1 John 2:12-17

6. Consolatory warning against the love of the world

1 John 2:12-17

12I write unto you, little children, because your sins are17 forgiven you for his name’s sake. 13I write unto you, fathers, because ye have known him that is from the beginning. I write unto you, young men, because ye have overcome the wicked one.18 I write19 unto you, little children, because ye have known the Father. 14I have written unto you, fathers, because ye have known him20 that is from the beginning. I have written unto you, young men, because ye are strong, and the word of God abideth in you, and ye have overcome the wicked one. 15Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world.21 If any man love the world, the love of the Father22 is not in 16him. For23 all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. 17And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof:24 but he that doeth the will of God abideth forever.

EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL

The structure of 1 John 2:12-14.—The six members are evidently divided into two triads: the thrice repeated Present γράφω, and the thrice-repeated Aorist ἔγραψα, as well as the address τεκνία, πατέρες, νεανίσκοι joined to the Present, and παιδία, πατέρeς, νεανίσκοι joined to the Aorist, clearly intimate as much. The sentences subjoined by ὅτι exhibit the same correspondency, and confirm this arrangement. This has to be proved by the exegesis.

The addresses, 1 John 2:12-14. Τεκνία must be taken here in the same sense as in the other passages of the Epistle where it occurs, 1 John 2:1; 1 John 2:28; 1 John 3:18; 1 John 4:4; 1 John 5:21. It applies to all readers, the whole Church, and should not be made to designate a particular age (as has been done by Erasmus, Socinus, J. Lange), or a peculiarly near relation to the author. The diminutive form is chosen for the sake of intimacy and cordiality, and is indicative of the paternal relation and advanced age of the Apostle. The addition μου, 1 John 2:1, may have a still more intimate sound, but there is no want of intimacy here or in 1 John 3:18; 1 John 4:4; 1 John 5:21, although μου is wanting. It is altogether parallel to ἀγαπητοί, 1 John 2:7; 1Jn 3:2; 1 John 3:21; 1 John 4:1; 1 John 4:7; 1 John 4:11, or to παιδία, 1 John 2:18; 1 John 3:7, (var lect.). Although παιδία is thus rarely used, nevertheless it is used, and, if we take it here=τεκνία, it is used thrice. Hence there is no reason whatsoever why παιδία, 1 John 2:13, should not be applied to the whole Church, but, like πατέρες and νεανίσκοι, be understood to designate a particular age (with Calvin, Luther, Calov, Sander, Neander, Besser, Ebrard, al.), and to disturb the harmony of the structure of this group of sentences. Particularly as the comprehensive παιδία, little children, offered a more natural sequence to πατέρες and νεανίσκοι than τεκνία, little sons. The order in which τεκνία and παιδία occur, forbids their being referred to a particular age, for either νεανίσκοι, πατέρες would have to follow, or πατέρες, νεανίσκοι to go before. Hence τεκνία and παιδία must be construed as denoting the general address, and πατέρες and νεανίσκοι the specialization of church-members, πατέρες describing those of maturer years (πρεσβύτεροι, γέροντες, heads of families, the more experienced), and νεανίσκοι those younger in years. This is the view of most commentators. Augustine’s view, according to which the Apostle refers throughout to the same persons, only designating them by different names from different points of view, is consequently untenable; he says: “filioli, quia baptismo neonati sunt, patres, quia Christum, patrem et antiquum dierum agnoscunt, adolescentes, qui, fortes sunt et validi;” nor must we refer, with a Lapide, the different addresses to a “triplicem Christianorum in virtute gradum; pueri enim repræsentanti incipientes et neophytos; juvenes proficientes, senes perfectos.” Similar explanations are given by Clement, Oecumen., Grotius (with reference to 1 Corinthians 13:11-12; Hebrews 5:13; Ephesians 4:13-14) and others.

The tenses of the otherwise clear verb, γράφω and ἔγραψα, 1 John 2:12-14, present great difficulties. It is clear that ὅτι does not denote the substance of his present or former writing. John writes not that their sins are forgiven, and that they have known the Father, that they have known Him that is from the beginning, that they have overcome the wicked one, that they are strong, that the word of God abideth in them, all this he does not write, and has not written to his church, but other things. Hence ὅτι can only be taken as a causative particle; it denotes the reason and cause of his writing, and must be rendered “because.” It is self-evident that ὅτι, if translated “because” once, must be translated thus throughout, in all the six consecutive places where it occurs, and not be rendered with Luther the first, fifth and sixth time “that,” and the second, third and fourth time “for” (=because).—Socinus, Schott, Sander, Neander translate “that;” Calvin, Beza, Lücke, de Wette, Huther, Düsterdieck, al. “because;” while Erdmann gives to ὅτι a declarative meaning in the first three sentences, without determining whether it should be construed objectively and causatively in the last three sentences. I write—simply defines the act of writing: I write just now what I write, because—. The object is the Epistle, even this Epistle. Now, if John, after this thrice-repeated γράφω signifying this Epistle, says again three times, ἔγραψα, the reference cannot be to the Epistle, neither to the preceding exhortations (Grotius), nor to the first chapter (Calov), neither in respect of the thrice-repeated ἔγραψα to 1 John 1:5-7; 1 John 1:8-10; 1 John 2:3-11 and γράφω to 1 John 2:15-17; 1 John 2:18-27; 1 John 2:28 to 1 John 3:22 (Rickli and Lücke), nor so that the reference is general, the Aorist denoting that part of the Epistle which is already written, the Present the part as yet unwritten, but in process of development [the very act of writing, i.e., the Epistle itself.—M.] (so de Wette, Brückner, Huther) nor can the reference be to 1 John 2:12-13, as if the apostle had said “I write, and I have written, it is a settled thing” (J. Lange, Neander, Sander, Ewald, Heubner, Bengel [“innuit commonitionem firmissimam”), nor are Beza and Düsterdieck any more satisfactory, who suppose the Present to indicate the present stand-point of the Apostle, his present act of writing, and the Aorist to describe the standpoint of the readers after they had received the Epistle, when, of course, it was written;—all these explanations are so many attempts whose very forced and artificial character shows them to be mere make-shifts, which, even in their more simple forms, do not remove the appearance of trifling, and explain as little the position of the Present relating to what follows before the Aorist relating to what goes before, as that the author by this change of tense tears asunder that which he has written from that which he is about to write, both of which belong together as one. If we are thus constrained to think of another writing, we must not think of a previous Epistle (Michaelis), but of the Gospel (Socinus, Lange, Schott, Baumgarten-Crusius, Ebrard, Hoffmann), to which this Epistle is not only nearly related in the exordium, but also in its very kernel and essence. Cf. Introduction, § 8, 3. The consciousness of the importance of the Gospel he had written, fully justifies in the Epistle the threefold repetition of ἔγραψα in consideration of the reasons relating to different groups of persons in the Church, and warranting such repetition; nor can it be thought singular that he had no other reasons (ὅτι) for having written the Gospel than those for writing the Epistle. Nor may an objection be raised to the Apostle’s not specifying the object either of ἔγραψα or γράφω, and his not describing the writing to which he refers, because both the Gospel and the Epistle were in the hands of the readers, and enabled them both to find the necessary explanation, and to prevent possible misunderstanding. [The peculiarly involved statement of Braune renders it desirable to supply the English reader with a more lucid account of the views he advocates. Γράφω, denotes the present act of writing, not only the particular sentence in which that word occurs, but the present Epistle; ἔγραψα, a writing already written, finished and complete in the hands of the readers of the Epistle, to which they might refer; and that writing was the Gospel, which would clear up every doubt, remove every difficulty, and furnish a commentary on the statements and exhortations contained in the Epistle. It must be confessed that this is, on the whole, the most simple and satisfactory solution of a very knotty question, although that advocated by de Wette, Brückner and Huther is not so trifling as Braune, echoing the words of Ebrard, asserts. Said authors explain ἔγραψα of that part of the Epistle which the Apostle had already written, and γράφω of the immediate act of writing, that is, to the Epistle in general; in their view it is proper that John should begin with γράφω while his reference to the part already written by ἔγραψα may be explained by the fact that that part (especially 1 John 1:5 to 1 John 2:11) contains the fundamental principles of the subsequent exhortations and developments. Personally we prefer the view of Braune, but many readers will, doubtless, incline to that set forth by Huther and others.—Ebrard gives the following synopsis of, the two triads:

TRIAD THE FIRST.

