In this chapter the apostle asserts, I. The dignity of believers
(v. 1). II. Their obligation to love, and the trial of it (v. 1-3). III. Their
victory (v. 4, 5). IV. The credibility and confirmation of their faith (v. 6-10).
V. The advantage of their faith in eternal life (v. 11-13). VI. The audience
of their prayers, unless for those who have sinned unto death (v. 14-17). VII.
The preservation from sin and Satan (v. 18). VIII. Their happy distinction from
the world (v. 19). IX. Their true knowledge of God (v. 20), upon which they must
depart from idols (v. 21).
I. The apostle having, in the conclusion of the last chapter, as
was there observed, urged Christian love upon those two accounts, as suitable to
Christian profession and as suitable to the divine command, here adds a third:
Such love is suitable, and indeed demanded, by their eminent relation; our
Christian brethren or fellow-believers are nearly related to God; they are his
children: Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, v.
1. Here the Christian brother is, 1. Described by his faith; he that believeth
that Jesus is the Christ—that he is Messiah the prince, that he is the Son
of God by nature and office, that he is the chief of all the anointed world,
chief of all the priests, prophets, or kings, who were ever anointed by God or
for him, that he is perfectly prepared and furnished for the whole work of the
eternal salvation-accordingly yields himself up to his care and direction; and
then he is, 2. Dignified by his descent: He is born of God, v. 1. This
principle of faith, and the new nature that attends it or from which it springs,
are ingenerated by the Spirit of God; and so sonship and adoption are not now
appropriated to the seed of Abraham according to the flesh, not to the
ancient Israel of God; all believers, though by nature sinners of the Gentiles,
are spiritually descended from God, and accordingly are to be beloved; as it is
added: Every one that loveth him that begat loveth him also that is begotten
of him, v. 1. It seems but natural that he who loves the Father should love
the children also, and that in some proportion to their resemblance to their
Father and to the Father's love to them; and so we must first and principally
love the Son of the Father, as he is most emphatically styled, 2 Jn. 3, the
only (necessarily) begotten, and the Son of his love, and then
those that are voluntarily begotten, and renewed by the Spirit of grace.
II. The apostle shows, 1. How we may discern the truth, or the
true evangelical nature of our love to the regenerate. The ground of it must be
our love to God, whose they are: By this we know that we love the children of
God, when we love God, v. 2. Our love to them appears to be sound and
genuine when we love them not merely upon any secular account, as because they
are rich, or learned, or kind to us, or of our denomination among religious
parties; but because they are God's children, his regenerating grace appears
in them, his image and superscription are upon them, and so in them God himself
is loved. Thus we see what that love to the brethren is that is so pressed in
this epistle; it is love to them as the children of God and the adopted brethren
of the Lord Jesus. 2. How we may learn the truth of our love to God—it appears
in our holy obedience: When we love God, and keep his commandments, v. 2.
Then we truly, and in gospel account, love God, when we keep his commandments: For
this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments; and the keeping of
his commandments requires a spirit inclined thereto and delighting herein; and
so his commandments are not grievous, v. 3. Or, This is the love of God,
that, as thereby we are determined to obedience, and to keep the
commandments of God, so his commandments are thereby made easy and pleasant to
us. The lover of God says, "O how I love thy law! I will run the way of
thy commandments, when thou shalt enlarge my heart (Ps. 119:32), when thou
shalt enlarge it either with love or with thy Spirit, the spring of love."
3. What is and ought to be the result and effect of regeneration—an
intellectual spiritual conquest of this world: For whatsoever is born
of God, or, as in some copies, whosoever is born of God, overcometh the
world, v. 4. He that is born of God is born for God, and consequently
for another world. He has a temper and disposition that tend to a higher and
better world; and he is furnished with such arms, or such a weapon, whereby he
can repel and conquer this; as it is added, And this is the victory that
overcometh the world, even our faith, v. 4. Faith is the cause of victory,
the means, the instrument, the spiritual armour and artillery by which we
overcome; for, (1.) In and by faith we cleave to Christ, in contempt of, and
opposition to, the world. (2.) Faith works in and by love to God and Christ, and
so withdraws us from the love of the world. (3.) Faith sanctifies the heart, and
purifies it from those sensual lusts by which the world obtains such sway and
dominion over souls. (4.) It receives and derives strength from the object of
it, the Son of God, for conquering the frowns and flatteries of the world. (5.)
It obtains by gospel promise a right to the indwelling Spirit of grace, that is
greater than he who dwells in the world. (6.) It sees an invisible world at
hand, with which this world is not worthy to be compared, and into which it
tells the soul in which it resides it must be continually prepared to enter; and
thereupon,
III. The apostle concludes that it is the real Christian that is
the true conqueror of the world: Who is he then that overcometh the
world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God? v. 5. It is the
world that lies in our way to heaven, and is the great impediment to our
entrance there. But he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God believes
therein that Jesus Came from God to be the Saviour of the world, and powerfully
to conduct us from the world to heaven, and to God, who is fully to be enjoyed
there. And he who so believes must needs by this faith overcome the world. For,
1. He must be well satisfied that this world is a vehement enemy to his soul, to
his holiness, his salvation, and his blessedness. For all that is in the
world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is
not of the Father, but is of the world, ch. 2:16. 2. He sees it must be a
great part of the Saviour's work, and of his own salvation, to be redeemed and
rescued from this malignant world. Who gave himself for our sins, that he
might deliver us from this present evil world, Gal. 1:4. 3. He sees in and
by the life and conduct of the Lord Jesus on earth that this world is to be
renounced and overcome. 4. He perceives that the Lord Jesus conquered the world,
not for himself only, but for his followers; and they must study to be partakers
of his victory. Be of good cheer, I have overcome the world. 5. He is
taught and influenced by the Lord Jesus's death to be mortified and crucified
to the world. God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord
Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified to me, and I unto the world,
Gal. 6:14. 6. He is begotten by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead
to the lively hope of a blessed world above, 1 Pt. 1:3. 7. He knows that the
Saviour has gone to heaven, and is there preparing a place for his serious
believers, Jn. 14:2. 8. He knows that his Saviour will come again thence, and
will put an end to this world, and judge the inhabitants of it, and receive his
believers to his presence and glory, Jn. 14:3. 9. He is possessed with a spirit
and disposition that cannot be satisfied with this world, that look beyond it,
and are still tending, striving, and pressing, towards the world in heaven. In
this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our house which is
from heaven, 2 Co. 5:2. So that it is the Christian religion that affords
its proselytes a universal empire. It is the Christian revelation that is the
great means of conquering the world, and gaining another that is most pure and
peaceful, blessed and eternal. It is there, in that revelation, that we see what
are the occasion and ground of the quarrel and contest between the holy God and
this rebellious world. It is there that we meet with sacred doctrine (both
speculative and practical), quite contrary to the tenour, temper, and tendency
of this world. It is by that doctrine that a spirit is communicated and diffused
which is superior and adverse to the spirit of the world. It is there we see
that the Saviour himself was not of this world that his kingdom was not and is
not so, that it must be separated from the world and gathered out of it for
heaven and for God. There we see that the Saviour designs not this world for the
inheritance and portion of his saved company. As he has gone to heaven himself,
so he assures them he goes to prepare for their residence there, as designing
they should always dwell with him, and allowing them to believe that if in this
life, and this world only, they had hope in him, they should at last be but
miserable. It is there that the eternal blessed world is most clearly revealed
and proposed to our affection and pursuit. It is there that we are furnished
with the best arms and artillery against the assaults and attempts of the world.
It is there that we are taught how the world may be out-shot in its own bow, or
its artillery turned against itself; and its oppositions, encounters, and
persecutions, be made serviceable to our conquest of the world, and to our
motion and ascent to the higher heavenly world: and there we are encouraged by a
whole army and cloud of holy soldiers, who have in their several ages, posts,
and stations, overcome the world, and won the crown. It is the real Christian
that is the proper hero, who vanquishes the world and rejoices in a universal
victory. Nor does he (for he is far superior to the Grecian monarch) mourn that
there is not another world to be subdued, but lays hold on the eternal world of
life, and in a sacred sense takes the kingdom of heaven by violence too. Who in
all the world but the believer on Jesus Christ can thus overcome the world?
The faith of the Christian believer (or the believer in Christ)
being thus mighty and victorious, it had need to be well founded, to be
furnished with unquestionable celestial evidence concerning the divine mission,
authority, and office of the Lord Jesus; and it is so; he brings his credentials
along with him, and he brings them in a way by which he came and in the witness
that attends him.
I. In the way and manner by which he came; not barely by which
he came into the world, but by and with which he came, and appeared, and acted,
as a Saviour in the world: This is he that came by water and blood. He
came to save us from our sins, to give us eternal life, and bring us to God;
and, that he might the more assuredly do this, he came by, or with, water
and blood. Even Jesus Christ; Jesus Christ, I say, did so; and none but he.
And I say it again, not by or with water only, but by and with water
and blood, v. 6. Jesus Christ came with water and blood, as the notes
and signatures of the true effectual Saviour of the world; and he came by water
and blood as the means by which he would heal and save us. That he must and did
thus come in his saving office may appear by our remembering these things:—
1. We are inwardly and outwardly defiled. (1.) Inwardly, by the
power and pollution off sin and in our nature. For our cleansing from this we
need spiritual water; such as can reach the soul and the powers of it.
Accordingly, there is in and by Christ Jesus the washing of regeneration and
the renewing of the Holy Ghost. And this was intimated to the apostles by
our Lord, when he washed their feet, and said to Peter, who refused to be
washed, Except I wash thee, thou hast no part in me. (2.) We are defiled
outwardly, by the guilt and condemning power of sin upon our persons. By this we
are separated from God, and banished from his favourable, gracious, beatific
presence for ever. From this we must be purged by atoning blood. It is the law
or determination in the court of heaven that without shedding of blood there
shall be no remission, Heb. 9:22. The Saviour from sin therefore must come
with blood.
2. Both these ways of cleansing were represented in the old
ceremonial institutions of God. Persons and things must be purified by water and
blood. There were divers washings and carnal ordinances imposed till the time
of reformation, Heb. 9:10. The ashes of a heifer, mixed with water, sprinkling
the unclean, sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh, Heb. 9:13; Num.
19:9. And likewise almost all things are, by the law, purged with blood,
Heb. 9:22. As those show us our double defilement, so they indicate the Saviour's
two-fold purgation.
