Reference: John, The Epistles of
Fausets
FIRST EPISTLE. Genuineness. Polycarp, John's disciple (ad Philippians 7), quotes 1Jo 4:3. Eusebius (H. E., iii. 39) says of Papias, John's hearer, "he used testimonies from the first epistle of John." Irenaeus (Eusebius, H. E., v. 8) often quoted it; he quotes (Haeres. iii. 15, sections 5,8) from John by name 1Jo 2:18; and in 1Jo 3:16, section 7 he quotes 1Jo 4:1-3; 5:1; 2Jo 1:7-8. Clement Alex. (Strom. ii. 66, p. 664) refers to 1Jo 5:16 as in John's larger epistle; compare Strom. iii. 32,42; iv. 102. Tertullian adv. Marcion, vi. 16, refers to 1Jo 4:1; adv. Praxean xv to 1Jo 1:1; also 1Jo 1:10, and contra Gnost. 12. Cyprian (Ep. 28:24) quotes 1Jo 2:3-4 as John's; and, de Orat. Domini, 5, quotes 1Jo 2:15-17; De opere et Eleemos. quotes 1Jo 1:8; De bono Patientiae quotes 1Jo 2:6.
Muratori's Fragment on the Canon states "there are two (the Gospel and epistle) of John esteemed universal," quoting 1Jo 1:3. The Peshito Syriac has it. Origen (Eusebius vi. 25) designates the first epistle genuine, and "probably second and third epistles, though all do not recognize the latter two"; he quotes 1Jo 1:5 (tom. 13 vol. 2). Dionysius of Alexandria, Origen's scholar, cites this epistle's words as the evangelist John's. Eusebius (H. E., iii. 24) says John's first epistle and Gospel are "acknowledged without question by those of the present day, as well as by the ancients." So Jerome (Catalog. Ecclesiastes Script.). Marcion opposed it only because it was opposed to his heresies. The Gospel and the first epistle are alike in style, yet evidently not mere copies either of the other. The individual notices, it being a universal epistle, are fewer than in Paul's epistles; but what there are accord with John's position.
He implies his apostleship (1Jo 2:7,26), alludes to his Gospel (Joh 1:1, compare Joh 1:14; 20:27), and the affectionate He uniting him as an aged pastor to his spiritual "children" (1Jo 2:18-19). In 1Jo 4:1-3 he alludes to the false teachers as known to his readers; in 1Jo 5:21 he warns them against the idols of the world around. Docetism existed in germ already, though the Docete by name appear first in the second century (Col 1:15-18; 1Ti 3:16; Heb 1:1-3). Hence 1Jo 4:1-3 denounces as "not of God every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh" (compare Joh 2:22-23). Presciently the Spirit through John forearms the church against the coming heresy.
TO WHOM THE EPISTLES WERE ADDRESSED. Augustine (Quaest. Evang. 2:39) says it was addressed to the Parthians, i.e. the Christians beyond the Euphrates, outside the Roman empire, "the church at Babylon elected together with" (1Pe 5:13) the churches in the Ephesian region, where Peter sent his epistles (1Pe 1:1; Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, Bithynia). As Peter addressed the Asiatic flock tended first by Paul, then by John, so John, Peter's close companion, addresses the flock among whom Peter was when he wrote. Thus "the elect lady" (2Jo 1:1) answers to "the church elected together."
TIME AND PLACE. This epistle is subsequent to the Gospel, for it assumes the reader's acquaintance with the Gospel facts and Christ's speeches, and His aspect as the incarnate Word God manifest in the flesh, set forth in John's Gospel. His fatherly tone addressing his "little children" implies it was written in old age, perhaps A.D. 90. The rise of antichristian teachers he marks as a sign of "the last time" (1Jo 2:18), no other "age" or dispensation will be until Christ comes; for His coming the church is to be ever waiting; Heb 1:2, "these last days." The region of Ephesus, where Gnostic heresy sprang up, was probably the place, and the latter part of the apostolic age the time, of writing. Contents. Fellowship with the Father and the Son is the subject and object (1Jo 1:3). Two divisions occur:
(1) 1 John 1:5 - 2:28, God is light without darkness; consequently, to have fellowship with Him necessitates walking in the light. Confession and consequent forgiveness of sins, through Christ's propitiation for the world and advocacy for believers, are a necessary preliminary; a further step is positive keeping God's commandments, the sum of which is love as contrasted with hatred, the sum of disobedience. According to their several stages of spiritual growth, children, fathers, young men, as respectively forgiven, knowing the Father, and having overcome the wicked one, John exhorts them not to love the world, which is incompatible with the indwelling of the Father's love. This anointing love dwelling in us, and our continuing to abide in the Son and in the Father, is the antidote against the antichristian teachers in the world, who are of the world, not of the church, and therefore have gone out from it.