TRIAD THE SECOND.

γράφω.

ἔγραψα.

1. τεκνία=all readers.

1. Children (in point of age).

2. Fathers.

2. Fathers.

3. Young men.

3. Young men.

and Wordsworth (who, however, does not discuss the details of his arrangement, and carries the series down to 1 John 2:28) makes a series of seven, closed by an eighth, the octave of the first, with a symbolical reference to the number seven and eight. His arrangement is this:

γράφω ὑμῖν, τεκνία, 1 John 2:12.

γράφω ὑμῖν, πατέρες, 1 John 2:13.

ἔγραψα ὑμῖν, πατέρες, 1 John 2:14.

γράφω ὑμῖν, νεανίσκοι, 1 John 2:13.

ἔγραψα ὑμῖν, νεανίσκοι, 1 John 2:15.

ἔγραψα ὑμῖν, παιδία, 1 John 2:13.

παιδία, ἐσχάτη ὥρα ἐστί, 1 John 2:18.

καὶ νῦν, τεκνία, μένετε ἐν αὐτῷ, 1 John 2:28.

This arrangement is more curious than valuable or logical, and merely added to complete the catalogue of representative views begun above. M.].The reasons of the Apostle’s writing 1 John 2:12-14.

First series, 1 John 2:12; 1 John 2:18 b.

1 John 2:12. I write unto you, little children, because your sins have been forgiven you.—The Perfect ἀφέωνται (See Winer, Grammar, § 14, 3, p. 98, on the form of this word) points to the forgiveness of sins, mentioned 1 John 1:8, sqq.; 1 John 2:1-2, as a completed fact, which, as a ground whereon they stand, as a sphere wherein they move, as a benefit they have received, has and is to have on them and the rest of their life a lasting effect and an efficient power. [The forgiveness of sins is the ground of the Christian life.—M.]. Vulg., Augustine and Calvin render falsely “remittuntur,” so Luther, “are forgiven you,” [and E. V.—M.] For His name’s sake. The reference is not to Him who forgives sins, God the Father, but to Him, for whose sake the Father forgives; that is Christ; for διὰ with the Accusative is not per, through (instrumental), but propter, on account of, for the sake of, indicating the ground of the forgiveness of sins, and here, where the cordiality of the address (little children), and the direct application to the persons addressed (I write unto you, your sins have been forgiven you), are to be brought out, it denotes the objective ground, rendered subjective: since His name is with you, in you and among you; His name is He Himself and what He is, but revealed and known, believed and confessed; hence=since ye have believed on Him, confess and invoke Him, individually and collectively, and since He has manifested Himself and may yet further manifest Himself as ἱλασμὸς, παράκλητος; consequently for Christ’s sake in you. Thus we might combine with Neander the explanation of Düsterdieck, who insists with the majority of commentators on the objective ground of the forgiveness of sins, and that of Luther, who understands the subjective ground. [Neander says: “He comforts them with the assurance of sins forgiven through the mediation of Christ. For the name of Christ are their sins forgiven; that is, for the sake of what Christ is as the Son of God and the Son of Man, the divine-human Redeemer—it being as such that they invoke Him as their Mediator.”—M.].

1 John 2:13 a. I write unto you, fathers, because ye have known him that is from the beginning.—Ὁ άπ̓ ἀρχῆς, according to 1 John 1:1 and the context, can only signify Christ, with reference to His eternal, Divine Nature; for the ἀρχή reaches beyond the beginning of time and of the world, into God’s eternal life, and must not be weakened into “initium novi fœderis et evangelii patefacti” (Socinus). Grotius and a Lapide, without all contextual sanction, explain “novistis Deum, qui Senex dierum,” Daniel 7:9; Dan 13:22. Ἐγνώκατε consequently denotes only the more profound understanding of the nature and eternal glory of Christ, spiritual knowledge, and not personal acquaintance, not even on the part of some (Bengel: “vivebant patres eo tempore, quo Christus in terris fuerat conspiciendus, et eorum nonnulli eum et facie et fide, omnes fide cognorant”) so the ἐγνώκατε τὸν πατέρα, 1 John 2:13 c must on no account be explained of personal acquaintance. Nor does this exhortation warrant the idea that the Fathers, the aged, love to hear and talk of old things, and that to them, in particular, knowledge ought to belong. (The Greek Fathers, Augustine, Erasmus, Luther, Calvin, Neander). But more profound knowledge in general, and knowledge of Jesus Christ, His Person and work in particular, is peculiarly suited to the calmness and experience of old age.

1 John 2:13 b. I write unto you, young men, because ye have overcome the wicked one.—While young men are exposed to the power of temptation in respect of the world, both within and without, they have also fresh vigor and courage to fight against and overcome the wicked one, τὸν πονηρόν, the devil, who is thus designated in the N. T. in general (Matthew 13:19, cf. Matthew 13:28; Matthew 13:38, sq.; Ephesians 6:16); and in this Epistle in particular (1 John 3:12; 1 John 5:18 sq.) Carpzov: “Viris fortibus et robustis tribuitur supra fortissimum et robustissimum victoria.” But we must not narrow the idea with Bengel, who says: “Insigne quoddam specimen virtutis a juvenibus, quibus scribit, exhibitum, cujusmodi erat constantia confessionis in persecutione Domitiani, itemque reditus juvenis illius, quem apostolus summa mansuetudine a lactrocinio ad pœnitentiam reduxit, suavissime descriptus a Clemente Al. lib. quis dives salv. c. 42, ab. Eusebio H. E., lib. 3, cap. 20 et a Chrysostomo, Paræn. 1 ad Theodorum lapsum, cap. 11. We may think of it, but take it in the widest reach. That which John says to all, the τεκνίοις, that their sins have been forgiven, applies indeed to all, and it does not apply exclusively to the fathers, that they have known the Lord, or exclusively to the young men, that they have overcome the wicked one; for it may be that there are fathers who have just gained the victory, and young men who have acquired profound knowledge; but besides the general truth of the forgiveness of sins, those particular affirmations are admirably distributed among the different classes, and only possible and real on the condition of that general declaration. “Christian life-truth is essentially one; in whichever direction its riches may be developed, or to whichever relations it may be applied, all these different exhortations and instructions are always of one casting, resting on one foundation, and animated by one spirit” Düsterdieck). But John has a particular word, a word of peculiar application for the whole Church, as well as for the separate groups and individuals.

Second series, 1 John 2:13 c–1 John 2:14.

1 John 2:13 c.—I have written unto you, little sons, because ye have known the Father. To know the Father, that is, to know God as our Father, to cast deeper looks into the peace-thoughts of His heart concerning us, into the holy Love which is His Being, is possible only in the more intimate converse with Him which He opens in the forgiveness of our sins and our reconciliation. The child, with its child-like ways and mind, with its humility, attachment, diligence, teachableness and receptivity, is nearer to God than an adult. Here also apply the words, “Become as little children” Matthew 18:3. It is easy to see that we have here the parallel of the clause, “Because your sins have been forgiven you;” adoption and forgiveness of sins interpenetrate each other, and more than mere correlates. He now writes to the fathers precisely the same thing as before:

1 John 2:14. I have written unto you, fathers, because ye have known Him that is from the beginning.—His object is not to write something else; for he has rightly divided the word.

