whose memory we celebrate today is also called the apostle of love. It is love - central theme three of his short, but vivid and memorable messages. Take a break from the hustle and bustle for a moment and read at least a few verses from them.
1. My children! I write this to you so that you will not sin; and if anyone sins, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous; He is the propitiation for our sins, and not only for ours, but also for the sins of the whole world. And we know that we have come to know Him by keeping His commandments. He who says, “I know Him,” but does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and there is no truth in him; and whoever keeps His word, in him is truly the love of God perfected: by this we know that we are in Him. Anyone who says he abides in Him must do as He did (1 John 2:1-6).
2. See what love the Father has given us, that we should be called children of God. The world does not know us because it has not known Him. Beloved! we are now children of God; but it has not yet been revealed what we will be. We only know that when He is revealed, we will be like Him, because we will see Him as He is (1 John 3:1-2).
3. We know love in this, that He laid down His life for us: and we must lay down our lives for our brothers. And whoever has wealth in the world, but, seeing his brother in need, closes his heart from him - how does the love of God abide in him? My children! Let us begin to love not in word or tongue, but in deed and truth (1 John 3:16-18).
4. Beloved! let us love one another, because love is from God, and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. He who does not love has not known God, because God is love (1 John 4:7-8).
5. God’s love for us was revealed in the fact that God sent His only begotten Son into the world so that we might receive life through Him. This is love, that we did not love God, but He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved! if God so loved us, then we should love one another (1 John 4:9-11).
6. And we knew and believed in the love that God has for us. God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him. Love reaches such perfection in us that we have boldness on the day of judgment, because we act in this world as He does. There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear, because in fear there is torment. He who fears is not perfect in love (1 John 4:16-18).
7. He who says, ‘I love God,’ but hates his brother, is a liar: for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen? And we have this commandment from Him, that whoever loves God should also love his brother (1 John 4:20-21).
8. And now I ask you, lady, not as a new commandment prescribing to you, but the one that we have had from the beginning, that we love one another. Love consists in our acting according to His commandments. This is the commandment which you heard from the beginning, that you should walk in it (2 John 1:5-6).
9. Beloved! You act faithfully in what you do for the brothers and for the strangers. They testified before the church about your love. You will do well if you let them go, as you should for the sake of God, for they went for His name’s sake, taking nothing from the pagans. So we must accept such in order to become followers of the truth (3 John 1:5-8).
10. Do not love the world, nor the things in the world: whoever loves the world does not have the Father’s love in him. For everything that is in the world: the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life, is not from the Father, but from this world. And the world passes away, and its lusts, but he who does the will of God abides forever (1 John 2:15-17).
Commentary (introduction) to the entire book of 1 John
Comments on Chapter 2
INTRODUCTION TO THE FIRST EPISTLE OF THE APOSTLE JOHN
PERSONAL MESSAGE AND ITS PLACE IN HISTORY
This work of John is called an “epistle,” but it does not have the beginning or ending typical of letters. It contains neither the welcoming address nor the closing greetings that are present in Paul's epistles. And yet, anyone reading this message feels its highly personal character.
Before the mind's eye of the person who wrote this message, without a doubt, there was a specific situation and a specific group of people. Someone has said that the form and personal character of 1 John can be explained by considering it as a “loving and anxious sermon” written by a loving pastor but sent to all churches.
Each of these messages was written on a truly pressing occasion, without knowledge of which the message itself cannot be fully understood. Thus, in order to understand the 1st Epistle of John, it is necessary to first try to reconstruct the circumstances that gave rise to it, remembering that it was written in Ephesus sometime just after the year 100.
DEPARTURE FROM FAITH
This era is characterized in the Church in general, and in places like Ephesus in particular, by certain trends.
1. Most Christians were already Christians in the third generation, that is, children and even grandchildren of the first Christians. The excitement of the early days of Christianity has, to some extent at least, passed away. As one poet said: “What bliss it is to live at the dawn of that era.” In the first days of its existence, Christianity was surrounded by an aura of glory, but by the end of the first century it had already become something familiar, traditional, indifferent. People got used to it and it lost something of its charm for them. Jesus knew the people and he said that "the love of many will grow cold" (Matthew 24:12). John wrote this epistle in an age when, for some at least, the first enthusiasm had died down, and the flame of piety had dimmed and the fire was barely smoldering.
2. Because of this situation, people appeared in the church who considered the standards imposed by Christianity on man as a boring burden. They didn't want to be saints in the sense that it is understood New Testament. In the New Testament the word is used to convey this concept hagios, which is often translated as sacred. This word originally meant different, different, isolated. The Jerusalem Temple was hagios, because it was different from other buildings; it was Saturday hagios; because it was different from other days; the Israelis were hagios, because it was special people, not like the rest; and the Christian was called hagios, because he was called to be others, not like other people. There has always been a gap between Christians and the rest of the world. In the fourth Gospel, Jesus says: If you were of the world, the world would love its own; But because you are not of the world, but I delivered you from the world, therefore the world hates you." (John 15:19).“I gave them Your word,” Jesus says in prayer to God, “and the world hated them, because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world.” (John 17:14).
Ethical demands were associated with Christianity: it demanded from a person new standards of moral purity, a new understanding of kindness, service, forgiveness - and this turned out to be difficult. And therefore, when the first delight and the first enthusiasm cooled down, it became more and more difficult to resist the world and resist the generally accepted norms and customs of our age.
3. It should be noted that in 1 John there is no indication that the church to which he was writing was being persecuted. The danger lies not in persecution, but in temptation. It came from within. It should be noted that Jesus also foresaw this: “And many false prophets will arise,” He said, “and will deceive many.” (Matthew 24:11). It was about this danger that Paul warned the leaders of the same church in Ephesus, addressing them with a farewell speech: “For I know that after I am gone, savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock; and from among yourselves there will arise men who will speak falsehoods.” in order to attract disciples with you" (Acts 20,29,30). The first letter of John was not directed against an external enemy who was trying to destroy the Christian faith, but against people who wanted to give Christianity an intellectual appearance. They saw the intellectual trends and currents of their time and believed that it was time to bring Christian doctrine into line with secular philosophy and modern thinking.
MODERN PHILOSOPHY
What was modern thinking and philosophy that led Christianity to false teaching? The Greek world at this time was dominated by a worldview known collectively as Gnosticism. At the heart of Gnosticism was the belief that only the spirit is good, and matter, in its essence, is harmful. And therefore, the Gnostics inevitably had to despise this world and everything worldly, because it was matter. In particular, they despised the body, which, being material, must necessarily be harmful. Further, the Gnostics believed that the human spirit is imprisoned in the body, as in a prison, and the spirit, the seed of God, is all-good. And therefore the purpose of life is to free this Divine seed imprisoned in an evil, destructive body. This can only be done with the help of special knowledge and carefully designed ritual, available only to a true Gnostic. This line of thinking left a deep imprint on the Greek worldview; it has not completely disappeared even today. It is based on the idea that matter is harmful, and only spirit is good; that there is only one worthy goal of life - to free the human spirit from the destructive prison of the body.
FALSE TEACHERS
With this in mind, let us now turn again to the First Epistle of John and see who these false teachers were and what they taught. They were in church, but moved away from it. They came from us, but they were not ours" (1 John 2:19). These were powerful men who claimed to be prophets. "Many false prophets have appeared in the world" (1 John 4:1). Although they left the Church, they still tried to spread their teachings in it and turn its members away from the true faith (1 John 2:26).
DENIAL OF JESUS AS MESSIAH
Some false teachers denied that Jesus was the Messiah. “Who is the liar,” asks John, “if not the one who denies that Jesus is the Christ?” (1 John 2:22). It is quite possible that these false teachers were not Gnostics, but Jews. It has always been difficult for Jewish Christians, but historical events have made their situation even more difficult. It was generally difficult for a Jew to believe in the crucified Messiah, and even if he began to believe in it, his difficulties did not stop. Christians believed that Jesus would return very soon to protect and vindicate His own. It is clear that this hope was especially dear to the hearts of the Jews. In 70, Jerusalem was taken by the Romans, who were so enraged by the long siege and resistance of the Jews that they completely destroyed the holy city and even plowed the place with a plow. How could a Jew, in the face of all this, believe that Jesus would come and save the people? The Holy City was deserted, the Jews were scattered throughout the world. How could the Jews, in the face of this, believe that the Messiah had come?
DENIAL OF INcarnation
But there were also more serious problems: within the Church itself there were attempts to bring Christianity into line with the teachings of Gnosticism. At the same time, we must remember the theory of the Gnostics - only the spirit is good, and matter in its essence is extremely vicious. And in this case, no incarnation can take place at all. This is precisely what Augustine pointed out several centuries later. Before accepting Christianity, Augustine was well aware of various philosophical teachings. In his “Confession” (6.9) he writes that he found in pagan authors almost everything that Christianity tells people, but one great Christian saying was not found and will never be found in pagan authors: “The Word became flesh and dwelt with us" (John 1:4). Precisely because pagan writers believed that matter was essentially vicious, and, therefore, that the body was essentially vicious, they could never say anything like that.
