Down an Unfamiliar Road

NEW TESTAMENT CONTEXTUAL COMMENTARY

By Dr. Robert R Seyda

FIRST EPISTLE OF JOHN

CHAPTER FIVE (Lesson XIV) 10/13/22

^5:2 So you can find out how much you love God’s children – your brothers and sisters in the Lord – by how much you love and obey God.

If the Apostle John was right about so-called Christians, says Findlay, there is a grave mistake or misunderstanding in such instances. Some people are more spiritually minded than they realize and are aware of others with much less. John says, “We know that we love the children of God when we love God and do His commandments.” We must, to be sure, take the word “love” in its biblical sense as agápē. It has nothing to do with human affection that is nothing more than animal passion, nor with a father or mother’s compassion for their children, family, friends, and relatives. It often does not exist outside a narrow circle, including love for humanity. We agree there is much humane affection for the object of its adoration’s physical well-being, but without any thought for that person’s inner health of the human soul.” ^[1]

William Macdonald Sinclair (1850-1917) is confident that love and obedience to God will validate our love for others. These are signs of having knowledge and love for Him.[2] They are inseparable. If love for God is absent, then our love for others is not genuine – it is earthly and makes a mockery of agápē. If the love of other Christians is missing, then we have no love for God. Therefore, we must test all friendships with our loyalty and love for God. Then, we can examine our love for Him through our generosity.^[3]

Charles Gore (1853-1932) believes the Apostle John begins by saying that when we affirm that Jesus is the Anointed One, it is the mark of divine kinship. Thus, we have equal love for our spiritual brothers and sisters and our heavenly Father. On the one hand, you cannot love the Father (“Who birthed you”) unless you love the other children born again through His Son. But, on the other hand, you cannot love His children unless you love them to show your love for Him.

Love for God means nothing except diligently keeping His commandments which are not a burden too hard to carry. They seem heavy to worldly people addicted to worldly things like “the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and self-pride.” However, as newborn children of God, we are strengthened to have victory over the world’s Satanic powers. And the instrument of this victory is our faith. Christian faith has triumphed because it believes in Jesus as God’s Son. The world seemed to be winning over Him, rejecting Him, and crucifying Him. Yet, He was triumphant through His death and resurrection as our Lord and God. And through faith in Him, John now tells us, His conquest is ours. And there is no other instrument of success except faith.^[4]

Alonzo R. Cocke (1858-1901) points out that we should love the parent if we love the children because of their inherited life. On the other hand, love for our Christian spiritual brothers and sisters is the best evidence of our love for God. Let us never forget this double exhibition of the truth in the first and second verses. We must never separate love from obedience:^[5]

According to Robert Law (1860-1919), love is finally tested by doing what’s right toward God or others. To begin with, in verse two, the Apostle John says that genuine Love must be holy. It is a verse of great significance which may be easily overlooked. Its statement of the necessary relationship between love for God and love for mankind is the exact opposite given in the preceding verses. There it has been shown that by a threefold necessity of opportunity,[6] obedience to express ordinance of the Divine Will,[7] and the instincts of spiritual kinship,[8]  love for God can only realize itself in love to others.

On the other hand, Law maintains that love for our fellow humans only exists when it is rooted in and governed by love for God. Reverence for God without compassion is unreal and might be immoral – giving a snake instead of a fish or a stone instead of bread[9] – at best, it is important to give the highest good. It is a great ethical principle that John here voices his opinion that we cannot bless our fellowman unless, in our personal lives, we follow the highest good – “Love God and do His commandments.” The person who gives a lot to charity but lives an immoral and godless life does more harm than good. The Anointed One’s love made a maximum contribution, not in His feeding the hungry or giving sight to the blind, but in this – “Making Himself completely ready to serve. He did this for us so we might be fully qualified for His service.” [10] The highest service anyone can render to humanity is to “love God and keep His commandments.” ^[11]

Alan England Brooke (1863-1939) notes that the Apostle John adds a test by which the sincerity of love may be determined. “By this” is used in this Epistle in pointing forward to “when.” The usual constructions “but if” or “that” are employed to connect sentences. But the effort is not confusing, probably because “by this” should be interpreted as usual. Whenever our love for God is evident and issues in active obedience to His will, we know by this that our love for His children is real. Thus, the duty of loving our spiritual brothers and sisters is part of the natural law of affection^.[12]

David Smith (1866-1932) sees love for God as the inner principle and love for fellow believers as its outward manifestation. Everyone who believes in the Incarnation of God’s Son is God’s child, and everyone who has faith in the Incarnation loves God’s children. These are the two commandments of God, the fundamental and all-embracing Christian duties to love God and each other. And faith in the Incarnation is an inspiration for both “believing” and “assurance.” [13] ^[14]

Ronald A. Ward (1920-1986) finds that the Apostle John is unwavering that the regenerate are “God’s children.” He views them here collectively, in the previous verse individually, with a slight emphasis on personal relationships rather than community ones. So as not to let our love for fellow believers become mere sentiment, we can impose a check on ourselves. We love them when we love and obey God. Notice that John interlocked our love for God with each other.[15] [16]

Ian Howard Marshall (1934-2015) points out that the Apostle John now concludes his Epistle. We would expect him to say, “Everybody born of God (the Father) must love all of God’s children.” But this is not what he says. His expression is more complicated. The KJV renders it, “For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments.” The NIV adopts one common interpretation of the text by placing a forward reference in this verse: “In fact, this is love for God: to keep His commands.” It, however, is not what we would expect John to say. Typically, he argues that we love our spiritual brothers and sisters because we love God; love for fellow believers is evidence and proof that we love God and keep His commands.[17]

The NLT gives us a better sense of “Loving God means keeping His commandments.” Once we adopt this sense, it is apparent that “this is” did not refer forward. Instead, it referred to something already said and done. The content of loving God and keeping His commands must involve love for His children. So, Marshall says that what we expected John to say, he expresses himself differently. It is worth asking why John described himself like this. The most probable answer is that he wished to move on to the thought of keeping God’s commandments and therefore tried to include this idea, placing it at the end of the verse to form a link to his next statement.[18]

John Painter (1935) The final and most problematic use of the “by this we know” construction appears here in verse two. The problem is that it seems to make loving God and doing God’s commandments the test of loving God’s children. Such a reading runs contrary to John’s argument in this letter.[19] The phrase “by this” makes good sense as a reference to verse one. The problem is that the structure of verse two seems to imply a forward connection to the conditional “when.” So, we can say that the test of verse two arises from the conclusion in verse one. Or is the specific reference of “by this” to “when” here in verse two?

Nevertheless, verse two tells us what we know. “We love God’s children when we love God and keep His commandments.” However, John does not tell us what “by this” points out. But we know “by this” refers to “everyone loving the Birther loves the ones birthed by Him.” This way, “we know that we love the children of God when we love God and do His commandments.” Painter’s reading of the Greek shows what the text means. The early scribes found no problem with the rendition because they have not corrected this part of John’s Epistle. Revising is common where the text is unclear.^[20]

Muncia Walls (1937) finds the Apostle John’s approach very interesting when he emphasizes our love for God. But it seems backward as one cannot love God without loving His children, as John wrote earlier.[21] ^[22]

For Michael Eaton (1942-2017), the Apostle John’s next concern is that readers correctly understand the Love he urges.  At first, this verse might seem to turn everything around. After everything John has written so far, we expect him to say, “we know that we love God when we love His children and obey His commands.” It is true both ways. We show genuine love for God through our love of His children, but it is also true that love for His children is authentic only when it arises from love for God and the particular ways in which He demands we show love. Not every kind of generosity is the kind of love John is talking about here. Even less does the world’s immoral expression of sexuality worth being called “love.” While love is the test of knowing God, knowledge of God is also the test of love.^[23]

These comments sound very much like the old question: “What came first, the chicken or the egg?” I find this simple logic helpful. First, God showed us what divine love is by sending His Son to save us.[24] Second, by accepting Him as our Savior, God’s Spirit took that same divine love (agápē) and poured it into our hearts.[25] Third, we began loving with agápē all His children as He loved us in gratitude for this gift.[26] Fourth, in so doing, we showed God how much we love Him. Following this circle formula perfects God’s love in us.[27]

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[1] Findlay George G: Fellowship in the Life Eternal: An Exposition of the Epistles of St. John, op. cit., p. 369

[2] 1 John 2:3; 4:20-21

[3] Sinclair, W. M: New Testament Commentary for English Readers, Charles J. Ellicott, (Ed.), op. cit., Vol. III, p. 490

[4] Gore, Charles: The Epistles of St. John, op. cit., p. 191

[5] Cocke, Alonzo R: Studies in the Epistles of John; or, The Manifested Life, op. cit., p. 122

[6] 1 John 4:20

[7] Ibid. 4:21

[8] Ibid. 5:1

[9] Matthew 7:9-10

[10] John 17:19

[11] Law, Robert: The Tests of Life: A Study of the First Epistle of St. John, op. cit., pp. 253-254

[12] Brooke, Alan E., A Critical and Exegetical Commentary of the Johannine Epistles, op. cit., pp. 129-130

[13] 1 John 5:4

[14] Smith, David: Expositor’s Greek Testament, 1 John, op. cit., p. 193

[15] Cf. 1 John 14-21

[16] Ward, Ronald A., The Epistles on John and Jude, op. cit., p. 53

[17] 1 John 3:14-19; 4:20

[18] Marshall, Ian Howard. The Epistles of John (The New International Commentary on the New Testament), op. cit., pp. 227-228

[19] 1 John 3:16-18; 4:11-12, 20-21; 5:1

[20] Painter, John. Sacra Pagina: 1, 2, and 3 John: Volume 18, op. cit., loc. cit., Kindle Edition

[21] 1 John 4:20

[22] Walls, Muncia: Epistles of John and Jude, op. cit., p. 82

[23] Eaton, Michael: Focus on the Bible, 1,2,3 John, op. cit., pp. 174-175

[24] John 3:16

[25] Romans 5:4

[26] John 15:12

[27] 1 John 4:17-19

NEW TESTAMENT CONTEXTUAL COMMENTARY

By Dr. Robert R Seyda

FIRST EPISTLE OF JOHN

CHAPTER FIVE (Lesson XIII) 10/12/22

^5:2 So you can find out how much you love God’s children – your brothers and sisters in the Lord – by how much you love and obey God.

