READINGS ON THE FIRST EPISTLE OF JOHN (1)
[p. 234] READINGS ON THE FIRST EPISTLE OF JOHN (1)
John 1 and John 2: 1 - 11
RSS I think you said in Rochester that in this epistle Christ is presented as the true God, and eternal life.
FER Yes. The light, as far as I see, in which Christ is presented in any particular epistle gives you the clue to the epistle. That holds good in the doctrinal epistles; the epistles written to individuals have a somewhat different character.
RSS I think we can see how in this epistle Christ is presented as the eternal life.
FER He is presented not only as the eternal life, but as the true God and eternal life.
RSS You mean you must take the two together.
FER Yes.
JP And take them in their own order.
FER Yes. The first great thought in the epistle is light. That is the true God. “God is light”. Then you get the other point, that He is eternal life, but eternal life could only come in, it is evident enough, in the light of God. That is the first necessity. There are three things in the epistle, that is, light, eternal life, and witness, but light is the most important of all.
WM You mean by light the revelation of God.
FER It is only in God coming out that you get eternal life brought in. You could not get eternal life while God was hid.
JP Hence you could not have eternal life brought in in the Old Testament.
FER Because God was not revealed. All waited for the declaration of God. Then the blessing comes in. In Psalm 133 it says, “there the Lord commanded the blessing, even life for evermore”, that is in Zion, and in Zion is the place where God sees fit to dwell. To talk [p. 235] about eternal life before God came out in the revelation of Himself is unreasonable.
JP Hence the mentions of eternal life in the Old Testament look on to the future.
FER To the moment when God would come out.
Ques Is not the same true in the three gospels, Matthew, Mark and Luke? They look on to the truth of eternal life the same as the Old Testament.
FER To a large extent. It is only John that gives us the present application of it.
JSA And that present application lies in the knowledge of the true God.
FER Because God is declared, hence in the introductory part of John’s gospel, “No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him”. That is, that God has come out in Christ, and so the truth is taken up in the epistle. He is the true God and eternal life.
JP So the object for which the gospel was written was to bring people to the faith of His Person, and into the light of all that was set forth in His Person.
FER Exactly. “That ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might have life through his name”.
OO'B Do I understand you that the application in John’s gospel is to the present?
FER John appears to be the only writer who gives the application of eternal life to the present. The other writers connect it with the coming age.
OO'B Perhaps I did not put it right. Is that the only aspect as we get it in John 17, the knowledge?
FER That is the aspect in the present. In John 17 you have not the words of John, but the words of Christ Himself.
WM In the epistle of John you get eternal life spoken of as promise.
FER But the promise has come to pass. I think it [p. 236] is intelligible. All blessings are in a public way connected with the time when God will come out in the world to come. They wait for that moment, but in christianity that moment is anticipated, in the power of the Spirit. A great many of our blessings we get in anticipation of what is to be displayed. We “rejoice in hope of the glory of God”. When God shines out in glory then it is that all blessings will be brought in.
WM And that is the invariable line that John pursues.
FER And Paul, too. Paul is continually giving a present application to things which strictly are future.
GWH Would you say in the gospel you get the light of eternal life, and in the epistle the knowledge of it?
FER I think the great ruling point in the gospel is the declaration of God. In the first instance the revelation of the Father in the Son, and then the gift of the Holy Spirit.
Rem I should judge that eternal life is primarily connected with the kingdom.
FER I think it all looks on to that. I was speaking in connection with the order of the epistle, that of necessity the first thing to come out is light. Till you get light, that is, the revelation of God, you cannot get anything else. Then the light, in the way in which it has come in, of necessity brings with it another thing, that is fellowship, but the beginning must be light. In Genesis the first thing is light; darkness was on the face of the deep, and God said, “Let there be light”. The apostle Paul takes up that thought in saying that “God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give [p. 237] the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ”. The fact is this, God has said, “Let there be light” and light has come.
GR It was the departure from God that brought in death and darkness, and so the knowledge of God brings in light and life.
FER I think the revelation of God brings in light. You could not get life without it. In Genesis you do not get animal life till after the earth is set in relation to the sun. When the great light is appointed then there is the development of life.
