1 John
AUTHORSHIP.--POLYCARP, the disciple of John [Epistle to the Philippians, 7], quotes 1 John 4:3 EUSEBIUS [Ecclesiastical History, 3.39] says of PAPIAS, a hearer of John, and a friend of POLYCARP, "He used testimonies from the First Epistle of John." IRENÆUS, according to EUSEBIUS [Ecclesiastical History, 5.8]
1 John 1
1 The One who existed from the beginning is the One we have heard and seen. We saw Him with our own eyes and touched Him with our own hands. He is the Word(The Eternal LORD-Yahweh) of life.
That which was--not "began to be," but was essentially (Greek, "een," not "egeneto") before He was manifested ( 1 John 1:2 ); answering to "Him that is from the beginning" ( 1 John 2:13 ); so John's Gospel, John 1:1 , "In the beginning was the Word." Proverbs 8:23 , "I was set up from everlasting, from the beginning, or ever the earth was." …. Thomas and the other disciples on distinct occasions after the resurrection. John himself had leaned on Jesus' breast at the last supper. Contrast the wisest of the heathen feeling after (the same Greek as here; groping after WITH THE HANDS") if haply they might find God (see Acts 17:27 ).
2 When this life became visible, we saw it; so we speak of it and tell you about the eternal life which was with the Father and was made known to us.
3 What we have seen and heard we announce to you also, so that you will join with us in the family that we have with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ.
4 We write this in order that our joy may be complete.
5 This is the message which we have heard from Him and announce(declare) to you, that God is light and in Him is no darkness at all.
declare--Greek, "announce"; report in turn; a different Greek word from 1 John 1:3 . As the Son announced the message heard from the Father as His apostle, so the Son's apostles announce what they have heard from the Son. John nowhere uses the term "Gospel"; but the witness or testimony, the word, the truth, and here the message.
no darkness at all--strong negation; Greek, "No, not even one speck of darkness"; no ignorance, error, untruthfulness, sin, or death. John heard this from Christ, not only in express words, but in His acted words, namely, His is whole manifestation in the flesh as "the brightness of the Father's glory." Christ Himself was the embodiment of "the message," representing fully in all His sayings, doings, and sufferings, Him who is LIGHT.
6 If we say that we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth.
7 But if we live in the light - just as He is in the light - then we have kinship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ, his Son, cleanses us from every sin.
8 If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.
9 If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
10 If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us.
1 John 2
1 My dear children, I am writing this to you so that you will not sin. But if anyone does sin,we have an Advocate before the Father. He is Jesus Christ, the righteous!
2 He is the sacrifice for our sins. He takes away not only our sins but the sins of all the world.
3 And how can we be sure that we belong to Him? By obeying His Commandments.
4 If anyone says, "I know Him," and does not keep His Commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him.
5 But those who obey God's word really do love him. This is the way we know whether or not we live in him.
6 Those who say that we remain in union with Him, we should live just as He did.
7 Dear friends, I am not writing a new commandment, for it is an old one you have always had, right from the beginning. This commandment -- to love one another -- is the same message you heard before.
8 However, the commandment I now write you is new, because its truth is seen in Him and also in you. For the darkness is passing away, and the real light is already shining.
9 If we say that we are in the light, yet hate others, we are in the darkness to this very hour.
10 If we love others, we live in the light, and so there is nothing in us that will cause someone else to stumble {into sin}.
11 But if we hate our brothers, we are in the darkness; we walk in it and do not know where we are going, because the darkness has made us blind.
12 I write to you, little children, Because your sins are forgiven you for His name's sake.
13 I write to you, fathers, Because you have known Him who is from the beginning. I write to you, young men, Because you have overcome the wicked, wicked one. I write to you, little children, Because you have known the Father.
14 I have written to you, fathers, Because you have known Him who is from the beginning. I have written to you, young men, Because you are strong, and the word of God abides in you, And you have overcome the evil wicked one.
the wicked one--who, as "prince of this world," enthrals "the world" ( 1 John 2:15-17 , 5:19 , Greek, "the wicked one"), especially the young. Christ came to destroy this "prince of the world." Believers achieve the first grand conquest over him when they pass from darkness to light, but afterwards they need to maintain a continual keeping of themselves from his assaults, looking to God by whom alone they are kept safe.