As the Apostle Paul declares: “How blessed is God! And what a blessing He is! He’s the Father of our Master, Jesus the Anointed One, and takes us to the high places of benefits in Him.”[1] Long before He laid down the earth’s foundations, we were on His mind;[2] the focus of His desire was to make us whole and holy by His love. Then He adopted us into His family through Jesus the Anointed One. (What pleasure He took in planning this!) He wanted us to enter the celebration of His lavish gift-giving by the hand of His beloved Son.”^[3]

John James Lias (1834-1923) points out that verse two distinctly asserts the opposite of the Apostle John’s earlier proposition – we cannot love God unless we love our spiritual brothers and sisters.[4] And if we want to know if we love our Christian family members, we must first ask whether we love God. Thus, keeping God’s commandments tests our love for God. Furthermore, it is how we display our love to our neighbors. Yet, even in so prominent a duty as the display of love, we need directions.

Sometimes, says Lias, a person’s weak compliance with God’s command is often proven to be the opposite. If we want to know how to display love to our spiritual brother or sister, we must seek God’s source of our inspiration. He is love, and to do what He tells us must be to love our neighbor. If we want to know whether we plan our actions out of love, let us make God the object of all our aspirations and let His Word guide all our attempts, and we can’t go wrong. We can emphasize this truth when motivated by God’s love and following His commandments. This way, we may be sure that we are fulfilling the great duty of Christian love. We may compare the expression “do His commandments” with the still more remarkable term “do the truth.”[5] ^[6]

Lias also notes “The Paradoxes of Scripture.” He points out that we frequently confront possible contradictions in the Bible. For instance, King Solomon says, “Don’t answer the thoughtless arguments of fools, or you will become as foolish as they are.” Then he says, “Be sure to answer the foolish arguments of fools, or they will become wise in their estimation.” So, which is it? Then the Apostle Paul tells us to “Share each other’s burdens.” Then says, “You must each accept your responsibilities.” And most are familiar with the apparent contradiction in words between the Apostles Paul and James on faith and works.[7] Now John seems to contradict what he said in the last chapter. There, the love of our neighbor is the test of our love for God.[8]

But here, in verse two, love for God and keeping His commandments is the test of our love for our neighbor. And yet, there is no fundamental contradiction in any of these. Truth is many-sided based on context. Therefore, the contradiction becomes a compliment when every fact stays within its proper limits. I have not found any of these instances as contradictions; they represent both sides – thesis (idea or theory) and antithesis (opposite idea or theory). It helps form a synthesis (a combination of ideas from both views and theories) to create a solid understanding. It was how the United States Constitution was written and adopted.

Lias then explains that the definition of Christian love is found in certain factors: Mankind is uninformed, not knowing how to direct their steps.[9] Nor can they demonstrate love for their neighbor for the following reasons: 1. They don’t know where to look for directions because it’s outlined in God’s Holy Word, which they ignore. 2. What do the Scriptures say? God is love, and we can only carry out the principle of brotherly love by acting in His Spirit. These directions are twofold; principle and, better still, precedent, like that of Jesus the Anointed One, whom they do not know.[10] Thus a person cannot love God unless they include their neighbor. Neither can they learn how to love their neighbor unless they love God and seek direction from Him.^[11]

Robert Cameron (1839-1904) asks, how can we know that we love God’s children? Only when we love God and observe His commandments. As we have seen, love for a spiritual brother or sister proves the reality of love for God. In verse two, we learn that love for God is the test of love for each other. Thus, we prove the existence of love for a spiritual brother or sister by love and obedience to our Heavenly Father’s commands. As such, compliance is possible because of the new life we possess. Now, if a person is born of God and it becomes an incentive to love, it follows that we should love all who are born again.

Consequently, we exercise our love toward fellow believers, not merely because we find them pleasant and agreeable companions but because they are our spiritual brothers and sisters. John previously stated that love for others is a sign and condition of love toward God. So here in verse two, our love for God manifested in keeping His commandments is a sign and measure of love to the children of God. It is “children” here, those in whom the divine life may have the least possible development but in whom the life indeed exists. So we may say we love the brethren we see, and therefore we love God whom we have not seen. Conversely, we may say we love God and keep His commandments; therefore, we love our spiritual brothers and sisters. The existence of one form of love is reasonable ground for assuming the presence of the other. And because of this inward experience of love and outward obedience to commandments, we come to know that we love God and love His children also.^[12]

Erich Haupt (1841-1910) does not believe the Apostle John intends to show that God’s love and loving each other must go hand in hand. On the contrary, the only basis is that our relationship with God must become the standard for loving our spiritual brothers and sisters. Verses one and two, therefore, are connected as “general” and “particular” expressions of loving God and each other. The thought presented by the second verse is, however, very striking. It would be clearer if it said in verse one that our affection for one another rests upon agápē as the causa essendi.[13] But what of the causa cognoscenti. [14] Has not John, at the end of verse one, explained simply that shared Christian love is the symbol of God’s agápē? But, first, let us observe that the approving mark of loving fellow believers is not God’s love itself unless connected to “keeping His commandments.”

Meanwhile, in the first part of verse three, we read about the relationship between love for God and obedience to His commandments. There we find the love for God is none other than that which approves itself in obedience. Thus, we see the exact relation between love and practical obedience in John’s Gospel: “The world must know that we love the Father. Therefore, we do exactly what the Father told us to do.”[15] ^[16]

In verse two, Alfred Plummer (1841-1926) finds a couple of syllogisms[17] condensed into irregular Sorites.[18] Believing the Incarnation involved God’s Son motivates loving our heavenly Father. So, to have faith that Jesus is the Messiah is to trust that a God-man fulfilled a Divine commission; that He who was born of a woman and died as a human is the Anointed One, the world’s Savior. Believing this means accepting the First and the Final Covenants and that Jesus is all He claimed to be. Thus, being equal with the Father, Jesus demands every believer must surrender themselves to Him.[19] However, it takes more than saying you believe. The Apostle James tells us that belief without love is what the demons have.[20]

To prove this, Plummer suggests that the Apostle John gave these tests: “Do you love God?” “Are you striving to obey Him?” “Is your love of others morally right”? For the characteristic phrase “keep His commandments,”[21] the accurate reading seems to “do His commandments,” – a phrase which occurs nowhere else. All ancient Bible Versions[22] and several early church Fathers support this rendering. In addition, Plummer wants us to take note of the Greek particle hotan, translated as “when” in verse two, or more literally, “whenever” or “as long as.”[23]  Thus, we have fresh evidence that our compassion is Godly whenever we love and obey.^[24] The Greek is in the present tense, meaning, once started, keep it going.

For Ernest von Dryander (1843-1922), the Apostle John invites us to notice how serious this demand of obedience to the Father is. It is the one and infallible sign of our fellowship with God. This indispensable condition is irreplaceable; no confession notwithstanding it being faithful; no “Lord, Lord,” though earnest; no church-going, despite being regular; no commission, and no matter how high. Nothing can take the place of obedience to the Father. Not to sin is, in other words, to obey God’s commandments. Suppose anyone at the highest level of thought revealed a new sphere of understanding of brother-to-brother, sister-to-sister, and brother-to-sister relationships in the Gospels, which opened our eyes to a holier, more profound conception of God. In that case, that man is the Apostle, John. But this same John is so intensely practical that when he wishes to show a way towards attaining a more excellent knowledge of God, he says, in simple words, “don’t sin.”

The fulfillment of this precept brings with it the knowledge of God, declares Dryander, which must be the ultimate aim of all Christians. God is not comprehended with primitive understanding, as though any simple-minded person could attain a profound knowledge of God. We can only comprehend God by the spiritual impulse we feel inside. One of the early Church scholars said, “He is only known in proportion as He is loved; He is only understood by him who becomes like Him.”[25] So that there is only one infallible sign of His fellowship: “whereby we know that we know Him if we keep His commandments.”^[26]

George G. Findlay (1849-1919) taught the same principle of God’s solidarity with mankind in Jesus the Anointed One. We cannot love one another without loving God, who is Love. Such is the Apostle John’s argument contained in verse two. If our love for others proves our love for God, then loving God proves the value of loving others. In other words, loving God is impossible without loving our fellow man. Still, loving those around us is possible but is imperfect and unsure without love for God. While human affection reveals the existence and employs the energy of Divine love, it takes agápē to guard the purity and sustain the faithfulness of human respect. Indeed, some love others without regard for God – friendly, generous, courteous people who are not religious.

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[1] Ephesians 1:3-6 – The Message cf. 1 Peter 1:3-4

[2] Reminds me of the song by Ronald Michael Payne, “When He Was on the Cross, I Was on His Mind,” which my favorite singer Maricris Bermont Garcia sang when I was in the Philippines.

[3] Spurgeon, Charles H., Salvation Altogether by Grace, Sermon No. 421, at the Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington, July 29:1866, p. 449

[4] 1 John 4:20

[5] Ibid. 1:6

[6] Lias, John James: The First Epistle of St. John with Exposition, op. cit., pp. 356-357

[7] Ephesians 2:8-9; James 2:20

[8] 1 John 4:20

[9] Proverbs 3:5-6

[10] Philippians 2:5

[11] Lias, John James, The First Epistle of St. John with Homiletical Treatment, op. cit., pp. 356-357

[12] Cameron, Robert: The First Epistle of John, or, God Revealed in Life, Light, and Love, op. cit., p. 208

[13] Causa essendi is the Latin term for “cause of being.”

[14] Causa cognoscenti is the Latin term for “reason to know.”

[15] John 14:31

[16] Haupt, Erich: The First Epistle of St. John: Clark’s Foreign Theological Library, Vol. LXIV, op. cit., pp. 288-289

[17] Syllogism is a rhetorical device that starts an argument with reference to something general, and from this, it draws a specific conclusion, much like deductive reasoning.

[18] Sorites is an argument having several premises but one conclusion.

[19] Matthew 10:38

[20] James 2:19

[21] Ibid. 2:3

[22] See Wycliff Version; also see Revelation 22:14

[23] Cf. Matthew 6:5 et al.

[24] Plummer, Alfred: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges, The Epistles of St. John, op. cit., pp. 155-156

[25] Aquinas, Thomas: Summa Theologica, Vol. 3, op. cit., p. 361

[26] Dryander, Ernest von: A Commentary on the First Epistle of St. John in the form of Addresses, op. cit., III, Obedience, p. 33

NEW TESTAMENT CONTEXTUAL COMMENTARY

By Dr. Robert R Seyda

FIRST EPISTLE OF JOHN

CHAPTER FIVE (Lesson XII) 10/11/22

^5:2 So you can find out how much you love God’s children – your brothers and sisters in the Lord – by how much you love and obey God.

