Verses 19-24
5. The Glorious Consequences of our Adoption by God
19And42 hereby we know43 that we are of the truth44, and shall assure45 our hearts before 20him. For46 if our heart condemn us47, God48 is greater than our heart, and knoweth all things. 21Beloved, if our heart condemn us not49, then have50 we confidence toward God. 22And whatsoever we ask51, we receive of52 him, because we keep53 his commandments, and do those54 things that are pleasing in his sight. 23And this is his commandment, That we should55 56 believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ, and love one another, as he gave us commandment. 24And he that keepeth his commandments dwelleth57 in him, and he in him. And hereby we know that he abideth in us, by58 the Spirit which he hath given us.
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
Transition and first consequence: the assurance of being of the truth.
1 John 3:19 a.—And hereby we shall know that we are of the truth.—The connection is by the copula καὶ; the Future γνωσόμεθα is occasioned by the hortatory form of 1 John 3:18 : μὴ , the sense being: “If we love ἐν ἔργῳ καὶ , we shall know thereby that etc.” (Huther); the object of our knowing, ὅτι ἐκ τῆς , is defined by what is said in 1 John 3:18. Thus close is the connection of the Apostle’s argument with the preceding section in which he treated of obedience to the commandments of God and more particularly of brotherly love (1 John 3:10-18). Ἐν τούτῳ refers to what precedes, as in 1 John 2:5 b, and not to what follows as in 1 John 2:3.—1 John 3:19 is plainly connected with 1 John 3:18, not with 1 John 3:10 (Rickli, de Wette), or 1 John 3:14 (Lucke). The Future has here the same sense as in John 7:17; John 3:31-32; John 13:35. denoting the possibility of a case which may justly be expected to arise. Winer, Grammar, p. 294, sq.—Ἐκ requires to be interpreted like ἐκ θεοῦ εἶναι, τέκνον θεοῦ εἶναι both on account of the force of the preposition ἐκ which signifies principium vel ortum, and of the pregnant sense which John attaches to the word ἀληθεία. It is the truth eternal, originating in and springing from God revealed in Christ, testified to by the Holy Spirit as the Spirit of truth, the real substance of the Gospel, and designed to be expressed in the life of believers; it comes nearest to the idea of φῶς, and we ought therefore to compare the term: υἱοὶ φωτός (John 12:36). Cf. John 18:37.—It is not covered by ἐκ θεοῦ εἶναι, but should be combined with it. The truth (out) of God is the nature of those who love the brethren and a well of life in them.—Hence we must not explain with Bede: “ex veritate quæ Deus est” (so also Calvin, Rickli and others), or with Calov: “ex verbo veritatis” (so also Spener, Bengel, Lücke, de Wette), and still less understand with Jachmann “the true religion,” or with Nösselt: “doctrina divina,” or with Semler: “perfectior vita.” These definitions do not explain the idea ἀληθεία. Nor must we weaken the force of the preposition ’εκ and explain with Oecumenius: “ἀληθεύειν,” or with a Lapide: “veracem esse, veraciter ambulare,” or with Socinus: “vere talem esse, ut quis se esse se profitetur,” or with Grotius: “congruere evangelio.”
Second consequence: An assured heart before God, 1 John 3:19 b. 1 John 3:20.
1 John 3:19 b. And we shall persuade our hearts before Him.—Πείθειν either to convince or to persuade; the object καρδίας ἡμῶν points to a difference within the personality, qualified by καταγινώσκῃ and hence perceptible. It is an ethico-religious difference: the accusation and condemnation of our heart against our own person. The Apostle designates by καρδία the inmost seat of the emotions (John 14:1; John 14:27; John 16:6; John 16:22), the source of our actions (John 13:2), and here also the judge within; συνείδησις in John, occurs only in the spurious passage John 8:9, but is frequently used by Paul (Romans 2:15; Romans 9:1; Romans 13:5; 1 Corinthians 8:7; 2 Corinthians 5:11; Acts 24:16) and also at 1 Peter 3:16; 1 Peter 3:21; Hebrews 13:18. Origen cites 1 John 3:21, plainly either as: “ἐὰν μὴ ἡ συνείδησις καταγινώσκῃ ἡμῶν,” or as “ἐὰν ᾑ συνείδησις ἡμῶν μὴ καταγινώσκῃ.” The Greeks take καρδία simply for συνείδησις. Although καρδία is more comprehensive than συνείδησις, yet the latter is contained in the former, viz., conscience is in the heart, which we must conceive to be disquieted and excited by and with the conscience. The connection requires us to construe πείθειν aimed at the point “ut desistant condemnare” (Bengel), as at Matthew 28:14 : πείσομεν αὐτὸν, i.e., the ἡγεμόνα and ἀμερίμνους ποιήσομεν the soldiers on guard who had fled on the morning of the resurrection. According to the context and conformably to usage πείθειν denotes a pacifying persuasion. The antithesis 1 John 3:21 : ἐὰν μὴ καταγινώσκῃ—παῤῥησίαν ἔχομεν likewise makes ἐὰν καταγινώσκῃ—πείσομεν denote to pacify, to quiet as the effect of persuasion. Hence Fritsche’s explanation: “flectemus animos—ad amorem ostendendum,” is false and wholly repugnant to the context. The reference however is not to the last judgment when the final decision and separation will take place, but rather to the inward transactions, which though prophetical of the last judgment, precede the same during this our earthly life. Accordingly, ἔμπροσθεν αὐτοῦ is not coram illo in the last judgment and πείσομεν relates not to eternity (as Socinus, Lücke, de Wette construe), but only coram illo, in His presence, in His light. As the accusing heart on the ground of the Divine word, and in virtue of the impulse of and the fellowship with the Holy Spirit is disquieted, and the voice of God is heard in the conscience, so the heart must be quieted before God, on the ground and in virtue of His word and promise and in the fellowship with Him, so that the following words: “μείζων ἐστὶν ὁ θεὸς καὶ γινώσκει πάντα; explain ἔμπροσθεν αὐτοῦ; imaginings of our own spirit and worldly diversions do not promote such quieting. Compare Düsterdieck. Hence we should construe the Future πείσομεν in coördination with γνωσόμεθα and so connected with καὶ that it is also governed by ἐν τούτῳ, although the latter connected zeugmatically with γνωσόμεθα denotes thereat, with πείσομεν, thereby; this is the more practicable, because ἐκ τῆς intervenes and completes ἐν and γνωσόμεθα introduces πείσομεν. It is therefore wrong to begin a new sentence with ἔμπροσθεν (Paulus, Fritzsche, Ebrard).