(2) 1 John 2:29 - 5:5 handles the opening thesis: "He is righteous," therefore "every one that doeth righteousness is born of Him." Sonship involves present self purification, first because we desire now to be like Him, "even as He is pure," secondly because we hope hereafter to be perfectly like Him, our sonship now hidden shall be manifested, and we shall be made like Him when He shall be manifested (answering to Paul's Colossians 3), for our then "seeing him as He is" involves transfiguration into His likeness (compare 2Co 3:18; Php 3:21). In contrast, the children of the devil hate; the children of God love. Love assures of acceptance with God for ourselves and our prayers, accompanied as they are with obedience to His commandment to "believe on Jesus Christ, and love one another"; the seal is "the Spirit given us" (1Jo 3:24). In contrast (as in the first division), denial of Christ and adherence to the world characterize the false spirits (1Jo 4:1-6). The essential feature of sonship or birth of God is unslavish love to God, because God first loved us and gave His Son to die for us (1Jo 4:18-19), and consequent love to the brethren as being God's sons like ourselves, and so victory over the world through belief in Jesus as the Son of God (1Jo 5:4-5).
(3) 1Jo 5:6-21. Finally, the truth on which our fellowship with God rests is, Christ came by water in His baptism, the blood of atonement, and the witnessing Spirit which is truth, which correspond to our baptism with water and the Spirit, and our receiving the atonement by His blood and the witness of His Spirit. In the opening he rested this truth on his apostolic witness of the eye, the ear, and the touch; so at the close on God's witness, which the believer accepts, and by rejecting which the unbeliever makes God a liar. He adds his reason for writing (1Jo 5:13), corresponding to 1Jo 1:4 at the beginning, namely, that "believers may know they have (already) eternal life," the spring of "joy" (compare Joh 20:31), and so may have "confidence" in their prayers being answered (1Jo 5:14-15; compare 1Jo 3:22 in the second part), e.g. their intercessions for a brother sinning, provided his sin be not unto death (1Jo 5:16). He sums up with stating our knowledge of Him that is true, through His gift, our being in Him by virtue of being in His Son Jesus Christ; being "born of God" we keep ourselves so that the wicked one toucheth us not, in contrast to the world lying in the wicked one; therefore still, "little children, keep yourselves from idols" literal and spiritual.
STYLE. Aphorism and repetition of his own phrases abound. The affectionate hortatory tone, and the Hebraistic form which delights in parallelism of clauses (as contrasted with Paul's logical Grecian style), and his own simplicity of spirit dwelling fondly on the one grand theme, produce this repetition of fundamental truths again and again, enlarged, applied, and condensed by turns. Contemplative rather than argumentative, he dwells on the inner rather than the outer Christian life. The thoughts do not move forward by progressive steps, as in Paul, but in circles round one central thought, viewed now under the positive now under the negative aspect. His Lord's contrasted phrases in the Gospel John adopts in his epistles, "flesh," "spirit," "light," "darkness," "life," "death," "abide in Him"; "fellowship with the Father and Son, and with one another" is a phrase not in the Gospel, but in Acts and Paul's e
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THE Logos existed in the very beginning, the Logos was with God, the Logos was divine.
So the Logos became flesh and tarried among us; we have seen his glory ??glory such as an only son enjoys from his father ??seen it to be full of grace and reality.
and when the disciples recalled what he had said, after he had been raised from the dead, they believed the scripture and the word of Jesus. When he was in Jerusalem at the festival of the passover, many people believed in his name, as they witnessed the Signs which he performed.
Then he said to Thomas, "Look at my hands, put your finger here; and put your hand here into my side; cease your unbelief and believe."
but these Signs are recorded so that you may believe Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and believing may have life through his Name.
Gaius, my host and the host of the church at large salutes you. Erastus the city-treasurer salutes you; so does brother Quartus.
But we all mirror the glory of the Lord with face unveiled, and so we are being transformed into the same likeness as himself, passing from one glory to another ??for this comes of the Lord the Spirit.
who will transform the body that belongs to our low estate till it resembles the body of his Glory, by the same power that enables him to make everything subject to himself.
