1jon2-28
28 And now, dear children, continue in him, so that when he appears we may be confident and unashamed before him at his coming.
29 If you know that he is righteous, you know that everyone who does what is right has been born of him.
3 How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. 2 Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when he appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. 3 Everyone who has this hope in him purifies himself, just as he is pure.
4 Everyone who sins breaks the law; in fact, sin is lawlessness. 5 But you know that he appeared so that he might take away our sins. And in him is no sin. 6 No one who lives in him keeps on sinning. No one who continues to sin has either seen him or known him.
7 Dear children, do not let anyone lead you astray. He who does what is right is righteous, just as he is righteous. 8 He who does what is sinful is of the devil, because the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil’s work. 9 No one who is born of God will continue to sin, because God’s seed remains in him; he cannot go on sinning, because he has been born of God. 10 This is how we know who the children of God are and who the children of the devil are: Anyone who does not do what is right is not a child of God; nor is anyone who does not love his brother.
(2:28) “When” is ean (ἑαν), “if,” used with the subjunctive mode, the mode of future probability. The doubt is here, not as to the fact of our Lord’s coming for His Church, He promised that, but as to the time of that coming. One could translate, “whenever He shall appear.” The exhortation, “Be constantly abiding in Him” is given in view of the uncertainty of the time of His coming. The believer must live in close fellowship with His Lord that he may be ready for that coming.
“Appear” it is here, “to be made manifest or visible.” The invisible Lord Jesus will some day be made visible as He comes from heaven into the atmosphere of this earth to catch out His Bride, the Church.
“Confidence”, “freedom in speaking, unreservedness in speech, free and fearless confidence, cheerful courage, boldness, assurance.”
This is the kind of saint that keeps a daily check-up on himself as to sin in his life. He maintains a constant yieldedness to and dependence upon the Holy Spirit to show him sin in his life and give him the grace to judge it and put it out.
“May have”; That is, the saint at the time of the Rapture should be living in such close fellowship with his Lord that the sudden appearance of the Saviour merely continues the fellowship that was in progress on earth, like Enoch who walked with God on earth and suddenly was not, for God took him. There is no need for a gradual adjustment to that fellowship into which he is being introduced at the Rapture, because the latter fellowship is just a continuation of the former. It is an instantaneous freedom of speech, of holy boldness, of assurance.
“Be ashamed”, “to be permeated with shame, make ashamed.” “from Him,” and could be translated, “in shame shrink from Him.” “The fundamental thought is that of separation and shrinking from God through the shame of conscious guilt.”
“Coming”. means literally, “to be beside.” It speaks of the personal presence of a person. In addition to its meaning of “personal presence beside,” it is used to speak of the coming of a person and his arrival or advent.
Translation. And now, little children, be continually abiding in Him, in order that, whenever He is made visible, we may have instant freedom of speech and not be made to shrink away from Him in shame at His coming and personal presence.
(2:29) The first “know” is “if you know absolutely.” The second “know”, “to know experientially.” “If ye know absolutely that He is righteous, ye perceive that every one, etc.”
In the clause “is born of Him,” the question arises as to whom the pronoun refers, to God or Christ. The context refers the pronoun to the latter. Yet nowhere else in Scripture is it said that believers are born of Christ, but always of God. “When John thinks of God in relation to men, he never thinks of Him apart from Christ ; and again, he never thinks of Christ in His human nature without adding the thought of His divine nature. Thus a rapid transition is possible from the one aspect of the Lord’s divine-human person to the other.”
The expanded translation reads, “having been born with the present result that you are a child (of God) by birth.” The relationship between God and the believer as Father and child is a permanent one.
“Doeth” is the habitual doing of God’s will is in view here. The habitual actions of a person are an index to his character. The habitual actions of righteousness, God’s righteousness here as produced by the Holy Spirit is an indication of regeneration.