3. At and upon the death of Jesus Christ, his side being pierced
with a soldier's spear, out of the wound there immediately issued water and
blood. This the beloved apostle saw, and he seems to have been affected with the
sight; he alone records it, and seems to reckon himself obliged to record it,
and seems to reckon himself obliged to record it, as containing something
mysterious in it: And he that saw it bore record, and his record is true. And
he knoweth, being an eye-witness, that he saith true, that you might
believe, and that you might believe this particularly, that out of his
pierced side forthwith there came water and blood, Jn. 19:34, 35. Now
this water and blood are comprehensive of all that is necessary and effectual to
our salvation. By the water our souls are washed and purified for heaven and the
region of saints in light. By the blood God is glorified, his law is honoured,
and his vindictive excellences are illustrated and displayed. Whom God hath
set forth, or purposed, or proposed, a propitiation through faith in his
blood, or a propitiation in or by his blood through faith, to declare his
righteousness, that he may be just, and the justifier of him that believeth in
Jesus, Rom. 3:25, 26. By the blood we are justified, reconciled, and
presented righteous to God. By the blood, the curse of the law being satisfied,
and purifying Spirit is obtained for the internal ablution of our natures. Christ
hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, that the blessing of Abraham might
come on the Gentiles, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit, the
promised Spirit, through faith, Gal. 3:13, etc. The water, as well as the
blood, issued out of the side of the sacrificed Redeemer. The water and the
blood then comprehend all things that can be requisite to our salvation. They
will consecrate and sanctify to that purpose all that God shall appoint or make
use of in order to that great end. He loved the church, and gave himself for
it, that he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word,
that he might present it to himself a glorious church, Eph. 5:25-27. He
who comes by water and blood is an accurate perfect Saviour. And this is he who
comes by water and blood, even Jesus Christ! Thus we see in what way and manner,
or, if you please, with what utensils, he comes. But we see his credentials
also,
II. In the witness that attends him, and that is, the divine
Spirit, that Spirit to whom the perfecting of the works of God is usually
attributed: And it is the Spirit that beareth witness, v. 6. It was meet
that the commissioned Saviour of the world should have a constant agent to
support his work, and testify of him to the world. It was meet that a divine
power should attend him, his gospel, and servants; and notify to the world upon
what errand and office they came, and by what authority they were sent: this was
done in and by the Spirit of God, according to the Saviour's own prediction, "He
shall glorify me, even when I shall be rejected and crucified by men, for
he shall receive or take of mine. He shall not receive my immediate
office; he shall not die and rise again for you; but he shall receive of
mine, shall proceed on the foundation I have laid, shall take up my
institution, and truth, and cause, and shall further show it unto you,
and by you to the world," Jn. 16:14. And then the apostle adds the
commendation or the acceptableness of this witness: Because the Spirit is
truth, v. 6. He is the Spirit of God, and cannot lie. There is a copy that
would afford us a very suitable reading thus: because, or that, Christ
is the truth. And so it indicates the matter of the Spirit's testimony,
the thing which he attests, and that is, the truth of Christ: And it is the
Spirit that beareth witness that Christ is the truth; and consequently that
Christianity, or the Christian religion, is the truth of the day, the truth of
God. But it is meet that one or two copies should alter the text; and our
present reading is very agreeable, and so we retain it. The Spirit is truth.
He is indeed the Spirit of truth, Jn. 14:17. And that the Spirit is truth, and a
witness worthy of all acceptation, appears in that he is a heavenly witness, or
one of the witnesses that in and from heaven bore testimony concerning the truth
and authority of Christ. Because (or for) there are three that bear
record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost, and these three are
one. And so v. 7 most appositely occurs, as a proof of the authenticity of
the Spirit's testimony; he must needs be true, or even truth itself, if he be
not only a witness in heaven, but even one (not in testimony only, for so
an angel may be, but in being and essence) with the Father and the Word.
But here,
1. We are stopped in our course by the contest there is about
the genuineness of v. 7. It is alleged that many old Greek manuscripts have it
not. We shall not here enter into the controversy. It should seem that the
critics are not agreed what manuscripts have it and what not; nor do they
sufficiently inform us of the integrity and value of the manuscripts they
peruse. Some may be so faulty, as I have an old printed Greek Testament so full
of errata, that one would think no critic would establish a various
lection thereupon. But let the judicious collators of copies manage that
business. There are some rational surmises that seem to support the present text
and reading. As,
(1.) If we admit v. 8, in the room of v. 7, it looks too like a
tautology and repetition of what was included in v. 6, This is he that came
by water and blood, not by water only, but by water and blood; and it is the
Spirit that beareth witness. For there are three that bear witness, the Spirit,
the water, and the blood. This does not assign near so noble an introduction
of these three witnesses as our present reading does.
(2.) It is observed that many copies read that distinctive
clause, upon the earth: There are three that bear record upon the earth.
Now this bears a visible opposition to some witness or witnesses elsewhere, and
therefore we are told, by the adversaries of the text, that this clause must be
supposed to be omitted in most books that want v. 7. But it should for the same
reason be so in all. Take we v. 6, This is he that came by water and blood.
And it is the Spirit that beareth witness, because the Spirit is truth. It
would not now naturally and properly be added, For there are three that bear
record on earth, unless we should suppose that the apostle would tell us
that all the witnesses are such as are on earth, when yet he would assure us
that one is infallibly true, or even truth itself.
(3.) It is observed that there is a variety of reading even in
the Greek text, as in v. 7. Some copies read hen
eisi—are one; others (at least the Complutensian) eis
to hen eisin—are to one, or agree in one; and in v. 8
(in that part that it is supposed should be admitted), instead of the common en
teµ geµ—in earth, the Complutensian reads epi
teµs geµs—upon earth, which seems to show that that
edition depended upon some Greek authority, and not merely, as some would have
us believe, upon the authority either of the vulgar Latin or of Thomas
Aquinas, though his testimony may be added thereto.
(4.) The seventh verse is very agreeable to the style and the
theology of our apostle; as, [1.] He delights in the title the Father,
whether he indicates thereby God only, or a divine person distinguished from the
Son. I and the Father are one. And Yet I am not alone; because the
Father is with me. I will pray the Father, and he shall give you
another comforter. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is
not in him. Grace be with you, and peace from God the Father, and from
the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of the Father, 2 Jn. 3. Then, [2.] The name the
Word is known to be almost (if not quite) peculiar to this apostle. Had the
text been devised by another, it had been more easy and obvious, from the form
of baptism, and the common language of the church, to have used the name Son
instead of that of the Word. As it is observed that Tertullian and
Cyprian use that name, even when they refer to this verse; or it is made an
objection against their referring to this verse, because they speak of the Son,
not the Word; and yet Cyprian's expression seems to be very clear by the
citation of Facundus himself. Quod Johannis apostoli testimonium beatus
Cyprianus, Carthaginensis antistes et martyr, in epistolâ
sive libro, quem de
Trinitate scripsit, de Patre, Filio, et Spiritu sancto dictum intelligit; ait
enim, Dicit Dominus, Ego et Pater unum sumus; et iterum de Patre, Filio, et
Spiritu sancto scriptum est, Et hi tres unum sunt.—Blessed Cyprian, the
Carthaginian bishop and martyr, in the epistle or book he wrote concerning the
Trinity, considered the testimony of the apostle John as relating to the Father,
the Son, and Holy Spirit; for he says, the Lord says, I and the Father are one;
and again, of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit it is written, And these
three are one. Now it is nowhere written that these are one, but in v. 7. It
is probable than that St. Cyprian, either depending on his memory, or rather
intending things more than words, persons more than names, or calling persons by
their names more usual in the church (both in popular and polemic discourses),
called the second by the name of the Son rather than of the Word.
If any man can admit Facundus's fancy, that Cyprian meant that the Spirit, the
water, and the blood, were indeed the Father, Word, and Spirit, that John said
were one, he may enjoy his opinion to himself. For, First, He must
suppose that Cyprian not only changed all the names, but the apostle's order
too. For the blood (the Son), which Cyprian puts second, the apostle puts last.
And, Secondly, He must suppose that Cyprian thought that by the blood
which issued out of the side of the Son the apostle intended the Son himself,
who might as well have been denoted by the water,—that by the water, which
also issued from the side of the Son, the apostle intended the person of the
Holy Ghost,—that by the Spirit, which in v. 6 is said to be truth, and in the
gospel is called the Spirit of truth, the apostle meant the person of the
Father, though he is nowhere else so called when joined with the Son and the
Holy Ghost. We require good proof that the Carthaginian father could so
understand the apostle. He who so understands him must believe too that the
Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, are said to be three witnesses on earth. Thirdly,
Facundus acknowledges that Cyprian says that of his three it is written, Et
hi tres unum sunt—and these three are one. Now these are the words, not of
v. 8, but of v. 7. They are not used concerning the three on earth, the Spirit,
the water, and the blood; but the three in heaven, the Father, and the Word, and
the Holy Ghost. So we are told that the author of the book De baptismo
haereticorum, allowed to be contemporary with Cyprian, cites John's words,
agreeably to the Greek manuscripts and the ancient versions, thus: Ait enim
Johannes de Domino nostro in epistolâ
nos docens, Hic es qui venit per aquam et
sanguinem, Jesus Christus, non in aquâ
tantum, sed in aquâ
et sanguine; et
Spiritus est qui testimonium perhibet, quia Spiritus est veritas; quia tres
testimonium perhibent, Spiritus et aqua et sanguis, et isti tres in unum sunt—For
John, in his epistle, says concerning our Lord, This is he, Jesus Christ, who
came by water and blood, not in water only, but in water and blood; and it is
the Spirit that bears witness, because the Spirit is truth; for there are three
that bear witness, the Spirit, the water, and the blood, and these three agree
in one. If all the Greek manuscripts and ancient versions say concerning the
Spirit, the water, and the blood, that in unum sunt—they agree in one,
then it was not of them that Cyprian spoke, whatever variety there might be in
the copies in his time, when he said it is written, unum sunt—they are one.
And therefore Cyprian's words seem still to be a firm testimony to v. 7, and
an intimation likewise that a forger of the text would have scarcely so exactly
hit upon the apostolical name for the second witness in heaven, the Word.
Them, [3.] As only this apostle records the history of the water and blood
flowing out of the Saviour's side, so it is he only, or he principally, who
registers to us the Saviour's promise and prediction of the Holy spirit's
coming to glorify him, and to testify of him, and to convince the world of its
own unbelief and of his righteousness, as in his gospel, ch. 14:16, 17, 26;
15:26; 16:7-15. It is most suitable then to the diction and to the gospel of
this apostle thus to mention the Holy Ghost as a witness for Jesus Christ. Then,
(5.) It was far more easy for a transcriber, by turning away his
eye, or by the obscurity of the copy, it being obliterated or defaced on the top
or bottom of a page, or worn away in such materials as the ancients had to write
upon, to lose and omit the passage, than for an interpolator to devise and
insert it. He must be very bold and impudent who could hope to escape detection
and shame; and profane too, who durst venture to make an addition to a supposed
sacred book. And,
(6.) It can scarcely be supposed that, when the apostle is
representing the Christian's faith in overcoming the world, and the foundation
it relies upon in adhering to Jesus Christ, and the various testimony that was
attended him, especially when we consider that he meant to infer, as he does (v.
9), If we receive the witness of men, the witness of God is greater; for this
(which he had rehearsed before) is the witness of God which he hath testified
of his Son. Now in the three witnesses on earth there is neither all the
witness of God, nor indeed any witness who is truly and immediately God. The
antitrinitarian opposers of the text will deny that either the Spirit, or the
water, or the blood, is God himself; but, upon our present reading, here is a
noble enumeration of the several witnesses and testimonies supporting the truth
of the Lord Jesus and the divinity of his institution. Here is the most
excellent abridgment or breviate of the motives to faith in Christ, of the
credentials the Saviour brings with him, and of the evidences of our
Christianity, that is to be found, I think, in the book of God, upon which
single account, even waiving the doctrine of the divine Trinity, the text is
worthy of all acceptation.
2. Having these rational grounds on out side, we proceed. The
apostle, having told us that the Spirit that bears witness to Christ is truth,
shows us that he is so, by assuring us that he is in heaven, and that there are
others also who cannot but be true, or truth itself, concurring in testimony
with him: For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the
Word, and the Holy Ghost, and these three are one, v. 7.
