V. 1. that which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen.
1 John teaches right at the beginning of his letter what he wants to be regarded for by others in the treatise, namely for such a one as Paul describes in 1 Cor. 4:1, 2: "Everyone regards us as such, namely as Christ's servants and stewards of God's mysteries. But now no one looks for more in a steward than that he may be found faithful." Just as Christ Himself gave them the command, John 15:27: "You shall be My witnesses, for you have been with Me from the beginning." But at the same time he meets all who approve the preaching of the gospel and the testimony of Christ contained therein, according to its outward presentation and the moral doctrine comprehended therein, and shows them the mystery of Jesus, who was from the beginning and will be forever. As Paul also says [Hebr. 1, 10.] that through him the foundation of the world was laid, but that in the last times he appeared in the world and was revealed as God in the flesh, Hebr. 1, 2. 3. So the apostle John wants to say: "This word, which was from the beginning, we proclaim to you, and that as unimpeachable witnesses of everything that has happened, namely that the independent word, which from eternity was with God in God himself, has become flesh. As now from a witness he
that he must have seen or heard a thing of which he wants to testify, so John also says of himself and others that they had heard and seen, even touched with their hands, what they were talking about.
(2) What is the benefit of this? The fruit of this revelation of Christ in the flesh has been well indicated by the one who has briefly summarized the contents of this letter and placed them before it, in these words: that the works of the devil should be destroyed, and we should be saved from the image of death; that we should come to know the Father, and his beloved Son, our Lord Jesus. This is the most noble fruit, and is interspersed by John throughout: that we may have fellowship one with another.
This is the main sentence executed by Johanne in this letter.
That was there from the beginning, that we have heard, that we have seen.
4 These words especially refer to the unquestionable certainty of the testimony that John gave in his evangelical teaching.
What we have seen.
5 The apostle does not speak of curiosity at all here, but the word he uses refers primarily to the length of time in which she revealed this in the flesh.
Word considered. Έ&εασάμε&α it is said, we
have looked at it with great attention, there have been no furtive glances, we have been there and beside it for a long time, we have looked at it often and for a long time.
What our hands have palpated.
(6) These words are actually addressed to Thomas, for to him it was said, according to the account of John, Cap. 20, 27, "Reach out your finger and put your hand into my side." And further, v. 29. "Because thou hast seen me, Thomas, thou hast believed; blessed are they that see not, and yet believe." This, says John, we proclaim to you. Thomas wanted to touch the nail marks in the hands and side of Christ with his hands, and it was granted him. But lest anyone should think that such a bodily sensation is necessary for salvation, Jesus wisely added: "Blessed are they that see not, and yet believe. Augustine has very beautiful words about this in his book on nature and grace: In the heart, he says, are the spiritual hands that grasp Christ. And this is the word that is proclaimed. In John, Cap. 17, 20, Christ prays not only for his disciples, as his visible witnesses, "but also for all who would believe in his name through their word.
7 The things and the signs of them must be accepted and maintained in the Church of God as Christ has ordained. For what God ordains does not have to be abolished. Yes, some say, God is a spirit, and therefore one must also have purely spiritual ideas about God. This has moved our new prophets to make every effort to abolish the external word of God, as they call it. As soon as they only took to their hearts the sentence: God is a spirit, they also concluded: Ergo, baptism and the sacrament of the altar are nothing. However, we are bound to stay with the Scriptures, which alone can teach us correctly about the will of God. But God's will is not of one kind. First, the secret and hidden will of God, which is not prescribed for us as the rule of our actions. Secondly, the revealed one; this must be
to learn to recognize from the words of God. The spirit makes spirit. An evil spirit also fills the spirit of man with evil. It is Satan's work to teach his mind to others. Therefore, such people are not afraid to say, "What is a handful of water for? If these people had not been more seriously opposed, they would have finally come to deny that Christ had ever come into the world; they would have considered it a dream and no longer a truth. The means that God has instructed must be maintained. After all, God could let grain grow on the roof. And so, even without the external word, He could make people blessed. But it does not please Him to proceed in this way. It is a bad conclusion: it seems to me that it has been done quite well, therefore it must be so. Christ therefore commanded that his gospel should be preached to every creature. "What is spoken to you in your ears you shall proclaim on the housetops," Matth. 10, 27. Their sound, that is, the preaching of the gospel, "has also gone out into all the world," Rom. 10, 18. Now and then people have been found who have prepared a cross for themselves and carried it around; others have had themselves forged into chains and considered this their cross. But the true cross must be carried as God sends it. In the same way, our enthusiasts teach that one should run away from wife, child, house, and farm, and that this should be the means of escaping the temptations of Satan.
