First John/Chapter 2:9-17/Commentary

First John Chapter 2:9-17

1John 2:9 “He that saith he is in the light and hateth his brother, is in the darkness even until now” ‘He that saith”: Another false claim is examined. “He is in the light and hateth his brother”: The person making this claim is a professed Christian (note the expression his brother.) “It is significant that the apostle leaves no middle ground either here or elsewhere in the contrasts which he draws between light and darkness, right and wrong, truth and error” (Woods p.

229). This statement should not surprise us because even loving one’s brother is not the full extent of the love that God commands. Why, even sinners love those who love them (Luke 6:32,35). Thus hating a brother is sinking below the moral level of people in the world, it is acting worse than an unbeliever.

The person who hates his brother is obviously in darkness, for such a one is far from God's level of love which also involves loving our enemies (Matthew 5:44-48).

Barclay notes, “There is a kind of person who preaches love for other nations, and who has never succeeded in living in peace within his own family circle” (p. 55). In like manner, we are failing as Christians if we cannot practice brotherly love towards those we claim to love the most, that is the person to which we are married.

Observe that John did not talk about various "degrees" of hate. The Gnostics were not trying to kill other Christians, rather they regarded other Christians with contempt. Barclay notes: “We may regard our brother as negligible. We can make all our plans without taking him into our calculations at all. We can

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live on the principle, or the assumption, that his need and his sorrow and his welfare and his salvation have nothing to do with us. We may regard our brother with contempt. We may regard him as a fool in comparison with our intellectual attainment. We may regard our brother as a nuisance. We may feel that unfortunately law and convention have given him a certain claim laid upon him” (p. 56).

1John 2:10 “He that loveth his brother abideth in the light, and there is no occasion of stumbling in him” “Abideth in the light”: Thus walking in the light (1:7). Fellowship with God is dependent upon practicing the doctrine of brotherly-love (1 John 4:20).

Love is more than mere affection (1 John 3:16,18; 5:2-3), to love a brother is to fulfill all the responsibilities to my brother, including such things as our moral obligations (Romans 13:8-10; 1 Corinthians 13:4-8). “There is no occasion of stumbling in him”: “Cause for stumbling” (NASV). “That which causes offense, revulsion, that which arouses opposition, an object of anger or disapproval, stain” (Arndt p. 753). “Anything that arouses prejudice, or becomes a hindrance to others, or causes them to fall by the way” (Vine p.

129). The person who truly loves their brethren, will not become a stumbling-block to others (Matthew 18:7). Lack of true love among those who profess to be Christians can turn people off from the truth. Loving properly also keeps us from stumbling, it keeps us from falling into the errors of bitterness, envy, jealousy, malice, envy, hate, and revenge.

“Hatred stunts a man's growth, because it comes between him and God, and him and his fellow-man. We ought always to remember that he who has in his heart hatred, bitterness, resentment, the unforgiving spirit, can never grow up in the spiritual life” (Barclay pp. 57-58). “To stumble is to fall into sin or apostasy. The person who loves his brother is not going to succumb to temptation because he has his principles right and will not be deflected from them by the attractions of a self-centered existence” (Marshall p. 132).

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1John 2:11 “But he that hateth his brother is in the darkness, and walketh in the darkness, and knoweth not whither he goeth, because the darkness hath blinded his eyes” “Is in the darkness”: Plain and simple, no doubt about it. “Walketh in the darkeness”: One cannot live differently than what one thinks and believes inwardly (Mark 7:20-23). Hate will cause us to walk in darkness. Notice that the human heart is never empty, it is always filled with something. “John recognizes no neutral attitude between 'love' and 'hatred', just as indifference to the gospel is the same as rejection of the gospel” (Gr. Ex. N.T. p. 176). (Luke 11:23) “Knoweth not whither He goeth”: “The light shines on our path, so that we can see clearly and so walk properly. If we love people, we see how to avoid sinning against them. The man with hatred in his heart, however, because he is in darkness, also walketh in darkness. Hatred distorts our perspective. We do not first misjudge people then hate them as a result; our view of them is already jaundiced by our hatred. It is love which sees straight, thinks clearly, and makes us balanced in our outlook, judgments, and conduct.

John 8:12; 11:9,10; 12:35” (Stott p. 95).

“No man is fit to give a verdict on anything while he has hatred in his heart; and no man can rightly direct his own life when hatred dominates him” (Barclay p. 58).

Living in the darkness will "dull" your senses (Matthew 15:19; Eph. 4:17-19).

