NOTES for Jo1 2:25

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.

In today's reading, the apostle John offers us criteria for determining the truth and acceptability of a given teaching or statement concerning the relationship between a person and God. The first criterion is given in verse 24: "Let what you heard from the beginning abide in you. If what you heard from the beginning abides in you, then you too will abide in the Son and in the Father." In other words, the first condition for remaining in communion with God is faithfulness to the Gospel teaching. But there is also a second criterion, which John mentions in verse 27: anointing. What is this? In Jewish terminology, anointing was an outward sign of God's election and blessing. Here the anointing probably means not only blessing, but also the living presence of the Holy Spirit in the heart; it is no accident that this "living" anointing, as John says, "teaches us about everything." So the first criterion is the Gospel teaching, and the second is our living relationship with God. At the intersection of these criteria stands the teaching of the Church, which is created precisely on the basis of Scripture and the living experience of relationship with God.

The words of the apostle John in today's passage from his First Catholic Epistle largely continue the manner of thought and expression of God through the Old Testament prophets. Many of them said that ignorance of God was the principal cause of sin and lawlessness in people—not the absence of information about the requirements of the law, but the absence of knowledge of God. And now, after all the events of Christ's earthly life, death, and resurrection, the apostle says that the truth about God has been revealed to us. This truth is such that it enables us to abide in the Father and the Son. What does this mean? How should we understand these words about abiding in God?

The apostle himself explains this in the famous words: “See what love the Father has given us, that we should be called and be children of God.” Returning once more to one of the Epistle's principal themes, he speaks of the distinguishing marks of God's children: practicing righteousness and loving one's brothers.

Although in this passage the apostle speaks only about the Father and the Son, his revelation nevertheless has a Trinitarian character. For the tone of astonishing purity, tenderness, and light clearly bears witness that he writes under the inspiration of the Spirit.