1 John 5

1Jo 5:1-21.

WHO

ARE THE

BRETHREN

ESPECIALLY TO

BE

LOVED

(1Jo 4:21);

OBEDIENCE, THE

TEST OF

LOVE,

EASY THROUGH

FAITH, WHICH

OVERCOMES THE

WORLD.

LAST

PORTION OF THE

EPISTLE.

THE

SPIRIT'S

WITNESS TO THE

BELIEVER'S

SPIRITUAL

LIFE.

TRUTHS

REPEATED AT THE

CLOSE:

FAREWELL

WARNING.

1. Reason why our "brother"

(1Jo 4:21)

is entitled to such love, namely, because he is "born (begotten)

of God": so that if we want to show our love to God, we must

show it to God's visible representative.

Whosoever--Greek, "Everyone that." He could not be our

"Jesus" (God-Saviour) unless He were "the Christ"; for He could not

reveal the way of salvation, except He were a prophet: He could

not work out that salvation, except He were a priest: He could

not confer that salvation upon us, except He were a king: He

could not be prophet, priest, and king, except He were

the Christ [PEARSON, Exposition of the

Creed].

born--Translate, "begotten," as in the latter part of the verse,

the Greek being the same. Christ is the "only-begotten Son" by

generation; we become begotten sons of God by

regeneration and adoption.

every one that loveth him that begat--sincerely, not in mere

profession

(1Jo 4:20).

loveth him also that is begotten of him--namely, "his brethren"

(1Jo 4:21).

2. By--Greek, "In." As our love to the brethren is

the sign and test of our love to God, so (John here says) our

love to God (tested by our "keeping his commandments") is,

conversely, the ground and only true basis of love to our

brother.

we know--John means here, not the outward criteria of

genuine brotherly love, but the inward spiritual criteria of it,

consciousness of love to God manifested in a hearty keeping of

His commandments. When we have this inwardly and outwardly confirmed

love to God, we can know assuredly that we truly love

the children of God. "Love to one's brother is prior,

according to the order of nature (see on

1Jo 4:20);

love to God is so, according to the order of grace

(1Jo 5:2).

At one time the former is more immediately known, at another time the

latter, according as the mind is more engaged in human relations or in

what concerns the divine honor" [ESTIUS]. John

shows what true love is, namely, that which is referred to God

as its first object. As previously John urged the effect, so now he

urges the cause. For he wishes mutual love to be so cultivated among

us, as that God should always be placed first

[CALVIN].

3. this is--the love of God consists in this.

not grievous--as so many think them. It is "the way of the

transgressor" that "is hard." What makes them to the regenerate "not

grievous," is faith which "overcometh the world"

(1Jo 5:4):

in proportion as faith is strong, the grievousness of God's

commandments to the rebellious flesh is overcome. The reason why

believers feel any degree of irksomeness in God's commandments is, they

do not realize fully by faith the privileges of their spiritual

life.

4. For--(See on

1Jo 5:3).

The reason why "His commandments are not grievous." Though there is a

conflict in keeping them, the sue for the whole body of the regenerate

is victory over every opposing influence; meanwhile there is a present

joy to each believer in keeping them which makes them "not

grievous."

whatsoever--Greek, "all that is begotten of God."

The neuter expresses the universal whole, or aggregate of the

regenerate, regarded as one collective body

Joh 3:6; 6:37, 39,

"where BENGEL remarks, that in Jesus' discourses,

what the Father has given Him is called, in the singular number and

neuter gender, all whatsoever; those who come to the Son

are described in the masculine gender and plural number, they

all, or singular, every one. The Father has given, as it

were, the whole mass to the Son, that all whom He gave may be

one whole: that universal whole the Son singly evolves,

in the execution of the divine plan."

overcometh--habitually.

the world--all that is opposed to keeping the commandments of

God, or draws us off from God, in this world, including our corrupt

flesh, on which the world's blandishments or threats act, as

also including Satan, the prince of this world

(Joh 12:31; 14:30; 16:11).

this is the victory that overcometh--Greek aorist,

". . . that hath (already) overcome the world":

the victory (where faith is) hereby is implied as having

been already obtained

(1Jo 2:13; 4:4).