Hatred can also blind you to the fact that you are blind (Psalm 82:4). “Too often we think of Christian maturity in terms of freedom from sin. Provided that we think of sins of omission rather than commission, that is fair enough.

But John wants us to see that spiritual life is characterized by positive acts of love (as well) (Marshall p. 133).

Little children, young men and fathers: 2:12-14 “Before passing on to the second thing which walking in the light excludes, viz. the 'Love of the world' (2:15-17), the apostle twice makes a three-fold address, first stating why he writes, and secondly why ‘he wrote’, to the three

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classes named” (P.P. Comm. p. 22). “Here he pauses and with much tenderness reassures his readers: ‘I am not addressing you as unbelievers’” (Gr. Ex. N.T. p. 177).

1John 2:12 “I write unto you, {my} little children, because your sins are forgiven you for his name's sake” “I write”: “I am writing to you” (NASV). “Little children”: The phrase little children is used concerning all to whom John wrote (2:1,28; 3:7,18; 4:4; 5:21), but when placed next to the other classes mentioned, in this context little children seems to refer to those just recently converted. “Because your sins are forgiven”: “It is possible to associate new converts with a fresh knowledge of the forgiveness of sins, mature Christians with a deep knowledge of God, and young men with vigorous strength to overcome evil” (Marshall p. 137).

“These are the earliest conscious experiences of the newborn Christian. He rejoices in the forgiveness of his sins” (Stott p. 97). “For His name’s sake”: “Christ's name means His character, especially as Savior” (P.P. Comm. p. 23).

In other words, your sins are forgiven because of who He is. “Believing in the name of someone is the same as having confidence that that person bears his name rightly, that he really is what he his name declares” (Arndt pp. 575576). To believe on, or in the name of, Christ is to accept all that the Bible says about Jesus (John 1:12; 20:31; Acts 4:12; 10:43) 1John 2:13 “I write unto you, fathers, because ye know him who is from the beginning. I write unto you, young men, because ye have overcome the evil one. I have written unto you, little children, because ye know the Father” “Fathers”: “Mature believers with long and rich experience” (Robertson p.

213). “Those who had been in Christ the longest, and had therefore attained to the greatest spiritual growth” (Woods p. 235). The word father is not being used in the sense of a religious title, because Jesus spoke against that concept (Matthew 23:9). Secondly, any mature male Christian, any male member who had been long in the faith, is included under this description, and is elsewhere used simply as a title of respect for the older generation (Acts 7:2; 22:1).

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“Ye know Him”: “Means far more than casual acquaintance, it describes the rich and full experience” (Woods p. 236). “Who is from the beginning”: In the context this is Christ (2:12). “You have known Him who has always existed” (Phi) (1 John 1:1).

“Young men. Because ye have overcome the evil one”: “To fight is the lot of the young soldier; and a victorious warfare against Satan is the distinction of youthful Christians” (P.P. Comm. p. 23). The devil is real! “Far from being merely or solely an influence, he is revealed as a definite and distinct agent who must be resisted, repelled and overcome” (Woods p. 236) (James 4:7).

Yet he can be resisted. Man does have a choice and Satan is not all-powerful.

“Between the little children and the fathers are the young men, busily involved in the battle of Christian living. The Christian life, then, is not just enjoying the forgiveness and the fellowship of God, but fighting the enemy” (Stott pp. 97-98). Are we preparing to move from one stage to another? God expects little children to grow up (1 Cor. 3:1-3; 1 Peter 2:1-2; 2 Peter 3:18).

Are you making preparations to enter that stage in your life when it will be your generation that is fighting the devil and defending the truth?

“Because ye know the Father”: The word of God is sufficiency clear that even the new convert can know the Father.

1John 2:14 “I have written unto you, fathers, because ye know him who is from the beginning. I have written unto you, young men, because ye are strong, and the word of God abideth in you, and ye have overcome the evil one” “I have written”: Some commentators think that the phrase I have written refers to the Gospel of John that preceded this epistle. But a more logical explanation for the change in tense is that John is now speaking from the standpoint of his audience. "I have written" is the viewpoint of the reader.

“Because ye are strong, and the word of God abideth in you”: Spiritual strength is inherently linked with the Word of God (Romans 10:17; Psalm 19; 119). “Only as the word dwells in us richly (Col. 3:16), do we become

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strong in the Lord (Eph. 6:10)” (Woods p. 237). From this verse every eldership derives the right to insist that the Word of God is taught in sermons and classes when Christians gather together. How can we justify sermons and classes that are filled with next to no scripture, when it is the Word of God that is our source of spiritual strength?

