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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Above all things, be strong and harden thyself, to observe and to do according to all the laws which Moses my servant commanded thee. Turn there from neither to the righthand, nor to the left: that thou mayest have understanding in all thou takest in hand. Let not the book of this law depart out of thy mouth: but record therein day and night that thou mayest be circumspect to do according to all that is written therein. For then shalt thou make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have understanding. read more. Behold, I have said unto thee, be strong and bold: neither fear, nor dread. For the LORD thy God is with thee whithersoever thou goest." Then Joshua commanded the officers of the people, saying,
Let your wives, your children and your cattle remain in the land which Moses gave you on this side Jordan: But go ye before your brethren armed, all that be men of war, and help them
In the beginning was the word, and the word was with God: and the word was God.
And the word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw the glory of it, as the glory of the only begotten son of the father, which word was full of grace, and verity.
As soon, therefore, as he was risen from death again, his disciples remembered that he thus said unto them. And they believed the scripture, and the words which Jesus had said. When he was at Jerusalem, at Easter in the feast, many believed on his name, when they saw his miracles which he did:
After that said he to Thomas, "Bring thy finger hither and see my hands, and bring thy hand and thrust it into my side, and be not faithless, but believing."
These are written that ye might believe that Jesus is Christ the son of God. And that ye in believing ye might have life through his name.
Gaius mine host and the host of all the congregations, saluteth you. Erastus, the chamberlain of the city, saluteth you. And Quartus, a brother, saluteth you.
But we all behold the glory of the Lord with his face open, and we are changed unto the same similitude, from glory to glory, even of the spirit of the Lord.
which shall change into another fashion our vile bodies, that they may be fashioned like unto his glorious body, according to the working whereby he is able to subdue all things unto himself.
in whom we have redemption through his blood, that is to say, forgiveness of sins, which is the image of the invisible God, first begotten of all creatures: read more. for by him were all things created, things that are in heaven, and things that are in earth: things visible, and things invisible: whether they be majesty or lordship, either rule or power. All things are created by him, and in him, and he is before all things, and in him all things have their being. And he is the head of the body, that is, to wit, of the congregation: he is the beginning and first begotten of the dead, that in all things he might have the preeminence.
God, in time past, diversely and many ways, spake unto the fathers by prophets: but in these last days he hath spoken unto us by his son, whom he hath made heir of all things: by whom also he made the world.
but in these last days he hath spoken unto us by his son, whom he hath made heir of all things: by whom also he made the world. Which son, being the brightness of his glory, and very image of his substance, bearing up all things with the word of his power, hath in his own person purged our sins, and is sitten on the righthand of the majesty on high,
Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to them that dwell here and there as strangers throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia;
Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to them that dwell here and there as strangers throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia; Elect by the foreknowledge of God the father, through the sanctifying of the spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ. Grace be with you, and peace be multiplied.
The elders which are among you I exhort, which am also an elder and a witness of the afflictions of Christ, and also a partaker of the glory that shall be opened:
The companions of your election that are of Babylon, saluteth you, and Mark my son.
The companions of your election that are of Babylon, saluteth you, and Mark my son.
That which was from the beginning, declare we unto you; which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, of the word of life.
That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you, that ye may have fellowship with us, and that our fellowship may be with the father, and his son Jesus Christ.
That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you, that ye may have fellowship with us, and that our fellowship may be with the father, and his son Jesus Christ. And these things we write unto you, that your joy may be full. read more. And this is the tidings which we have heard of him, and declare unto you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.
If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and truth is not in us.
If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.
And hereby we are sure that we know him: if we keep his commandments. He that saith, "I know him," and yet keepeth not his commandments, is a liar, and the verity is not in him.
He that saith he bideth in him, ought to walk even as he walked. Brethren, I write no new commandment unto you: but an old commandment which ye had at the beginning. For an old commandment is the word which ye heard from the beginning.
See that ye love not the world, nor the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the father is not in him. For all that is in the world - as the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of goods - are not of the father: but of the world. read more. And the world vanisheth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God, abideth ever. Little children it is now the last time, and as ye have heard how that antichrist shall come: even now are there many antichrists come already, whereby we know that it is the last time.
Little children it is now the last time, and as ye have heard how that antichrist shall come: even now are there many antichrists come already, whereby we know that it is the last time.
Little children it is now the last time, and as ye have heard how that antichrist shall come: even now are there many antichrists come already, whereby we know that it is the last time. They went out of us, but they were not of us. For if they had been of us, they would no doubt have continued with us. But that fortuned, that it might appear that they were not of us.
These things have I written unto you, as concerning them that deceive you.
Hereby are we assured of love: because he left his life for us: And therefore we ought also to give our lives for our brethren.
and whatsoever we ask, that we shall receive of him: because we keep his commandments, and do those things which are pleasing in his sight.
And he that keepeth his commandments abideth in him, and he in him. And thereby we know that there dwelleth in us of his spirit, which he gave us.
Ye beloved, believe not every spirit: but prove the spirits whether they be of God, or not: for many false prophets are gone out in to the world.
