READINGS ON THE FIRST EPISTLE OF JOHN (4)
[p. 299] READINGS ON THE FIRST EPISTLE OF JOHN (4)
1 John 3: 23, 24; 1 John 4: 1 - 21
FER We were saying yesterday that the first two chapters were introductory. That is, they bring in the thought of fellowship and apostolic care, and that is introductory. In chapters 3 and 4 we come to the substance of the epistle. We have had before us two great points; first, abiding in Christ, by which we escape from lawlessness, and then the christian circle, by which we escape from the world, and the hatred which is prevalent in it. Now we come to the third point, and that is the region of the Spirit, and in that we get into divine light, and escape from the darkness. We have come out of lawlessness into righteousness. Out of the world and hatred into the christian circle, and love. And out of darkness into the light of the Spirit. That describes christianity; it is in that sense we get the thought of eternal life.
WM And, as you said, all these three conditions were present before the preaching went forth.
FER They were appointed of God when the Spirit was given. Christ was the centre and was preached in that way. Then the circle existed by the Spirit, and in it those who were converted escaped the world. The apostle said to them, “Save yourselves from this untoward generation”. Then they were baptised, and brought into the christian circle. At the same time they came out of darkness (for really judaism was darkness, although there was in it the shadow of coming good things), into the light, which is the region of the Spirit. There is no light outside of the Spirit of God.
RSS That is what we come to this morning.
FER It is that which completes the subject.
WN What is your thought in calling the love of God light?
FER Because that is the light in which we are. [p. 300] The Spirit has come to establish us in light, and the light is divine love. I do not know what else is light.
Ques Is it the way in which God has been manifested?
FER Yes.
WM The revelation of God is light.
FER Yes, but it is the revelation of God in its relation to us.
WM And that is that God is love.
FER But that is not quite enough, we get another thing immediately, “in this was manifested the love of God toward us”. It is not only the abstract thought, true as it is, but the manifestation of divine love in its application to us.
WM But whether manifested or not, God is love.
FER Quite so.
JSA But in our sense of it, it has to do with the way He has revealed Himself to us.
FER We never knew or can know what God is abstractly. We only know God in the way in which God has come out in regard to us.
JSA It requires a divine Person to know God in any other way.
WM So we know Him as revealed.
FER Yes, in the way in which He has manifested His love toward us. We are not equal with God, we cannot know God on equal terms. We know Him in the manifestation of His love toward us in the conditions in which we were.
WM That makes eternal life a very practical thing and not at all difficult to understand.
FER I do not think it difficult. It depends entirely on our being intelligently in the conditions. Everything is moral, and hence you must of necessity be in the things intelligently.
RSS You spoke of the love of God as light, because no greater light could come to us than that God loves us. Is that the idea?
FER I think so. That is the great light in which you [p. 301] are. Light is the revelation of God in His mind toward us. It would not be wise in us to go and tell everybody simply that God is love. They could not take it in, but when you say, “In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him”, that is simple.
JSA And therefore it is on that line that eternal life comes in, as God’s thought for man, and not as some have thought, the life of divine Persons.
FER It is ignorance to talk about the life of divine Persons. The fact is, your life is yourself. The same is true in regard to Christ. His life is Himself.
WB-s Was the love of God known before Christ came in flesh?
FER No. When you look at things in the light of Christ you can understand them, but many things could not be understood at the time they were spoken. We understand things in the Old Testament, and in God’s dealings at that time, a great deal better than contemporaries did, because we have the light of Christ to illuminate everything. I have often thought that the death of Christ interpreted every act of Christ’s life. The disciples entered into the life and ministry of Christ by the apprehension of His death. Every act of His life was on the principles of His death. The Lord never did anything in the way of acts of mercy, etc., apart from the principles of His death. The principles of His death were the principles that ruled in His life and ministry, and it will be the same when Christ comes again in glory. He will not establish anything contrary to His death.
JP It could not have been otherwise.
FER No, indeed.
WB-s So the clothing of Adam at the first with skins is a figure of the death of Christ?