(1.) Here is a trinity of heavenly witnesses, such as have
testified and vouched to the world the veracity and authority of the Lord Jesus
in his office and claims, where, [1.] The first that occurs in order is the
Father; he set his seal to the commission of the Lord Christ all the while
he was here; more especially, First, In proclaiming him at his baptism,
Mt. 3:17. Secondly, In confirming his character at the transfiguration,
Mt. 17:5. Thirdly, In accompanying him with miraculous power and works: If
I do not the works of my Father, believe me not; but if I do, though you believe
not me, believe the works, that you may know and believe that the Father is in
me, and I in him, Jn. 10:37, 38. Fourthly, In avouching at his death,
Mt. 27:54. Fifthly, In raising him from the dead, and receiving him up to
his glory: He shall convince the world-of righteousness, because I go to my
Father, and you see me no more, Jn. 16:10, and Rom. 1:4. [2.] The second
witness in the Word, a mysterious name, importing the highest nature that
belongs to the Saviour of Jesus Christ, wherein he existed before the world was,
whereby he made the world, and whereby he was truly God with the Father. He must
bear witness to the human nature, or to the man Christ Jesus, in and by whom he
redeemed and saved us; and he bore witness, First, By the mighty works
that he wrought. Jn. 5:17, My Father worketh hitherto, and I work. Secondly,
In conferring a glory upon him at his transfiguration. And we beheld his
glory, the glory as of the only-begotten of the Father, Jn. 1:14. Thirdly,
In raising him from the dead. Jn. 2:19, Destroy this temple, and in three
days will I raise it up. [3.] The third witness is the Holy Ghost, or the
Holy Spirit, and august, venerable name, the possessor, proprietor, and author
of holiness. True and faithful must he be to whom the Spirit of holiness sets
his seal and solemn testimony. So he did to the Lord Jesus, the head of the
Christian world; and that in such instances as these:—First, In the
miraculous production of his immaculate human nature in the virgin's womb. The
Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, Lu. 1:35, etc. Secondly, In the
visible descent upon him at his baptism. The Holy Ghost descended in a bodily
shape, Lu. 3:22, etc. Thirdly, In an effectual conquest of the
spirits of hell and darkness. If I cast out devils by the Spirit of God, then
the kingdom of God has come unto you, Mt. 12:28. Fourthly, In the
visible potent descent upon the apostles, to furnish them with gifts and powers
to preach him and his gospel to the world after he himself had gone to heaven,
Acts 1:4, 5; 2:2-4, etc. Fifthly, In supporting the name, gospel, and
interest of Christ, by miraculous gifts and operations by and upon the
disciples, and in the churches, for two hundred years (1 Co. 12:7), concerning
which see Dr. Whitby's excellent discourse in the preface to the second volume
of his Commentary on the New Testament. These are witnesses in heaven;
and they bear record from heaven; and they are one, it should seem, not only in
testimony (for that is implied in their being three witnesses to one and the
same thing), but upon a higher account, as they are in heaven; they are one in
their heavenly being and essence; and, if one with the Father, they must be one
God.
(2.) To these there is opposed, though with them joined, a
trinity of witnesses on earth, such as continue here below: And there are
three that bear witness on earth, the spirit, the water, and the blood; and
these three agree in one, v. 8. [1.] Of these witnesses the first is the spirit.
This must be distinguished from the person of the Holy Ghost, who is in heaven.
We must say then, with the Saviour (according to what is reported by this
apostle), that which is born of the Spirit is spirit, Jn. 3:6. The
disciples of the Saviour are, as well as others, born after the flesh. They come
into the world endued with a corrupt carnal disposition, which is enmity to God.
This disposition must be mortified and abolished. A new nature must be
communicated. Old lusts and corruptions must be eradicated, and the true
disciple become a new creature. The regeneration or renovation of souls is a
testimony to the Saviour. It is his actual though initial salvation. It is a
testimony on earth, because it continues with the church here, and is not
performed in that conspicuous astonishing manner in which signs from heaven are
accomplished. To this Spirit belong not only the regeneration and conversion of
the church, but its progressive sanctification, victory over the world, her
peace, and love, and joy, and all that grace by which she is made meet for the
inheritance of the saints in light. [2.] The second is the water. This
was before considered as a means of salvation, now as a testimony to the Saviour
himself, and intimates his purity and purifying power. And so it seems to
comprehend, First, The purity of his own nature and conduct in the world.
He was holy, harmless, and undefiled. Secondly, The testimony of John's
baptism, who bore witness of him, prepared a people for him, and referred them
to him, Mk. 1:4, 7, 8. Thirdly, The purity of his own doctrine, by which
souls are purified and washed. Now you are clean through the word that I have
spoken unto you, Jn. 15:3. Fourthly, The actual and active purity and
holiness of his disciples. His body is the holy catholic church. Seeing you
have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit, 1 Pt.
1:22. And this signed and sealed by, Fifthly, The baptism that he has
appointed for the initiation or introduction of his disciples, in which he
signally (or by that sign) says, Except I wash thee, thou hast no part in me.
Not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good
conscience towards God, 1 Pt. 3:21. [3.] The third witness is the blood;
this he shed, and this was our ransom. This testifies for Jesus Christ, First,
In that it sealed up and finished the sacrifices of the Old Testament, Christ,
our Passover, was sacrificed for us. Secondly, In that it confirmed his own
predictions, and the truth of all his ministry and doctrine, Jn. 18:37. Thirdly,
In that it showed unparalleled love to God, in that he would die a sacrifice to
his honour and glory, in making atonement for the sins of the world, Jn. 14:30,
31. Fourthly, In that it demonstrated unspeakable love to us; and none
will deceive those whom they entirely love, Jn. 14:13-15. Fifthly, In
that it demonstrated the disinterestedness of the Lord Jesus as to any secular
interest and advantage. No impostor and deceiver ever proposes to himself
contempt and a violent cruel death, Jn. 18:36. Sixthly, In that it lays
obligation on his disciple to suffer and die for him. No deceiver would invite
proselytes to his side and interest at the rate that the Lord Jesus did. You
shall be hated of all men for my sake. They shall put you out of their
synagogues; and the time comes that whosoever kills you will think that he doeth
God service, Jn. 16:2. He frequently calls his servants to a conformity with
him in sufferings: Let us go forth therefore unto him without the camp,
bearing his reproach, Heb. 13:13. This shows that neither he nor his kingdom
is of this world. Seventhly, The benefits accruing and procured by his
blood (well understood) must immediately demonstrate that he is indeed the
Saviour of the world. And then, Eighthly, These are signified and sealed
in the institution of his own supper: This is my blood of the New Testament
(which ratifies the New Testament), which is shed for many, for the remission
of sins, Mt. 26:28. Such are the witnesses on earth. Such is the various
testimony given to the author of our religion. No wonder if the rejector of all
this evidence he judged as a blasphemer of the Spirit of God, and be left to
perish without remedy in his sins. These three witnesses (being more different
than the three former) are not so properly said to be one as to be for
one, to be for one and the same purpose and cause, or to agree in one,
in one and the same thing among themselves, and in the same testimony with those
who bear record from heaven.
III. The apostle justly concludes, If we receive the witness
of men, the witness of God is greater; for this is the witness of God, that he
hath testified of his Son, v. 9. Here we have, 1. A supposition well founded
upon the premises. Here is the witness of God, the witness whereby God
hath testified of his Son, which surely must intimate some immediate
irrefragable testimony, and that of the Father concerning his Son; he has by
himself proclaimed and avouched him to the world. 2. The authority and
acceptableness of his testimony; and that argued from the less to the greater: If
we receive the witness of men (and such testimony is and must be admitted in
all judicatories and in all nations), the witness of God is greater. It
is truth itself, of highest authority and most unquestionable infallibility. And
then there is, 3. The application of the rule to the present case: For this
is the witness, and here is the witness of God even of the Father, as
well as of the Word and Spirit, which he hath testified of, and wherein
he hath attested, his Son. God, that cannot lie, hath given sufficient
assurance to the world that Jesus Christ is his Son, the Son of his love, and
Son by office, to reconcile and recover the world unto himself; he testified
therefore the truth and divine origin of the Christian religion, and that it is
the sure appointed way and means of bringing us to God.
I. The privilege and stability of the real Christian: He that
believeth on the Son of God, hath been prevailed with unfeignedly to cleave
to him for salvation, hath the witness in himself, v. 10. He hath not
only the outward evidence that others have, but he hath in his own heart a
testimony for Jesus Christ. He can allege what Christ and the truth of Christ
have done for his soul and what he has seen and found in him. As, 1. He has
deeply seen his sin, and guilt, and misery, and his abundant need of such a
Saviour. 2. He has seen the excellency, beauty, and office of the Son of God,
and the incomparable suitableness of such a Saviour to all his spiritual wants
and sorrowful circumstances. 3. He sees and admires the wisdom and love of God
in preparing and sending such a Saviour to deliver him from sin and hell, and to
raise him to pardon, peace, and communion with God. 4. He has found and felt the
power of the word and doctrine of Christ, wounding, humbling, healing,
quickening, and comforting his soul. 5. He finds that the revelation of Christ,
as it is the greatest discovery and demonstration of the love of God, so it is
the most apt and powerful means of kindling, fomenting, and inflaming love to
the holy blessed God. 6. He is born of God by the truth of Christ, as v. 1. He
has a new heart and nature, a new love, disposition, and delight, and is not the
man that formerly he was. 7. He finds yet such a conflict with himself, with
sin, with the flesh, the world, and invisible wicked powers, as is described and
provided for in the doctrine of Christ. 8. He finds such prospects and such
strength afforded him by the faith of Christ, that he can despise and overcome
the world, and travel on towards a better. 9. He finds what interest the
Mediator has in heaven, by the audiency and prevalency of those prayers that are
sent thither in his name, according to his will, and through his intercession.
10. He is begotten again to a lively hope, to a holy confidence in God, in his
good-will and love, to a pleasant victory over terrors of conscience, dread of
death and hell, to a comfortable prospect of life and immortality, being
enriched with the earnest of the Spirit and sealed to the day of redemption.
Such assurance has the gospel believer; he has a witness in himself. Christ is
formed in him, and he is growing up to the fulness and perfection, or perfect
image of Christ, in heaven.
II. The aggravation of the unbeliever's sin, the sin of
unbelief: He that believeth not God hath made him a liar. He does, in
effect, give God the lie, because he believeth not the record that God gave
of his Son, v. 10. He must believe that God did not send his Son into the
world, when he has given us such manifold evidence that he did, or that Jesus
Christ was not the Son of God, when all that evidence relates to and terminates
upon him, or that he sent his Son to deceive the world and to lead it into error
and misery, or that he permits men to devise a religion which, in all the parts
of it, is a pure, holy, heavenly, undefiled institution, and so worthy to be
embraced by the reason of mankind, and yet is but a delusion and a lie, and then
lends them his Spirit and power to recommend and obtrude it upon the world,
which is to make God the Father, the author and abettor, of the lie.
III. The matter, the substance, or contents of all this divine
testimony concerning Jesus Christ: And this is the record, that God hath
given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son, v. 11. This is the
sum of the gospel. This is the sum and epitome of the whole record given us by
all the aforesaid six witnesses. 1. That God hath given to us eternal life.
He has designed it for us in his eternal purpose. He has prepared all the means
that are necessary to bring us to it. He has made it over to us by his covenant
and promise. And he actually confers a right and title thereto on all who
believe on and actually embrace the Son of God. Then, 2. This life is in the
Son. The Son is life; eternal life in his own essence and person, Jn. 1:4; 1
Jn. 1:2. He is eternal life to us, the spring of our spiritual and glorious
life, Col. 3:4. From him life is communicated to us, both here in heaven. And
thereupon it must follow, (1.) He that hath the Son hath life, v. 12. He
that is united to the Son is united to life. He who hath a title to the Son hath
a title to life, to eternal life. Such honour hath the Father put upon the Son:
such honour must we put upon him too. We must come and kiss the Son, and we
shall have life. (2.) He that hath not the Son of God hath not life, v.
12. He continues under the condemnation of the law (Jn. 3:36); he refuses the
Son, who is life itself, who is the procurer of life, and the way to it; he
provokes God to deliver him over to endless death for making him a liar, since
he believes not this record that God hath given concerning his Son.
