fictitious or unreal gods. Many of John’s readers had been their worshippers, and Christ had come and given them understanding of the sole true God.
In him that is true In the true One, as if identified with and embodied in him, as the world lieth in the wicked one.
Even The Italics indicate that this word is not in the Greek, but supplied by the translators, incorrectly. The meaning is, that we are in God by being in his Son.
This true God The question is, Does this refer to God or Christ? If to the latter, it is a strong text in proof of the divinity of Christ. Hence, as Alford affirms, the older commentators divided in their interpretations according to their doctrinal prepossessions. But later exegetes acting, like himself, from purely exegetical reasons, refer it to God him that is true.
For referring it to Christ: 1. Christ is the nearest antecedent, being last named. 2. Christ is called life, and God never. To the first it is replied: 1. God is the main and leading subject in mind, and Christ is merely incidental, and in such cases the more distant noun is often held the true antecedent. 2. The continued epithet true implies the continuity of the same subject, God. 3. God is the more natural antithesis to idols, and is, therefore, the unchanged subject through both verses. To the second there seems no very clear reply; yet Alford answers: 1. By quoting Joh 17:3, “This is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent.” This is a striking parallel passage; yet not God, but the knowledge of God, is therein declared to be eternal life. 2.
By saying that Christ is never called eternal life, but life; which is true, and yet eternal life is meant when life is thus predicated. On the whole, the argument is very evenly balanced, with a slight preponderance in favour of God. At any rate, the text cannot be quoted with any very just confidence in proof of the divinity of Christ.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
1Jn 5:20. And we know that the son of God is come, &c. “And from all the undoubted proofs before insisted on, we certainly know that Jesus, the Son of God, has assumed human nature, and actually came into this lower world to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself (Heb 9:26.); and we know by our own happy experience, that he has not only given us an external revelation in his word, but has enlightened the eyes of our minds by an internal operation of his Spirit, that we might have a saving knowledge of him who is Truth itself: and we are vitally united to him, who, in all that he has said, is the true and faithful witness (Rev 1:5.), even Jesus Christ the eternal Son of God. This Jesus ( ), in his original nature, is the only living and true God, together with the Father and the Spirit; and he is the purchaser and giver of spiritual and eternal life to all his faithful saints.”
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
1Jn 5:20 . In conclusion, the apostle indicates whence the (the result of the ) has come to him and his readers; and he does this by expressing it through as the substance of their Christian consciousness.
, ] The conditioning cause of the former is the coming of the Son of God.
The particle is here used to indicate the antithesis to the immediately preceding thought; Brckner has with justice decided in favour of this reading (contrary to ; see the critical notes).
is not = adest (Bengel), but: “ has come; ” the reference is to the incarnation of the Son of God.
, ] Still dependent on .
The subject of is not: (Bengel), but: , as the close connection of this clause with that immediately preceding clearly shows; , on the other hand, is not a description of the Son (Bengel), but of God.
By we are not to understand, with Lcke and de Wette, “knowledge,” or even “insight,” but the capability of knowledge (Dsterdieck, Ebrard), yet in its living activity, hence “ the faculty of knowing. ” [331]
By . . . it is neither the purpose: “ in order that ,” nor even the result: “so that,” that is stated, but the object to which the is directed, and which it attains. We can only regard as the particle of purpose, if we unjustifiably understand by “the spiritual disposition” (contrary to Braune).
The idea is here used with the same force as in chap. 1Jn 2:4-5 , where it is similarly connected with . By God is described, in distinction from all idols, especially from the idol which the false teachers made of God, as the true God; Calvin: Verum Deum intelligit, non veraccm , sed cum qui re vera Deus est, ut cum ab idolis omnibus discernat; comp. Joh 17:3 [332] (similarly Lcke, de Wette, Neander, Erdmann, Dsterdieck, Myrberg, Ebrard, Braune, etc.). He is the true God, who has sent His Son into the world; the coming of Christ has not been ineffectual, but has produced in believers the knowledge of God a knowledge which is one with being in God. Therefore the apostle continues: . These words are not dependent on (Vulg.: et simus), but form an independent sentence. The refers back to ; considering the close connection of the two sentences, it must be the same subject, namely God , that is meant by the same word (Brckner, Braune); it is arbitrary to understand by God, and by , on the other hand, Christ, and it is, moreover, forbidden by the context, in accordance with which the states the consequence of the preceding, namely of the fact that the Son of God has come and has given to us the capability of knowing the true God. [333] Therefore also the following words: , are not to be taken as apposition to . (Weiss), against which even the testifies, for then it would have to be referred, not to , but beyond it to . The additional clause shows in what the has its ground and stability (Brckner, Braune); is not = per, but indicates, as generally in the formula . , the relationship of intimate fellowship: the believer is in God, inasmuch as he is in Christ.
Before the last warning, connected with this (1Jn 5:21 ), the apostle expressively concludes with the statement: . As is well known, views have differed from old times about the meaning of . While the Arians understand of God, the orthodox refer it to the immediately preceding . ., and use this passage as a proof of the divinity of the Son. This interpretation remained the prevailing one in the Church, even after Erasmus had remarked: “hic est verus Deus” referri potest ad Deum verum Patrem qui praecessit; and against this the Socinians, and then Grotius, Wetstein, the English Antitrinitarians, and the German Rationalists followed the opposite view. It is not to be denied that on both sides the different dogmatic interests did not remain without influence on the interpretation, until in more recent times a more unbiassed consideration has led the way. Among the latest commentators, Rickli, Lcke, de Wette, Neander, Gerlach, Frommann, Dsterdieck, Erdmann, Myrberg, even Brckner and Braune (who, however, leave room for doubt), similarly Hofmann ( Schriftbew. 2d ed. I. p. 146), Winer (p. 142; VII. p. 148), and Al. Buttmann (p. 91), have decided in favour of the reference to God; Sander, Besser, Ebrard, Weiss, etc., for the reference to the Son. The dispute cannot be settled on grammatical lines, for can be referred both to [334] and also to ; the addition: , seems to support the latter reference, for Christ, in the Gospel of John, calls Himself precisely , and also in the beginning of this Epistle it is the Son of God that is to be understood by and . The former reference, on the other hand, is supported by the expression: ; for, in the first place, it is more natural to understand here the same subject as is previously designated by , than any other; and, in the second place, the Father and the Son, God and Jesus Christ, are always so definitely distinguished throughout the whole Epistle that it would be strange if, at the close of it, and, moreover, just after both subjects have been similarly distinguished immediately before, Christ without further explanation, too should be described as , especially as this designation is never ascribed to the Son in the writings of John, definitely though the divinity of the Son is taught in them. [335] To this it may be added that, after John has brought out as the peculiar characteristic of the Christian’s life, of which he partakes in the Son of God, the , the clause in question has its right meaning only if it states who that is, namely that he is the . Now, though elsewhere it is only Christ that is called exactly , yet He has the according to His own words, Joh 5:26 only from the Father, who originally has the life in Himself ( ), and may therefore be called no less than the Son. Besides, it is to be observed that . is here used without the article, so that the expression comes under the same category as the expressions: (1Jn 1:5 ), (1Jn 4:16 ), (Gospel of Joh 4:24 ).