I have written unto you, young men, because ye are strong, and the word of God abideth in you, and ye have overcome the wicked one.—“Alii juvenes corpore, vos fide.” (Bengel). Matthew 12:29; Luke 11:21, sq.; Hebrews 11:34. It is the strength of the Spirit for the combat and victory, the strength of their own spirit, and derived from the Spirit of God, given from above, through and with the adoption and the forgiveness of sins. The ἀγγελία (1 John 1:5). with the ἀλήθεια 1 John 1:6; 1 John 1:8; 1 John 2:4), in the word of God, (1 John 1:10; 1 John 2:2; 1 John 2:5; 1 John 2:7), creates and moves this vital strength and vital courage for the combat. Hence ἰσχυροί ἐστε is immediately followed by καἱ ὁ λόγος τοῦ θεοῦ ἐν ὑμῖν μένει. Ὁ λόγος τοῦ θεοῦ, therefore, does not denote Christ, although He is the centre and star of that word. The word of God, with its eternal power, must not only be brought to them, but it must have entered into them and remain in them; then it happens: καὶ νενικήκατε τὸν πονηρόν. The strength is grounded on the word of God, which abides in them (μένει), and in virtue of this strength they have overcome the devil [the thought belongs to Huther—M.]; the decisive battle, of course, has been fought by Jesus Christ, but His people ought to follow up His victory by continuous warfare, and gain further triumphs in their heart and sphere of life, cf. John 16:33. A retrospective view of the preceding verses, assigning the reasons for the Apostle’s writing and having written, characterizes the readers as possessing not a small degree of Christian knowledge and ability, and the writings in question as taking for granted such a degree of Christian culture. While we may therefore think of the Epistle and the Gospel, we cannot say with Ebrard that the Gospel is wholesome and pleasant food for the little ones (παιδία), but that the Epistle can be understood by adults only. Now has been laid down an important and sure foundation for the subsequent warnings and exhortations (Luther, S. Schmid, Episcopius, Bengel, Lücke, de Wette, Düsterdieck, al.): You have received and acquired so much, and succeeded so well, that you ought to progress, and not to retrograde! You stand in life-fellowship with God—do not dissolve it!

The warning. 1 John 2:15 a. Love not the world, neither the things in the world. The correct exposition of the whole depends on the meaning of ὁ κόσμος, which signifies according to Suidas: εὐπρέπ ιαν, τὸ πᾶν, τάξιν, τὸ πλῆθος, or according to Hesychius: κάλλος and then the beautiful fabric of the material universe. “Quem κόσμον Græci nomine ornamenti appellaverunt, eum nos a perfecta absolutaque elegantia mundum” (Plinius. H. N. 2, 3). The LXX do not apply the word κόσμος, strictly taken, to the universe. In the New Testament we find it used in all these senses, 1 Peter 1:3=εὐπρέπεια, τάξις; Acts 17:24; John 21:25; John 17:5; Matthew 24:21; Revelation 12:8; Revelation 17:8=τὸ πᾶν, and especially by John in the Gospel, John 1:9; John 11:9; John 12:19; John 18:36; 1 John 2:2; 1 John 4:1; 1 John 4:3; 1 John 4:9; 1 John 4:14.=the creation of the earth, especially of the world of man (Düsterdieck)=τὸ πλήθος. Now the difference between οὖτος ὁ κόσμος τὰ κάτω and τὰ ὃνω (John 8:23), which is at the same time the opposite of both, makes κόσμος to denote the whole kingdom of sin and death, inimical to God, under Satan its prince, and more particularly the world of man as fallen away and estranged from God (John 12:31; John 14:30; John 16:11, 1 John 4:4; 1Jn 5:19; 2 Corinthians 4:4; Ephesians 6:11, sq.). But all this without the faintest trace of dualism. For the κόσμος, as originally created by God, was very good (cf. Genesis 1:31, with John 1:3; John 1:10), but became evil and is the object of redeeming love (John 3:16; 1 John 2:2; 1 John 4:14), so that the children of the world become the children of God in their faith in Christ and His Word (John 1:12; John 12:45-50); there is no man who is not first born flesh of the flesh, and yet born spirit of the spirit may not and should not become the child of God (John 3:6; 1 John 3:9; 1 John 3:14),—Now the sum-total of this earthly kingdom of evil is alternately applied in a real sense to the earthly sphere in general, and in a personal sense to the world of man, sinful, and abiding in sin; and these two conceptions frequently and easily play the one into the other. The present passage must be interpreted by the usus loquendi current in the N. T., and we must “lay down the rule that κόσμος bears the same meaning in all the three verses, so intimately connected together” (Düsterdieck). We cannot say with a Lapide “omnibus hisce modis” (i.e. three different meanings: “1. homines mundani, in his proprie est concupiscentia; 2. orbis sublunaris, in hoc mundo proprie et formaliter non est concupiscentia; sed in eo est concupiscentia materialis i.e. objectum concupiscibile: 3. ipsa mundana vita vel concupiscentia in genere): omnibus hisce modis mundus hic accipi potest et Johannes nunc ad unum, nunc ad alterum respicit; ludit enim in voce mundus.” Points of support necessary to the right explanation of our passage are these: κόσμος is the opposite of God, it is a whole consisting of various parts and members, it is easily the object of love: it has a life, but lacks permanence and endurance. Hence it is evidently the earthly sphere of life, especially as filled with the world of man and opposing God, whose real side often alternates or concurs with its personal side; as applied to things, we have to think not so much of trees, flowers, mountains and stars as of whatever forms part of and constitutes the world of man, such as rank or dignity, possessions and gifts of the mind and of the body and such like. Consequently the κόσμος must not be taken as the sum-total of transient creatures as far as they are natural things as Lücke (sum-total of all sensuous manifestations, exciting sensuous pleasure), with whom we must rank, de Wette, Brückner, or J. Lange (systema totius mundi), Neander (the world and worldly things), and others construe the word. But equally objectionable is the interpretation which makes κόσμος=the evil inhering in the world, as given by Greek authors (ἡ κοσμικὴ φιληδονία καὶ διάχυσις), Luther (=the world, i.e. ungodliness itself, human passions according to which man does not rightly use the creature), Calvin (omne genus corruptionis et malorum omnium abyssum), Morus (malum morale) Semler (vulgata consuetudo hominum, res corporeas unice appetentium), Erdmann (totus complexus et ambitus mali), Ebrard (τὰ ἐν τῷ κόσμῳ=kinds of sinful living, thinking and demeanor e.g. covetousness, ambition, sensuality.—M.]). Lastly, we must not limit the application of κόσμος to “the heathen world” (Lange), “the mass of ordinary men” (Oecumenius: ὁ συρφετὸς not συνφυτός, as Braune corrects M.] ὄχλος, ὅς οὐ τὴν τοῦ πατρὸς ἔχει ; Calov.: homines dediti rebus hujus mundi), “the major part of men” (Grotius: humanum genus, secundum partem majorem, quæ in malis actionibus versatur), “to that part of the world which constituted the anti-christians” (Storr, Socinus). Cf. Düsterdieck and Huther ad loc. [the latter giving all the passages cited by Braune.—M.].—Now while John, according to the Lord, urges love, notwithstanding John 3:16 : οὕτως ἠγάπησεν ὁ θεὸς τὸν κόσμον he says here: μὴ . There is a difference, if the Lord our Saviour and Redeemer, who is above the world, loves, or if we love that are of the world, needing salvation, although salvable. To love is to surrender oneself; God surrenders Himself in order to save, overcome and glorify; the creature can only surrender itself to the world to be ruined, swept along and carried off. The creature is forbidden to enter into intimate and vital communion, or entire life-fellowship with that sphere of humanity which has fallen away from God. The Saviour does it in order to save from it those who suffer themselves to be seized by Him.—Μηδέ=but not even, or no, not even. The Apostle consequently draws a sharp distinction between τὸν κόσμον and τὰ ἐν τῷ κόσμῳ, the whole or the general, and the particular or the specific. You are not even to love a particular, a specific part of the κόσμος; one may be fascinated by this thing, another by that, it all amounts to the same; the love of the world is there where we find the love of the particular or of one particular in the world, be it the gold of the earth, which is highly valued among men, or human wisdom, or honour with men, or power and dominion, or only influence of a less degree and in a limited sphere.—This warning is obviously addressed to all, the πατέρες and νεανίσκοι. “Omnibus hæc generaliter ecclesiæ filiis scribit” (Bede). It is not said to the children only (Oecumenius); for παιδία and τεκνία, denote the whole church (see above); nor to the young men only (Bengel, Sander, Besser), although it follows the last address. The next verse, which is purely general, as well as the import of this warning, require us to understand it as being universal in its application.

The reasons. 1 John 2:15-171 John 2:15-171 John 2:15-17.