FER It referred to man’s nakedness and God took account of that, and clothed him; no doubt it alluded to the death of Christ.
JSA [p. 302] As you have pointed out before in Luke 2, the Lord’s death was indicated right through from His birth.
WM I suppose He could not have touched man at all in His life if His death had not been in prospect.
FER I think not. Every touch of man by Christ was on the principle of His death.
JP Because God could not come out in Christ to man on any other ground.
FER There were two principles that ruled with Christ; the one, the setting aside of man with all his pretensions, and the other, that God should be brought in. These two principles came out in Christ’s death. In the death of Christ man was put out with his liabilities at one door, but he comes in by another. He is put out after the flesh, but He comes in by the Spirit. That is the meaning of the death of Christ.
JSA And these two things are set forth in the bread and wine?
FER And they are set forth in the Lord’s ministry. He was always ruling out man, and bringing in God in mercy. In His miracles, healing lepers, giving sight to the blind, etc., you get that thought.
WM His death came to extinguish man after the order of the flesh, and His life was in accord with it.
FER Man is let in by the Spirit into the love of God, “By me if any man enter in, he shall be saved”.
Ques Does verse 9 correspond with John 3: 16?
FER Quite so.
TF Are not light and love set in their own connection in the word?
FER I think that love is the light Does the word bring that to us in any way?
FER I think you get the two things in this gospel, “if we walk in the light”, but the light is the revelation that God is love. You cannot separate between light and love.
TF They are distinct in the word.
FER John does not bring out all at once. We have [p. 303] the first point that God is light, and we walk in the light, and as things are developed in the epistle you get the further thought that God is love; that is what the light is, the revelation of God in love. I have no doubt the effect of light morally is to expose and enlighten. Men’s eyes are opened by light and, at the same time, everything is exposed; but if you ask what the light is that has come in, it is the revelation of God in love.
TF We have love that covers a multitude of sins, and light exposes; there must be a contrast.
FER Light exposes, but light enlightens. The Lord says in John 9, “As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world”, and then He gives sight to the blind man. That is the way the light comes out in that chapter. The man is enlightened, but in chapter 8 everything is exposed.
GR I suppose there could be no greater exposure than in the One who is perfect love coming into a scene where all is hatred.
FER That is what the Lord brings out in John 9, “For judgment I am come into this world, that they which see not might see; and that they which see might be made blind”. Light exposes, but light attracts. That is true in natural things. Look at flowers or plants in the sun. The sun will draw them to itself.
WM Light has warmth in it, too.
FER When it is the light of the sun.
WB-s John the baptist was a burning and shining light.
GR I suppose in the case of Saul of Tarsus he was thoroughly exposed and yet divinely attracted?
FER Yes.
WB-t As to John the baptist, the Lord said he was a light, and they were willing for a season to rejoice in his light.
FER Quite so, because John was the forerunner of Christ, “And thou, child, shalt be called the prophet of the Highest: for thou shalt go before the face of the Lord to prepare his ways”. John spoke of repentance and of Christ’s coming.
GWH So light exposes in regard of man and enlightens in regard of God.
FER Yes, you could not get a better unfolding of it than in John 8 and 9. In chapter 8 everything is exposed. In chapter 9 Christ is the light to give sight to the blind man, but at the end he sees the Son of God. And that is where the light of God has come in to completely undeceive people in regard of God; but they are undeceived in order that they may see the Son of God, and that He may be everything to them.
JSA And in that sense you will perhaps say that light is rather more relative than where it says God is love. In the latter case it is absolute. In the other it comes to us in a scene of darkness and so takes the character of light.
GWH I suppose darkness is ignorance of God, and light has come in to give the knowledge of God?
FER That is it. Light comes in to dissipate darkness. “In him was life; and the life was the light of men”. The light of men was the life. “And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not”, but what shone was light. The life was the light of men.
JP If any one followed Him he was not walking in darkness but had the light of life.
FER That is it. Light is the life.
RSS There is a remarkable connection established in verse 9 between love and life.
FER Life for us is the outcome of divine love, evidently the object of God in the sending of His Son was that we might live. Nothing would have been achieved otherwise.