IV. The end and reason of the apostle's preaching this to
believers. 1. For their satisfaction and comfort: These things have I written
unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you
have eternal life, v. 13. Upon all this evidence, and these witnesses, it is
but just and meet that there should be those who believe on the name of the Son
of God. God increase their number! How much testimony from heaven has the world
to answer for! And to three witnesses in heaven must the world be accountable.
These believers have eternal life. They have it in the covenant of the gospel,
in the beginning and first-fruits of it within them, and in their Lord and head
in heaven. These believers may come to know that they have eternal life, and
should be quickened, encouraged, and comforted, in the prospect of it: and they
should value the scriptures, which are so much written for their consolation and
salvation. 2. For their confirmation and progress in their holy faith: And
that you may believe on the name of the Son of God (v. 13), may go on
believing. Believers must persevere, or they do nothing. To withdraw from
believing on the name of the Son of God is to renounce eternal life, and draw
back unto perdition. Therefore the evidences of religion and the advantage of
faith are to be presented to believers, in order to hearten and encourage them
to persevere to the end.
I. A privilege belonging to faith in Christ, namely, audience in
prayer: This is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask any thing
according to his will, he heareth us, v. 14. The Lord Christ emboldens us to
come to God in all circumstances, with all our supplications and requests.
Through him our petitions are admitted and accepted of God. The matter of our
prayer must be agreeable to the declared will of God. It is not fit that we
should ask what is contrary either to his majesty and glory or to our own good,
who are his and dependent on him. And then we may have confidence that the
prayer of faith shall be heard in heaven.
II. The advantage accruing to us by such privilege: If we
know that he heareth us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions
that we desired of him, v. 15. Great are the deliverances, mercies, and
blessings, which the holy petitioner needs. To know that his petitions are heard
or accepted is as good as to know that they are answered; and therefore that he
is so pitied, pardoned, or counselled, sanctified, assisted, and saved (or shall
be so) as he is allowed to ask of God.
III. Direction in prayer in reference to the sins of others: If
any man see his brother sin a sin which is not unto death, he shall ask, and he
shall give him life for those that sin not unto death. There is a sin unto
death: I do not say that he shall pray for it, v. 16. Here we may observe,
1. We ought to pray for others as well as for ourselves; for our brethren of
mankind, that they may be enlightened, converted, and saved; for our brethren in
the Christian profession, that they may be sincere, that their sins may be
pardoned, and that they may be delivered from evils and the chastisements of
God, and preserved in Christ Jesus. 2. There is a great distinction in the
heinousness and guilt of sin: There is a sin unto death (v. 16), and
there is a sin not unto death, v. 17. (1.) There is a sin unto death.
All sin, as to the merit and legal sentence of it, is unto death. The wages
of sin is death; and cursed is every one that continueth not in all
things that are written in the book of the law, to do them, Gal. 3:10. But
there is a sin unto death in opposition to such sin as is here said not to be
unto death. There is therefore, (2.) A sin not unto death. This
surely must include all such sin as by divine or human constitution may consist
with life; in the human constitution with temporal or corporal life, in the
divine constitution with corporal or with spiritual evangelical life. [1.] There
are sins which, by human righteous constitution, are not unto death; as divers
pieces of injustice, which may be compensated without the death of the
delinquent. In opposition to this there are sins which, by righteous
constitution, are to death, or to a legal forfeiture of life; such as we call capital
crimes. [2.] Then there are sins which, by divine constitution, are unto
death; and that either death corporal or spiritual and evangelical. First,
Such as are, or may be, to death corporal. Such may the sins be either of gross
hypocrites, as Ananias and Sapphira, or, for aught we know, of sincere Christian
brethren, as when the apostle says of the offending members of the church of
Corinth, For this cause many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep,
1 Co. 11:30. There may be sin unto corporal death among those who may not be
condemned with the world. Such sin, I said, is, or may be, to corporal death.
The divine penal constitution in the gospel does not positively and peremptorily
threaten death to the more visible sins of the members of Christ, but only some
gospel-chastisement; for whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth
every son whom he receiveth, Heb. 12:6. There is room left for divine wisdom
or goodness, or even gospel severity, to determine how far the chastisement or
the scourge shall proceed. And we cannot say but that sometimes it may (in
terrorem—for warning to others) proceed even to death. Then, Secondly,
There are sins which, by divine constitution, are unto death spiritual and
evangelical, that is, are inconsistent with spiritual and evangelical life, with
spiritual life in the soul and with an evangelical right to life above. Such are
total impenitence and unbelief for the present. Final impenitence and unbelief
are infallibly to death eternal, as also a blaspheming of the Spirit of God in
the testimony that he has given to Christ and his gospel, and a total apostasy
from the light and convictive evidence of the truth of the Christian religion.
These are sins involving the guilt of everlasting death. Then comes,
IV. The application of the direction for prayer according to the
different sorts of sin thus distinguished. The prayer is supposed to be for
life: He shall ask, and he (God) shall give them life. Life is to
be asked of God. He is the God of life; he gives it when and to whom he pleases,
and takes it away either by his constitution or providence, or both, as he
thinks meet. In the case of a brother's sin, which is not (in the manner
already mentioned) unto death, we may in faith and hope pray for him; and
particularly for the life of soul and body. But, in case of the sin unto death
in the forementioned ways, we have no allowance to pray. Perhaps the apostle's
expression, I do not say, He shall pray for it, may intend no more than,
"I have no promise for you in that case; no foundation for the prayer of
faith." 1. The laws of punitive justice must be executed, for the common
safety and benefit of mankind: and even an offending brother in such a case must
be resigned to public justice (which in the foundation of it is divine), and at
the same time also to the mercy of God. 2. The removal of evangelical penalties
(as they may be called), or the prevention of death (which may seem to be so
consequential upon, or inflicted for, some particular sin), can be prayed for
only conditionally or provisionally, that is, with proviso that it consist with
the wisdom, will, and glory of God that they should be removed, and particularly
such death prevented. 3. We cannot pray that the sins of the impenitent and
unbelieving should, while they are such, be forgiven them, or that any mercy of
life or soul, that suppose the forgiveness of sin, should be granted to them,
while they continue such. But we may pray for their repentance (supposing them
but in the common case of the impenitent world), for their being enriched with
faith in Christ, and thereupon for all other saving mercies. 4. In case it
should appear that any have committed the irremissible blasphemy against the
Holy Ghost, and the total apostasy from the illuminating convictive powers of
the Christian religion, it should seem that they are not to be prayed for at
all. For what remains but a certain fearful expectation of judgment, to
consume such adversaries? Heb. 10:27. And these last seem to be the sins
chiefly intended by the apostle by the name of sins unto death. Then, 5.
The apostle seems to argue that there is sin that is not unto death; thus, All
unrighteousness is sin (v. 17); but, were all unrighteousness unto death
(since we have all some unrighteousness towards God or man, or both, in omitting
and neglecting something that is their due), then we were all peremptorily bound
over to death, and, since it is not so (the Christian brethren, generally
speaking, having right to life), there must be sin that is not to death. Though
there is no venial sin (in the common acceptation), there is pardoned sin, sin
that does not involve a plenary obligation to eternal death. If it were not so,
there could be no justification nor continuance of the justified state. The
gospel constitution or covenant abbreviates, abridges, or rescinds the guilt of
sin.
I. A recapitulation of the privileges and advantages of sound
Christian believers. 1. They are secured against sin, against the fulness of its
dominion or the fulness of its guilt: We know that whosoever is born of God
(and the believer in Christ is born of God, v. 1) sinneth not (v. 18), sinneth
not with that fulness of heart and spirit that the unregenerate do (as was
said ch. 3:6, 9), and consequently not with that fulness of guilt that attends
the sins of others; and so he is secured against that sin which is unavoidably
unto death, or which infallibly binds the sinner over unto the wages of eternal
death; the new nature, and the inhabitation of the divine Spirit thereby,
prevent the admission of such unpardonable sin. 2. They are fortified against
the devil's destructive attempts: He that is begotten of God keepeth
himself, that is, is enabled to guard himself, and the wicked one
toucheth him not (v. 18), that is, that the wicked one may not touch him,
namely, to death. It seems not to be barely a narration of the duty or the
practice of the regenerate; but an indication of their power by virtue of their
regeneration. They are thereby prepared and principled against the fatal
touches, the sting, of the wicked one; he touches not their souls, to infuse his
venom there a he does in others, or to expel that regenerative principle which
is an antidote to his poison, or to induce them to that sin which by the gospel
constitution conveys an indissoluble obligation to eternal death. He may prevail
too far with them, to draw them to some acts of sin; but it seems to be the
design of the apostle to assert that their regeneration secures them from such
assaults of the devil as will bring them into the same case and actual
condemnation with the devil. 3. they are on God's side and interest, in
opposition to the state of the world: And we know that we are of God, and the
whole world lieth in wickedness, v. 19. Mankind are divided into two great
parties of dominions, that which belongs to God and that which belongs to
wickedness or to the wicked one. The Christian believers belong to God. They are
of God, and from him, and to him, and for him. They succeed into the right and
room of the ancient Israel of God, of whom it is said, The Lord's people is
his portion, his estate in this world; Jacob is the lot of his
inheritance, the dividend that has fallen to him by the lot of his own
determination (Deu. 32:9); while, on the contrary, the whole world, the
rest, being by far the major part, lieth in wickedness, in the jaws in
the bowels of the wicked one. There are, indeed, were we to consider the
individuals, many wicked ones, many wicked spirits, in the heavenly or the
ethereal places; but they are united in wicked nature, policy, and principle,
and they are united also in one head. there is the prince of the devils and of
the diabolical kingdom. There is a head of the malignity and of the malignant
world; and he has such sway here that he is called the god of this world.
Strange that such a knowing spirit should be so implacably incensed against the
Almighty and all his interests, when he cannot but know that it must end in his
own overthrow and everlasting damnation! How tremendous is the judgment of God
upon that wicked one! May the God of the Christian world continually demolish
his dominion in this world, and translate souls into the kingdom of his dear
Son! 4. They are enlightened in the knowledge of the true eternal God: "And
we know that the Son of God has come, and has given as an understanding, that we
may know him that is true, v. 20. The Son of God has come into our world,
and we have seen him, and know him by all the evidence that has already been
asserted; he has revealed unto us the true God (as Jn. 1:18), and he has opened
our minds too to understand that revelation, given us an internal light in our
understandings, whereby we may discern the glories of the true God; and we are
assured that it is the true God that he hath discovered to us. He is infinitely
superior in purity, power, and perfection, to all the gods of the Gentiles. He
has all the excellences, beauties, and riches, of the living and true God. It is
the same God that, according to Moses's account, made the heavens and the
earth, the same who took our fathers and patriarchs into peculiar covenant with
himself, the same who brought our ancestors out of Egypt, who gave us the fiery
law upon mount Sinai, who gave us his holy oracles, promised the call and
conversion of the Gentiles. By his counsels and works, by his love and grace, by
his terrors and judgments, we know that he, and he alone, in the fulness of his
being, is the living and true God." It is a great happiness to know the
true God, to know him in Christ; it is eternal lie, Jn. 17:3. It is the glory of
the Christian revelation that it gives the best account of the true God, and
administers the best eye-salve for our discerning the living and true God. 5.
They have a happy union with God and his Son: "And we are in him that is
true, even (or and) in his Son Jesus Christ, v. 20. The Son leads us
to the Father, and we are in both, in the love and favour of both, in covenant
and federal alliance with both, in spiritual conjunction with both by the
inhabitation and operation of their Spirit: and, that you may know how great a
dignity and felicity this is, you must remember that this true one is the
true God and eternal life" or rather (as it should seem a more natural
construction), "This same Son of God is himself also the true God and
eternal life" (Jn. 1:1, and here, ch. 1:2), "so that in union with
either, much more with both, we are united to the true God and eternal life."