Translation. If you know absolutely that He is righteous, you know experientially that every one who habitually does this aforementioned righteousness (which God is), out from Him has been born, with the present result that that one is a born one.
CHAPTER THREE
(3:1) “Behold” is plural here, literally, “behold ye.” The usual form is singular. John is calling upon all the saints to wonder at the particular kind of love God has bestowed upon them. “What manner of” The translation could read, “Behold, what foreign kind of love the Father has bestowed upon us.” The love of God is foreign to the human race. It is not found naturally in humanity. When it exists there, it is in a saved individual, and by reason of the ministry of the Holy Spirit. What unearthly love,… how other-worldly.”
“Hath bestowed”, “to give something to some one.” the gift becomes a permanent possession of the recipient. God has placed His love upon the saints in the sense that they have become the permanent objects of His love. One of the results of this love in action is that we are called sons of God.
“The purpose of this amazing gift; a wise, holy love, concerned for our highest good, ‘not simply that we may be saved from suffering and loss, but in order that we may be styled children of God.’ And we have not only the name but the character: ‘so we are.’ ”
The word “sons” is not (sons), but, “born children,”
“Called” is “named.”.
“Knoweth” and “knew” are “to acquire knowledge through the medium of experience.” By the world here John means the people of that system spoken of in 2:15–17, the people of the world system of evil. From their experience with us, the people of the world, while recognizing us as Christians, children of God, do not come to an understanding and appreciation of the nature of person we are, since unsaved people never have had a saving relationship with and knowledge of God. Intimate understanding and knowledge of another person is based upon fellowship with him. Since the people of the world have nothing in common with the children of God, they have no fellowship with them, and therefore have no intelligent appreciation and understanding of them.
The foreign kind of love produced in us by the Holy Spirit constitutes us a foreign kind of person to the people of this world, and since they do not understand foreigners, people of a different race from themselves, they simply do not understand Christians. Children of God could just as well have come to earth from a strange planet so far as the people of the world are concerned. They are strangers to them.
Translation. All of you, behold what foreign kind of love the Father has permanently bestowed upon us, to the end that we may be named born-ones of God. And we are. On this account the world does not have an experiential knowledge of us, because it has not come into an experiential knowledge of Him.
(3:2) “Now are we the sons of God,” “The two thoughts of the present and future condition of God’s children are placed side by side. Christian condition, now and eternally, centers in the fact of being children of God. In that fact lies the germ of all the possibilities of eternal life.”
The verb in the expression “it doth not yet appear” . The correct reading is, “It has not yet been made manifest or visible.” was never manifested on any occasion.” The word “what” is the interrogative pronoun in the Greek text. It is used here as in the simple question, “What shall we be?” “This what suggests something unspeakable, contained in the likeness of God.”
The verb in the expression “when He shall appear” is the same verb used in the case of the previous word “anpear” in this verse. It means, “to be made manifest or visible.”
We are now children of God. It has not been revealed what we shall be, and therefore we do not know. In the absence of such revelation, we know (through our consciousness of childship, through His promise that we behold His glory), that if what we shall be were manifested, the essential fact of the glorified condition thus revealed will be likeness to the Lord. This fact we know now as a promise, as a general truth of our future state. The condition of realizing the fact is the manifestation of that glorified state, the revealing of the what we shall be; for that manifestation will bring with it the open vision of the Lord. When the what we shall be shall be manifest, it will bring us face to face with Him, and we shall be like Him because we shall see Him as He is.” Thus, the translation so far reads: “Divinely-loved ones, now born ones of God we are. And not yet has it been made visible what we shall be. We know absolutely that when it is made visible, like ones to Him we shall be, because we shall see Him just as He is.”