First reason. 1 John 2:15 b, 1 John 2:16. If any one love the world, the love of the Father is

not in him.—“Unum cor duos tam sibi adversarios amores non capit.” (Bede) “Contraria non sunt simul” (Bengel). Since ὁ κόσμος is the object of love, since the Apostle is concerned with the love of the world and the heart of man which loves, ἡ is of course our love of the Father; for the love of the Father is not incompatible with the love of the world (John 3:16). Hence ἀγάπη τοῦ πατρὸς denotes neither “amor Patris erga suos et filialis erga Patrem” (Bengel), nor “the love of God toward us” (Luther II., Calov.), nor the “caritas quam Pater præscribit” (Socinus). We have here the same antithesis which is noted in Matthew 6:24 : θεῷ καὶ μαμωνᾷ δουλεύειν, Romans 8:5 (σάρξ and πνεῦμα), 1 John 2:7 (φρόνημα τῆς σαρκός ἔχθρα εἰς θεόν); 2 Corinthians 6:15 (Χριστὸς and Βελίαρ); James 4:4 (ἡ φιλία τοῦ κόσμου ἔχθρα τοῦ θεοῦ and in this Epistle 1 John 1:5 (φῶς and σκοτία). This is the reason of the warning against the love of the world; the love of the world is incompatible with the love of God, as our Father; the love of the world cannot consist with the sonship of God. [Christians are the children of God, God is their Father; their vocation is to love their Father, not to love the world.—M.]. This is explicitly brought out in

1 John 2:16. Because all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. The connection of this verse with the one preceding by ὅτι=because, compels us to emphasize πᾶν; for, because there is nothing in the world, the κόσμος, which is of the Father, the love of the world is utterly incompatible with the love of the Father.—Πᾶν τὸ ἐν τῷ κόσμῳ is evidently not identical with τὰ ἐν τῷ κόσμῳ (1 John 2:15); the Singular denotes the transition from the particular to the unit: what is in the world is conceived as a whole, a totality comprehending the particular; hence the reference is not to objects only, as all those maintain who make it identical with τά ἐν τῷ κόσμῳ (although Ebrard’s exposition correctly adverts to particular forms of demeanour, and Düsterdieck speaks of a “transformation of the conception of the objects of the love of the world into the conception of subjective love itself and its essential modes of representation”); still less to persons (“omnes mundi dilectores non habent nisi concupiscentiam” Bede); but as Huther excellently puts it: “All that which constitutes the substance, i.e. the essence of the κόσμος, its inward life, which animates it.” The apposition indicates the nature of πᾶν τὸ ἐν τῷ κόσμῳ, and shows how we are to take, and what is the true import of these words. The apposition has obviously respect to life-manifestations in the world of man; the whole, the sum and substance, the totality of those life-manifestations in the God-forsaken world of man, is not of God, but without, and opposed to God. In dealing with the difficulty connected with the exposition of the apposition: ἡ ἐπιθυμία τῆς σαρκὸς καὶ ἡ ἐπιθυμία τῶν ὀφθαλμῶν καὶ ἡ , we have to remember that all the three clauses must be taken as coördinated, and that the Genitive must be construed alike in all three cases. The three ideas are placed in juxtaposition by καί. Hence Düsterdieck errs in making ἡ ἐπιθυμία τῆς σαρκὸς the principal idea governing ἐπιθυμία τῶν ὀφθαλμῶν and ἀλοζονεία τοῦ βίου. This is confirmed by the explanation of the separate ideas. In ἐπιθυμία τῶν ὀφθαλμῶν we have evidently the Genitive of the subject; it cannot mean: lust after the eyes. We have therefore three times the Genitive of the subject. In ἐπιθυμια τῆς σαρκός the Genitive of the subject is analogous to the idea: ἡ σὰρξ ἐπιθυμεῖ (Galatians 5:17), and to the grammatical usage of the N. T., where, with the exception of 2 Peter 2:10, the Genitive connected with ἐπιθυμία always denotes the subject; but σάρξ denotes here what it signifies elsewhere, e.g. in Ephesians 2:3 (ἐπιθυμίαι τῆς σαρκὸς.) 1 Peter 2:11 (αἱ σαρκικαὶ ἐπιθυμίαι), the desire, the lust of the flesh, as suggested by the antithesis of πνεύματι ἄγεσθαι, ἐν πνεύματι περιπατεῖν. Limitations like those of Augustine (“desiderium earum rerum quæ pertinent ad carnem, sicut cibus et concubitus et cætera hujusmodi”), Grotius, Baumgarten-Crusius, Sander and Besser, who agree with him, or those of Brückner, who suggests “carnal lust in the strict sense,” Bengel (“ea quibus pascuntur sensus qui appellantur fruitivi: gustus et tactus,) Gerlach (“every kind of the lust of enjoyment”) and Ebrard (“sexual enjoyments”)—are not in agreement with the context and more or less arbitrary. Only the limitation required by the coördinated ἐπιθυμία τῶν ὀφθαλμῶν is justifiable; but even this is an ἐπιθυμία, and as such equal to the former, yet not τῆς σαρκὸς, but τῶν ὀφθαλμῶν. This ἐπιθυμία must not be subordinated to the former (as is done by Lücke, de Wette and Düsterdieck), but it is coördinated with it. Nor must the Genitive be taken at once subjectively and objectively: “the lust of the eyes, and at the same time that, wherein as the sensuous-worldly, the eyes delight themselves” (Brückner). The lust of the eyes has respect to seeing, consequently the lust to see, and to see that which is the object of such lust. Hence Spener explains correctly: “all sinful lust which seeks for enjoyment in the very seeing,” and so does Huther: “the desire of seeing that which is unseemly, and the sinful gratification afforded by seeing it.” Hence it must not be restricted to “omnis curiositas in spectaculis, in theatris” (Augustine, Neander); nor is it sufficient to say with Calvin: “tam libidinosos aspectus comprehendit, quam vanitatem, quæ in pompis et inani splendors vagatur.” Nor may it be referred with Bengel to “ea, quibus tenentur sensus investigativi, oculus sive visus, auditus et olfactus.” Nor must extraneous ideas be added thereto, so as to make it denote a desire of possession excited by sight (Rickli), or straightforth πλεονεξία (Luther, Socinus, Grotius, Lorinus, Wolf, Baumgarten-Crusius, Gerlach, al.), or even “the whole sphere of the desires of selfishness, envy, covetousness, hatred and revenge” (Ebrard). Thus the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes are arbitrarily distinguished from each other or rather confounded, since the former is taken as sensuality and the latter as covetousness, or vice versa. The eyes, instruments of the senses, are preëminently the ministering members of the life of the soul and the spirit: here is flesh, become transparent, whereby surrounding objects and manifestations produce impressions on the life of the soul, and the soul requires insight of them. As the Scripture draws a distinction between grass and the flower of grass, and understands thereby the flesh and the glory of the flesh (1 Peter 1:24 : σὰρξ ὡς χόρτος and πᾶσα δόξα αὐτῆς ὡς ἄνθος χόρτου), and thus points beyond the nearest sphere of carnal life to the life-sphere of the soul, so we may distinguish the ἐπιθυμία τῆς σαρκός from the ἐπιθυμία τῶν ὀφθαλμῶν in such manner that the former denotes absolute, purely sensuous lust, and the latter lust which through the instrumentality of the soul, points to the spiritual sphere of life. It is noteworthy that as Peter subjoins the words (1 John 2:25) “τὸ δὲ ῥῆμα τοῦ θεοῦ μένει εῖς τὸν αἰῶνα,” so John has almost the identical addition: “ὁ δἐ ποιῶν τὸ θέλημα τοῦ θεοῦ μένει εἰς αἰῶνα.” Hence the former includes all the desires of possession and enjoyment, of covetousness and sensuality, of vulgar or refined form, while the latter embraces the desire which longs for, seeks and finds gratification in social intercourse and the manifestations of social joys, in works of art down to the rude outbreaks of festal joy.—To this is now added as a third καὶ ἡ . While ἐπιθυμία refers twice to acquisition, ἀλαζονεία has respect to spending. The noun occurs, besides this place, in the N. T. only at James 4:16 : ἐν ταῖς , the adjective in Romans 1:30, after, and in 2 Timothy 3:2, before ὑπερήφανος. In classical Greek it signifies arrogance and vaunting, with the secondary idea of untruthfulness and boasting about one’s rank or wealth. In James it evidently denotes the outbreaks of that arrogance which overlooks the vanity and nothingness of earthly happiness, and boastingly confides in it. The ἀλαζών is the vain braggart at whom and with whom one may perhaps smile; the ὑπερήφανος is the haughty man, who is irritable and injurious; the one recognizable in the national character of the French, the other in that of the English. The Genitive τοῦ βίου, of the life, with reference to sustenance and necessaries, as is evident from 1 John 3:17; Mark 12:44; Luke 8:14; Luke 8:43; Luke 15:12; Luke 15:30; Luke 21:4; 2 Timothy 2:4, designating occasionally personal property (living), indicates the side on which this braggart arrogance does and is wont to appear, as well where there is little or great abundance as where it is merely coveted and want is concealed; braggart arrogance is wont to appear in connection with bodily sustenance and necessaries. Augustine: “Jactare se vult in honoribus, magnus sibi videtur, sive de divitiis, sive de aliqua potentia.” Bengel: “Ut velit quam plurimus esse in victu, cultu, apparatu, suppellectili, ædificiis, prædiis, famulitio, clientibus, jumentis, muneribus, etc., Revelation 18:12. Chrysostomus appellat τὸν τῦφον τὸν βιωτικὸν et τὴν φαντασίαν τοῦ βίου.” Examples occur in Genesis 11:2-4; 1 Chronicles 22:1, sqq.; Ecclesiastes 2:1, sqq.; Ezekiel 28:12-19; Daniel 4:27; Revelation 17:4-6; Revelation 18:4-7. So Lücke, Sander, Besser and Huther; Neander, Gerlach and Düsterdieck may be included in this category. Hence it is not correct to restrict the meaning to ambition, superbia, ambitio (Cyrillus, Socinus, al.).—We should hold with Bengel that: “Non coincidunt cum his tribus tria vitia cardinalia, voluptas, avaritia, superbia: sed tamen in his continentur.” The hypothesis that this trinity contains, a complete indication of all the forms in which evil is apt to manifest itself, has become traditional, and goes so far that Bede following Augustine said: “Per hæc tria tantum cupiditas humana tentatur; per hæc tria Adam tentatus est et victus; per hæc tentatus est Christus et vicit.” A Lapide actually discovered in them the correlatives of the three Persons of the Holy Trinity answering to the three primariæ virtutes, continentia, caritas, humilitas [which according to Huther are closely connected with the three monastic vows of chastity, poverty and obedience.—M.]. The majority of practical expositors have followed this track with various modifications, even Pascal (Pensées, 28, 55) says: “libido sentiendi, sciendi, dominandi.” Lücke very rightly opposed this interpretation and maintained that the point in question did not relate to cardinal vices, but to the chief forms (Brückner; “leading Masses”) of worldly-mindedness. These, as Bengel observes, sustain an intimate relation to one another: “Etiam ii, qui arrogantiam vitæ non amant, tamen concupiscentiam oculorum sectari possunt, et qui hanc superarunt, tamen concupiscentiam carnis persæpe retinent: hæc enimprofundissima et communissima, apud minores, medioximos et potentes: apud eos etiam, qui abnegationem sui colere videntur; et rursum, nisi vincatur, ab ea facile progreditur homo ad concupiscentiam oculorum, ubi materiam habet; et ab hac ad superbiam vitæ, ubi facultatem habet; tertioque includitur secundum, secundo primum.” Thus ambition is ἐπιθυμία τῆς σαρκός only in so far as it wants to cast others in the shade, it is ἐπιθυμία τῶν ὀφθαλ μῶν as far as it aims at recognition and marks of recognition, and it is ἀλαζονεία τοῦ βίου as far as it is indulged in the consciousness of position and wealth, and in every form there are degrees of intensiveness and coarseness. The same holds good of avarice, voluptuousness and the love of pleasure. We have here by no means a complete catalogue of the biasses and forms of manifestation of evil. Unlovingness specified above (1 John 2:2-11) and mendacity mentioned below (1 John 2:18-20) although connected with this [trichotomy M.], are not contained in or denoted by it. Hence Luther, followed by Sander, rightly observes: “These three particulars are not of the Father: 1. Hatred of the brethren. 2. The three idols of the world. 3. False and corrupt doctrine.—The terms ἐκ τοῦ πατρός, ἐκ τοῦ κόσμου εἶναι denote origin and indicate similarity, congruity and connection. This is the profound truth that nothing is esteemed with God except His own Image; whatever is to have respect to Him, to belong to Him, to be, and able to be united with Him, must come from Him; 1 John 2:29; 1 John 3:7 sqq.; 1 John 4:2 sqq.; 7 sqq.; 1 John 5:1 sqq.; John 8:44. So Düsterdieck, Huther, and Ebrard in opposition to de Wette [Paulus and Baumgarten-Crusius—M. ], who deny the reference to origin and restrict the application of the terms to congruity and similarity. The antithesis, intensified by the repetition of ἐστί “is not of the Father, but is of the world” marks with peculiar pointedness the world as the source of ungodliness. The world will not tolerate any thing that does not derive its being from it or belongs to it. We see therefore how God and the world are just here opposed to each other, irreconciled and irreconcilable; both are inflexible and neither can yield the place to the other. [Düsterdieck: “Through our whole Epistle runs the view which is also manifest in the Gospel of St. John, that only the mind which springs from God is directed to God. He who is born of God, loves God, knows God, does God’s will. God Himself, who first loved us, viz. in Christ His incarnate Son, begot in us that love which of moral necessity returns again to the Father, and of like necessity embraces our brethren also. This love is hated by the world, because it springs not from the world. It depends not on the world, any more than that perverted love which springs from the world and is directed towards the world, the lust of the flesh, etc., can be directed to the Father or to God’s children. So that John grasps in reality down to the very foundations of the moral life, when he reminds his readers of the essentially distinct origin of the love of the world, and the love of God. The inmost kernel of the matter is hereby laid bare, and with it a glimpse is given of the whole process of the love of the world and the love of God, even to the end; and this end is now set forth expressly with extraordinary power.”—M.]. But