5. Who--"Who" else "but he that believeth that Jesus is

the Son of God:" "the Christ"

(1Jo 5:1)?

Confirming, by a triumphant question defying all contradiction, as an

undeniable fact,

1Jo 5:4,

that the victory which overcomes the world is faith. For

it is by believing: that we are made one with Jesus the Son

of God, so that we partake of His victory over the world,

and have dwelling in us One greater than he who is in the world

(1Jo 4:4).

"Survey the whole world, and show me even one of whom it can be

affirmed with truth that he overcomes the world, who is not a

Christian, and endowed with this faith" [EPISCOPIUS in ALFORD].

6. This--the Person mentioned in

1Jo 5:5.

This Jesus.

he that came by water and blood--"by water," when His ministry

was inaugurated by baptism in the Jordan, and He received the Father's

testimony to His Messiahship and divine Sonship. Compare

1Jo 5:5,

"believeth that Jesus is the Son of God," with

Joh 1:33, 34,

"The Spirit . . . remaining on Him . . . I saw and

bare record that this is the Son of God"; and

1Jo 5:8,

below, "there are three that bear witness in earth, the Spirit,

and the water, and the blood." Corresponding to this is the baptism

of water and the Spirit which He has instituted as a standing seal

and mean of initiatory incorporation with Him.

and blood--He came by "the blood of His cross" (so "by" is used,

Heb 9:12:

holy place"): a fact seen and so solemnly witnessed to by

John. "These two past facts in the Lord's life are this abiding

testimony to us, by virtue of the permanent application to us of

their cleansing and atoning power."

Jesus Christ--not a mere appellation, but a solemn assertion of

the Lord's Person and Messiahship.

not by, &c.--Greek, "not IN

the water only, but IN the water and

IN (so oldest manuscripts add) the blood."

As "by" implies the mean through, or with, which

He came: so "in," the element in which He came. "The"

implies that the water and the blood were sacred and

well-known symbols. John Baptist came only baptizing with water, and

therefore was not the Messiah. Jesus came first to undergo

Himself the double baptism of water and blood, and then to baptize us

with the Spirit-cleansing, of which water is the sacramental

seal, and with His atoning blood, the efficacy of which, once

for all shed, is perpetual in the Church; and therefore is the

Messiah. It was His shed blood which first gave water

baptism its spiritual significancy. We are baptized into His

death: the grand point of union between us and Him, and, through

Him, between us and God.

it is the Spirit, &c.--The Holy Spirit is an additional

witness (compare

1Jo 5:7),

besides the water and the blood, to Jesus' Sonship

and Messiahship. The Spirit attested these truths at Jesus'

baptism by descending on Him, and throughout His ministry by enabling

Him to speak and do what man never before or since has spoken or, done;

and "it is the Spirit that beareth witness" of Christ, now permanently

in the Church: both in the inspired New Testament Scriptures, and in

the hearts of believers, and in the spiritual reception of baptism and

the Lord's Supper.

because the Spirit is truth--It is His essential truth

which gives His witness such infallible authority.

7. three--Two or three witnesses were required by law to

constitute adequate testimony. The only Greek manuscripts in

any form which support the words, "in heaven, the Father, the Word,

and the Holy Ghost, and these three are one; and there are three that

bear witness in earth," are the Montfortianus of Dublin, copied

evidently from the modern Latin Vulgate; the Ravianus,

copied from the Complutensian Polyglot; a manuscript at Naples,

with the words added in the Margin by a recent hand;

