GOD KNOWN AS GREATER THAN ALL
[p. 11] GOD KNOWN AS GREATER THAN ALL
1 John 3: 19 - 24; 1 John 4: 1 - 10
JT It is not in mind to confine ourselves to these scriptures, but to call attention to John’s ministry and its peculiar character. The Lord spoke of John and his service in an indefinite and mysterious way in view of the dispensation, leaving the understanding of it open. Answering the inquiry of Peter as to John, the Lord said to him, “If I will that he abide until I come, what is that to thee? Follow thou me”, John 21: 22. If John should remain it would be at His pleasure and this was not a matter for Peter specially to concern himself about. We may conclude from what the Lord said, that we are not to concern ourselves specially about any brother who is ministering; it is right, of course, to pray for all and carry the ministers in our hearts, yet they are the Lord’s ministers and they stand or fall at His pleasure; so the Lord says of John, that it was not specially a matter for Peter. The Lord had thoughts about John, and the Lord’s words would leave the truth open, and suggest that John at least in spirit and character as a servant, was to continue until the Lord comes. With this in mind the thought now is to see that he affords, as indicated in these verses read, the means of victory to the brethren. Even although one may fail, or be wanting in any way the word is, “Hereby we shall know that we are of the truth, and shall persuade our hearts before him — that if our heart condemn us, God is greater than our heart”. It is thought that each of us should have this in mind that whatever happens, God is greater than the believer’s heart and knows all things. If the believer’s heart does not condemn him he can be assured that God will answer his prayers, “Beloved, if our heart condemn us not, we have boldness [p. 12] towards God, and whatsoever we ask we receive from him, because we keep his commandments”. There is a certain assurance to us in these passages, that whatever may happen, not that anything wrong should happen, for God has given us the means of avoiding sin and keeping from it, but if we do sin, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins, and cleanse us from all unrighteousness”, 1 John 1: 9. Then if our heart condemn us, God is greater than our heart and knows all things. This is a great matter to keep before us, because we are so apt to give way and to give up, as we say, if something untoward does happen, especially if it is a serious matter.
HWR Is it by keeping His commandments that our heart does not condemn us?
JT That is what he says: “Beloved, if our heart condemn us not, we have boldness towards God, and whatsoever we ask we receive from him, because we keep his commandments, and practise the things which are pleasing in his sight”.
HWR Almost the same words are used by the Lord Himself in John 14 and 15 as to keeping His commandments, and He says, “Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name he may give you”.
JT It is a very great matter that we have assurance in that sense, but at the same time, even if our hearts do condemn us, we are to know that God is greater. You are thus maintaining your soul in the good of the knowledge you have of Him, in the good of the knowledge of God that is available, and however much condemnation there may be, we know that God is greater than our heart. Thus we should not become weary, however serious the matters that may happen, because God is God, and He intends to give us victory. He intends to bring us home. If we look at chapter 4 we see how frequently the word ‘God’ is used throughout; about [p. 13] thirty times. John and Peter had been diverted from the course of righteousness according to John 21, and they might easily have gone right astray. The Lord did not reprove them at all at first. He called them ‘children’.
HWR What is the difference between our hearts condemning us and our conscience condemning us?
JT The difference is a matter to be looked into. Conscience came in with sin. We cannot say that the heart came in with sin. God made man with a heart.
CMM How do we persuade our hearts before Him?
JT I would say that it is through the knowledge we have of Him. God is pleased to make John available to us for the purpose of showing us the means of knowing God. In his gospel and epistles and in the book of Revelation, John shows us much so that we may avail ourselves of every means of knowing God. So the means of being assured is available to us.
HW There is something very comforting in the thought that God knows all things; He is greater than our hearts and knows all things. Each one should delight in that.
JT If he has the assurance and he is conversant with Scripture, then he knows how God does things. Even a sparrow does not fall without God, much less anything happen to one of His children. God knows about it.
BHT Is it important to know “that we are of the truth”?
JT It is, most important, because it shows the distinctiveness of John’s teaching. It shows the distinctiveness of christianity. John shows in his communications, especially in the epistles, that the truth is available to us, and we are to be lovers of the [p. 14] truth. We are hardly christians at all, unless we love the truth; we might say it is next to loving God.
