1 JOHN 2 (NOTES OF A READING)
[p. 393] 1 JOHN 2 (NOTES OF A READING)
Rem “Know” is a very characteristic word in John’s writings. One thought of knowing is conscious knowledge: “That ye may know that ye have eternal life” (chapter 5: 13). Knowing is a great feature of christianity.
CAC Yes, surely. Everything is vague and uncertain to us unless we know.
Ques The thought of commandments is clearly linked with that, is it not?
Rem The word “keep” comes in between (verse 3).
CAC Yes, we keep His commandments. We are not under law, Paul lays that down very distinctly, but we are under commandment. It is the contrast to lawlessness. John tells us sin is lawlessness in this epistle. It is not simply doing wrong things but the principle of lawlessness — that is sin. Man doing what he thinks is right, his own will, that is lawlessness.
Rem The Lord was the exact opposite. He came to do the will of God.
CAC We might have thought if the Lord had done His own will it would be all right, but He disclaims that principle. It would have been the giving up of the whole principle of His life as a Man on the earth. “I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love” (John 15: 10). It was the condition on which that blessed One abode in His love.
Rem And if we keep His commandments we shall abide in His love.
CAC This is the Lord. I think the One referred to here is the One who walked here as Man. The Lord was greatly rejoiced when a gentile soldier recognised the principle on which He was acting. “I also am a man under authority”. He perceived that He was acting under authority and [p. 394] because it was so, He only had to speak the word and the servant would be healed. The Lord was very pleased and said, “Not even in Israel have I found so great faith” (Matthew 8: 9, 10). I suppose the only way to escape from lawlessness is to be under commandment. Is there any other way?
Rem I was thinking it says, “He that loves me not does not keep my words; and the word which ye hear is not mine, but that of the Father who has sent me” (John 14: 24), showing how entirely He was expressing the Father’s word and the Father’s will.
Rem “I know that his commandment is life eternal” (John 12: 50).
CAC The Lord can only be known in an obedient nature. He can only be known in a nature that is kindred to His own nature as Man. We pray sometimes that we might know Him better. The way to it is to be found in that spirit of obedience in which He walked.
Rem That nature is from above.
CAC That is what I was thinking. The Lord introduces the truth of new birth in John’s gospel very early. The first chapter speaks of persons born of God and who have received Christ.
Ques How would you distinguish between “word” and “commandment”?
CAC I suppose a commandment in the principle of it involves subjection to the will of another.
Rem I meant what we speak of as the ten commandments, a particular sort of commandment. This is much wider than that.
CAC I thought so.
Ques Are these commands of the Lord Himself, commandments of love coming from One who does love?
CAC But He Himself becomes the great commandment, we might say. That was in your mind in contrast to a code of rules.
Rem Something akin to sitting at His feet, hearing His [p. 395] word, coming under Him in every kind of way, under His control.
Ques Does it mean doing anything you know that is pleasing to Him? With David’s men, he was their commandment, so to speak, for they had such love for him. If we were on that line we should know Him better.
CAC And if we knew Him better we should be on that line. It is reciprocal. I suppose there is a difference between keeping His commandments in verses 3 and 4, and keeping His word in verse 5.
Ques Would it be right to say that His commandments are the expression of love?
CAC His commandments are the expression of what God’s love would have us be, but His word is the expression of Himself. It is addressed to the individual soul. “In him verily the love of God is perfected”. John is very individual.
Ques Do you think teaching and commandment are very much on the same line? It is one of the things we come to. We are taught so that we should come into line with God’s own thoughts.
CAC A truly exercised soul wants to be freed from every other control and come under His commandments. We want to escape from our own wills and come under divine control — the will of the One we love. We dread our own wills.
Rem The disciple becomes as his Master, perfect in his Master’s teaching, I take it.
CAC Yes.
Ques Is your thought that the “word” is deeper and more comprehensive than the “commandment”?
CAC Yes, His word expresses Himself — the whole tenor of what is expressed in Him.
Rem Philadelphia is commended by the Lord: “Thou hast a little power, and hast kept my word” (Revelation 3: 8).
Ques Do you regard that as a much more [p. 396] personal thing?
It draws out the affections.
CAC The Lord speaks of keeping His Father’s word, does He not? He says, “I know him, and I keep his word”. That is John 8, where there are several references to His word.
Ques Is all that seen in result at the end of verse 6, “Ought, even as he walked, himself also so to walk”?
CAC Yes. The gain of keeping His word is that the love of God is perfected in those that do.
Rem We need the divine capacity to take in His word: “I know that ye are Abraham’s seed; but ye seek to kill me, because my word has no entrance in you”, the Lord said (John 8: 37).
CAC There was no capacity to appreciate His word. One must have the same nature.
‘And with adoring fervour
In this Thy nature grow’. (51:5)
Ques Is there any difference between keeping His commandments and His word?
CAC In the word “keep”, do you mean? I do not know that there is.
Rem ‘Keep’ in John’s writings carries the thought of observe. You do not hide it in a napkin, but positively express and carry it out in your life.
CAC Mary was listening to His word, she was absorbed.
Rem You say the word of the Lord comes to an exercised soul, so the Lord knows exactly what word to give that soul, and then it enlarges and opens out.
CAC Yes, touching all that He is. It makes a very great difference when we read the Scriptures and learn what Christ is. We often do it to get comfort for ourselves, but we shall get greater comfort if we read to know more of Him, and put ourselves under His influence and His control. The thought of affection underlies all this. The thought of keeping [p. 397] His word is a general idea. So by learning Him we learn what is pleasing to Him. We acquire a sense of what is pleasing to Him as was said a little while ago.
Rem In John 14: 23, 24 the Lord links it up so intimately with the Father. “If any one love me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our abode with him ... the word which ye hear is not mine, but that of the Father who has sent me”.
CAC There is room there for everything that pertains to the Father and the Son.
Ques So is it what is positive or negative that is spoken of as engaging ourselves — His word or commandment, or a lie?
CAC Yes. The love of God is perfected. I wonder what that means.
Rem It is not an abstract quality of love in God, but as working out in human hearts.
CAC Yes, it is perfected in the individual. It is illustrated, I think, in John himself.
Ques Is that why John is spoken of as expressing lovability?
CAC Yes, no doubt he was lovable and he can speak of the love of God in a very simple and happy way, as one in whom it was perfected. It seems rather the thought of the appreciation of the love of God coming to maturity in a man.
The love of God shed abroad in our hearts is there in Romans, God’s gospel love, His love to sinners manifested in the fact that Christ has died for them. It is like the first appreciation of the love of God. But John has the thought of it being matured — perfected.
Rem If we love one another His love is perfected in us.
CAC That is very helpful on this point. It is a wonderful thought — the love of God being perfected. It is an unclouded appreciation of it without any shade of misgiving.
Rem “Perfect love casts out fear” (1 John 4: 18).
CAC I was thinking of that scripture. It is God’s perfect love.
Ques Is Philippians 3 on the same line, “As many therefore as are perfect”?
CAC ‘Made perfect’ is ‘full grown’.