1 John 3:20. Because, if the heart condemn us, because God is greater than our heart, and knoweth all things.—The reading ὅτι ἐὰν—ὅτι μείζων is so well established that neither a conjecture like that of Stephanus, who proposes to read ἔτι μείζων, nor the cancelling of the second ὅτι, as done by Grotius, warrants us to lessen or remove the difficulties which are also rather contained in the thought. We have now the reason specified that we shall quiet our hearts before Him in case our heart should condemn us and find a verdict against us. Hence ἐὰν with the Subjunctive is perfectly right. Winer, Grammar, pp. 307, 308.—“Καταγινώσκειν stands midway between κατηγορεῖν, to accuse (Romans 2:15), which is still accompanied by an ἀπολογεῖν (Romans 2:15), and κατακρίνειν, to sentence [in a bad sense—M], condemn (John 8:10 sq.); the latter includes the judicial punishment (John 8:10; Colossians 4:0), while καταγινώσκειν denotes only the verdict found against a person accused to be followed by the punishment corresponding thereto. Cf. Deuteronomy 25:1-2. The term is therefore very significant with respect to the verdict found by our own soul against ourself, which is more than the mere accusation, because the καταγινώσκειν implies also the guilt of the person accused, so that the condemnation to the punishment, the κατακρίνειν, may justly be expected” (Düsterdieck). In the heart there is not only a party, but also a judge; the conscience is a court of justice. Hence it denotes here not only reprehendere or accuse (Vulgate, Augustine, Lücke, al.). Why the heart finds a verdict against us the context indicates “in a relative play on the words” γνωσόμεθα—καταγινώσκῃ, exactly like John 15:2. (Düsterdieck). Consequently [it finds the verdict against us—M.] that we are not wholly of the truth, that we do not perfectly, gladly and uninterruptedly love the brethren; for these are correlates of extraordinary difference in degree up to perfection. The explanation of the Greek commentators, who think of 1 John 3:18, and that of Düsterdieck, who connects it with 1 John 5:19, should be combined against those of Luther and Nösselt, who think of every defect except that of brotherly love; but every other defect would also show itself with respect to brotherly love, and render it deficient. Of course, the reference cannot be to a complete relapse, to a knowingly and grossly repeated case of untruthfulness in love or of unlovingness, since the lying words of love would have no corresponding deed (Estius, Episcopius, Lücke, al.) though we may and should think not only of lesser but also of graver offences, seeing that the conscience of Christians is sufficiently tender and acute to find an adverse verdict also with respect to lesser defects of love. The repetition of ὅτι before ἐὰν and μείζων is not peculiar to this passage but occurs also at Ephesians 2:11-12. Lücke cites an example from Xenophon, Anab. 7, 4, 5 and 5, 6,19 remarking, however, that while ὅτι in both places signifies that, it denotes here “because.” The reason of the epanalepsis is not the forgetfulness of the author, but the importance of the thought which allows and requires such a rhetorical emphasis. Lücke admits the epanalepsis without hesitation, Winer, (Grammar p. 604, note 3,) is undecided, Huther hesitates and decides against it, the older and many modern commentators (Calvin, Wolf, Sander, Düsterdieck) are for it. There is hence no reason to read with Bengel, Baumgarten-Crusius, Lachmann, ed. maj. and others ὅταν or ὅ τι ἐὰν=quicquid like ὃ ἐὰν in 1 John 3:22 instead of ὅτι. It cannot be maintained with Düsterdieck that this is not Greek, and from the circumstance that ὃς ἐὰν or even ὅστις ἐὰν never occcurs in the New Testament without the variant reading ἂν, while ὅστις ἂν frequently occurs without a variant reading, it cannot be inferred that ὅ τι ἐὰν cannot be read here. Cf. Winer, Grammar, p. 322, sq.—Matthew 8:19 ὅπου ἐὰν occurs without the variant reading ἂν, and ὅστις ἐὰν is as well authenticated as ὃς ἐὰν. But on that account it is only possible to read here ὅ τι ἐὰν which is occasioned by the reading ἂν in A; καταγινώσκειν, which may have its object in the Accusative, also allows that reading. But the context forbids it; for it is hardly true that we can quiet our heart at every accusation, and the reason of such quieting to be connected with πείσομεν is too much separated, while the putting and assumption of the case, as stated in 1 John 3:20, and required at 1 John 3:21, in which the heart stands in need of such quieting, is all but wiped out.—The main difficulty is, that in the circumstance of God being greater and knowing all things must be found, and that it really contains, a quieting of the heart under its accusations.—The word μείζων is of frequent occurrence in the writings of John; in a similar connection at 1 John 4:4; 1 John 5:9; in other connections, particularly at John 4:12; John 5:36; John 8:53; John 10:29; John 13:16; John 14:28; John 15:20. The context invariably supplies the sense in which it is used; here the sentence καὶ γινώσκει πάντα furnishes the necessary explanation; He γινώσκει, while the heart καταγινώσκει. “Dulce paregmenon in Græco” (Bengel). God is here called greater in comparison with our heart; the heart accuses: it is not that He accuses more than our heart, but that He judges differently, more justly than our heart; for He knoweth all things which our heart does not perceive, know or observe in giving sentence. Πάντα of course points into the heart itself and to the immediate surroundings; what is that? The context answers that question: 1 John 3:2 : οὔπω φανερώθη τί ἐσόμεθα, 1 John 3:9 : σπέρμα αὐτοῦ ἐν αὐτῷ μένει, we do not altogether know ourselves, we have only the beginnings and germs of the life from Him; Christ, His life, His bearing and taking away sin (1 John 3:5-6), His destroying the works of the devil (1 John 3:8), objectively completed, but subjectively to be gradually completed from a life-principle of the regeneration (1 John 2:29), and moreover passing through man’s own weakness and sin (1 John 3:3 : ἁγνίζει ἑαυτὸν), and through the hatred of the world (1 John 3:13 : μισεῖ ὑμᾶς ὁ κόσμος). God knows the whole (πάντα) of the new life of man even to the ὅμοιοι αὐτῷ εσόμεθα (1 John 3:2), while man knows only the particular, the particular error of which the heart accuses him; God knows the power of His gift to man and its preservation in penitence, its growth and development both in the hope and the faith in him. Therefore God is greater and knoweth all things; therefore, this greatness of the God who is our Father is a ground of quieting when the heart accuses us, and in its vitality and tenderness finds a verdict against us. So Besser: “Our heart knows some things and pronounces against us: God knows all things and pronounces not against us, but for us, because the seed of the truth out of which we are born, is not concealed to Him.” He knows, as Sander says, even the smallest spark of faith in the glimmering wick, or even the hidden germs of true love (Rickli). “Conscientia pusilla est et scit aliquid nostri duntaxat, at Deus magnus est, novit omnia nostra, præsentia, præterita, futura, et omnium, et habet jus voluntatemque condonandi” (Bengel).—Hence this verse is, sensu evangelico, to be understood of the love which forgives and destroys sin (Luther, Spener, Bengel, Besser, Düsterdieck, Huther and others), and not sensu legali, of judging righteousness and omniscience (Calvin, Beza, Socinus, Grotius, Calov, Lücke, Neander, Ebrard and others). Ebrard begins a new sentence and explains thus: And before the face of God we shall convince our heart, mind, conscience, not the understanding, that if (already) our (easily deceived smaller) heart accuses us (that we do not practise love), God, the Omniscient, is greater than our heart (and that we so much the less can stand before Him, have παῤῥησία).—Nor must we construe: For, if the heart accuses us, because God is greater than our heart, He also knoweth all things; so de Wette sensu legali, Brückner sensu evangelico. Rather the importance of the thought justifies the epanalepsis of the ὅτι.
