Today not only Christians know about eternal life; almost everyone has heard of it. But what is the apostle speaking about? The answer looks obvious: life after death, which is usually identified with the Kingdom of God. At the same time it is taken for granted that eternal life...
Today not only Christians know about eternal life; almost everyone has heard of it. But what is the apostle speaking about? The answer looks obvious: life after death, which is usually identified with the Kingdom of God. At the same time it is taken for granted that eternal life begins "there," "beyond the grave," in the life after death, while the life we live here can by definition only be temporary. But is this what John has in mind? According to the meaning of the Greek text, "eternal life" is not so much life that continues forever as life that belongs to eternity. And that, of course, is not the same thing.
In principle, life that continues forever can be imagined, at least theoretically, even in relation to an untransfigured human being in an untransfigured world. More than that, the Bible gives us no reason to doubt that before the fall man, still untransfigured but also sinless, possessed what could be called practical immortality: in principle he could die, but death, including death from old age, was not inevitable for him. Yet even this sinless but natural life had no relation to eternity in the New Testament sense. In fact, John, like the other apostles, when speaking of eternity, has first of all the Kingdom of God in mind.
The eternity of the Kingdom is not linear, empty infinity, not a chain of moments stretching from the past into the future, but the fullness of times, where everything that exists exists as a single whole, not broken apart into successive moments as it is in the untransfigured world. And eternal life can plainly be considered only life connected with this fullness of times, rooted in it, and therefore rooted in the Kingdom. For us, if we are Christians, the Kingdom is not future but present. Of course, in our world, which is being transfigured but has not yet been transfigured to the end, it is not the only reality.
Until full transfiguration, the old order of things will also remain in it and make itself known alongside the Kingdom entering the world. But the eternal life of which the apostle speaks can already now be, and truly is, part of the Kingdom, regardless of where its existence unfolds. And at the end of time this rootedness will become visible to everyone, so that each person who has shared in eternal life may receive the fullness of the Kingdom he was seeking.
2
2:18 My little children, it is the last time - The last dispensation of grace, that which is to continue to the end of time, is begun. Ye have heard that antichrist cometh - Under the term antichrist, or the spirit of antichrist, he includes all false teachers and enemies to the truth; yea, whatever doctrines or men are contrary to Christ. It seems to have been long after this that the name of antichrist was appropriated to that grand adversary of Christ, "the man of sin," Th2 2:3 Antichrist, in St. John's sense, that is, antichristianism, hasbeen spreading from his time till now; and will do so, till that great adversary arises, and is destroyed by Christ's coming.
2:19 They were not of us - When they went; their hearts were before departed from God, otherwise, they would have continued with us: but they went out, that they might be made manifest - That is, this was made manifest by their going out.
2:20 But ye have an anointing - A chrism; perhaps so termed in opposition to the name of antichrist; an inward teaching from the Holy Ghost, whereby ye know all things - Necessary for your preservation from these seducers, and for your eternal salvation. St. John here but just touches upon the Holy Ghost, of whom he speaks more largely, Jo1 3:24; Jo1 4:13; Jo1 5:6.
2:21 I have written - Namely, Jo1 2:13.To you because ye know the truth - That is, to confirm you in the knowledge ye have already. Ye know that no lie is of the truth - That all the doctrines of these antichrists are irreconcilableto it.
2:22 Who is that liar - Who is guilty of that lying, but he who denies that truth which is the sum of all Christianity?That Jesus is the Christ; that he is the Son of God; that he came in the flesh, is one undivided truth. and he that denies any part of this, in effect denies the whole. He is antichrist - And the spirit of antichrist, who in denying the Son deniesthe Father also.
2:23 Whosoever denieth the eternal Son of God, he hath not communion with the Father; but he that truly and believingly acknowledgeth the Son, hath communion with the Father also.
2:24 If that truth concerning the Father and the Son, which ye have heard from the beginning, abide fixed and rooted in you, ye also shall abide in that happy communion with the Son and the Father.
2:25 He - The Son. Hath promised us - If we abide in him.
2:26 These things - From Jo1 2:21.I have written to you - St. John, according to his custom, begins and ends with the same form, and having finished a kind of parenthesis, Jo1 2:20-26, continues, Jo1 2:27, what he said in the twentieth verse, concerning them that would seduce you.
2:27 Ye need not that any should teach you, save as that anointing teacheth you - Which is always the same, always consistent with itself. But this does not exclude our need of being taught by them who partake of the same anointing.Of all things - Which it is necessary for you to know. And is no lie - Like that which antichrist teaches. Ye shall abide in him - This is added both by way of comfort and of exhortation.The whole discourse, Jo1 2:18-27 is peculiarly adapted to little children.
2:28 And now, beloved children - Having finished his address to each, he now returns to all in general. Abide in him, that we - A modest expression. May not be ashamed before him at his coming - O how will ye, Jews, Socinians, nominal Christians, be ashamed in that day!
2:29 Every one - And none else. Who practiseth righteousness - From a believing, loving heart. Is born of him - For all his children are like himself.
3
3:1 That we should be called - That is, should be, the children of God. Therefore the world knoweth us not - They know not what to make of us. We are a mystery to them.
3:2 It doth not yet appear - Even to ourselves. What we shall be - It is something ineffable, which will raise the children of God to be, in a manner, as God himself. But we know, in general, that when he, the Son of God, shall appear, we shall be like him - The glory of God penetrating our inmost substance. For we shall see him as he is - Manifestly, without a veil. And that sight will transform us into the same likeness.
3:3 And every one that hath this hope in him - In God.
3:4 Whosoever committeth sin - Thereby transgresseth the holy, just, and good law of God, and so sets his authority at nought; for this is implied in the very nature of sin.
3:5 And ye know that he - Christ. Was manifested - That he came into the world for this very purpose. To take away our sins - To destroy them all, root and branch, and leave none remaining. And in him is no sin - So that he could not suffer on his own account, but to make us as himself.
3:6 Whosoever abideth in communion with him, by loving faith, sinneth not - While he so abideth. Whosoever sinneth certainly seeth him not - The loving eye of his soul is not then fixed upon God; neither doth he then experimentally know him - Whatever he did in time past.
3:7 Let no one deceive you - Let none persuade you that any man is righteous but he that uniformly practises righteousness; he alone is righteous, after the example of his Lord.
3:8 He that committeth sin is a child of the devil; for the devil sinneth from the beginning - That is, was the first sinner in the universe, and has continued to sin ever since. The Son of God was manifested to destroy the works of the devil - All sin.And will he not perform this in all that trust in him?
3:9 Whosoever is born of God - By living faith, whereby God is continually breathing spiritual life into his soul, and his soul is continually breathing out love and prayer to God, doth not commit sin. For the divine seed of loving faith abideth in him; and, so long as it doth, he cannot sin, because he is born of God - Is inwardly and universally changed.
3:10 Neither he that loveth not his brother - Here is the transition from the general proposition to one particular.