The objection that “it would be a feeble repetition, after the Father had twice been called , again to say: this is the ” (Ebrard, similarly Weiss; also Schulze, Menschensohn , etc. p. 263 [336] ), is the less valid, as the apostle has already in view the warning of 1Jn 5:21 , and by . . it is indicated that He alone is the true God, with whom we are in fellowship in Christ: it is only the Father of Jesus Christ that is the true God.
The connection of the words: , as a second predicate, with , has appeared a difficulty to many commentators. Socinus wanted to take = , with reference to the whole preceding thought, and then he paraphrases by and interprets: in eo, quod diximus, est ille verus Deus et vita aeterna; nam quatenus quis habet et cognoscit Christi Patrem et ipsum Christum, habet et illum verum Deum et aeternam vitam; similarly Ewald, when he paraphrases: “this, both these things together, that we know and that we are all this, this is the true God and eternal life.” The arbitrariness of this explanation is self-evident. Others, as Clarke, Benson, Lcke (in his 1st ed.), supply before . an out of , referring either to or to the idea . Lcke has rightly withdrawn this explanation in his 2d edition as unwarrantable, and correctly says: “ . can certainly not be grammatically connected directly with ;” Lcke, however, thinks that there is an ellipsis in the expression, and that it is to be interpreted: “ this the true God is eternal life , which can either be understood of the fact that God is the cause and source of eternal life, or thus: His fellowship is eternal life. ” But why could not John have described by . the substantial character of the divine nature? If God has in Himself (Joh 5:26 ), namely the which He has given to the Son, and which believers possess through the Son (Joh 5:24 ), then God in His very nature is , and too. As John mentions this as the characteristic of God’s nature, there certainly lies in this the indication that God is the source of life for us.
[331] It is quite arbitrary, with Semler, to interpret the idea = . Paulus lays a special emphasis on : “thinking through ( out ) in contrast to a vague acceptance and thoughtless belief” (!).
[332] Baumgarten-Crusius thinks that . means more here than in Joh 17:3 , namely: “he who gives a satisfaction, in quo uno acquiescendum est;” but if this were really contained in the idea here, that would be the case in Joh 17:3 also.
[333] This explanation is so much the more justifiable, as it is to be expected from John that at the close of his Epistle he would express in brief language the highest thing that can be said of the life of the believer, and this is the ( ).
[334] It lies in the very nature of the case that may refer to the principal subject, nay, that this is the reference most suitable to the word; comp. 1Jn 2:22 ; 2Jn 1:7 ; Act 4:11 ; Act 7:19 . Calvin’s rule, which Sander repeats, is erroneous: Pron. demonstr. ordinarie , nisi evidenter textus aliud requirat, immediate antecedens nomen respicit ac demonstrat.
[335] It is only through a superficial consideration that, for the refutation of this assertion, appeal can be made to Joh 1:1 ; Joh 20:28 , and the passages in the Apocalypse in which the predicate is ascribed to Christ. How little care is sometimes exercised in the proof of the truth that what is stated by John of Jesus Christ really proclaims Him as the true God, is shown, amongst others, by Schulze, in the way in which he appeals on behalf of this to Joh 17:23 ; Joh 14:20 , since it would follow from this that even the disciples of Jesus could be described as the true God.
[336] Brckner and Braune also consider the “tautology” at least as something not quite out of the question; but a real tautology is here so far from being the case, that “ ” is here added to , and the idea is directly connected with the idea .
Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary
DISCOURSE: 2470
THE CHRISTIANS KNOWLEDGE OF CHRIST
1Jn 5:20. 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.
IT is thought by many, that the doctrines of the Gospel are uncertain speculations, and that the experience of them in the soul is nothing more than an enthusiastic conceit. We acknowledge that the mysteries of religion are in many respects beyond the grasp of our reason; and that the inward feelings arising from them can be judged of by those only in whose bosom they are found: yet neither the one nor the other can on this account be considered as uncertain: on the contrary, whenever they are mentioned in the Scriptures, they are spoken of as matters that are plain and unquestionable. In the text, and the two verses that precede it, the Apostle thrice repeats the assertion, We know:We know that he that is born of God sinneth not: We know that we are of God: and then, in reference both to the Gospel itself, and to his experience of its truth, he adds a third time, We know that the Son of God is come, &c.
From these words we shall be led to notice three things which Christians know in relation to their Lord and Saviour:
I.
His advent
The first Christians knew assuredly that the Messiah was come
[To state all the grounds of their conviction, would be superfluous, and indeed impossible in a single sermon. We shall confine ourselves to those which were most obvious and incontrovertible, namely, the prophecies that were accomplished in him, and the miracles that were wrought by him. When they saw that so many, so various, so minute, and (to appearance) so contradictory prophecies all united in him, and were fulfilled by him, they could not doubt but that Jesus was the person to whom they all referred. When, moreover, they beheld such numerous, such undoubted, such benevolent, and such stupendous miracles wrought by him in confirmation of his word, it was impossible for them to withhold their assent to the justice of his claims, unless they were altogether blinded by Satan and their own lusts.]
But we have, if possible, yet clearer evidence than they
[Many of the most remarkable prophecies were either not quite accomplished, or but just accomplished, when our Lord died; so that the fulfilment of them might then be questioned. But who can doubt whether Daniels weeks of years [Note: Dan 9:24.] have not expired many centuries ago? Who can doubt whether the sceptre which was not to depart from Judah, till Shiloh should come [Note: Gen 49:10.], has not departed long since? Who can doubt whether the second Temple to which the Messiah was to come [Note: Mal 3:1.], has not long since been demolished?
But a further and most satisfactory proof of Christs Messiahship is, that his Gospel was propagated so extensively, in so short a time, by such instruments, in opposition to all the prejudices and passions of mankind; and that, though every effort of men and devils has been exerted to root out Christianity from the earth, none have ever been able to prevail against the Church.