15 Do not love the world or anything that belongs to the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.
16 Everything that belongs to the world - what the sinful self desires, what people see and want, and everything in this world that people are so proud of - none of this comes from the Father; it all comes from the world.
17 And the world is fading away, and the lust of it; but he who does the will of God abides forever.
18 Little children, it is the last hour; and as you have heard that the Antichrist is coming, even now there are many antichrists, by which we know that it is the last hour.
have heard--from the apostles, preachers of the Gospel (for example, 2 Thessalonians 2:3-10 ; and in the region of Ephesus, Acts 20:29 Acts 20:30 ). Antichrist is interpreted in two ways: a false Christ ( Matthew 24:5 Matthew 24:24 ), literally, "instead of Christ"; or an adversary of Christ, literally, "against Christ." As John never uses pseudo-Christ, or "false Christ," for Antichrist, it is plain he means an adversary of Christ, claiming to himself what belongs to Christ, and wishing to substitute himself for Christ as the supreme object of worship. He denies the Son, not merely, like the pope, acts in the name of the Son, 2 Thessalonians 2:4 , "Who opposeth himself (Greek, "ANTI-keimenos") [to] all that is called God," decides this. For God's great truth, "God is man," he would substitute his own lie, "man is God" [TRENCH]. These "many Antichrists" answer to "the spirit of lawlessness (Greek) doth already work." The Antichristian principle appeared then, as now, in evil men and evil teachings and writings; but still "THE Antichrist" means a hostile person, even as "THE Christ" is a personal Saviour. As "cometh" is used of Christ, so here of Antichrist, the embodiment in his own person of all the Antichristian features and spirit of those "many Antichrists" which have been, and are, his forerunners. John uses the singular of him. No other New Testament writer uses the term. He probably answers to "the little horn having the eyes of a man, and speaking great things" ( Daniel 7:8 Daniel 7:20 ); "the man of sin, son of perdition" ( 2 Thessalonians 2:3 ); "the beast ascending out of the bottomless pit" ( Revelation 11:7 , 17:8 ), or rather, "the false prophet," the same as "the second beast coming up out of the earth" ( Revelation 13:11-18 , 16:13 ).
19 They left our churches because they never really belonged with us; otherwise they would have stayed with us. When they left us, it proved that they do not belong with us.
This translation would imply that some of the Antichrists are of us!
20 But you have an anointing from the Holy One(Christ), and you know all things.
All new translations rendered “The Holy One” into “The Holy Spirit”! It is Christ being talked about clearly hear and not the Spirit!
21 I write you, then, not because you do not know the truth; instead, it is because you do know it, and you also know that no lie ever comes from the truth.
22 Who, then, is the liar? It is those who say that Jesus is not the Messiah. Such people are the Enemy of Christ - they reject both the Father and the Son.
He is Antichrist--Greek, "the Antichrist"; not however here personal, but in the abstract; the ideal of Antichrist is "he that denieth the Father and the Son." To deny the latter is virtually to deny the former. Again, the truth as to the Son must be held in its integrity; to deny that Jesus is the Christ, or that He is the Son of God, or that He came in the flesh, invalidates the whole ( Matthew 11:27 ).
23 For those who reject the Son reject also the Father; those who accept the Son have the Father also.
24 So you must remain faithful to what you have been taught from the beginning. If you do, you will continue to live in fellowship with the Son and with the Father.
25 And this is the promise that He has promised us--eternal life.
Eternal Life: A Gift, not already inherit within us! We are not immortal!
26 I am writing this to you about those who are trying to deceive you.
27 But you have received the anointing spirit from Him (Christ)- so you don't need anyone else to teach you what is true. For that same anointing spirit enlightens you in all things, and what He (Christ) teaches is true -- it is not a lie. So continue in what He (Christ) has taught you, and continue to live in Him (Jesus Christ).
28 Yes, my children, remain in Him, that when He appears we may be full of courage and need not hide in shame from Him on the Day he returns.