Third consequence. Filial confidence. 1 John 3:21-22.
1 John 3:21. Beloved, if our heart condemn us not.—Ἀγαπητοί as in 1 John 2:7; 1 John 3:2; 1 John 4:1; 1 John 4:7; 1 John 4:11 is here connected with the enjoyment of the forgiving love of God in order to bring out a new and other feature. The recurrence of the words ἡ καρδία καταγινώσκῃ ἡμῶν indicates the connection with the foregoing (although, as Bengel maintains, καρδία, 1 John 3:20, καταγινώσκῃ has the emphasis), in the same sense, in order to mark a particular case (ἐὰν with conjunct.), which is sure to arise, and only the negative μὴ marks the antithesis; the word used is μή and not μηκέτι, which would make the supposed case the consequence of what goes before (as Huther supposes). A similar construction occurs at 1 John 1:8-9.
We have confidence towards God.—The words παῤπ̔ησίαν πρὸς τὸν θεὸν ἔχομεν denote the state of the peace of the soul and of undisturbed confidence to God-ward which is opposed to that described before by πείθειν τὰς καρδίας ἡμῶν, like at Romans 8:15. The παῤῥησία 1 John 2:28; 1 John 4:17 is indeed the child-like free confidence before the Father in the time of judgment; the reference here also is to a judgment, in the court of the conscience, in one’s own heart, but not to the future and final judgment. Hence Estius explains falsely: fiducia evadendæ damnationis in die judicii. But the limitation of παῤῥησία to confident prayer and supplication is neither warranted by the word itself (2 Corinthians 7:4), the context, nor the construction with πρός, which simply indicates the direction and relation as in Romans 5:1 : εἰρήνην—πρὸς τὸν θεόν, nor by the parallel-passage at 1 John 5:14. Here it denotes joyful confidence to God-ward at every moment of life (Rickli, Düsterdieck and others), but not fiducia in nostris necessitatibus recurrendi ad ipsum (Lyra), or the girdle or mendicant’s bag of all manner of necessaries (Luther), fiducia in rogando (Bengel). [Alford: “To God-ward, in our aspect as turned towards and looking to God.—It must be remembered that the words are said in the full light of the reality of the Christian State,—where the heart is awakened and enlightened, and the testimony of the Spirit is active: where the heart’s own deceit does not come into consideration as a disturbing element.”—M.]. But hereby it is not denied that the specific, yea the most significant feature of this filial confidence (Düsterdieck) is, what follows—
1 John 3:22. And whatsoever we may (perchance, German: etwa) ask, we receive from Him.—The conjunction καὶ connects a particular already contained in παῤῥησία like καὶ in 1 John 3:10 b (Düsterdieck). Ὃ ἐὰν αἰτῶμεν is to be taken quite generally and to be limited only by the subject asking, namely the child of God and his wants (Düsterdieck, Huther). [The latter beautifully adds: “The child of God asks for nothing which is contrary to the will of his Father”—M.]. The same holds good of λαμβάνομεν ’ αὐτοῦ (θεοῦ). The Present must not be taken for the Future (Grotius); it rather denotes the present, constant intercourse between the child of God with his God. Cf. John 14:13; John 16:24. Augustine: “Caritas ipsa novit, caritas ipsa orat, contra hanc aures claudere non novit, qui illam dedit; securus esto, caritas roget, et ibi sunt aures dei; non fit, quod vis, sed fit, quod tibi expedit.”