JP That is the true order.
FER It must be the order.
Ques Would you say, the order as we apprehend it, is light and life and love?
FER I think you have left out an important point in it. We get light, but then you want the ruling centre, then it is you get life. Light and the ruling centre are two distinct things.
JSA You mean by that, Christ must have been placed as the Head and centre of the new system.
FER As the centre in the moral universe, then you get life.
WM I suppose like the sun that gives impulse and brings in life.
FER Puts everything in movement and vibration.
WB-t Would we not understand eternal life better if we connected it more with God and less with ourselves?
FER But the point this morning is light.
WM Our subject is, the true God.
FER Yes. Because all is dependent on the declaration of God and on Christ being brought in as Head and centre of the moral universe.
TA That we get the good of by the word that is spoken.
FER The word of life to my mind is the revelation of God.
Rem I suppose you would say that light is the true knowledge of God.
FER The knowledge of God, as God has been pleased to reveal Himself.
JP Light is rather revelation; knowledge is on our part, and revelation on God’[p. 238] s part.
FER And hence knowledge is in a way progressive. It has been said that the very fact of there being knowledge proves there is something to be learnt.
WM But revelation is complete and final.
JSA It is interesting to note that the moment light is introduced there is a separation between light and darkness. God divided the two, so that henceforth they are separate.
FER As in Genesis, so here. “God is light, and in him is no darkness at all”, but then He is in the light, that is in the light of revelation, or declared. God has not yet come out publicly as He will do, but He has come out in the declaration of Himself in Christ, and hence Christ is said to be the true God.
JSA And therefore the immense importance for us to seek to be in the light of God’s revelation in Christ.
RSS There is a distinction between “God is light” and “he is in the light”. I think we clearly understand what the last means, but when it says “God is light” is it in contrast to darkness?
FER Because it says immediately, “in him is no darkness at all”. You cannot find in God any kind of sanction for moral evil. There are dark spots in the sun but not in God, and the practical result is that in the light of God everything is exposed. You never get everything in man exposed till he is in the light of God. The philosopher does not know man. He does not know himself; nor does the man of science. No man knows himself as he is in the light of God.
WM Is that what is meant in the expression in the gospel, “That was the true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world”.
FER It shed its light on every man. Philosophy accommodates things to man as man. Science does not concern itself with moral considerations. It is occupied with what is material.
JP It is very important that we should adhere to the moral force of all these terms.
[p. 239] FER Yes. I think it is a tremendous thing “that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all”.
JSA The gods of the heathen personified principles, evil lusts, etc., but the true God is in absolute contrast to all that.
RSS There could not be any greater discovery than that.
FER Hence you must be in the light of God to be completely exposed.
GR Is that what Saul of Tarsus found out? He had to do with God fully revealed.
FER Yes.
Ques “The darkness is passing and the true light already shines”. Has that reference to the fact that the revelation of God was made known and was effecting a moral work?
FER I think so.
EA When will the darkness have passed?
FER When Christ comes in as the Sun of righteousness, He will dissipate all the darkness. Then it is that God breaks through everything which has hitherto concealed Him, and comes out in glory, in the effulgence of what He is.
WM Do you think this chapter involves the thought that for the light of God to be pleasant to us it reaches us in the One who is the Head and centre of the universe?
FER Yes. And there is another very important point, that at the very point where the light came out fully, there man was ended. I think that is a great mercy, because it would be an awful thing to get the discovery of what we are in the light of God if that were not so.
WM Man after the old order.
FER The point is, he is exposed, but be is terminated. If you make the discovery in yourself of the crookedness of man it is a great mercy to know that that man has been terminated for God.
WM Where God was expressed man was removed.
FER [p. 240] I think that is the truth.
Rem Here it says God is light, and in Psalm 27 Jehovah is my light.
FER That is a different idea. So you get the preaching of Christ as a light to the gentiles and God’s salvation to the ends of the earth. I suppose David felt himself to be in a scene of darkness, but in the darkness Jehovah was his light.