SPS Would the knowledge of God thus ensure continuity of the truth, despite the weakness?
JT Yes, and as having the system also set up in heaven, in Christ as High Priest we have the means of continuing. The book of Hebrews is written to show us that we have the means of continuing in the truth. The system that God has set up in heaven in Christ furnishes us with all that is needed, not only as to instruction, but with the sympathy of Christ, the sympathy of the brethren too. It is not a small matter that the brethren are sympathetic with each other and so if one is taken in sin, or in some fault, it is said, “Ye who are spiritual restore such a one”. It is not said, ‘If you can’. It is a direct command, it is an obligation put upon us to restore such a one. To restore here means that he is to be set up as he was before. If he was a good brother, a useful brother, then he is to be set up in that usefulness whatever it was. The word ‘restore’ there means or implies that.
HW In that word in Galatians 6, “if even a man be taken in some fault”, the apostle seems to call attention to a matter that might arise, that might be considered very serious indeed; but there is forgiveness possible.
JT We have often noticed that it is not overtaken, but taken in it. The woman in John 8 was taken in a fault. Even if it be so, then restoration is possible, and we might say imperative. It is the business of the brethren to see to it that he is restored.
WS While we know that we are of the truth and persuade our hearts before Him, yet if our hearts condemn us and communion has been marred, is the outlet that God is greater and knows all [p. 15] things?
JT God is surely not any less than any ordinary christian, and such a one would normally do what he could for another christian, and God has shown us that He is not behind in that sense. He is greater than our hearts. He knows our hearts, but He is not condemning them with the rod. He is saying that He is greater, which is a very comforting thought. If there is any condemnation, our hearts condemning us, He knows about it.
PL Would John’s reference to finality in the tabernacle of God with men show how God has risen above all evil to assure His thoughts of love in finality? Would that encourage every heart?
JT He has confidence in man in an abstract way. We cannot say that the tabernacle of God is with men as they are now, many of them wicked. It is a final thought and brings out what God is in Himself. The tabernacle of God is with men, not with angels or with any other being; but with men.
CdeKF Would the ordinary christian you spoke of just now be marked by spiritual judgment? John also says, “Ye have an unction from the Holy One, and ye know all things”.
JT That is a parallel thought, amplifying what we have been saying. The word ‘unction’ there is not the word generally used for the Holy Spirit, but refers to the effect of the possession of the Spirit, the peculiar effect of the Holy Spirit indwelling us, and it affords knowledge of everything. The man in Mark 8 who had the second touch from the Lord saw all things clearly, but this in John’s epistle goes beyond that, for it says that we know all things. Seeing all things clearly would mean that he would, so to speak, have a clear view of the landscape, so that he would not call a man a tree or a tree a man. He would see things clearly and call them by right names, but then the epistle of John implies that we know all things by the power of the unction, so that [p. 16] we have to seek to find out what the word ‘unction’ means and the force of it in the christian. No others have it but christians, not necessarily those who say they believe, but those who are really christians in the true sense of the word, those who are sealed with the Holy Spirit.
WSS Is the thought here to establish the hearts of the saints, notwithstanding the weakness which may be with us, in the knowledge that God is greater than our heart and knows all things?
JT The weakness around us is appalling, but then the heart of the real christian may be condemning him. There must be some cause for it in his own conscience or his own heart, but then the comforting thought is that God knows, that God is greater than our heart. It is a very remarkable thing, that that should be said of God at this point, that God is greater than our heart; the word is in the singular.
PL Is this illustrated in David in 2 Samuel 7? He goes in and sits before God and speaks of Him as “that God” and in various ways does he resort to God as greater than his heart?
JT Quite so, and if we think of Nathan there, while he was a great prophet and a sympathetic prophet too, yet Nathan was not up to the mark at that time. He says to David, “Go, do all that is in thy heart; for Jehovah is with thee”. Well, how did he know the Lord was with David in the matter? To say even as to a man like David that the Lord was always with him, was not necessarily right, for God has to say to David that he was not the man in His counsels; David’s son was the man in the counsels of God. Although David has a unique place eternally with God, yet God does not imply all that Nathan would imply as to David. Nathan should have known too that Solomon was chosen by Jehovah, but he does not say that. He says to David “Go, do all that is in thy heart; for Jehovah is with thee”. Jehovah presently speaks about other things, and another person than David, and that was Solomon, and that he should build God’s house. Nathan did not have in his mind the great thought of sonship. As Nathan thought this over his heart might condemn him, but God and His thought were greater.