On these grounds then, in addition to the former, we may say, We know that the Son of God is come.]
Moreover, we know also,
II.
His character
Many had been the impostors who had laid claim to the title of the Messiah. In opposition to all of these, the Apostle twice designates our Lord as the true, the only true, Messiah; and, in the close of the text, specifies more particularly,
1.
His personal character
[Jesus is the true God. St. John, more than all the Apostles, seems to have been studious to assert the divinity of Christ. With this he opens his history of Jesus: In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God [Note: Joh 1:1.]. The whole Scriptures also concur to establish this important doctrine, that he who was a Son born, was also the mighty God [Note: Isa 9:6.]; that he was Emmanuel, God with us [Note: Mat 1:23.]; even God manifest in the flesh [Note: 1Ti 3:16.], yea, God over all blessed for ever [Note: Rom 9:5.]. Nothing can be more clear than this fundamental point. Indeed the very name, Son of God, so far from militating against his equality with the Father, was in the apprehension of the Jews themselves an assertion of that equality [Note: Joh 5:18.].]
2.
His official character
[Christ, as God, has life in himself essentially [Note: Joh 1:4; Joh 5:26.]: but he is also the Author of eternal salvation to all his followers [Note: Heb 5:9.]. As there is no other God but he, so is there no other Saviour [Note: Act 4:12.]. It was he who purchased eternal life for us: none can claim any part of his glory in this respect: his life was the ransom paid for us; and by his obedience unto death we obtain righteousness and life. Moreover it is he who imparts eternal life to us: we receive it from him, who is exalted to give it, and from whose fulness alone it can be received. As we cannot merit it, so neither can we obtain it, by any efforts of our own: it is purely the gift of God through Christ [Note: Rom 6:23.]: and Christ, as Head over all things to the Church, bestows it on whomsoever he will [Note: Joh 5:21; Joh 10:28.]. We know from Christs own express assertion (and stronger evidence than that we cannot have), that he is the way, the truth, and the life [Note: Joh 14:6.]; and to all eternity shall we ascribe our salvation to him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood [Note: Rev 1:5-6.].]
But it is yet further the privilege of all Christs followers to know,
III.
Their interest in him
The knowledge which his people have of him is not a mere speculative acquaintance with his history, but an intimate connexion, or rather, a oneness with him [Note: Joh 17:21.]. They are in Christ,
1.
By a federal relation
[As Adam was a head and representative to all his descendants, so is Christ to all his spiritual seed [Note: 1Co 15:22.]. They have communion with him in all his transactions upon earth, and in heaven: they are circumcised in him, baptized in him, dead with him, quickened with him, risen with him, seated in heaven with him [Note: Rom 6:4; Rom 6:8. Col 2:12-13. Eph 2:5-6.]. We cannot indeed be said to have done or suffered the same things as Christ, (for to assert that we had fulfilled the law, or made atonement for sin, would be blasphemy,) yet by virtue of our relation to him as our Head and Representative, every thing which he either did or suffered, is, as far as respects the beneficial effects of it, considered as though we had done or suffered it: and on this account we may claim, on the footing of justice as well as of mercy, all that he purchased for us, and merited on our behalf [Note: Rom 3:25-26. 1Jn 1:9.].]
2.
By a vital union
[The union of a member with the head [Note: Col 2:19.], or of a branch with the vine [Note: Joh 15:1.], justly characterizes our onion with Christ. Separate from him, we can do nothing [Note: Joh 15:5.]: we can perform no one act, of the spiritual life, nor bring forth any spiritual fruit. The body and the soul are not more closely united than Christ and his people: he lives in them [Note: Gal 2:20.]; he is their very life [Note: Col 3:4.]; they are one spirit with him [Note: 1Co 6:17.].
Now this, no less than their federal relation to Christ, is known to all true Christians. They do not indeed at all times equally enjoy a sense of it in their minds; but, in proportion as they live nigh to God in the exercise of faith and love, they have the witness of these things within, themselves [Note: 1Jn 5:10.]. Temptation or sin may so weaken the assurance, that it shall be scarcely discerned: but when these obstructions are removed, and the believer is walking closely with God, a holy confidence will almost invariably crown his labours, and fill his soul with peace [Note: 1Jn 3:21.].]
We shall conclude this subject with answering two questions:
1.
How do Christians obtain this knowledge?
[The text informs us: It is not from human teaching, or the power of reason, that this light springs up in the soul: it is Christ who gives us an understanding to know him: He, who opened the heart of Lydia [Note: Act 16:14.], and the understandings of his own Apostles [Note: Luk 24:45.], enlightens the minds of believers at this day, and reveals unto babes and sucklings the things that are hid from the wise and prudent [Note: Mat 11:25.]. If then we would obtain this knowledge, let us not lean to our own understanding, but pray to him to open our eyes, and to guide us into all truth ]
2.
What benefit do they derive from it?
[A merely speculative knowledge of Christianity expands the mind, and leads it to high and heavenly contemplations. But no tongue can utter the benefits arising from an experimental acquaintance with Christ: What just views does it give us of every thing in the world! What peace does it bring into the conscience! How does it disarm death of its sting! And what bright prospects does it open to us in the eternal world! O let a desire after the full blessings of salvation animate us in our inquiries after truth! Let us seek to have more enlarged views of Christ, and of our interest in him; and thus shall we be prepared for that complete vision of his glory, in comparison of which our present knowledge is but as a taper before the sun.]
Fuente: Charles Simeon’s Horae Homileticae (Old and New Testaments)
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.