Richard H. Tuck (1817-1868) finds verse two reminiscence of our Lord’s teaching His disciples; if you love Me, show it by doing what I’ve told you. I’ll tell My Father, and He’ll provide you with another friend to always have someone with you. This Friend is the Spirit of Truth. The person who knows my commandments and keeps them, that’s who loves me. And the person who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love them and make myself plain to them. And because this is a loveless world, it is a sightless world. If anyone loves me, they will carefully keep my word, and my Father will love them – will move in and live with them. I’ve loved you the way my Father loved me. Make yourselves at home in my love. You’ll remain intimately at home in My love if you keep My commands. That’s what I’ve done – kept my Father’s commands and made Myself at home in His love. If we love God, we will do whatever He tells us to. And He told us from the very first to love each other.[1] ^[2]

John Stock (1817-1884) says that love as a sensible passion is variable in its perception and, like the atmosphere, is liable to fluctuations. Yet as that atmosphere remains, no matter how hot or cold, so does love for God’s children. Thus, it would seem that the Apostle John hints at the transfer of our knowledge of love to fellow believers in obedience to God’s command; it affirms we are assured of our love for God. Obedience is an established principle in those born of God. However, it remains inconsistent and deficient, even when nearest to perfection. So our blessed Lord taught His servants to call themselves unprofitable servants, even after doing all He commanded.[3] Yet perfect obedience is sought for, and longed for by the faithful; and in heaven will be attained to, as they are to wake up after God’s likeness⁴, and when they see Him, will be like Him.[4] He is without darkness, whose holiness is unblemished, and whose righteousness is as everlasting as His law is truthful.[5] ^[6]

God’s children inhabit, here below, a mortal body, notes Stock. They go through weaknesses that make them less than perfect examples. We have imperfections such as dark spots on a white surface or a birthmark on a fair face; the eye will focus on it with a painful stare. In fact, if someone hears a word spoken out of line or sees a questionable act committed against any child of God, it will be talked about as a failure in trying to do good. Such little mistakes outweighed a person’s reputation for wisdom and honor.[7] The Apostles corrected the Churches, forbidding their speaking evil to one another, backbiting, devouring one another, and charging them to be careful not to consume one another.[8] There is no need to underscore that the Churches did not attain the expected perfection. Those free from rebuke are very choice and fragrant; thus, Ephesus, Philippi, Colossae, and Thessalonica shine with light and loveliness.

Johannes H. A. Ebrard (1819-1893) finds that what verse two offers now is what the Apostle John said in verse one, but in reverse order. John connects Christian love with faith in the Anointed One showing where love has its roots. Therefore, the natural and direct consequence is that any love for fellow Christians that does not rest upon this faith is not true love; thus, John lays down this suggestion: “By this, we know that we love God’s children because we love God.”

Furthermore, Ebrard points out that in verse twenty, John offered the proposition that true faith and love for God only exist when tied to our love for others; therefore, love for fellow believers is a sign of faith and love for God. However, in verse two, John declares that communion with other believers cannot exist without the foundation of faith and love for God. Therefore, faith in and love for God are defined as obedience to God’s commandments and a sign of genuine Christian love. Previously, John listed confession of faith and love for others as proof of God’s abiding agápē.[9] So, John shows that these two elements provide evidence for each other.

Ebrard agrees with the Apostle John that where there is no Christian love, there can be no true faith and no true love for God, and where there is no obedience to His commandments, true faith and love do not exist. John makes it clear that faith is dead without love for one another. You hear nothing better than meaningless lying babble about faith. Consequently, Christian love without faith, or the faithful fulfillment of God’s commandment, is no better than hypocrisy – it is not spiritual but immoral in its innermost being. In fact, it is a type of love that seeks only surface spiritual satisfaction or honor.^[10]

William Kelly (1822-1888) finds another principle in verse two. “Here’s how we know that we love God’s children when we love God and keep His commandments.” According to human logic, a person can hardly conceive anything more illogical. They would call it arguing in a circle, which defines faulty reasoning. So, Kelly asks, what does logic have to do with truth, the grace of the Anointed One, or love for God and His children? What does human judgment have to do with life eternal? It is not a question of rational but faith. No wonder some people cannot rise above logic or learning or science because they are blind to the truth in God’s Word and find His love unintelligible or false according to the rules of interaction.

According to Kelly, the cause is that there is no spiritual food for people who only want to argue. A person only needs to find the bread of life. Jesus quoted Moses when He told Satan, “People do not live by bread alone; rather, we live by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord.”[11] The workings of the Holy Spirit guide Christians on the way to God’s Word, spiritual life, and divine love. They, therefore, bow to this anointed revelation. “We know that we love the children of God when we love God and keep His commandments.” So, what is the greatest commandment? Our Lord answered that question.[12] These divine truths are bound together in one. It is the perception of the heart purified by faith, not only down from God but up to Him again, blending obedience with love for God and His children. It is a most secure guard against deceiving or being deceived.^[13]

William B. Pope (1822-1903) comments on the Apostle John’s advice that we know that we love God’s children by loving Him. We cannot separate these two truths. Still, remembering that the commandment to love is now a top priority, we must unite if we love God and abide by His commandments firmly. We love all that are born again of Him because we love Him as our heavenly Father. Therefore, the consciousness of loving God guarantees that we have all that Christian love implies in us, especially as the energy of complete obedience empowers that love.^[14]

Daniel Steele (1824-1914) says that “Do His commandments” occurs nowhere else in this epistle. Love to God’s children is the Apostle John’s expression for our love for God is proven by obedience to His commandment. The two passions confirm and verify each other. Their testimony is false if anyone says they have one kind of love but not another. One may know their love for fellow believers is genuine when they are sure of their love for God. Every time we love and obey God, we have fresh evidence that our compassion is sincere.”^[15]

Brooke F. Westcott (1825-1901) wonders if we may ask if the sign of this spiritual love differs significantly from the emotion of natural affection. When it comes to loving God’s children, we see the answer in love for God: by obedience to God’s Word. Love for God and His children do, in fact, include each other. Therefore, it is equally correct to say, “They who love God love His children” and “They who love the children of God love God.” Either form may be the grounds to dismiss any argument. But in reality, the test of love for each other here introduces a new idea. A Christian’s will is essentially God’s will.[16] Therefore, any effort to fulfill God’s commandment to love is to do what our fellow believers desire: prove that love.^[17]

Henry A. Sawtelle (1832-1913) points out that according to the Apostle John, loving God and keeping His commands proves we love His children. The same is spoken of those birthed by God in the preceding verse. How can we know that we love those who share God’s nature? We may already love Christian friends based on various motives, such as church membership, social connections, or shared political views, or because they are good-natured. But we must love them because they are God’s children and reflect His nature. For this reason, we must love all Christians and not a select group.

Once we establish these choice factors, says Sawtelle, we must determine if our love for God’s children is valid. Then, when we truly love God, who is in spiritual union with His children, we may know that we exercise our love for spiritual reasons.[18] Here in verse sixteen, John reverses the proposition of love for God proven in love for our fellow believers; to love for fellow Christians establishes our love for God. Thus, we find the final reason for loving God’s people in God, on a principle that leads us to love them all on the basis that we follow His commandment to love.

The Gospel’s commands are obeyed because they are God’s commands, remarks Sawtelle. They include belief, confession, baptism, observing the Lord’s Supper, meeting together, giving, faithfulness, and the like. Those with the heart to do these things perform them as a principle of obedience. People may know they love their fellow believers; they don’t need to guess. The Apostle John here, as elsewhere, emphasizes this principle of compliance in the new life as not being a complimentary sentiment but has the strong vigor of duty and obedience. The Christian must be an obedient person. Otherwise, the connection between doing the commands and loving the believers may be as follows: They who love their spiritual brothers and sisters love God. Hence, if they love God, they regard His will or commands as necessary. So, obeying the commands becomes evidence of love for each other, proving John’s thought process.^[19]

Charles H. Spurgeon (1834-1892) comments that to present the truth that salvation is of grace, the Apostle John declares that it is of God and springs directly and entirely from Him. It is what the Holy Spirit teaches in other places, where He repeatedly affirms that the Alpha and Omega of our salvation must be found not in ourselves but in God.[20] Our Apostle says that God saved us and refers to all the persons of the Divine Unity. The Father has saved us.[21] It was He whose gracious mind first conceived the thought of redeeming His chosen from the ruin of Adam’s fall. He was the one in whose mind planned the way of salvation by substitution of innocent animals; from His generous heart, the thought first sprang to choose the Anointed One as the head of the Church under the Final Covenant.

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[1] John 14:15-23; 15:10; 2 John 1:6

[2] Tuck, Richard H., The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary, op. cit., p. 328

[3] Luke 17:10

[4] 1 John 3:2

[5] Psalm 119:142

[6] Stock, John: An Exposition of the First Epistle General of St. John, op. cit., pp. 402-403

[7] Ecclesiastes 10:1

[8] Cf. Galatians 5:15

[9] 1 John 4:2-3, 7

[10] Ebrard, Johannes H. A., Biblical Commentary on the Epistles of St. John, op. cit., pp. 311-312

[11] Matthew 4:4; cf. Deuteronomy 8:3

[12] Matthew 22:37; cf. Deuteronomy 6:5

[13] Kelly William: An Exposition of the Epistles of John the Apostle, op. cit., p. 351

[14] Pope, William B., The International Illustrated Commentary on the N. T., Vol IV, op. cit. p. 37

[15] Steele, Daniel: Half-Hours with St. John’s Epistles, op. cit., p. 129

[16] Cf. 1 John 3:22

[17] Westcott, Brooke F., The Epistles of St. John Greek Text with Notes, op. cit., p. 177

[18] 1 John 4:20

[19] Sawtelle, Henry A., Commentary on the Epistles of John, op. cit., pp. 54-55

[20] John 14:1; Acts of the Apostles 4:12; Ephesians 2:8-9; Titus 3:5 and others

[21] 1 John 5:2

NEW TESTAMENT CONTEXTUAL COMMENTARY

By Dr. Robert R Seyda

FIRST EPISTLE OF JOHN

CHAPTER FIVE (Lesson XI) 10/10/22

^5:2 So you can find out how much you love God’s children – your brothers and sisters in the Lord – by how much you love and obey God.

Catholic theologian George Haydock (1778-1862) shares that we must all know why we love God’s children. Of course, all mankind, especially the faithful, whom He chose as His adoptive children. When we love God and keep His commandments, these two branches of kindness, love for God and our neighbor, are inseparable: the one is known and proved by the other.^[1]

William Lincoln (1788-1844) focuses on the first two verses in this fifth chapter; an important opinion is put in a two-fold form, as is frequently done in Scripture. It means if a person says they love God, God says, you will love My people then; or if an individual proclaims that they love God’s people, God says, You will love Me, who as a Father, loves His children. Therefore, you must love my other children as well. Thus, we see that the Apostle John comes at it from both sides. Do not, beloved friends, think that the double exhibition of the truth is not needed; it is sorely needed.

