READINGS ON THE FIRST EPISTLE OF JOHN (2)
[p. 253] READINGS ON THE FIRST EPISTLE OF JOHN (2)
FER The apostles were used of God to introduce christianity by doctrine. In one sense Christ was the Apostle, but there were others ordained apostles, and John was one. This chapter is extremely interesting because it brings out the point of sympathy between the apostles and those to whom the apostle wrote.
WM Do you mean as to how far they entered into the apprehension of the light?
FER Whatever might be their progress, there was a point of sympathy between the apostle and them; every class.
WM That each grade had taken in something from the apostle.
FER And hence a point of contact existed between the apostle and each grade. It is important for us to understand from whom we have learnt the truth. There are plenty of people in the christian world — so-called — who have an idea they have learned the truth from the church.
JSA In fact, I suppose it is important for us to continue “in the apostles’ doctrine”.
FER Quite so. In regard to any question that might be raised we ought to be able to say from whom we have learnt things, “knowing of whom thou hast learned them”.
WM You are speaking of doctrine now.
FER Yes. Properly speaking we have learnt directly from the apostles, not by the intervention of the church.
RSS On the principle that “he that knoweth God heareth us”.
FER Quite so. I think God has been pleased to give the apostles a peculiar place in that way.
GR They were the only ones who could assert “[p. 254] the things that I write unto you are the commandments of the Lord”.
FER They were the inspired instruments, and communicated with divine authority.
WB-s That you get in 2 Timothy 2: 2, “The things that thou hast heard of me among many witnesses”.
FER Quite so.
GR So that there is no development from the apostles’ days.
FER No, we must go back to the apostles. It is interesting in this chapter to observe that the apostle says not only “I write”, but “I have written”.
LTF What is the point in that?
FER I think the first indicates the apostle putting himself in present communication with people, and the second, a word left on record. We do not come into the first exactly, but into the second. He could not say to us “I am writing”, but “I have written”. That is, it is a word left on record.
WM That is the reason he repeats?
FER I think so. We have a word left on record. In saying, “I write” I think he shows a point of sympathy which put him in present communication with the saints. I am writing unto you, fathers, I am writing unto you, young men, I am writing unto you, children, then you get repetition in a sense. “I have written”; that is a word left on record.
JP Is it not interesting that whether he says “I write” or “I have written”, the substance is the same.
FER Exactly, and he looked upon himself not as so much more than those to whom he wrote, but to whatever class he spoke as having a point of sympathy. The point with the fathers was they had known Him that is from the beginning; so had the apostles. The point with the young men is, they had overcome the wicked one; so had the apostles. The point with the children is, they knew the Father; so did the apostles. So he could address himself to each class.
[p. 255] Ques I suppose the word in verse 12 is common to all?
FER Yes. That is, they were forgiven, so were the apostles. They were sympathetic in that way with every class.
GR It all comes out in a very different way from the dignitaries of the church today. John speaks as one of the saints.
WM And those points of identity are the reason that he writes unto them — “I write unto you ... because”.
FER Exactly. It is in the same way we write to our children. You do not write to your children like you write to your wife. Your point of sympathy with your wife is not that with your children. John could not write to the fathers like he would to the children, but he has a point of sympathy with each.
GR The principle would be the same as in Philippians, “whereto we have already attained, let us walk by the same rule”.
FER Exactly. The apostle might know more than all classes put together, but for all that he had not lost the point of contact with each.
WM In natural things a babe loses what characterises him as a babe, but in christianity be keeps it.
FER Yes, it is peculiar. When you are a father you get more, but you do not lose anything.
GWH The distinctions mentioned in these classes are not simply distinctions of age, but moral.
FER Distinctions of spiritual progress. We begin by knowing God as Father; then we overcome the wicked one; then we know Him that is from the beginning. I think that is the direction things take.
GWH So that a very old man, naturally speaking, may not be more than a babe?
FER A man converted at 80 years of age is only a babe.
TA What is included in that word “known him that is from the beginning”?