It is clear that the false prophets against whom 1 John is directed denied the reality of the incarnation and the reality of Jesus' physical body. “Every spirit that confesses Jesus Christ who has come in the flesh is from God,” writes John, “but every spirit that does not confess Jesus Christ who has come in the flesh is not from God.” (1 John 4:2.3).
In the early Christian Church the refusal to acknowledge the reality of the incarnation manifested itself in two forms.
1. His more radical and more widespread line was called docetism, which can be translated as illusionism. Greek verb dokain Means seem. The Docetists declared that people only it seemed as if Jesus had a body. The Docetists argued that Jesus was a purely spiritual being with only an apparent, illusory body.
2. But a subtler and more dangerous version of this teaching is associated with the name of Cerinthus. Cerinthus made a strict distinction between the human Jesus and the Divine Jesus. He declared that Jesus was the most normal man, was born in the most natural way, lived in special obedience to God, and therefore, after his baptism, Christ in the form of a dove descended on him and gave him from the power that is above all power, after which Jesus brought a testimony to people about the Father, about whom people knew nothing before. But Cerinthus went even further: he argued that at the end of His life, Christ abandoned Jesus again, so that Christ never suffered at all. Jesus the man suffered, died and rose again.
How widely such views were widespread can be seen from the epistles of the bishop Ignatius of Antioch(according to tradition - a disciple of John) to several churches in Asia Minor, apparently the same as the church to which the First Epistle of John was written. At the time of writing these messages, Ignatius was in custody on his way to Rome, where he died a martyr's death: by order of Emperor Trojan, he was thrown into the circus arena to be torn to pieces by wild animals. Ignatius wrote to the Trallians: “Therefore, do not listen when anyone testifies to you other than about Jesus Christ, who came from the line of David from the Virgin Mary, was truly born, ate and drank, truly was condemned under Pontius Pilate, was truly crucified and died. .. Who really rose from the dead... But if, as some atheists - that is, unbelievers - claim, His suffering was only an illusion... then why am I in chains" (Ignatius: "To the Trallians" 9 and 10). He wrote to Christians in Smyrna: “For He endured all this for our sake, so that we might be saved; He suffered truly...” (Ignatius: “To the Smyrnae”).
Polycarp, bishop of Smyrna and disciple of John, used the words of John himself in his letter to the Philippians: “Whoever does not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is Antichrist” (Polycarp: Philippians 7:1).
This teaching of Cerinthus is subject to criticism in 1 John. John writes about Jesus: “This is Jesus Christ, who came by water and blood (and the Spirit); not only by water, but by water and blood"(5.6). The meaning of these lines is that the Gnostic teachers agreed that the Divine Christ had come water, that is, through the baptism of Jesus, but they began to deny that he came blood, that is, through the Cross, because they insisted that the Divine Christ abandoned Jesus the man before the Crucifixion.
The main danger of this heresy lies in what can be called a mistaken reverence: it is afraid to recognize the fullness of the human origin of Jesus Christ, it considers it blasphemous that Jesus Christ really had physical body. This heresy is not yet dead and is leaning towards it, often quite unconsciously, quite big number pious Christians. But we must remember how one of the great fathers of the early Church uniquely expressed it: “He became the same as us, so that we could become the same as Him.”
3. The Gnostic faith had a certain influence on people's lives.
a) The indicated attitude of the Gnostics to matter and to everything material determined their attitude to their body and all its parts; this took three forms.
1. For some, this resulted in asceticism, fasting, celibacy, strict self-control, and even deliberately harsh treatment of their body. Gnostics began to favor celibacy over marriage and considered physical intimacy a sin; This point of view still finds its supporters today. There is no trace of such an attitude in John's letter.
2. Others declared that the body has no meaning at all, and therefore all its desires and tastes can be satisfied unlimitedly. Since the body will perish anyway and is a vessel of evil, then it does not matter how a person treats his flesh. This view was opposed by John in his First Epistle. John condemns as a liar the one who claims to know God but at the same time does not observe God's commandments, for a man who believes that he abides in Christ must walk as He walked (1,6; 2,4-6). It is quite obvious that in the communities to which this message was addressed there were people who claimed to have a special knowledge of God, although their behavior was far from the requirements of Christian ethics.
In certain circles these Gnostic theories were further developed. A Gnostic was a person with certain knowledge, gnosis. Some people, therefore, believed that the Gnostic should know both the best and the worst, and should know and experience life both in the higher spheres and in the lower ones. One could perhaps even say that these people believed that man is obliged to sin. We find mention of this kind of attitude in the Epistle to Thyatira and Revelation, where the Risen Christ speaks of those who do not “know the so-called depths of Satan” (Rev. 2:24). And it is quite possible that John has these people in mind when he states that “God is light, and in Him there is no darkness at all.” (1 John 1.5). These Gnostics believed that God is not only a blinding light, but also an impenetrable darkness, and that man must comprehend both. It is not difficult to see the dire consequences of such a belief.
3. There was also a third variety of Gnosticism. The true Gnostic considered himself an exclusively spiritual person, as if he had shaken off everything material and freed his spirit from the bonds of matter. The Gnostics taught that they were so spiritual that they stood above and beyond sin and achieved spiritual perfection. John speaks of them as those who deceive themselves, claiming that they have no sins (1 John 1:8-10).
Whatever the form of Gnosticism, it had extremely dangerous consequences; It is clear that the latter two varieties were common in the communities to which John wrote.
b) In addition, Gnosticism also manifested itself in relation to people, which led to the destruction of Christian brotherhood. We have already seen that the Gnostics wanted to free the spirit from the prison of the human body through complex knowledge, understandable only to initiates. It is quite obvious that such knowledge was not available to everyone: ordinary people were so busy with everyday worldly affairs and work that they did not have time for the necessary study and observance of rules, and even if they had this time, many would are simply mentally incapable of comprehending the positions developed by the Gnostics in their theosophy and philosophy.
And this inevitably led to the fact that people were divided into two classes - people capable of living a truly spiritual life and people incapable of this. The Gnostics even had special names for people of these two classes. The ancients usually divided man into three parts - into soma, psuche and pneuma. Soma, body - the physical part of a person; And crazy usually translated as soul, but here you have to be especially careful, because crazy does not at all mean the same thing as we understand by soul. According to the ancient Greeks crazy was one of the main principles of life, a form of living existence. All living things, according to the ancient Greeks, have crazy. Psuhe - this is that aspect, that principle of life that unites man with all living beings. Besides this there was also pneuma, spirit, and it is the spirit that only man possesses that makes him related to God.
The goal of the Gnostics was to liberate pneuma from catfish, but this liberation can, according to them, be achieved only through long and difficult study, to which only an intellectual with a lot of free time could devote himself. And therefore, the Gnostics divided people into two classes: mentally - generally unable to rise above the carnal, physical principles and to comprehend that which stands above animal life, and pneumatic - truly spiritual and truly close to God.
The result of this approach is completely clear: the Gnostics formed a kind of spiritual aristocracy, looking with contempt and even hatred at their own people. little brothers. Pneumatics looked at mentally as despicable, earthly creatures, to whom the knowledge of true religion is inaccessible. The consequence of this, again, was the destruction of Christian brotherhood. Therefore, throughout the entire epistle, John insists that the true measure of Christianity is love for one's fellow men. “If we walk in the light... then we have fellowship with one another.” (1 John 1:7).“Whoever says he is in the light and hates his brother is still in darkness.” (2,9-11). The proof that we have passed from death to life is our love for our brothers (3,14-17). The mark of true Christianity is faith in Jesus Christ and love for one another. (3,23). God is love, and he who does not love has not known God (4,7.8). God loved us, therefore we must love each other (4,10-12). The commandment of John says that whoever loves God must love his brother, and whoever claims to love God and hate his brother is a liar (4,20.21). To put it bluntly, in the minds of the Gnostics, the sign of true religion was contempt for ordinary people; John, on the contrary, states in every chapter that the mark of true religion is love for all.
Such were the Gnostics: they claimed to be born of God, to walk in the light, to be completely sinless, to abide in God, and to know God. And this is how they deceived people. They, in fact, did not set as their goal the destruction of the Church and faith; they even intended to cleanse the Church of what was thoroughly rotten and to make Christianity a respectable intellectual philosophy so that it could be ranked next to the great philosophical teachings that time. But their teaching led to the denial of the incarnation, to the destruction of Christian ethics and the complete destruction of brotherhood in the Church. And therefore it is not surprising that John strives with such ardent pastoral devotion to defend the churches so beloved by him from such insidious attacks from within, for they posed a much greater threat to the Church than the persecution of the pagans; The very existence of the Christian faith was at stake.