You see, in some minds, says Lincoln, there is a tendency to put too much weight on one approach. For instance, many worship God only on Sundays. On top of that, we all know our “Christian principles” [2] as outlined in the Gospels. Now we have people who are either too strict or too lax. Some put too much emphasis on loving their fellow believers; they forget about God; or make such a fuss over loving God that they ignore their spiritual brothers and sisters. Both sides are wrong. Who would feel comfortable fellowshipping with those who believe they are better than all the rest? Loving one’s spiritual brothers and sisters in the Lord is on the same level.

The Apostle John combined these two factors in the first two verses of this fifth chapter. You love the child if you love the parent. On the other side, you love the parent by loving their child. We must be on guard for any danger, either excessive liberality or having no preference for either view. We must be careful where anything concerning the truth, honor, person and the work of the Lord Jesus is involved. For Lincoln, he observed the devil’s influence in breaking up God’s people over the doctrine that sought to eliminate eternal punishment.

Albert Barnes (1798-1870) points out that it is universally true that if we love Him who birthed us, we also love our spiritual brothers and sisters because they are His children. In other places, the Apostle John says that we may know that we love God if we love those He birthed in His image.[3] However, there is another way of determining what we are. If we feel that we love God, we might conclude that we possess love for His children. We may be conscious of it, find pleasure in meditating on it, and feel sure that we are motivated to obey Him by being in union with Him as our heavenly Father.

But how does this prove that we genuinely love His children? Is it not easier to determine this by itself than it is to decide whether we love God? To this, it may be answered that we may love Christians because of many motives: we may love them as personal friends; we may love them because they belong to our church, sect, or party; we may love them because they are naturally amiable: but the apostle says here, that when we are conscious that an attachment does exist towards Christians, we may ascertain that it is genuine, or that it does not proceed from any improper motive, by the fact that we love God. Consequently, we will love them as His children, whatever other grounds of affection there may be towards them.[4]

Lincoln concludes we must all stand up for God and His Word. We must keep our eye on the Lord. Individuals will not listen to sound preaching because of some philosophical rule invented by those who love unfounded propositions. We should hear both sides, but they all must be in harmony with God’s Word. So, it is when John says that if we love Him who gave us new birth, we must love all those for whom He did the same. Here, we see the working of divine life on both sides.^[5]

Richard Rothe (1799-1867) finds that the Apostle John’s appeal to practicing brotherly love ends here.[6] It came to a close by pointing to the fact that love for each other is indispensable in proving the genuineness of one’s love for God. John now declares that genuine agápē has loving God as its premise, just as love for God is the basis for loving one another. John derives this position directly from the thought of the previous verse, from which it logically follows. If Christians love their neighbor as one born of God, this is impossible without their loving God simultaneously. Therefore, it is considered normal for a Christian to love their neighbor. As one is likewise born of God, the believer loves their neighbor like a spiritual brother or sister. To expose this connection, John does not write “fellow believers” but “God’s children.” ^[7]

Heinrich A. W. Meyer (1800-1882) says that verse two reverses what chapter four outlines. There, the thought is: “If we love our spiritual brothers and sisters, we may be sure that we love God.” But here, in verse fourteen, we have: “If we love God, we may know that we love our spiritual brothers and sisters.” The explanation of this change seems to be twofold: First, it is a case similar to that in the Christian life.[8] The proof moves in both directions. Secondly, John desires to bring out the inseparable connection between love for our spiritual brothers and sisters and devotion to God: If we love God, we love God’s family. That verifies that whenever we love God, which is real and genuine so that we keep His commandments, it comes with the awareness that we also love our spiritual brothers and sisters in God’s family.” ^[9]

Robert Jamieson (1802-1880), Andrew Fausset (1821-1910), and David Brown (1803-1897) look at the Apostle John’s inquiry on how we know that we love God’s children? It depends on our love for spiritual brothers and sisters, which is a sign of our love for God. Not only that, but our love for God is tested by “keeping His commandments,” which is the ground and only valid basis of our love for them. John does not mean the outward criteria of genuine brotherly love but the inward spiritual standards. The consciousness of our love for God manifests itself in the satisfactory keeping of His commandments. When we have this inwardly and outwardly confirmed love for God, we can be sure that we genuinely love God’s children. At one time, Christians believed that love for one’s spiritual brother or sister came after our love for God. But recently, they began accepting that love for one’s fellow believers came before[10] love for God.[11] [12]

Johann Eduard Huther (1807-1880) notes that the difficulty of interpreting when the Apostle John speaks of keeping the commandments as evidence of loving God^[13] now presents the opposite relationship. John makes the cause (love for God) the effect of loving our fellow believers. The explanation is that these two elements, “love for God” and “love for God’s children,” prove one another. John makes it clear that love for God shows itself in obeying His commandment to love one another. This obedience, rooted in love for God, is equally tied to brotherly love because God’s commandments include the duties we owe to each other. Therefore, those who regard it as mandatory to fulfill God’s commandments possess evidence that they love their Christian spiritual brothers and sisters. It means their love for them is not mere appearance but a reality. Let us further observe that the first use of agápē is not related to expressing what is imagined, wished, or possible. Neither is it futuristic in scope. Instead, it is used to describe actions that take place in the present or which occur regularly.^[14]

Daniel D. Whedon (1808-1885) points out that the Apostle John said earlier that our love for fellow Christians proves our love for God.[15] Here, he states that our love for God proves our love for each other. The first goes in the order of effect to cause; the second goes from cause to effect. Obediently following the commandments is the external form of expressing our love for God.^[16]

Henry Alford (1810-1871) sees how inseparable loving God and loving others seem. Earlier,[17] the Apostle John declared that our love for each other was a sign and necessary condition for loving God. Now here, we validate our love for God by keeping His commandments. That is a measure of our love for God’s children. Both are in the present tense, followed by the other. By this, we know that we love God’s children.^[18]

William Graham (1810-1883) asks, “How do we know that we love God’s children?” We find the answer here in verse two, which gives us two infallible proofs of this brotherly love: First, by loving God. And second, by loving His children. So closely are the children united to the Father, and so thoroughly is the Father’s image etched in their hearts that in the assurance of your love for Him, you are confident of your love for them. The Apostle John finds it impossible to love God and not love or despise His children; therefore, he makes loving God the ground or foundation for loving His family.

Graham has a message for those pretenders wrapped up in their heavenly enthusiastic, and delightful emotions of divine love who do not take the time to consider the needs and the weaknesses of their spiritual brothers and sisters. For Graham, such spiritual bliss is a delusion of the human mind spawned by the devil and will not withstand the fire of God’s righteous judgment. Keep in mind God’s love is not some tender, dreamy emotion. On the contrary, agápē is a strong and impulsive current that flows out of the believer’s heart into acts of faith and labor of love to all who are within its reach.^[19]

William E. Jelf (1811-1875) finds love for God and His children so closely connected that loving our spiritual brothers and sisters is not self-enhancing love done to please oneself. Instead, if we love God, we know that we love our fellow believers in union with the Anointed One for His sake. Jelf wants to prevent anyone from feeling that love for God is an experiment. So, the Apostle shows that there is another test to be applied before we can be sure of the reality and purity of our love for others in that it gives us a solid commitment to keep His commandments. Hence, the message is clear: those who love their spiritual brothers and sisters prove their love for God by practicing that love through obeying God’s command to love one another.^[20]

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[1] Haydock, George L., Catholic Bible Commentary, N. T., op. cit., p. 519

[2] These beliefs and practices of the Plymouth Brethren churches reflect their early influences. They accept no creed but the teaching of the New Testament and stress obedience to Jesus the Anointed One and a simple way of life. Like their Anabaptist forerunners, they reject infant baptism in favor of adult baptism.

[3] 1 John 3:14

[4] Barnes, Albert: New Testament Notes, op. cit., p. 4873

[5] Lincoln, William, Lectures on the Epistles of St. John, op. cit., Lecture VIII, p 141

[6] See 1 John 3:10

[7] Rothe, Richard: Exposition of the First Epistle of St. John, op. cit., January 1895, p. 175

[8] See 1 John 4:16

[9] Meyer, Heinrich A. W., Critical Exegetical Handbook New Testament, op. cit., Vol.10, p. 811

[10] 1 John 4:20

[11] Ibid. 5:2

[12] Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown’s Commentary on the Whole Bible, New Testament Volume, op, cit., pp. 728-729

[13] Cf. 1 John 2:3; 4:20-21

[14] Huther, Johann E., Critical and Exegetical Handbook on General Epistles, op. cit., pp. 601-602

[15] 1 John 4:12

[16] Whedon, Daniel D., Commentary of the New Testament, op. cit., p.

[17] 1 John 4:20

[18] Alford, Henry: The Greek Testament, Vol. IV, op. cit., p. 497

[19] Graham, William: The Spirit of Love, op. cit., pp. 308-309

[20] Jelf, William: Commentary on the First Epistle of St. John, op. cit., p. 60

SKEPTICS may ask, why don’t people follow the advice of numerous proverbs and maxims of forethought available for centuries? Instead, they conclude that these apply only after some rightful venture has gone “horribly wrong.” When, for instance, a person gambles and loses all they have, including their house, didn’t they remember the old Scottish proverb, “willful waste leads to woeful want?” However, it wouldn’t have done much good because of the gambler’s greed. So, are the maxims on ethics, virtues, and morality useless just because people disregard them? No! For Christians and Jews, the Books of Proverbs and Ecclesiastes are great examples; what about other religious thinkers and philosophers?

Niccolò di Bernardo dei Machiavelli, rendered in English as Machiavel once said, “People are of three different capacities: one understands instinctively; another understands so far as it is explained, and a third understands neither instinctively nor by explanation. The first is excellent, the second commendable, and the third altogether useless.” #32

It reminds us of what the Bible says about these three capacities:

To the first group, “If you want to become wise, look for wisdom. Use everything you have to understand.” (Proverbs 4:7)

For the second group, “Trust the Lord completely, and don’t depend solely on what you know. ⁶ With every step you take, think about what He wants, and He will help you go the right way.” (Proverbs 3:5-6)

For the third group, “People who are evil and cheat others will become worse and worse. They will fool others, but they will also be fooling themselves.” (2 Timothy 3:13)

I found this inspiring story by an unknown author. They tell us about a young man named Bill. He has disheveled hair and wears a T-shirt with holes in it, jeans, and no shoes. This outfit was his wardrobe for his entire four years of college. He is brilliant. Kind of a loner but very, very bright.