The second reason: 1 John 2:17.

And the world passeth away and the lust thereof; but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever.—The world can only be taken here in the same sense as in the preceding verses, viz.: the world of man fallen away from and opposing God, which is a power, and as a power awes many, but does and has great things. But what is true of the σκοτία, 1 John 2:8, applies also to it: παράγεται, it passeth away, it is passing away and disappearing; the sense must not be limited to the transitory world, to be destroyed in the judgment (Bede: “mundus transibit, quum in die judicii per ignem in meliorem mutabitur figuram, ut sit cœlum novum et terra nova”), nor must the term be so construed as to express the consciousness of the approaching advent of Christ and the judgment of the κόσμος connected with it (Luther, with reference to 1 John 2:8; 1 John 2:18 : ἐσχάτη ὥρα). It is, in effect, the uninterruptedly peculiar nature and destiny of the world (Oecumenius: “τὰ κοσμικὰ ἐπιθυμήματα οὐκ ἔχει τὸ μένον τε καὶ ἑατὼς, τὰ δὲ κατὰ τὸ θέλημα τοῦ θεοῦ διακρῆ καὶ διαιωνίζοντα (Düsterdieck: “because of its alienation from God, doomed to passing away, to death”). The antithesis μένει requires and confirms this view. Although Düsterdieck distinguishes his view, according to which he finds here more permanently valid axiomatic truths concerning the course of the love of God or the love of the world, from that of Oecumenius, who gives prominence to the properties of the love of the world and of the obedience to the commandments of God, the two views ought really to be combined thus: it fares with the world according to its nature, and the nature of the world agrees with its passing away. And as it passes away, so also passes away its lust, the lust which inheres in it, emanates from it, and governs it. Hence αὐτοῦ is the Genitive of the subject, as maintained by most commentators; it cannot mean lust after it or in it, as if αὐτοῦ were the Genitive of the object (Lücke, Neander, Sander, Besser, al.). Of course, the lust of the world refers also to the world and the things and manifestations in it, and not to God and the riches of His Kingdom. If the whole, the world, belonging to death, passes away, then also its parts, the life that is in it, its separate manifestations and exhibitions of life in individuals, must pass away. This makes one thoroughly loathe the love of the world—the ἀγαπᾷν τὸν κόσμον. Who wants to seize and hold as the object of his love that which is perishable, doomed to death and perpetual defeat? The clause ὁ δὲ ποιῶν τὸ θέλημα τοῦ θεοῦ supplies not only an antithesis, but affirms that the ἐπιθυμία τοῦ κόσμου does not the will of God, that the ἀγάπη τοῦ πατρός shows and verifies itself in the ποιεῖν τὸ θέλημα τοῦ θεοῦ, even as unfolded in 1 John 2:3, sqq., that the child does not trifle with the will of the Father, for the Father is God. To such applies the μένει εἰς τὸν αἰῶνα, the antithesis of παράγεται, he abides therefore unto, into eternity, sharing and assured of the imperishable and beatific life: redeemed from θάνατος, from the σκοτία, he gains φῶς, ζωὴ αἰώνιος. [Huther: “The destiny of the κόσμος is θάνατος, that of the children of God ζωὴ αἰώνιος.”—M.]. This antithesis points to the fact that the παράγεται of the world will sooner or later have run its course, and that the world will have ceased to exist. Most singular and arbitrary is the opinion of Ebrard, who says that “αἰὼν is the æon which will gloriously begin with the visible establishment of Christ’s Kingdom on earth,” and that consequently ὁ ποιῶν–εἰς τὸν αἰῶνα signifies that “he that does the will of God will abide until then, until the Kingdom of Christ is established, and be suffered to witness the victory of Christ’s Kingdom.” The addition, “quomodo et deus manet in æternum,” found in several Latin translations, but not in Jerome’s, is rather remarkable.

DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL

1. The gift of the forgiveness of sins (1 John 2:12), which is, at the same time, the gift of adoption, [of being made the child of God—M.], 1 John 2:13 c, establishes a relationship which must verify itself in corresponding conduct, in the way of sanctification. God has taken the initiative, but man must seize it and hold fast, keep and verify it in striving after more profound knowledge, and in struggling for the peace of victory. On the gift of the forgiveness of our sins, and on that of our adoption with the Father, rest the more intimate knowledge of Christ, the victorious fight against Satan, and the enjoyment of the fruits of victory. In the fellowship with the Father and the Son are given us life, light, forgiveness, truth, wisdom, and understanding, and victory over the world and the devil. The victory of Christ (John 16:33) is the presupposition of all true victories, and His victory must continue in ours. John grounds the duties of Church members on the high privileges and immunities of the Christian state, and makes gratitude the principle of morality.

2. The peace-work of profound meditation and mature knowledge in men can only take place and prove successful if preceded by the struggles and triumphs of young men [i.e., the man must have passed through the discipline of the young man.—M.]. Great purity and integrity are indispensable to the clear perception and more thorough knowledge of the glory of Christ, of His Person, His Word, and His work. True knowledge presupposes life in fellowship with the Person known; it is a living reality and not a mere dogmatical formula (concerning the Person of Christ). Nothing but fighting against Satan will facilitate our knowledge of the eternal glory of Christ.

3. The κόσμος is diametrically opposed to God, and the heart of man cannot combine the love of the world and the love of the Father; the latter cannot thrive because of the former, or the former must be overcome, and disappearing, yield the place to the latter in the course of its growth and development. Where the life of [emanating from—M.] God is extant there may still be the world, but its power must be broken, it must wane more and more, and its still surviving remainder must recede before increasing and waxing knowledge and joy. Worldly life and godly life are not only two different biasses, but two opposite inclinations, incompatible and destroying each other.

4. It is not in point of space that we must flee from the world, but it is with reference to ethical principles that we must shun it, without loving it, turned away from it, to prevent our dying and perishing in and with it; some one thing may so effectually lay hold of one or another as to sweep him along with the fearful destruction of the whole κόσμος.

5. The definite superiority of the divine to the worldly may be gathered from the transitoriness of the world. Here is “afforded a vista through the whole process of the world’s history, as well as of the love of God, right on to the end” (Düsterdieck), and at the same time an insight into the biography of individuals.6. He that has separated himself from God, has estranged himself from Him, falls into the power of death; the world contains death in the love of itself. None but those who love the Father have the life; yet none love the Father but those who have and with true fidelity keep His word. But there exists no eternal kingdom of evil, the principially dualistic predisposition to evil, but only a condition which has become so, from which any and every man may and shall be redeemed, who does not offer any resistance.

HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL

The gift of the forgiveness of sins sets us the task of fighting against the destroyer, and acquiring the knowledge of the Saviour. The gift of the forgiveness of sins is sonship with God and the knowledge of the Father. Holy Scripture directs us first to the knowledge of sin, then to fight against and overcome the wicked one, and lastly to acquire the knowledge of the God-man. Holy Scripture addresses first children—that is to say, the children of God; the word of God is the word of the Father to His children; the word of God calls all, whom it addresses, children, because He is the Father of all. Young men and fathers cannot go beyond this child-ship [I retain this Germanism in this place in order to render the thought more perspicuous; neither the word sonship nor adoption conveys the precise shade of thought.—M.]. No age of life can or may desire to surpass the stage of childhood before God. The life-truth of the Gospel is only one, emanating from one Spirit, resting on one foundation, consisting in one Spirit, but like the sun, shedding its illuminating and vitalizing beams in all directions: away with all false individualizing and all dry moralizing! He that loves not the world in God as the object of redemption to its salvation, loves it only without God to his own perdition. The world, which thou lovest, reacts more on thee than thou art able to influence it; thou wilt sooner become worldly through it, than it will become Christian through thee. Shun not the world, but love it not; be not afraid of it, but be afraid of thy love of it.

Bodmer:—John the Apostle survived twelve Roman emperors: Augustus, Tiberius, Caligula, Claudius, Nero, Galba, Otho, Vitellius, Vespasianus, Titus, Domitianus and Nerva; great expectations and hopes were entertained of each one of these lords of the world, but all failed in the case of the best of them: instead of healing, they inflicted wounds, and many came to a miserable end.

Gerson:—Amor habet vim uniendi, si terram amas, terrenus es; si deum, divinus.

Spener:—Every age should diligently cultivate the virtue becoming it before others, which is especially done by each particular age applying its natural gifts to the growth of life (understanding in the case of the old, strength in the case of young men, simplicity in the case of children).—Those who have overcome Satan as young men, may afterwards truly and fully know Christ as fathers, while those who have served him do not easily attain such knowledge, which is a kind of reward of grace.—The word of God does not only come to us, but abides also in us, and consequently is not a dead or passing sound—That which does not abide forever is not worthy of our love; for God has created, appointed and called us unto eternal things.

Starke:—Preachers should particularly urge obedience to the commandments of God, and renunciation of the love of the world on the plea of the grace of God in the forgiveness of sins, as a more powerful incentive than considerations founded on the Law.—Although you have conquered the devil once, he will return and assault you with sevenfold strength to rob you of your crown. Therefore, ye warriors of Jesus, grow not secure, but think that your task is not done with one well-fought battle.—O the deluded souls that fancy that it is the privilege of their rank to use the world at their pleasure, to lead a worldly and carnal life, and to be good Christians for all! They will terribly deceive themselves, for the mere name is not sufficient.—Christians, would you love the Father, you must content yourselves with the necessaries of the body, bridle your eyes, and lead a life of simplicity.—The world and its lusts pass swiftly away, like an arrow cuts through the air, like smoke blows away, like a river flows along, like a bird flies past, like a sound dies away. What folly to set one’s hope and pleasure on such changeable and transitory things!—It is well, but not enough to know the will of God, we must do it in the strength of God, with all diligence, at all times, in all things, if we would abide forever.—It is a great mercy of God that He accepts our poor, imperfect doing, provided it be done with a childlike heart, as the doing of His will—None can do the will of God without denying his own will, for the will of God and corruptible self-will are utterly opposed to each other.