Then we have,
II. The apostle's concluding monition: "Little children"
(dear children, as it has been interpreted), "keep yourselves from
idols, v. 21. Since you know the true God, and are in him, let your light
and love guard you against all that is advanced in opposition to him, or
competition with him. Flee from the false gods of the heathen world. They are
not comparable to the God whose you are and whom you serve. Adore not your God
by statues and images, which share in his worship. Your God is an
incomprehensible Spirit, and is disgraced by such sordid representations. Hold
no communion with your heathen neighbours in their idolatrous worship. Your God
is jealous, and would have you come out, and be separated from among them;
mortify the flesh, and be crucified to the world, that they may not usurp the
throne of dominion in the heart, which is due only to God. The God whom you have
known is he who made you, who redeemed you by his Son, who has sent his gospel
to you, who has pardoned your sins, begotten you unto himself by his Spirit, and
given you eternal life. Cleave to him in faith, and love, and constant
obedience, in opposition to all things that would alienate your mind and heart
from God. To this living and true God be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen."
1 John 5 Bible Commentary
Matthew Henry Bible Commentary (complete)
In this chapter the apostle asserts, I. The dignity of believers (v. 1). II. Their obligation to love, and the trial of it (v. 1-3). III. Their victory (v. 4, 5). IV. The credibility and confirmation of their faith (v. 6-10). V. The advantage of their faith in eternal life (v. 11-13). VI. The audience of their prayers, unless for those who have sinned unto death (v. 14-17). VII. The preservation from sin and Satan (v. 18). VIII. Their happy distinction from the world (v. 19). IX. Their true knowledge of God (v. 20), upon which they must depart from idols (v. 21).
Verses 1-5
I. The apostle having, in the conclusion of the last chapter, as was there observed, urged Christian love upon those two accounts, as suitable to Christian profession and as suitable to the divine command, here adds a third: Such love is suitable, and indeed demanded, by their eminent relation; our Christian brethren or fellow-believers are nearly related to God; they are his children: Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, v. 1. Here the Christian brother is, 1. Described by his faith; he that believeth that Jesus is the Christ—that he is Messiah the prince, that he is the Son of God by nature and office, that he is the chief of all the anointed world, chief of all the priests, prophets, or kings, who were ever anointed by God or for him, that he is perfectly prepared and furnished for the whole work of the eternal salvation-accordingly yields himself up to his care and direction; and then he is, 2. Dignified by his descent: He is born of God, v. 1. This principle of faith, and the new nature that attends it or from which it springs, are ingenerated by the Spirit of God; and so sonship and adoption are not now appropriated to the seed of Abraham according to the flesh, not to the ancient Israel of God; all believers, though by nature sinners of the Gentiles, are spiritually descended from God, and accordingly are to be beloved; as it is added: Every one that loveth him that begat loveth him also that is begotten of him, v. 1. It seems but natural that he who loves the Father should love the children also, and that in some proportion to their resemblance to their Father and to the Father's love to them; and so we must first and principally love the Son of the Father, as he is most emphatically styled, 2 Jn. 3, the only (necessarily) begotten, and the Son of his love, and then those that are voluntarily begotten, and renewed by the Spirit of grace.
II. The apostle shows, 1. How we may discern the truth, or the true evangelical nature of our love to the regenerate. The ground of it must be our love to God, whose they are: By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God, v. 2. Our love to them appears to be sound and genuine when we love them not merely upon any secular account, as because they are rich, or learned, or kind to us, or of our denomination among religious parties; but because they are God's children, his regenerating grace appears in them, his image and superscription are upon them, and so in them God himself is loved. Thus we see what that love to the brethren is that is so pressed in this epistle; it is love to them as the children of God and the adopted brethren of the Lord Jesus. 2. How we may learn the truth of our love to God—it appears in our holy obedience: When we love God, and keep his commandments, v. 2. Then we truly, and in gospel account, love God, when we keep his commandments: For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments; and the keeping of his commandments requires a spirit inclined thereto and delighting herein; and so his commandments are not grievous, v. 3. Or, This is the love of God, that, as thereby we are determined to obedience, and to keep the commandments of God, so his commandments are thereby made easy and pleasant to us. The lover of God says, "O how I love thy law! I will run the way of thy commandments, when thou shalt enlarge my heart (Ps. 119:32), when thou shalt enlarge it either with love or with thy Spirit, the spring of love." 3. What is and ought to be the result and effect of regeneration—an intellectual spiritual conquest of this world: For whatsoever is born of God, or, as in some copies, whosoever is born of God, overcometh the world, v. 4. He that is born of God is born for God, and consequently for another world. He has a temper and disposition that tend to a higher and better world; and he is furnished with such arms, or such a weapon, whereby he can repel and conquer this; as it is added, And this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith, v. 4. Faith is the cause of victory, the means, the instrument, the spiritual armour and artillery by which we overcome; for, (1.) In and by faith we cleave to Christ, in contempt of, and opposition to, the world. (2.) Faith works in and by love to God and Christ, and so withdraws us from the love of the world. (3.) Faith sanctifies the heart, and purifies it from those sensual lusts by which the world obtains such sway and dominion over souls. (4.) It receives and derives strength from the object of it, the Son of God, for conquering the frowns and flatteries of the world. (5.) It obtains by gospel promise a right to the indwelling Spirit of grace, that is greater than he who dwells in the world. (6.) It sees an invisible world at hand, with which this world is not worthy to be compared, and into which it tells the soul in which it resides it must be continually prepared to enter; and thereupon,
III. The apostle concludes that it is the real Christian that is the true conqueror of the world: Who is he then that overcometh the world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God? v. 5. It is the world that lies in our way to heaven, and is the great impediment to our entrance there. But he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God believes therein that Jesus Came from God to be the Saviour of the world, and powerfully to conduct us from the world to heaven, and to God, who is fully to be enjoyed there. And he who so believes must needs by this faith overcome the world. For, 1. He must be well satisfied that this world is a vehement enemy to his soul, to his holiness, his salvation, and his blessedness. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world, ch. 2:16. 2. He sees it must be a great part of the Saviour's work, and of his own salvation, to be redeemed and rescued from this malignant world. Who gave himself for our sins, that he might deliver us from this present evil world, Gal. 1:4. 3. He sees in and by the life and conduct of the Lord Jesus on earth that this world is to be renounced and overcome. 4. He perceives that the Lord Jesus conquered the world, not for himself only, but for his followers; and they must study to be partakers of his victory. Be of good cheer, I have overcome the world. 5. He is taught and influenced by the Lord Jesus's death to be mortified and crucified to the world. God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified to me, and I unto the world, Gal. 6:14. 6. He is begotten by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead to the lively hope of a blessed world above, 1 Pt. 1:3. 7. He knows that the Saviour has gone to heaven, and is there preparing a place for his serious believers, Jn. 14:2. 8. He knows that his Saviour will come again thence, and will put an end to this world, and judge the inhabitants of it, and receive his believers to his presence and glory, Jn. 14:3. 9. He is possessed with a spirit and disposition that cannot be satisfied with this world, that look beyond it, and are still tending, striving, and pressing, towards the world in heaven. In this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our house which is from heaven, 2 Co. 5:2. So that it is the Christian religion that affords its proselytes a universal empire. It is the Christian revelation that is the great means of conquering the world, and gaining another that is most pure and peaceful, blessed and eternal. It is there, in that revelation, that we see what are the occasion and ground of the quarrel and contest between the holy God and this rebellious world. It is there that we meet with sacred doctrine (both speculative and practical), quite contrary to the tenour, temper, and tendency of this world. It is by that doctrine that a spirit is communicated and diffused which is superior and adverse to the spirit of the world. It is there we see that the Saviour himself was not of this world that his kingdom was not and is not so, that it must be separated from the world and gathered out of it for heaven and for God. There we see that the Saviour designs not this world for the inheritance and portion of his saved company. As he has gone to heaven himself, so he assures them he goes to prepare for their residence there, as designing they should always dwell with him, and allowing them to believe that if in this life, and this world only, they had hope in him, they should at last be but miserable. It is there that the eternal blessed world is most clearly revealed and proposed to our affection and pursuit. It is there that we are furnished with the best arms and artillery against the assaults and attempts of the world. It is there that we are taught how the world may be out-shot in its own bow, or its artillery turned against itself; and its oppositions, encounters, and persecutions, be made serviceable to our conquest of the world, and to our motion and ascent to the higher heavenly world: and there we are encouraged by a whole army and cloud of holy soldiers, who have in their several ages, posts, and stations, overcome the world, and won the crown. It is the real Christian that is the proper hero, who vanquishes the world and rejoices in a universal victory. Nor does he (for he is far superior to the Grecian monarch) mourn that there is not another world to be subdued, but lays hold on the eternal world of life, and in a sacred sense takes the kingdom of heaven by violence too. Who in all the world but the believer on Jesus Christ can thus overcome the world?
Verses 6-9
The faith of the Christian believer (or the believer in Christ) being thus mighty and victorious, it had need to be well founded, to be furnished with unquestionable celestial evidence concerning the divine mission, authority, and office of the Lord Jesus; and it is so; he brings his credentials along with him, and he brings them in a way by which he came and in the witness that attends him.
I. In the way and manner by which he came; not barely by which he came into the world, but by and with which he came, and appeared, and acted, as a Saviour in the world: This is he that came by water and blood. He came to save us from our sins, to give us eternal life, and bring us to God; and, that he might the more assuredly do this, he came by, or with, water and blood. Even Jesus Christ; Jesus Christ, I say, did so; and none but he. And I say it again, not by or with water only, but by and with water and blood, v. 6. Jesus Christ came with water and blood, as the notes and signatures of the true effectual Saviour of the world; and he came by water and blood as the means by which he would heal and save us. That he must and did thus come in his saving office may appear by our remembering these things:—
1. We are inwardly and outwardly defiled. (1.) Inwardly, by the power and pollution off sin and in our nature. For our cleansing from this we need spiritual water; such as can reach the soul and the powers of it. Accordingly, there is in and by Christ Jesus the washing of regeneration and the renewing of the Holy Ghost. And this was intimated to the apostles by our Lord, when he washed their feet, and said to Peter, who refused to be washed, Except I wash thee, thou hast no part in me. (2.) We are defiled outwardly, by the guilt and condemning power of sin upon our persons. By this we are separated from God, and banished from his favourable, gracious, beatific presence for ever. From this we must be purged by atoning blood. It is the law or determination in the court of heaven that without shedding of blood there shall be no remission, Heb. 9:22. The Saviour from sin therefore must come with blood.
2. Both these ways of cleansing were represented in the old ceremonial institutions of God. Persons and things must be purified by water and blood. There were divers washings and carnal ordinances imposed till the time of reformation, Heb. 9:10. The ashes of a heifer, mixed with water, sprinkling the unclean, sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh, Heb. 9:13; Num. 19:9. And likewise almost all things are, by the law, purged with blood, Heb. 9:22. As those show us our double defilement, so they indicate the Saviour's two-fold purgation.