LEW Does the condemnation come in as regards our failing in love? He says in verse 19, “Children, let us not love with word, nor with tongue, but in deed and in truth”.
JT The question of failing here is secondary really. If our heart condemn us, there must be some cause for it, but the point is that even that is an opportunity for us to be established in the knowledge of God. Even though the heart may condemn I am acquiring the knowledge of God. That is the great point that has been on one’s mind, that the brethren should be established in the knowledge of God.
HW So that the saints are maintained. John would have in mind that the saints would be maintained in victory to the end.
JT Now passing on to verse 24 of chapter 3, John says, “He that keeps his commandments abides in him, and he in him. And hereby we know that he abides in us, by the Spirit which he has given to us”. Then chapter 4, verse 4, “Ye are of God, children, and have overcome them, because greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world”. Here now we have another thought as to God: that He is greater as in us than he that is in the world. God is greater as in the christian, and so the christian is constituted greater than he that is in the world. The point is, that the greatness is in the christian. The Person who is in the christian is greater than he that is in the world.
HWR Does that refer to the Holy Spirit being [p. 18] in us?
JT I think so, but the general thought in the passage is that it is God. It is a question of God and that God in the christian.
HWR He that is in the world is Satan, I suppose.
JT Yes. The spirit of the world is Satan. The passage is to show us where the greatness is. It is in God, of course, as stated in the first verse, but then it is the Person who is in the christian, and as there He is greater than he that is in the world. It is quite obvious that God is greater than the christian and greater than the christian’s heart, but John says that He is greater as being in the christian than he that is in the world; that is, God Himself inhabiting the christian is greater than he that is in the world. It is not simply that God is in heaven, and that He has raised Christ from the dead, but that in the christian He is greater than he that is in the world.
DMS It is very encouraging to think that God is here in spite of the conditions.
JT That God has a people here too in whom He resides, and He is greater as in that residence than he that is in the world. The devil and all that he can muster, the Alexanders, the Napoleons and the Hitlers, if they were all put into one, would not be as great as God in the christian.
CMM Would our walking in the light of this strengthen our position collectively, resulting in it being testified that God is among you of a truth?
JT Yes — “in you of a truth”.
WS Would you say that recovery from self-condemnation sets us in relation to God and His things, and we see that the things we are linked with are far greater than what obtains in the world?
JT That is the thing, so that as we think of this town and the christians in it we think of God in relation to them. God is saying that they are all [p. 19] His and that He is greater than he that is in the world, not only in Himself, but as in these christians. That is a great matter for God, that He has such people in this city.
CdeKF Why is ministry so often ineffective with those around? Here John says, “He that knows God hears us”.
JT That brings out what apostolic ministry was; the “us” refers to the apostles. It could hardly be said of christians generally.
FAC Paul says, “When I am weak, then am I strong”.
JT He says, “I have strength for all things in him that gives me power”. Whatever anyone might think of him he was conscious that he could do all things by Christ who gave him power. The Lord sent him a thorn for the flesh, and he besought the Lord three times that it should be removed, but He said, “My grace suffices thee”, and therefore Paul says, “Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities”. He may be regarded as weak in that sense, but he says he can glory in his infirmities, that the power of Christ should rest upon him, so that there was no possibility of overcoming Paul.
HW Does John’s ministry have particularly in mind spiritual formation in the saints; that is, the subjective side of the truth?
JT I would think that. He begins his epistle with “That which was from the beginning”. He does not say, ‘He who’, but “That which”. He speaks of Christ, but of the life manifested in Him as Man here. That life was from the beginning of christianity, and the whole epistle works out the idea of life and of what is in the fellowship that belongs to christianity. John says of the apostles, “We are of God”. He also says, as referring to the apostles, “Our fellowship is indeed with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ”. He says “our fellowship”.