That was there from the beginning.
This is the same truth that Paul describes in Eph. 1, 4: "Before the foundation of the world was laid. And Joh. 1, 1.: "In the beginning was the word." But what kind of word is this that was already there before the foundation of the world? None other than God Himself. For before the foundation of the world no creature existed. Apart from God, nothing existed yet. Therefore, this Word was God Himself. But this Word became man. O! a great miracle that God Himself took on human nature; but before the eyes of the world it is something foolish. How?
she says, can God give birth to his equal? And in the schools one leads the sentence: Duo extrema in materia remotissima non conveniunt, two infinitely distant things can never be united.
From the words of life.
9. this is given Joh. 1, 14. with the words: "We saw His glory, a glory as of the only begotten Son from the Father, full of grace and truth."
(10) Here both the teachers and the hearers find their reminder. 1) Teachers should learn here that they should not rely on their own thoughts and imagination, but carefully compare them with the Scriptures and consider the words: The spirits of the prophets are subject to the prophets. No prophecy or interpretation of Scripture is to be considered sound unless it is similar to faith. It does not follow at all if one concludes: Well, one has joy and pleasure in it. By this thought some have been deceived, when they put the similarity of faith out of sight. A prophecy cannot be worthy of this name other than when it is for the glory of God, for the strengthening of faith, and for the edification of the neighbor. Therefore, these were evil prophets who took it upon themselves to overthrow and exterminate the worldly authorities. And Christ punished his disciples seriously when they asked for fire to fall from heaven on the Samaritans. The spirits of the prophets are subject to the prophets. Your spirit shall not rule you, but God's spirit. Beware of those who say: The spirit drives me. One must, as John speaks below, be sure of his cause. Hence he calls it an unction; and Paul a plerophoriam, a certainty connected with great joy. 1)
11. 2) The listeners must be well aware of themselves, so that they do not allow themselves to be weighed and swayed by every wind of doctrine, but rather examine everything according to the guidelines presented. Whoever wants to present something as the word of God must also be certain that it is the word of God.
1) Here a few lines are missing in the manuscript, which especially because of the faded ink could not be read, and no sense could be brought out. (Walch.)
Let the word of God be. By the way, on the part of the listeners it must mean: Examine everything and keep the best. And in the book of Acts it says of the Bereans: "They inquired whether it was so", Apost. 17, 11.
Word of life.
This is a very beautiful description of the word, that it is called "a word of life". As John wrote in the first chapter of his Gospel, v. 4, 5: "In him was life, and the life was the light of men; and the light shineth in darkness." But this word excludes the whole law, as it is not in its power to make alive, but it is a word that announces wrath and death because of the transgression done by sin, which cannot be lifted or lessened by the law. Therefore it is said in Rom. 4, 15: "The law brings wrath", and Rom. 5, 20: "The law came in beside", so that sin would be recognized as sin. Here belongs what is read in the 17th chapter of Matthew, v. 1 ff., and Luc. 9, 28 ff. about the transfiguration of Christ on a mountain; which transfiguration Paul explained according to its spiritual meaning of the different splendor of the law and the gospel, 2 Cor. 3 and 4.