GWH In John 8 you get Christ spoken of as the light, and it is there really the most terrible exposures are made.
FER Yes. There was no doubt about the woman’s sin, but what comes out is that the Pharisees were exposed.
Rem “Now ye say, We see; therefore your sin remaineth”.
FER They went out, beginning at the eldest unto the least.
Ques Is not that same thought carried out in John 9?
FER But you see there another thing, in chapter 8 it is exposure, in chapter 9 it is enlightenment. These are the two effects of light. It enlightens and exposes. If you do not get light you cannot see anything. I mean in natural things. If light comes in you can see everything about you. You are enlightened.
WB-t How about the man who hates his brother? He is in darkness; he walketh in darkness, but he has eyes.
FER Yes, but his eyes are blinded.
RSS I think you said the first effect of light is fellowship.
FER I think fellowship hangs on the way in which light has come in. The way in which light will come in hereafter, when Christ arises as the Sun of righteousness with healing in His wings, will not necessitate fellowship, but now it does.
RSS Because there is darkness now, but there will not be then.
FER Light is not universal now. It becomes a bond [p. 241] to those who are enlightened. I think you can understand that. And it brings us in that way into fellowship.
JP And that shows the connection in verse 7, “If we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another”.
FER Our bond of fellowship is the light. Take Jerusalem. The light came in, but the light did not pervade Jerusalem, but the light enlightened certain persons. It became a bond among them, they continued steadfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship.
JSA It is very important to get the idea, that this is the true bond of fellowship and not anything that is external.
FER Yes, the light has come in in the way of testimony, as the apostle says at the beginning. We “bear witness”, and hence the testimony becomes the bond of fellowship.
WM I suppose the character of the light indicates how holy and exclusive the fellowship is.
FER Exactly. It ought to be according to the light.
WM In Him is no darkness at all.
FER Yes, and the light is the bond.
OO'B How do you connect that with 1 Corinthians 10, the fellowship of devils?
FER That is a thing that you are to be clear of.
OO'B What I mean is, I understand just now there was no fellowship outside of the light.
FER What I meant was, there could be no fellowship according to God. You can get worldly fellowships, such as freemasonry, in the present day. In that day there was the fellowship of devils and of the Jewish altar. But with us it is dependent on the light, and the light is our bond. In 1 Corinthians 10 it is the death of Christ that is the bond of fellowship.
GWH Would you say the light was also the sphere of fellowship?
FER I suppose so.
RSS I think you said just now, the bond of fellowship was the light. Did you not say the bond of fellowship was the death of Christ?
FER But that is the light.
JP It shone out there.
WM Everything is light for us now.
FER Yes, the Lord is light. “Ye were sometimes darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord”. So, too, the death of Christ and the Spirit are light. They are not morally different.
Rem There is a realm of light that brings in all that is divine.
FER All is connected with the way in which God has been pleased to declare Himself. Where did God come out in light? In the death of Christ, and that is made effectual in us by the Spirit. It is all light.
WM Have you any idea why it says, “walk in the light”?
FER We must walk in the light of revelation. There is no other light to walk in. If you do not walk in the light of revelation you would walk in Jewish or heathen darkness.
WM Does walking indicate the moral activity of the soul?
FER I do not think so.
LTF It is like abiding in the light.
FER Yes, but it is a little more than that.
WB-t Would you give us a definition of light and darkness?
FER Well, I think light is the revelation of God, and darkness is ignorance of God. Where people are ignorant of God there is darkness.
Ques Do you not think that darkness scripturally considered differs from natural darkness? Natural darkness is purely negative, but darkness scripturally considered has elements of positive evil. For instance, [p. 243] the prince of darkness.
FER Yes, but then the prince of darkness rules because men are ignorant of God.
Rem “In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not”.
FER But I think he blinds them because they are in darkness, lest the light should shine for them. If they were not in darkness I do not think he could blind them. It is the fact of man being in darkness that exposes him to the prince of darkness.
JP He can only blind the minds of those that believe not. And if faith is really light, not believing is the absence of it.
FER Not believing exposes not only darkness but also will. “Ye will not”. The Lord uses that expression.