JOHN'S TESTIMONY
The first letter of John is small in volume and does not contain a complete statement of the teachings of the Christian faith, but nevertheless, it is extremely interesting to carefully consider the foundations of faith with which John opposes the destroyers of the Christian faith.
PURPOSE OF WRITING A MESSAGE
John writes from two closely related considerations: that the joy of his flock may be complete (1,4), and so that they do not sin (2,1). John clearly sees that, no matter how attractive this false path may seem, in its essence it cannot bring happiness. Bringing joy to people and protecting them from sin are one and the same thing.
THE CONCEPT OF GOD
John has something wonderful to say about God. First, God is light and there is no darkness in Him (1,5); secondly, God is love. He loved us even before we loved Him and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. (4,7-10,16). John is convinced that God Himself gives people revelation about Himself and His love. He is light, not darkness; He is love, not hate.
INTRODUCTION TO JESUS
Since Jesus was primarily the target of the false teachers, this epistle in response to them is especially valuable and useful to us for what it says about Jesus.
1. Jesus was from the beginning (1,1; 2,14). When one encounters Jesus, one encounters the eternal.
2. Another way to put it is: Jesus is the Son of God, and John considers this conviction very important (4,15; 5,5). The relationship between Jesus and God is unique, and in Jesus we see the ever-seeking and ever-forgiving heart of God.
3. Jesus - Christ, Messiah (2,22; 5,1). For John this is important aspect faith. One might get the impression that here we are entering a specifically Jewish area. But there is also something very important in this. To say that Jesus was from the beginning and that He is the Son of God is to emphasize His connection with eternity, and to say that Jesus is the Messiah is to emphasize His connection with history. In His coming we see the fulfillment of God's plan through His chosen people.
4. Jesus was in every sense of the word a man. To deny that Jesus came in the flesh is to speak in the spirit of the Antichrist (4,2.3). John testifies that Jesus was so truly human that he, John, himself knew Him, saw Him with his own eyes and touched Him with his own hands (1,1.3). No other New Testament writer asserts with such force the absolute reality of the incarnation. Jesus not only became a man, He also suffered for men; He came by water and blood (5.6), and He laid down His life for us (3,16).
5. The coming of Jesus, His incarnation, His life, His death, His Resurrection and His Ascension had one purpose - to take away our sins. Jesus Himself was without sin (3,5), and man is essentially a sinner, even if in his arrogance he claims to be without sin (1,8-10), and yet the sinless one came to take upon himself the sins of sinners (3,5). Jesus speaks for sinful people in two ways:
and he Intercessor before God (2,1). In Greek it is parakletos, A parakletos - this is the one who is called to help. This could be a doctor; often this is a witness testifying in favor of someone; or a lawyer called upon to defend the accused. Jesus asks for us before God; He, the sinless one, acts as the protector of sinful people.
b) But He is not only an Intercessor. John names Jesus twice propitiation for our sins (2,2; 4,10). When a person sins, the relationship that existed between him and God is broken. This relationship can only be restored by a sacrifice of propitiation, or rather by a sacrifice through which this relationship can be restored. This redemptive, a cleansing sacrifice that restores man's unity with God. Thus, through Christ the broken relationship between God and man was restored. Jesus not only intercedes for the sinner, He restores his unity with God. The blood of Jesus Christ cleanses us from all sin (1, 7).
6. As a result, through Jesus Christ, people who believe in Him received life (4,9; 5,11.12). And this is true in two respects: they received life in the sense that they were saved from death, and they received life in the sense that life acquired true meaning and ceased to be mere existence.
7. It can be summed up by saying: Jesus is the Savior of the world (4,14). But we must state this in full. "The Father sent the Son to be the Savior of the world" (4,14). We have already said that Jesus intercedes for man before God. If we stopped there, others might argue that God intended to condemn people, and only the self-sacrifice of Jesus Christ turned Him away from these terrible intentions. But this is not so, because for John, as for all New Testament writers, all initiative came from God. It was He who sent His Son to be the Savior of people.
In a small message, the miracle, glory and mercy of Christ are most fully shown.
HOLY SPIRIT
In this letter, John speaks less about the Holy Spirit, for his main teaching about the Holy Spirit is set forth in the fourth Gospel. It can be said that, according to the First Epistle of John, the Holy Spirit functions as a link to the consciousness of the constant indwelling of God through Jesus Christ. (3,24; 4,13). We can say that the Holy Spirit gives us the ability to realize the preciousness of the friendship with God that is offered to us.
THE WORLD
The Christian lives in a hostile, godless world. This world does not know a Christian because it has not known Christ (3,1); he hates the Christian just as he hated Christ (3,13). False teachers are from the world, not from God, and it is because they speak his language that the world listens to them and is ready to receive them (4,4.5). The whole world, John summarizes, is in the power of the devil (5,19). That is why the world must win, and faith serves as a weapon in this fight against the world. (5,4).
This hostile world is doomed, and it passes, and its lust passes (2,17). Therefore, it is madness to give your heart to worldly things; he is heading towards his final death. Although Christians live in a hostile, passing world, there is no need to despair or fear. The darkness is passing and the true light is already shining (2,8). God in Christ invaded human history and new Age has arrived. It has not yet fully arrived, but the death of this world is obvious.
The Christian lives in a vicious and hostile world, but he has something with which he can overcome it, and when the destined end of the world comes, the Christian is saved because he already has what makes him a member of the new community in the new age.
CHURCH BROTHERHOOD
John not only addresses the highest areas of Christian theology: he sets out some extremely practical problems Christian Church and life. No other New Testament writer stresses so tirelessly and so energetically the imperative need for church fellowship. John is convinced that Christians are connected not only to God, but also to each other. “If we walk in the light... we have fellowship with one another.” (1,7). The man who claims to walk in the light but hates his brother is still in darkness; He who loves his brother abides in the light (2,9-11). The proof that a man has passed from darkness to light is his love for his brother. A man who hates his brother is a murderer like Cain. A man who has the means to help his brother in poverty and does not do so cannot claim that the love of God abides in him. The meaning of religion is to believe in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and love one another (3,11-17,23). God is love, and therefore loving person close to God. God loved us and that is why we must love each other (4,7-12). A man who claims to love God and yet hates his brother is a liar. The commandment of Jesus is this: he who loves God must also love his brother (4,20.21).
John is confident that a person can prove his love for God only through love for his fellow men, and that this love should manifest itself not only in sentimental feeling, but also in real, practical help.
RIGHTEOUSNESS OF THE CHRISTIAN
No other New Testament author makes such high ethical demands as John; no one condemns so much a religion that does not manifest itself in ethical actions. God is righteous, and His righteousness should be reflected in the life of every person who knows Him. (2,29). Whoever abides in Christ and is born of God does not sin; He who does not do righteousness is not from God (3.3-10); A the peculiarity of righteousness is that it is manifested in love for brothers (3,10.11). By keeping God's commandments, we prove our love for God and people (5,2). He who is born of God does not sin (5,18).
In John's mind, knowing God and obeying Him must go hand in hand. It is only through keeping His commandments that we can prove that we truly know God. The man who claims to know Him but does not keep His commandments is a liar (2,3-5).
In essence, it is this obedience that ensures the effectiveness of our prayer. We receive from God what we ask of Him because we keep His commandments and do what is pleasing in His sight (3,22).
True Christianity is characterized by two qualities: love for fellow human beings and keeping the commandments given by God.
MESSAGE ADDRESSES
The question of to whom the message is addressed poses difficult problems for us. The message itself does not contain the key to resolving this issue. Tradition connects him with Asia Minor and, above all, with Ephesus, where, according to legend, John lived for many years. But there are other special points that require explanation.
The prominent early medieval scholar Cassiodorus (c. 490-583) said that the First Epistle of John was written Hell Parthos, that is, to the Parthians; Augustine lists ten treatises written on the subject of the Epistle of John hell Parthos. One of the copies of this message kept in Geneva further complicates matters: it bears the title Hell Spartos, and the word does not exist in Latin at all. We can discard Hell Spartos like a typo, but where did it come from? Hell Parthos! There is one possible explanation for this.
The Second Epistle of John shows that it was written chosen lady and her children (2 John 1). Let us turn to the end of the First Epistle of Peter, where we read: “The chosen one greets you, like to you, church in Babylon" (1 Pet. 5:13). Words to you, church are highlighted with petite, which of course means that these words are not in the Greek text, which does not mention churches. One translation of the English Bible reads: “She who is in Babylon, and also the chosen one, sends you greetings.” As for the Greek language and text, it is quite possible to understand by this not church, A lady, madam. This is exactly how many theologians of the early Church understood this passage. In addition, this chosen lady found in the Second Epistle of John. It would be easy to identify these two chosen ladies and suggest that the Second Epistle of John was written to Babylon. And the inhabitants of Babylon were usually called Parthians, and here is an explanation of the name.