V. 3. community.
13. Κοινωνία actually means a common
The fruit and benefit of this proclamation is the fellowship, in which many have equal shares, none more than the other. Therefore, the fruit and benefit of this proclamation is the fellowship built on the foundation of the prophets and apostles; as Paul also taught in Eph. 2:19, 20: "Now you are no longer sojourners and strangers, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of God's household, built on the foundation of the prophets and apostles, of whom Jesus is the cornerstone," that is, now you share in all that believers have in Christ Jesus. This is also what is taught in the 14th chapter of John, v. 23, with these words: "He who loves me will keep my word. My Father will love him, and we will make our abode with him." The apostles often make use of this word: He-
construction. And there is also a beautiful likeness in it. In a building, all parts, whether of wood or stone, are neatly joined together. In this spiritual building, the master builders are teachers and preachers; they work the stones so that they become smooth and even. They cleanse the hearts with the Word; they dwell under a tent to hide from heat and frost. No temptation is so great to them that they should not overcome it. And just as a cornerstone serves to prevent trucks and other vehicles from harming the house, so also the evil that Satan and the world threaten this spiritual building is averted by Christ, and our dwelling place is made safe with the Father.
We write these things to you that you may have joy, that your joy may be complete.
This is a proverbial speech that contains so much that the human heart cannot rejoice enough when it hears the proclamation of the word of life.
V. 5. God is a light.
What he called a community earlier, he now presents as a light.
And in him there is no darkness. 1)
The proclamation of the gospel punishes the world for sin and exhorts to repentance.
That God is a light. 2)
In his light we see the light.
V. 6. Thus we say.
18. to understand: in true repentance.
And do not do the truth. 3)
19 [Truth is not in us] but the opposite of it.
20. "To have fellowship with God" means as much as to know for certain that we are relying on God.
1) These text words are put by us instead of: "And walk in darkness" in the old edition.
2) These text words are put by us instead of: "And the blood of JEsu" in the old edition. The text is in general quite colorfully mixed up.
3) These text words are set by us instead of: "The truth is not in us" in the old edition.
and that God will take care of us for the sake of Christ. Since God is light and there is no darkness in Him, and this is the content of this proclamation, it follows that everything that does not belong to this proclamation or runs counter to it is pure darkness. The opposite of John's opinion is therefore this: Do not admire what the world admires. Do not pull on the yoke with the unbelievers. Only the pagans strive for this. He who hates his brother walks in darkness and does not know where he is going, for the darkness has blinded his eyes.
So we say 4)
21. to be in the light means as much as to know where to go. "To be in darkness means not to know where to go. But now we are in the light and know where to go. We were in darkness when we served the saints and were in many errors. But now the light shines and the word of life has appeared. Without this word everything is darkness.
Do the truth.
(22) That is, to walk in the light and to know the way to go. In the following chapter it says [v. 8, 9]: "I write you a new commandment, which is true of him and of you. He that saith he is in the light, and hateth his brother, is yet in darkness."
And walk in darkness.
That is, we do not know that God is a light.
V. 7 But if we walk in the light.
That is, if we know where to go. John 15:15 says, "Unto you I said, that ye are my friends: for all things whatsoever I have received of my Father I have given unto you." And Joh. 17, 25. 26.: "Righteous Father, the world knoweth not thee: but I know thee, and these know that thou hast sent me. And I have given them
4) To this heading again the explanation does not fit.
I have made known your name, and will make it known to them, that love, that you may love me, may be in them, and I in them."
This way we have fellowship among ourselves.
25 That is, then the proclamation of Jesus has the effect it is supposed to have.
And the blood of JEsu Christ.