FER That is a great word. If you know Him that is [p. 256] from the beginning, you know in a sense nothing else. It is extremely exclusive.
WM Everything else is blotted out from your view.
FER From the very fact of His being the One from the outset.
WM I suppose that is the beginning of the divine life.
FER I suppose it is the beginning of the universe. He is the beginning of the creation of God, and is from the outset.
GR Would you not say that that is the only thing that delivers and keeps from the world, and so in that sense the young men had not got to it?
FER Quite so. There is an outset, from which God works out everything, and Christ is from that outset. He is the beginning, and from the beginning.
GR I was thinking of the verse in chapter 5, “Who is he that overcometh the world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God?” He must be the beginning. Nothing before Him.
JP I suppose the young men, though they had judged the wicked one, had not judged the world.
FER That comes out afterwards.
WM Do you think verse 12 brings them all in as under the benefits of the new covenant?
FER Yes, I think so. “Their sins and iniquities will I remember no more”.
Ques No question of class in that, is there?
FER Oh, no.
WM They have all forgiveness and the Spirit.
FER The apostle takes them up on that ground. Even the babes had the unction, and all were forgiven for His name’s sake.
JSA That is the starting point of christianity. It shows how little it is known in that there are many who pass for believers who have not the knowledge of the Father, as we speak.
WB-t Would you say a little more about “him that is from the beginning” because in a sense we all know the Lord.
FER The principle of the writings of John, especially the gospel, is that John in a way ignores everything that preceded. Christ is the point of departure. It presents Christ more absolutely.
GR Not the Old Testament scriptures?
FER He does not take up the link with the old like the other gospels; his point of departure is Christ; and really the point of departure for God is Christ.
JP I suppose that would account, in a way, for the manner in which the gospel and the epistle open, “In the beginning was the Word” and “That which was from the beginning”.
TA What comes in in the first verse, “That which was from the beginning”, does it take Him in from the time Christ came down here to earth, or does it go so far as placing Him before things were created?
FER That is not the idea. The expression “from the beginning”, (Acts 26: 5), indicates the outset of the particular thing of which the speaker is speaking. For instance, you get “the devil sinneth from the beginning”. That must mean from the outset of sin. So in reconciliation, Christ is from the outset. “God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses”. So, too, in regard to life, which is a more practical thought. In John’s gospel, Christ says, “I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly”. There was no having life in that way till Christ came. So if you take up the subject of life, Christ is from the outset, in regard to all men. He is also the beginning of God’s creation.
RSS So that it is a moral thought rather than a point of time?
FER Yes.
WB-t Would you say the characteristic point connected with the fathers is, “known him that is from the beginning”?
FER I think so.
GR Does it not give very great force in that there is no word of warning or exhortation to the fathers? They are, so to speak, safe.
FER Yes.
WB-s I suppose there could not be any progress till the negative side is settled, that is, sins forgiven?
FER Oh, no. Being under the new covenant we have divine teaching, and forgiveness of sins.
WM The young men seem to be the only class spoken of as having gone through a conflict.
FER Yes, they had overcome the wicked one. That is the word which John has left on record for us, “ye are strong, and the word of God”, that is the testimony, “abideth in you, and ye have overcome the wicked one”.
WM Does that mean that the young men are the only class in whom the testimony of God is to be looked for?
FER It is there you expect to find it maintained. You find vigour and energy, and the word of God abides in them, that is, the testimony of God continues in them, and they have overcome the wicked one; that is, in the sense of antichristian doctrine. The young men are zealous of what is right in the way of doctrine.
WM The testimony of God abides in the young men; does that mean it is promulgated by the young men, not by babes?
FER I think so. It is in those who are strong that the testimony of God abides.
Ques In what way are the young men in danger of the world?
FER The world is so extremely subtle. I think I have seen that.
WM You mean you have seen young men active in the truth, and yet there has been departure.
FER Yes, active and sound in doctrine and yet sooner or later succumbing to the world in some of the subtle influences, the present course of things.