29 You know that He (Christ) is righteous; you should know, then, you know that everyone who practices righteousness is born of Him.
When have an Advocate with the Father; one who has undertaken, and is fully able, to plead in behalf of every one who applies for pardon and salvation in his name, depending on his pleading for them. He is Jesus, the Saviour, and Christ, the Messiah, the Anointed. He alone is the Righteous One, who received his nature pure from sin, and as our Surety perfectly obeyed the law of God, and so fulfilled all righteousness. All men, in every land, and through successive generations, are invited to come to God through this all-sufficient atonement, and by this new and living way. The gospel, when rightly understood and received, sets the heart against all sin, and stops the allowed practice of it; at the same time it gives blessed relief to the wounded consciences of those who have sinned. Mathhew Henry
1 John 3
1 See how much the Father has loved us! His love is so great that we are called the children of God and - in fact, we are! This is why the world does not know us: because it has not known Him.
2 My friends, we are God's children, but it is not yet clear what we shall become. But we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he really is.
We will look like Christ in our resurrected bodies! This is when we are finally “Born Again” – We will be a spirit, as God id a spirit.
3 And everyone who has this hope in Him (Jesus) purifies himself, just as He is pure.
“SIN IS= The Trangression (the breaking) of the Torah or Law!
4 Whosoever commits sin transgresses the law: for sin is the transgression of the law.
This is the only time in the Bible where “sin is” is defined. Many want to give their definition for “sin,” but God gives it clearly right here. Sin is breaking God's eternal Law! That is the Ten Commandments as well as the rest of God's Law! The word Law comes from the Hebrew word Torah. In the New Testament there are various words for law. Here the Greek word“anomia.” Usually when Torah is meant, the Greek word “nomos” is usually used. My assumption is that “anomia” is “nomos” with the prefix “a” meaning “without. Clearly the Law (Torah) is meant here.
5 You know that He (Jesus) appeared in order to take away sins, as there is no sin in Him.
6 Whoever believes in Him will not sin. Whoever continues to sin has neither seen Him nor known Him.
Will not sin: In so far as he abides in Christ, so far is he free from all sin. The ideal of the Christian. The life of sin and the life of God mutually exclude one another, just as darkness and light. In matter of fact, believers do fall into sins ( 1 John 1:8-10 , 1 John 2:1 1 John 2:2 ); but all such sins are alien from the life of God, and need Christ's cleansing blood, without application to which the life of God could not be maintained. He sinneth not so long as he abideth in Christ.
Not seen him: Greek perfect, "has not seen, and does not see Him." Again the ideal of Christian intuition and knowledge is presented ( Matthew 7:23 ). All sin as such is at variance with the notion of one regenerated. Not that "whosoever is betrayed into sins has never seen nor known God"; but in so far as sin exists, in that degree the spiritual intuition and knowledge of God do not exist in him.
(Jamieson)
7 Little children, let no one deceive you. He who practices righteousness is righteous, just as He is righteous.
8 He who sins is of the devil, for the devil has sinned from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God came in the flesh, that He might destroy the works of the devil.
9 Those who are born of God will not continue to sin, for God's very nature will be in them; and because God is their Father, they cannot continue to sin {at the time of the resurrection.}
10 Here is the clear difference between God's children and the devil's children: Anyone who does not obey God's commands and does not love others does not belong to God.
11 The message you heard from the beginning is this: we must love one another.
12 We must not be like Cain; who belonged to the Evil One and murdered his own brother Abel. Why did Cain murder him? Because the things he himself was a sinner and the things his brother did were righteous.
13 So do not be surprised, my friends, if the people of the world hate you.
14 We know that we have passed from death into { Eternal}life; we know it because we love others. Those who do not love are still under the power of death.
15 Those who hates their brothers are murderers, and you know that murderers do not have eternal life in them.
16 This is how we know what love is: That He gave his life for us. We too, then, ought to give our lives for others!
17 If we are rich and see others in need, yet close our hearts against them, how can we claim that we love God?
18 My children, our love should not be just words and talk; it must be true love, which shows itself in action.
See James ; “Faith without works is dead.”