Because we keep His commandments and do the things which are pleasing in His sight.—Here is evidently a parallelism: ἐντολὰς—τηρεῖν and τὰ , so that the two together constitute one idea. At John 8:29, τὰ occurs in a connection similar to the present. Besides this also in Acts 6:2; Acts 12:3.—The term εὐαρεστός of frequent occurrence in the Pauline writings (Romans 12:1; Romans 14:18; 2 Corinthians 5:9; Ephesians 5:10; Philippians 4:18), with the Dative τῷ θεῷ or τῷ κυρίῳ is used Colossians 3:20 of the fourth commandment, and the parallel passage Ephesians 6:1, has δίκαιον. Cf. 1. Tim. 1John 1 John 5:4 : ἀπόδεκτον ἐνώπιον τοῦ θεοῦ. Hence we must also connect τὰ with the commandments. But while the first clause of the parallel sentence specifies the commandments, the second clause marks that which is pleasing in His sight and the kind of obedience, because God requires not a slavish service, but filial obedience, and that an active one (ποιοῦμεν). Hence we must not explain with the Roman Catholic expositors ἐντολαὶ of præcepta and ἀρεστὰ of consilia evangelica. The greater difficulty is the right construction of the connection with ὅτι, which indicates the reason why our prayers are heard. But the ground is not necessarily causa meritoria as the Greek writers think who assume an ἀντιδιδόναι on the part of God; and the Roman Catholics and the Rationalists of course agree with them. The context, especially with respect to 1 John 2:29; 1 John 3:6; 1 John 3:9; 1 John 3:23-24, shows that while prominence is given to their conduct the reference is to the relation in which they stand, or with the description of their activity to the ground on which they move. The relation between God and themselves which conditions and regulates their conduct is the cause why their prayers are heard, because their conduct conditioned by that relation also regulates their prayers according to the will of God (κατὰ τὸ θέλημα αὐτοῦ 1 John 5:14); the prayers as they are made, so they are heard, because we are the children of God. The expression of Hunnius, that the particle ὅτι is not causalis but rationativa, is beside the mark, although the idea is correct. Cf. Düsterdieck. [Huther has multum in parvo: “ὅτι in close connection with the immediately preceding λαμβάνομεν indicates the ground of the Divine exhibition of love in hearing prayer; this ground, which must not be taken as causa meritoria, is the filial obedience of the person asking, whereby God identifies him as His child; the idea of obedience is expressed in two coördinated sentences (resembling the Hebrew parallelism); τὰς ἐντολὰς αὐτοῦ and τὰ are synonymous; ποιεῖν marks the obedience as being active; the second sentence points to the circumstance that it does not consist in servile subjection to the commandment, but in the filial performance of that which is well-pleasing to God.” Alford, adverting to the Romish misinterpretation, excellently expounds: “Out of Christ, there are no good works at all: entrance into Christ is not won or merited by them. In Christ, every work done of faith is good and is pleasing to God. The doing of such works is the working of the life of Christ in us: they are its sign, they are its fruits: they are not of us, but of it and of Him. They are the measure of our Christian life: according to their abundance, so is our access to God, so is our reward from God: for they are the steps of our likeness to God. Whatever is attributed to them as an efficient cause, is attributed not to us, but to Him whose fruits they are. Because Christ is thus manifested in us, God hears our prayers, which He only hears for Christ’s sake: because His Spirit works thus abundantly in us, He listens to our prayer, which in that measure has become the voice of His Spirit. So that no degree of efficacy attributed to the good works of the child of God need surprise us: it is God recognizing, God vindicating, God multiplying, God glorifying His own work in us. So that when e.g. Corn, a Lap. says, “Congruum est et congrua merces obedientiæ et amicitiæ, ut si homo faciat voluntatem Dei, Deus vicissim faciat voluntatem hominis,” all we can reply is that such a duality, such a reciprocity, does not exist for Christians: we are in God, He in us; and this St. John continually insists on. We have no claim ab extra: He works in us to do of His good pleasure: and the works which He works, which we work, manifest before Him, and before all, that we are His children.”—M.].
Fourth consequence: Fellowship of the Spirit with particular reference to the ground of these consequences, 1 John 3:23-24.
1 John 3:23. And this is His commandment.—1 John 1:5 : καὶ ἐστιν αὕτη. Καὶ is simply copulative and connecting with τὰς ἐντολὰς αὐτοῦ specifies the most essential contents of ἡ ἐντολὴ, which indeed embraces two commandments, faith and love, but which two commandments, being indissolubly united, contain the sum-total of the being determined by the Divine Will in Christ. Ἐντολὴ refers neither to the first commandment (J. Lange), nor must it be construed in a sense it does not bear (de Wette); it is and remains the expression of the Divine Will (Düsterdieck). Αὐτοῦ of course is=τοῦ θεοῦ. [Oecumenius: ἔχοντες ἐντολὴν, ἴνα τῇ πίστει τῇ ἐν τῷ ὀνόματι τοῦ υἱοῦ αὐτοῦ αὐτοῦ Ἰησ. Χρ. ἀγαπῶμεν . Bede: Singulari numero mandatum præmisit, et duo subsequentia adjungit mandata, fidem scilicet et dilectionem, quia nimirum hæc ab invicem separari nequeunt. Neque enim sine fide Christi recte nos alterutrum diligere, neque vere in nomine Jesu Christi sine dilectione possumus credere.—M.].
That we should believe on the name of His Son Jesus Christ and love one another.—Here ἵνα indicates the purpose and not only the contents of the commandments, as Huther explains [But the strong telic sense of ἵνα can hardly be pressed here; see 1 John 3:1; 1 John 3:11.—M.]. The Aorist πιστεύσωμεν is not only the best authenticated and difficilior lectio, but also more thoughtful than the πιστεύωμεν formed after the pattern of ἀγαπῶμεν, and denotes by the side of the Present ἀγαπῶμεν, that the former precedes the latter, πίστις as the pre-supposition, not as being done once for all (against Düsterdieck), but as a root of vital strength, and ἀγάπη as the stem, as in Galatians 5:6 : πίστις ἐν , or 1 Timothy 1:5 : ἀγάπη—ἐκ πίστεως. Faith conceived as an ἔργον θεοῦ (John 6:29) and John 16:9 (ἁμαρτία, ὅτι οὐ πιστεύουσιν εἰς ἐμέ) as the ground of a holy being, of the whole obedience, is yet man’s work and hence may be required in the commandment, more especially since the construction πιστεύειν τινι (John 4:21; John 5:24; John 5:46-47; John 8:45) denotes the assensus with which man’s agency awakes, while πιστεύειν τινα describes the received notitia, and πιστεύειν εἰς τινα the God-wrought fiducia, which embraces the least, the notitia, and also the moment next to it, the assensus. The object of faith is τὸ ὄνομα τοῦ υἱοῦ αὐτοῦ Ἱησοῦ Χριστοῦ. This ὄνομα is the revelation of the being of the Son of God, and contains within itself and discloses to believers what is testified of Him and by Himself, and is to be testified; it includes both the prædicatio (Romans 10:14) as Calvin and Beza explain, and the meritum and the promissiones Christi et de Christo, as pointed out by S. Schmidt and others. Doctrina Christiana (Episcopius), and the dignity of the Messiah (S. G. Lange), are consequently insufficient. [Alford: “To believe the Gospel-message concerning Him, and Him as living in it, in all His fulness.”—M.]. Conformably to the close connection of faith and love (John 16:4; John 16:7 sqq.) the Apostle now annexes the Present ἀγαπῶμεν to the Aorist by the copulative καὶ.—The additional clause—
As He gave us commandment, being a further qualification of love (1 John 2:7-8; 1 John 3:16; John 13:34; John 15:12-13), belongs to the latter part of the sentence (Myrberg: non modo amandum est, sed etiam vere et recte amandum), and not to the former (πιστεύσωμεν), as Estius, Bengel, Sander.—Hence Christ, and not God, is and remains the subject of this lateral idea. Christ, on whom, as the Son of God, we have to believe, is the origin and standard of brotherly love.
