READINGS IN JOHN'S FIRST EPISTLE - 1 JOHN 4
READINGS IN JOHN’S FIRST EPISTLE - 1 JOHN 4
One sees that in a day when Paul’s ministry was failing to maintain its first results John’s comes in as a reserve. John speaks of the Son, but with the desire to bring about the liberty of love in the hearts of the saints. When love is lacking, the Spirit cannot effect what He has before Him.
Verse 1 contemplates the activity of “spirits”. “Believe not every spirit, but prove the spirits”. 1 John 4:1. There never was a day when there was more spiritual activity than the present. Men in our days have come to recognise spiritual power, but, alas, it is power of an evil character and source. We are exhorted to prove the spirits. They assume to have the mind of God in taking on a prophetic character: “Many false prophets are gone out into the world”. 1 John 4:1. Jezebel arrogated to herself all prophetic authority, representing the Romish system; but here it is “many”. John in this epistle does not describe the evil as co-ordinated, but speaks of the variety of spiritual activity.
The great movement at the time of the Reformation released men’s minds from a certain bondage in which they were held and since that time there has been great licence for the mind of man to work, but no co-ordination; there are many voices. At the same time, they all, in principle, deny “Jesus Christ come in flesh;” 1 John 4:2. In one form or another, as under Satanic power, they deny that the Son of God became a real Man.
“Jesus Christ come in flesh” involves the condemnation of every man as after the flesh, and that is why these spirits oppose it; they serve the order of man set aside by Jesus Christ coming in flesh and dying. These evil spirits are not simply in the atmosphere, they are in men, and their voices are always being heard. As gone out into the world, they carry the light they obtained in the assembly, but you may see the characteristics of the world in them.
It becomes a question of the Spirit of God or the spirit of imitation — of which are you under the influence? We are to test every voice; does it confess “Jesus Christ come in flesh”? If the voices do not stand the test, we refuse to listen to them. “Jesus Christ come in flesh” does not emphasise the Lord’s deity exactly, but is more to show the order of man that was here for the pleasure of God. We are called upon here to prove the spirits, to prove them by what they are going on with. If they do not confess “Jesus Christ come in flesh” they are not of God, whatever else they may do, or say. These evil spirits oppose the moral bearing of what came out in Christ. In “the systems” they formulate there is the maintenance only of the man set aside in Christ. In the assembly there can be no recognition of that man, but of the Man who has come out from God; and inasmuch as that recognition involves the working out of love, we can see what John has before him.
Doubtless these false prophets once professedly belonged to the Christian company. In 1 John 2 it speaks of those that went out because “they were not of us”. In going out they carried into the world the knowledge of certain facts relative to Christianity, but they have steadfastly worked to defeat the truth.
[p. 136] Judas began this movement — he went out “and it was night”, John 13:30. There are these two great forces at work: the Spirit of God to maintain what has come in by “Jesus Christ come in flesh”, and Satan seeking in every way to nullify it. The position is clearly defined. “Greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world”. 1 John 4:4. The Holy Spirit operates in the Christian company and Satan in the world — the world nominally Christianised. Satan operates on men’s minds; they are ever ready to go on with the man after the flesh. We are in the world in which these spirits are active and we do well to take heed to the word of exhortation and prove them: “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”. 1 John 4:2,3. Does the voice exalt Christ? If it does, every loving heart responds. If it does not glorify Christ it exalts the man set aside by His coming and you have done with it. Bring in the test at once — will it glorify Christ or the man set aside in His death? Is it of God? Otherwise it is of Satan. The test is thus simple.
It says, “They are of the world”; although they may pretend to recognise the Lord Jesus, they are simply of the world. In proving them we take notice of their sayings and actions: “For this reason they speak as of the world, and the world hears them”. 1 John 4:5. We were noting in the Proverbs the man that speaketh “froward things”, Proverbs 2: 12. There is also “the strange woman” that “flattereth with her words” Proverbs 2: 16 but the man has that feature of the world which speaks froward things. Then later in the book it says, “A man of Belial, a wicked person, is he that goeth about with a perverse mouth; he winketh with his eyes, he speaketh with his feet, he teacheth with his fingers” Proverbs 6: 12,13. Early in the book, as noted, he is simply a man that speaks [p. 137] froward things, but in chapter 6 you get development. He brings his principal members into the thing. It is the world of literature and science, the masculine side; and then you have in the strange woman the seductive side. It is Satan in the world operating by these agencies to ensnare and overthrow the people of God. In our chapter you have what corresponds to this: “They are of the world”, whatever their profession this type of man is antichristian. It goes on to say, “Therefore shall his calamity come suddenly”, Proverbs 6:15.