Across the street from the campus is a well-dressed, very conservative Christian church. One day Bill decides to go there. He walks in with no shoes, jeans, T-shirt, and wild hair. The church service had already begun, so Bill started walking down the aisle, looking for a seat.

The church is packed, and he can’t find an open seat. By now, people looked a bit uncomfortable, but no one said anything. Bill gets closer and closer and closer to the pulpit, and when he realizes there are no seats, he squats down right in the middle of the aisle on the carpet. (Although perfectly acceptable behavior at a college fellowship, this had never happened in this church before!)

By now, the people are uptight, and the tension in the air is thick. At about this time, the minister saw one of his Elders slowly making his way toward Bill from the back of the church. This gentleman is in his eighties, has silver-gray hair, and a three-piece suit. He is a godly Christian, very elegant, dignified, and courtly. He walks with a cane, and as he starts walking toward this boy, everyone gets a nasty vision in their head and tells themselves that they can’t blame him for what he’s about to do.

How can you expect a man of his age and background to put up with some college kid sitting on the floor in the middle aisle, distracting everyone? It takes a long time for the man to reach the boy finally. The church is utterly silent except for the clicking of the man’s cane.

All eyes are focused on him. You can almost hear everyone breathing in deeply. The minister can’t even preach the sermon until the Elder does what he must. They see this elderly man drop his cane on the floor. Then, with great difficulty, he lowers himself, sits down next to Bill, and worships beside him so he won’t be alone.

Everyone suddenly chokes up with emotion. When the minister gains control, he says, “What I’m about to preach, you will never remember. What you have just seen, you will never forget. So be careful how you live. You may be the only Bible some people will ever read.”

Most of us should pray daily for God to give us an equal opportunity to practice our beliefs.

NEW TESTAMENT CONTEXTUAL COMMENTARY

By Dr. Robert R Seyda

FIRST EPISTLE OF JOHN

CHAPTER FIVE (Lesson X) 10/07/22

^5:2 So you can find out how much you love God’s children – your brothers and sisters in the Lord – by how much you love and obey God.

The Apostle John was so inspired as he dictated this event for his Gospel that he exclaimed, “For God loved the world so much that He gave His only Son so that anyone who believes in Him remains no longer dead in their sins but is made spiritually alive in the Anointed One. God did not send His Son into the world to condemn it but to save it. Therefore, there is no eternal doom awaiting those who trust Him to redeem them. However, those who don’t trust Him are already guilty and condemned to eternal separation from God for not believing in His only Son as their Savior.”[1]

The phrases in verse two, “everyone who believes” and “everyone who loves,” are connected. Therefore, divine life inevitably manifests itself in love for the family of God. Genuine love for God stimulates specific responses to His commandments. If a person loves God, they will love God’s children.[2] The believer loves the Lord and His family because the Lord provides regeneration for both.

Christians should love all of God’s family members. Everyone who believes in the Incarnation is a child of God. Therefore, every believer of the Incarnation loves God, and everyone who loves God loves the family of God. If God loves the believer, other believers should love that believer because they are part of God’s household. You cannot love one without the other. If you love the parent, you love the child as well. Loving other Christians is evidence that the new birth took place. Every child of God is entitled to our love because they are birthed into God’s family. They, like you, now represent the invisible God on earth as His representative.

We also know from nature that look-alikes are attracted to each other. There’s an old saying, “Birds of a feather flock together.” Love starts in God’s family. If we tell a mother that we do not like her kids, we will have a problem with Mommy. Love for the mother and love for the kids are a package deal. Likewise, we cannot separate belief and love. One is the source of the other.

Consequently, if we wish to show our love for God, we should demonstrate it to a visible agent, another child of God in His family. Fellow Christians are worthy of our love because they possess distinguishing features of God’s family, qualities that non-Christians do not have. Love for God shows itself in active love for God’s children, not just emotional love. We love other Christians best when we respond to God’s command to love. Therefore, love for God and His children is obedience to His commands. It is not how we feel about God and other believers but how we choose to relate to them.

The Lord Jesus the Anointed One is the common meeting place for all Christians. There, one’s race, class, and color are distant from Him. It is an elementary test of our love for God. How committed are we to fully applying His principles to our lives? That is the quantity of our love. Fellowship with God carries power with it. The person who puts their trust in Jesus the Anointed One yields themselves to God’s principles and standards for living. They receive direction for life from their heavenly parent’s instructions. Operating out of the identity of the dignity of their spiritual family, they love members of God’s family more than they love themselves.

COMMENTARY AND HOMILETICS

Additional comments, interpretations, and insights of Reformation Theologians, Revivalist Teachers, Reformed Scholars, and Modern Commentators on this verse.

Matthew Poole (1624-1679) states that we don’t need to broadcast that we love God’s children. But, if we hear people talk about how much we love God’s children, we must clarify that it’s on God’s account. We want to conform to Him and obey His commandments. Our love for them supposes that we also love God and must be demonstrated by doing so.^[3]

English Presbyterian Minister William Bates (1625-1699) asks whom the Apostle John describes when he says, “the children of God?” This title is bestowed for several reasons. To begin with, by creation. After all, angels are called “the sons of God,”[4] and humanity is His “offspring.”[5] Furthermore, the reason for the title relates to the manner of their production by God’s immediate power. It also resembles godliness in its spiritual, immortal nature and intellectual operations. No wonder God designates believers as “His children” due to their calling because God places them into a family relationship by His grace. Finally, it offers a kinship with God and each other that arises from our regeneration by supernatural means.

What does our love for the children of God include, asks Bates? The fundamental principle of agápē.[6] Therefore the qualifications for this love are easy to understand. Such love must be sincere and cordial. Any counterfeit, formal affection enhanced with any garnish is so far from pleasing God that it infinitely aggravates Him. In addition, it must be pure because the attractive impulse is the image of God appearing in those who have such love. Not only that, but it is universal and extended to all the saints. Therefore, we can see why it must be enthusiastic in truth and its degree of importance.[7] ^[8]

William Burkitt (1650- 1703) observes that using agápē reveals how sincere we love God and His children and our obedience to His commands. The search for that assurance might begin by asking, “What kind of affection is required to love God’s children?” Burkitt answers by saying that it starts with what we esteem the highest, a love of desire, a love of delight, a love of duty, and a love of dedication. The next thing to establish is, “What kind of obedience towards God is that which springs from love?”Most would say it is uniform and universal. As such, love regards the whole Law in its permissions, prohibitions, and studies to please the Law-Giver. It makes it a pleasant exercise, not a pitiful task. But, at the same time, it is also explicit and exact, producing a careful watchfulness over our conduct, that nothing is done or allowed by us displeasing to God’s eye. Furthermore, it is constant and persevering. Therefore, any sinful activity caused by human passion will cease when the scales are balanced. But that which proceeds from an inward principle, or life, is continual. We rejoice that such a principle is the agápē God planted in the Christian’s heart so they can find out how much they love God’s children – spiritual brothers and sisters in the Lord – by how much they love and obey God.^[9]

James Macknight (1721-1800) looks at the words in verse two: “By this, we know that we love God’s children when we love God and keep His commandments” and tells us that Dutch theologian Hugo Grotius (1583-16:45), a towering figure in philosophy, political theory, law, and associated fields wanted to rewrite what he thought the Apostle John’s reasoning was at this point and to make it more transparent. So, the verse should be interpreted and translated in the following manner: “By this, we know that we love God when we love God’s children and keep His commandments.” Macknight feels that this is a forced rendering; it represents the Apostle as giving a mark by which we may know when we love God: whereas John intends to show how we may know when we correctly love God’s children.

Now, says Macknight, this was necessary to be pointed out since some may love God’s children because they are related and engage in the same pursuits or are mutually united by some common bond of friendship or membership. But love proceeding from these factors is not the kind of Christian love that John desires. By what mark, then, can we know that our devotion to the children of God is of the right quality? I’ll tell you, we love God, and following that excellent principle, keep His commandments, especially His commandment, to love His children because they bear His image. True Christian love proceeds from loving God, respecting His will, and leading us to obey all His commandments.^[10]

John Brown of Haddington (1722-1787) states that we must love God’s children because of their relation and likeness to God; that is where our love begins. Moreover, such a highly principled love for Him engages us to try our best to give complete obedience to His holy commandments.^[11]

Samuel Elyes Pierce (1746-1829) observes that in and throughout this Epistle, the Apostle John draws one general line of distinction. It is between simply professing the Lord Jesus by outwardly acknowledging Him and the inward reality of knowing Him to the profit of their souls and their salvation. But, as John realizes, some who only profess to know the Lord get distracted and turn away from the Anointed One’s Truth to the heresies and false and blasphemous doctrines of that time.

Therefore, says Pierce, John used the words we and us often. The Apostle knew he was a regenerated person – that he was born of God – and that all of God’s regenerated people had the same evidence concerning the reality of being born again like himself. John stood convinced that there was and had to be outward proof given to all newborns concerning what the Lord had done in and for them. John expounded on this in a variety of instances in the previous chapters. For example, in the third verse of the second chapter, John said of himself and others, “We can be sure that we know Him if we obey His commandments.” And here, in verse two, John says, “By this, we know that we love the children of God when we love God and keep His commandments.”

Pierce notes that for the Apostle John, loving God’s children is the fruit of loving God, which is abundantly shown when we keep His commandments. But, as John closes his epistle, the grand line of distinction is maintained between the real saint and the religious saint. These are those who forsook God to commit sins that brought spiritual death. By this, John undoubtedly meant blasphemy against the Holy Spirit. Nevertheless, our Lord Jesus the Anointed One pronounced it an unpardonable sin.