But things didn't stop there. Chosen lady - in Greek he electe; and as we have already seen, the ancient manuscripts were written in capital letters, and it is quite possible that electe should not be read as an adjective chosen one as a proper name Elekta. This is apparently what Clement of Alexandria did, because his words have reached us that John’s epistles were written to a certain lady in Babylon named Electa and her children.
It is quite possible, therefore, that the name Hell Parthos arose as a result of a number of misunderstandings. Under chosen one in the First Epistle of Peter, without a doubt, the Church is meant, which was duly reflected in the Russian translation of the Bible. Moffat translated this passage as: “Your sister church in Babylon, chosen like you, welcomes you.” Moreover, it is almost certain that in this case Babylon stands instead Rome, which early Christian authors identified with Babylon, the great harlot intoxicated with the blood of the saints (Rev. 17:5). Name Hell Parthos It has interesting story, but its occurrence is undoubtedly associated with misunderstandings.
But there is another difficulty. Clement of Alexandria spoke of John's epistles as "written to virgins." At first glance, this seems impossible, because such a name would simply be inappropriate. But where did this come from then? In Greek the name would then be, Pros Parthenous, which is very similar to Pros Partus, and it so happened that John was often called Xo Parthenos, A virgin because he was not married and led a chaste lifestyle. This name was supposed to be the result of confusion Hell Parthos And Xo Parthenos.
In this case, we can assume that tradition is right and all sophisticated theories are wrong. We can assume that these letters were written and assigned to Ephesus and the nearby churches of Asia Minor. John undoubtedly wrote to communities where his messages carried weight, and that was Ephesus and the surrounding areas. His name is never mentioned in connection with Babylon.
IN DEFENSE OF THE FAITH
John wrote his great epistle in the fight against some pressing threat and in defense of the faith. The heresies he opposed were undoubtedly more than just echoes of ancient times. They still live somewhere in the depths, and sometimes even now they raise their heads. Studying the letters of John will confirm us in the true faith and give us weapons to defend ourselves against those who might try to seduce us.
CONCERNS OF THE SHEPHERD (1 John 2:1.2)
First of all, we should note the boundless love that is heard in this passage. John begins with the address: “My children!” In both Greek and Latin, diminutives carry a special feeling of love. They are used as endearments. John was very old by this time; he appears to have been the last of his generation, perhaps the last of those who walked with Jesus and spoke with Him when He walked in the flesh on the earth. Many people, as they age, understand the younger generation less and less and even show irritation and intolerance towards the new and freer manners and lifestyle of young people. But John is not like that: even in old age he feels only tenderness for his children in the faith. He calls them not to sin, and does not scold them. There is no sharp note in his voice; he tries to teach them virtue through love. The address simultaneously conveys the shepherd's regret and tenderness for the people whom he has known and loved for a long time, despite their fickleness and foolishness.
His message has one purpose - that they should not sin. This phrase must be understood in two ways - in connection with what happened before, and in the context of what will happen later. There is a double danger that they may take sin lightly.
John makes two points about sin. First, as he just said, everyone is a sinner; whoever claims that he is not a sinner is a liar. Secondly, people received the remission of sins through what Jesus Christ had done and was still doing for them. But some may refer to both of these points to justify their frivolous attitude towards sin. If everyone has sinned, why make a fuss about it, and why even fight with something that is inevitably connected with human existence anyway? And why suffer at all if there is forgiveness of sins?
With this in mind, John points out two things.
First, the Christian has come to know God, and knowledge must go hand in hand with obedience. We will return to this in more detail, but for now we will emphasize John's point: the experience of the Christian life shows that knowledge of God is inextricably linked with obedience to God.
Secondly, the person who claims to be in God (2,6), and in Jesus Christ, must lead the same lifestyle as Jesus. In other words, unity with Christ is inextricably linked to imitation To Christ.
So John sets out two great ethical principles: knowledge implies obedience, and unity is inextricably linked with imitation, and therefore there should be no temptation in the Christian life to take sin lightly.
JESUS IS AN INTERCER AND ADVOCATE (1 John 2:1.2 (continued))
We will have to spend quite a lot of time analyzing these two verses, because there is hardly another place in the New Testament where the actions of Christ are so concisely presented.
Let's first formulate the problem. It is clear that Christianity is an ethical religion, and John wants to emphasize this. But, on the other hand, it is also obvious that a person often suffers moral defeat. Having become acquainted with the requirements that God makes of people, they first accept them, and then find themselves unable to comply with them. This creates a barrier between man and God. How then can man enter into the presence of the Most High and Holy God? This difficulty is resolved in Jesus Christ, and in this passage John uses two terms for Jesus Christ that we must carefully consider in order to understand the benefits that Jesus Christ bestows.
John calls Christ ours We intercede with the Father. The word used in the Greek text is parakletos, which in the fourth Gospel is translated as Comforter. This is such a great word and it contains such important idea that we need to look at it in more detail. Parakletos comes from the verb paracalane. Sometimes paracalane actually used in the meaning comfort, for example, in Life 37.35, where it is said that all the sons and daughters of Jacob were gathered together to console him in the loss of Joseph; V Is. 61.2, where it is said that prophets must comfort all those who mourn and cry; and in Mat. 5.4, where it is said that blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.
But this cannot be considered either the most typical or the most literal meaning of the verb paracalane. Most often this verb means call someone to you for example, as an assistant or advisor. In colloquial Greek it is often used in this sense. The Greek historian Xenophon (444-365 BC) tells how the Persian king Cyrus called (parakalane) Clearchos to his tent as an advisor, because Clearchos was honored not only by him, but also by the Greeks. The Greek orator Aeschines criticized his opponents for calling on his great rival Demosthenes: "Why do you call for help Demosthenes? To do so means call upon a red-faced swindler to deceive the ears of judges" ("Against Ctesiphon" 200).
Word parakletos in the passive form literally means called by someone and in the active sense it means an assistant, a supporter and, most often, a witness in favor of someone, an intercessor, a legal defender. Retelling the story of Joseph and his brothers, Philo of Alexandria writes that Joseph, having forgiven his brothers for the evil they had committed, said: “I offer you forgiveness for everything that you have done to me and therefore you will not need another intercessor (parakletos)(Life of Joseph 40). Elsewhere, Philo of Alexandria tells that one ruler especially oppressed the Alexandrian Jews and they decided to complain to the Roman emperor. “We must,” they said, “find a more influential intercessor (parakletos), which will place Emperor Ai in our favor."
This word was so typical and widespread at that time that it entered other languages directly in this form. In the New Testament the word parakletos was directly adopted in this form in the Syriac, Egyptian, Arabic and Ethiopic translations. The Jews also adopted this word and used it to mean defender, lawyer, as opposed to to the accuser. The rabbis had this saying in connection with the day of God's judgment: "A person who keeps one commandment of the law will receive one parakletos, but a man who breaks one commandment of the law will receive one accuser." According to them, the sin offering was also parakletos man before God.
Thus, this word entered the Christian vocabulary. We see this idea of Jesus as man's friend and protector repeatedly in the New Testament. In an English court-martial there is an officer who acts as counsel for the ordinary soldiers; he is called friend of the defendant. Jesus is our friend. Paul writes about Christ who sits at the right hand of God and “makes intercession for us.” (Rom. 8:34). The writer of Hebrews says Jesus "always lives to make intercession for men" (Heb. 7:25), and to “appear... for us before the face of God” (Heb. 9:24).
It's amazing that Jesus never lost interest in people and never stopped loving them. One cannot think that He lived His life on earth and went through death on the Cross and that was the end of His relationship with people. He still cares for us with all his heart; He intercedes for us; Jesus Christ is the fellow defendant of each of us.
JESUS CHRIST - THE ATOPATION FOR OUR SINS (1 John 2:1.2 (continued))
John goes on to say that Jesus is propitiation for our sins; in Greek it is - hilasmos. This is a more difficult word for us to understand. Every person has an idea of an intercessor and intercessor, because everyone once came to the aid of a friend; same idea propitiation associated with sacrifice and is closer to the Jewish worldview than to ours. In order to understand this idea of propitiation, we need to take a closer look at what underlies it and what it is connected with.
All religions have one great goal - to find friendship with God, to know Him as a friend, and to enter into His presence with a sense of joy and not fear. From this it follows that the stumbling block of religion is sin, because it is sin that violates this friendship with God, and therefore the whole system of sacrifices is aimed at removing this stumbling block. Through sacrifice, friendship with God is restored, and therefore the Jews offered a sin offering in the Temple morning and evening. This sacrifice was not offered for a specific sin, but for a person as a sinner; and from the time the Temple stood until its destruction in 70, this sacrifice was offered to God every evening and every morning. The Jews also brought a guilt offering to God - sacrifices for specific sins. The Jews still had the Day of Atonement, the ritual of which was intended to cleanse everyone sins committed out of ignorance and consciously. And against this background we need to understand the meaning of propitiation.