This likeness in this context has to do with a physical likeness, not a spiritual one. Saints are spiritually like the Lord Jesus now in a relative sense, and through the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit, are being conformed more and more to His spiritual likeness. John is speaking here of the Rapture. Paul in Philippians 3:20 says: “For the commonwealth of which we are citizens has its fixed abode in heaven, out from which also the Saviour, we with our attention withdrawn from all else, are eagerly waiting to welcome, the Lord Jesus Christ, and to receive Him to ourselves; who shall change the outward appearance of the body of our humiliation so as to conform it to an outward expression like to the body of His glory.”
The word ”change” , “to change the outward expression by assuming one put on from the outside.” The words “be fashioned like,” an outward expression which comes from within, and is truly representative of one’s inner character.” Both words refer to an outward, not an inward change. The Rapture has to do with the glorification of the physical body of the believer, not with a change of his inner spiritual life. While the saint enters heaven in a sinless state, yet he is not catapulted ahead to absolute spiritual maturity in an instant of time. He grows in likeness to the Lord Jesus spiritually through the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit all through eternity, always approaching that likeness but never equalling it, for finiteness can never equal infinity. The change which comes at the Rapture is therefore a physical one. We shall be like our Lord as to His physical, glorified body. The word, “be fashioned like,” speaks of that outer enswathement of glory that now covers the body of the Lord Jesus, and which will at the Rapture, cover ours.
Only at the Rapture will we be able to see our Lord as He is now, for physical eyes in a mortal body could not look on that glory, only eyes in glorified bodies. And that is the reason we shall be like Him, for only in that state can we see Him just as He is.
Translation. Divinely-loved ones, now born-ones of God we are. And not yet has it been made visible what we shall be. We know absolutely that when it is made visible, like ones to Him we shall be, because we shall see Him just as He is.
(3:3) “Every man who hath,” is, “a characteristic form of expression with John, containing ‘a reference to some who had questioned the application of a general principle in particular cases.’ Here to some persons who had denied the practical obligation to moral purity involved in their hope.”
The hope here is the Christian hope of some day being like the Lord Jesus in respect to His glorified body. “In” is epi (ἐπι), literally, “upon.” The idea is, “hope resting upon Him,” or “hope set on Him.”
The pronoun “Him” refers to the Lord Jesus, not to God the Father, as Smith so clearly brings out when he says: “hagnos (ἁγνος) (pure) also proves that the reference is to Christ. As distinguished from hagios (ἁγιος) (holy), which implies absolute and essential purity, it denotes purity maintained with effort and fearfulness amid defilements and allurements, especially carnal.… God is called hagios (ἁγιος) but never hagnos (ἁγνος). Christ is hagnos (ἁγνος) because of His human experience. The duty of his appearing before God, his presentation to the King, is hagnizein heauton (ἁγνιζειν ἑαυτον) (to purify himself), like the worshippers before the Feast (John 11:55), like the people before the Lord’s manifestation at Sinai (Ex. 19:10, 11, LXX). It is his own work, not God’s, or rather it is his and God’s.”
As to the expression, “purifieth himself,” Alford comments: “These words are not to be taken in any Pelagian sense, as if a man could of himself purify himself: ‘apart from Me,’ says our Lord, ‘ye can do nothing’ (John 15:5). The man who purifies himself has this hope resting upon God. This mere fact implies a will to purify himself, not out of, nor independent of, this hope, but ever stirred up by and accompanying it. So that the will is not his own, sprung out of his own nature, but the result of his Christian state, in which God also ministers to him the power to carry out that will in self-purification.… The idea of hagnizein (ἁγνιζειν) (to purify) is much the same as that of katharizein (καθαριζειν) (to cleanse) (1:9): it is entire purification, not merely from unchastity, but from all defilement of flesh and spirit.” Thus, the hope of being like the Lord Jesus arouses the determination to be pure like Him, and this brings into play the will of the Christian to carry that resolve out into action. Thus, in dependence upon the Holy Spirit, the saint puts sin out of his life and keeps it out.
Translation. And everyone who has this hope continually set on Him is constantly purifying himself, just as that One is pure.