[p. 259] Rem It would be, I judge, in connection with the religious world somewhat.
FER Not always. They often marry and that brings in some kind of worldly influence, and they keep up an establishment, if they have means, and get links in society. The world comes in in a very subtle way.
Rem A flourishing business.
FER The world does not take people quite by storm, but it gets hold of people by subtlety.
Rem And sometimes because business does not flourish.
FER Yes, but people flourish sometimes, even where business does not flourish. Ample means are a great snare to most people down here. The man best off from a christian point of view is the poor man. Most people would hardly think so, but if you take it all round it is so.
WB-s He has not that which gratifies his desires.
FER If he is a simple-minded man having food and raiment, he has, after all, true riches. He is well off if he is content, “Piety with contentment is great gain”. He is, in a sense, better off than a wealthy man, because a wealthy man is much more exposed. It is an old saying of a very well-known brother that the higher you are up in the social scale, the nearer you are to the god of this world; the god of this world is at the top of this world.
Rem I suppose the Lord’s word comes in there, “How hardly shall they that have riches enter into the kingdom of God”.
FER Quite so. They have so much opportunity of taking up advantages here. Ease and comforts and luxuries are material advantages, and all these things have to be warred against, as the apostle Peter says.
Rem The young man went away sorrowful, because he was very rich.
FER Yes. It is a great point to apprehend that the world is looked at sometimes, not simply as to the people in it, but as a great moral system, and the principles of that great moral — or immoral — system are the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life.
[p. 260] Rem And these are the same principles that brought in the ruin in the garden of Eden.
FER They came in in germ there. They have become greatly developed since.
WM The fathers are looked upon as being outside that sphere altogether.
FER I think so.
WB-s Is that what characterises christians today more than anything — worldliness?
FER They sanction it. Christianity has become entangled with the world, and hence people go with things that are spoken of here as the world, and they call them justifiable. A great many christians do not think it at all wrong to gratify the lust of the eyes and the pride of life. They do not go in for gross things, but they give place to these things.
WM Do you think the church has been captured by Babylon? The Lord says, “Woe unto the world because of offences”, and the offence came and the church fell captive into it.
Rem Really a repetition of what was before. Babylon took Jerusalem captive.
GWH I suppose there has been a sort of amalgamation between the world and the church?
FER You see it in the grossest way in Rome. Rome is Babylon. It took the church captive. Rome never was truly christian. It is a continuation of heathenism. The Roman Emperor was what is called “Pontifex Maximus”, and we see a continuation of that in the pope. Popery is not christianity in anything but name, but it brought in, in connection with Rome, all these things — the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the pride of life.
GWH Their proud boast was for a while that the State and Church went hand in hand.
FER That is the Church of England. That is not popery. Popery assumed to rule over the kings of the earth.
WB-s Is it not rather a delicate point as to bringing children up, so far as worldly [p. 261] ambition goes?
FER That brings in a great deal of difficulty and exercise, but it is a great point in regard to all that we are able to judge of things. We want ability to see what is of God and what is not of God, for things are entangled in this world; but I think we can judge in a sense what the lust of the flesh means, and the lust of the eyes and the pride of life; and the verdict of the apostle is that it is not of the Father, but of the world, and the reason of it is simple, for love is of the Father, and lust, which is really self-gratification, is the opposite of that. There will be no scope for it in the world to come. All the pleasant pictures will come to nothing, and I doubt if people will find any gratification in them.
Ques It takes exercise to discern between good and evil. I mean doctrinally we may assent to the things of which you speak, but when it comes to the actual test, will works, and we are not willing sometimes to discern. Is that where the discipline of God comes in?
FER I suppose so.
GWH I suppose that is why it says we are to have our senses exercised to discern both good and evil?
FER I think so; you may depend upon it as to the young men that, though they have overcome the wicked one, the danger with them is the world. I have noticed that, and many others have, too.
JSA How do you understand overcoming the wicked one?
FER In point of antichristian doctrine. The babes had not done that. They were exposed to that.