Love not the World ”Those addressed in the verses immediately preceding--the children, fathers, and young men--though each is commended for having triumphed in his respective sphere, were nevertheless yet in the world, yet subject to its allurements and temptations, yet within the reach of the Evil One” (Woods p.

237). “It is worth stressing that the warning is directed to the loyal members of the church, whose spiritual status is unquestioned, rather than to those known by John to be in real spiritual danger. Paul's warning is always timely (1 Corinthians 10:12). It is only too easy for those who are consciously and vigorously opposed to false teaching and its associated temptations to find that they are unconsciously affected by it; a person who publicly condemns, say, pornography, can still take a secret delight in it” (Marshall pp. 141-142).

1John 2:15 “Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him” “Love not”: “To take pleasure in the thing, prize it above other things, to be unwilling to abandon it or do without it” (Thayer p. 4). “Present active imperative, either stop doing it or do not have the habit of doing it” (Robertson p. 213). “The world”: The world that is under consideration is not the creation or the inhabitants of this world (John 3:16), even though one could love the wholesome and innocent things of this life more than God, which would constitute sin as well (Matthew 6:33). Barclay notes: “Our author means human society in so far as it is organized on wrong principles, and characterized by base desires, false values, and egotism. To John the world was nothing other than pagan society with its false values and its false standards and its false gods” (pp. 66-67). Thus the world under consideration is the sum of all those things in a society or culture that are opposed to God

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and His truth. This is the world that Satan rules over (1 John 5:19); which has its own wisdom (1 Cor. 1:21); its own type of repentance and sorrow (2 Cor. 7:10). Also see (John 7:7; 12:13; 15:19; 17:16; Gal. 6:14; Eph. 2:2; James 1:27; 4:4. This passage also reveals something about "love". “And love is a fit subject, for such commandment and prohibition because it is not an uncontrollable emotion but the steady devotion of the will” (Stott p. 99).

“Neither the things that are in the world”: “Or what the world can offer” (TCNT); “nor any of its ways” (P.P. Comm. p. 24). “The meaning is, do not love the world, no, not one thing in it. The distinction is between the whole and the part, the general and the specific. Lest anyone think they can hold to one thing in the world”.

“One thing” can trip up the Christian. Woods notes: “There are those who have repudiated the world, but for one particular, as for example the rich young ruler, who but for his love of riches would have surrendered his life wholly to the Lord. The one thing which we lack--be it the love of pleasure, of riches, of ease; the attraction of a home, a farm, or a business; the desire for fame, prominence, and worldly honor” (p. 238).

Also remember that even innocent and wholesome things in this world can become sinful, if we place those things ahead of God (Matthew 6:32-33; 1 Tim. 6:9-10).

“If any man”: God does not have any favorites. There is no position in the Church that makes one immune from temptation and sin, and there is no position which gives a person the right to sin. “The love of the Father is not in him”: That is, our love for the Father (2:5). “This means more than he does not love God: rather that the love of God does not dwell in him as the ruling principle of his life” (Vincent p. 335). Notice the absoluteness of the statement.

Other writers make the same point: Matthew 6:24 “No one can serve two masters…You cannot serve God and mammon”; James 4:4 “friendship with the world is hostility toward God...whoever wishes to be a friend of the world

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makes himself an enemy of God”. “To this day the Christian cannot escape the obligation to be different from the world. ‘There cannot be a vacuum in the soul’. This is a matter in which there is no neutrality; a man either loves the world, or he loves God. The ultimate choice remains the same. Are we to accept the world's standards, or are we to accept the standards of God?” (Barclay p. 67).

1John 2:16 “For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the vain glory of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world” “For all that is in the world”: “All that the world can offer” (TCNT). This verse is offered to prove that the last statement, that anyone who loves the world is at the same time someone who does not love God. “The lust of the flesh”: “Lust felt by the flesh” (Robertson p. 214). “All that panders to the appetites” (NEB). “Is evil desire which finds its origin in the flesh and through the flesh finds expression. The lusts of the flesh exhibit themselves in the works of the flesh Galatians 5:19ff” (Woods p. 239). Flesh, per se, in not sinful. Adam was in a fleshly body before he sinned, and Jesus was sinless, yet He became flesh (John 1:14; 1 Peter 2:22). “The idea of evil attaches to the flesh not in virtue of what it is essential, but from the undue preponderance which is given to it. Flesh is spoken of as sinful because of the universal giving in of the flesh to sin. It is the same adaptation of terms that allows worldly to mean sinful--not that God's creation is sinful of itself, or in essence; but that the course of (the people of) this world (Eph. 2:2) is sinful” (Plain Talk). “Flesh designates the outlook orientated towards the self, that which pursues its own ends in self-sufficient independence of God” (Marshall p. 145). “The lust of the eyes”: “This is the tendency to be captivated by the outward show of things, without enquiring into their real values" (Dodd).