1 John 3:24. And he that keepeth His commandments, abideth in Him and He in Him.—Passing over the lateral idea and the ἐντολὴ, 1 John 3:23, and resuming the ἐντολὰς τηρεῖν, 1 John 3:22, the Apostle now makes prominent the fourth consequence, the fellowship of God with us and our fellowship with God, according to which He is in us and we are in Him. Hence αὐτοῦ, αὐτῷ, αὐτὸς—all three—describe God and not Christ (Neander, Besser, Sander).
And hereby we know that He abideth in us, from [out of] the Spirit that He gave us.—God’s abiding in us is the object of knowledge; and it is important to notice that God’s abiding in us is not specified here as res minus verisimilis (Socinus), but as the condition of our abiding in God; the two mutually include each other and must be taken in that sense. And this is known ἐν τούτῳ ἐκ πνεύματος. Ἐν τούτῳ obviously refers to what follows, as 1 John 2:3, and not to what precedes, as ch. 1 John 3:5. Surprising is the transition from the formula ἐν τούτῳ, placed at the beginning of this sentence and so current in John, to ἐκ πνεύματος, but the transition may be explained by the circumstance that after ὅτι μένει ἐν ἡμῖν the clearness and beauty of the structure required substantive proof, and that this substantive proof occasioned the fine and thoughtful description of the source and origin of that knowledge by the preposition ἐκ. Cf. 1 John 4:6 : ἐκ τούτου γινώσκομεν. The πνεῦμα is the Holy Spirit who moves us, the living and powerful principle of our life from (out of) and in God. Here we should remember the χρίσμα, 1 John 2:20-26. Inadequate is de Wette’s explanation, that πνεῦμα denotes the Divine appropriated in faith and life, but that the reference here is to the right knowledge and doctrine of the person of Jesus, and even more inadequate is the opinion of Socinus, that πνεῦμα is love.—In the annexed relative sentence οὗ must not be taken as a genit. partitivus, but as the result of attraction. Winer, Part III. § 24.
DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL
1. The Christian should not be or remain in a state of uncertainly whether he really is a child of God (out) of the truth; his redemption and the reconciliation of God to him and his reconciliation to God and his salvation need not be to him a doubtful or only probable state. But clear and firm knowledge on this subject he does not acquire at one stroke, over-night; he must learn it by living and exercising himself in love. The Christian in process of being [i.e., in the development of this Christian life—M.] is in a state of fermentation, or engaged in single combat, without a survey of the whole field, the battle conducing to victory, although here and there defeats occur, and he is forced to retire even unto flight—without being able to imperil the ultimate victory. Hence he has misgivings which he can and ought to discard, fearless and full of confidence and reliance on the Lord of hosts and of the victory.
2. The final cause of such assurance of faith and blessed certainty of salvation, constantly exposed to the danger of being disturbed by the accusations and charges of the heart discerning and reproving the ever-recurring omissions and imperfections and transgressions in thought, word and deed, lies not in ourselves, neither in the mark, in brotherly love and, generally, in obedience to the commandments of God, nor in such: acts of reproof of an anxious and contrite heart, but in God Himself, in that which He has promised and imparted to us, and that He abides by His word and work, also in our hearts, nursing and furthering the same even unto completion. Three things are clearly and distinctly asserted.
a. If the Christian looks at himself, anxiety and doubts concerning the state of grace are justified; Hebrews 6:4-6; Hebrews 10:26-31, in, which passages Luther found “a hard knot,” and on which see R. Stier, point to the possibility of a relapse, as also Romans 8:13; Galatians 6:7-8. This is contrary to Calvin’s assumption of the donum perseverantiæ given with regeneration, and which is not taught at John 10:28-29. But if the Christian looks up to the mercy of God, he acquires confidence and joyfulness and the Holy Spirit bears witness of his adoption and Divine life-fellowship (1 John 3:24, Romans 8:16-27). This is contrary to the Roman Catholic doctrine except by that the Christian, special revelation, cannot have any certainty concerning his state of grace.
b. The point in question is not a mathematical certitudo, an actus intellectus, but only fiducia as well as confidence in the pureness of a man’s disposition.
c. The certain assurance of standing in God’s grace is not identical with nor to be confounded with the certainty of being predestinated. The Council of Trent was right, in opposition to the Reformed, to reject this certainty (Romans 6:15-16) but wrong in rejecting the former assurance (Romans 6:9): “Sicut nemo pius de Dei misericordia, de Christi merito deque Sacramentorum virtute et efficacia dubitare potest, sic quilibet, dum se ipsum suamque propriam infirmitatem et indispositionem respicit, de sua gratia formidare it timere potest, quam nullus scire valeat certitudine fidei, cui non potest subesse falsum, se gratiam Dei esse consecutum.” Here, as we may readily perceive, truth and falsehood are suspiciously mixed up. Cf. Frank, Theologie der K. F. 2. 78, 141. Thiersch, Vorlesungen über Protestantismus und Katholizismus, 2, 149–159.