3. At and upon the death of Jesus Christ, his side being pierced with a soldier's spear, out of the wound there immediately issued water and blood. This the beloved apostle saw, and he seems to have been affected with the sight; he alone records it, and seems to reckon himself obliged to record it, and seems to reckon himself obliged to record it, as containing something mysterious in it: And he that saw it bore record, and his record is true. And he knoweth, being an eye-witness, that he saith true, that you might believe, and that you might believe this particularly, that out of his pierced side forthwith there came water and blood, Jn. 19:34, 35. Now this water and blood are comprehensive of all that is necessary and effectual to our salvation. By the water our souls are washed and purified for heaven and the region of saints in light. By the blood God is glorified, his law is honoured, and his vindictive excellences are illustrated and displayed. Whom God hath set forth, or purposed, or proposed, a propitiation through faith in his blood, or a propitiation in or by his blood through faith, to declare his righteousness, that he may be just, and the justifier of him that believeth in Jesus, Rom. 3:25, 26. By the blood we are justified, reconciled, and presented righteous to God. By the blood, the curse of the law being satisfied, and purifying Spirit is obtained for the internal ablution of our natures. Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, that the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit, the promised Spirit, through faith, Gal. 3:13, etc. The water, as well as the blood, issued out of the side of the sacrificed Redeemer. The water and the blood then comprehend all things that can be requisite to our salvation. They will consecrate and sanctify to that purpose all that God shall appoint or make use of in order to that great end. He loved the church, and gave himself for it, that he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word, that he might present it to himself a glorious church, Eph. 5:25-27. He who comes by water and blood is an accurate perfect Saviour. And this is he who comes by water and blood, even Jesus Christ! Thus we see in what way and manner, or, if you please, with what utensils, he comes. But we see his credentials also,
II. In the witness that attends him, and that is, the divine Spirit, that Spirit to whom the perfecting of the works of God is usually attributed: And it is the Spirit that beareth witness, v. 6. It was meet that the commissioned Saviour of the world should have a constant agent to support his work, and testify of him to the world. It was meet that a divine power should attend him, his gospel, and servants; and notify to the world upon what errand and office they came, and by what authority they were sent: this was done in and by the Spirit of God, according to the Saviour's own prediction, "He shall glorify me, even when I shall be rejected and crucified by men, for he shall receive or take of mine. He shall not receive my immediate office; he shall not die and rise again for you; but he shall receive of mine, shall proceed on the foundation I have laid, shall take up my institution, and truth, and cause, and shall further show it unto you, and by you to the world," Jn. 16:14. And then the apostle adds the commendation or the acceptableness of this witness: Because the Spirit is truth, v. 6. He is the Spirit of God, and cannot lie. There is a copy that would afford us a very suitable reading thus: because, or that, Christ is the truth. And so it indicates the matter of the Spirit's testimony, the thing which he attests, and that is, the truth of Christ: And it is the Spirit that beareth witness that Christ is the truth; and consequently that Christianity, or the Christian religion, is the truth of the day, the truth of God. But it is meet that one or two copies should alter the text; and our present reading is very agreeable, and so we retain it. The Spirit is truth. He is indeed the Spirit of truth, Jn. 14:17. And that the Spirit is truth, and a witness worthy of all acceptation, appears in that he is a heavenly witness, or one of the witnesses that in and from heaven bore testimony concerning the truth and authority of Christ. Because (or for) there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost, and these three are one. And so v. 7 most appositely occurs, as a proof of the authenticity of the Spirit's testimony; he must needs be true, or even truth itself, if he be not only a witness in heaven, but even one (not in testimony only, for so an angel may be, but in being and essence) with the Father and the Word. But here,
1. We are stopped in our course by the contest there is about the genuineness of v. 7. It is alleged that many old Greek manuscripts have it not. We shall not here enter into the controversy. It should seem that the critics are not agreed what manuscripts have it and what not; nor do they sufficiently inform us of the integrity and value of the manuscripts they peruse. Some may be so faulty, as I have an old printed Greek Testament so full of errata, that one would think no critic would establish a various lection thereupon. But let the judicious collators of copies manage that business. There are some rational surmises that seem to support the present text and reading. As,
(1.) If we admit v. 8, in the room of v. 7, it looks too like a tautology and repetition of what was included in v. 6, This is he that came by water and blood, not by water only, but by water and blood; and it is the Spirit that beareth witness. For there are three that bear witness, the Spirit, the water, and the blood. This does not assign near so noble an introduction of these three witnesses as our present reading does.
(2.) It is observed that many copies read that distinctive clause, upon the earth: There are three that bear record upon the earth. Now this bears a visible opposition to some witness or witnesses elsewhere, and therefore we are told, by the adversaries of the text, that this clause must be supposed to be omitted in most books that want v. 7. But it should for the same reason be so in all. Take we v. 6, This is he that came by water and blood. And it is the Spirit that beareth witness, because the Spirit is truth. It would not now naturally and properly be added, For there are three that bear record on earth, unless we should suppose that the apostle would tell us that all the witnesses are such as are on earth, when yet he would assure us that one is infallibly true, or even truth itself.
(3.) It is observed that there is a variety of reading even in the Greek text, as in v. 7. Some copies read hen eisi—are one; others (at least the Complutensian) eis to hen eisin—are to one, or agree in one; and in v. 8 (in that part that it is supposed should be admitted), instead of the common en teµ geµ—in earth, the Complutensian reads epi teµs geµs—upon earth, which seems to show that that edition depended upon some Greek authority, and not merely, as some would have us believe, upon the authority either of the vulgar Latin or of Thomas Aquinas, though his testimony may be added thereto.
(4.) The seventh verse is very agreeable to the style and the theology of our apostle; as, [1.] He delights in the title the Father, whether he indicates thereby God only, or a divine person distinguished from the Son. I and the Father are one. And Yet I am not alone; because the Father is with me. I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another comforter. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. Grace be with you, and peace from God the Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of the Father, 2 Jn. 3. Then, [2.] The name the Word is known to be almost (if not quite) peculiar to this apostle. Had the text been devised by another, it had been more easy and obvious, from the form of baptism, and the common language of the church, to have used the name Son instead of that of the Word. As it is observed that Tertullian and Cyprian use that name, even when they refer to this verse; or it is made an objection against their referring to this verse, because they speak of the Son, not the Word; and yet Cyprian's expression seems to be very clear by the citation of Facundus himself. Quod Johannis apostoli testimonium beatus Cyprianus, Carthaginensis antistes et martyr, in epistolâ sive libro, quem de Trinitate scripsit, de Patre, Filio, et Spiritu sancto dictum intelligit; ait enim, Dicit Dominus, Ego et Pater unum sumus; et iterum de Patre, Filio, et Spiritu sancto scriptum est, Et hi tres unum sunt.—Blessed Cyprian, the Carthaginian bishop and martyr, in the epistle or book he wrote concerning the Trinity, considered the testimony of the apostle John as relating to the Father, the Son, and Holy Spirit; for he says, the Lord says, I and the Father are one; and again, of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit it is written, And these three are one. Now it is nowhere written that these are one, but in v. 7. It is probable than that St. Cyprian, either depending on his memory, or rather intending things more than words, persons more than names, or calling persons by their names more usual in the church (both in popular and polemic discourses), called the second by the name of the Son rather than of the Word. If any man can admit Facundus's fancy, that Cyprian meant that the Spirit, the water, and the blood, were indeed the Father, Word, and Spirit, that John said were one, he may enjoy his opinion to himself. For, First, He must suppose that Cyprian not only changed all the names, but the apostle's order too. For the blood (the Son), which Cyprian puts second, the apostle puts last. And, Secondly, He must suppose that Cyprian thought that by the blood which issued out of the side of the Son the apostle intended the Son himself, who might as well have been denoted by the water,—that by the water, which also issued from the side of the Son, the apostle intended the person of the Holy Ghost,—that by the Spirit, which in v. 6 is said to be truth, and in the gospel is called the Spirit of truth, the apostle meant the person of the Father, though he is nowhere else so called when joined with the Son and the Holy Ghost. We require good proof that the Carthaginian father could so understand the apostle. He who so understands him must believe too that the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, are said to be three witnesses on earth. Thirdly, Facundus acknowledges that Cyprian says that of his three it is written, Et hi tres unum sunt—and these three are one. Now these are the words, not of v. 8, but of v. 7. They are not used concerning the three on earth, the Spirit, the water, and the blood; but the three in heaven, the Father, and the Word, and the Holy Ghost. So we are told that the author of the book De baptismo haereticorum, allowed to be contemporary with Cyprian, cites John's words, agreeably to the Greek manuscripts and the ancient versions, thus: Ait enim Johannes de Domino nostro in epistolâ nos docens, Hic es qui venit per aquam et sanguinem, Jesus Christus, non in aquâ tantum, sed in aquâ et sanguine; et Spiritus est qui testimonium perhibet, quia Spiritus est veritas; quia tres testimonium perhibent, Spiritus et aqua et sanguis, et isti tres in unum sunt—For John, in his epistle, says concerning our Lord, This is he, Jesus Christ, who came by water and blood, not in water only, but in water and blood; and it is the Spirit that bears witness, because the Spirit is truth; for there are three that bear witness, the Spirit, the water, and the blood, and these three agree in one. If all the Greek manuscripts and ancient versions say concerning the Spirit, the water, and the blood, that in unum sunt—they agree in one, then it was not of them that Cyprian spoke, whatever variety there might be in the copies in his time, when he said it is written, unum sunt—they are one. And therefore Cyprian's words seem still to be a firm testimony to v. 7, and an intimation likewise that a forger of the text would have scarcely so exactly hit upon the apostolical name for the second witness in heaven, the Word. Them, [3.] As only this apostle records the history of the water and blood flowing out of the Saviour's side, so it is he only, or he principally, who registers to us the Saviour's promise and prediction of the Holy spirit's coming to glorify him, and to testify of him, and to convince the world of its own unbelief and of his righteousness, as in his gospel, ch. 14:16, 17, 26; 15:26; 16:7-15. It is most suitable then to the diction and to the gospel of this apostle thus to mention the Holy Ghost as a witness for Jesus Christ. Then,
(5.) It was far more easy for a transcriber, by turning away his eye, or by the obscurity of the copy, it being obliterated or defaced on the top or bottom of a page, or worn away in such materials as the ancients had to write upon, to lose and omit the passage, than for an interpolator to devise and insert it. He must be very bold and impudent who could hope to escape detection and shame; and profane too, who durst venture to make an addition to a supposed sacred book. And,
(6.) It can scarcely be supposed that, when the apostle is representing the Christian's faith in overcoming the world, and the foundation it relies upon in adhering to Jesus Christ, and the various testimony that was attended him, especially when we consider that he meant to infer, as he does (v. 9), If we receive the witness of men, the witness of God is greater; for this (which he had rehearsed before) is the witness of God which he hath testified of his Son. Now in the three witnesses on earth there is neither all the witness of God, nor indeed any witness who is truly and immediately God. The antitrinitarian opposers of the text will deny that either the Spirit, or the water, or the blood, is God himself; but, upon our present reading, here is a noble enumeration of the several witnesses and testimonies supporting the truth of the Lord Jesus and the divinity of his institution. Here is the most excellent abridgment or breviate of the motives to faith in Christ, of the credentials the Saviour brings with him, and of the evidences of our Christianity, that is to be found, I think, in the book of God, upon which single account, even waiving the doctrine of the divine Trinity, the text is worthy of all acceptation.
2. Having these rational grounds on out side, we proceed. The apostle, having told us that the Spirit that bears witness to Christ is truth, shows us that he is so, by assuring us that he is in heaven, and that there are others also who cannot but be true, or truth itself, concurring in testimony with him: For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost, and these three are one, v. 7.