As we have already said, in Greek it is hilasmos, and the corresponding verb hilaskesfay has three meanings.
1. If a person acts as the subject of an action, he matters to appease, appease, appease the one who was insulted or offended, and, in particular, to appease and appease God. This means making a sacrifice or performing a ritual that can appease, pacify God, who is offended by man’s sin.
2. If the subject of the action is God, verb has meaning forgive me because then the meaning is that God Himself finds the means to restore the relationship between Himself and man.
3. The third meaning is close to the first: the verb often conveys the performance of an action that removes the stain of sin. A person has sinned and immediately the stain of sin falls on him; he needs something that will enable him to cleanse himself of this stain and enter again into the presence of God. In this sense the verb hilaskesfay has the meaning bathe, and not at to have mercy; not so much to pacify, to appease God, but to remove the stain of sin from a person and thereby give him the opportunity to once again enter into friendship with God.
Saying that Jesus is hilasmos for our sins, John brings all these meanings together. Jesus took away the guilt of past sin and the stain of present sin. Behind this word lies the great truth that through Jesus Christ, firstly, man’s friendship with God was restored and, secondly, maintained.
But one more point should be noted. According to John, Jesus did this not only for our sins, but also for the sins of the whole world. The New Testament points to the comprehensiveness of God's salvation. God so loved world, that he gave his Son (John 3:16). Jesus is convinced that when He is raptured He will everyone will attract to Himself (John 12:32). God wants All people were saved (1 Tim. 2:4). It is unlikely that anyone will have the courage to limit the grace and love of God or deny the saving effect of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. The love of God truly surpasses everything that man can imagine; The New Testament confirms that salvation embraces the whole world.
TRUE KNOWLEDGE OF GOD (1 John 2:3-6)
The language of this passage and the thoughts it contained were well known to the recipients of the message. At that time there was a lot of talk about how they know God And abide in God. In our opinion, however, it is important to see the difference that existed between the pagan world, with all its greatness, Judaism, and Christianity. To know God, to abide in God, to be in friendship with God - the human spirit has always sought this, for Augustine was right when he said that God created people for Himself so that people would not find peace until they found Him , and in Him - your peace. It can be said that in the ancient world there were three ideas about what it meant to know God.
1. During the era of classical Greek philosophy and literature, in the sixth and fifth centuries BC, the Greeks were confident that they could come to God through purely intellectual reasoning and argument. T. R. Glover's book The World of the New Testament has a chapter on the Greeks, which shows the Greek way of thinking and Greek philosophy at its height. The great Greek philosopher Plato has been called one of the most insightful thinkers of all time. The Greek writer and historian Xenophon cited a conversation between the philosopher Socrates and a young man. "How do you know this?" - asked Socrates. - “Do you know this, or do you think so?” “I think so,” replied the young man. “Very well,” said Socrates, “when we stop guessing and know, then we’ll talk about it again.” Greek thinkers were not content with guesswork.
In classical Greece, curiosity was considered not a vice but a virtue, for it was considered the mother of philosophy. Glover characterizes the Greek point of view as follows: "Everything must be studied; the whole world can be studied; all questions are allowed; nature must ultimately give the answer; God must also give man an explanation, because He Himself created man this way." The classical Greeks believed that God could be understood with the mind.
It should be noted here that an intellectual approach to religion does not necessarily entail ethical transformation. When religion is a complex of intellectual problems, when God is the end result of intense mental activity, religion becomes something like higher mathematics: it results in intellectual satisfaction, not in moral actions. And, be that as it may, many of the great Greeks were not virtuous people at all, even people like Plato and Socrates. A person could know God with his mind, but it is not at all necessary that it perfects him.
2. Later, the Greeks, the immediate predecessors and contemporaries of the New Testament era, tried to find God in emotional experience. Mystery religions, which are of particular interest in terms of the history of religion, were characteristic of this era. Their goal was to achieve unity with the deity, and it was realized in the form of religious dramas.
3. And, finally, there was also the Jewish way of knowing God, very similar to the Christian way. The Jews believed that knowledge of God could not be achieved through mental speculation or special emotional experiences, but was given to people through the revelation of God. The Jews believed that God is holy, and that His holiness imposes on those to whom He has revealed Himself and who worship Him an obligation to also be holy. One English commentary on the Bible says: “John cannot imagine that true knowledge of God would not be manifested in obedience.” Someone else put it this way: “To know God is to know His love in Christ, and to respond to it with obedience.”
And this was John's difficulty: in the Hellenistic world he encountered people who believed that God could be understood and known through intellectual reasoning and search. These people said, “I know God,” but had no idea of moral obligations. In the Hellenistic world he also met people who had personal experience emotional comprehension of God, who declared: “I am in God and God is in me,” but did not think at all about the commandments of God.
And so John decided to explain to them clearly and irrevocably that there is only one opportunity to demonstrate their knowledge of God - to obey Him; and the only way to demonstrate our unity with God is to imitate Him. Christianity is a religion which gives man the greatest privileges, but imposes upon him the greatest obligations. No one rejects intellectual efforts and the experience of emotional comprehension of God, but they must be manifested in moral actions.
THE COMMANDMENT IS AN ANCIENT AND AT THE SAME TIME NEW (1 John 2:7.8)
Beloved - John's favorite message to his flock (cf. 3:2.21; 4:1.7; 3 John 1.2.5.11). This whole message is permeated with the spirit of love. One English commentator said: "In setting forth the commandment of love, the Apostle John clothes it with flesh and blood." This is very well said, because most of this message is a warning, and there are reproaches in it too. When warning and reproaching, it is easy to slip into naked criticism, then move on to scolding, or even experience sadistic pleasure at the sight of people’s painful reaction to sharp reproaches. And in John’s voice, even when he must speak strictly, love sounds. He learned to speak the truth in love—something every parent, preacher, teacher, and leader should learn.
John speaks of a commandment equally old and new. Other people may think that what is meant here is expressed in 2,6 commandment - he who abides in Jesus Christ must live the same life as his Lord lived. But, most likely, John is referring to the words of Jesus in the fourth Gospel: “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; just as I have loved you, you also must love one another.” (John 13:34). In what sense is this commandment equally old and new?
1. She is old because she was already in the Old Testament. Doesn't the law say: "...love your neighbor as yourself" (Lev. 19.18)? It is also old because John’s readers and listeners heard it not for the first time: from the very day they became Christians, they were taught that the law of their lives should be the law of love. This commandment had a long history, and it left a deep imprint on the lives of those to whom John addressed.
2. And it was new in the sense that through His life Jesus gave it a very special meaning, making it the standard of life - people should love each other as Jesus loved them. It can even be said that people did not know what love was until they saw in Jesus what it was. In all areas of our life we can find things that are old in themselves, but have acquired a completely new quality in some new design. A person can perceive a game in a new way after he has seen how a master plays it. A person can see a musical piece in a new way when he hears it performed by a famous orchestra under the direction of a talented conductor. The skillful hands of a craftsman can always add new charm to an old thing. In Jesus, love took on two new qualities.
a) Love has found a new one scope of action. In Jesus love spread on the sinner. Orthodox Jewish rabbis believed that God wanted to destroy sinners. “There is joy in heaven when another sinner is blotted out from the earth,” they said. And Jesus was a friend of rejected people, and He was convinced that there would be joy in heaven when even one sinner repented. In Jesus love spread on the pagans. And the rabbis believed that “God created the pagans so that they could serve as fuel for the fire of hell.” But in Jesus God loved so much world, that he gave his only begotten Son. Love took on a new character in Jesus because He expanded its scope so that it embraces everyone and nothing remains outside its sphere.
b) She found a new one strength. Neither the deafness of the people to His calls, nor anything they did, could turn the love of Jesus into hatred. He could even pray to God for forgiveness for those who crucified Him on the Cross.
The commandment of love was old, because people had known it for a long time, but it was also new, because in Jesus Christ it acquired a new, hitherto unknown quality, and this is how Jesus called people to love.
THE CASTING OF DARKNESS (1 John 2:7.8 (continued))
John goes on to say again that this commandment of love is truly in Jesus and in the people to whom this message is addressed. In John's view, truth is not only something that can be understood with the mind, it is something that must be followed. He means by this that the commandment to love one's neighbor is the highest truth; in Jesus Christ we can see this commandment in all the radiance of its fullness; in Him this commandment received its true completion, but in Christianity this complete commandment is not yet visible, it manifests itself gradually. In John's view, Christianity is a process of the formation of love.
John goes on to say that the light is already shining, but the darkness is passing away. This phrase must be read in context. In the era in which John wrote, at the end of the first century, people's ideas were changing. The first Christians expected the Second Coming of Jesus during their lifetime as a sudden event that would shake the world to its core. When this did not happen, they did not lose hope, but began to look at it differently. In John's view, the Second Coming is not a sudden dramatic event, but a process in which light gradually gains the upper hand over darkness; and at the end of this process there will be a world in which light will triumph and darkness will be finally defeated.