[p. 20] That is something to have in mind. It was a question of “That which was from the beginning”, and then he moves on to the thought of the fellowship in which this testimony from the beginning was preserved. The apostles’ fellowship was with the Father and with His Son; that was something particular to the twelve apostles. When John says, “He that knows God hears us”, he refers to apostolic ministry which has peculiar power. As in the testimony the twelve were linked up together with the Father and the Son, so there is no possibility of overcoming the fellowship. The apostles had a fellowship of their own. Many may not follow or understand this, but it remains a fact; it was a fellowship of their own, and it was with the Father and the Son.
AM Does the thought of children have in mind that the character of God is seen in them?
JT There are the persons that John designates as his children even as the Lord did Himself when here. The Lord speaks of the saints as children, which would be the point in the title in Isaiah 9, “The everlasting Father”. The apostle John had the same privilege in measure, and so did Paul, of designating the saints as children. Children of God are specially referred to in chapter 3: 2; “Now are we children of God”. The apostles had a peculiar place, and they had the right and privilege to address the saints as children. None of us would assume to do that now.
LEW The thought of children suggests moral likeness.
JT It would be so whether it be the children of God, or whether it be the children of one of the apostles. The fullest thought as to children is in John 1, that we have the right to take the place of children of God. “As many as received him, to them gave he the right to be children of God”. We have [p. 21] that liberty, God gives it to us, and that dignifies us peculiarly.
LEW I refer to the verse, “If ye were Abraham’s children, ye would do the works of Abraham”. It was moral likeness.
JT That is right. The words “children of Israel” would also carry that thought.
WJS The sense of the greatness of God, and His knowing all things, and that He is greater in us than he that is in the world, would stabilise our hearts to go on in days like the present.
JT The word ‘stabilising’ is good. Our hearts need it.
BHT Largely it is to establish us against the spirit of antichrist.
JT Surely. There are many antichrists, but the antichrist is mentioned specifically by John as if we are to be awakened to the fact that he is nearby, perhaps living in the world already. There is plenty of denying the Father and the Son. It is to warn us of the character of the times; not simply that there are many antichrists characteristically, but there is the antichrist.
BHT The great thought against that is, that here “now are we children of God”; and “Ye are of God, children, and have overcome them”.
JT Just so.
WS The great test for us is whether we are really walking in the fellowship, or are walking in darkness. If we say that we are in the light and yet walk in darkness we lie and do not the truth.
JT That passage is very forceful.
AP What is meant by chapter 3: 6, “Whoever abides in him, does not sin, whoever sins, has not seen him or known him”?
JT It is what is called an abstract truth which is perhaps little understood, but we can never understand John’s epistle unless we understand abstract truth. “Whoever abides in him, does not sin”, is abstract, but then it has a concrete side, and is applicable to christians having the Spirit who walk in the Spirit. Such abide in Christ even as the earth abides in the sun. To abide in Christ is to walk in the truth, to walk as He walked. We cannot deny that if we say that we have no sin we deceive ourselves, but there is this verse that “Whoever abides in him, does not sin”. That is for us to weigh over. It is abstract truth, and applicable to christians under certain conditions.
AM It is said of Israel that God “hath not beheld iniquity in Jacob, neither hath he seen wrong in Israel”, Numbers 23: 21. That would be abstract, would it not? It is how God saw them.
JT Just so. God can say that; He can look at things as He pleases at any time. God has a right to shut out certain things at any time and only look at certain other things and speak of them accordingly.
Ques Referring again to the children and the fellowship of the apostles, and the apostles’ doctrine, does all this serve to emphasise the way in which christianity has been established, and what it is as of God in the world?
JT Yes; what it was at the inauguration. What men the apostles were! What power there was in them! There were twelve appointed by the Lord, and when, through the fall of Judas, another had to be chosen, heaven endorsed the choice.
PL Would the heavenly city manifest in the foundations what men they were; what they were intrinsically?
JT That is good. The description is given in Revelation 21. The names are given in precious stones. Every precious stone indicates an apostle. The precious stones would mean new creation intrinsically. They represent in the highest way what is of God in His creation.
WSS “He that knows God hears us”, in chapter 4: 6, raises the question with us as to our recognition of the apostolic ministry at the present time.