19 It is by our actions that we know we are living in the truth, so we will be confident when we stand before Him.
20 If our conscience condemns us, we know that God is greater than our conscience and that he knows everything.
21 And so, my dear friends, if our conscience does not condemn us, we have courage in God's presence.
22 And we will receive whatever we request because we obey Him and do the things that please Him.
“Him” here in my estimation is plural! Him is like elohim here, it is singular in form, but dual in reality as it applies to Jesus and the Father. When we say “He loves us.” We really mean that God (Jesus and the Father) loves us.
23 And this is His commandment: that we should believe on the name of His Son Jesus Christ and love one another, as He commanded us.
24 Those who who keeps His commandments live within His Family, and He also lives in them. And by this we know that He lives in us, by the Spirit whom He has given us, that lives inside of us.
1 John 4
TEST the Spirits:
1 Dear friends, don't believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God; because many false prophets have gone out into the world.
2 By this you know the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh (as a human) is of God,
3 But every spirit that does not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of God. And is the spirit of the Antichrist, which you have heard was coming, and is now already in the world.
4 But you belong to God, my dear children. You have already won your fight with these false prophets, because the Spirit that lives in you is greater than the spirit that lives in the world.
5 These people belong to the world. That's why they speak the thoughts of the world, and the world listens to them.
6 We belong to God. The person who knows God listens to us. Whoever doesn't belong to God doesn't listen to us. That's how we can tell the Spirit of truth from the spirit of lies.
7 Dear friends, we must love each other because love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born from God and knows God.
8 The person who doesn't love doesn't know God, because God is love.
9 God showed how much he loved us by sending his only Son into the world so that we might have eternal life through him.
10 This is love: not that we have loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the payment for our sins.
11 Dear friends, if this is the way God loved us, we must also love each other.
No Man Has seen the Father:
12 No one has ever seen God(The Father) at any time! If we love each other, God lives in us, and his love is perfected in us.
Proof again that Moses, David and Noah never saw the father, nor heard His voice (John 5:37)
13 By this we know that we live in Him and He lives in us because He has given us His Spirit.
14 We have seen and testify to the fact that the Father sent his Son as the Savior of the world.
15 God lives in those who declare that Jesus is the Son of God, and they live in God.
16 We have known and believed that God loves us. God is love. Those who live in God's love live in God, and God lives in them.
17 Love has been perfected among us in this - So we look ahead with confidence to the day of judgment. While we are in this world, but we can face Him with confidence because we are like Him here in this world.
18 There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves torment. The person who lives in fear doesn't have perfect love.
19 We love because God loved us first.
20 Whoever says, "I love God," but hates another believer is a liar. People who don't love other believers, whom they have seen, can't love God, whom they have not seen.
21 Christ has given us this commandment: The person who loves God must also love other believers.
1 John 5
1 Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Messiah is born from God(The Father). Everyone who loves Him (The Father God) also loves his children.
2 By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and keep His commandments.
3 To love God means that we obey his commandments. Obeying his commandments isn't difficult
4 because everyone who has been born from God has won the victory over the world. Our faith is what wins the victory over the world.
When we are Born Again, we will be made of spirit AT THE RSURRECTION!
5 Who wins the victory over the world? Isn't it the person who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?
6 This is He (Jesus), who came by water and blood. He didn't come with water only, but with water and with blood. And it is the Spirit that presents this testimony, because the Spirit is the truth {of God}.
7 There are three witnesses:
8 the Spirit, the water, and the blood. These three witnesses agree.
Notice that the spirit is an essence like water and blood, not part of a Trinity!