RSS So that we can speak of the end of the verse, “that we might live through him”, as God’s great thought for man.
FER There are two things, that we might live, and it goes on to say, “Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins”. That is, that our liabilities might be discharged.
WB-s Then verse 10 was necessary that verse 9 might be made good?
FER Exactly. There must be the propitiation, but the divine thought and purpose was that we might live by Him.
RSS That is stated first.
WM It is placed in the opposite order from John 3.
GWH I suppose love is the spring of life, and the light comes in to reveal it.
FER But love is life morally. What is the life of God, looked at morally? It is love in activity.
Rem Then I suppose hatred is death?
FER Death morally.
GR So it says in Ephesians, “being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart”.
FER That is it. They did not like love in activity.
GWH While it is true that you may become partaker of the divine nature, would you say you partake of the love of God?
FER Only morally.
Ques That is, to be born of God?
JP I see that while you can distinguish things in a way in this epistle, it is important not to separate them; for instance, these two statements, he that hates his brother is in darkness, and this other, he that loveth not his brother abides in death.
FER Exactly, death is darkness, and love is light. I was saying in regard to chapter 4, that you get into the region of the Spirit, that is into the region of light. All light comes to us by the Spirit.
JP That is why you asked to read the end of chapter 3, because there the Spirit is so distinctly introduced.
FER Exactly, the next chapter is given to bring you into the region of the Spirit, and so in chapter 4 the admonition is not to trust every spirit. If you come into [p. 306] the region of the Spirit you detect and refuse other spirits.
JP And you have ability to do that. You cannot have ability apart from the Spirit.
FER No. If you had not come into the region of the Spirit you would not detect other spirits, and there were plenty of such abroad in that day, and I take it there are plenty in this day; it is not simply detecting the outward, but what is beneath the outward. Take popery or rationalism or unitarianism, it is not that you are deceived by the outward, but you detect the spirit that is underneath. “Try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world”.
WM And that is true exposure.
FER They preserve a fair show in popery, and so too the rationalists, but you want to get at the spirit that is underneath.
WM It is a question of how these things are related to Christ.
FER I think everything depends on how Christ is viewed. The tendency in christendom at the present time is to make too much of the humanity of Christ. I believe in the humanity of Christ as much as anybody does, but I see too much may be made of it. Rationalists try and reduce Him to a man. They bring in the “kenosis”. Popery makes a great deal of Mary, and the great professing bodies are tainted more than they are aware of by unitarianism.
WM That is the spirit which is abroad.
FER It was abroad in the apostle’s day, and so too in the present day; if you look at the outward you are liable to be deceived by creeds and orthodox statements, but you must not trust them. They are not worth much.
JSA What would you think is the force of the test given here?
FER Jesus Christ come in flesh. He is not simply the Man Jesus, but Christ come in flesh. It is the advent of a divine [p. 307] Person.
WM To say that about a mere man would be absurd, because he could not come in any other way than in flesh.
FER Quite so. The point is faith in the pre-existence of Christ, and that He became man.
JP The very form of the expression involves that.
FER It is the truth of the incarnation.
JSA “The Word became flesh”.
WM In this case it is not a question of individuals but of spirits.
FER And I have no doubt that if you get into the region of the Spirit you become sensitive to error. You do not judge of things by creeds. They are deceptive. It was thought in christendom that the Athanasian creed would be a guarantee for orthodoxy. It is not a bit of guarantee. The only preservative from error is the region of the Spirit. There you become sensitive to error. I do not believe much more in orthodoxy than in heterodoxy. Go through the history of christianity; it is difficult to distinguish between the two.
WM I suppose the safeguard is to hear what the Spirit says to the churches.
FER The thing is to get into the region of the Spirit. You get into light, and then you can detect error.
GWH And it is only by the Spirit you can distinguish between error and truth.
JSA And have your senses exercised, and then you discern the tendencies of teaching and books, etc.
FER Exactly.
WB-t Why is the critical point in Jesus Christ “come in flesh”?
FER You believe in incarnation, that is, that Jesus is a divine Person come in flesh.
