My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not
sin. And if anyone sins, we have an advocate with the Father — Jesus
Messiah the righteous. 2 He himself is the atoning sacrifice[1513] for our sins, and not only ours, but for the whole world.
[1514] 3 This is how we know that we have come to know Him: if we keep His
commands.
[1515] 4 A person who says, “I have come to know Him,” but does
not keep His commands, is a liar, and the truth is not in him.
[1516] 5 But in whoever obeys His Gospel-word,[1517] the love of God has most certainly been
perfected. This is how we know that we are in Him. 6 The person who says he
remains in God should conduct himself just as Jesus did.
7 Beloved, it is not a new commandment I am writing to you, but an old
commandment which you have had from the beginning. The old
commandment is the Gospel-word you have already heard. 8 On the other
hand, it is a new commandment I am writing to you, which is true in him and
in you, because the darkness is passing away and the true light is already
shining. 9 The person who says he is in the light but hates his brother or sister
is still in the darkness.
10 The person who loves his brother or sister lives in the
light, and there is nothing in him to make him stumble. 11 But the person who
hates his brother or sister[1518] is in the darkness, and walks in the darkness,
and does not know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded his eyes. 12 I am writing to you, little children, because your sins have been forgiven
through the name[1519] of Jesus. 13 I am writing to you, fathers, because you
know Him who has been from the beginning. I am writing to you, young
people, because you have overcome the Evil One. I have written to you,
children, because you know the Father. 14 I have written to you, fathers,
because you know Him who has been from the beginning. I have written to
you, young people, because you are strong, and the Gospel-word of God[1520] lives in
you, and you have overcome the Evil One. 15 Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the
world, the love of the Father is not in him, 16 because all that is in the world —
the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride in material possessions
— is not from the Father but from the world. 17 And the world is passing away
with its lusts, but the person who does the will of God will live in the age to
come. 18 Children, it is a last hour. Just as you heard that the Antichrist[1521] is coming, even now many antichrists have arisen. That is how we know that it
is a last hour. 19 They went out from us, but they did not belong to us, because
if they had belonged to us they would have continued with us. By their
leaving it was shown that none of them really belonged to us. 20 But you have an anointing
from the Holy One, and you all have knowledge. 21 I have not written to you
because you do not know the truth, but because you do know it, and no lie is
of the truth. 22 Who is the liar but the person who denies that Jesus is the Messiah?[1522] This one is the antichrist[1523] — the person who denies the Father
and the Son. 23 Whoever denies the Son[1524] does not have the Father; whoever
confesses the Son has the Father also.
[1525] 24 As for you, let that remain in you
which you heard from the beginning. If what you heard from the beginning
remains in you, you will remain in the Son and in the Father. 25 This is the
promise which he himself promised us: the life of the age to come. 26 I have written these things to you about those who are trying to deceive
you. 27 As for you, the anointing which you received from him lives in you,
and you do not need anyone to teach you. But as his anointing teaches you
about all things, it is true and is no lie. Just as it has taught you, you live in
him. 28 Now, little children, remain in him, so that when he appears[1526] we may have confidence and not be ashamed before him at his coming. 29 If you know
that he is righteous, you also know that everyone who does what is right has
been fathered by him.
[1527]
Commentary
1 John
[1512]
The word in Greek is parakletos, and it appears only in the writings of John. In the gospel of John, four times, it denotes the operational presence and power of Jesus which he promised would be with the disciples after his ascension to the right hand of the Father. Here the parakletos is identified precisely with the risen Jesus. NET Bible says, “Here…it is Jesus, not the Spirit, who is described as parakletos. The reader should have been prepared for this interchangeability of terminology, however, by John 14:16, where Jesus told the disciples that he would ask the Father to send them ‘another’ paraclete (allos, ‘another of the same kind’). This implies that Jesus himself had been a paraclete in his earthly ministry to the disciples. This does not answer all the questions about the meaning of the word here, though, since it is not Jesus’ role now as an advocate during his earthly ministry which is in view, but his role as an advocate in heaven before the Father. The context suggests intercession in the sense of legal advocacy, as stress is placed upon the righteousness of Jesus. The concept of Jesus’ intercession on behalf of believers does occur elsewhere in the NT, notably in Rom. 8:34 and Heb. 7:25. Something similar is taking place here, and is the best explanation of 1 John 2:1. An English translation like ‘advocate’ or ‘intercessor’ conveys this.” There is no need to posit two different parakletos, nor any need to speak of a third Person in Scripture. The spirit of God and also in the NT “the spirit of Jesus” or “spirit of Christ” (Acts 16:7; Phil. 1:19; Rom. 8:9; 1 Pet. 1:11) is the operational, personal presence of God or Jesus acting in various ways. It is certainly not just an impersonal “force.” In 2 Cor. 3:17, Paul says that “the lord is the spirit and wherever that spirit of the lord is, there is freedom.” The holy spirit is never worshiped or prayed to in Scripture and never sends greetings. The “spirit of Elijah” (Lk. 1:17) is not a different person from Elijah, and logically neither is the spirit of God or of Jesus a distinct person.
[1513]
John says that the Messiah died, proving that he cannot be God, who cannot die (1 Tim. 6:16).