In him we enjoy our redemption, that is, the forgiveness of sins. He is the likeness of the unseen God, born first before all the creation ??16 for it was by him that all things were created both in heaven and on earth, both the seen and the unseen, including Thrones, angelic Lords, celestial Powers and Rulers; all things have been created by him and for him;
he is prior to all, and all coheres in him. Also, he is the head of the Body, that is, of the church, in virtue of his primacy as the first to be born from the dead ??that gives him pre-eminence over all.
Many were the forms and fashions in which God spoke of old to our fathers by the prophets, but in these days at the end he has spoken to us by a Son ??a Son whom he appointed heir of the universe, as it was by him that he created the world.
but in these days at the end he has spoken to us by a Son ??a Son whom he appointed heir of the universe, as it was by him that he created the world. He, reflecting God's bright glory and stamped with God's own character, sustains the universe with his word of power; when he had secured our purification from sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high;
Peter an apostle of Jesus Christ, to the exiles of the Dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia,
Peter an apostle of Jesus Christ, to the exiles of the Dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, whom God the Father has predestined and chosen, by the consecration of the Spirit, to obey Jesus Christ and be sprinkled with his blood: may grace and peace be multiplied to you.
Now I make this appeal to your presbyters (for I am a presbyter myself, I was a witness of what Christ suffered and I am to share the glory that will be revealed),
Your sister-church in Babylon, elect like yourselves, salutes you. So does my son Mark.
Your sister-church in Babylon, elect like yourselves, salutes you. So does my son Mark.
It is of what existed from the very beginning, of what we heard, of what we saw, of what we witnessed and touched with our own hands, it is of the Logos of Life
We are writing this to you that our own joy may be complete. Here is the message we learned from him and announce to you: 'God is light and in him there is no darkness, none.'
If we say, 'We are not guilty,' we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us;
if we say, "We have not sinned," we make him a liar and his word is not within us.
This is how we may be sure we know him, by obeying his commands. He who says, 'I know him,' but does not obey his commands, is a liar and the truth is not in him;
he who says he 'remains in him' ought to live as he lived. Beloved, I am not writing you any new command, but an old command which you have had from the very beginning: the old command is the word you have heard.
Love not the world, nor yet what is in the world; if anyone loves the world, love for the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the desire of the flesh and the desire of the eyes and the proud glory of life, belongs not to the Father but to the world; read more. and the world is passing away with its desire, while he who does the will of God remains for ever. Children, it is the last hour. You have learned that 'Antichrist is coming.' Well, but many antichrists have appeared ??which makes us sure it is the last hour.
Children, it is the last hour. You have learned that 'Antichrist is coming.' Well, but many antichrists have appeared ??which makes us sure it is the last hour.
Children, it is the last hour. You have learned that 'Antichrist is coming.' Well, but many antichrists have appeared ??which makes us sure it is the last hour. They withdrew from us, but they did not belong to us; had they belonged to us, they would have remained with us, but they withdrew to make it plain that they are none of us.
I am writing to you in this way about those who would deceive you,
We know what love is by this, that He laid down his life for us; so we ought to lay down our lives for the brotherhood.
and we get from him whatever we ask, because we obey his commands and do what is pleasing in his sight.
he who obeys his commands remains within him ??and He remains within him. And this is how we may be sure he remains within us, by means of the Spirit he has given us.
Do not believe every spirit, beloved, but test the spirits to see if they come from God; for many false prophets have emerged in the world.
Do not believe every spirit, beloved, but test the spirits to see if they come from God; for many false prophets have emerged in the world.
Do not believe every spirit, beloved, but test the spirits to see if they come from God; for many false prophets have emerged in the world.
Do not believe every spirit, beloved, but test the spirits to see if they come from God; for many false prophets have emerged in the world.