JSA As you said at the beginning, He is expressed in this epistle as “the true God, and eternal life”, and therefore the test is to recognise Him in the Man Christ Jesus.
FER The Lord speaks Himself about “the Christ”. The Christ came not to be ministered unto, but to minister. So, too, the same thought comes out in Philippians 2, “Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: but made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant”. It was “Christ Jesus” who made Himself of no reputation.
Ques What is the thought of “emptied himself”.
FER Made Himself of no account.
WM I suppose the expression “though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor” is the same thought. He was never rich here.
GWH You were saying it was a good thing to get into the region of the Spirit. Would you say what it is?
FER The Spirit has to maintain us in the consciousness of divine relations. And you get very easily out of this. In Romans 5, “the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit which is given unto us”. He brings the heart into the light and sense of divine love, and you cry, “Abba, Father”. That is where we have to abide. Take the average christian. How much of every day is a christian diligent to take advantage of the Spirit, and to live in the sense of divine relations? Not long, I take it. A good part of the night is taken up with sleep, and a good part of the day with meals and with business, and very little of the day is devoted to the maintenance of divine relations.
GWH Would one who is out of communion not be in the region of the Spirit?
FER I think he has got out of it, or out of the sense of it. He is not in it consciously.
WM And that revelation is life in the christian sense.
FER Yes.
JP I was struck with the way it is put, “And hereby we know that he abideth in us, by his Spirit”. I suppose there is the maintenance in us of the power, the reality of all these things, and that is what is in your thought as to being in the region of the Spirit.
[p. 309] FER Yes. He brings God in to us. We abide in God, and He abides in us.
JP So he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God and God in Him.
JA And you are put in a position to test things.
Rem You do not mean that we should give up our business or the demands on us as men in the flesh.
FER The apostle says, “If a man will not work neither let him eat”.
Rem There are two sides.
FER But often I think people give a great deal more attention to their business than to the cultivation of divine relations.
WB-t Would you say a little about that?
FER The world is exceedingly subtle and there is a temptation to get on in the world which few people can resist. I have not seen many who could.
Rem Mr. Darby explains that in his hymn, ‘As hireling fills his day’. (12:5)
FER I think it was fulfilled in Mr. Darby. He might have done well in the world, but he gave up worldly prospects to be in the region of the Spirit. He was the better man for it. People make mistakes. I have heard the proposition laid down that the man of faith is as well off as the man of means, and I believe it.
Rem He is better off.
FER I would admit that. I have never seen the righteous forsaken nor his seed begging bread. Having food and raiment let us be therewith content. Superfluity is no advantage — certainly not spiritually.
JSA The expression ‘a man of faith’ is not equivalent to a man who has given up his business.
WB-s Why did the wise man say, “give me neither poverty nor riches”?
FER He saw that what was beneficial for man was to have food convenient. Paul said the same thing. It is wisdom. The man of faith is as well off as the man of means, only he must be the man of faith. Read Luke 12,
“[p. 310] your Father knoweth that ye have need of these things;” but then that is piety. The point in this chapter is the region of the Spirit. It is on the one hand the love of God shed abroad in the heart by the Holy Spirit given unto us, and on the other, our maintaining our relations with God. That is what we have to look to.
JWP Is it possible to be in the region of the Spirit and do business?
FER You cannot take up business according to the methods of the world. There are many things which the man of the world can take up which a christian could not take up.
WM Because Christ is his Head.
FER Quite so, and the Spirit would not sanction it. The very first principle in connection with the Spirit is righteousness.
AQR Could a christian properly do that for others which he could not do for himself?
FER I think so. I have not a conscience in what I do for others, but I have a conscience in what I do for myself.
JNH Would you give an illustration of that?
FER If my employer tells me to do something, it is not a question of my conscience, but his conscience. It is no responsibility of mine.
JWP But suppose the thing is wrong?
FER If he wanted me to go and thieve it would be a question of my conscience, and I would not do it; but if my employer tells me to do something in the ordinary course of things which is not immoral, it is not my responsibility.