Heubner:—Fathers are spiritual adults, matured Christians; they have known Christ, the Son of God, from personal experience, made proof of His power, or He has been fully formed in them (Eph 4:13; 1 Thessalonians 2:7; 1 Thessalonians 2:11; Hebrews 5:14). The image of Christ has a feeble and tender beginning in childhood; it continues growing in youth, but does not attain perfect clearness with open face until manhood. No warrior can go beyond this: Christ and His knowledge excel all perfection. We have here the case of souls that long since have acquired forgiveness and cleansing from their sins, overcome the wicked one, stood severe trials and hard conflicts, in victory have been planted in the likeness of Christ’s death, and made experience of the power of His resurrection. As fathers they possess spiritual generative powers. They are the mellow old wine. They are called τέλειοι, they are the nearest friends of the Lord, His intimates, that have a better understanding of His counsel: but, although thus highly raised by God, they never divest themselves of their childlike disposition. The sense of redemption in Christ, true poverty of spirit, voluntary and constant self-denial and strong love are their characteristics. But they still stand in need of instruction and caution (an old Christian had been victorious in the fight for thirty-nine years, but was overcome in the fortieth year.) They must fight senectute contra senectutem. They have more works than words. They are engaged in ceaseless intercessions for all the people of God, and gather riches for the children (2 Corinthians 12:14). But they must he very careful not to usurp an authority and power, in virtue of which they require others blindly and unconditionally to follow and agree with them; the moment they fall into this snare they cease to be fathers, and become the destroyers of the Christlike spirit in the children.—Young men are those who are still engaged in active warfare, and have to fear most the assaults of the flesh, the world and the devil; they ought to have begun to taste the better delights [of religion] and should overcome Satan. Hence they are always prepared for the battle. He that has become a true child of God must not care for the age of youth. Can any one, by anxious care, add one cubit unto his stature [age]? He that preserves that which he has, to him shall be given more; the process of growth is imperceptible (Mark 4:28). They ought to have the spirit of power and vigilance; as valiant soldiers they must always be at their post, warring against the enemy. Their dangers are rashness, undue ardor, temerity and negligence. They must have work to do, they must destroy Babylon, but abstain from all things, and fight faithfully unto death. They must not be discouraged in the first ardor of their zeal, for that first ardor may lose its intensity. Their strength will be in proportion to their allowing their strength quietly to strike root; even Christ walked in silence and retirement during His youth, and John was in the wilderness. They must learn to enter into the mystery of godliness, abstain from their doing in order that God may work in them, that thus they may resist the πονηρός, the spoiler, who comes from without and forces his way into them, and would fain seize the youthful warriors. Hence they need circumspection and weapons (Ephesians 6:0).—Children are beginners in Christianity who have already tasted the paternal love of God, who receive from the Father more tokens of love, as it were, more caressing. But they must be truly born of God, have a new mind, the Spirit of adoption whereby they cry Abba, Father. Their general characteristics are these: a childlike disposition, lowliness, obedience, sincerity, joyfulness. Their childlike failings are: credulity, carelessness, rashness, inconstancy, or even wandering from the simplicity in Christ. They are strongly attached to the sweet taste of grace. They require oversight, guidance, nursing, care, keeping; they require milk until they are able to take stronger food and grow. (Here we may refer to the choral divisions among the unitas fratrum: children, older boys, single brethren, single sisters, the chorus of married people, widowers and widows, to the incipientes, proficientes and profecti of the Moravians, and to the analogies of paganism, Plato de legg. II., where the chorus of boys, of young men to the age of thirty, of men to the age of sixty, used fascinatingly to implant the true and the good into the minds of the people in songs, and Plutarch lacon. instit. according to which, among the Spartans, old men used to sing: “Once we were vigorous youths;” men, “We are so; if thou desirest it, try;” and the boys, “Some day we shall even be better”).—Love is the noblest power in man, which he ought not to waste on unworthy objects, but he ought to love God only.—The world is set before men to try them, whether they will lay hold of it or of heavenly things.—The objects of our desires, as far as they are creatures, are not evil in themselves (1 Timothy 4:4; 1 Corinthians 10:26), but the passionate desire of them is evil, and of the evil spirit. The excusatio of worldlings is: “it is natural, it is innocent.” That is to lay the responsibility of sin on God.—Worldly-mindedness and religion are incompatible. There are, indeed, many degrees of this worldly-mindedness and fondness of worldly pleasures, but this much is certain: 1. Those in whom this fondness is strong and supreme, to whom non-gratification causes anger and a blank, are without the divine life. 2. Every worldly pleasure, though indifferent of itself, becomes sin if it leads astray from God, and has to be enjoyed without God. 3. In proportion to the growth of religion is the decrease of a mind and taste for worldly lusts, and vice versa.—It is disgraceful in clergymen [Germ. Geistliche, a technical term for clergymen, of which the English divines is the nearest approximation, or we may also say “spiritual and secular,” but, of course, without any reference to the Roman Catholic use of these terms—M.], who ought to be the opposite of the worldly, to exhibit worldliness in the bias of their mind and conversation.—What comes of the transitoriness of the world and of the things which lust desires? What harm does it do to the worldly? 1. Even in respect of this earthly life it is painful and humiliating to take pleasure in enjoyments which are wholly idle and transient, and leave behind them nothing that is refreshing or ennobling, but, perhaps, something that will fill the mind with gloom, paralyze and deject the spirit—a melancholy blank. 2. This holds good still more in respect of the life to come. The objects will cease, but not the desire, which will then lack the instruments and means of its gratification. Painful condition. Such a soul will then behold itself in its miserable emptiness and vileness. Therefore consider the transitoriness and consequences of every sinful lust. (Oriental saying: The treasures of the world are so constituted that they will deprive thee of life, if thou gatherest them).—

Neander:—It is not part of the nature of the love of God that we must retire from the world and worldly things, but rather that we should use them according to the purpose which God has assigned to all men, to His glory.

Besser:—The forgiveness of sins is the bread on which the great and the small, Apostles and malefactors, the wise and the illiterate, kings and beggars (kings as beggars, and beggars as kings), live in the kingdom of God, even as the fourth and fifth petitions of the Lord’s Prayer are significantly joined together by and.

Johann Bugenhagen’s motto was: “Si Christum bene scis, satis est, si cetera nescis: si Christum nescis, nil est, si cetera discis.”

Leo the Great:—There are two kinds of love from which proceeds every lust according to its kind: man, who cannot exist without love, loves either God or the world.

Spener.—This either—or is an established thing which will never yield the place to an as well—as. To contribute one cent to ungodliness is as much as to give up to it the whole. St. Bernard calls pride the arch-artificer of fraud, and the true fountain of vice, the tinder of sin, the rust of virtues, the moth of holiness, the beguiler of hearts, that turns medicine into poison, and cordials into stupefying draughts. A soul has nothing in eternity but what it has gathered in time.

Nitzsch:—The principal question of the divine word addressed to fathers: Do you know Him that is from the beginning? Let us consider: 1. Why this question is peculiarly suited to the aged? The excellency and glory of old age is experience, its natural avocation to gather and to have gathered it, its supreme requirement, to have wisdom by and in experience. How much more important is it to have seen and felt a thing, to have shared its suffering, than merely to have heard of it! 2. Which knowledge does it speak of? The First and the Last has been revealed in the centre of history, He by whom and for whom all things consist; time has become conscious of eternity. Humanity has been raised from profound misery to high glory. This knowledge compensates the eye for every unavoidable want of light, supplies the solution of many riddles, finds the kernel of many experiences, marks the holy line of human effort, cherishes the sweet hope of beholding [God], and thinks well done that which God doeth. 3. The great monition and the glorious consolation contained therein. Many things improve by age, but not the fundamental error, erring from God. Self-will and unbelief do not break spontaneously by mere events; the secret will of the natural man grows to a fearful height and resoluteness; rather die in sins than present oneself blind and naked, miserable and poor before the only Mediator, the Conqueror on the cross. Do you still know Him, do you know Him again? Be overcome and ye shall conquer; His knowledge rejuvenates you like eagles, makes you wise, and crowns all knowledge and experience with faith in the eternal words. The monition of the divine word to young men that they have overcome the wicked one. Regard it—1, as a congratulation on their participation in the victory of Christ, but also as a threefold test-inquiry of the reality of their Christianity. After the victory of Christ, the time of the mere doubtful struggle between the death and life of mankind, the time of invincible sin, of the immeasurable progress of corruption, belongs to the remote past. If you fear already, or are still afraid in this world, be of good courage and know that you enter into a reconciled world, and stand in eternal peace, and partake of a happiness and liberty that have not to be fought for and devised, but may be seized and enjoyed in true faith. But here you have to inquire after faith in this word,—since the tendency prevails not to believe that which was believed by the fathers; many, all believe to indemnify themselves for childlike faith with the conceits of the unvanished beauty of the world, of the power of the mind of man and of the innocence and goodness of the heart of man,—to inquire after the knowledge of this truth, after the decision and conversion of the heart, whether that will reigns supreme which says, How should I do this great evil and sin against my God? whether you are consciously or unconsciously under the jurisdiction of the prince of this world, and unfitted for the true work of your calling. … 2. As a call to resistance, and at the same time as a promise of assistance. This bears on your bravery, your honour, your independence, ye that are in such hurry to be men. There are many adversaries from without that reappear again and again; fight the invisible battles in your souls. It is good for a man to have worn the yoke in his youth, but how much better this yoke; thus you will gain a clear and pure view of your future, thus you spend the time of your transitory youth for the purpose of securing eternal youth, thus you care to-day for to-morrow and ever, even unto the judgment; all things are yours.