In this passage, as well as in 2,10.11, light symbolizes love and darkness symbolizes hatred. In other words, at the end of this process there will be a world in which love reigns supreme and hate is banished forever. Christ will then take possession of the heart of every person when love reigns over the human being; and He will then come to the human world when all people fulfill His commandment of love. The coming of Jesus and His reign is the coming and reign of love.
LIGHT AND DARKNESS; LOVE AND HATE (1 John 2:9-11)
The first thing that strikes us in this passage is that John sees personal relationships in terms of light and darkness. In relationships with fellow humans, it is either love or hate. According to John, in human relations There can be no middle ground, no neutrality. In the words of the English commentator Westcott: "Indifference is impossible; twilight has no place in the spiritual world."
Further, it should be emphasized that John is talking here about a person’s attitude towards his brother, that is, to a neighbor, to a person next to whom he lives and works, with whom he communicates every day. There is a kind of Christian love that enthusiastically preaches love for people of other countries, but never tries to seek friendship with their nearest neighbor or even to live in peace within their family circle. John emphasizes that we must love the people with whom we interact every day, and this is not empty philosophy or pompous cosmopolitheism; this love is direct and effective.
John is absolutely right to draw a sharp distinction between light and darkness, love and hate, leaving no shadow areas and no room for compromise. You cannot be indifferent to your fellow man, because he is an integral part of our environment. But the whole problem is How we relate to him.
1. Alone at all don't count with his brothers. They plan their lives as if these brothers did not exist at all. They believe that neither the needs, nor the sorrows, nor the well-being and salvation of their brothers have anything to do with themselves. These people are so self-absorbed, although sometimes they themselves do not realize it, that in the whole world there is no one for them except themselves.
2. Others look at their fellows with contempt, They consider them unreasonable in comparison with their intellectual abilities, and do not take their opinions into account at all. Some even look at their brothers like the ancient Greeks looked at slaves - as an inferior breed.
3. Some look upon their brothers as interference. They understand that law and customs recognize certain rights and even material requirements for brothers in relation to them, but they recognize these rights and requirements only as an unpleasant necessity. Thus, others only regret the fees and taxes that they have to pay to help those in need. And therefore they look upon their poor, sick and unprivileged fellow humans as a nuisance.
4. Others look upon their fellows as enemies. For those who consider competition to be a principle of life, this is a completely normal view. Every professional colleague is a potential competitor and, therefore, a potential enemy.
5. But others see in their fellow man brother they look at his needs and interests as their own, and consider friendship with him to be the true joy of life.
ACTIONS PERFORMED BY LOVE AND HATE (1 John 2:9-11 continued)
But John doesn't stop there. He believes that the way people treat their fellow humans reflects on themselves.
1. A man who loves his brother walks in the light and there is no offense in him. The Greek text may have this meaning: if we love our brother, then there is nothing in us that could seduce others. But most likely, John wants to say the following: in a man who loves his brother, there is nothing that could tempt himself. In other words, love gives a person the opportunity to improve spiritually, but hatred makes such improvement impossible. If God is love, and the new commandment of Christ is love, then love brings us closer to people and to God, and hatred isolates us from people and from God. We must always remember that a person who has hatred, resentment and obsession in his heart cannot improve spiritually.
2. John goes on to say that a man who hates his brother walks in darkness and does not know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded him. In other words, hatred blinds a person. A person who has hatred in his heart cannot judge clearly, cannot consider the issue clearly. You can often see a person objecting to a good proposal only because he dislikes the person who put forward such a proposal. Personal enmity very often hinders the implementation of some Church or social plan. A person who has hatred in his heart cannot make a correct decision or judgment on any matter; he also cannot organize his life correctly.
Love gives a person the ability to walk in the light; hatred leaves him in darkness - even if he himself is not aware of it.
REMEMBER WHO WE ARE (1 John 2:12-14)
This is a beautiful passage, but despite its beauty, it has its own problems of interpretation. We will notice two things.
Firstly, in form this passage is not exactly a poetic work, but it has the imprint of poetry and a strong sense of rhythm and, therefore, it should be interpreted as a poetic work.
Second, John had just warned his listeners and readers about the dangers of walking in darkness and the necessity of walking in the light. Now he says that best protection from any temptation - to remember who they are and what was done for them. No matter who they were, their sins were forgiven them; they knew Jehovah from the beginning and they were given the power to defeat the evil one. When Nehemiah was urged to go and cowardly seek protection, he said:
"Can a man like me run?" (Neh. 6.11) - And when a Christian is tempted, he can answer: “How can a person like me stoop to such a thing? low level, or get your hands dirty with such sin?" A person who has received the remission of sins, knows God, and is confident that he can rely on higher power, is well protected from temptations by the fact that he remembers all this.
But we have difficulty interpreting this passage. One thing stands out right away: why does John repeat the words three times? I'm writing to you and three times the words I wrote to you. IN Vulgate - Latin translation of the Bible - both phrases are translated in the present tense - scribo - and there were people who argued that John used different tenses to avoid monotony, since he would have had to use the present tense as many as six times. Others have argued that the past tenses are epistolary aorist, according to Greek grammar. In letters, the Greeks used the past tense instead of the present tense to put themselves in the reader's place. For author letters something may be in present tense, because he does just that, and for the recipient of the letter it will be in the past, because by this time the person writing the letter had already done so. For example, in Greek a person could equally write in a letter: “I am going into town today” or “I went into town today.” This is Greek epistolary aorist. In this case there is no difference between I write And I wrote.
Most likely, this can be explained this way: in words I write, John introduces what he was thinking about at that very moment, and what he was still planning to write; and in words I wrote, he thinks about what he has already written and the readers have already read. The point then is that the entire letter - what has already been written, what John writes at this particular moment and what he writes later - should remind Christians of who they are and whose they are and what Jesus has done for them.
John considered it extremely important that Christians remember the position and advantages they received through Jesus, because in this they would find protection from error and from sin.
THREE STAGES (1 John 2:12-14 (continued))
The second problem is more difficult, but also more important than the first. John names his recipients children, youths, youths and fathers. Children (2.12), - in Greek it is teknia And youths (2.13), - in Greek it is paidia. Teknia - this is a child according to his years, and paidia - a child of experience who needs to practice experience and discipline. And so the question arises: to whom is John writing this letter? Three answers were given to this.
1. It has been suggested that this should be considered an appeal to three age groups in the Church: adolescent children, fathers and young men. Children - their sins are forgiven them; there is pure innocence in them. Fathers - they contain mature wisdom acquired in the Christian life. Boys - they have the power to overcome the evil one. This interpretation is extremely attractive, but there are three reasons that prevent us from seeing it as the only interpretation of this passage.
A) Children - one of John's most beloved expressions. He also uses it in 1John 2.1.28; 3.7; 4.4; 5.21. It is clear from other passages that John means children not minors, but Christians, whose spiritual father he was. By the time John wrote his letter, John must have been about a hundred years old, and all the members of his church were much younger and were children to him, just as a teacher thinks of his boys, who have long since become men.
b) The fact that this passage is, one might say, a prose poem does not allow us at once to insist on a literal interpretation and thus on a formulaic understanding. Poetry and literalism are incompatible.
c) The greatest difficulty seems to be that the beatitudes and abilities that John speaks of do not belong exclusively to one age group. Forgiveness is not only given to children; A newly converted Christian may be completely mature in a spiritual sense. The strength that gives the ability to overcome temptation and the evil one, thank God, is not only the lot of the young. These beatitudes and abilities do not belong to any one age group - they are characteristic of the Christian life in general.
We do not want to say, however, that there is no talk of age groups here at all. Most likely, this idea is present here, but John has a habit of speaking in such a way that it can be understood in two ways - in a broad and in a narrower sense, and since we have already revealed the narrow meaning, we must go further and find the full meaning.
2. Others propose to distinguish two groups here. They claim that the appeal children refers to Christians in general which are divided into two groups - fathers and youths, that is, old and young, mature and still immature. It is quite possible that this is so, because John’s flock should have already become so accustomed to the fact that he calls them children, that they would not at all attach a specific meaning to this appeal, but would understand it as applying to everyone.
3. It has also been suggested that in each case these words refer to everyone Christians, and John did not differentiate in any way. All Christians are like children because all can regain innocence through the forgiveness of Jesus Christ. All Christians are like fathers - adult, completely conscious and full of a sense of responsibility men, capable of thinking and knowing Jesus Christ more and more deeply. All Christians are like young men - with greater strength to fight against the power of temptation and overcome. It seems to us that this is precisely the meaning that John intended in these words. We may begin by dividing Christians into three age groups, but we come to believe that the beatitudes and abilities of each age group are the beatitudes and abilities of all groups.