GR If you were a carpenter, serving an employer, you would work in a theatre or a saloon, but you would not go and build one for yourself?
FER Quite so.
Rem I suppose our business comes in that we may discharge our obligations while passing through the scene?
[p. 311] FER To support your wife and family.
Rem And have something to distribute.
FER If God sees fit to give it to you.
RSS Would you say the great thing is to endeavour to maintain divine relations and to live in the consciousness of them?
FER I take up the admonition in Jude, “Keep yourselves in the love of God”. That is a first principle.
JSA And to do that would not only give rest to the soul, but would practically preserve from evil, too.
FER But the point to my mind is that it is happiness. People like to come into one another’s company and find happiness and pleasure in it. Where are we to find supreme happiness?
RSS In God’s company.
JSA I remember you were saying some time ago that people do not, as a rule, cater for their own happiness.
WB-s “In thy presence is fulness of joy”.
FER You cannot find better company than that of God. We are maintained by the Spirit in the light of God, and the thing is to take advantage of it. God is always available to us.
WM What is the force of bringing love in in this part of the epistle in connection with our responsible path?
FER You cannot always look at yourself abstractly; you can look at yourself abstractly when you are regarded as in heaven, but if you look at yourself here you must take into account your responsible path.
WM On the way to heaven?
FER Yes. For instance, take such a thought as in Ephesians 2, He has “quickened us together with Christ ... And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus”. A passage like that must look at a christian abstractly, because as a matter of fact he is not raised up and made to sit in the heavenly places, but John looks at christians down here,
[p. 312] and hence the question of responsibility comes in. So, too, in Colossians; it is only in heavenly places that you can view persons abstractly.
WM That is, in Ephesians you anticipate heaven.
FER Yes, and hence if you take up christians in that way they are viewed abstractly, as in Christ Jesus. So, when Paul was caught up into the third heaven, he viewed himself abstractly — “a man in Christ”. Take a man off this scene, to which he properly belongs, and view him in heaven, you must look at him abstractly.
WM He has no responsibilities.
FER No. The difference between John’s and Paul’s ministry is that Paul takes the saints up to heaven, but John brings God down to earth. That is John’s ministry from beginning to end, and it finishes up in the Revelation, “the tabernacle of God is with men”. He claims the world for God, and brings God into it. Hence christians are viewed as down here, and the day of judgment comes in.
WM The end of our responsible course is the day of judgment?
FER Yes. But there is a beautiful conclusion at the end of the chapter, “has love been perfected with us that we may have boldness in the day of judgment, that even as he is, we also are in this world”.
WM It gives us perfect confidence in view of the day of judgment.
FER Yes. I connect it with the last verses of Romans 8, “I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord”. The love of God is in Christ Jesus our Lord, and as He is, so are we in this world.
W.M. What does that mean?
FER The love is in the centre of the circle, but then all the circle comes into the love because it abides in the [p. 313] centre. We cannot be separated from the centre and so cannot be separated from the love which rests there.
WM His love is security for everything.
FER Yes.
WB-s Part of the Lord’s prayer in John 17, is that it?
FER Yes.
Ques I was going to ask if we get in Galatians the same thought of responsibility connected with love, “The life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me”?
FER Quite so. Now you have come out of lawlessness into attachment; out of hatred into love, in the christian circle; out of darkness into the light of the Spirit, that is eternal life. What I mean is this, you have the question of eternal life solved, because we have conditions which will prevail in the world to come. In the world to come there is an end of lawlessness. All will be brought into attachment. Then there is an end of hatred, because the love of Christ will give character to the whole scene, and there is an end of darkness, because the light of God is brought in. But the point is that we anticipate all that spiritually.
JSA And you mean that the soul that is living in these conditions is living in that which is eternal life?
FER Yes. He is living in the conditions which the coming of Christ will bring into the world.
WM So the ministry of John brings us to eternal life now?
FER Yes, in anticipation. The other evangelists speak of it in the age to come, but John brings it to us now in the knowledge of Christ. All the conditions are there, the centre, the circle and light. So that for us lawlessness, the world, and the darkness have come to an end. You are in righteousness now, in an atmosphere, and in light.