We need to pay attention to the way the apostle John uses that word “of”. It indicates the origin and source of good or evil, The apostles were men who were marked by the character of Christ; they were like Jesus Christ but they were stamped, as you might say, officially as “of God”. They carried with them the stamp of God which is so important. Hence their word is authoritative and final: “We are of God; he that knows God hears us”. 1 John 4:6. So that there is mention made here in a distinct way of God in His representatives and the world in its representatives. The apostles distinctly represented God. It is a fact of immense importance that in this world there were those that represented him and whilst that was true of the apostles in a special way, it is the mind of God that it should be true also of us. We should take up and carry on this representation of God in our measure.
One is struck with the fact that those to whom John wrote are addressed as children. One is speaking of the simplicity of the thing; we are to be marked by affection. Where there is a lack of love, it is because the Spirit of God is grieved and so fails to produce it in those who should have it. The Spirit was given that these things might be wrought out effectually and that the saints might be preserved in love and simplicity, and thus answer to the thought [p. 138] of God in leaving us down here. Satan is seeking to exercise a spiritual influence over God’s people, to draw them away from God’s intention for them. If we are preserved, in self-judgment and dependence these things will have no effect on us. I think the Lord introduced what would overthrow this influence when He instituted His Supper. The Lord’s supper tends to produce mutual affection, and to maintain it. We have got to be preserved here in simplicity, and then all these voices will be detected and we shall not fall under their influence. The Spirit thus has liberty to work among the saints. As we love Christ we are not going to promote anything set aside in His death. We must not argue things out; we are to be simple concerning evil. It is a very simple pathway in which we are found; but the lover of Christ clearly detects what is antichristian. It is not possible for people to partake of the Lord’s supper in a spiritual way and support antichristian ideas.
Discerning of the spirits clears the ground, so that we have a circle free from these things, as it says, “Beloved, let us love one another”. 1 John 4:7. While the evil spirits are discerned, they have no place in this circle. Indeed, they are used by Satan to destroy it. There is now in this world a system of divine affections that God can find pleasure in. What one observes is that so many of the Lord’s people do not know where to turn, there are so many voices; but God has brought about a circle where love is: “Beloved, let us love one another”. Where it is unknown, the dispensation is not understood for it is in it that God is now known. What marks the children of God is of God; God is known in His house. The first paragraph of our chapter clears the ground so that we may reach the circle. The love of God is shown in that He “sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him”. In the circle of the brethren you [p. 139] have life — life is there — so that as in it we are proof against these spirits; and in it we have passed from death unto life. The love of God is active towards us as in the circle. We come into the light of what God is to us. That is what lies behind the Lord’s supper; if we come to it in a spiritual way, love becomes active; and we are developed in love, so that the breaking of bread and the drinking of the cup take on a spiritual meaning. There is light among the brethren and the love is known that God has to us: “God has sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him”. 1 John 4:9. The Lord would greatly help us to be free of these wicked voices that are about. Saints are often baffled by them. But the company of the saints is where the light of God shines, and deliverance from these voices is known. But Satan does not leave us alone; his constant effort is to overthrow and to draw us away from that circle, but God would maintain us in it.
After the spirits are dealt with, we are free to dwell on the wonderful character of God’s love as seen in the sending of the Son into the world that we might have life through Him, and that He might be the propitiation for our sins; then John says, “We have seen, and testify, that the Father has sent the Son as Saviour of the world”. 1 John 4:14. We are made to see the majesty of divine Persons in their intervention in grace; there is a grandeur about that sentence: “The Father has sent the Son as Saviour of the world”; and God would present that even now. Alas, how many real believers are deceived by these spirits! 2 Timothy contemplates such; they are so mixed up and involved in the world that we have to retreat to the knowledge that “The Lord knows those that are his” 2 Timothy 2:19; only He knows all. But we should be on the look out to be of service to everybody represented in the loaf which we break. On the other hand, John’s ministry is to bring to light the children of God: “In this are manifest the children of God”. 1 John 3:10. They are marked by righteousness and love.
In John’s gospel you have the remarkable history of Peter given as John views it. Peter was a true believer, he loved the Lord, but had to appeal to the Lord regarding it, as if he had not proved it in his conduct: “Lord, thou knowest all things; thou knowest that I am attached to thee”, John 21:17.