Ottobonianus, 298, of the fifteenth century, the Greek of

which is a mere translation of the accompanying Latin. All the

old versions omit the words. The oldest manuscripts of the

Vulgate omit them: the earliest Vulgate manuscript which

has them being Wizanburgensis, 99, of the eighth century. A

scholium quoted in Matthæi, shows that the words did not

arise from fraud; for in the words, in all Greek manuscripts

"there are three that bear record," as the Scholiast notices,

the word "three" is masculine, because the three things (the

Spirit, the water, and the blood) are SYMBOLS

OF THE TRINITY. To this CYPRIAN, 196, also refers, "Of the Father, Son and

Holy Spirit, it is written, 'And these three are one' (a

unity)." There must be some mystical truth implied in using

"three" (Greek) in the masculine, though the

antecedents, "Spirit, water, and blood," are neuter. That THE TRINITY was the truth meant is

a natural inference: the triad specified pointing to a still Higher

Trinity; as is plain also from

1Jo 5:9,

"the witness of GOD," referring to the

Trinity alluded to in the Spirit, water, and blood. It was

therefore first written as a marginal comment to complete the

sense of the text, and then, as early at least as the eighth

century, was introduced into the text of the Latin Vulgate. The

testimony, however, could only be borne on earth to men, not in

heaven. The marginal comment, therefore, that inserted "in

heaven," was inappropriate. It is on earth that the context

evidently requires the witness of the three, the Spirit, the

water, and the blood, to be borne: mystically setting forth

the divine triune witnesses, the Father, the Spirit, and the

Son. LUECKE notices as internal evidence against

the words, John never uses "the Father" and "the Word" as correlates,

but, like other New Testament writers, associates "the Son" with "the

Father," and always refers "the Word" to "God" as its correlate, not

"the Father." Vigilius, at the end of the fifth century, is the first

who quotes the disputed words as in the text; but no Greek

manuscript earlier than the fifteenth is extant with them. The

term "Trinity" occurs first in the third century in TERTULLIAN [Against Praxeas, 3].

8. agree in one--"tend unto one result"; their agreeing

testimony to Jesus' Sonship and Messiahship they give by the

sacramental grace in the water of baptism, received by the

penitent believer, by the atoning efficacy of His blood, and by

the internal witness of His Spirit

(1Jo 5:10):

answering to the testimony given to Jesus' Sonship and

Messiahship by His baptism, His crucifixion, and the Spirit's

manifestations in Him (see on

1Jo 5:6).

It was by His coming by water (that is, His baptism in Jordan)

that Jesus was solemnly inaugurated in office, and revealed Himself as

Messiah; this must have been peculiarly important in John's estimation,

who was first led to Christ by the testimony of the Baptist. By the

baptism then received by Christ, and by His redeeming

blood-shedding, and by that which the Spirit of God, whose

witness is infallible, has effected, and still effects, by Him, the

Spirit, the water, and the blood, unite, as the

threefold witness, to verify His divine Messiahship [NEANDER].

9. If, &c.--We do accept (and rightly so) the witness of

veracious men, fallible though they be; much more ought we to accept

the infallible witness of God (the Father). "The testimony of

the Father is, as it were, the basis of the testimony of the Word and

of the Holy Spirit; just as the testimony of the Spirit is, as

it were, the basis of the testimony of the water and the

blood" [BENGEL].

for--This principle applies in the present case,

FOR, &c.

which--in the oldest manuscripts, "because He hath given

testimony concerning His Son." What that testimony is we find above in

1Jo 5:1, 5,

"Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God"; and below in

1Jo 5:10, 11.

10. hath the witness--of God, by His Spirit

(1Jo 5:8).

in himself--God's Spirit dwelling in him and witnessing

that "Jesus is the Lord," "the Christ," and "the Son of God"

(1Jo 5:1, 5).