JP They have closed their eyes.
WM And believing is a responsibility.
FER Yes, on man’s part, to believe any testimony of God.
Rem “Of sin, because they believe not on me”.
FER Yes.
JP There is one point you differed from, that is in regard to walk. I think you said, ‘walking’ was not exactly a moral activity of the soul, but it was a little more than that. What is your idea of it?
FER I think it is, properly speaking, our conversation down here, and that is in the light. Paul uses the word ‘conversation’, and that is a very good word.
JP You mean conversation in the sense of our whole moral deportment.
FER Yes. It is in the light. If a man does not walk in the light you have no conclusion to draw, but that that man is still in the darkness of heathendom or judaism, in which God was not known. God was not known in judaism. They had the oracles of God, but He was not known.
Rem You could hardly make that hard and fast distinction now, because we are neither touching idolatry [p. 244] nor judaism.
FER In a certain sense all christendom walks in the light.
Rem It says, “if we walk in the light, as be is in the light, we have fellowship one with another”. That seems to restrict it more than in the broad sense of christendom.
FER But every person in christendom ought to claim fellowship with you.
Rem It hardly occurred to me that I ought to claim fellowship with every one in christendom.
FER You ought to claim every person in christendom as your brother.
GR That would be the normal state of things.
FER That is the ground on which christendom is.
JP John is not abnormal, but rather normal.
FER It is the test of things. If you claimed the fellowship of everybody in christendom I am afraid you would meet with a great many refusals.
WM But one has a sort of right to claim it because of their profession.
FER You get this. “For as many of you as have been baptised into Christ have put on Christ”. All christendom has put Christ on, except the Quakers, and a few others.
EA Is that putting on the profession of Christ?
Rem It is, you take them up on their own ground.
FER Scripture does that. You get that over and over again in the addresses to the churches in the Revelation, and so too in other places. And mark this: christianity has been an enormous public benefit in the world. People have been benefited immensely by the fact of christianity having come in.
Rem I was very much struck with it, talking with a man who I do not think was a christian, but he admitted he would not care to live in any country where the Bible was not accepted. He recognised in that sense the gain of christianity.
FER Take China. There was much more light [p. 245] there three or four thousand years ago than there was in Western Europe, but there has been very little material advance there. Where has the material advance been in the world? Where christianity is. People were kept under superstition in the time of popery, but when the reformation came in, it brought in material advance and what the world has got in material advance and humanity and invention has been to a very large extent an effect of christianity. The world has gained enormously, and I have no doubt this brings in with it a large amount of responsibility. Christianity meant on the part of God the stay of judgment; naturally on the rejection of Christ judgment would have come in, and the world system would have come to a close, but the introduction of christianity has stayed judgment. Then salvation and the light of christianity came in, and, to a large extent, delivered the mind of man from superstition, and things under which the mind of man was in bondage, and gave an enormous impetus to the advancement of intelligence.
Rem I suppose that that ought to prepare the minds of men to accept the fact that Christ is Head.
FER I think so. It entails a great responsibility.
JP I see, too, how practically important it is for us to have right thoughts with regard even to the matter of fellowship. It is the one thing that will save us from unscriptural narrowness.
FER But do you not think it is right to claim fellowship with any one who professes to be a christian?
JP It certainly is right.
Ques Have you always thought that way, Mr. P.?
JP No, but I trust I have grown a little. I should hate to be like China, stagnated.
FER You know, “If we walk in the light, as he is in the light”, is not intended for a description of brethren. It is in the sense of children walking in the light of their parents.
GWH Would you say that while we have a right to [p. 246] claim fellowship with all people we should be very disappointed when we come to seek it?
FER Yes.
Rem I suppose the claim you would make would be of christian fellowship.
FER Yes. If a man claims to be a christian, you assume that he is walking in the light, and if he is walking in the light we have fellowship one with another.
WB-t Does not fellowship suppose the thought of opposition?
FER I think it supposes the thought of contrariety. And if I went among Jews or heathen I would expect contrariety; Jews refuse Christ as revelation, hence I could not have any fellowship with them.