You could hardly define divine love, it is seen in its results: “Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us”. 1 John 4:10. Through the testimony of this love God has formed a sphere down here in which He dwells. It was through the gift of His Son that we might live through Him. It is through this testimony, as made good in them by the Spirit working in them, that there is a people here in whom God’s love is known, who dwell in love and so dwell in God and God in them. To those people these voices would appeal in vain; the overcomer is described in this epistle. The shining out of God now is contingent on this love-circle. How blessed to be found in the circle in which God dwells — He in us and we in Him! It must be my circle. If I leave the influence of it, I am under that which comes from the world where is developed the man that was set aside by the One who came to make the love of God known.
“No one has seen God at any time”. 1 John 4:12. This is said also in John 1:18. Here it goes on to say, “If we love one another, God abides in us, and his love is perfected in us”. 1 John 4:12. In the gospel it is, “The only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him”. John 1:18. What a remarkable relation there is between Christ in the bosom of the Father for the declaration of God, and God dwelling in us; He is thus known here. The opposition of Satan is specially to what is down here for God. In verse 15 we see that in him by whom Jesus is confessed as Son of God, God abides, and he in God. One would [p. 141] emphasise the greatness of the sphere where divine love is. But how can it be developed in the souls of God’s people if they are indifferent to the Lord’s supper. If the Lord’s supper becomes formal with us there is no development in our affections. One feels that we have to grasp what was in the mind of the Lord when He instituted His Supper. It was not only that we should call Him to mind, but there was to be a development of affection in every one of us as the consequence of partaking of it, to the end that the characteristics of God might be seen.
How to find those in whom the love of God is known is an important inquiry. The Spirit of God is here to indicate it to us. It is a circle where Christ is exalted, and where the man that is set aside by the coming of Jesus Christ in flesh is refused. “Hereby we know that we abide in him and he in us, that he has given to us of his Spirit” 1 John 4: 13. Room is made for the Spirit. There is confirmation in the activities of the Spirit. We may have to go back and look over things historically to determine where we are, but the confirmation of one’s position lies in the Spirit; we get it by the Spirit; one is sure of his position because of the Spirit. We cannot deny the reality of the Spirit in His activities among the saints. Historical things have to be met, for God does not pass over anything. For example, the well-known unfaithfulness of a certain company of eighty years ago remains. If connected with those responsible for it, I must judge it in order to be clear, but then my confirmation as to where I am lies in the Spirit. It is a wonderful fact that the Holy Spirit is here in the assembly (verse 13). “And we have seen, and testify, that the Father has sent the Son as Saviour of the world”. 1 John 4:14. The apostles had testified to that great fact; they had seen and testified “that the Father has sent the Son”. 1 John 4:14. It would apply also in measure to those who are in this circle of love. The message of the gospel [p. 142] would be going out from them. One was thinking, too, of the influence of this circle in relation to the households of His people; God has graciously blessed a great many of our households, but one feels that He would emphasise the majesty of the gospel: “We have seen, and testify, that the Father sent the Son as Saviour of the world”, 1 John 4: 14, should have some answer in us. We should support the apostolic testimony by the conditions in which we are found as dwelling together. One was noticing in the Book of Ezra that in the great recovery of that time, the Sidonians and the Tyrians were given meat and drink and oil to bring cedar trees for the house of God (Ezra 3:7). So now, in the present recovery, God would bring out the full bearing of the gospel; we should go into the region of Tyre and Sidon; Matthew 15. We are not to be limited to the households of God’s people. We should be great enough to bear witness to the universal character of the gospel so that those outside may be brought in.
The testimony is supported in that character of life so perfectly exemplified in the Man Christ Jesus. What is to characterise us in service is what marked Him, who humbled Himself; Philippians 2. That is to be the standard, and we are to know no other; the commandment is to “love one another, as I have loved you”. John 15:12. He indicates and reflects what was in Christ. We must not be selfish, but as those who sacrifice themselves in the service of love. This marked those who gave up their ease and worldly advantage to bring to us these wonderful things; our leaders who spoke the word of God; Hebrews 13: 7. Is there among us, as the people of God, that which suggests this sacrifice? Was it nothing to the Father to send the Son, and for the Son to come? It was self-sacrificing love. We are to sacrifice ourselves in the pursuit of the objects of divine love. Self-sacrifice characterises the circle so that every [p. 143] one who goes out must be characteristic of it. Thus we are able to say, “Whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely” Revelation 22:17.