Two or three witnesses were required by law to constitute adequate testimony. The only Greek manuscripts in any form which support the words, "in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost, and these three are one; and there are three that bear witness in earth," are the Montfortianus of Dublin, copied evidently from the modern Latin Vulgate; the Ravianus, copied from the Complutensian Polyglot; a manuscript at Naples, with the words added in the Margin by a recent hand; Ottobonianus, 298, of the fifteenth century, the Greek of which is a mere translation of the accompanying Latin. All the old versions omit the words. The oldest manuscripts of the Vulgate omit them: the earliest Vulgate manuscript which has them being Wizanburgensis, 99, of the eighth century. A scholium quoted in Matthæi, shows that the words did not arise from fraud; for in the words, in all Greek manuscripts "there are three that bear record," as the Scholiast notices, the word "three" is masculine, because the three things (the Spirit, the water, and the blood) are SYMBOLS OF THE TRINITY. To this CYPRIAN, 196, also refers, "Of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, it is written, 'And these three are one' (a unity)." There must be some mystical truth implied in using "three" (Greek) in the masculine, though the antecedents, "Spirit, water, and blood," are neuter. That THE TRINITY was the truth meant is a natural inference: the triad specified pointing to a still Higher Trinity; as is plain also from 1 John 5:9 , "the witness of GOD," referring to the Trinity alluded to in the Spirit, water, and blood. It was therefore first written as a marginal comment to complete the sense of the text, and then, as early at least as the eighth century, was introduced into the text of the Latin Vulgate. The testimony, however, could only be borne on earth to men, not in heaven. The marginal comment, therefore, that inserted "in heaven," was inappropriate. It is on earth that the context evidently requires the witness of the three, the Spirit, the water, and the blood, to be borne: mystically setting forth the divine triune witnesses, the Father, the Spirit, and the Son. LUECKE notices as internal evidence against the words, John never uses "the Father" and "the Word" as correlates, but, like other New Testament writers, associates "the Son" with "the Father," and always refers "the Word" to "God" as its correlate, not "the Father." Vigilius, at the end of the fifth century, is the first who quotes the disputed words as in the text; but no Greek manuscript earlier than the fifteenth is extant with them. The term "Trinity" occurs first in the third century in TERTULLIAN [Against Praxeas, 3].(Jamieson)
9 We accept human testimony. God's testimony is greater because it is the testimony that He has given about His Son.
10 Those who believe in the Son of God have the testimony of God in them. Those who don't believe God have made God a liar. They haven't believed the testimony that God has given about His Son.
11 This is the testimony: God has given us eternal life, and this life is found in His Son.
12 The person who has the Son has life. The person who doesn't have the Son of God doesn't have life.
13 I've written this to those who believe in the Son of God so that they will know that they have eternal life.
14 We are confident that God listens to us if we ask for anything that has his approval.
15 We know that he listens to our requests. So we know that we already have what we ask him for.
16 If you see another believer committing a sin that doesn't lead to death, you should pray that God would give that person life. This is true for those who commit sins that don't lead to death. There is a sin that leads to death. I'm not telling you to pray about that.
Sins that do not lead to death: Of all the interpretations out there, none seems to answer all the questions concerning this verse. The best interpretation may be found by comparing this verse to what happened to Ananias and Sapphira in Acts 5:1-10 (see also 1 Corinthians 11:30). The “sin unto death” is deliberate, willful, continuous, unrepentant sin. God, in His grace, allows His children to sin without immediately punishing them. However, there comes a point when God will no longer allow a believer to continue in unrepentant sin. When this point is reached, God sometimes decides to punish a Christian, even to the point of taking his or her life. That is what He did in Acts 5:1-10 and 1 Corinthians 11:28-32. This is perhaps what Paul described to the Corinthian church in 1 Corinthians 5:1-5. We are to pray for Christians who are sinning. However, there may come a time when God will no longer hear prayers for a sinning believer for whom He has determined that judgment is due. It is difficult to realize there are times when it is just too late to pray for a person. God is good and just, and we will just have to let Him decide when it is too late.
17 Every kind of wrongdoing is sin, yet there are sins that don't lead to death.
18 We know that those who have been born from God don't go on sinning. Rather, the Son of God protects them, and the evil one can't harm them.
19 We know that we are from God, and that the whole world is under the control of the evil one.
20 We know that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding so that we know the real God. We are in the one who is real, his Son Jesus Christ. This Jesus Christ is the real God and eternal life.
21 Little children, keep yourselves from idols. Amen.
(One of the Ten!!!)