[1514]
This text makes the “limited atonement” of Calvinism false. So does 1 Tim. 2:4: “God desires
that all men be saved.” The death of Jesus is for every human person, but each must repent and obey
Jesus and his Gospel of the Kingdom and saving death, including all the saving knowledge taught by
Jesus (Isa. 53:11; 1 John 5:20, etc.). Lk. 8:11-12 makes believing the Gospel of the Kingdom (Mt.
13:19) a necessary condition for true repentance and forgiveness from God (see also Mk. 4:11-12).
[1515]
Another fine statement about the pervading NT insistence on the “obedience of faith” for
salvation (Rom. 1:5; 16:26; Heb. 5:9; 1 Pet. 1:2; Jn. 12:44ff). Faith without obedience is failed faith
(see Mt. 7:21ff for a solemn warning). We must choose to obey God and Jesus (Jn. 7:17; Rev. 22:12).
We are to be rewarded for what we have done, the obedience of faith (Heb. 5:9; Jn. 3:36).
[1516]
This is yet another of many strong NT assertions that faith without obedience is futile and will
not save. Hence the important phrase “obedience of faith” which frames Romans (1:5; 16:26). Heb. 5:9
is explicit that salvation is for those who obey Jesus. Jesus said this often in the gospels, notably John
3:36, where belief and disobedience are opposites. Note too Jesus’ final cry to us all in John 12:44ff.
Baptism in water, as explicit, necessary obedience, is an important command of Jesus until the end of
the age (Mt. 28:19-20; Acts 10:47-48).
[1517]
The “word” is not vaguely the Bible as a whole, but specifically the Gospel of the Kingdom
message proclaimed first by Jesus and then by all the Apostles (Heb. 2:3; Lk. 4:43; 8:11; Mk. 1:14-15,
etc.).
[1518]
This puts an enormous strain upon international wars and civil wars in which Christians have
opposed and killed other Christians. The obvious solution is that believers should remain politically
neutral as “resident aliens.” See for this discussion our “Towards the Cessation of Church Suicide” at
our website restorationfellowship.org
[1519]
“Name” means everything which Jesus stands for, beginning with his Gospel of the Kingdom,
which is the primary content of the saving Gospel, as well as his death and resurrection, and the object
of belief commanded by Jesus’ first order to us in Mark 1:14-15: “Repent and believe the Gospel of the
Kingdom.”
[1520]
The Gospel as Jesus preached it.
[1521]
Antichrist here is the title of a single individual, parallel to the Abomination of Desolation
“standing where he ought not to” (Mk. 13:14), the final King of the North of Dan. 11 who comes to
“his end” (Dan. 9:26; 11:45) in the holy land. This would be the Man of Sin of 2 Thess. 2, the final
individual Beast of Revelation, and the Assyrian of Isa. 10 and Mic. 5:6. John does not deny that the
single Antichrist will appear but adds that the spirit of antichrist manifested in many antichrists is
already at work to deceive and seduce believers into error. The fundamental deceit lies in denying that
Jesus was a fully historical and fully human person, a man. “Someone might assume that ‘many antichrists’ implies there is no personal, individual Antichrist. But this was not John’s thought…He
looks at the plurality of antichrists — those who deny that Jesus is the Messiah and put themselves
unequivocally against Christ — as proof of the emergence of one supreme foe of Christ” (A. Berkeley
Mickelsen, Interpreting the Bible, p. 373).
[1522]
This is the quintessential litmus test for true belief throughout the NT. The true confession is
not “Jesus is God,” but “Jesus is the Messiah” = the Son of God (Lk. 1:35). On that confession Jesus
promised to build his one Church (Mt. 16:16). It is possible to mouth the words “Jesus is the Messiah,”
but by misunderstanding the meaning of Messiah, one can in fact deny the Messiahship of Jesus. In
“theology” some give with one hand and inconsistently take away with the other. This results in
confusing, contradictory and false definitions of “Christ” and “Son of God,” and false definitions of
God (contrary to Mk. 12:29; Ps. 110:1; Jn. 17:3).
[1523]
The Antichrist is both a future final evil individual, the Abomination of Desolation who, Jesus
said, would stand in a holy place (Mt. 24:15) or “standing where he ought not” (Mk. 13:14; the Greek
masculine participle tells us that this is an individual person), and one of his many forerunners. These
latter deceivers hold a false view of the person of Christ though their existence by no means denies the
reality of the one supreme manifestation who is yet to come.
[1524]
I.e. denies the Son to be the Messiah, as just stated.
[1525]
Obviously a right understanding of the Father as the only God (Jn. 17:3) and of the Son as the
Messiah go together. An error in regard to the identity of the one leads to a wrong understanding of the
other. Luke 1:35 defines the Son of God precisely and Mark 12:29 defines the One God, Father as also
1 Cor. 8:4-6. Jesus is the lord Messiah (Lk. 2:11; Ps. 110:1), not the Lord GOD, which would lead to
two GODS and polytheism. The simple distinction between two lords in Ps. 110:1 is constantly
overlooked.
[1526]
At his future single Second Coming. There is no PRE-tribulation rapture/resurrection in the
Bible.
[1527]
That is, born again following the instructions of Jesus in John 3. Rebirth is by the seed
message of the Kingdom Gospel, as in the parable of the sower which gives us Jesus’ theology of
salvation (Mt. 13:19; Lk. 8:11-12; Mk. 4:11-12).
1 John