Looking more closely at the text, we find several nuggets of truth. First, we see the best way to know that we love God’s children. Also, we are brought into and have attained this knowledge, which is to be declared. And secondly, our love for God is the only motive we need to love God’s children. It is on account of our relationship and likeness to Him. God’s image in the saints gives us reason to love them. Thirdly, to love the saints is to keep God’s commandments. Reading verses one and two as one may give us some light in viewing how they are connected: with the other. Here’s what they say: “If you believe that Jesus is the Anointed One, then you are God’s child because all who love the Father love His children also to find out how much you love God’s children by how much you love and obey God.” It leaves us with a question: “How were we attain this knowledge, and how is it to be declared?”^[12]

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[1] John 3:17

[2] 1 John 4:20-21

[3] Poole, Matthew, Commentary on the Holy Bible – Book of 1st, 2nd & 3rd John (Annotated), Kindle Edition

[4] Cf. Job 1:6; 2:1; 38:7

[5] Ibid. 5:25

[6] 1 Peter 1:22

[7] John 15:12

[8] Bates, William: The Biblical Illustrator, Vol. 22, First Epistle of John, op. cit., p. 387

[9] Burkitt, William: Expository Notes, Vol. II, op. cit., p. 734

[10] Macknight, James: Apostolic Epistles with Commentary, Vol. VI, pp. 102-103

[11] Brown, John of Haddington: Self-Interpreting Bible, op. cit., Vol. IV, New Testament, p. 506

[12] Pierce, Samuel E., An Exposition of the First Epistle General of John, Comprised in Ninety-Three Sermons, Vol. 2, Sermon LXXIV, 1 John 5:2

NEW TESTAMENT CONTEXTUAL COMMENTARY

By Dr. Robert R Seyda

FIRST EPISTLE OF JOHN

CHAPTER FIVE (Lesson IX) 10/06/22

^5:1 If you believe that Jesus is the Anointed One – that He is God’s Son and your Savior – then you are God’s child. And all who love the Father love His children too.

Marianne Meye Thompson (1964) hears the Apostle John tell us that God commands us to love. Whether speaking of our love for God or others, love exemplifies His divine will for humanity since God is love. Therefore, all God’s children, who confess that Jesus is the Anointed One, are to love each other. There are two parallel statements in verse one that begins with “Everyone who.” One points to the importance of faith in Jesus, the other to the significance of loving each other. These are not two separate commands that a believer must keep to become a child of God; instead, they are two expressions of what the child of God does. Faith and love are each an expression of God’s work in a person’s life. Each center on the person of Jesus the Anointed One. It’s because our faith is in Jesus as God’s Messiah, who provides the fundamental manifestation of God’s love for us.

To have such faith, says Thompson, is to possess the same trust children have in their parents. And they have such confidence because of their experience of the faithfulness and love of their parents for them. So, the call for faith and the call for love is one. Although John repeatedly emphasizes the importance of Christian love for each other, that obligation is not randomly obligatory. Instead, the call to love comes from God’s very nature, who is love, who loves us and encourages, commands, and empowers us to love. Indeed, God’s saving Word is at heart a work of love, for it brings us into a household of brotherly and sisterly relationships, in which Jesus is the foundation. So, we are called to trust in the God who is Love. For John, God as Love is not some romantic idea or an opportunity to show off: it is the ultimate truth.^[1]

Peter Pett (1966) states that those with genuine faith who believe in Jesus the Anointed One who was crucified and resurrected as God’s Son are God-born. Pause for a moment to consider the wonder of that. They have received a new life; they are a new creation.[2] As a result, they received a life of such quality as “eternal life.” And it is understood that we will love Him. But, says John, if we love the One Who birthed us, we will also love those to whom He has given birth. For they are one with us in the Anointed One, they share the same life as we do, they are our spiritual brothers and sisters, and our future is tied together.^[3]

Duncan Heaster (1967), a Christadelphian,[4] agrees that whoever believes that Jesus is the Anointed One is born of God, and whoever loves Him that gives birth loves those also to whom He has given the identical birth. Heaster notes that the phrase “born of” implies the initiative was with the birth giver. The conception is through the Holy Spirit, activated by water baptism and accepting Jesus as the Anointed One, the Messiah, God’s Son.[5] So I would read this, says Heaster, to mean that belief in Jesus as the Anointed One precedes the birth through the Spirit. Admittedly, however, the grammar also implies that being birth of God (by the Spirit) results in belief in Jesus as the Anointed One. He is the prime mover in our spiritual birth, and we are the objects of such conception rather than the prime movers. Being God’s born-again children makes us spiritual brothers and sisters with His only begotten Son. We naturally love the Father who birthed us, yet we cannot love God vertically without horizontally loving those others He birthed. For His Spirit has worked in many other lives apart from ours, bringing even the most challenging and uncooperative of our fellow believers likewise to be God’s birthed children. And as explained throughout chapter four, we cannot claim to have any love for God if we don’t love His children.^[6]

Karen H. Jobes (1968) states that anyone coming into faith in the Anointed One is born again as a child into the Father’s family.[7] This faith in the Anointed One produces love for God the Father, “the birth-giver.” Thus, a person who loves the Father also loves all His children. This statement builds on the idea that Jesus the Anointed One, the Son of God, is the begotten of the Father.[8] Still, John uses this Christological point to argue that all who have come to faith in the Anointed One are also children of the Father to be likewise loved. It is striking that Christian believers are brought into a relationship with the Father described in the same terms as a child’s relationship with a father. This distinction is clear when John refers to Jesus as God’s Son and all believers as His children. Therefore, anyone who loves God necessarily loves a God who births offspring and gives birth to love others who like oneself.” In fact, not loving one’s fellow believers is evidence that one has not truly been born of God.[9] ^[10]

^5:2 How do we know that we love God’s children? We know because we love God, and we obey His commands.

EXPOSITION

The Apostle John agrees that love is an act of one’s will to obey God’s will. When you turn the opposite ends of a magnet toward each other, they need not decide whether they like each other or even appeal to each other; a power within them automatically draws them together. John says that this same power within believers is love. It was one of Jesus’ last messages to His disciples before being arrested and crucified. With this in mind, John begins his second test – the Test of Love.

Our Lord had the same word of advice after washing the disciple’s feet, “I give you a new command: Love each other. You must love each other just as I loved you. So, all people will know that you are my followers if you love each other.”^[11] And our Master had every right to give this commandment because He tells them emphatically, “You did not choose me. I chose you. And I gave you this work: to go and produce fruit that will last. Then the Father will give you anything you ask for in my name. So just in case, his readers didn’t get the full impact of what he was saying, John, added: “This is My command: Love each other.”^[12]  

The Apostle did not say these words as an impromptu comment. Instead, he heard the Savior when He told His disciples that He was giving them a new commandment, that they “love one another” as much as He loved them. Jesus gave them this command because it had a significant purpose. Loving one another with unbreakable love would prove to the world that they were His true disciples. And to show them that this was not a one-time rule, the Master repeated it again and again.^[13]

Another mark noted in verse one by which we can test our love towards our fellow believers is that faith in the Incarnation involves His love. Here in verse two, obedience to God is the test. Obeying God proves love for Him, which requires loving His children. Let us note that the first twelve verses of chapter five explain the importance of the witness of God. God bears clear testimony about His Son. John also shows how the nature of one’s faith gives significance to love. In fact, the message of chapter five grows out of the end of chapter four.[14]

Another critical thing John told us is that spiritual birth rests on the trust that Jesus of Nazareth was the Messiah. Therefore, it makes faith the only condition for salvation. John refers to belief three times in this section:[15]  It gives victory (5:4), It provides validity (5:9), and It brings vitality (5:11)

The connection between belief and love brings John’s argument to a meaningful point in his epistle. It involves love in God’s family. Meanwhile, the Greek word “Christus” means the Messiah, “the Anointed One.” This name emphasizes His ministry, especially His shedding of blood for our sins. He died holding our sins next to His heart. Isaiah speaks of the Messiah in this regard.[16] The Gnostic heretics had a problem identifying the son of man, Jesus, with the Son of God, the Messiah, because Jesus is not only human but also divine.[17]

We also see that the phrase “born of God” occurs seven times in John’s epistle[18] and three times in this verse.[19] All born-again people have the nature of God residing in them. It is spiritual life from God. If we have the life of God in us, we will naturally love God’s family. When the Scripture says, “is born,” it means spiritually made alive at a point in the past, with the results continuing permanently. So, what principle do we find here? The only condition for salvation is faith in the person and work of the Anointed One for our redemption from sin.

How, then, do we apply this to our Christian lives? According to their declaration of faith, many people and churches add additional things to assure salvation. For example, some say that a person must repent at an altar, be baptized in a certain way, and join the church to receive spiritual birth. Such opinions add conditions to the plan of salvation that God never required; God’s only prerequisite for redemption is to trust Jesus and His sacrifice on the Cross and resurrection from the dead.

On another occasion, Jesus talked to the Jewish Rabbi Nicodemus and told him that with all the earnestness He possessed, unless he submitted to being born again, he could never get into the Kingdom of God.  “Born again!” exclaimed Nicodemus. “What do you mean? How can an old man return to his mother’s womb and be born again?”  Jesus said, listen to what I’m trying to tell you; unless a person is born of water and the Spirit, they cannot become part of God’s Kingdom. Humankind can only reproduce human life, but the Holy Spirit gives spiritual life from heaven, so don’t be surprised at my statement that you must be born again! Just as you can hear the wind but not see it, the same is true of God’s Spirit. We do not know on whom He will place this blessing from heaven until it arrives.

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[1] Thompson, Marianne M., The IVP New Testament Commentary Series, 1-3 John, op. cit., pp. 129, 132

[2] 2 Corinthians 5:17

[3] Pett, Peter: Commentary on the Bible, 1 John, op. cit., loc cit.

[4] Christadelphians regard themselves as Christians but don’t accept some mainstream Christian doctrine. For example, they believe God is not a Trinity but the single being God the Father. They believe that Jesus Christ was (and is) the Son of God but was also a man as he was born of a woman, though this birth was miraculous. They believe that the Holy Spirit is the power of God. They believe that Jesus now lives in Heaven but will return to the earth to set up God’s Kingdom. All those who have believed and been baptized will be raised to be judged by Jesus. Those who are found worthy will live in the Kingdom forever; those who are not, or those who have not been raised, will stay dead forever. They are a millennial church and believe that Jesus will co-exist on earth with his followers for a thousand years (the millennium) before the ultimate battle of Armageddon. Due to their interpretation of prophecies and, in particular, the Olivet Prophecy, they believe that the day of Jesus’ return will be soon. The Olivet Prophecy describes the signs that Christadelphians believe indicate the return of Jesus. The signs of His return are described by Jesus in Matthew 24 and 25, Mark 13, and Luke 21 and include war, famine, “men’s hearts failing them for fear,” and people being more interested in themselves than in God. Christadelphians believe these signs have been fulfilled and that Jesus will soon return.

[5] John 3:3-5

[6] Heaster, Duncan, The New European Christadelphian Commentary: op. cit., The Letters of John, pp. 67-68

[7] Cf. 1 John 2:29; 3:9

[8] Ibid. 5:18

[9] 1 John 2:9–11; 3:9–10, 14–17; 4:20

[10] Jobes, Karen H., 1, 2, and 3 John (Zondervan Exegetical Commentary on The New Testament Series Book 18), op. cit., p. 208

[11] John 13:34-35

[12] Ibid. 15:16-17

[13] Ibid. 15:12, 17

[14] 1 John 4:20-21

[15] Ibid. 5:1, 5, 10

[16] Isaiah 53:5-6

[17] John 20:30-31

[18] 1 John 3:9; 4:7

[19] Ibid. 5:1, 4, 18

NEW TESTAMENT CONTEXTUAL COMMENTARY

By Dr. Robert R Seyda

FIRST EPISTLE OF JOHN

CHAPTER FIVE (Lesson VIII) 10/05/22

^5:1 If you believe that Jesus is the Anointed One – that He is God’s Son and your Savior – then you are God’s child. And all who love the Father love His children too.

