LECTURE 1
LECTURE 1
My object, beloved friends, is briefly to run over this scripture. This epistle is very important and has a place peculiar to itself. The first two chapters are introductory. Chapter 1 shows us the scene morally of Christian fellowship, namely, the light as God is in the light, and the blood of Christ that enables us to be there. It is fellowship with the Father, with His Son, with the apostles, and with one another, and all in the light. In chapter 2 the apostle shows the hindrances and snares to which saints at different stages of spiritual growth are exposed. Chapters 3 and 4 unfold the substance of our blessing, the eternal life, and the way in which it works out in character and practice. Chapter 3 brings in relationship, and chapter 4 the Spirit and knowledge. Chapter 5 gives us the witness of the Spirit and of the water and blood all uniting in this, that eternal life is connected with the last Adam, not the first. It is the present blessing of saints which is before us. Eternal life is not as with the apostle Paul, viewed as the end. If I speak of having a thing in possession, I ought to be able to give some account of it, and to enable us to do this is the object of the great part of the epistle, especially chapters 3 and 4. If it were in promise, it would be secure to me; but if I have it in possession and am unable to give some account of it, it proves that I cannot have really entered into it.
Every one would admit the importance of rightly dividing the word of truth. You can hardly present a greater hindrance to the effect of the word of God than in taking divine ideas out of the connection in which they are set in Scripture. The word must be patiently and diligently studied in detail, for there is no royal [p. 161] road to learning. Study Scripture in detail to get an idea of it as a whole. The Spirit of God alone can put it together as one in the soul, so that you apprehend it as a whole, while you see each part in its proper place. The apostle Paul says it was given to him to fulfil the word of God, and hence it is complete.
I would say a few words to show the contrast between John’s epistle and John’s gospel; these distinctions are of very great importance. First, as to the different way in which the same person is presented to us in each.
In the gospel the Son, though become Man, is presented on the divine side; and in the epistle mediatorially as man, though at the same time the true God; and it is in this connection eternal life to us comes in. To prove it to you, I have only to call your attention to the beginning of each book. (See John 1: 1, etc.) “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God”. The first thirteen verses present an epitome of what He was, and the effect of His manifestation down here; it is not till verse 14 we get incarnation stated. The object of what is recorded is seen in John 20: 31. “These are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might have life through his name”. Jesus (His personal name), the lowly Man, is the Christ, in whom is the accomplishment of the hopes and promises presented in the Old Testament, and at the same time the Son of God who has revealed the Father. He is thus the object of faith, that you might have life through His name. The object for which the gospel was written was to unfold the truth as to the only-begotten Son which is in the bosom of the Father, who has declared God.
In the epistle the same Person is presented to us on another side, as I have said, mediatorially as Man. We have what is true in Him and in us. You must have Christ as Man for that. In the gospel it is rather [p. 162] what is true in the Father and the Son. I have no part in Him as God, for I never cease to be a creature, though I may be richly blessed as such; it is on the human side only we can have any part in Christ. In the gospel He takes the ground, “before Abraham was, I am”. Here in 1 John 1 it is what He was from the outset, that is, of that which the apostles had seen and heard of in Him as Man down here, from a point of which they could take account: the passage may possibly go on to resurrection, but refers to Him down here, as they had actually seen and known and been familiar with Him; but while presenting this, the epistle closes with the positive statement of the divine glory of His Person, He (Jesus Christ) is the true God and eternal life. (See chapter 5: 20.)
Another point of difference between the gospel and the epistle is in the way in which eternal life is spoken of. In the gospel it is referred to as given, and viewed chiefly on the gift side. In the epistle, we have the experimental side, the progress and apprehension of the soul. You must hold to what Scripture teaches on both sides: for instance, in 1 Peter 1 we have saints “called”, “redeemed” and “born again” — this is all what God has done, while in chapter 2: 2-5 we have the advance and progress of the soul to salvation and the apprehension of corporate privileges. The epistles generally are for the instruction and leading on of believers, unfolding the features of their blessings that they may be able to give an account of them. The difference of intent between the gospel and the first epistle of John is seen by contrasting John 20: 31 already quoted, and 1 John 5: 13: “These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God, that ye may know that ye have eternal life”.
One more point of difference is as to the position of Jesus. In the gospel the glory of His Person is unfolded; but He appears as Man here in humiliation, having taken that form in order to suffer and thus [p. 163] glorify God. We have in John 13: 31, “Now is the Son of man glorified, and God is glorified in him”. He took suffering to glorify God. En the epistle, on the other hand, He is seen as Man with the Father. He does not go as Man to the Father till every question in which man was involved was settled. He was equally perfect as Man down here as now in glory. He came from the Father, and it was open to Him to go back at any moment to the place whence He came; but He had become the woman’s seed, and before going back He removed every reproach that rested on man, all the judgment was removed. He can say in resurrection, “Peace be unto you”. In the epistle Jesus is no longer seen in humiliation but in glory. He is as Man with the Father. When He is manifested we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.
But I must return to chapter 1, the point in which is fellowship, and the scene to which it belongs, and in which alone it is realised. Fellowship is what we are called to, it is incidental to our blessing. Our starting point is Jesus Christ as Man with the Father, that is, there could be no fellowship with the Father apart from this. God having been fully revealed, and all that stood between God and man removed: we are admitted to fellowship because of it. The apostle says, “Truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ”.
Here self-interest has no place. In the world everything is more or less tinged by selfishness, we are ever looking after our own interests; but in the light we have all in common-common joys and interests with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ, and with one another in the blessed circle of love.
I want to make plain where morally this blessed circle of love exists, where this fellowship is realised. We are told that God is light, but we have another thought added, namely, that He is in the light. “If we walk in the light, as he is in the light”; God is [p. 164] light, that is His nature, but now He is in the light of revelation, fully revealed in the blessedness of His being. God is in the light, and our privilege as believers is to walk in the light as He is in the light. All Christians are in the light, brought out of darkness into His marvellous light. The Son perfectly revealed the Father, and could say, “He that hath seen me hath seen the Father”, and we are placed in the presence of the Father perfectly revealed in the Son. The Holy Spirit does not reveal the Father. He makes good to us the revelation of the Father in the Son, so that we may enjoy and enter into the blessedness of it. We are brought into the light, and have fellowship one with another, and are clear of imputation, for the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin.
One great consequence of Christ being as Man with the Father is, as we have seen, that we have fellowship with the Father, with His Son, and with one another. A second is that if anyone sin we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. Advocacy is brought in because the effect of sin is to hinder fellowship. The difference between a priest and an advocate is that the priest is for our infirmities that we may not fail, and the advocate, if we have sinned; He is the propitiation for our sins. And now the apostle says, “A new commandment I write unto you”, that which is consequent upon redemption, “which thing is true in him and in you, because the darkness is passing, and the true light already shines”. We stand in the presence of God as fully revealed as He can be, not only in His thoughts, but in His heart and affections. It is wonderful the blessing we are brought into. At the same time the light that reveals exposes all that is in me, but I am not afraid of it, for the light which exposes me has revealed how completely the work of Christ has removed all, and thus it is we enter into fellowship. If I have any truth or light on the word it is not only for myself, but for all, that all may [p. 165] benefit by it; fellowship shares all with others, no selfishness nor separate interests. The effect of the fall was to introduce selfishness, and in order to be free of it, we want the sense of being in the light as God is in the light, where all the blessed love of God is revealed, and we love Him because He first loved us. “Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us”. One of the last things we really accept is that we love Him because He first loved us.