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
See Verses Found in Dictionary
IN the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
And the Word became flesh and tabernacled with us and we beheld his glory, a glory as of an only child with a father, full of grace and truth.
When, therefore, he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he said this, and they believed the Scripture and the word which Jesus spoke. AND when he was at Jerusalem at the feast of the passover many believed on him, seeing his miracles which he performed;
Then he said to Thomas, Reach here your finger and behold my hands, and reach your hand and put it in my side, and be not faithless but believing.
but these are recorded that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in his name.
Gaius my entertainer, and the entertainer of all the church, salutes you. Erastus the treasurer of the city and Quartus the brother salute you.
And we all with unvailed face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are transformed into the same likeness, from glory to glory, as by the Spirit of the Lord.
who will change our humble body, and make it like his glorious body, by the power by which he is able also to subject all things to himself.
in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins, who is the likeness of the invisible God, the first-born of all creation, read more. for by him were all things created which are in heaven and on the earth, the visible and the invisible, whether thrones, or lordships, or principalities, or powers. All things were created through him and for him, and he is before all things, and in him all things consist, and he is the head of the body, the church; who is the beginning, the first-born from the dead, that he might himself be preeminent in all things,
GOD, who at many times and in many ways spoke anciently to the fathers by the prophets, in these last days spoke to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, through whom also he made the worlds,
in these last days spoke to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, through whom also he made the worlds, who being the brightness of his glory and the express image of his substance, and sustaining all things by the word of his power, having made a purification of sins, sat down on the right hand of the majesty on high,
PETER, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to the elect strangers of the dispersion of Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia and Bithynia,
PETER, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to the elect strangers of the dispersion of Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia and Bithynia, according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, by sanctification of the Spirit, to obedience and the sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ. Grace and peace be multiplied to you.
The elders among you I exhort, who am a co-elder and witness of the sufferings of Christ, and a partaker of the glory to be revealed;
The co-elect [church] at Babylon salutes you, and Mark my son.
The co-elect [church] at Babylon salutes you, and Mark my son.
THAT which was from the beginning, that which we have heard, that which we have seen with our eyes, that which we beheld and our hands felt, concerning the Word of life,??2 and the life was made manifest, and we have seen, and testify, and declare to you the eternal life, which was with the Father, and was manifested to us,??3 that which we have seen and heard, we declare to you, that you also may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ.
And these things we write to you, that your joy may be complete. And this is the message which we have heard from him and declare to you, That God is light, and with him there is no darkness.
If we say we have not sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.
If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.
And by this we know that we have known him, if we keep his commandments. He that says, I have known him, and keeps not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him;
He that says he continues in him, ought also himself so to walk as he walked. Beloved, I write not a new commandment to you, but an old commandment, which you had from the beginning; the old commandment is the word which you heard.
Love not the world, nor the things in the world. If any one loves the world, the love of 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 pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. read more. And the world passes away, and its desires; but he that does the will of God continues for ever. Little children, it is the last time; and as you heard that antichrist is coming, even now many have become anti-christs; whence we know that it is the last time.
Little children, it is the last time; and as you heard that antichrist is coming, even now many have become anti-christs; whence we know that it is the last time.
Little children, it is the last time; and as you heard that antichrist is coming, even now many have become anti-christs; whence we know that it is the last time. They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us they would have continued with us; but [they went out from us] that they might be manifest that they are not all of us.
I have written these things to you concerning those who deceive you.
By this we have known love, because he laid down his life for us; and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers.
and what we ask we receive from him, because we keep his commandments and do the things which are pleasing in his sight.
And he that keeps his commandments continues in him and he in him; and by this we know that he continues in us, by the Spirit which he gave us.
BELOVED, believe not every spirit, but prove the spirits whether they are of God; for many false prophets have gone out into the world.
BELOVED, believe not every spirit, but prove the spirits whether they are of God; for many false prophets have gone out into the world.
BELOVED, believe not every spirit, but prove the spirits whether they are of God; for many false prophets have gone out into the world.
BELOVED, believe not every spirit, but prove the spirits whether they are of God; for many false prophets have gone out into the world.