Ye beloved, believe not every spirit: but prove the spirits whether they be of God, or not: for many false prophets are gone out in to the world.
Ye beloved, believe not every spirit: but prove the spirits whether they be of God, or not: for many false prophets are gone out in to the world.
Ye beloved, believe not every spirit: but prove the spirits whether they be of God, or not: for many false prophets are gone out in to the world.
Ye beloved, believe not every spirit: but prove the spirits whether they be of God, or not: for many false prophets are gone out in to the world. Hereby shall ye know the spirit of God: Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh, is of God.
Hereby shall ye know the spirit of God: Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh, is of God.
Hereby shall ye know the spirit of God: Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh, is of God.
Hereby shall ye know the spirit of God: Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh, is of God. And every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh, is not of God. And the same is that spirit of antichrist, of whom ye have heard, how that he should come: and even now already is he in the world.
And every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh, is not of God. And the same is that spirit of antichrist, of whom ye have heard, how that he should come: and even now already is he in the world.
And every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh, is not of God. And the same is that spirit of antichrist, of whom ye have heard, how that he should come: and even now already is he in the world.
And every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh, is not of God. And the same is that spirit of antichrist, of whom ye have heard, how that he should come: and even now already is he in the world.
And every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh, is not of God. And the same is that spirit of antichrist, of whom ye have heard, how that he should come: and even now already is he in the world. Little children, ye are of God, and have overcome them: for greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world. read more. They be of the world, and therefore speak they of the world, and the world attendeth unto them. We be of God, and he that knoweth God heareth us: and he that is not of God, heareth us not. And hereby know we the spirit of truth, and the spirit of error.
There is no fear in love, but perfect love casteth out all fear, for fear hath painfulness. He therefore that feareth is not perfect in love. We love him, because he loved us first.
All that believe that Jesus is Christ, are born of God. And all that loveth him which begat, loveth him also which was begotten of him.
For all that is born of God, overcometh the world. And this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith. Who is it that overcometh the world: but he which believeth that Jesus is the son of God? read more. This Jesus Christ is he that came by water and blood, not by water only: but by water and blood. And it is the spirit that beareth witness, because the spirit is truth. For there are three that bear record: the spirit, and water, and blood: and these three are one. If we receive the witness of men, the witness of God is greater. For this is the witness of God, that God hath born of his son. He that believeth in the son of God hath the witness in himself. He that believeth not God, maketh him a liar, because he doth not believe the witness that God hath testified of his son. And this is the witness: how that God hath given unto us eternal life, and this life is in his son. He that hath the son, hath life: and he that hath not the son of God, hath not life. These things have I written unto you that believe in the name of the son of God, that ye may know how that ye have everlasting life, and that ye may believe in the name of the son of God.
These things have I written unto you that believe in the name of the son of God, that ye may know how that ye have everlasting life, and that ye may believe in the name of the son of God. And this is the confidence that we have in him: that if we ask ought, according to his will, he heareth us.
And this is the confidence that we have in him: that if we ask ought, according to his will, he heareth us. And if we know that he hear us whatsoever we ask, we know that we shall have the petitions that we desire of him.
And if we know that he hear us whatsoever we ask, we know that we shall have the petitions that we desire of him. If any man see his brother sin a sin that is not to death, let him ask, and he shall give him life for them that sin not unto death. There is a sin unto death, for which say I not that a man should pray.
If any man see his brother sin a sin that is not to death, let him ask, and he shall give him life for them that sin not unto death. There is a sin unto death, for which say I not that a man should pray.
If any man see his brother sin a sin that is not to death, let him ask, and he shall give him life for them that sin not unto death. There is a sin unto death, for which say I not that a man should pray. All unrighteousness is sin, and there is a sin not to death. read more. We know that all that are born of God, sin not: but he that is born of God keepeth himself, and that wicked toucheth him not. We know that we be of God, and that the world is altogether set on mischief. We know that the son of God is come, and hath given us understanding, to know him that is true: and we be in the truth through his son Jesus Christ. He is very God, and eternal life. Little children, beware of images. Amen. {Here ends the First General Epistle of John}
Little children, beware of images. Amen. {Here ends the First General Epistle of John}
The elder, to the elect lady and her children which I love in the truth: And not I only, but also all that have known the truth,
For many deceivers are entered into the world, which confess not Jesus Christ as coming, or returning in the flesh. This is a deceiver and an antichrist.
If there come any unto you and bring not this learning, him receive not to house: neither bid him Godspeed.
If there come any unto you and bring not this learning, him receive not to house: neither bid him Godspeed.
If there come any unto you and bring not this learning, him receive not to house: neither bid him Godspeed. For he that biddeth him Godspeed, is partaker of his evil deeds.
For he that biddeth him Godspeed, is partaker of his evil deeds. I had many things to write unto you, nevertheless I would not write with paper and ink: but I trust to come unto you, and speak with you mouth to mouth, that our joy may be full.
The elder unto the beloved Gaius, whom I love in the truth.
I have no greater joy than for to hear how that my sons walk in verity. Dearly beloved, thou dost faithfully whatsoever thou doest to the brethren, and to strangers,