(3:4, 5) Now John shows the incompatibility of being a child of God and yet continuing in sin. “Committeth” is poieō (ποιεω), “to do.” Vincent comments: “Rev., better, every one that doeth sin.… The phrase to do sin regards sin as something actually realized in its completeness. He that does sin realizes in action the sin (note the article tēn (την) (the), that which includes and represents the complete ideal of sin.” “Transgresseth the law” is literally “doeth (poieō (ποιεω)) lawlessness.” The words, “the transgression of the law” are in the Greek text one word, anomia (ἀνομια), “lawlessness.” It is the word nomos (νομος) “law,” with alpha privative put before it which negates the word. The composite word means literally, “no law.” The Greek construction makes sin and lawlessness identical.
“Take away” is airō (αἰρω), to lift up and carry away.” Smith comments: “atone for sins of the past and prevent sins of the future.Airō (Ἀιρω), properly ‘to lift up and carry away’ (compare Mark 6:29;John 2:16), but the idea of expiation is involved since it is ‘the Lamb of God’ that ‘taketh away the sins.’ ”
Translation. Everyone who habitually does sin, also habitually does lawlessness; and sin is lawlessness. And you know absolutely that that One was manifested in order that He might take away our sins; and sin in Him does not exist.
(3:6) The words “abideth” and “sinneth” are used here to designate a certain class of individual. Character is shown by one’s habitual actions, not the extraordinary ones. The tense of the verbs is present, the kind of action, continuous, habitual. Thus, “every one who habitually is abiding in Him,” is a saved person, and, “every one who habitually is sinning,” an unsaved person. A Christian as a habit of life is abiding in fellowship with the Lord Jesus. Sin may at times enter his life. But sin is the exception, not the rule. The unsaved person as a habit of life sins continually. “Sinneth” is present in tense, continuous action being indicated. The person who is abiding in Christ is not habitually sinning. The child of God as a habit of life, does righteousness, and sin is not a habit with him. John is not teaching sinless perfection here. Vincent says: “John does not teach that believers do not sin, but is speaking of a character, a habit. Throughout the Epistle, he deals with the ideal reality of life in God, in which the love of God and sin exclude each other as light and darkness.” He does not deny that a Christian sins at times. Indeed he admits the possibility of sin in the Christian’s life in 1:9, and forbids sin in 2:1. What John denies here is that a Christian sins habitually. He denies that the life of a Christian is wholly turned towards sin as is that of the unsaved person.
He asserts however that “Everyone who keeps on continually sinning, has not seen Him neither known Him.” This is an unsaved person. The verbs “seen” and “known” are in the perfect tense, implying that he has neither seen nor known God in times past, with the present result that He is still invisible and unknown to him. The particular word for “see” here means “to see with discernment.”
Translation. Everyone who in Him is constantly abiding is not habitually sinning. Everyone who is constantly sinning has not with discernment seen Him, nor has he known Him, with the result that that condition is true of him at present.
(3:7) Smith comments: “An affectionate warning against Nicolaitan Antinomianism. The apostle cuts away vain pretences by a sharp principle: a righteous character expresses itself in righteous conduct. Christ (ekeinos (ἐκεινος) “that One”) is the type. He was ‘the Son of God,’ and if we are ‘children of God,’ we must be like Him.” “Deceive” is planaō (πλαναω), “to lead astray.” “Little children” is teknia (τεκνια). The verbal form tiktō (τικτω) means “to give birth to,” thus the noun is “little born ones,” “bairns” (Scotch).
Translation. Little born-ones, stop allowing anyone to be leading you astray. The one who habitually does righteousness is righteous, just as that One is righteous.