Rem The thought of fellowship would only agree with those who were really walking in the light.
FER It is only practicable there, because the light is the bond. The partnership of half a dozen people would not be rightly maintained unless every member conformed to the articles of partnership. The articles of our partnership are the light, and it is as we understand the light that we are true to the partnership. Fellowship is really partnership.
JSA And the fellowship to which we are called is the fellowship of the Son of God, Jesus Christ our Lord.
FER Because He is the light. So is the Spirit in a way, but the Spirit is the truth. It is all a question of the light.
WM Christian fellowship is dependent on walking in the light.
FER But that is assumed. Walking in the light is simply christianity. It is not brethren.
Rem Fellowship, as in the third verse, I suppose would hardly apply to us in full measure.
FER It is very difficult to say that we have fellowship with the apostles. Where are the apostles?
Rem Where we would like to be.
FER Yes, but not exactly in the place where you [p. 247] could have fellowship with them. We could scarcely talk about fellowship with them. Fellowship is a present thing in the power of the Spirit. We have fellowship one with another, because we are all actually here.
Rem That is very clear.
JP I suppose to mention some well-known names we might have said we were in fellowship with J.N.D. or C.H.M., but we could not say that now.
FER We have the benefit of what they gave, but you could not speak of fellowship with them.
WM We can continue in their doctrine.
FER And have fellowship one with another in their doctrine.
JSA As you were saying, they have gone out of the scene to which fellowship applied.
JP Then what about the fellowship with the Father and the Son?
FER You must take account of the expressions “We”, “us”, and “you”. You never would think of disregarding them in any other writing, and you must not disregard them in verses 3 and 4.
WM I suppose we are authorised to look on the Father, the Son, and the apostles as having a special bond in connection with christianity at the beginning.
FER I think the first four verses of the first chapter are introductory, showing the title of John to address us.
GR What would be the effect of their addressing us where it is received?
FER To bring us into the benefit of all that they could communicate.
GR Is not that the knowledge of the Father and the Son?
FER Yes. To bring us into the knowledge of the revelation.
RSS I suppose the fourth verse gives you the effect.
FER Yes, but he gives you the object in writing, “that ye also may have fellowship with us”. “Ye” and “us”. “That your joy may be full”.
GR [p. 248] That lies in the knowledge of the Father and the Son. That is what they communicated.
FER They communicated all they knew so that the saints might get the good of it.
Ques The apostle writing to the Corinthians speaks of them as “Called unto the fellowship of his Son Jesus Christ”. Would not that in a sense apply to us?
FER Why not; he does not talk about fellowship with them. He puts it in an abstract way. God has called us to the fellowship of His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. Not fellowship with His Son. We are called to the common participation of His Son Jesus Christ our Lord, and that is the bond of our fellowship, as the death of Jesus Christ is the bond. It is not fellowship with His death, but the fellowship of His death. It is not fellowship with the Spirit, but fellowship of the Spirit. We “have been all made to drink into one Spirit”.
JP In that verse be speaks of the Corinthians as “Ye”.
JSA Fellowship in the knowledge of the Father and the Son is distinct from fellowship with the Father and the Son.
WM In a way everything you have spoken of is covered by the word light.
FER Because the light has come to us largely by apostolic testimony. The apostles communicated by the Spirit all that they had seen in Christ. They concealed nothing, but communicated all that it might be common to all christians.
WM And why does it bring in, “the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin”?
FER You are still here in the scene of responsibility. Fellowship recognises that you are still in this scene, but there is no imputation. You have a purged conscience. That is what we have practically down here. Very much the same thing as in Hebrews. You have in chapter 8 the ministry of the covenant, and in chapter 9 purgation. Then in chapter 10 you enter the holiest.
[p. 249] So here we are in the light of the revelation of God, and there is no imputation, and hence you can enter into what is proper to christianity, you can serve God.
WM We are in the full light of the abiding value of the blood.
FER It cleanses from every sin.
JSA And the next section starts on that ground. “I write unto you, ... because your sins are forgiven you”.