OO'B That is what you mean by [p. 314] the subjective side — the atmosphere?
FER The subjective side comes in consequent on the objective side. You must get the objective side, then you get the subjective side. If you come into rule rule comes into you, if you come into atmosphere atmosphere comes into you, if you come into light light comes into you, but you must get into it first. The point is, the subjective follows on the objective, and you cannot get the one without the other. The objective is in the apprehension of the conditions, and if you apprehend the conditions, they abide in you.
JSA It is only true of me now in so far as I am actually living in the conditions?
FER Exactly. You must have the objective first, like a child. Take a child born into the world naturally, it comes into rule, but rule comes into it; so, too, it comes into an atmosphere, but the atmosphere comes into it, and it comes into light and the light is in it. It is not at all difficult to understand.
OO'B I do not think it is difficult. I think the difficulty has been before that we had not the subjective side.
FER The one must hang on the other. It is inevitable. The moment a child is born it begins to respire, but there is the air for it to breathe; and the same is true as to the light.
JSA But I think the difficulty was this, in not seeing that we were only entering now anticipatively and in spirit into these conditions. People assumed prematurely that they had it.
FER I will tell you what the difficulty was, people were putting the subjective before the objective.
OO'B That is quite true.
FER Now if you put the subjective following on the objective you will be right, and it is in that sense “no murderer hath eternal life abiding in him”.
OO'B I do not question, we were all wrong. I was for one; but I think this has helped a great many difficulties that [p. 315] we had.
FER I do not think it is possible to have the subjective without the objective in natural things, and the same is true in spiritual things. If you have the objective the subjective must follow.
JP That is, whatever you abide in must abide in you.
FER The same is true in regard to Christ, you abide in Christ and Christ abides in you.
JP But Christ abiding in you depends on your abiding in Christ.
FER Exactly. There must be a beginning morally in you. You must apprehend the conditions first intelligently.
JP And it is the invariable order of statement in Scripture, “If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you”.
RSS And in John’s gospel, have we not in chapter 3 the objective side and in chapter 4 the subjective? That was made very clear to us last time you were here.
FER You could not touch the objective without the Spirit. You could not get attachment without the Spirit nor the atmosphere, nor the light. The apprehension of each condition is dependent on the Spirit.
RSS But in the third chapter you have the mind of God stated.
FER And the Lord gives what you may call the principles in the fourth chapter; the source of everything in you. In other words, you have not got eternal life in chapter 4.
RSS But that which is the source of it.
FER But the source of it and the thing itself are two different things.
JP You have what springs up into it.
RSS And it is He that springs up.
FER But the water that Christ gives is the Spirit, that springs up into everlasting life. You get the testimony, then you get the Spirit, by the Spirit you get the objective, and in getting the objective you get the subjective.
[p. 316] JSA I think the point that is being cleared up is that all life whether natural or spiritual is living in certain conditions. If you do not apprehend those conditions you do not apprehend what it is to live.
FER No creature can live without conditions.
WB-s Is John 3: 16 very comprehensive? Does it not take in both sides?
FER It gives you the testimony of divine love and what divine love intends. It is to the end that you may have eternal life. It is the thought of God that you should have it. How you are going to get it is a different matter, but John 4 brings in the next thing — the well of water springing up. But when the well of water springs up one is like a child newly born. For we all live in the Spirit, and when the living water is received, then it is by the Spirit that we apprehend the divinely appointed conditions. We apprehend that Christ is the centre. We apprehend the christian circle, and the light. You come into the objective, but then the objective is in you subjectively.
JP So he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life eternal.
WM And in chapter 4 the Spirit is essential to the conditions being established.
FER The conditions are there, but you cannot enter into the conditions till you are alive, and that is by living water. You must have the Spirit. The apostle says, “if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his”. So he says, “if we live by the Spirit”.
Rem So new birth does not bring in life of itself.
FER Not according to Scripture. The Spirit gives life.
WB-t Everything depends upon the Spirit.
FER Exactly, in christianity.