(3:8) “Committeth” is poieō (ποιεω), in a present tense participle, “He who is continually doing sin.” Smith suggests, “He that makes sin his business or practice.” “Of” is ek (ἐκ), “out of,” used with the ablative case, gives us the ablative of source. He who continually does sin is out of the devil as a source. That is, his sinful propensities, issuing from his totally depraved nature inherited from Adam, find their ultimate source in the devil who brought about the downfall of our first parents. Habitual actions again are an index of character, and here, of source. “Sinneth” is a present of duration which speaks of that which has begun in the past and continues into the present. The translation could read, “The devil has been sinning from the beginning.” Vincent says: “He sinned in the beginning, and has never ceased to sin from the beginning, and still sins.” Smith identifies the words “the beginning” as “the beginning of his diabolic career.”
“Destroy” is in the Greek text luō (λυω), “to loosen, dissolve.” Westcott comments: “The works of the devil are represented as having a certain consistency and coherence. They show a kind of solid front. But Christ, by His coming, has revealed them in their complete unsubstantiality. He has ‘undone’ the seeming bonds by which they were held together.” But He has done more than that. By the blood of His Cross He has paid for sin, made a way of escape from the arch enemy of men’s souls, defeated the purposes of the devil, and will finally bring about his complete downfall.
Translation. The one who is habitually doing sin is out of the devil as a source, because from the beginning the devil has been sinning. For this purpose there was manifested the Son of God, in order that He might bring to naught the works of the devil.
(3:9) “Is born” is a perfect participle in the Greek text, speaking of the past completed act of regeneration, namely, the impartation of the divine nature (II Pet. 1:4) or divine life, and the present result, the fact that the person who has been made the recipient of divine life is by nature, and that permanently, a spiritually alive individual. “Commit” is poieō (ποιεω) in the present tense which always speaks of continuous action unless the context limits it to punctiliar action, namely, the mere mention of the fact of the action, without the mentioning of details. The translation reads, “Every one who has been born out of God, with the present result that he is a born-one (of God), does not habitually do sin.” “His seed” refers to the principle of divine life in the believer. It is this principle of divine life that makes it impossible for a Christian to live habitually in sin, for the divine nature causes the child of God to hate sin and love righteousness, and gives him both the desire and the power to do God’s will, as Paul says, “God is the One who is constantly putting forth energy in you, giving you both the desire and power to do His good pleasure” (Phil. 2:13). Smith comments: “The reason of the impossibility of a child of God continuing in sin. The germ of the divine life has been implanted in our souls, and it grows—a gradual process and subject to occasional retardations, yet sure, attaining at length to full fruition. The believer’s lapses into sin are like the mischances of the weather which hinder the seed’s growth. The growth of a living seed may be checked temporarily; if there be no growth, there is no life.”
“Cannot sin” is dunamai (δυναμαι), “I am not able,” and the present infinitive of hamartanō (ἁμαρτανω), “to sin.” The infinitive in the present tense in Greek always speaks of continuous, habitual action, never the mere fact of the action, since the aorist infinitive which refers to the fact of the action, may be used at will if the writer wishes to speak of the mere fact without reference to details. The translation therefore is, “He is not able to habitually sin.” The Greek text here holds no warrant for the erroneous teaching of sinless perfection.
Translation. Everyone who has been born out of God, with the present result that he is a born-one (of God), does not habitually do sin, because His seed remains in him. And he is not able to habitually sin, because out of God he has been born with the present result that he is a born-one (of God).
(3:10) The words “in this” point particularly to what follows, although a secondary reference might be to what precedes. “Loveth” is agapaō (ἀγαπαω), which refers to divine love which is self-sacrificial in its essence, the love produced in the heart of the yielded saint by the Holy Spirit, the love defined by Paul in I Corinthians 13, the love shown by God at Calvary. The brother here is ostensibly a Christian brother. The expression is equivalent to “a fellow-Christian.” “Children” is tekna (τεκνα), born-ones of the devil in the sense that from Adam they inherit a totally-depraved nature, the same as the devil has.
Translation. In this is apparent the born-ones of God and the born-ones of the devil. Every one who is not habitually doing righteousness is not of God, also the one who is not habitually loving his brother.