(1.) Here is a trinity of heavenly witnesses, such as have testified and vouched to the world the veracity and authority of the Lord Jesus in his office and claims, where, [1.] The first that occurs in order is the Father; he set his seal to the commission of the Lord Christ all the while he was here; more especially, First, In proclaiming him at his baptism, Mt. 3:17. Secondly, In confirming his character at the transfiguration, Mt. 17:5. Thirdly, In accompanying him with miraculous power and works: If I do not the works of my Father, believe me not; but if I do, though you believe not me, believe the works, that you may know and believe that the Father is in me, and I in him, Jn. 10:37, 38. Fourthly, In avouching at his death, Mt. 27:54. Fifthly, In raising him from the dead, and receiving him up to his glory: He shall convince the world-of righteousness, because I go to my Father, and you see me no more, Jn. 16:10, and Rom. 1:4. [2.] The second witness in the Word, a mysterious name, importing the highest nature that belongs to the Saviour of Jesus Christ, wherein he existed before the world was, whereby he made the world, and whereby he was truly God with the Father. He must bear witness to the human nature, or to the man Christ Jesus, in and by whom he redeemed and saved us; and he bore witness, First, By the mighty works that he wrought. Jn. 5:17, My Father worketh hitherto, and I work. Secondly, In conferring a glory upon him at his transfiguration. And we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only-begotten of the Father, Jn. 1:14. Thirdly, In raising him from the dead. Jn. 2:19, Destroy this temple, and in three days will I raise it up. [3.] The third witness is the Holy Ghost, or the Holy Spirit, and august, venerable name, the possessor, proprietor, and author of holiness. True and faithful must he be to whom the Spirit of holiness sets his seal and solemn testimony. So he did to the Lord Jesus, the head of the Christian world; and that in such instances as these:—First, In the miraculous production of his immaculate human nature in the virgin's womb. The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, Lu. 1:35, etc. Secondly, In the visible descent upon him at his baptism. The Holy Ghost descended in a bodily shape, Lu. 3:22, etc. Thirdly, In an effectual conquest of the spirits of hell and darkness. If I cast out devils by the Spirit of God, then the kingdom of God has come unto you, Mt. 12:28. Fourthly, In the visible potent descent upon the apostles, to furnish them with gifts and powers to preach him and his gospel to the world after he himself had gone to heaven, Acts 1:4, 5; 2:2-4, etc. Fifthly, In supporting the name, gospel, and interest of Christ, by miraculous gifts and operations by and upon the disciples, and in the churches, for two hundred years (1 Co. 12:7), concerning which see Dr. Whitby's excellent discourse in the preface to the second volume of his Commentary on the New Testament. These are witnesses in heaven; and they bear record from heaven; and they are one, it should seem, not only in testimony (for that is implied in their being three witnesses to one and the same thing), but upon a higher account, as they are in heaven; they are one in their heavenly being and essence; and, if one with the Father, they must be one God.
(2.) To these there is opposed, though with them joined, a trinity of witnesses on earth, such as continue here below: And there are three that bear witness on earth, the spirit, the water, and the blood; and these three agree in one, v. 8. [1.] Of these witnesses the first is the spirit. This must be distinguished from the person of the Holy Ghost, who is in heaven. We must say then, with the Saviour (according to what is reported by this apostle), that which is born of the Spirit is spirit, Jn. 3:6. The disciples of the Saviour are, as well as others, born after the flesh. They come into the world endued with a corrupt carnal disposition, which is enmity to God. This disposition must be mortified and abolished. A new nature must be communicated. Old lusts and corruptions must be eradicated, and the true disciple become a new creature. The regeneration or renovation of souls is a testimony to the Saviour. It is his actual though initial salvation. It is a testimony on earth, because it continues with the church here, and is not performed in that conspicuous astonishing manner in which signs from heaven are accomplished. To this Spirit belong not only the regeneration and conversion of the church, but its progressive sanctification, victory over the world, her peace, and love, and joy, and all that grace by which she is made meet for the inheritance of the saints in light. [2.] The second is the water. This was before considered as a means of salvation, now as a testimony to the Saviour himself, and intimates his purity and purifying power. And so it seems to comprehend, First, The purity of his own nature and conduct in the world. He was holy, harmless, and undefiled. Secondly, The testimony of John's baptism, who bore witness of him, prepared a people for him, and referred them to him, Mk. 1:4, 7, 8. Thirdly, The purity of his own doctrine, by which souls are purified and washed. Now you are clean through the word that I have spoken unto you, Jn. 15:3. Fourthly, The actual and active purity and holiness of his disciples. His body is the holy catholic church. Seeing you have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit, 1 Pt. 1:22. And this signed and sealed by, Fifthly, The baptism that he has appointed for the initiation or introduction of his disciples, in which he signally (or by that sign) says, Except I wash thee, thou hast no part in me. Not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience towards God, 1 Pt. 3:21. [3.] The third witness is the blood; this he shed, and this was our ransom. This testifies for Jesus Christ, First, In that it sealed up and finished the sacrifices of the Old Testament, Christ, our Passover, was sacrificed for us. Secondly, In that it confirmed his own predictions, and the truth of all his ministry and doctrine, Jn. 18:37. Thirdly, In that it showed unparalleled love to God, in that he would die a sacrifice to his honour and glory, in making atonement for the sins of the world, Jn. 14:30, 31. Fourthly, In that it demonstrated unspeakable love to us; and none will deceive those whom they entirely love, Jn. 14:13-15. Fifthly, In that it demonstrated the disinterestedness of the Lord Jesus as to any secular interest and advantage. No impostor and deceiver ever proposes to himself contempt and a violent cruel death, Jn. 18:36. Sixthly, In that it lays obligation on his disciple to suffer and die for him. No deceiver would invite proselytes to his side and interest at the rate that the Lord Jesus did. You shall be hated of all men for my sake. They shall put you out of their synagogues; and the time comes that whosoever kills you will think that he doeth God service, Jn. 16:2. He frequently calls his servants to a conformity with him in sufferings: Let us go forth therefore unto him without the camp, bearing his reproach, Heb. 13:13. This shows that neither he nor his kingdom is of this world. Seventhly, The benefits accruing and procured by his blood (well understood) must immediately demonstrate that he is indeed the Saviour of the world. And then, Eighthly, These are signified and sealed in the institution of his own supper: This is my blood of the New Testament (which ratifies the New Testament), which is shed for many, for the remission of sins, Mt. 26:28. Such are the witnesses on earth. Such is the various testimony given to the author of our religion. No wonder if the rejector of all this evidence he judged as a blasphemer of the Spirit of God, and be left to perish without remedy in his sins. These three witnesses (being more different than the three former) are not so properly said to be one as to be for one, to be for one and the same purpose and cause, or to agree in one, in one and the same thing among themselves, and in the same testimony with those who bear record from heaven.
III. The apostle justly concludes, If we receive the witness of men, the witness of God is greater; for this is the witness of God, that he hath testified of his Son, v. 9. Here we have, 1. A supposition well founded upon the premises. Here is the witness of God, the witness whereby God hath testified of his Son, which surely must intimate some immediate irrefragable testimony, and that of the Father concerning his Son; he has by himself proclaimed and avouched him to the world. 2. The authority and acceptableness of his testimony; and that argued from the less to the greater: If we receive the witness of men (and such testimony is and must be admitted in all judicatories and in all nations), the witness of God is greater. It is truth itself, of highest authority and most unquestionable infallibility. And then there is, 3. The application of the rule to the present case: For this is the witness, and here is the witness of God even of the Father, as well as of the Word and Spirit, which he hath testified of, and wherein he hath attested, his Son. God, that cannot lie, hath given sufficient assurance to the world that Jesus Christ is his Son, the Son of his love, and Son by office, to reconcile and recover the world unto himself; he testified therefore the truth and divine origin of the Christian religion, and that it is the sure appointed way and means of bringing us to God.
Verses 10-13
In those words we may observe,
I. The privilege and stability of the real Christian: He that believeth on the Son of God, hath been prevailed with unfeignedly to cleave to him for salvation, hath the witness in himself, v. 10. He hath not only the outward evidence that others have, but he hath in his own heart a testimony for Jesus Christ. He can allege what Christ and the truth of Christ have done for his soul and what he has seen and found in him. As, 1. He has deeply seen his sin, and guilt, and misery, and his abundant need of such a Saviour. 2. He has seen the excellency, beauty, and office of the Son of God, and the incomparable suitableness of such a Saviour to all his spiritual wants and sorrowful circumstances. 3. He sees and admires the wisdom and love of God in preparing and sending such a Saviour to deliver him from sin and hell, and to raise him to pardon, peace, and communion with God. 4. He has found and felt the power of the word and doctrine of Christ, wounding, humbling, healing, quickening, and comforting his soul. 5. He finds that the revelation of Christ, as it is the greatest discovery and demonstration of the love of God, so it is the most apt and powerful means of kindling, fomenting, and inflaming love to the holy blessed God. 6. He is born of God by the truth of Christ, as v. 1. He has a new heart and nature, a new love, disposition, and delight, and is not the man that formerly he was. 7. He finds yet such a conflict with himself, with sin, with the flesh, the world, and invisible wicked powers, as is described and provided for in the doctrine of Christ. 8. He finds such prospects and such strength afforded him by the faith of Christ, that he can despise and overcome the world, and travel on towards a better. 9. He finds what interest the Mediator has in heaven, by the audiency and prevalency of those prayers that are sent thither in his name, according to his will, and through his intercession. 10. He is begotten again to a lively hope, to a holy confidence in God, in his good-will and love, to a pleasant victory over terrors of conscience, dread of death and hell, to a comfortable prospect of life and immortality, being enriched with the earnest of the Spirit and sealed to the day of redemption. Such assurance has the gospel believer; he has a witness in himself. Christ is formed in him, and he is growing up to the fulness and perfection, or perfect image of Christ, in heaven.
II. The aggravation of the unbeliever's sin, the sin of unbelief: He that believeth not God hath made him a liar. He does, in effect, give God the lie, because he believeth not the record that God gave of his Son, v. 10. He must believe that God did not send his Son into the world, when he has given us such manifold evidence that he did, or that Jesus Christ was not the Son of God, when all that evidence relates to and terminates upon him, or that he sent his Son to deceive the world and to lead it into error and misery, or that he permits men to devise a religion which, in all the parts of it, is a pure, holy, heavenly, undefiled institution, and so worthy to be embraced by the reason of mankind, and yet is but a delusion and a lie, and then lends them his Spirit and power to recommend and obtrude it upon the world, which is to make God the Father, the author and abettor, of the lie.
III. The matter, the substance, or contents of all this divine testimony concerning Jesus Christ: And this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son, v. 11. This is the sum of the gospel. This is the sum and epitome of the whole record given us by all the aforesaid six witnesses. 1. That God hath given to us eternal life. He has designed it for us in his eternal purpose. He has prepared all the means that are necessary to bring us to it. He has made it over to us by his covenant and promise. And he actually confers a right and title thereto on all who believe on and actually embrace the Son of God. Then, 2. This life is in the Son. The Son is life; eternal life in his own essence and person, Jn. 1:4; 1 Jn. 1:2. He is eternal life to us, the spring of our spiritual and glorious life, Col. 3:4. From him life is communicated to us, both here in heaven. And thereupon it must follow, (1.) He that hath the Son hath life, v. 12. He that is united to the Son is united to life. He who hath a title to the Son hath a title to life, to eternal life. Such honour hath the Father put upon the Son: such honour must we put upon him too. We must come and kiss the Son, and we shall have life. (2.) He that hath not the Son of God hath not life, v. 12. He continues under the condemnation of the law (Jn. 3:36); he refuses the Son, who is life itself, who is the procurer of life, and the way to it; he provokes God to deliver him over to endless death for making him a liar, since he believes not this record that God hath given concerning his Son.
IV. The end and reason of the apostle's preaching this to believers. 1. For their satisfaction and comfort: These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life, v. 13. Upon all this evidence, and these witnesses, it is but just and meet that there should be those who believe on the name of the Son of God. God increase their number! How much testimony from heaven has the world to answer for! And to three witnesses in heaven must the world be accountable. These believers have eternal life. They have it in the covenant of the gospel, in the beginning and first-fruits of it within them, and in their Lord and head in heaven. These believers may come to know that they have eternal life, and should be quickened, encouraged, and comforted, in the prospect of it: and they should value the scriptures, which are so much written for their consolation and salvation. 2. For their confirmation and progress in their holy faith: And that you may believe on the name of the Son of God (v. 13), may go on believing. Believers must persevere, or they do nothing. To withdraw from believing on the name of the Son of God is to renounce eternal life, and draw back unto perdition. Therefore the evidences of religion and the advantage of faith are to be presented to believers, in order to hearten and encourage them to persevere to the end.