BELOVED, believe not every spirit, but prove the spirits whether they are of God; for many false prophets have gone out into the world. By this you know the Spirit of God; every spirit which confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God,
By this you know the Spirit of God; every spirit which confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God,
By this you know the Spirit of God; every spirit which confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God,
By this you know the Spirit of God; every spirit which confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God, and every spirit which does not confess Jesus is not of God. And this is the [spirit] of anti-christ, of which you have heard that he is coming, and he is now in the world already.
and every spirit which does not confess Jesus is not of God. And this is the [spirit] of anti-christ, of which you have heard that he is coming, and he is now in the world already.
and every spirit which does not confess Jesus is not of God. And this is the [spirit] of anti-christ, of which you have heard that he is coming, and he is now in the world already.
and every spirit which does not confess Jesus is not of God. And this is the [spirit] of anti-christ, of which you have heard that he is coming, and he is now in the world already.
and every spirit which does not confess Jesus is not of God. And this is the [spirit] of anti-christ, of which you have heard that he is coming, and he is now in the world already. You are of God, little children, and have overcome them, because greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world. read more. They are of the world; therefore they speak of the world and the world hears them. We are of God; he that knows God hears us, he that is not of God does not hear us. By this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error.
There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear; for fear has pain; and he that is afraid is not made perfect in love. We love, because he first loved us.
Every one who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God, and every one who loves the Father loves also the Son who is born to him.
for every child that has been born of God overcomes the world; and this is the victory which overcomes the world, our faith. Who is he that overcomes the world, but he that believes that Jesus is the Son of God? read more. This is he that came by water and blood, Jesus, the Christ; not by water only, but by water and by blood; and the Spirit is that which testifies, for the Spirit is the truth. For there are three that testify; the Spirit, and the water, and the blood; and the three are one. (Added verse not retained in Sawyer) If we receive the testimony of men, the testimony of God is greater; for this is the testimony of God that he has testified concerning his Son. He that believes on the Son of God has the testimony in himself; he that believes not God has made him a liar, because he has not believed in the testimony which God has testified concerning his Son. And this is the testimony, that God gave us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. He that has the Son has the life; he that has not the Son has not the life. These things have I written to you, that you who believe in the name of the Son of God may know that you have eternal life.
These things have I written to you, that you who believe in the name of the Son of God may know that you have eternal life. And this is the confidence which we have in respect to him, that if we ask any thing according to his will he hears us.
And this is the confidence which we have in respect to him, that if we ask any thing according to his will he hears us. And if we know that he hears us whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions which we have asked of him.
And if we know that he hears us whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions which we have asked of him. If any one sees his brother commit a sin, not to death, he shall ask, and he will give him life, for those who sin not to death. There is a sin to death; I say not that you should pray for it.
If any one sees his brother commit a sin, not to death, he shall ask, and he will give him life, for those who sin not to death. There is a sin to death; I say not that you should pray for it.
If any one sees his brother commit a sin, not to death, he shall ask, and he will give him life, for those who sin not to death. There is a sin to death; I say not that you should pray for it. All wickedness is sin, and there is sin not to death. read more. We know that every one who has been born of God does not sin, but he that has been born of God keeps himself, and the evil one does not touch him. We know that we are of God, and the whole world lies in wickedness. And we know that the Son of God has come, and has given us understanding that we may know the true One; and we are in the true One, in his Son Jesus Christ; this is the true God, and eternal life. Little children, keep yourselves from idols.
Little children, keep yourselves from idols.
THE elder to the elect Curia and her children, whom I love in truth, and not I only but also all who have known the truth,
For many deceivers have gone out into the world, who do not confess Jesus Christ coming in the flesh; this is the deceiver, and the antichrist.
If any one comes to you and brings not this doctrine, receive him not into your houses, and salute him not;
If any one comes to you and brings not this doctrine, receive him not into your houses, and salute him not;
If any one comes to you and brings not this doctrine, receive him not into your houses, and salute him not; for he that salutes him is a partaker of his evil works.
for he that salutes him is a partaker of his evil works. Having many things to write, I do not wish to write with paper and ink, but I hope to be with you and to speak face to face, that our joy may be full.
THE elder to the beloved Gaius, whom I love in truth.
I have no greater joy than this, that I hear of my children walking in the truth. Beloved, you did faithfully whatever you do to the brothers, and that to strangers,