(26) For even in the saints there is still impurity, so they do not think that the blood of Christ alone has sufficed for real sins, but that the rest must be atoned for by our own atonement; rather, they stick to the word of God, so that they can stand in the face of temptation. The Holy Scriptures therefore clearly and certainly testify that the blood of Christ has been sufficient both for our inherited sins and for our real sins. For this is why John says, "It makes us clean from all sin," just as it is also said in the words which soon follow [v. 9.], "If we confess our sin, God is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness," άδιχίας. Notice that
This word, άδιχία, includes all vices and all stimuli to vices and vices, that is, both the secret tinder to evil and the real outward deed and imitation of what is called evil. Moreover, this saying is taken from a prophet who says, "Who can know how often he fails?" Ps. 19, 13. Paul teaches the same in Rom. 3, 23-25, and asserts "that all men are sinners and lack the glory which they ought to have before God, but that they are justified without merit by His grace through the redemption that came about by Jesus Christ, whom God made a mercy seat through faith in His blood, so that He might present the righteousness that is valid before Him, in that He forgives sin, which until then had remained under divine patience". John therefore also says in the following 3rd chapter, v. 20. 21: "If our heart does not condemn us, God is greater than our heart, and knows all things." Yes, "if our heart does not condemn us, then we have joy in
God". In addition, there is the statement of Paul in Rom. 3, 28: "Therefore we hold that a man is justified by faith and not by the works of the law. Those who want to remove and make up for real sins by their own works and atonements are playing a joke and blasphemy with the blood of Christ. The persecution of the church is certainly a real sin, but the forgiveness of it is by grace, Gal. 1, 4. When Augustine speaks of the merit of sins, he cites Paul's saying from Rom. 5, 15. 16: "But it is not the case with the gift as with sin. For the gift is not over one sin alone, as through the one sinner's one sin is all destruction. For the judgment came from one sin to condemnation; but the gift helps from many sins to righteousness." Adam begat sinful men, and from him they have the evil nature. But Christ also atoned for and forgave all the sins that arose from this inherited corruption, that is, he remedied our inherited and real sins. This fifth chapter to the Romans teaches that there is a twofold Adam, an old one and a new one. Now each of them has brought something into the world; and they are equal to each other in respect of reproduction and sharing, but very unequal to each other in respect of kind. The first Adam was only a man, but the other is God and man at the same time. The first is from earth, but the other is from heaven. The first brought sin, death and the curse of the law from his descendants, but the other brought grace instead of sin, life instead of death, forgiveness of sins instead of the curse of the law. It is not a matter of defiance when God gives something special; not of despair when He gives nothing.
V. 8 If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.
(27) Not only is there no truth and righteousness in us, but instead there is vain carnal security. Of such certainty Jerome wrote: Confusione non sunt confusi, et erubescere nesciunt, for all the confusion of their minds they are bold.
and safe, and have not learned to be ashamed. Therefore, God says in the prophet: "Go through the streets of Jerusalem, and look, and learn, and search in her streets, whether ye find any that doeth right, and asketh after faith; and I will be gracious unto her," Jer. 5:1. In John, Cap. 9:41, Christ says: "If ye were blind, ye would have no sin: but now ye say, We have sight, your sin remaineth." And Paul calls such people [Eph. 4, 19.] άπηλγηχότες, people who lost their sense and conscience, "wicked people." So in our days people say: I want to live as my ancestors lived. This is the world's greatest sin, that it does not want to recognize sin.
We have no sin.
28 This means that it is not necessary for the blood of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, to cleanse us from our sins.
We are deceiving ourselves.
The fire will reveal such deceit through our own conscience.
And the truth is not within us.
(30) That is, we then have nothing at all to rely on, especially in the hours of temptation. The doctrine that one should make rest for oneself by one's own works paves the way to despair.
V. 9 But if we confess.
31 Here John meets the objection: What shall I do to him, I am a sinner, my conscience reproaches me that my sins are many. John says: Confess your
Sin. And thus he puts to shame all these objections, when the conscience asks: What shall I do that I may be saved? How shall I attack it, that I may be better? Nothing else, he says, but this: Confess your sin, absolve him of your heavy debts. Remember the words: "Why do you grieve, my soul, and are so troubled within me? Wait upon God; for I will yet confess and give thanks unto him, that he is the help of my countenance, and my God," Ps. 42:12.
God is faithful.
He keeps his word and his promises.
He is just.
He who loves justice cannot suffer injustice. Therefore, God's justice requires that one confess the sins before Him and ask for the remission of the well-deserved punishments.
Of all vice.
34 That is, of all whom he himself is dear to his heart.
V. 10. We make him a liar.
(35) He who is faithful and true in nature is then blasphemed by us.
And his word is not in us.
For his word has decreed all things sinful and subjected them to the judgment of condemnation. The Holy Spirit punishes the world for sin. Here belongs the word of Paul, Rom. 10, 15: God sends teachers, the messengers must preach, but their word must also be received.