GWH I suppose the way one is separated from the world is by withdrawing from the present course of things?
FER “Who is he that overcometh the world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God?” Our faith gives us the victory. But you want to continue in the faith and not to be moved away from the hope.
Rein. Is that what Paul refers to in Ephesians, when he says, “Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the [p. 262] knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ”. That would be a father.
FER I think so.
WM I suppose believing on the Son of God would be the light of another world altogether.
FER It is the One that is from the beginning.
Ques Do I understand you to say that ministry is confined to the second class — the young men?
FER I would not like to say that, but it remains true that what marks the young men is that they are strong, and the word of God abideth in them, and they have overcome the wicked one. It is among the young men you find the vigour and energy. What you find with the fathers is more experience and knowledge.
Ques The question in my mind was, is Satan against the Lord’s servants more than any other class?
FER I think he is very much against the young men to capture them. He begins, in regard to the babes, to unsettle them in respect of the truth. There is plenty of that in this country, I think.
Ques Does John put the promise of eternal life over against the seduction that there is in the world? He says, “And this is the promise that he hath promised us, even eternal life. These things have I written unto you concerning them that seduce you”.
FER But that follows on continuing in the Father and the Son. “Let that therefore abide in you, which ye have heard from the beginning. If that which ye have heard from the beginning shall remain in you, ye also shall continue in the Son and in the Father. And this is the promise that he hath promised us, even eternal life”.
OO'B That is, I understand you to say, continuing in the Father and the Son is eternal life.
FER The apostle seems to connect the two things here.
OO'B Not any other part of the verse?
FER If that continue in you, ye shall also continue.
Then he adds, “This is the promise that he hath promised us, even eternal life”. I should connect that with continuing in the Son and in Father.
WM That is in the sense of attachment?
FER Yes, and light.
GR Would you connect it with John 17: 3?
FER Quite so. You continue in the light of it.
OO'B Did I understand you to say that that was the same as in John 17: 3?
FER It is very near to it.
JA Might we say there is no change in the character of eternal life? That it is always of one order?
FER I think so.
WM Is it like love, in the knowledge of divine Persons?
FER Evidently it is that for us, for we have nothing outside of the sphere of knowledge.
WM So that eternal life is in the form of knowledge now?
FER It must be. Everything is in the form of knowledge.
TA Does not the Holy Spirit make it good in us so that we can enjoy it?
FER Yes, but in the way of knowledge.
Ques Is that what we get here, we “have an unction from the Holy One, and ye know all things”?
RSS But it is conscious knowledge.
FER Not always. You could not speak of knowing the Father and the Son exactly as conscious knowledge. It is objective knowledge.
JP It is not the word for conscious knowledge.
FER And it would not apply quite.
Ques Is the unction the truth itself?
FER No. It is the anointing, and that is the Spirit, and the Holy One I take to be Christ.
WM Eternal life itself is an objective thought.
FER I think so, although in a sense it must become subjective. For instance, take the thought of air. It is objective, because you come into it when you are born,
[p. 264] and therefore you can speak of it as being objective, but then you breathe it through your lungs and it becomes subjective.
WM You appropriate the conditions into which you come.
FER Yes. So, too, in regard of rule. You come into rule when you are born, but it not only affects your body without, but within. So, too, in regard of light.
WM So the conditions of life are all objective, but they become subjective by your appropriation of them.
Rem You were saying that we learn from the apostles, and I would judge the Spirit is the capacity.
FER The great point is that you do not learn from man, what we learn is by the Spirit. It is a point of the greatest moment, “Ye have an unction from the Holy One, and ye know all things”. We want to take a great deal more account of the Spirit of God. If people gave more place to Him they would learn more quickly.
AQR All real teaching is by the Spirit?
FER So the apostle says, “ye need not that any man teach you”. I think the Spirit as teacher is the great point.
Rem I suppose we require the Scriptures to get the apostles’ doctrine.