Hast thou broken with the world? 1. Art thou perhaps still wholly entangled in its lust? 2. Art thou convinced that it is impossible to love God and the world at the same time? 3. Dost thou daily fight victoriously against the lust of the world tempting thee?

What is the Christian’s relation to the world? 1. He knows that its lust, without any exception, is sin (1 John 2:16), and such sin as is incompatible with the Christian profession (1 John 2:15), and on this very account 2. He shuns and flies it (v.15).

Consider how little the love of the world comports with sincere conversion towards God. 1. The latter imposes renunciation of the world and its lust as a necessary condition. 2. It affords strength for overcoming the world. 3. And is itself a continued combat with the temptations of the world.

The infamy of a Christian being the slave of worldly lust. 1. He thereby enters the service of worldly vanity, 2. becomes the enemy of God, and 3. will perish with the world (L. in “Gesetz und Zeugniss” for 1860).—

[Ezekiel Hopkins:—1 John 2:15. “For these things (Pleasures, Riches, Honours), though they make a fair and gaudy show, yet it is all but show and appearance. As bubbles, blown into the air, will represent great variety of orient and glittering colours, not, as some suppose, that there are any such really there, but only they appear so to us, through a false reflection of light cast upon them: so truly this world, this earth on which we live, is nothing else but a great bubble blown up by the breath of God in the midst of the air, where it now hangs. It sparkles with ten thousand glories: not that they are so in themselves, but only they seem so to us through the false light by which we look upon them. If we come to grasp it, it breaks and leaves nothing but wind and disappointment in our hands: as histories report of the fruits that grow near the Dead sea, where once Sodom and Gomorrah stood, they appear very fair and beautiful to the eye, but if they be crushed, turn straight to smoke and ashes.”

There is nothing in the world vain in respect of its natural being or of God the Creator—but all the vanity that is in worldly things, is only in respect of the sin and folly of man. [Augustine: “Utendum est hoc mundo, non fruendum; ut invisibilia Dei, per ea quæ facta sunt, intelligantur; hoc est, ut de temporalibus æterna capiantur.”—M.].

The vanity of the world appears in:1. That all its glory and splendour depend merely on opinion and fancy.2. In its deceitfulness and treachery. It is not only vanity, but a lying vanity.3. As all things in the world are lying vanities, so are they all vexatious. “Uncertain comforts but most certain crosses.”4. A little cross will embitter great comforts—another mark of the vanity of the world.5. The longer we enjoy any worldly thing, the more flat and insipid doth it grow.6. All the pleasure of the world is nothing else but a tedious repetition of the same things.7. The world can stand us in no stead, when we have the greatest need of support and comfort.8. All things in the world are vain, because they are unsuitable.The soul is spiritual and immortal, worldly things are material and perishable.Its wants are spiritual—but the world supplies only material wants.9. The vanity of the world appears in its inconstancy and fickleness and—10. In that it is altogether unsatisfactory.—M.].[Barrow:—The world is an enemy, an irreconcilable enemy to our salvation. The World, that is, the wicked principles, the bad customs, the naughty conversation and example which commonly prevail here among men; alluring to evil and deterring from good; the cares also, the riches, the pleasures, the glories of the world, which possess or distract the minds, satiate and cloy the desires, employ all the affections and endeavours, take up the time of men; all in the world which fasteneth our hearts to earth, and to those low transitory things; or which sink them down toward hell and which detain them from soaring toward heaven.

The world passeth away and the desire (ἐπιθυμία) thereof; whatever seemeth most lovely and desirable in the world is very flitting; however, our desire and our enjoyment thereof must suddenly cease. Imagine a man, therefore, possessed of all worldly goods, armed with power, flourishing in credit, flowing with plenty, swimming in all delight (such as were sometime Priamus, Polycrates, Crœsus, Pompey) yet since he is withal supposed a man, and mortal, subject both to fortune and death, none of those things can he reasonably confide or much satisfy himself in; they may be violently divorced from him by fortune, they must naturally be loosed from him by death; the closest union here cannot last longer than till death us depart; wherefore no man upon such account can truly call, or, if he consider well, heartily esteem himself happy; a man cannot hence receive profit or content from any labour he taketh under the sun. (Ecclesiastes 1:3 sqq.)—M.].

[On ἀλαζονεία τοῦ βίου 1 John 2:16. “It was a pertinent discourse of Cineas, dissuading Pyrrhus from undertaking a war against the Romans. Sir, saith he, when you have conquered them, what will you do next? Then Sicily is near at hand, and easy to master.—And what when you have subdued Sicily? Then we will pass over to Africa and take Carthage, which cannot long withstand us.—When these are conquered, what will be your next attempt?—Then we will fall in upon Greece and Macedon and recover what we have lost there.—Well, when all are subdued, what fruit do you expect from all your victories? Then we will sit down and enjoy ourselves. Sir, replied Cineas, may we not do it now? Have you not already a kingdom of your own? and he that cannot enjoy himself with a kingdom, cannot with the world.” Plutarch in Vita Pyrrhi.—M.].

[Pyle (1 John 2:12-14):—The cautions I here give you ought to be equally regarded by all degrees of Christian professors. The new converts and younger Christians are to consider themselves as newly put into a state of salvation, the pardon of sin, and the favour of God, through Jesus Christ; and to endeavour to confirm themselves in it by the careful practice of true Christian virtue. Such as are come to more maturity in their profession and are in the strength and vigour of their age, have a great advantage, and ought to employ the utmost of that vigour in resisting the strongest temptations of the devil, and perfecting their conquest over him and all his wicked instruments. And the aged Christians cannot but have so dear a knowledge of God, and the revelation of His will by Jesus Christ, during the long season from their first conversion, that it would be utterly inexcusable for them to be wanting in their essential duties or be drawn from them by the false teachers.—M.].

[1 John 2:12. Simeon, C., The different growth and privileges of God’s children. Works xx. 393.

1 John 2:13-14. Marshall, N., Peculiar temptations attending every stage of life, with the special advantages and counter-motives that are found in each, considered particularly with regard to old age.

The temptations that most endanger our first stage of life, with the duties most incumbent upon us in that early period, and the motives to discharge them.Peculiar temptations treated in reference to such as are in the bloom and vigour of life. Sermons, 2:433, 459, 485.

1 John 2:15. Fuller, Thos., An ill match well broken off. Joseph’s party-coloured coat.

1 John 2:15-17. Bossuet, Traité de la Concupiscence. Œuvres, xi 1 John 2:26.—M.].

Footnotes:

[17][1 John 2:12. ἀφέωνται, Perf. Pass. formed after the Perfect Active ἀφέωκα, here and Matthew 9:2-5; Mark 2:5; Luke 5:20; Luke 5:23; Luke 7:47; Syriac=remissa sunt, “have been forgiven you” more correct than E. V. “are forgiven you.”—M.]

[18][Cod. Sin. reads τὸ πονηρόν.—M.]

1 John 2:13; 1 John 2:13. ἔγραψα, A. B. C., Cod. Sin. The reading γράφω is without critical authority, and opposed to the ructure of this series of sentences.

1 John 2:14; 1 John 2:14. τὸ ’ ἀρχῆς in B., which might allude to 1 John 1:1, is evidently a slip of the pen, since the same Codex reads τὸν in 1 John 2:13.

[21][1 John 2:15. μηδὲ τὰ ἐν τῷ κόσμῳ=nor the things in the world, more correct than “the things that are in the world” E.V.—M.]

[22]τοῦ πατρὸς, B. [G. K.] Cod. Sin.; the best verss. Fathers [Oec. Theophyl.—M.]. The reading Θσοῦ A. C. must yield the place to the former authorities, and to the context 1 John 2:16.

[23][1 John 2:16. ὅτι=because, so German.—M.]

[24][1 John 2:17. αὐτοῦ after ἐπιθυμία, although wanting in A. and cancelled by Griesbach; is the true reading. The difficulty readily accounts for the omission.—M].