Ver. 20. And we know ] This he brings in here for a corollary and conclusion of all.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
20 .] Yet another : and that in general, as summing up all, the certainty to us of the Son of God having come, and having given us the knowledge of God, and of our being in Him: and the formal inclusion, in this one fact, of knowledge of the true God here, and life everlasting hereafter. Moreover ( closes off and sums up all: cf. 1Th 5:23 ; 2Th 3:16 ; Heb 13:20 ; Heb 13:22 , al. fr. This not being seen, it has been altered to , as there appeared to be no contrast with the preceding) we know that the Son of God is come (the incarnation, and work, and abiding presence of the Son of God, is to us a living fact. HE IS HERE all is full of Him ), and hath given (the subject to is , not, as Bengel, “Deus” understood. It is the Son of God who is to us the bestower of this knowledge, see 1Jn 5:13 ; it is He who is here at the end of the Epistle made prominent, as it is He who is to us eternal life, and he who hath Him hath the Father) to us ( an ) understanding ( , the divinely empowered inner sense by which we judge of things divine: see Beck, Umriss der biblischen Seelenlehre, p. 58. It is not the wisdom or judgment itself , but the faculty capable of attaining to it. Compare Joh 1:12 ; Joh 1:18 ; Joh 17:2 f., Joh 17:6 f., Joh 17:25 f.; 2Co 4:6 ; Eph 1:18 ) that we know (with the indic. as in the other places where it occurs, or seems to occur, in the N. T., must bear a sort of pregnant sense, of a purpose accomplished or at least secured. See note on with the future indicative Gal 2:4 , and cf. Rev 3:9 ; Rev 6:4 ; Rev 13:12 ; Rev 14:13 , and for the present indicative, reff.: and see the whole discussed and examples given from later Greek writers, in Winer, edn. 6, 41, b. 1. b , c ) the true One (i. e. God: cf. Joh 17:3 , (- al.) . The adjective is not subjective, = , but objective, in its usual sense of genuine, in distinction from every ‘deus fictitius.’ So Calvin: “verum Deum intelligit non veracem, sed cum qui revera Deus est eum ab idolis omnibus discernat. Ita verus fictitio opponitur.” And thus the way is prepared for the warning against all false gods, 1Jn 5:21 ): and we are (again, as in 1Jn 5:18-19 , this second member is an independent proposition, not dependent on the nor on the as in the vulgate, “et simus ”) in (see above on , 1Jn 5:19 ) the true One (viz. God, as above), in His Son Jesus Christ (i. e. by virtue of our being in His Son Jesus Christ: this second is not in apposition with, but as shews, is epexegetic of the former). This (viz. God, the Father: the , who has been twice spoken of: see below) is the true God, and eternal life . There has been great controversy, carried on principally from doctrinal interests, respecting the reference of this : whether it is to be understood as above, or of , just mentioned. The Fathers who were engaged against Arian error, and most of the orthodox expositors since, regarding the passage as a precious testimony for the Godhead of the Son, have maintained this latter view, rather doctrinally than exegetically. To this list belong Bed [82] , Lyra, a-Lapide, Tirinus, Barthol.-Petrus (the continuator of Estius), Mayer, Luther, Calvin, Beza, Aretius, Piscator, Erasm.-Schmidt, Seb.-Schmidt, Spener, Whitby, Calov., Wolf, Joach. Lange, Bengel, Sander, Stier: and even Episcopius takes this view, not being able, says Dsterd., to bear the caprice and tortuousness of the Socinian exegesis. The opposite doctrinal interest has led many of those who deny this application: e. g. Schlichting (who combats the other view simply by abusing the Trinitarians), Socinus, Grotius, Benson, Samuel Clarke, Semler, which last takes in as far as it belongs to . as referring to the Father, in as far as to , to the Son. To these have succeeded another set of expositors with whom not doctrinal but exegetical considerations have been paramount: e. g. Wetstein, Lcke, De Wette, Rickli, Baumg.-Crusius, Neander, Huther, Hofmann (Schriftb. i. 128), Dsterdieck, Erdmann.
[82] Bede, the Venerable , 731; Bedegr, a Greek MS. cited by Bede, nearly identical with Cod. “E,” mentioned in this edn only when it differs from E.
The grounds on which the application to Christ is rested are mainly the following: 1) that most naturally refers to the last-mentioned substantive: 2) that , as a predicate, more naturally belongs to the Son than to the Father: 3) that the sentence, if understood of God the Father, would be aimless and tautological. But to these it has been well and decisively answered by Lcke and Dsterd., 1) that more than once in St. John belongs not to the nearest substantive, but to the principal one in the foregoing sentence, e. g. in ch. 1Jn 2:22 and in 2Jn 1:7 ; and that the subject of the whole here has been the Father, who is the of the last verse, and the Son is referred back to Him as , thereby keeping Him , as the primary subject, before the mind. 2) that as little can be an actual predicate of Christ as of the Father. He is indeed ch. 1Jn 1:2 , but not . Such an expression used predicatively, leads us to look for some expression of our Lord’s, or for some meaning which does not appear on the surface to guide us. And such an expression leading to such a meaning we have in Joh 17:3 , , , . He is eternal life in Himself, as being the fount and origin of it: He is it to us, seeing that to know Him is to possess it. I own I cannot see, after this saying of our Lord with , how any one can imagine that the same Apostle can have had in these words any other reference than that which is given in those: 3) this charge is altogether inaccurate. As referred to the Father, there is in it no tautology and no aimlessness. It serves to identify the mentioned before, in a solemn manner, and leads on to the concluding warning against false gods. As in another place the Apostle intensifies the non-possession of the Son by including in it the alienation from the Father also, so here at the close of all, the , the fount of , is put before us as the ultimate aim and end, to be approached , but Himself the One Father both of Him and of us who live through Him.
Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament
1Jn 5:20 . The Assurance and Guarantee of it all the fact of the Incarnation ( ), an overwhelming demonstration of God’s interest in us and His concern for our highest good. Not simply a historic fact but an abiding operation not “came ( ),“but” hath come and hath given us”. Our faith is not a matter of intellectual theory but of personal and growing acquaintance with God through the enlightenment of Christ’s Spirit, , “the real” as opposed to the false God of the heretics. See note on 1Jn 2:8 . , as the world is .
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
1 John
III.-TRIUMPHANT CERTAINTIES
1Jn 5:20 .
ONCE more John triumphantly proclaims ‘We know.’ Whole-souled conviction rings in his voice. He is sure of his footing. He does not say ‘ We incline to think,’ or even ‘We believe and firmly hold,’ but he says ‘ We know.’ A very different tone that from that of many of us, who, influenced by currents of present opinions, feel as if what was rock to our fathers had become quagmire to us! But John in his simplicity thinks that it is a tone which is characteristic of every Christian. I wonder what he would say about some Christians now.
This third of his triumphant certainties is connected closely with the two preceding ones, which have been occupying us in former sermons. It is so, as being in one aspect the ground of these, for it is because ‘the Son of God is come’ that men are born of God, and are of Him. It is so in another way also, for properly the words of our text ought to read not ‘And we know,’ rather ‘But we know.’ They are suggested, that is to say, by the preceding words, and they present the only thought which makes them tolerable. ‘The whole world lieth in the wicked one. But we know that the Son of God is come.’ Falling back on the certainty of the Incarnation and its present issues, we can look in the face the grave condition of humanity, and still have hope for the world and for ourselves. The certainty of the Incarnation and its issues, I say. For in my text John not only points to the past fact that Christ has come in the flesh, but to a present fact, the operation of that Christ upon Christian souls-’He hath given us an understanding.’ And not only so, but he points, further, to a dwelling in God and God in us as being the abiding issue of that past manifestation. So these three things -the coming of Christ, the knowledge of God which flows into a believing heart through that Incarnate Son, and the dwelling in God which is the climax of all His gifts to us-these three things are in John’s estimation certified to a Christian heart, and are not merely matters of opinion and faith, but matters of knowledge.