FER The apostle says, “I have written”. I have left a word on record for you, but the one who tells them that says “the ... anointing teacheth you”. His object was to encourage the saints to take account of the anointing. In having the Spirit you have the entire truth, because the Spirit is the truth. The point in connection with it is to cultivate by the Spirit living relations with God, and it is in that way we really get intelligence.
OO'B I wish you would tell us a little more about the subjective side of eternal life in that way. If we had had that long ago it would have brushed away many difficulties.
FER We will have it when we come to it.
JNH Would you say a word about how we get the good of [p. 265] the Spirit?
FER I think the first thing is self-judgment; you have to remember that the Spirit is the Holy Spirit, hence the moment you take account of the Spirit you must of necessity walk in self-judgment. “Being made free from sin, and become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness”. And then the way the Spirit would work would be to bring us under the influence of divine love. I do not think the Spirit would lead us to live on meetings nor even to be always reading the Scriptures. I have known people who have read Scripture too much and others who have gone too much to meetings. All that can be overdone. The Spirit has a different way to take in regard to people. There cannot be any doubt that the Spirit brings the believer under the influence of divine love, and moulds him in that way. I think we want more meditation and prayer. Get alone in your chamber.
WM So that the Spirit of truth, not the letter, may have His way with us.
FER The letter will come in in its way. You do not get the understanding of the letter by studying the letter.
WM You understand the letter by the Spirit.
FER And you understand the letter when you are prepared for it. Then everything comes simply in its place.
JSA I think it is an important expression, He is “the Spirit of truth”, and things must be absolutely real, that is as they are.
FER Exactly. It is the Spirit of God in a man that really gives him a sense of things as they are.
WM So the Spirit of God puts every man on his own particular line.
GR In regard to your expression as to the necessity of self-judgment I was thinking of the apostle Paul himself, who, though such a wonderful vessel of the Spirit said of himself, I am less than the least of all saints.
FER Yes, and he says, “herein do I exercise myself, to have always a conscience void of offence toward God,
and toward men”. I do not know how far we are always exercised in that way.
WM Is not self-judgment a characteristic of the spiritual man?
FER Yes. It is the first necessity of the Spirit being there. The Spirit descended on Christ like a dove, but on the disciples in the Acts like cloven tongues of fire.
Ques “If we live by the Spirit, let us walk also by the Spirit”. Is the first abstract and the other practical?
FER If you do not live by the Spirit you do not live at all.
EA What is the meaning of the passage you have just quoted about the Spirit coming upon the disciples like cloven tongues of fire?
FER I think it indicates the necessity of self-judgment where the Spirit was. The fire has reference to self-judgment. It did not come upon Christ in that sense.
GR Would not that passage in Galatians come in, the Spirit resists the flesh? The flesh would always seek self-importance.
GFW What do you mean by going too much to meetings?
FER I do not think people can live on ministry or meetings.
WM You require some sunshine as well as rain.
FER Exactly. To be brought under the influence of divine love in Christ is the first essential.
EA Is there not another passage where it says, “he shall baptise you with the Holy Spirit and fire”? What is the fire there?
FER I am not sure whether it is not distinct from the Spirit. Whether it may not refer to what was coming on the ungodly part, but I could not say. “Whose fan is in his hand, and he will thoroughly purge his floor, and gather his wheat into the garner; but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire”.
WM It brings in the Spirit first and then judgment [p. 267] afterwards.
FER It looks a little like it.
JP And yet it does not read like two baptisms.
FER But it is He that will do it. I think it refers to the sifting to which the nation was about to be subjected. That the coming in of Christ would subject the nation to that.
JP So that in principle that is true of each individual who receives the Holy Spirit; it necessitates self-judgment.
FER I see it in the expression we were referring to this morning, “We have an altar”. You are brought into contact with the altar. What I understand by an altar is the place of God’s holy judgment. Abraham had an altar and so too Isaac and Jacob. It was a holy place, a place of communion, but then it was a place of God’s holy judgment.
JP We have been impressed with it in the passage in Ephesians, “And grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed”.
FER Quite so.