Verses 14-17
Here we have,
I. A privilege belonging to faith in Christ, namely, audience in prayer: This is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask any thing according to his will, he heareth us, v. 14. The Lord Christ emboldens us to come to God in all circumstances, with all our supplications and requests. Through him our petitions are admitted and accepted of God. The matter of our prayer must be agreeable to the declared will of God. It is not fit that we should ask what is contrary either to his majesty and glory or to our own good, who are his and dependent on him. And then we may have confidence that the prayer of faith shall be heard in heaven.
II. The advantage accruing to us by such privilege: If we know that he heareth us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of him, v. 15. Great are the deliverances, mercies, and blessings, which the holy petitioner needs. To know that his petitions are heard or accepted is as good as to know that they are answered; and therefore that he is so pitied, pardoned, or counselled, sanctified, assisted, and saved (or shall be so) as he is allowed to ask of God.
III. Direction in prayer in reference to the sins of others: If any man see his brother sin a sin which is not unto death, he shall ask, and he shall give him life for those that sin not unto death. There is a sin unto death: I do not say that he shall pray for it, v. 16. Here we may observe, 1. We ought to pray for others as well as for ourselves; for our brethren of mankind, that they may be enlightened, converted, and saved; for our brethren in the Christian profession, that they may be sincere, that their sins may be pardoned, and that they may be delivered from evils and the chastisements of God, and preserved in Christ Jesus. 2. There is a great distinction in the heinousness and guilt of sin: There is a sin unto death (v. 16), and there is a sin not unto death, v. 17. (1.) There is a sin unto death. All sin, as to the merit and legal sentence of it, is unto death. The wages of sin is death; and cursed is every one that continueth not in all things that are written in the book of the law, to do them, Gal. 3:10. But there is a sin unto death in opposition to such sin as is here said not to be unto death. There is therefore, (2.) A sin not unto death. This surely must include all such sin as by divine or human constitution may consist with life; in the human constitution with temporal or corporal life, in the divine constitution with corporal or with spiritual evangelical life. [1.] There are sins which, by human righteous constitution, are not unto death; as divers pieces of injustice, which may be compensated without the death of the delinquent. In opposition to this there are sins which, by righteous constitution, are to death, or to a legal forfeiture of life; such as we call capital crimes. [2.] Then there are sins which, by divine constitution, are unto death; and that either death corporal or spiritual and evangelical. First, Such as are, or may be, to death corporal. Such may the sins be either of gross hypocrites, as Ananias and Sapphira, or, for aught we know, of sincere Christian brethren, as when the apostle says of the offending members of the church of Corinth, For this cause many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep, 1 Co. 11:30. There may be sin unto corporal death among those who may not be condemned with the world. Such sin, I said, is, or may be, to corporal death. The divine penal constitution in the gospel does not positively and peremptorily threaten death to the more visible sins of the members of Christ, but only some gospel-chastisement; for whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth, Heb. 12:6. There is room left for divine wisdom or goodness, or even gospel severity, to determine how far the chastisement or the scourge shall proceed. And we cannot say but that sometimes it may (in terrorem—for warning to others) proceed even to death. Then, Secondly, There are sins which, by divine constitution, are unto death spiritual and evangelical, that is, are inconsistent with spiritual and evangelical life, with spiritual life in the soul and with an evangelical right to life above. Such are total impenitence and unbelief for the present. Final impenitence and unbelief are infallibly to death eternal, as also a blaspheming of the Spirit of God in the testimony that he has given to Christ and his gospel, and a total apostasy from the light and convictive evidence of the truth of the Christian religion. These are sins involving the guilt of everlasting death. Then comes,
IV. The application of the direction for prayer according to the different sorts of sin thus distinguished. The prayer is supposed to be for life: He shall ask, and he (God) shall give them life. Life is to be asked of God. He is the God of life; he gives it when and to whom he pleases, and takes it away either by his constitution or providence, or both, as he thinks meet. In the case of a brother's sin, which is not (in the manner already mentioned) unto death, we may in faith and hope pray for him; and particularly for the life of soul and body. But, in case of the sin unto death in the forementioned ways, we have no allowance to pray. Perhaps the apostle's expression, I do not say, He shall pray for it, may intend no more than, "I have no promise for you in that case; no foundation for the prayer of faith." 1. The laws of punitive justice must be executed, for the common safety and benefit of mankind: and even an offending brother in such a case must be resigned to public justice (which in the foundation of it is divine), and at the same time also to the mercy of God. 2. The removal of evangelical penalties (as they may be called), or the prevention of death (which may seem to be so consequential upon, or inflicted for, some particular sin), can be prayed for only conditionally or provisionally, that is, with proviso that it consist with the wisdom, will, and glory of God that they should be removed, and particularly such death prevented. 3. We cannot pray that the sins of the impenitent and unbelieving should, while they are such, be forgiven them, or that any mercy of life or soul, that suppose the forgiveness of sin, should be granted to them, while they continue such. But we may pray for their repentance (supposing them but in the common case of the impenitent world), for their being enriched with faith in Christ, and thereupon for all other saving mercies. 4. In case it should appear that any have committed the irremissible blasphemy against the Holy Ghost, and the total apostasy from the illuminating convictive powers of the Christian religion, it should seem that they are not to be prayed for at all. For what remains but a certain fearful expectation of judgment, to consume such adversaries? Heb. 10:27. And these last seem to be the sins chiefly intended by the apostle by the name of sins unto death. Then, 5. The apostle seems to argue that there is sin that is not unto death; thus, All unrighteousness is sin (v. 17); but, were all unrighteousness unto death (since we have all some unrighteousness towards God or man, or both, in omitting and neglecting something that is their due), then we were all peremptorily bound over to death, and, since it is not so (the Christian brethren, generally speaking, having right to life), there must be sin that is not to death. Though there is no venial sin (in the common acceptation), there is pardoned sin, sin that does not involve a plenary obligation to eternal death. If it were not so, there could be no justification nor continuance of the justified state. The gospel constitution or covenant abbreviates, abridges, or rescinds the guilt of sin.
Verses 18-21
Here we have,
I. A recapitulation of the privileges and advantages of sound Christian believers. 1. They are secured against sin, against the fulness of its dominion or the fulness of its guilt: We know that whosoever is born of God (and the believer in Christ is born of God, v. 1) sinneth not (v. 18), sinneth not with that fulness of heart and spirit that the unregenerate do (as was said ch. 3:6, 9), and consequently not with that fulness of guilt that attends the sins of others; and so he is secured against that sin which is unavoidably unto death, or which infallibly binds the sinner over unto the wages of eternal death; the new nature, and the inhabitation of the divine Spirit thereby, prevent the admission of such unpardonable sin. 2. They are fortified against the devil's destructive attempts: He that is begotten of God keepeth himself, that is, is enabled to guard himself, and the wicked one toucheth him not (v. 18), that is, that the wicked one may not touch him, namely, to death. It seems not to be barely a narration of the duty or the practice of the regenerate; but an indication of their power by virtue of their regeneration. They are thereby prepared and principled against the fatal touches, the sting, of the wicked one; he touches not their souls, to infuse his venom there a he does in others, or to expel that regenerative principle which is an antidote to his poison, or to induce them to that sin which by the gospel constitution conveys an indissoluble obligation to eternal death. He may prevail too far with them, to draw them to some acts of sin; but it seems to be the design of the apostle to assert that their regeneration secures them from such assaults of the devil as will bring them into the same case and actual condemnation with the devil. 3. they are on God's side and interest, in opposition to the state of the world: And we know that we are of God, and the whole world lieth in wickedness, v. 19. Mankind are divided into two great parties of dominions, that which belongs to God and that which belongs to wickedness or to the wicked one. The Christian believers belong to God. They are of God, and from him, and to him, and for him. They succeed into the right and room of the ancient Israel of God, of whom it is said, The Lord's people is his portion, his estate in this world; Jacob is the lot of his inheritance, the dividend that has fallen to him by the lot of his own determination (Deu. 32:9); while, on the contrary, the whole world, the rest, being by far the major part, lieth in wickedness, in the jaws in the bowels of the wicked one. There are, indeed, were we to consider the individuals, many wicked ones, many wicked spirits, in the heavenly or the ethereal places; but they are united in wicked nature, policy, and principle, and they are united also in one head. there is the prince of the devils and of the diabolical kingdom. There is a head of the malignity and of the malignant world; and he has such sway here that he is called the god of this world. Strange that such a knowing spirit should be so implacably incensed against the Almighty and all his interests, when he cannot but know that it must end in his own overthrow and everlasting damnation! How tremendous is the judgment of God upon that wicked one! May the God of the Christian world continually demolish his dominion in this world, and translate souls into the kingdom of his dear Son! 4. They are enlightened in the knowledge of the true eternal God: "And we know that the Son of God has come, and has given as an understanding, that we may know him that is true, v. 20. The Son of God has come into our world, and we have seen him, and know him by all the evidence that has already been asserted; he has revealed unto us the true God (as Jn. 1:18), and he has opened our minds too to understand that revelation, given us an internal light in our understandings, whereby we may discern the glories of the true God; and we are assured that it is the true God that he hath discovered to us. He is infinitely superior in purity, power, and perfection, to all the gods of the Gentiles. He has all the excellences, beauties, and riches, of the living and true God. It is the same God that, according to Moses's account, made the heavens and the earth, the same who took our fathers and patriarchs into peculiar covenant with himself, the same who brought our ancestors out of Egypt, who gave us the fiery law upon mount Sinai, who gave us his holy oracles, promised the call and conversion of the Gentiles. By his counsels and works, by his love and grace, by his terrors and judgments, we know that he, and he alone, in the fulness of his being, is the living and true God." It is a great happiness to know the true God, to know him in Christ; it is eternal lie, Jn. 17:3. It is the glory of the Christian revelation that it gives the best account of the true God, and administers the best eye-salve for our discerning the living and true God. 5. They have a happy union with God and his Son: "And we are in him that is true, even (or and) in his Son Jesus Christ, v. 20. The Son leads us to the Father, and we are in both, in the love and favour of both, in covenant and federal alliance with both, in spiritual conjunction with both by the inhabitation and operation of their Spirit: and, that you may know how great a dignity and felicity this is, you must remember that this true one is the true God and eternal life" or rather (as it should seem a more natural construction), "This same Son of God is himself also the true God and eternal life" (Jn. 1:1, and here, ch. 1:2), "so that in union with either, much more with both, we are united to the true God and eternal life." Then we have,
II. The apostle's concluding monition: "Little children" (dear children, as it has been interpreted), "keep yourselves from idols, v. 21. Since you know the true God, and are in him, let your light and love guard you against all that is advanced in opposition to him, or competition with him. Flee from the false gods of the heathen world. They are not comparable to the God whose you are and whom you serve. Adore not your God by statues and images, which share in his worship. Your God is an incomprehensible Spirit, and is disgraced by such sordid representations. Hold no communion with your heathen neighbours in their idolatrous worship. Your God is jealous, and would have you come out, and be separated from among them; mortify the flesh, and be crucified to the world, that they may not usurp the throne of dominion in the heart, which is due only to God. The God whom you have known is he who made you, who redeemed you by his Son, who has sent his gospel to you, who has pardoned your sins, begotten you unto himself by his Spirit, and given you eternal life. Cleave to him in faith, and love, and constant obedience, in opposition to all things that would alienate your mind and heart from God. To this living and true God be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen."