1.JOHN.
L.H.Brough.
Chapter 1.
1:1.
"Handled." Christ was
no phantom. "With our
eyes." It was an actual, personal
and visible manifestation of the Word of Life.
"Look upon."
A more deliberate and closer observation. He was the object of a continuous, careful
and accurate contemplation. An audible,
visible and tangible manifestation. The glorious note in which he opens his
epistle, is that the Eternal Life was manifested, and of this manifestation the
apostles were competent witnesses. They
had sojourned with Him, and had known daily and intimately intercourse with the
Lord, mess-mates as it were with Him. The Life Eternal was embodied in the
Person of Jesus. This life was
manifested and that to chosen witnesses.
The manifestation of this life was necessary to its recognition, its
apprehension and proclamation. He must
necessary be manifested, we could not have known Him otherwise, and apart from
this knowledge of Him, there could be no participation in the Divine Life.
1:3. "Fellowship
with us." Christian fellowship is
not selfish, it is not sectarian and does not seek to narrow the circle, but
its vision is expansive. What
fellowship is ours? It is
apostolic. It is Divine. It is living, holy and filial.
It does not say it is with God and Jesus Christ, but,
"It is with the Father and His Son Jesus Christ," so it is a family
affair. We see the Father and Son in
their filial relationship, and our fellowship partakes of that filial
character, for we are the children of God.
It is not like that of a lodge or institution, but that of a
family. We are God's children, this
should make us happy. In these verses. 1-4, the Christian has, life,
companionship and joy.
1:5. "From
Him." i.e. Christ. He is the Declarer of the Father. Jn.1:18. The Expositor of the Father. He spoke that which the Father gave Him to
speak. Jn.5. It is essential to know the
nature and character of the One with whom we have fellowship, for the Nature of
God determines, governs and regulates all.
For God can participate in nothing, inconsistent with His Divine
Nature. God is light: that is His
nature, the very essence of His Divine being.
Then to make this emphatic and so that there might be no
mistake about this matter, he gives the other side, the apostle states the
truth from both sides, - "in Him is no darkness at all." Light is the antithesis of darkness, and the
two are not only different to one another, but also hostile. Light and darkness can have no fellowship,
they have never been reconciled yet.
1:6. "If we
say." It is very easy to talk of
fellowship with God, but it is not what we say, but what we do. You cannot induce God to walk with you in
darkness, you must walk with Him in the light, that is the only sphere where
communion with God is possible. Walking
in the light is only true when we practice the truth. Jn.3. "He that doeth truth cometh to the
light." Otherwise, our pretension
is only a lie, which of course, pretension always is.
1:7. God revealed in
Christ is "the light" in which we must walk. We are not told "God is light" to
satisfy our curiosity, but that we might walk in the light. The difference between light and darkness, is
no question of degree, but it is final and fundamental. Purity, righteousness, love and obedience
characterise those who walk in the light.
No matter how high sounding our profession may be, if it lacks these
things it is vain. God doesn't want a
lot of sentiment or emotionalism, He requires, purity, righteousness and
love. It is all nonsense to talk of
lovely experiences, revivals etc., if the practical consistent Christian life
and walk is not there. It is not what we
profess, but what we act out.
1:8. "We deceive
ourselves." We don't deceive
God. It is on ourselves that we practice
deception. It is a dangerous thing to
deceive oneself. When we go to the
doctor, we like to hear the truth, we know that deception is dangerous. Is there in your heart and mine, a deep
conviction of the corruption of our own hearts?
Such will be the case if the truth is abiding in us. The truth makes known what God is and it
tells us what man is.
1:9. Note the
contrast in verse 8. It doesn't say,
"He is merciful," but that "He is faithful and righteous to
forgive."
Observe : Sins are forgiven, but not sin. Sins i.e. sinful acts are confessed. "There is forgiveness with thee, that
Thou mayest be feared."
1:10.
Note contrast: "If we confess our sins," -
"He is faithful and righteous," etc.
"If we say we have not sinned" - "we make Him out as untrue,
a liar."
Note also: Forgiveness is not through "saying we have
sinned," but through "confession of sins." Confession is not mere lipwork, but
heartwork. Confession is the outpouring
of a broken and contrite heart. Psa.51.
We learn in these verses that :
We have sin within us.
1:8.
We must confess our sins. 1:10.
God forgives confessed sins. 1:9
We must not sin. 2:1.
2:1-8. It does not
only teach that the sinning one has an Advocate, but we have an Advocate, an
ever-present, continuous and effectual advocacy for His people. God is righteous, Jesus Christ is
righteous. His qualifications as
Advocate are threefold:-
1. He is a Son
("with the Father," implies this).
2. His personal
character - righteous.
3. The sufficiency of
His propitiation.
2:3. Knowledge put to
the test. Here is a simple test for all
loud and pretentious knowledge.
2:5. The love of God
towards us is perfect, but that love is to be perfected in us. Obedience is the proof of knowing God. God is light, God is love. "His love is shed abroad in our hearts
by the Holy Spirit." That love
issues in obedience. It is perfected in
us if we keep His Word. Love's
perfection is to obey.
2:9-11. John writes
to the family of God. A keynote of his
epistle is: "now are we the sons of God." He writes to, and concerning the family of
God. "He that believeth is born of
God, and His seed remains in us, for we are partakers of His life and
nature." The Eternal Life which was
with the Father has been manifested to us in the Son of God and we by faith in
Him have become participators in that Divine Life. We have been brought into a glorious circle,
the family circle of God, a circle of life, light, love and liberty. For the Christian the darkness is passing away,
and the true light now shineth. We have
come to know Christ the true Light. We
have been brought from the authority of darkness into His glorious light. If we are saved, then we are no longer under
the sway of darkness.
"God is the light." This is descriptive of His very nature and
all that which is not light is antagonistic to the nature of God. God is in the light. He has been revealed fully in Jesus Christ,
and we must walk in the light. You
cannot have fellowship with God and yet walk in darkness. He that hates his brother is in darkness even
until now, he has never yet been brought into the light and into the truth of
what God is. He has never yet
contemplated the holiness and purity of God.
In the light all is made manifest, there can be no hypocrisy, nothing
can exist that is not in keeping with the holy nature of God. I notice a certain glass-factory in
advertising its `goods', says, "glass has nothing to hide." The light has nothing to hide, it cannot
hide.
Love and light are in perfect harmony. Love springs from being in the light, and the
way to abide in the light is to abide in love.
If any man walks in darkness and yet boasts that he has fellowship with
God, is a liar. 1:5-7. "Love is
pure." Hatred is a dark
monster. The man who hates his brother
has no fellowship with God. Darkness
characterizes the devil's children, but God's children are children of light.
If we walk in the light we will not stumble our
brother. If a man hates his brother, it
is evident that the darkness has blinded his eyes, he is blind and travelling
to eternal darkness. To love is the
proof of being in the light. There is no
twilight in this matter, you either love or hate your brother. Hatred is the expression of a want of
sympathy. Where sympathy exists hatred
is impossible.
2:10.
"Abideth." Not simply
"is" as in verse 9. Love
creates no prejudice against the truth.
Want of love is the most profilic source of offences. (Westcott). Love can abide in the light, because it is
pure.
2:11. He who hates
has lost the faculty of seeing. Present
being (is in) and action (walketh), in respect of final goal (knoweth not
whither) to which life is directed.
Ironside, points out, that it does not say, you may be a real Christian
who has fallen into darkness, but, "is in darkness, even until
now." He has never been anything
else.
John divides the human race into two divisions, to him there
is no half-way house, it is either darkness or light, love or hate. Nothing stumbles men more than to see strife
among God's people. "By this shall
all men know ye are my disciples, that ye have love one for another."
3:10. The two
families : Which family are you a member
of, God's family or Satans?
"Whoever loveth Him that begat, loveth him also that is begotten of
Him." 5:2. Love to our brethren is
the evidence that we possess eternal life. 3:14. If we are begotten of God, we are partakers
of the Divine nature. Whom do we
resemble most? Have we the two essential
birthmarks of the children of God? Do we
practice righteousness and love one another? (1Thess.4:9). We are taught of God to love one
another. Do we rejoice in another's misfortune? Should we not bare one anothers burdens,
(Gal.6:2), and have the mutual care of Divine love for one another?
(1.Cor.12:25-26). If we rejoice in
another's fall, then we rejoice in the Devil's victory.
The word `Devil' signifies `Slanderer' or `false
Accuser'. I often think it is a pity
that the translators didn't translate the word, if they had done so, then verse
10 would read this way, "In this the children of God are manifest and the
children of the Slanderer" etc. The
children of the Slanderer - the Slanderer has a large family and his children
take after their parent. The term
`devils' is sometimes used of slandering men. The Devil is a liar and a
murderer. Slander is the devil's work,
she has her father's name, though she wear angel's clothes, she speaks her
father's language, and does her father's work.
The devil is a liar - so are his children. The devil is a murderer - his children
partake of his nature. Once we belonged
to the Devil's family, we have nothing commendable about our past, we spoke his
language and did his works. By sovereign
grace alone, have we been saved, we belong to a new family.
The world lies in the power of the wicked one, therefore we
need not marvel if the world hate us, for it is energised by the spirit of
Satan. Unrighteousness and hatred is
what the world manifests. Love and
righteousness manifest God's children.
If the world hates you, it is natural, not marvellous.
3:14. "In
Death." It is characteristic of
Divine life to love. The man who loveth
not abides in death, that is his permanent abode. Love is Divine activity. Eternal life is a present blessing. In Jn.5:24 we learn how we may pass from
death to life. Love to your brethren is
the evidence to yourself and to others that you have passed from death to life. The absence of love indicates spiritual
death. If there is no love in our souls
for our brethren, neither is there eternal life.
3:15. "A
Murderer." Satan is a murderer.
Jn.8:44. Cain may represent a professing
Christian, but not a real child of God.
Cain had zeal, he sought God's approval, but he was actuated by the
spirit of pride, he desired the place of pre-eminence and hoped that God would
look on his offering and thus acknowledge his superiority over his
brother. From pride springs envy, hatred
and murder. The murderer who repents and
turns to Christ may be saved, but no murderer has eternal life abiding in him.
Hatred and jealousy was in the heart of Cain before he slew
his brother. Murder is hatred in
action. Westcott says: "Such hatred is essentially identical
with murder, not simply as being the first step towards it, but as involving
the same moral position." Envy led
Cain to slay his brother, for Abel's works were righteous and his own
evil. The act of killing Abel told what
was previously in his heart. The essence
of murder was there.
3:23-4:21. "Is
Disobedient." A twofold command,
to believe and to love. (Eph.1:15). His
command to love, Jn.13:34,35, it is a new command given to us. What a precious boon, a priceless gift, the
command to love one another. Love one to
another is the best apologetic for the Christian faith. In 5:2, John presents truth from different
angles - to love is to obey, for it is the sum of all God's commandments, and
then obedience is the test and proof of love.
4:20. "A
Liar." Our love to God can be
measured by our love for God's children.
How much we are willing to do for God can be measured by what we do for
His people. James speaks of the
inconsistency of talking about God and yet cursing His creatures. Do we gather thorns and figs on the same tree
or bitter and sweet water from the same fountain? Liars will have their portion in the Lake of Fire.
4:7-8. "Knoweth
not God." The man who loves not,
has not come to know God, in a threefold manner:-
1. He has not come to
know God in His essential nature - God is Love.
2. He has not known
the activity of God's love - in that He sent His Son etc.
3. He has not known
the personal experience of Divine love - "if God so loved us."
His love is perfected in us, when we love one another, 4:7-14.
Seven things said of those who do not love:
1. In darkness. 2:9-11.
2. Of the Devil. 3:10.
3. In Death. 3:14.
4. A Murderer. 3:15.
5. Disobedient. 3:23;
4:21.
6. A Liar. 4:20.
7. Knoweth not God. 4:7,8.
A few Not's in
John's Epistle.
1. "Sin
Not." 2:1. We are members of God's household, we are His
children. In this Epistle, our
relationship to God is defined as that of children. We are children of God. Our conduct must be determined by the
character of the One, into whom we have been brought into this
relationship. God is love, but we can
only enjoy His love as we walk in light, for God is light. We have fellowship with Him if we walk in the
light. Darkness and light cannot
together abide. We would fear the light,
but for the cleansing blood. But
fellowship is a practical word and demands practical holiness and walking in
the light.
Our sins are forgiven 2:12.
"All have sinned." He
is a liar who denies this. Forgiveness
is secured by confessing our sins. John
has several references to sin in his epistle:-
a. Sin is
darkness. As darkness and light are
mutually exclusive, darkness cannot exist in light. So sin and God are
essentially opposed.
b. Sin is
lawlessness. 3:4. It claims the right to
assert its own will in defiance of God's
will.
c. All
unrighteousness is sin. 5:17. See also
3:10 and 2:29. His seed remains in us
and therefore we cannot practice sin.
2. Love Not. 2:15.
"The world lieth in the wicked one." 5:19. It is to be overcome, not loved, 5:14. The lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh
and the pride of life are opposed to God.
The governing principles of the world alienated from God are:
Covetousness, Sensual pleasure, pride and vainglory. God's love provided a way of deliverance from
the world. Jn.3:16. If that love is in us, we shall also regard
the world as a hostile force from which men must be rescued.
3. Marvel Not.
3:13.
The apostle instructs
his readers in the necessity of brother-love.
God is love and He is our Father.
All who are begotten of God manifest the character of God. He who does not love his brother is not of
God. This is His commandment.
Then he speaks of Cain.
He did not love his brother. He
was Abel's natural brother, but it is clear that he was not his spiritual
brother. An entirely different spirit
dominated Cain. It is the same spirit
that dominates the world today. Need we
then marvel that the world hates us.
4. Believe Not.
4:1.
Many are deceived.
Our Lord emphasized "let no man deceive you." The test of false teachers is their attitude
to Christ.
5. Receive Not.
2.Jn.v.10.
There is to be no compromising with those who are traitors
of the Glory of Christ. John is not
thinking of the general position of unsaved men, uninstructed in the truth, for
then you would not be able to say, "Good day" to your neighbour. He is writing of false teachers, who had
falsified and subverted the great revelation of God in Christ. This lady because of her largeness of heart
and hospitality to the Lord's servants, was in special danger of being imposed
upon by false teachers.
6. Follow Not.
3.Jn.v.11.
We are enjoined to follow many things, but there are some
things which we must not follow. The
word signifies to "imitate."
Imitating is a very simple way of learning. It is the way a child learns.
Imitating implies a model, a pattern, an ideal. Imitating means to practice it. "Practice makes perfect." Repetition is here the law of success. The Pelman formula, "every thought tends
to become an act, every act a habit, a habit a life, a life a
destiny." Imitating means continual
concentration and application. Imitation
means progress.
"As He is." :
* 1.Jn.3:2. In reference to Glory.
* 1.Jn.4:17. In reference to Judgment.
* 1.Jn.3:3. In reference to Purity.
1.John.3:1-4. It is
the love of the Father. The love of God
to a lost world is to us who believe, the Father's love.
"Now are we children of God." Whatever our
circumstances may appear, we have this radiant conviction that we are children
of God. We do not know what we shall be,
we know what we are and we are certain that our future will be fitting to our
filial relationship. We know also that
it will be the glorious future of our Lord Jesus Christ. We are children of God. John would have expressed a great truth if he
had said that our future blessing was to be fitting to our filial relationship,
but he goes further and states that our future is bound up with the Son of
God's future. Christ Himself is the
Inspiration and Pattern of Purity. Christ
is the Strength, Possibility and Measure of Purity.
Notes from authors.
"In this world."
1.Jn.4:17. Numerical Bible: Even in this world we are as Christ is. He does not say, as Christ was, because that
would carry us back to His life on earth, and would make us think of moral
likeness between ourselves and Him, and however grace may have wrought this, it
is not that which gives us boldness in view of judgment; nor could we say,
without tremor, that as He was, so are we.
Not in any sense could we say this.
He does not say, "As He is, so are we going to be when
we leave this world." He is
speaking of the perfection of our acceptance in the Beloved, which is what
alone casts all fear out of the soul.
God's love has been perfected in regard to us.
Vine says, "In this is love (i.e. the Divine love)
perfected in us." The
"herein" connects the preceding verse with what follows. When God sees the perfecting of His love in
us, as shown in our love to others, that is to say, when He sees in us the
likeness of His own Son, the One in whom He is well pleased; and in this way,
"as He is even so are we in this world." This last statement has to do with the
character of Christ, not with the fact that we are saved because of our
identification with Christ.
Now this manifestation of Christ's nature in us is connected
with our boldness in the day of judgment, that is, the boldness with which we
shall stand before the judgment-seat of Christ.
The ground of this boldness is our present likeness to Him. Not the matter of our being acquitted or
cleared of guilt and so standing without condemnation before God, is here in
view, but the assurance that, in so far as we manifest the Divine nature in our
love to others, we shall stand blameless, without reproach and without regret,
before Christ's Judgment-seat.
The phrase "the Day of Judgment" has the article
before each noun and nowhere else occurs exactly like this. Thus the phrase without the article, as in
Matt.10:15; 11:22,24; 12:36; 2.Pet.2:9; 3:7.
The Judgment-Seat of Christ is to be distiguished from the Day of
Judgment of the ungodly.
4:18. Bears out the
above interpretation.
1.John 4:17. Christ
abides in the perfect love of God. This
is now our pattern also
I.John 5:6. The Three
Witnesses.
5:8. Unity in
reference to Testimony.
5:9. The reference is
to daily practice of men to receive and act on the testimony of others. We do this despite the fact that men
can: Be themselves mistaken, or,
intentionally deceive us. God is greater,
He cannot err nor can He lie. His Word
is authoritative, authentic and certain.
Men can be mistaken, God cannot be.
Men may deceive us, God cannot lie.
The blood. Bears
witness that the claim of righteousness has been fully met.
We
have cleansing from sins before God.
The water. I
need cleansing from evil ways. I need
practical cleansing.
The Light. The
light is revealing.
In the darkness you cannot see, everything is hidden or
obscure, you easily lose your path, you stumble and fall, danger lurks in the
way. You more greatly fear the robber
because of the advantage it gives him.
All dangers are intensified by the darkness. When the light appears, then the veil of
darkness disappears. Hidden things
become visible. Obscure things become clear. There is an unveiling. The light reveals the true nature of
things. The light gives visibility.
In John's Epistle, I think it is this revealing power of
light that is chiefly in view. The light
may be a symbol of purity, beauty, healing, but the main idea in John's
Epistle, I think, is the revealing power of light. It makes all things clear. Light is the sphere in which God is known; it
also reveals to us, what we are.