THE GIFTS OF GOD IN CHRIST (1 John 2:12-14 continued)
Finally, this passage outlines God's gifts to men in Jesus Christ.
1. The first gift is forgiveness of sins for the sake of Jesus Christ. This was the most important message of the gospel of the early preachers. They were sent to preach repentance and forgiveness of sins (Luke 24:47). Paul proclaimed forgiveness of sins for the sake of Jesus Christ to the brothers in Antioch in Pisidia (Acts 13:38). To receive forgiveness means to find peace with God, and this is the gift that Jesus Christ brought to people.
John uses an interesting phrase in 2:72: for His name's sake. A person receives forgiveness for the sake of the name Jesus Christ. The Jews used the word Name in a very special meaning. A name is not only a person’s personal name, it symbolizes his entire character to the extent that people know him. This usage is typical of the psalms. "And they that know Thy name will trust in You" (Ps. 9:11). It is quite obvious that this does not mean that those who know that His name will trust in God Yahweh, Jehovah; this means that those who know His true essence, as it was given in revelation to people, are ready to trust in God. The psalmist cries, “For Thy name’s sake, O Lord, forgive my trespass.” (Ps. 24:11), which essentially means for the sake of Your love and Your mercy. The psalmist prays to God because he knows what He is like. "For Thy name's sake, lead me and rule me" (Ps. 30:4). He can make a prayer only because he knows the name - the true essence - of God. “Some in chariots,” says the psalmist, “some in horses, but we glory in the name of the Lord our God.” (Ps. 19:8). Others rely on worldly help, but we trust in God, because we know what He is like.
Thus, John wants to say that we are confident that our sins are forgiven because of the character of Jesus Christ. We know that in Him we see God; we see in Him sacrificial love and patient mercy, and therefore we know what God is like, and therefore we can be confident that we will be forgiven.
2. It's a gift deeper and deeper knowledge of God. John, without a doubt, relied on his own experience. Now he was a very old man, because it was the end of the first century. For seventy years he lived with Christ and thought about Him and every day he knew Him better and better. For the Jew, knowledge was not limited to mental activity. The knowledge of God was not limited to philosophical knowledge; You had to know him as your friend. In Hebrew the word to know used to denote connections between husband and wife, and in particular, sexual relationships - the most intimate relationships (cf. Gen. 4:1). When John spoke of a deeper and deeper knowledge of God, he did not mean that Christians would become learned theologians, but that they would become closer and closer friends with God over the years.
3. Third gift - victorious force. John looks at the fight against temptation and the evil one as a personal matter for everyone. John is not talking about an abstract victory over evil and vice. He talks about victory over the evil one. He sees vice as a personified force trying to lead us astray from the path of God. None of us can deny that he once felt particularly acutely the attacks of the tempter, directed directly against virtue and fidelity. It is in Christ that we find the strength to withstand and overcome such attacks. Let's take a simple human analogy: we know well that in the presence of certain people it is necessary to behave well. When we walk with Jesus, we walk with the One who can give us strength to overcome the attacks of the evil one.
TEMPTERS OF MEN'S HEARTS (1 John 2:15-17)
People of ancient times saw the world as a battlefield between two hostile forces. This is very clearly visible in Zoroastrianism - the religion ancient Persia. The Jews became acquainted with this religion and it left a noticeable imprint on their thinking. According to Zoroastrianism, the world is a battlefield between two hostile forces of light and darkness - the god of light Ahuramazda and the god of darkness Ahuarmanya. In a person’s life, an extremely important role is played by the decision he makes to the question: will he stand on the side of light or on the side of darkness? Each one must decide this for himself, and the Jews knew this doctrine well.
But the Christian believed that the gap between the world and the Church existed due to other reasons. For many centuries the Jews believed that time was divided into two centuries - present century, that is, the age of evil and vice, and the coming century, which will be the age of God and, therefore, good and virtuous. Christians were absolutely sure that the age to come had come in Jesus. The Kingdom of God has already come, but it has come not for the world and not in this world, A for the Church and in the Church. The life of a Christian in the Church is life in the coming century, good and virtuous; and the world continued to exist in the present century, full of vice and evil. Consequently, there was an insurmountable gulf between the Church and the world; There could be no friendship or even compromise between them.
But we must correctly understand what John meant by the word world, space. Christians didn't hate the world as such after all, he was God’s creation, and everything that God created in him was also good. Jesus loved the beauty of the world, and said that Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like the scarlet lilies, which bloom but one Day and then fade away. Jesus repeatedly drew His comparisons from the world around us. So, in this sense, Christians did not hate the world. The world did not belong to the devil, it belonged to the Lord, and, moreover, all its fullness. But the word world, space acquired a moral meaning: it acquired significance world without God. One commentator defined the meaning of the word this way: space in John: “The author means by this a human society based on false principles, in which base desires, false values and selfishness dominate.” In other words, in John's view the world, the cosmos, was nothing more than a pagan society with its false values and false gods.
World in the present passage, it is not the world at all, for God loved the world that He made; this is a world that has abandoned its Creator.
Circumstances developed in such a way that John’s flock found themselves in an even more dangerous situation. It is quite obvious that they are not in danger of any persecution, and therefore they may have a great and dangerous temptation to enter into a compromise with the world. Life is always difficult for those who are very different from everyone else, and it was especially difficult for them.
And to this day a Christian must be different from other people. In the present passage, John sees the situation as he always sees it - white and black. One English commentator put it this way: “There can be no vacuum in the human soul.” There can be no neutral here: a person either loves the world or loves God." Jesus Himself said: "No one can serve two masters." (Matthew 6:24). Ultimately, you still have to make a choice. Will we choose the standards by which the world lives, or will we choose the standards that God offers us?
A LIFE WITH NO FUTURE (1 John 2:15-17 continued)
John makes two points about the man who loved the world and made a compromise with it.
First, he notes three typical features of the world.
1. Lust of the flesh. By this John means not only what we understand by carnal sins. In our minds, this is associated exclusively with sexual sins, but in the New Testament flesh - this is the part of our being that, without the grace of Christ, becomes the most vulnerable place for sins. Along with carnal sins are worldly vanity and selfish aspirations. To be in the power of the lust of the flesh means to judge everything in this world from the standpoint of purely material gain and to live entirely in the power of one’s feelings; that is, to bask in luxury, to be a glutton, a slave of pleasure, a libertine, an egoist and a miser, unbridled in the satisfaction of his material desires and indifferent to spiritual values. The lust of the flesh ignores the commandments and judgment of God, denies God's standards of life and even His existence. One should not think that the lust of the flesh is the lot of only great sinners. Anyone who craves pleasure, even if it can destroy another person, who does not take into account the personality of another for the sake of satisfying his desires, who lives in luxury when others live in need, who deifies his own comfort and his goals in life is a slave to the lust of the flesh.
2. Lust of the eyes. One English commentator put it this way: "It is the tendency to be captivated by show." It characterizes someone who equates ostentatious display with genuine prosperity; who wants to get everything that he SEES, and, having received it, brags and flaunts it; who seeks happiness in things that can be bought with money and seen with the eyes.
3. Worldly pride. Here John used an extremely expressive Greek word alazoneia. In the understanding of ancient moralists alazon - this is a person who claims, in order to exalt himself, that he has things and qualities that he does not possess at all.
In John's view, the worldly man judges everything according to his appetites; he is a slave to ostentatious luxury, a braggart and a liar, trying to present himself as something significant.
Following this comes John's second warning. A person who devotes his life to worldly goals and a worldly lifestyle literally has no future. All these things are transitory and there is no permanence in any of them, but a person who has made God the center of his life abides forever. The man of the world is doomed to disappointment, but the man of God is confident of ultimate joy.
THE END TIMES (1 John 2:18)
It is important to understand what John means when he speaks of the end times. The idea of the end times, the last day or last days, runs throughout the Bible, but its meaning has interestingly evolved and changed.
1. This idea and this phrase appeared often in the first books of the Old Testament. So, for example, Jacob gathered his sons before his death to announce what would happen to them in the days to come [in Barclay: in last days] (Gen. 49.1; cf. Num. 24.14). At that time under last days understood the time when the people of Israel would enter the promised land and could finally partake of the promised blessing.
2. This phrase is often found in the prophets. In the last days, the mountain of the house of the Lord will be set at the top of the mountains and will be exalted above the hills, and all nations will flow to it. (Isaiah 2:2; Micah 4:1). In the last days the holy city will be supreme and Israel will be completely obedient to God, as it should be. (cf. Jer. 23:20; 30:24; 48:47). In the last times, God will be supreme and people will obey Him.
3. Both in the Old Testament itself, and in the era between the Old and New Testaments, the last days or last time began to be identified with the Day of the Lord. This concept, like no other, is intertwined with Holy Scripture. The Jews believed that time was divided into two centuries, and between this century, which they considered completely vicious and evil, and century to come, which in their minds was the Golden Age of God's sovereignty, they placed the Day of the Lord, the end times, which should be a time of terror, destruction of the cosmos, and judgment.