3. The two cases that conscience finds a verdict against us and not against us are opposed to each other, but nevertheless facts belonging to the Christian life and perfectly compatible with it, even as 1 John 1:8-9 and 1 John 3:9 do not cancel each other. These propositions cannot be classed among the paradoxes, which may not be without truth, as stated by Luther, e.g. “Si in fide fieri posset adulterium peccatum non esset,” and Proposition 32 in Grund und Artikel, which were unjustly condemned by the Romish bull (1520, Erlangen, 24, 138): A. good work done in the very best manner, is still a daily sin, etc.—Nor dare we try to aid the establishment of a morality for the people, and another morality for the saints by drawing with the Roman Catholics a distinction between præcepta and consilia evangelica, between a selfish amor concupiscentiæ calculating on salvation and an amor amicitiæ surrendering itself in pure fidelity. We may neither separate by false distinctions the objectively given commandments with the will of God nor the subjectively imposed obligations, nor, worse still, men from one another. But we ought to contemplate both truths, that our natural disposition which is sinful before God ever and again mingles without, and contrary to the Christian’s will with the works done by the motions of the Spirit from above and in faith, and that the Christian born of God has before his eyes and in his heart the one will of God, as revealed in the Law and in Christ, which aims not at a higher or a lower morality [but at one morality—M.], and that his obedience is well-pleasing to God, not because of his own doings or nature, but solely for the sake of Christ. Our life here on earth is made up of alternate joy and grief, of rising and falling, of forgiveness of sins and cancelling and the commission of sin. Sin, moreover, is more sinful in the children of God than in the servants of perdition, for they have a more profound and lively sense of the slightest stirrings of the wrath of God, because and though their falling is not yet a falling from grace, as at Galatians 5:4 (τῆς χάριτος ἐξεπέσατε). Not every falling involves the loss of grace. But obedience and patience in good works remain marks of the state of grace. Cf. C. A. 6, 20, f. C. 4, 5, 6, Frank 1, 1; 2, 177 sq.; 181 sq.; 139 sqq.; 369 sqq.
4. Filial confidence which does not begin with the entrance upon our inheritance [but here on earth—M.], has a παῤῥησία not only in the day of judgment, but already here on earth, and it evidences itself both by zealous efforts towards self-sanctification based on the assurance of the forgiveness of sins, and by confident prayer. “Prayer is as essential to man as his conscience, because the conscience, in proportion to its clearness and vitality, necessarily passes into prayer” (Löber, Lehre vom Gebet p. 1.). If the conscience is pacified, prayer will be sure of being heard. If man is so circumstanced that he lives and moves in God’s word, his word in prayer to God will also prevail with God, in whose being (as we may learn from the case of the praying God-man), as well as in man’s being prayer has its ultimate reason. Harless, therefore, has not very judiciously classed prayer among the subjective means of Christian virtue (Ethik §. 33).—A limitation of prayer that may be heard beyond the pattern-prayer of the Lord’s Prayer is not permitted; you may in the state of grace pray for every thing assured of being heard, but equally assured that nothing is said of the time when and the manner how your prayers will be heard. God hears whatever we ask, but not exactly as we ask.
5. Faith in God, who is Love, and (in virtue of our belief in the love of God) love of the brethren are intimately connected, the reference being to “faith as the transition from darkness to light and love as the walk in the light” (Hofmann, Schriftbeweis XI., 2, 337, cf. 1 John 3:14).
6. It follows from the testimony of the Holy Spirit within thee (cf. No. 2 above), that thou art a temple of God (1 Corinthians 3:16), or a tabernacle of God among men (Revelation 21:3).
HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL
Much depends on knowledge, more on knowledge of the truth, most on the knowledge whether we are ourselves of the truth.—He is to be pronounced happy in whom the difficult self-knowledge was acquired and carried out as the knowledge of sin, but more happy he in whom the knowledge of God forces itself through the knowledge of himself.—Four marks of our adoption or four evidences of our being of the truth: 1. Peace of the soul under the accusations of conscience (1 John 3:19-20); 2. Filial trust under the wants and deprivations of life (1 John 3:21-22); 3. Assurance and decision under the manifold and different requirements (10. 23); 4. Joy of fellowship in solitude or desertion.—How can you pacify your heart disquieted by the accusings of conscience? 1. Know what God has hitherto done for you not in vain: He desires to save you; 2. Feel how in such a judgment the holiness of God is working in you: He desires to purify you; 3. Hope that He will gloriously accomplish it, as He has promised: He is the Master and your life will be a masterpiece at the last.—Prayer and commandment are essentially related to each other; thy word addressed to God in prayer will surely be heard, if God’s word addressed to thee in the commandment is observed. God will not be asked in vain by those who suffer themselves to be commanded by Him. The hearing of prayer is not affected by the conduct of man fixed by his relation to God, but by this relation which produces in man childlikeness, childlike obedience, childlike trust, childlike disposition and childlike ways, even as it affords paternal fidelity and paternal aid. With faith in the name of His Son Jesus Christ thou hast the love of God above all things, or the fulfilment of the commandments of the first table; and from faith in the paternal love of God revealed in Christ flows Christian brotherly love, or the fulfilment of the commandments of the second table.—He is in us, this is ever the first and most important thing; His commandments are before our obedience to them; and He is with and in them. But if we do not value His commandments we do not value ourselves, we become ruins and a desert. In desert ruins He does not dwell; we must be builded up, if not into temples, at least into tabernacles. He builds—even the tabernacle into the temple, and instead of cares of the soul in indigence of the Good and the Eternal Good, jubilant hymns of praise for the inheritance of the saints swell in majestic fulness and strength.—Without Christ, the Son of God, God is not thy Father but without the Spirit of the Father and the Son, thou hast neither God the Father nor the Saviour.
Luther:—Although our conscience make us afraid and represent to us God as angry, yet God is greater than our heart. Conscience is but a single drop, but the reconciled God an ocean of consolation.—When a man is rebuked and condemned by his conscience, he grows terrified; but against this darkness of the heart we may say, God knoweth all things. Conscience is always fearful and shuts the eyes; but God is deeper and higher than thy heart and searches its inmost state most thoroughly.
Starke:—We believers do not indulge in idle imaginings and suppositions, but have sure, firm, irrefragable grounds and testimonies, wrought by the Holy Ghost Himself that we are of the truth and born of God.—A man may have a great temptation and yet be a child of God.—Away with forged letters and testimonials! if the inward witness of the conscience contradicts and condemns. Conscience is more than a thousand witnesses. How false is the charge that Christianity causes melancholy and gloominess! Sorrow may indeed be found among Christians but without any fault of Christianity or of God, and moreover with them true knowledge is followed by their sorrow being turned into joy.—A heart rejoicing before God is a great treasure; O, the happiness of being permitted to appear before God in His majesty with joyfulness; therefore let us pray: Lord, give us a cheerful heart!—The spirit of joyfulness is also a spirit of prayer. Believers will receive what they ask of God in the manner which He has promised and at the time He thinks proper.—Nothing can be required of a Christian beyond faith and love: believers will not be taken captive by statutes, but they stand in liberty.—Be ashamed to say or order anything without the commandment of God, and again be ashamed to do anything in opposition to the commandment of God.—To live a good life requires us to abide good; it is not enough to have come into God, one must also abide in Him.—The believer is a great miracle, seeing that the infinite and immeasurable God wholly dwells and walks in him.