Ah I brethren, if our Christianity had that firm strain, and was conscious of that verification, it would be less at the mercy of every wind of doctrine; it would be less afraid of every new thought; it would be more powerful to rule and to calm our own spirits, and it would be more mighty to utter persuasive words to others. We must know for ourselves, if we would lead others to believe. So I desire to look now at these three points which emerge from my text, and
I. I would deal with the Christian’s knowledge that the Son of God is come.
Now, our Apostle is writing to Asiatic Christians of the second generation at the earliest, most of whom had not been born when Jesus Christ was upon earth, and none of whom had any means of acquaintance with Him except that which we possess-the testimony of the witnesses who had companied with Him. And yet, to these men-whose whole contact with Christ and the Gospel was, like yours and mine, the result of hearsay -he says, ‘We know.’ Was he misusing words in his eagerness to find a firm foundation for a soul to rest on? Many would say that he was, and would answer this certainty of his ‘We know,’ with, How can he know? You may go on the principle that probability is the guide of life, and you may be morally certain, but the only way by which you know a fact is by having seen it; and even if you have seen Jesus Christ, all that you saw would be the life of a man upon earth whom you believed to be the Son of God. It is trifling with language to talk about knowledge when you have only testimony to build on.
Well! there is a great deal to be said on that side, but there are two or three considerations which, I think, amply warrant the Apostle’s declaration here, and our understanding of his words, ‘We know,’ in their fullest and deepest sense. Let me just mention these briefly. Remember that when John says ‘The Son of God is come’ he is not speaking-as his language, if any of you can consult the original, distinctly shows -about a past fact only, but about a fact which, beginning in a historical past, is permanent and continuous. In one aspect, no doubt, Jesus Christ had come and gone, before any of the people to whom this letter was addressed heard it for the first time, but in another aspect, if I may use a colloquial expression, when Jesus Christ came, He ‘came to stay.’ And that thought, of the permanent abiding with men, of the Christ who once was manifest in the flesh for thirty years, and
‘Walked the acres of those blessed fields For our advantage,’
runs through the whole of Scripture. Nor shall we understand the meaning of Christ’s Incarnation unless we see in it the point of beginning of a permanent reality. He has come, and He has not gone-’Lo! I am with you alway’-and that thought of the fullness and permanence of our Lord’s presence with Christian souls is lodged deep and all-pervading, not only in John’s gospel, but in the whole teaching of the New Testament. So it is a present fact, and not only a past piece of history, which is asserted when the Apostle says ‘The Son of God is come.’ And a man who has a companion knows that he has him, and by many a token not only of flesh but of spirit, is conscious that he is not alone, but that the dear and strong one is by his side. Such consciousness belongs to all the maturer and deeper forms of the Christian life.
Further, we must read on in my text if we are to find all which John declares to be a matter of knowledge. ‘The Son of God is come, and hath given us an understanding.’ I shall have a word or two more to say about that presently, but in the meantime I simply point out that what is here declared to be known by the Christian soul is a present operation of the present Christ upon his nature. If a man is aware that, through his faith in Jesus Christ, new perceptions and powers of discerning solid reality where he only saw mist before have been granted to him, the Apostle’s triumphant assertion is vindicated.
And, still further, the words of my text, in their assurance of possessing something far more solid than an opinion or a creed, in Christ Jesus and our relation to Him, are warranted, on the consideration that the growth of the Christian life largely consists in changing belief that rests on testimony into knowledge grounded in vital experience. At first a man accepts Jesus Christ because, for one reason or another, he is led to give credence to the evangelical testimony and to the apostolic teaching: but as he goes on learning more and more of the realities of the Christian life, creed changes into consciousness; and we can turn round to apostles and prophets, and say to them, with thankfulness for all that we have received from them, ‘Now we believe, not because of your saying, but because we have seen Him ourselves, and know that this is indeed the Christ, the Saviour of the world.’ That is the advance which Christian men should all make, from the infantile, rudimentary days, when they accepted Christ on the witness of others, to the time when they .accepted Him because, in the depth of their own experience, they have found Him to be all that they took Him to be. The true test of creed is life. The true way of knowing that a shelter is adequate is to house in it, and be defended from the pelting of every pitiless storm. The medicine we know to be powerful when it has cured us. And every man that truly grasps Jesus Christ, and is faithful and persevering in his hold, can set his seal to that which to others is but a thing believed on hearsay, and accepted on testimony.
‘We know that the Son of God is come.’ Christian people, have you such a first-hand acquaintance with the articles which constitute your Christian creed as that? Over and above all the intellectual reasons which may lead to the acceptance, as a theory, of the truths of Christianity, have you that living experience of them which warrants you in saying ‘We know’? Alas! Alas! I am afraid that this supreme ground of certitude is rarely trodden by multitudes of professing Christians. And so in days of criticism and upheaval they are frightened out of their wits, and all but out of their faith, and are nervous and anxious lest from this corner or that corner or the other corner of the field of honest study and research, there may come some sudden shock that will blow the whole fabric of their belief to pieces. ‘He that believeth shall not make haste,’ and a man who knows what Christ has done for him may calmly welcome the advent of any new light, sure that nothing that can be established can touch that serene centre in which his certitude sits enshrined and calm. Brother, do you seek to be able to say,’ I know in whom I have believed’?
II. Note the new power of knowing God given by the Son who is come.
John says that one issue of that Incarnation and permanent presence of the Lord Christ with us is that ‘He hath given us an understanding that we may know Him that is true.’ Now, I do not suppose that he means thereby that any absolutely new faculty is conferred upon men, but that new direction is given to old ones, and dormant powers are awakened. Just as in the miracles of our Lord the blind men had eyes, but it needed the touch of His finger before the sight came to them, so man, that was made in the image of God, which he has not altogether lost by any wandering, has therein lying dormant and oppressed the capacity of knowing Him from whom he comes, but he needs the couching hand of the Christ Himself, in order that the blind eyes may be capable of seeing and the slumbering power of perception be awakened. That gift of a clarified nature, a pure heart, which is the condition, as the Master Himself said, of seeing God- that gift is bestowed upon all who, trusting in the Incarnate Son, submit themselves to His cleansing hand.