FER What we want for approach to God is to be in the light, and with a purged conscience.
GR If God had come out to reveal Himself and to impute sin there would have been no fellowship there.
FER No. And the failure would have broken the whole thing.
WM I would like to ask in connection with verse 9, do you think the confession of sins is in principle done once and for ever?
FER No, I would not say that. It is not put in that way.
WM Do you think it is continuous?
FER I take it to be in connection with God’s government.
WCR What do you mean by that?
FER We are all under the government of God, and if we do not confess our sins may come under discipline. If on the other hand, “we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness”. God will not pass them over.
JP So the opening of the second chapter clearly involves what you have said. “If any man sin”. that is we may sin, but what about the Advocate with the Father?
FER We are perfectly represented in Christ. So the fact of sinning cannot alter your relation, but while that is true, the service of the Advocate would be to bring any sin upon your conscience so that you confess it, for you may depend upon it if you sin, and allow it to pass, the thing must come between you and God, as a question of [p. 250] communion. It is all very well to say that you are forgiven and that the blood cleanses us from sin, but as a matter of fact if you sin and do not confess it, it must come in between you and God.
GR So the relationship is not touched, but the enjoyment of it would be.
EA In what way are we cleansed from all unrighteousness?
FER God brings us to self-judgment. I think He cleanses us in that way.
GR Leading us to the root of things.
FER Exactly. If a man sins the root must be there to be judged.
GR And there is no forgiveness for that. An act may be forgiven, but the root has to be judged.
WCR Would you give us a word on self-judgment.
FER You get the word in Hebrews. “Wherefore we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear: for our God is a consuming fire”. You have to remember that our God is a consuming fire, hence God will come in in the way of discipline to consume if you do not judge yourself. “For this cause many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep”. God came in to destroy the body because they did not judge the flesh. It is a very solemn expression that “we have an altar”, that is the place of the holy judgment of God, and you must be in accord with that judgment. The altar necessitates self-judgment.
Ques Does not the apostle Paul express something of that when he says, “Pray for us: for we trust we have a good conscience”.?
FER Yes. He knew nothing in himself to be judged.
JA And in self-judgment your mind is in agreement with God’s mind about you. You judge what is wrong because God is against it, so that the mind in you is brought wholly in accord with God’s mind, and you condemn yourself, and the blood of Jesus Christ cleanses [p. 251] you from all sin. You have got into agreement with God about it.
TA It shows that the person who has judged himself is in contact with the light.
FER Yes.
Rem Would you say a word on the eighth verse: “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us”.
FER I think that is evident.
WB-t We have a good deal of what is called holiness doctrine in this country where men say they do not sin at all.
FER If they talk about that being holiness, it is untrue. It is a question of the provocation to which people are subjected; and it is not holiness, because if I could live without sin that is not holiness.
JP That is righteousness.
FER So far.
WM As you were saying, holiness is not by faith.
FER There is no holiness outside of love.
JSA And the idea of holiness is abhorrence of evil.
FER If people tell me they can get into love by faith, then I shall believe they get into holiness by faith, but not till then. Because whether it be in God, or in us, holiness lies in love.
Rem What was in my mind was the distinction between verses 8 and 9, “sin” and “sins”.
FER I think the man who talks about there being no sin in him is an idiot. People are not different from what I am or you. I know very well in myself there is sin.
Rem We have lots of fools in Chicago then?
JP If we have people in this country who say they have no sin, we have this verse 8 also and you cannot improve on that.
FER But I would not have thought of saying it. If anybody looks at me as being perfectly improved, I would like to be improved off the face of the earth.
[p. 252] Z The fact that we fail is the proof that we have sin in us.
WB-t The only reason I asked was that we have that class of people to meet.
FER The idea of holiness by faith is a great delusion. Holiness is where love is, and where there is no love there is no holiness. God’s holiness lies in His nature. God is love. So the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit given unto us. If we advance in love in the power of the Spirit, then I have no doubt we get holiness.
WM So that as you were saying, even the judgment of God is necessitated by His love.
FER Yes, it is a holy love. Love that will not tolerate impurity.