The witness of the Spirit in the believer himself to his

own sonship is not here expressed, but follows as a consequence of

believing the witness of God to Jesus' divine Sonship.

believeth not God--credits not His witness.

made him a liar--a consequence which many who virtually, or even

avowedly, do not believe, may well startle back from as fearful

blasphemy and presumption

(1Jo 1:10).

believeth not the record--Greek, "believeth not

IN the record, or witness." Refusal to

credit God's testimony ("believeth not God") is involved in

refusal to believe IN (to rest one's trust

in) Jesus Christ, the object of God's record or

testimony. "Divine "faith" is an assent unto something as

credible upon the testimony of God. This is the highest kind of

faith; because the object hath the highest credibility, because

grounded upon the testimony of God, which is infallible" [PEARSON, Exposition of the Creed]. "The authority

on which we believe is divine; the doctrine which we follow is divine"

[LEO].

gave--Greek, "hath testified, and now testifies."

of--concerning.

11. hath given--Greek, aorist: "gave" once for all. Not

only "promised" it.

life is in his Son--essentially

(Joh 1:4; 11:25; 14:6);

bodily

(Col 2:9);

operatively

(2Ti 1:10)

[LANGE in ALFORD]. It is in

the second Adam, the Son of God, that this life is secured to

us, which, if left to depend on us, we should lose, like the first

Adam.

12. the Son . . . life--Greek,

"THE life." BENGEL remarks,

The verse has two clauses: in the former the Son is mentioned without

the addition "of God," for believers know the Son: in the second

clause the addition "of God" is made, that unbelievers may know thereby

what a serious thing it is not to have Him. In the former clause "has"

bears the emphasis; in the second, life. To have the Son

is to be able to say as the bride, "I am my Beloved's, and my

Beloved is mine"

[So 6:3].

Faith is the mean whereby the regenerate

HAVE Christ as a present possession, and in

having Him have life in its germ and reality now, and shall have

life in its fully developed manifestation hereafter. Eternal

life here is: (1) initial, and is an earnest of that which

is to follow; in the intermediate state (2) partial, belonging

but to a part of a man, though that is his nobler part, the soul

separated from the body; at and after the resurrection (3)

perfectional. This life is not only natural, consisting of the

union of the soul and the body (as that of the reprobate in eternal

pain, which ought to be termed death eternal, not life),

but also spiritual, the union of the soul to God, and supremely blessed

for ever (for life is another term for happiness) [PEARSON, Exposition of the Creed].

13. The oldest manuscripts and versions read, "These things have

I written unto you [omitting 'that believe on the name of the Son of

God'] that ye may know that ye have eternal life (compare

1Jo 5:11),

THOSE (of you I mean) WHO

believe (not as English Version reads, 'and that ye may

believe') on the name of the Son of God." English Version,

in the latter clause, will mean, "that ye may continue to

believe," &c. (compare

1Jo 5:12).

These things--This Epistle. He, towards the close of his Gospel

(Joh 20:30, 31),

wrote similarly, stating his purpose in having written. In

1Jo 1:4

he states the object of his writing this Epistle to be, "that your joy

may be full." To "know that we have eternal life" is the sure

way to "joy in God."

14. the confidence--boldness

(1Jo 4:17)

in prayer, which results from knowing that we have eternal life

(1Jo 5:13;

1Jo 3:19, 22).

according to his will--which is the believer's will, and which

is therefore no restraint to his prayers. In so far as God's will is

not our will, we are not abiding in faith, and our prayers are not

accepted. ALFORD well says, If we knew

God's will thoroughly, and submitted to it heartily, it would be

impossible for us to ask anything for the spirit or for the body which

He should not perform; it is this ideal state which the apostle has in

view. It is the Spirit who teaches us inwardly, and Himself in

us asks according to the will of God.

15. hear--Greek, "that He heareth us."

we have the petitions that we desired of him--We have, as

present possessions, everything whatsoever we desired

(asked) from Him. Not one of our past prayers

offered in faith, according to His will, is lost. Like Hannah,

we can rejoice over them as granted even before the event; and can

recognize the event when it comes to pass, as not from chance, but

obtained by our past prayers. Compare also Jehoshaphat's believing

confidence in the issue of his prayers, so much so that he appointed

singers to praise the Lord beforehand.