GR I was going to ask if Nadab and Abihu would be a solemn example of neglecting it, “I will be sanctified in them that come nigh me”.
FER Quite so. They were solemn witnesses to the holiness of God.
WM Does it not seem in this passage that all things are brought to an issue? Antichrist had gone out already.
FER Yes.
WM The real antichrist had not yet appeared, but he might at any moment.
Rem But what we have today is only a further growth on what was there in the apostles’ day.
FER So the apostle says, the mystery of lawlessness already works. Lawlessness had come into the bosom of christianity.
WM The Jew has already refused Christ, but the gentile has not yet publicly. Are not the Jew and the gentile combined here, as it were? The one is the liar and the other [p. 268] the antichrist.
FER Yes, but the same person may deny the Father and the Son, and that Jesus is Christ. He is a liar and an antichrist.
WB-s Why is there more attention given to the young men and the children than to the fathers?
FER Because the apostle felt that there was more guarantee for the fathers. They had known Him that is from the beginning. On the other hand, in regard to the young men and the children, there were special dangers to which they were exposed, so the apostle has left a word on record for us. We might all take into account the especial care the apostle had for us, whether we are young men or babes. The greater part of us here are perhaps young men and, therefore, we may very well take to heart what the apostle addresses to us.
Ques What is the sense of ‘abiding’ in Him, spoken of three times in this chapter?
FER It is the way in which you escape from lawlessness.
WM The earth escapes being lawless by abiding in the sun.
FER As long as we are down here we are not out of the scene of responsibility. Responsibility will go on as long as we are here and Christ is absent.
WM And with us everything is so far provisional, not final.
FER I have no doubt if we are kept by the Spirit of God we do abide in Him, but we have responsibility to abide in Him.
Rem You get abiding in connection with responsibility in that scripture, “And now, little children, abide in him; that, when he shall appear, we may have confidence, and not be ashamed before him at his coming”.
FER You get two things in Scripture, “who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation”, but then in another passage, “If ye continue in the faith”. Both things are true. Saints are divinely kept, and yet, on the other hand, there is responsibility to continue in the [p. 269] faith. I think we ought to recognise the two things. What I know about myself is that if I were not kept I would not continue in the faith, but at the same time I accept my responsibility to continue in the faith, and not to be moved away from the hope.
GR So in Jude it says, “Keep yourselves in the love of God”.
FER But you are kept in the love of God. Both are true.
RSS It is rather remarkable. It says that we may not be ashamed. It is not ye.
FER No, it is the apostles.
Ques Is that the negative side to Paul’s positive, that the Thessalonians were his joy and rejoicing?
FER Exactly, if there were a defection on the part of the saints it would make the apostles ashamed at the coming of the Lord.
WM Because the saints were looked on as the apostle’s work.
GWH He would be ashamed because that he had laboured in vain.
FER Exactly.
RSS Has that any present application in the way of care for one another’s state?
FER I think we want to give heed to the apostolic charge to the young men and the children. It very often happens in a church system that the bishop gives a charge to the clergy, and they have to give heed to the bishop’s charge. We have a greater than a bishop — we have the apostle, and we do well to take heed to his charge. He says, “I have written”. Above all we ought to give place to the Spirit. I think the weakness among us is in the allowance of things that are not of the Spirit of God. This comes out in many ways, in preaching and service, and very often worship; allowance is given to what is not of the Spirit of God.
GR And so in our social intercourse, so that we do not corrupt [p. 270] one another.
FER I think so. I have often felt ashamed in that sense. We ought to be a benefit to one another.
Ques Is that the meaning of sowing to the flesh and reaping corruption?
FER You do not want to sow to your own flesh nor to anybody else’s flesh.
WB-s In what sense would it be quenching the Spirit?
FER That is more in the meeting, imposing silence on people as is done in the churches, where there is much gift that is hindered.
JP That may come in among us.
FER Very much.
WB-s I was thinking of it in that way.
FER We do not generally quench people. It is the other way usually. We are well pleased to see any little gift developed.