Heubner:—Is here perchance taught work–confidence? No! faith remains the ground of justification but we may hope that the genuineness and purity of our faith will follow love.—The Christian’s prayer is never unheard; for God gives us that which is good although not always that to which we gave utterance, not that which we intended; the Christian ever desires the Good and the Good only, and the better we grow, the more do all our desires coincide with the will of God. Only those are able to ask who are in a state of grace; a serious, pious, honest mind is the condition of prayer; a braggart cannot pray.—The presence and continued operation of the Spirit in keeping us in the right discipline, warning, moving, strengthening and comforting us, is the sign that we belong to Christ, if He leaves us we are separated from Christ.
Adapted from Ziel (Gesetz and Zeugniss, 4):—How happy they who are of the truth! 1. They may pacify their heart before Him. 2. They have a joyful confidence toward God; 3. They are they that will receive from Him whatsoever they ask.—Compare here hymns like Paul Gerhard’s: “Ist Gott für mich, so trete (If God is for me, etc.).
Sein Geist spricht meinem Geiste
His Spirit cheers my spirit
Manch süsses Trostwort zu;
With words of comfort sweet;
Wie Gott dem Hülfe leiste,
That they God’s help inherit
Der bei Ihm suchet Ruh;
Who rest with Him do seek.
Und wie Er hab’ erbauet,
And that He has upbuilded
Ein’ edle neue Stadt
A city fair and new,
Da Aug’ und Herze schauet,
Where eyes and heart forever
Was es geglaubet hat.
What they believed shall view.
Da ist mein Theil und Erbe
For there in glory lying
Mir prächtig zugericht’t;
My lot is held in store
Wenn ich gleich fall und sterbe,
With all my falls, and dying,
Fällt doch mein Himmel nicht. (1 John 3:9.)
My heaven falls nevermore.
Also Erdmann Neumeister’s: Jesus nimmt die Sünder an (Jesus, sinners does receive); especially 1 John 3:7.
Mein Gewissen quält mich nicht,
My conscience now is purified,
Moses darf mich nicht verklagen;
All plea to Moses is denied,
Der mich frei und ledig spricht,
He acquitteth me to-day
Hat die Sünden abgetragen (1 John 3:5),
Who all sin did take away;
Dass mich Nichts verdammen kann;
Nothing can condemn or grieve
Jesus nimmt die Sünder an.
Jesus sinners does receive.
[Pyle: 1 John 3:19-21.—This will show us to be Christians indeed; and while the impartial testimony and inward sense of our own consciences assure us of the sincere performance of our own duty, we may safely conclude that God, the Searcher of hearts and Standard of all truth, will approve of and reward us. And on the contrary, whoever by the clear conviction of his own mind knows and feels himself to be a hypocritical transgressor of his moral duty, must be assured that God, who knows him better than he does himself, cannot fail to be his more severe judge and avenger.—M.].
[Bull: 1 John 3:20.—If a man be conscious to himself of his own wickedness, yea, the very secret wickedness and hypocrisy of his heart, sure God Himself, who set up in every man this “candle” of conscience, as Solomon calls it, Proverbs 20:27, cannot be ignorant of it; He being the fountain of all knowledge, and all knowledge in the creature derivative from Him, and so knowing all things that are knowable by any creature, and infinitely more.—M.].
[Macknight: 1 John 3:22.—This general declaration must be limited by the conditions, which in other passages of Scripture are made necessary to our petitions being granted by God; such as, that we ask things agreeable to His Will, 1 John 5:14-15; and that we ask them in faith, James 1:6; that is, in the full persuasion of the Divine wisdom and goodness, and with sincerity and resignation. Such prayers, they who keep the commandments of God, may hope will be heard, because they keep His commandments by habitually doing the things which are well-pleasing to Him.—M.].
[Pyle: 1 John 3:23-24.—These verses may be thus paraphrased; In short, true faith in the doctrine of Christ, and true charity to mankind, especially to our Christian brethren, is the sum-total of our duty. And you, that have already duly performed it, have a sufficient pledge and earnest of your acceptance with God, as true disciples of Christ, by the gifts and graces of His Holy Spirit conferred upon you.—M.].
[Ridley: 1 John 3:24.—The way of the Spirit is not to be traced; the working of God is not to be perceived. The Divine Author and His operation are hidden from us, but His work is manifest. And though we cannot see God at any time, or feel the motion of the Spirit in our hearts, yet is there certain evidence whether we are brought on by Him or not. St. John gives us an infallible rule, that we may know that God, by His Spirit, dwelleth in us, if we keep His commandments.—M.].
[Ezekiel Hopkins:—A clear conscience gives us boldness of access unto God. Guilt abashes the soul, and makes it both ashamed and afraid to appear in the presence of God: and therefore Adam, as soon as he had sinned against his Maker, presently hides himself from Him. We may observe in ourselves, what a slavish dejectedness seizeth us when we come to God in duty, after we have wronged Him by any known sin: we come to Him suspiciously; and with such a misgiving fear, as if we would not have God take notice that we are before Him; and are still in pain, till the duty be over. But, when our consciences are clear, oh, with what delight do we haste to God, and with what content do we stay with Him! How doth the soul dilate and spread itself under the smiles of God, beating full upon it! “So, O Lord, here is a heart that I labour to make and keep void of offence; do thou fill it with thy promised grace and Spirit. It is not, indeed, a mansion pure enough for the pure and holy God; yet it is such, as thou wilt accept, and in which thou wilt dwell. There are still many hidden corruptions in it, but do thou search them out; and thou, who hast kept thy servant from presumptuous sins, do thou also cleanse me from secret faults.” Thus a clear conscience, with a holy and reverend boldness, addresseth itself to God; and sweetly closeth up every duty and every prayer, with full assurance of obtaining mercy from God. So the Apostle (Hebrews 9:22): “Let us draw near …. in full assurance of faith:” how may we gain this full assurance, when we draw near to God? By “having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience:” get but a pure and clear conscience, and that will enable you to draw near to God in full assurance of faith, and so here (1 John 3:21): “Beloved, if our heart condemn us not, then have we confidence towards God:” if conscience be not evil to accuse us, then have we confidence towards God: when the face of man’s conscience looks cheerful, and hath not a frown or a wrinkle upon it, this makes us joyfully to apprehend that God’s face towards us is serene also, and that we shall be welcome at all times into our Father’s presence: this conscience suggests to us, and makes us come with a holy, yet with an awful boldness unto God.—M.].