Do not believe every spirit, beloved, but test the spirits to see if they come from God; for many false prophets have emerged in the world. You can recognize the Spirit of God by this: every spirit which confesses Jesus as the Christ incarnate comes from God,
You can recognize the Spirit of God by this: every spirit which confesses Jesus as the Christ incarnate comes from God,
You can recognize the Spirit of God by this: every spirit which confesses Jesus as the Christ incarnate comes from God,
You can recognize the Spirit of God by this: every spirit which confesses Jesus as the Christ incarnate comes from God, and every spirit which does not confess Jesus [incarnate] does not come from God. This latter is the spirit of antichrist; you were told it was coming, and here it is already in the world.
and every spirit which does not confess Jesus [incarnate] does not come from God. This latter is the spirit of antichrist; you were told it was coming, and here it is already in the world.
and every spirit which does not confess Jesus [incarnate] does not come from God. This latter is the spirit of antichrist; you were told it was coming, and here it is already in the world.
and every spirit which does not confess Jesus [incarnate] does not come from God. This latter is the spirit of antichrist; you were told it was coming, and here it is already in the world.
and every spirit which does not confess Jesus [incarnate] does not come from God. This latter is the spirit of antichrist; you were told it was coming, and here it is already in the world. My dear children, you belong to God, and you have conquered all such, for He who is within you is greater than he who is in the world. read more. They belong to the world, therefore they speak as inspired by the world, and the world listens to them: we belong to God ??he who knows God listens to us, he who does not belong to God does not listen to us. This is how we recognize the spirit of truth and the spirit of error.
Love has no dread in it; no, love in its fulness drives all dread away, for dread has to do with punishment ??anyone who has dread, has not reached the fulness of love. We love, because He loved us first.
Everyone who believes Jesus is the Christ, is born of God; and everyone who loves the Father, loves the sons born of him.
for whatever is born of God conquers the world. Our faith, that is the conquest which conquers the world. Who is the world's conqueror but he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God? read more. Jesus Christ, he it is who came by water, blood, and Spirit ??not by the water alone, but by the water and the blood. The Spirit is the witness to this, for the Spirit is truth. The witnesses are three, the Spirit and the water and the blood, and the three of them are in accord. If we accept human testimony, God's testimony is greater; for God's testimony consists in his testimony to his Son. He who believes in the Son of God possesses that testimony within himself; he who will not believe God, has made God a liar by refusing to believe the testimony which God has borne to his Son. And the testimony is, that God gave us life eternal and this life is in his Son. He who possesses the Son possesses life: he who does not possess the Son does not possess life. I have written in this way to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may be sure you have life eternal.
I have written in this way to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may be sure you have life eternal. Now the confidence we have in him is this, that he listens to us whenever we ask anything in accordance with his will;
Now the confidence we have in him is this, that he listens to us whenever we ask anything in accordance with his will; and if we know he listens to whatever we ask, we know we obtain the requests we have made to him.
and if we know he listens to whatever we ask, we know we obtain the requests we have made to him. If anyone notices his brother committing a sin which is not deadly, he will ask and obtain life for him ??for anyone who does not commit a deadly sin. There is such a thing as deadly sin; I do not mean he is to pray for that.
If anyone notices his brother committing a sin which is not deadly, he will ask and obtain life for him ??for anyone who does not commit a deadly sin. There is such a thing as deadly sin; I do not mean he is to pray for that.
If anyone notices his brother committing a sin which is not deadly, he will ask and obtain life for him ??for anyone who does not commit a deadly sin. There is such a thing as deadly sin; I do not mean he is to pray for that. All iniquity is sin, but there are sins which are not deadly. read more. We know that anyone who is born of God does not sin; He who was born of God preserves him, and the evil One never catches him. We know that we belong to God, and that the whole world lies in the power of the evil One. We know that the Son of God has come, and has given us insight to know Him who is the Real God; and we are in Him who is real, even in his Son Jesus Christ. This is the real God, this is life eternal. My dear children, keep clear of idols.
My dear children, keep clear of idols.
The presbyter, to the elect Lady and her children whom I love in the Truth (and not only I but all who know the Truth)
I say this, because a number of impostors have emerged in the world, men who will not acknowledge the coming of Jesus Christ in the flesh; that marks the real 'impostor' and 'antichrist.'
If anyone comes to you and does not bring this doctrine, do not admit him to the house ??do not even greet him,
If anyone comes to you and does not bring this doctrine, do not admit him to the house ??do not even greet him,
If anyone comes to you and does not bring this doctrine, do not admit him to the house ??do not even greet him, for he who greets him shares in his wicked work.
for he who greets him shares in his wicked work. I have a great deal to write to you, but I do not mean to use ink and paper; I hope to visit you and have a talk with you, so that your joy may be unimpaired.
The presbyter, to the beloved Gaius whom I love in the Truth.
I have no greater joy than to hear of my children living in the Truth. Beloved, you are acting loyally in rendering any service to the brothers and especially to strangers;