16. If any . . . see--on any particular occasion;

Greek aorist.

his brother--a fellow Christian.

sin a sin--in the act of sinning, and continuing in the sin:

present.

not unto death--provided that it is not unto death.

he shall give--The asker shall be the means, by his

intercessory prayer, of God giving life to the sinning brother.

Kindly reproof ought to accompany his intercessions. Life was in

process of being forfeited by the sinning brother when the believer's

intercession obtained its restoration.

for them--resuming the proviso put forth in the beginning of the

verse. "Provided that the sin is not unto death." "Shall give life," I

say, to, that is, obtain life "for (in the case of) them

that sin not unto death."

I do not say that he shall pray for it--The Greek for

"pray" means a REQUEST as of one on an equality,

or at least on terms of familiarity, with him from whom the favor is

sought. "The Christian intercessor for his brethren, John declares,

shall not assume the authority which would be implied in making request

for a sinner who has sinned the sin unto death

(1Sa 15:35; 16:1;

Mr 3:29),

that it might be forgiven him" [TRENCH, Greek

Synonyms of the New Testament]. Compare

De 3:26.

Greek "ask" implies the humble petition of an inferior; so that

our Lord never uses it, but always uses (Greek) "request."

Martha, from ignorance, once uses "ask" in His case

(Joh 11:22).

"Asking" for a brother sinning not unto death, is a humble petition in

consonance with God's will. To "request" for a sin unto death

[intercede, as it were, authoritatively for it, as though we

were more merciful than God] would savor of presumption; prescribing to

God in a matter which lies out of the bounds of our brotherly yearning

(because one sinning unto death would thereby be demonstrated not to

be, nor ever to have been, truly a brother,

1Jo 2:19),

how He shall inflict and withhold His righteous judgments. Jesus

Himself intercedes, not for the world which hardens itself in unbelief,

but for those given to Him out of the world.

17. "Every unrighteousness (even that of believers, compare

1Jo 1:9; 3:4.

Every coming short of right) is sin"; (but) not every sin is the

sin unto death.

and there is a sin not unto death--in the case of which,

therefore, believers may intercede. Death and life stand

in correlative opposition

(1Jo 5:11-13).

The sin unto death must be one tending "towards" (so the

Greek), and so resulting in, death. ALFORD makes it to be an appreciable ACT of sin, namely,

the denying Jesus to be the Christ, the Son of God (in contrast

to confess this truth,

1Jo 5:1, 5),

1Jo 2:19, 22; 4:2, 3; 5:10.

Such wilful deniers of Christ are not to be received into one's house,

or wished "God speed." Still, I think with BENGEL,

not merely the act, but also the state of apostasy

accompanying the act, is included--a "state of soul in which

faith, love, and hope, in short, the new life, is extinguished. The

chief commandment is faith and love. Therefore, the chief

sin is that by which faith and love are destroyed. In the former case

is life; in the latter, death. As long as it is not evident (see

on

1Jo 5:16,

on 'see') that it is a sin unto death, it is lawful to pray. But when

it is deliberate rejection of grace, and the man puts from him life

thereby, how can others procure for him life?" Contrast

Jas 5:14-18.

Compare

Mt 12:31, 32

as to the wilful rejection of Christ, and resistance to the Holy

Ghost's plain testimony to Him as the divine Messiah. Jesus, on the

cross, pleaded only for those who KNEW NOT what

they were doing in crucifying Him, not for those wilfully resisting

grace and knowledge. If we pray for the impenitent, it must be

with humble reference of the matter to God's will, not with the

intercessory request which we should offer for a brother

when erring.

18.

(1Jo 3:9.)