Ben Witherington III (1951) sees the Apostle John returning a basic definition of the Christian doctrine that Jesus is the Anointed One. Having this faith is evidence that a person is born of God. Notice once more that “Christus” is used here as a Jewish title, not a name, and as such, it reflects one of the earliest confessions made about Jesus when the Church only existed in the Holy Land.[1] We suppose this demonstrates the controversy between the two groups John has in mind. In that case, it points to the fact that some denied Jesus’ testimony about Himself that He shared during His ministry.[2] It put them on the same path as the Jews who rejected Jesus and His mission. It offers us more supporting evidence here that Jews who left the community were rebels in this case.

Witherington then summarizes their denials (1) Jesus is the Messiah; (2) Jesus is God’s Son incarnated; (3) Jesus’ death was actual, all-important, and atoning. If this is correct, then those who split from the Church denied the preexistence and divinity of God’s Son and the Messianic aspects of His humanity. They were not Christians on either score. Nevertheless, John does believe that there is any intellectual content in his demand for faith. It is something one must understand Jesus correctly to have a saving relationship with Him.[3]

Judith Lieu (1951) points out that the inseparable bond between love for God and siblings relies on fundamental truths. The Apostle John described believers as being born from God, not by their effort but by God’s birthing power.[4] The opening words (“every one who. . . “) either come from the same source or are used as a model. Although the birthing image points to the individual and their relationship with God, it carries a sense of accompaniment. Such a figure of speech focuses on those who also owe their spiritual life to God’s birthing power more than the language of indwelling or possessing, which can restrict any focus on the individual.

The argument might appear that anyone who loves God loves the God who births born-again offspring. Consequently, it supports an undeniable truth that the love of others, like oneself, is birthed by God. Not realizing this reality would be failing to love the God who brought about one’s spiritual birth. The Apostle John does not see believers as merely a family, ordered to love one another. Nor does he use the language of “brothers” alongside birthing because he knows that brotherly relationships are not necessarily loving any believers.[5] God mediated the horizontal brother-to-brother, sister-to-sister, and brother-to-sister relationship. It is as “children of God” believers love those also born of God, not as newly discovered spiritual brothers or sisters. ^[6]

Gary M. Burge (1952) believes it is critical to include the first four verses of chapter five as a part of any discussion on his first epistle. John does not change the subject but gives it a different distinction. In verse one, we learn that making a meaningful confession of faith is evidence of rebirth. In other places, instead of “confession,” the evidence is “love.”[7] Then elsewhere, it is “obedience.”[8] Verse one also adds a general principle, which, unfortunately, we often miss that loving the One who gave us new life means loving all those He birthed. The Apostle John may have something specific in mind. If you love your parents, surely you will love their other children. Or, again, if you love God (as a parent), you will love all His children (including Jesus). Therefore, using a family metaphor, John is broadening the ethical challenge. God has many children. To love Him – or to love Jesus – demands that we also love God’s other children.^[9]

Bruce B. Barton (1954) advises that to discern whether a person is a genuine Christian, one needs to look at what that person truly believes about Jesus the Anointed One. The true believer openly accepts that Jesus is the Anointed One. To “believe” means to put one’s trust and confidence in, to be convinced of, the truth. To believe in Jesus as “the Anointed One” means to trust Him as God’s Messiah and have faith in Him. It means being convinced that Jesus of Nazareth was God’s only Son and that God’s Spirit-anointed Him to preach the Gospel, heal the sick, raise the dead, die on the cross for sin, and rise from the dead to become the Savior.[10] The Greek verb tenses, notes Barton, indicate that belief is the result, not the cause, of the new birth. The continuing activity of believing proves that a person is God-born. By believing this, they become true Christians. Likewise, having faith that Jesus is God’s Anointed One must produce love for God and fellow Christians. As a result, we must not separate these two key elements. The new birth nurtures the transformation in believers.

Therefore, all who accept Jesus as the Anointed One are spiritual brothers and sisters in Him. So, no matter where these people live, what their race is, the different languages they speak, or their thoughts about other biblical issues (such as the Rapture, the millennial kingdom, speaking in tongues, baptism, eternal punishment, and so on), they are genuine children of God. Believers should love all those who share the same faith in Jesus as the Anointed One. They have the same Father, and everyone who loves the Father loves His children. Christians are a part of God’s family, with fellow believers as spiritual brothers and sisters. God determines who the other family members are. Believers are simply called to accept and love them because they love God.^[11]

Daniel L. Akin (1957) reemphasizes that the regenerated new birth brings us into a special relationship with God as Father. He’s the One who loved us first so we could understand love to Him and others with the same kind of Love.[12] This gift of Love is what He did for us to bring us into union with the Anointed One.[13] However, we not only love the Father, but we also love the family the Father is building. We will treasure our spiritual brothers and sisters who are born of Him.[14] But John then makes an interesting statement in verse two that seems out of order at first. He says we can “know that we love God’s children when we love God and obey His commands.” But is this backward? Shouldn’t the Apostle John say that we know we love God because we love His children?

I don’t think so, says Akin. John’s point is grounded in Jesus’ teaching on two great commandments.[15] To begin with, my love for others is the natural complement and companion to my “first love” for God. So, when I love God, I keep His commands. And following His teachings involves loving others, His daughters and sons in particular. Furthermore, verse three informs us that obeying the command to love one another will not be burdensome. On the contrary, it will be a joy and a delight because the new birth makes it the natural thing to do. And our love for the Father inspires and motivates us to love those He loves and to love them as He loves us.^[16]

Bruce G. Schuchard (1958) implies that verse one is the first of three strategically situated references to “Jesus,” together with two similar references to Him as the “Anointed One.” It also highlights the passage’s goal of upholding the importance of faith in the man Jesus as the Anointed One, God’s Son. The first of these references to those born of God asserts that to believe that Jesus is the Anointed One is to be born of God. Thus, born “not of blood, nor the will of the flesh, nor the human will, but of God,”[17] means you accept Jesus as God’s Anointed One whom He raised from the dead.[18] Therefore, it is not possible apart from the Son nor from “the originator and source from above, who gives birth”[19] that we might believe. And everyone who loves the one who has given birth loves the one who is born of him.

Again, Schuhard notes, faith and love go hand in hand. John refers to God as “the One who gives birth.” John also assumes that those born of God will naturally love the One to whom they owe their existence. The second of these three references[20] is to the one born of God.[21] It further amplifies the meaning of faith and love. To believe, then, means one is born of God. To be born of God is to love Him and those who owe their existence to Him who birthed us all. To love in such a way is to be in the family of God.^[22]

David Guzik (1961) sees that the Apostle John’s great emphasis has been on love, but he never wants anyone to believe they earn salvation by loving others. We are born of God when we trust Jesus and in His saving work in our lives. We also understand that John was not talking about mere intellectual assent to Jesus being the Messiah (as even the demons might have).[23] Instead, he means trusting and relying on Jesus as the Messiah. Additionally, John makes it plain we must believe Jesus is the Anointed One. Many with new-age thinking believe Jesus had the “Anointed One’s spirit” – as they also claim, Confucius, Mohammed, Buddha, and certain moderns did too. But we would never say Jesus “has” the Anointed One – Jesus is the Anointed One.

This is the Christians’ common ground, says Guzik, not race, class, culture, language, or anything except for an exceptional birth through Jesus the Anointed One and the joint Lordship of Jesus. Thus, to love all others in God’s family means that you do not limit your love to your church or group, your social or financial status, your race, your political perspective, or your exact theological persuasion. If any of these things mean more to you than your shared salvation and Lordship of Jesus the Anointed One, then something needs fixing. Parents become frustrated and even disgusted when their children fight and hate one another. How must God feel when He sees His children fight among themselves?^[24]

Marianne Meye Thompson (1964) hears the Apostle John tell us that God commands us to love. Whether speaking of our love for God or others, love exemplifies His divine will for humanity since God is love. Therefore, all who are God’s children, who confess Jesus as the Anointed One, are to love each other as He did them. There are two parallel statements in verse one that begin with “every one who.” One points to the importance of faith in Jesus, the other to the significance of loving each other. These are not two separate commands that a believer must keep to become a child of God; instead, they are two expressions of what the child of God does. Faith and love are each an expression of God’s work in a person’s life. Each centers on the person of Jesus the Anointed One. It’s because our faith is in Jesus as God’s Messiah, who provides the fundamental manifestation of God’s love for us.

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[1] See Acts of the Apostles 11:26

[2] Cf. John 5:18

[3] Witherington, Ben III, Letters and Homilies for Hellenized Christians: A Socio-Rhetorical Commentary on Titus, 1-2 Timothy and 1-3 John, op. cit., loc. cit., Kindle Edition

[4] John 1:13; see Leviticus 19:34

[5] 1 John 3:12

[6] Lieu, Judith: The New Testament Library, I II & III John, op. cit., pp. 199-200

[7] 1 John 4:7

[8] Ibid. 2:29; 3:9

[9] Burge, Gary M., The Letters of John (The NIV Application Commentary), op. cit., pp. 191-192

[10] Cf. Matthew 10:7-8

[11] Barton, Bruce B., 1, 2, & 3 John (Life Application Bible Commentary), op. cit., pp. 105-106

[12] 1 John 4:19

[13] Ibid. 4:10

[14] Ibid. 5:1

[15] Matthew 22:36-40

[16] Akin, Dr. Daniel L., Exalting Jesus in 1,2,3 John (Christ-Centered Exposition Commentary), op. cit., loc. cit., Kindle Edition

[17] John 1:13

[18] Ibid. 1:10-12

[19] John 3:3

[20] 1 John 5:14

[21] See also ibid. 5:1, 4

[22] Schuchard, Bruce G., Concordia Commentary, 1-3 John, op. cit., p. 522

[23] James 2:19

[24] Guzik, David: Enduring Word, 1,2 & 3 John & Jude, op. cit., pp. 86-87 

NEW TESTAMENT CONTEXTUAL COMMENTARY

By Dr. Robert R Seyda

FIRST EPISTLE OF JOHN

CHAPTER FIVE (Lesson VII) 10/04/22

^5:1 If you believe that Jesus is the Anointed One – that He is God’s Son and your Savior – then you are God’s child. And all who love the Father love His children too.