Eve's view of the forbidden tree as a delight to the eyes, Achan's covetous sight among the spoil of a goodly Babylonish garment, and David's lustful looking after Bathsheba are obvious examples (Genesis 3:6; Joshua 7:21; 2 Samuel 11:2). It will include the love of beauty divorced from the love of goodness” (Stott p. 100). “Is that lust that has its origin in sight--curiosity, covetousness. In the world of John's day, the impure and brutal spectacles

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of the theatre and the arena would supply abundant illustrations of these” (P.P. Comm. p. 24).

“And the vainglory of life”: “Boastful pride of life” (NASV). “Pretension, arrogance in word and deed, pride in one's possessions” (Arndt p. 34).

“Proud display of life” (Mof). “An insolent and vain assurance in one's own resources, or in the stability of earthly things, which issues in a contempt for divine laws” (Vincent p. 336). “Of life”: A boastful manner of living, a life characterized by selfish pride (Proverbs 11:2; 13:10; 16:18; 29:23).

“Clearly all people need possessions, and therefore it cannot be wrong to want and take pleasure in what God has provided for our needs. But when I begin to desire more than other people, to covet whatever I see, to boast of what I have, and to claim that I am self-sufficient, then my desires have become perverse and sinful” (Marshall p. 146). “It includes the desire to gain credit which does not belong to us, and outshine our neighbors” (P.P. Comm. p. 24).

The above are the basic avenues of temptation. The devil is predictable. We already know the categories in which we will be tempted. Satan tempted Eve through these avenues: She saw the tree was good for food (the flesh); a delight to the eyes (lust of the eyes); and it was desired to make one wise (pride) (Genesis 3). In like manner, Satan tried the same thing with Jesus: Commanded stones to become bread (flesh); all the kingdoms of the world (lust of the eyes); exercise His power of Divine protection (the pride of life) (Matthew 4). There is never a time in our lives when we are immune from temptation, for example, "pride" can creep up on you at any age (Ecclesiastes 4:13).

“Is not of the Father”: “Springs not from, has not its source” (Alford p. 1710).

John makes it clear that God is not the cause or origin of sin, therefore, God does not entice people to sin (James 1:12-14). God did not create us with an inborn sinful nature. In addition, the soul, mind, emotions, and physical body that God designed for the human race are not a great liability when it comes

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to resisting temptation. Sinful pride is not inherently part of the human soul and neither is lust. We were not born with lust, rather lust is something that develops when we follow self.

“But is of the world”: Barclay points out that many of the "lusts" of the flesh are simply perversions of something that in itself is good. “Immorality, fornication, impurity, lasciviousness, are perversions of the sexual urge.

Idolatry is a perversion of worship, and was begun as an aid to worship.

Sorcery is the perversion of the use of healing drugs in medicine. Envy, jealousy, and strife, are perversions of that noble ambition and desire to do well. Enmity and anger are a perversion of righteous indignation. Dissension and the party spirit are a perversion of the devotion to principle which can produce a martyr” (Flesh and Spirit p. 39).

1John 2:17 “And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever” “The world passeth away”: “Is passing away” (NASV). “The tense of the word passeth is present middle indicative, ‘is passing by’, the process is even now in operation” (Woods p. 240). “Many people are tempted to live for the moment, to conform to the way of life of a material world, and either to question the temporary character of material life or to hope that there will be no judgment” (Marshall pp. 146-147). “And the lust therefore”: All three avenues mentioned in 2:16, even the lust which belongs to this world passes by. “The man of the world is doomed to disappointment. John's argument is that it is obviously the act of a fool to dedicate life to that which, by its nature, cannot do other than pass away” (Barclay p. 69). “And even if it were not passing away, our capacity for enjoying it would none the less certainly come to an end. To love the world is to lose everything, including the thing loved” (P.P. Comm. p. 25).

“He that doeth the will of God”: “The one who keeps on doing, present active (Robertson p. 214)” Therefore the will of God can be known and practiced, and a clear line of distinction exists between the values of the

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world and God's will. “Abideth forever�: Gains eternal life and always remains spiritually alive.

The claim is often made that what the Christian believes has become outdated or irrelevant. This verse affirms that what the Christian believes and practices is eternally important.

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