We know--Thrice repeated emphatically, to enforce the three

truths which the words preface, as matters of the brethren's joint

experimental knowledge. This

1Jo 5:18

warns against abusing

1Jo 5:16, 17,

as warranting carnal security.

whosoever--Greek, "every one who." Not only advanced

believers, but every one who is born again, "sinneth not."

he that is begotten--Greek aorist, "has been (once for

all in past time) begotten of God"; in the beginning of the

verse it is perfect. "Is begotten," or "born," as a continuing

state.

keepeth himself--The Vulgate translates, "The having been

begotten of God keepeth HIM" (so one of the oldest

manuscripts reads): so ALFORD. Literally, "He

having been begotten of God (nominative pendent), it (the divine

generation implied in the nominative) keepeth him." So

1Jo 3:9,

"His seed remaineth in him." Still, in English Version reading,

God's working by His Spirit inwardly, and man's working under the power

of that Spirit as a responsible agent, is what often occurs elsewhere.

That God must keep us, if we are to keep ourselves

from evil, is certain. Compare

Joh 17:15

especially with this verse.

that wicked one toucheth him not--so as to hurt him. In so far

as he realizes his regeneration-life, the prince of this world hath

nothing in him to fasten his deadly temptations on, as in Christ's

own case. His divine regeneration has severed once for all his

connection with the prince of this world.

19. world lieth in wickedness--rather, "lieth in the wicked

one," as the Greek is translated in

1Jo 5:18;

1Jo 2:13, 14;

compare

1Jo 4:4;

Joh 17:14, 15.

The world lieth in the power of, and abiding in, the wicked one,

as the resting-place and lord of his slaves; compare "abideth in

death,"

1Jo 3:14;

contrast

1Jo 5:20,

"we are in Him that is true." While the believer has been delivered out

of his power, the whole world lieth helpless and motionless

still in it, just as it was; including the wise, great, respectable,

and all who are not by vital union in Christ.

20. Summary of our Christian privileges.

is come--is present, having come. "HE IS

HERE--all is full of Him--His incarnation, work, and abiding

presence, is to us a living fact" [ALFORD].

given us an understanding--Christ's, office is to give the inner

spiritual understanding to discern the things of God.

that we may know--Some oldest manuscripts read, "(so) that we

know."

him that is true--God, as opposed to every kind of idol

or false god

(1Jo 5:21).

Jesus, by virtue of His oneness with God, is also "He that is true"

(Re 3:7).

even--"we are in the true" God, by virtue of being

"in His Son Jesus Christ."

This is the true God--"This Jesus Christ (the last-named

Person) is the true God" (identifying Him thus with the Father in His

attribute, "the only true God,"

Joh 17:3,

primarily attributed to the Father).

and eternal life--predicated of the Son of God;

ALFORD wrongly says, He was the life, but

not eternal life. The Father is indeed eternal life as

its source, but the Son also is that eternal life manifested, as

the very passage

(1Jo 1:2)

which ALFORD quotes, proves against him. Compare

also

1Jo 5:11, 13.

Plainly it is as the Mediator of ETERNAL

LIFE to us that Christ is here contemplated. The

Greek is, "The true God and eternal life is this" Jesus Christ,

that is, In believing in Him we believe in the true God, and have

eternal life. The Son is called "He that is TRUE,"

Re 3:7,

as here. This naturally prepares the way for warning against

false gods

(1Jo 5:21).

Jesus Christ is the only "express image of God's person" which is

sanctioned, the only true visible manifestation of God. All other

representations of God are forbidden as idols. Thus the Epistle

closes as it began

(1Jo 1:1, 2).

21. Affectionate parting caution.

from idols--Christians were then everywhere surrounded by

idolaters, with whom it was impossible to avoid intercourse.

Hence the need of being on their guard against any even indirect

compromise or act of communion with idolatry. Some at Pergamos, in the

region whence John wrote, fell into the snare of eating things

sacrificed to idols. The moment we cease to abide "in Him that is true

in the wicked one," given up to spiritual, if not in all places

literal, idolatry

(Eph 5:5;

Col 3:5).

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