Zane Clark Hodges (1932-2008) states that if someone asks who their Christian spiritual brothers and sisters are, the answer is “everyone who believes that Jesus is the Anointed One is born of God.”[1]  Whether or not a believer exhibits an admirable life, they should be an object of their fellow Christian’s love. This love does not spring from something lovable in the person themselves, but their fatherhood, since everyone who loves the Father also loves His children. Moreover, love for God’s children is not mere sentiment or verbal expression but is inseparable from loving God and obeying His commands.[2] If someone asks about what it means to love God, the answer is to follow His instructions. Thus, by this series of statements, the Apostle John reduces love for God and one’s fellow Christians to its fundamental character. A person obeys God’s rules by doing what is right toward God and his fellow believers, thus loving God and them. But it must be remembered that this includes the willingness to sacrifice for one’s spiritual brother or sister.[3] ^[4]

Ian Howard Marshall (1934-2015) sees the Apostle John moving to the theme of faith and divine sonship due to John’s concentration on faith in the following verses. But the second part of the verse is still concerned with love. Therefore, the first part of the verse should probably be understood as an introduction to further thoughts about love. He begins by affirming that everybody who makes a true confession of faith about Jesus has been born of God. Thus, faith is a sign of the new birth, just as love is,[5] and doing what is right indicates that a person has been born again. At the same time, faith is a condition of the new birth: “to all who received Him, to those who believed in His name, He gave the right to become God’s children.”[6] However, John is not trying to show how a person experiences the new birth. Instead, he aims to indicate that a person stands in a continuing child relationship with their Father God. That is further evidence that they have solid faith in who Jesus was and who Jesus is.^[7]

John Painter (1935) points out that all eleven statements in the form of (“whosoever”) are related positively or negatively to these three: believing, loving, and righteousness. These three examples in verse one (born, begat, and begotten – KJV) are evidence of the children of God birthed by God. Probably because of the orientation to provide such tests, the Apostle John did not clarify whether belief precedes birthing,[8] whether receiving Him is understood as a metaphor for believing,[9] or whether birthing precedes belief. He aims to show the necessary connection between the two so that it becomes evident that correct belief, along with loving and doing righteousness, reveals the children of God while their opposites reveal the devil’s brood.[10] From this, we can see that the argument in 1 John was widespread in the Asia Minor (Middle East today) area. There is a familial logic to it. To love the Father implies loving those He loves. In loving each other, they will love their divine parent more. John’s first epistle does not take this step but affirms that to love one’s spiritual brother and sister is immediate proof of love for God. It is instantaneous in John’s letter because he knows no other evidence to verify the claim, “I love God.”^[11]

Muncia Walls (1937) feels that the Apostle John is still dealing with the arguments the Cerinthian Gnostics raised in this epistle. These heretics argued that Jesus was not Christus – the “Anointed One.” By this, they denied the incarnation of God in human form. John’s argument here is that those who genuinely believe that Jesus is the Anointed One are of God. Like other such statements found in John’s writings and elsewhere in the Final Covenant, says Walls, we are not to take the expression as meaning the only thing necessary for salvation is a mere expression of belief in the Anointed One.^[12]

James Montgomery Boice (1938-2000) asks, “Which comes first, faith or life?” It expresses whether a person chooses God by believing in the Anointed One or God determines whom He decides to make alive in the Anointed One. John’s first verse answers this question about the new birth. Unfortunately, in none of the English versions is the full sense of the verse adequately communicated, for the differences in tenses are not as striking in English as in Greek. The verb pisteuō (“believe”) is in the present tense in the Greek text, indicating a present, continuing activity. For instance, the word “born” (in the phrase “born of God”) is also in the perfect tense. The perfect tense indicates a past event with continuing consequences. In other words, we are the result and proof of our new birth in the past by which we became and remained God’s children. In fact, we believe and do everything spiritual in nature precisely because we have first been made alive. If this were not the order, then the tests of life would have no value as indicators that an individual is truly God’s child.^[13]

Michael Eaton (1942-2017) (1) says that in his quest to produce a loving company of followers, the Apostle John starts this section by defining what having a spiritual brother or sister means. He begins: “Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Anointed One has been born of God.” In other words, the new birth is by having faith. There are five times in this epistle where John clearly states that the new birth results from faith: (i) New birth produces righteousness.[14] (ii) New birth prevents sinful tendencies from being in control.[15] (iii) New birth produces love.[16] (iv) New birth overcomes the world.[17] (v) New birth gives us protection from Satan.[18] One might think that verse one says, “Faith causes new births.” However, the parallel statements and the tenses that John uses make it clear that the point is the other way round. Therefore, we must add a sixth to the five new birth results mentioned elsewhere: (vi) new birth is the source of faith.[19] ^[20]

William Loader (1944) says that the phrase “Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Anointed One” is what it means to be a Christian. Indeed “Christian” is derived from this confession of faith.[21] Originally it was an affirmation of the belief that Jesus was the promised Messiah, the Anointed One, the Christus. Usually, the hope for the Messiah was associated with Jewish religious hopes. He would be a leader who would liberate the people from their oppressors, particularly the Romans. He would be a new David, a Son of David, the anointed king of Israel.[22] Only Christianity could use such a term for Jesus by significantly modifying its content.^[23]

David Jackman (1945) notes that to describe the nature of faith, the Apostle John again uses the phrase. “Everyone who does such-and-such,” as he has done on several previous occasions in the letter.[24] It is a phrase that includes all who satisfy the requirements for salvation (in this case, all who believe that Jesus is the Anointed One) and excludes everyone else. It is designed to increase the faithful Christian’s blessed assurance and exclude all those who would try to climb into the Great Shepherd’s sheep pen some other way than entering through the only door, the Anointed One.[25] ^[26]

John W. (Jack) Carter (1947) believes that many church teachers had something preventing them from realizing their faith’s true and lasting reward. For instance, their Jewish background demanded that Christians follow strict Mosaic Ceremonial Laws. Others taught methods of salvation that were inconsistent with God’s Word, causing believers to doubt and making them vulnerable to being led away from the truth. However, the Apostle John’s message was that those born again fully accept Jesus’ nature as described in God’s Word. This characteristic is a person’s choice, not an action. It is a belief, not some moral accomplishment. One who loves the LORD accepts Him fully for who He is: the Messiah, the Christus, YAHWEH who came in the flesh, born of a human woman, lived as a human, and returned to His former status in eternity. The idea that God could inhabit a person makes no logical sense. No mechanism in this physical universe serves as a model of this truth.  Acceptance of Jesus the Anointed One is an act of faith. It is through this faith that salvation is awarded to the believer.^[27]

Robert W. Yarbrough (1948) notes that the birth language in verse one has the effect of highlighting God’s explicit work in the community to whom John is writing.[28] It doesn’t include human factors like natural affection and religious assent. It may or may not be a fitting account of what some believe today, but it does not describe the Christian experience as John understands it. Faith’s tie to God is not grounded in its tenacity, much less in self-serving spiritual autism,[29] says Yarbrough; instead, it is a willing response to a saving message brought home by divine regeneration through faith. The sublime authorship of Christian redeeming faith – for which John gives God all the credit – makes possible an inspiring outcome: love for others. The singular nature of early Christianity’s fundamental characteristic, love, which had no close parallels in pagan religions of the era, may help explain John’s determination to show that the impulse that gives rise to faith and then results in love comes from God and not from humans themselves.^[30]

Colin G. Kruse (1950) mentions that verse one begins: “Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Anointed One is born of God.” Here the Apostle John reintroduces a theme he developed earlier in the letter, reminding his readers that only those who believe that Jesus is the Anointed One are born of God. It is something the secessionists deny [31], but true believers acknowledge. The secessionists’ modified Christology is reflected in John’s various references to their beliefs in the letter. When one puts them all together, it becomes clear that their Christology involved a denial that Jesus the Anointed One is the Messiah, God’s Son, come in the flesh and whose death was actual and necessary.[32] However, John refers to the whole by mentioning one part at different places in the letter. Accordingly, in the present context, where John says that those who believe that Jesus is the Anointed One are born of God, he stresses the content of the true Christian confession against the denials of the secessionists.^[33]

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[1] Cf. “born of God” in 1 John 3:9; 4:7; 5:4, 18

[2] Ibid. 5:2; cf. 2:23; 3:22, 24; 5:3

[3] Cf. 3:16-17

[4] Hodges, Zane C., John F. Walvoord and Roy B. Zuck, Dallas Theological Seminary, The Bible Knowledge Commentary: An Exposition of the Scriptures, op. cit., vol. 2, pp. 900–901

[5] 1 John 4:7

[6] John 1:12

[7] Marshall, Ian Howard: The Epistles of John (The New International Commentary on the New Testament), op. cit., pp. 226-227

[8] See John 1:12-13

[9] Ibid. 20:21

[10] Cf. 1 John 3:10 and see 2:29-3:3

[11] Painter, John: Sacra Pagina: 1, 2, and 3 John: Volume 18, op. cit., loc. cit., Kindle Edition

[12] Walls, Muncia: Epistles of John and Jude, op. cit., p. 81

[13] Boice, James Montgomery, The Epistles of John, An Expositional Commentary, op. cit., p. 125

[14] 1 John 2:29

[15] Ibid. 3:9

[16] Ibid. 4:7

[17] Ibid. 5:4

[18] Ibid. 5:18

[19] Ibid. 5:1

[20] Eaton, Michael: Focus on the Bible, 1,2,3 John op. cit., p. 172

[21] Acts of the Apostles 11:26

[22] See Psalms of Solomon 17

[23] Loader, William: Epworth Commentary, The First Epistle of John, op. cit., pp. 58-59

[24] 1 John 2:29; 3:3-4; 4:2-3,7

[25] John 10:1-9

[26] Jackman, David: The Message of John’s Letters, op. cit., p. 134

[27] Carter, Dr. John W. (Jack). 1,2,3, John & Jude: (The Disciple’s Bible Commentary Book 48), op. cit., p. 116

[28] Cf. Philippians 2:12-13

[29] Autism (ASD) refers to a broad range of conditions characterized by challenges with social skills, repetitive behaviors, speech, and nonverbal communication.

[30] Yarbrough, Robert W. 1-3 John (Baker Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament), op. cit., pp. 270-271

[31] See 1 John 2:22-23

[32] Cf. ibid. 4:2-3, 15; 5:1, 6-8

[33] Kruse, Colin G., The Letters of John (The Pillar New Testament Commentary, op. cit., loc. cit., Kindle Edition