In the Incarnation Jesus Christ gave us God to see; by His present work in our souls He gives us the power to see God. The knowledge of which my text speaks is the knowledge of ‘ Him that is true,’ by which pregnant word the Apostle means to contrast the Father whom Jesus Christ sets before us with all men’s conceptions of a Divine nature; and to declare that whilst these conceptions, in one way or another, fall beneath or diverge from reality and fact, our God manifested to us by Jesus Christ is the only One whose nature corresponds to the name, and who is essentially that which is included in it.
But what I would dwell on especially for a moment is that this gift, thus given by the Incarnate and present Christ, is not an intellectual gift only, but something far deeper. Inasmuch as the Apostle declares that the object of this knowledge is not a truth about God but God Himself, it necessarily follows that the knowledge is such as we have of a person, and not of a doctrine. Or, to put it into simpler words: to know about God is one thing, and to know God is quite another. We may know all about the God that Christ has revealed and yet not know Him in the very slightest degree. To know about God is theology, to know Him is religion. You are not a bit better, though you comprehend the whole sweep of Christ’s revelation of God, if the God whom you in so far comprehend remain a stranger to you. That we may know Him as a man knows his friend, and that we may enter into relations of familiar acquaintance with Him, Jesus Christ has come in the flesh, and this is the blessing that He gives us-not an accurate theology, but a loving friendship. Has Christ done that for you, my brother?
That knowledge, if it is real and living, will be progressive. More and more we shall come to know. As we grow like Him we shall draw closer to Him; as we draw closer to Him we shall grow like Him. So the Christian life is destined to an endless progress, like one of those mathematical spirals which ever climb, ever approximate to, but never reach, the summit and the centre of the coil. So, if we have Christ for our medium both of light and of sight, if He both gives us God to see and the power to see Him, we shall begin a course which eternity itself will not witness completed. We have landed on the shores of a mighty continent, and for ever and for ever and ever we shall be pressing deeper and deeper into the bosom of the land, and learning more and more of its wealth and loveliness. ‘We know that we know Him that is true.’ If the Son of God has come to us, we know God, and we know that we know Him. Do you?
III. Lastly, note here the Christian indwelling of God, which is possible through the Son who is come.
Friendship, familiar intercourse, intimate knowledge as of one with whom we have long dwelt, instinctive sympathy of heart and mind, are not all which, in John’s estimation, Jesus Christ brings to them that love Him, and live in Him. For he adds, ‘We are in Him that is true.’ Of old Abraham was called the Friend of God, but an auguster title belongs to us. ‘Know ye not that ye are the temples of the living God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?’ Oh brethren, do not be tempted, by any dread of mysticism, to deprive yourselves of that crown and summit of all the gifts and blessings of the Gospel, but open your hearts and your minds to expect and to believe in the actual abiding of the Divine nature in us. Mysticism? Yes! And I do not know what religion is worth if there is not mysticism in it, for the very heart of it seems to me to be the possible interpenetration and union of man and God-not in the sense of obliterating the personalities, but in the deep, wholesome sense in which Christ Himself and all His apostles taught it, and in which every man who has had any profound experience of the Christian life feels it to be true.
But notice the words of my text for a moment, where the Apostle goes on to explain and define how ‘we are in Him that is true,’ because we are ‘in His Son Jesus Christ.’ That carries us away back to ‘Abide in Me, and I in you.’ John caught the whole strain of such thoughts from those sacred words in the upper room. Christ in us is the deepest truth of Christianity. And that God is in us, if Christ is in us, is the teaching not only of my text but of the Lord Himself, when He said, ‘We will come unto him and make our abode with him.’
And will not a man ‘know’ that? Will it not be something deeper and better than intellectual perception by which he is aware of the presence of the Christ in his heart? Cannot we all have it if we will? There is only one way to it, and that is by simple trust in Jesus Christ. Then, as I said, the trust with which we began will not leave us, but will be glorified into experience with which the trust will be enriched.
Brethren, the sum and substance of all that I have been trying to say is just this: lay your poor personalities in Christ’s hands, and lean yourselves upon Him; and there will come into your hearts a Divine power, and, if you are faithful to your faith, you will know that it is not in vain. There is a tremendous alternative, as I have already pointed out, suggested by the sequence of thoughts in my text, ‘the whole world lieth in the wicked one’ but’ we are in Him that is true.’ We have to choose our dwelling-place, whether we shall dwell in that dark region of evil, or whether we shall dwell in God, and know that God is in us.
If we are true to the conditions, we shall receive the promises. And then our Christian faith will not be dashed with hesitations, nor shall we be afraid lest any new light shall eclipse the Sun of Righteousness, but, in the midst of the babble of controversy, we may be content to be ignorant of much, to hold much in suspense, to part with not a little, but yet with quiet hearts to be sure of the one thing needful, and with unfaltering tongues to proclaim ‘We know that the Son of God is come, and we are in Him that is true.’
Fuente: Expositions Of Holy Scripture by Alexander MacLaren
is come. Not the word used in 1Jn 4:2, 1Jn 4:3; 1Jn 5:6 (erchomai), but heko, to be present. Compare Joh 8:42. Heb 10:7, Heb 10:9, Heb 10:37. In the last reference the two verbs are seen: “shall come” (erchomai); “will come” (heko).
understanding. Greek. dianoia. Translated nine times “mind”, once “imagination” (Luk 1:51), and “understanding” here, Eph 1:18; Eph 4:18.
true. App-175. This refers to the Father. Compare 1Jn 2:5, 1Jn 2:24; 1Jn 3:24; 1Jn 4:12-16. This, &c. Also referring to the Father, the source of life (Joh 5:26), which life was manifested in His Son (1Jn 1:2), and is given to us through, and in, Him (verses: 1Jn 5:11-12 above, and Rom 6:23).
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
20.] Yet another : and that in general, as summing up all, the certainty to us of the Son of God having come, and having given us the knowledge of God, and of our being in Him: and the formal inclusion, in this one fact, of knowledge of the true God here, and life everlasting hereafter. Moreover ( closes off and sums up all: cf. 1Th 5:23; 2Th 3:16; Heb 13:20; Heb 13:22, al. fr. This not being seen, it has been altered to , as there appeared to be no contrast with the preceding) we know that the Son of God is come (the incarnation, and work, and abiding presence of the Son of God, is to us a living fact. HE IS HERE-all is full of Him- ), and hath given (the subject to is , not, as Bengel, Deus understood. It is the Son of God who is to us the bestower of this knowledge, see 1Jn 5:13; it is He who is here at the end of the Epistle made prominent, as it is He who is to us eternal life, and he who hath Him hath the Father) to us (an) understanding (, the divinely empowered inner sense by which we judge of things divine: see Beck, Umriss der biblischen Seelenlehre, p. 58. It is not the wisdom or judgment itself, but the faculty capable of attaining to it. Compare Joh 1:12; Joh 1:18; Joh 17:2 f., 6 f., 25 f.; 2Co 4:6; Eph 1:18) that we know (with the indic. as in the other places where it occurs, or seems to occur, in the N. T., must bear a sort of pregnant sense, of a purpose accomplished or at least secured. See note on with the future indicative Gal 2:4, and cf. Rev 3:9; Rev 6:4; Rev 13:12; Rev 14:13, and for the present indicative, reff.: and see the whole discussed and examples given from later Greek writers, in Winer, edn. 6, 41, b. 1. b, c) the true One (i. e. God: cf. Joh 17:3, (- al.) . The adjective is not subjective, = , but objective, in its usual sense of genuine, in distinction from every deus fictitius. So Calvin: verum Deum intelligit non veracem, sed cum qui revera Deus est eum ab idolis omnibus discernat. Ita verus fictitio opponitur. And thus the way is prepared for the warning against all false gods, 1Jn 5:21): and we are (again, as in 1Jn 5:18-19, this second member is an independent proposition, not dependent on the nor on the as in the vulgate, et simus ) in (see above on , 1Jn 5:19) the true One (viz. God, as above), in His Son Jesus Christ (i. e. by virtue of our being in His Son Jesus Christ: this second is not in apposition with, but as shews, is epexegetic of the former). This (viz. God, the Father: the , who has been twice spoken of: see below) is the true God, and eternal life. There has been great controversy, carried on principally from doctrinal interests, respecting the reference of this : whether it is to be understood as above, or of , just mentioned. The Fathers who were engaged against Arian error, and most of the orthodox expositors since, regarding the passage as a precious testimony for the Godhead of the Son, have maintained this latter view, rather doctrinally than exegetically. To this list belong Bed[82], Lyra, a-Lapide, Tirinus, Barthol.-Petrus (the continuator of Estius), Mayer, Luther, Calvin, Beza, Aretius, Piscator, Erasm.-Schmidt, Seb.-Schmidt, Spener, Whitby, Calov., Wolf, Joach. Lange, Bengel, Sander, Stier: and even Episcopius takes this view, not being able, says Dsterd., to bear the caprice and tortuousness of the Socinian exegesis. The opposite doctrinal interest has led many of those who deny this application: e. g. Schlichting (who combats the other view simply by abusing the Trinitarians), Socinus, Grotius, Benson, Samuel Clarke, Semler, which last takes in as far as it belongs to . as referring to the Father, in as far as to , to the Son. To these have succeeded another set of expositors with whom not doctrinal but exegetical considerations have been paramount: e. g. Wetstein, Lcke, De Wette, Rickli, Baumg.-Crusius, Neander, Huther, Hofmann (Schriftb. i. 128), Dsterdieck, Erdmann.
[82] Bede, the Venerable, 731; Bedegr, a Greek MS. cited by Bede, nearly identical with Cod. E, mentioned in this edn only when it differs from E.
The grounds on which the application to Christ is rested are mainly the following: 1) that most naturally refers to the last-mentioned substantive: 2) that , as a predicate, more naturally belongs to the Son than to the Father: 3) that the sentence, if understood of God the Father, would be aimless and tautological. But to these it has been well and decisively answered by Lcke and Dsterd., 1) that more than once in St. John belongs not to the nearest substantive, but to the principal one in the foregoing sentence, e. g. in ch. 1Jn 2:22 and in 2Jn 1:7; and that the subject of the whole here has been the Father, who is the of the last verse, and the Son is referred back to Him as , thereby keeping Him, as the primary subject, before the mind. 2) that as little can be an actual predicate of Christ as of the Father. He is indeed ch. 1Jn 1:2, but not . Such an expression used predicatively, leads us to look for some expression of our Lords, or for some meaning which does not appear on the surface to guide us. And such an expression leading to such a meaning we have in Joh 17:3, , , . He is eternal life in Himself, as being the fount and origin of it: He is it to us, seeing that to know Him is to possess it. I own I cannot see, after this saying of our Lord with , how any one can imagine that the same Apostle can have had in these words any other reference than that which is given in those: 3) this charge is altogether inaccurate. As referred to the Father, there is in it no tautology and no aimlessness. It serves to identify the mentioned before, in a solemn manner, and leads on to the concluding warning against false gods. As in another place the Apostle intensifies the non-possession of the Son by including in it the alienation from the Father also, so here at the close of all, the , the fount of , is put before us as the ultimate aim and end, to be approached , but Himself the One Father both of Him and of us who live through Him.
Fuente: The Greek Testament
1Jn 5:20. ) is come. Thus, , Mar 8:3, note.-, has given) that is, God: for in the preceding clause also the subject is by implication God, in this sense: God sent his own Son: and to this is referred , of Him, which presently follows.-, understanding) not only knowledge, but the faculty of knowing.- , the True One) Understand, His Son Jesus Christ: as presently afterwards. Whence it is perceived with what great majesty the Son thus entitles Himself: Rev 3:7.-) This, the True One, the Son of God Jesus Christ: to whom the title of Life eternal is befitting.- , Life eternal) The beginning and the end of the Epistle are in close agreement.
Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament
we know: 1Jo 5:1, 1Jo 4:2, 1Jo 4:14
and hath: Mat 13:11, Luk 21:15, Luk 24:45, Joh 17:3, Joh 17:14, Joh 17:25, 1Co 1:30, 2Co 4:6, Eph 1:17-19, Eph 3:18, Col 2:2, Col 2:3
him that: Joh 14:6, Joh 17:3, Rev 3:7, Rev 3:14, Rev 6:10, Rev 15:3, Rev 19:11
and we: 1Jo 2:6, 1Jo 2:24, 1Jo 4:16, Joh 10:30, Joh 14:20, Joh 14:23, Joh 15:4, Joh 17:20-23, 2Co 5:17, Phi 3:9
This is: 1Jo 5:11-13, 1Jo 1:1-3, Isa 9:6, Isa 44:6, Isa 45:14, Isa 45:15, Isa 45:21-25, Isa 54:5, Jer 10:10, Jer 23:6, Joh 1:1-3, Joh 14:9, Joh 20:28, Act 20:28, Rom 9:5, 1Ti 3:16, Tit 2:13, Heb 1:8
Reciprocal: Exo 20:3 – General Exo 20:23 – General Deu 4:35 – none else 1Sa 17:26 – defy 2Ch 15:3 – true God Ezr 8:16 – men of understanding Psa 9:10 – know Psa 85:11 – Truth Psa 100:3 – Know Psa 119:73 – give me Psa 119:144 – give me Pro 2:5 – find Pro 9:10 – the knowledge Isa 35:7 – in the Isa 40:9 – Behold Isa 43:11 – General Jer 9:24 – knoweth Jer 31:34 – for they Eze 20:42 – ye shall Eze 36:11 – and ye Eze 39:22 – know Dan 11:32 – the people Dan 12:10 – but the wise Hos 2:20 – and Mat 11:27 – neither Mat 13:19 – and understandeth Mat 13:23 – good Mat 13:51 – Have Mat 16:16 – Thou Mat 16:17 – but Mat 19:16 – eternal Mat 22:16 – true Mar 4:11 – Unto you Mar 9:7 – This Luk 10:22 – and no Joh 1:9 – the true Joh 1:18 – he hath Joh 1:34 – this Joh 3:15 – eternal Joh 4:10 – and who Joh 4:14 – shall be Joh 4:15 – give Joh 6:32 – the true Joh 6:55 – meat Joh 6:69 – we believe Joh 8:19 – Ye neither Joh 8:23 – ye are of Joh 9:35 – Dost Joh 10:6 – they understood not Joh 10:14 – am Joh 11:27 – which Joh 12:45 – General Joh 12:50 – his Joh 15:19 – because Joh 16:3 – because Joh 16:14 – for Joh 17:6 – have manifested Joh 18:37 – Every Joh 20:31 – these Act 3:15 – Prince Act 17:23 – To Rom 1:3 – his Son Rom 1:25 – the truth Rom 3:4 – let God Rom 3:11 – none that understandeth Rom 16:7 – were Rom 16:26 – everlasting 1Co 2:12 – that 1Co 2:14 – neither 2Co 1:18 – as 2Co 1:19 – the Son 2Co 6:16 – what 2Co 12:1 – visions Gal 1:4 – from Gal 2:20 – the Son Gal 4:9 – ye have Eph 4:13 – the knowledge Eph 4:21 – as Phi 3:8 – the excellency Col 1:9 – spiritual Col 1:10 – increasing Col 2:6 – received Col 2:9 – in Col 3:11 – and 2Ti 2:7 – and Tit 1:2 – eternal Heb 5:9 – eternal Heb 8:11 – for all Heb 9:11 – Christ 2Pe 1:2 – the knowledge 1Jo 1:2 – the life 1Jo 2:5 – hereby 1Jo 2:13 – because 1Jo 2:25 – General 1Jo 3:14 – We know 1Jo 5:19 – we know Rev 22:9 – See
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
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.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
As if the apostle had said, “We Christians are better taught by our religion, to acknowledge and worship the only true God by his Son Jesus Christ our only Mediator, and therefore exhort you to keep from idols;” intimating hereby, that the worshipping of any other besides this only true God, and by any other mediator, besides Jesus Christ, is idolatry, or the words may be sensed thus: “We are sure that the Son of God is come, and that Christ is he, who by his dcotrine and spirit hath enlightened us to know the true and living God, whilst the greatest part of the world worship false Gods, yea, adore the devil himself.”
And farther, We are in him that is true, even in his Son Jesus Christ; that is, we are by faith implanted into Jesus Christ, who is the author, purchaser, and disposer of eternal life, and therefore is true God. This text, which proves undeniably the divinity of Christ, the Socinians pervert by applying these words, This is the true God, not to Christ but to God the Father. But this makes the apostle guilty of a grand tautology, by saying, “The true God is the true God.”
Besides, it is here said of the same person that he is the true God, and eternal life. Now, eternal life is thrice in this very chapter attributed to Jesus Christ, as the author and dispenser of it, 1Jn 5:11-13. If then Christ be meant by eternal life, he must be also meant by the true God, for they are spoken of together when the apostle says, This is the true God and eternal life.
Lastly, our apostle concludes his epistle with this cautionary direction. Little children, keep yourselves from idols. As if he had said, “My advice to you is as that of a father to his own children, having received by the gospel the knowledge of the true God, keep yourselves from idols, or false gods of the Heathen, among whom ye live; abandon all idolatry, superstition, sacrificing to idols, frequenting idol-feasts, and all idolatrous communion, these things being inconsistent with the worship of the true God, and real Christianity. Little children, keep yourselves from idols. Amen.
Fuente: Expository Notes with Practical Observations on the New Testament
1Jn 5:20-21. We know By all these infallible proofs; that the Son of God is come Into the world; and hath given us an understanding Hath enlightened our minds; that we may know him that is true The living and true God, namely, the Father, of whom the apostle appears here to speak; and we are in him that is true In his favour, and in a state of union and fellowship with him; even This particle is not in the Greek; in Or rather; through; his Son Jesus Christ Through whose mediation alone we can have access to, or intercourse with, the Father. This , he, namely, Christ, the person last mentioned; is the true God and eternal life He partakes with the Father in proper Deity, and our immortal life is supported by union with him. Little Or beloved; children, keep yourselves from idols From all false worship of images, or of any creature, and from every inward idol: from loving, desiring, fearing any thing more than God. Seek all help and defence from evil, all happiness, in the true God alone.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
5:20 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 {m} God, and eternal life.
(m) The divinity of Christ is most clearly proved by this passage.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
Finally, we have spiritual understanding through our anointing with the Holy Spirit (1Jn 2:20) whom Jesus Christ sent (cf. 1Co 2:15-16). Consequently we can come to know God intimately and can abide in God and in His Son, Jesus Christ, who is the true God and eternal life (cf. Joh 14:6). The full title "His Son Jesus Christ" appears only at 1Jn 1:3 as well as here in this epistle providing bookends for what John wrote (another inclusio). This verse contains one of the clearest announcements of the deity of Jesus Christ in the New Testament.
"Eternal life, for John, is a relationship with the Father and the Son. It begins in the present when a person comes to faith in Jesus Christ, but it continues uninterrupted into the age to come." [Note: Harris, p. 232.]