[Barrow:—No man can otherwise found any assurance of God’s special love to him, than upon a good conscience: testifying that he doth sincerely love God, and endeavour faithfully to obey His commandments.—If we desire to judge reasonably about ourselves, or to know our true state, the only way is to compare our hearts and lives with the law of God, judging ourselves by that rule according to which God will judge us. If we find in our hearts the love of God and goodness (sincere although imperfect); if we perceive ourselves disposed to keep God’s commandments (to live piously, righteously and soberly in this world); then may we have a satisfactory hope concerning our state; then “we may (as St. John saith) have confidence toward God, because we keep His commandments and do those things that are pleasing to Him:” but if we do not find that mind in us, and that practice, we, in conceiting well of ourselves upon any other grounds, do but flatter and impose upon ourselves; if all the world should account us good, and take us to be in a good case, we should not at all believe them, or mind them; for let no man deceive us, he that doeth righteousness, he (and he alone) is righteous, is the most faithful advice and unquestionable sentence of St. John. It is therefore (that by resting on such false bottoms we be not abused, and drawn thence to neglect the amendment of our hearts and ways, in order to our final account) a duty incumbent upon us thus to search our hearts and try our ways, and accordingly to judge ourselves: the doing which with care and conscience would dispose us to prepare for the judgment we speak of; for, if (saith St. Paul) we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged, or not condemned.—M.].
[Neander:—(Christ), when about to partfrom His disciples, no more to be with them in His personal bodily presence, promised that He would be invisibly near and present among them, no less truly than during His earthly manifestation. The proof of this, His actual presence among them, should be the communication to them of His Spirit. This should be the medium between believers and their Saviour, until vision takes the place of faith; till that immediate view of Christ, enjoyed by His disciples in the familiar intercourse of his earthly life, is restored in heightened glory to believers. It is to this inward experience that the Apostle makes his appeal with these Churches and to it the inward experience of believers in all ages bears witness. Here, then, are conjoined two characteristic marks of fellowship with Christ which cannot be discovered from each other; the one inward, perceptible to the immediate inner consciousness, the other belonging to the outward life, but presupposing the former, of which it is at once the outward expression and the condition of its continuance. The first is-Participation in the Spirit—promised by Christ; the second, Obedience to His commandments, which is the fruit of that Spirit’s agency, and in which such participation makes itself apparent. This being the Spirit’s work, is also, as the evidence of this work, the condition of its continuance; all Divine gifts being conditioned upon the faithful use of what “is bestowed, according to the words of Christ: Whoso hath, to him shall be given.”—M.].
[On 1 John 3:19-20
see De corde condemnante, Critici Sacri Thes. No 3:2, 991.
A Sermon by Robert South, D. D. Sermon Themes: God greater than our heart.
Conscience an earnest of the last judgment.
Use to be made of the misgivings of conscience.
Charles Simeon, A good and evil conscience, Works 20, p. 454.
R. South, The nature and measures of conscience, 2 Sermons.
Andrew Gray, The mystery of faith opened up, 6 Sermons.
Isaac Williams, The Gospel a feast of Love, Serm. 2, 67.
John Flavel, The Spirit’s indwelling, Works, 2, 328.
J. Basnage, L’union de l’âme avec Jésus-Christ, Serm. 2, 501.—M.].
Footnotes:
1 John 3:19; 1 John 3:19. Καὶ, though wanting in A. B., is found in C. G. K. Sin., many cursives and versions.
1 John 3:19; 1 John 3:19. γνωσόμεθα with A. B. C. Sin; γιγνώσκομεν G. K.; another reading is γινώσκομεθα, cognoscemur. [German: We shall know.—M.]
1 John 3:19; 1 John 3:19. [German: “Out of the truth.”—M.]
1 John 3:19; 1 John 3:19. [German: “And shall persuade our hearts before Him.”—M.]
1 John 3:20; 1 John 3:20. ὅτι, is written by Lachmann ὅτι, only after A, which reads ὅτι ἂν. [German: “because.”—M.]
1 John 3:20; 1 John 3:20. καταγινώσκη is the reading of the best Codd. also of Sinait; elsewhere καταγινώσκει.
1 John 3:20; 1 John 3:20. ὅτι before μείζων, B. C. G. K. Sin. is well authenticated [and adopted in the German which reads: “Because God is greater etc.”—M.]
1 John 3:21; 1 John 3:21. καταγινώσκῃ, elsewhere καταγινώσκει, Sin;—κω, is at all events an error of the pen like ἔκπροσθεν 1 John 3:19, ἔσσφαξἑν 1 John 3:12.—Besides A. omits the first, and B. C. the second ἡμῶν, but both occur in G. K. Sin; and B. C. testify for the former, A. for the second.
1 John 3:21; 1 John 3:21. ἔχομεν well supported instead of ἔχει B, ἔχωμεν, habeamus.
1 John 3:22; 1 John 3:22. German: “And whatsoever we may ask.”—M.
1 John 3:22; 1 John 3:22. ἀπ’ αὐτοῦ A. B. C. Cod, Sin;—παρ’ αὐτοῦ G. K.
1 John 3:22; 1 John 3:22. τηρῶμεν A. K. Sin. is probably a slip of the pen for τηροῦμεν.
1 John 3:22; 1 John 3:22. [καὶ τὰ . τ. λ. “And do the things, etc.;” the demonstrative pronoun is unnecessary and is not used in most of the versions, the German renders “and do the well-pleasing before Him.”—M.]
1 John 3:23; 1 John 3:23. πιστεύσωμεν B. G. K.—A. C. Cod. Sin. πιστεύωμεν.
1 John 3:23; 1 John 3:23. ἡμῖν after ἐντολὴν in Cod. Sin. before or after ἔδωκεν in the best authentic Codd.
1 John 3:24; 1 John 3:24. [German: “abideth” to be retained to preserve the uniformity.—M.]
1 John 3:24; 1 John 3:24. [ἐκ τοῦ πνεύματος=of the Spirit; so German.—M.]
Be the first to react on this!