JT Yes. How the apostles adorned the system! Others were added, but even Paul is not mentioned in the list we have in Revelation 21, which brings out the adornment these men afforded by what they were.
PL They were the foundations of the glorious structure in Ephesians 2.
JT Quite so. We should look at the whole of Revelation 21 and what it contains in the sense of apostolic quality and how the assembly is bound up with that.
JH Can we have a little help on proving the spirits?
JT The word is, “Beloved, believe not every spirit, but prove the spirits, if they are of God; because many false prophets are gone out into the world”. So that we have to do with a spiritual realm even in the bad sense, and we are to prove what is of God. The apostle says, “Hereby ye know the Spirit of God: every spirit which confesses Jesus Christ come in flesh is of God; and every spirit which does not confess Jesus Christ come in flesh is not of God: and this is that power of the antichrist, of which ye have heard that it comes, and now it is already in the world”. That refers to the power of the antichrist, it is already here. We might name certain things, or persons in that sense, that have been proved antichristian, and it is very important to be able to look at things of that kind and name them. This chapter is intended to help us to name what is of the world and what is of God, and it is a question not now of physical conditions, but of spiritual conditions; what men are spiritually, even bad men.
CMM Would the expression, “Jesus Christ come in flesh”, involve both His humanity and His deity?
JT Yes, it is a Man of that kind, One come in flesh. Luke would help us to understand that. Luke says, “That holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God”. The expression “that holy thing” shows that the Lord Jesus was intrinsically holy from the very outset, from His birth.
HJR It does not say here that the truth is denied; it is not confessed.
JT Confessing is important. It is not that I am merely saying things verbally, but it is characteristic of me that I confess. Confession has a great place in Scripture.
HW Does it involve that the one who so confesses is marked by the features of that order of man, Jesus Christ, and that he is descriptive of it livingly as well as in what he says?
JT That is so. The confession of it is a matter of testimony. We say the things, not only verbally, but by what we are in all our relations. The confession of this Person means that He is my ideal spiritually. He is a wonderful Person, a Person to be worshipped.
CMM Would both the proving and the confession show that it is incumbent upon us to move in the matter and to be aggressive?
JT It is so.
PL Is the non-confession a proof that one has come under the power of the antichrist?
JT The word is “every spirit which does not confess Jesus Christ come in flesh is not of God: and this is that power of the antichrist”. The person who does not confess “Jesus Christ come in flesh” would range himself alongside what is of the antichrist. As a non-confessor he is building up what [p. 25] is of such a power; it is seen in the matter of associations, unions and such like.
Ques What is the import of “Jesus Christ come in flesh”?
JT It is not simply that He has been alive, but that He has come in flesh. Paul tells us that prior to the incarnation He was “in the form of God”. He was not then in flesh, but as incarnate He partook of flesh and blood. That He has come means that it was His own act, that of a divine Person. He came into flesh, into that condition. It is a very full thought. The word “Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son a propitiation for our sins”, involves Jesus Christ come in flesh.
PL “Ye ... shall die in your sin” (John 8: 21) was said to such as refused to accept who He was.
JT Quite so.
HJR Is the antichrist marked by an aggressive denial of Jesus Christ or by refraining from the confession?
JT It is more than the negative non-confessing which characterises the man who is called the antichrist. “He is the antichrist who denies the Father and the Son”. That is positive, and that is the thing actually. Everyone that is doing that belongs to antichrist. He is of that spirit.
Ques Does it manifest itself in hatred of Jesus Christ and those who belong to Him?
JT Well, the spirit of antichrist is seen in the negative attitude assumed; he is not confessing Jesus Christ come in flesh, which means that the whole truth of christianity is involved. John says, “We have seen, and testify, that the Father has sent the Son as Saviour of the world”. That is what we get as a result of “Jesus Christ come in flesh”.
PL The enemies of the cross are ranged against “Jesus Christ come in flesh”. In John 14 the stability [p. 26] of the system of christianity is seen in this great Person going to the Father.
JT Yes. “Ye believe on God, believe also on me”. The Lord Jesus is there presented as an object of faith, and it is a public matter that we are believers on Christ.