The last times cannot be understood as the final destruction, after which there will again be the original emptiness. In the biblical worldview, the end times represent the end of one age and the beginning of another. They will last in relation to things and states known to us; they must disappear, but this will not lead to the destruction of the world, but to its re-creation.
And this is the essence of the problem: “Will man be destroyed along with the old world in the judgment, or will he enter into the glory of the new?” John - like other biblical authors - poses this question to people. People are given a choice - to connect themselves with the old world, doomed to destruction, or to connect themselves with Christ and enter the new world, the world of God. This is an urgent requirement for a person.
If it all just boiled down to final destruction, no one would be able to do anything against it, but the whole point is that the world will be recreated again, and whether a person enters it or not depends on whether he has committed his life to Jesus Christ or not.
As a matter of fact, for the people to whom John was writing then, this was not yet lately. Almost nineteen centuries have passed, and this world still exists. Maybe then the whole concept is a product of the human mind that should be discarded? But the point is that this concept is always true. Every hour is the last hour, the last time. There is a constant struggle in the world between good and evil, between God and His enemy. And at every moment, in every decision, a person faces a choice - to connect himself with God or with the forces of evil that oppose God; and, thereby, to secure or not secure for oneself a share in eternal life. The struggle between good and evil never stops and, therefore, we always face a choice, that is, every hour becomes literally the last hour for us.
ANTICHRIST (1 John 2:18 (continued))
In this verse we encounter the concept Antichrist. Word Antichrist found in the New Testament only in John (1 John 2.22; 4.3; 2 John 7), but it contains an idea as ancient as religion itself.
According to its etymology, the word Antichrist can have two meanings. Greek prefix anti may matter against or instead of. Greek word strategos Means commanding, A antistrategos can mean either enemy commander, or deputy commander. Hence, Antichrist - this is either an adversary, an enemy of Christ, or one who wants to take His place. The meaning is, in fact, the same, with one difference: in the case enemy For Christ, everything is completely clear - the hostility is obvious. If we take the value one who wants to take the place of Christ, then the Antichrist can be one who skillfully tries to take the place of Christ from within in the Church and in the Christian community. In the first case it is open hostility, in the second it is skillful penetration. We do not need to choose between these meanings, for the Antichrist can act in both ways.
The easiest way to think of it is this way. Christ is the embodiment of God and virtue, and the Antichrist is the embodiment of the devil and evil.
At the very beginning we said that the idea of the Antichrist is as old as religion itself; people have always felt that a force hostile to God was at work in the universe.
Initially, this hostile force was represented in the form of a dragon, but over time it inevitably began to take on human characteristics; they began to personify it, that is, associate it with specific people. Every time an extremely vicious and evil person, who opposed himself to God and sought to destroy His people, he began to be identified with this force hostile to God. So, for example, in 168 BC, such a figure as the Syrian king Antiochus Epiphanes appeared. He made it his goal to wipe Judaism from the face of the earth, invaded Jerusalem, killed thousands of Jews and sold tens of thousands into slavery. Circumcision of a child or acquisition of the list of the law was declared a crime punishable by death. In the courtyard of the Temple, an altar was erected to Zeus, on which pork was sacrificed. Brothels were set up in the premises of the Temple. It was a cold-blooded attempt to destroy Judaism. In the minds of people, Epiphanes was the embodiment of a force hostile to God.
This same phrase was used by people in the days of the Gospel of Mark when they spoke of the “abomination that makes desolate” set up in the Temple (Mark 13:14; Matt 24:15). What was meant here was the more than half-crazed Emperor Caligula, who wanted to place his statue in the Holy of Holies in the Temple. It was believed that he, too, was the embodiment of a force hostile to God.
AT 2 Fez. 2,3.4 Paul speaks of the “man of sin,” exalting himself above everything called God or that is holy and placing himself in the Temple of God. We do not know who Paul had in mind, but it is clear that he is thinking of those who are the embodiment of everything hostile to God.
IN Rev. 13.1; 16.13; 19.20; 20.10 there is a beast symbolizing another person. Everyone looked at Emperor Nero as a monster in the guise of a man. His excesses and excesses disgusted the Romans, and his savage persecutions tormented Christians. When he died, people, amazed by his depravity, could not believe that he was really dead, and the legend of the resurrected Nero arose - Nero Redivivus - as if he did not die, but went to Parthia and will return with the Parthian hordes to fall on the people. He is a beast, the Antichrist, the embodiment of evil.
Throughout human history, there have been identifications of people with the Antichrist. The Pope, Napoleon, Mussolini, Hitler - all of them were at one time identified with the Antichrist.
But the fact is that the Antichrist is rather not a person, but a principle of active resistance to God, which can be seen embodied in these people of different generations, who were open and ardent enemies of God.
THE BATTLE FOR MINDS (1 John 2:18 continued)
John has his own special idea of the Antichrist. In his view, evidence of the appearance of the Antichrist in the world was errors in faith and the dangerous teachings of heretics. The church has been well warned that false teachers will appear in the last days. Jesus said: “Many will come in My name, saying that it is I, and will deceive many.” (Mark 13:6; Matt 24:5). As Paul left his Ephesian friends, he warned them: “After I am gone, savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock; and from yourselves men will rise up who will speak perverse things, so as to draw away the disciples after them.” (Acts 20,29,30). And then came what was predicted.
But John looked at the current situation in his own way. He saw in the Antichrist not just one person, but rather the ability to speak false speeches through false teachers. Just as the Holy Spirit inspires true teachers and prophets, so the evil spirit inspires false teachers and false prophets.
Of great interest to us is that John considered the human mind to be a battlefield. The spirit of Antichrist fights with the Spirit of God for possession of the human mind. And today this struggle continues. People take an idea and repeat it until other people's minds become accustomed to it and accept it as truth simply because they have heard it so often. Nowadays, in the age of means mass media, this is especially easy to do. You can keep feeding people's minds with an idea until they, without even realizing it, get used to it. We do not at all want to say that John foresaw this, but he understood that the human mind is the field of activity of the Antichrist. John no longer thinks in terms of one demonic personality, he thinks about an evil force purposefully trying to capture the human mind. This is the main goal of evil.
CLEANSING THE COMMUNITY (1 John 2:19-21)
John sees that the Church needs to be cleared of weeds. The false teachers deliberately and voluntarily left the Christian brotherhood and this proved that they did not belong to it; they were a foreign body and their behavior only confirmed this.
Last phrase 2,19 can have two meanings.
1. It can mean that “not all of us” or “all (they) are not ours.” In other words, no matter how attractive some of them may be and no matter how beautiful their teaching may sound, they are all equally alien to the Church.
2. But it is possible that the meaning of the phrase boils down to the fact that these people left the Church in order to show that “all who are in the Church do not really belong to it.” The English commentator Dodd wrote: “Belonging to the Church is not a guarantee that a person belongs to Christ and not to the Antichrist.” Another English commentator A. Brooke, although disagreeing with this understanding of the Greek text, put it this way: “External affiliation is not proof of internal unity.” This can also mean, according to Paul: “Not all are Israelites who are of Israel.” (Rom. 9:6).
The era into which John's flock entered also had its own good side, because it allowed us to sift out the false from the true.
IN 2,20 John reminds his congregation that they all have knowledge. The people who left the Church - the Gnostics - claimed that they had a secret, special and modern knowledge that could not be revealed to ordinary Christians. John reminds his flock that in matters of faith, the most humble Christian should not have an inferiority complex compared to the educated and learned. Of course, in some questions of language or history research, the first word belongs to the specialist, but the basics of faith are given to every person.
John makes the following conclusion: he writes to them not because they do not know the truth, but because they know it. Westcott comments on this: “The Apostle (John) warns not because he wants to tell his flock something new, but to awaken them, to put into action the knowledge they already have.” The best and greatest defense of Christianity is to simply remember what we know. We do not need new truth, but we need the truth we already know to become active and effective in our lives.
Paul often resorts to this method. He wrote to the Thessalonians: “There is no need to write to you about brotherly love, for you yourselves have been taught by God to love one another.” (1 Thess. 4:9). They do not need new truth, they must bring to life the truth they already know. Paul wrote to the Romans: “And I myself am confident about you, my brethren, that you also are full of goodness, full of all knowledge and able to instruct one another; but I wrote to you, brethren, with some boldness, in part as if to remind you, according to this God's grace to me" (Rom. 15:14.15). They don't need to be taught so much as they need to be reminded.
As the practice of Christian life shows, everything would immediately change if we could put into practice what we already know. This does not mean that we do not need to learn something new, but the point is that we are given enough light so that we can walk freely. We just need to use it.
ARTIFICIAL LIE (1 John 2:22.23)
Someone has said that to deny that Jesus is the Christ is a most elaborate lie; a lie is above all lies.
John declares that whoever denies the Son does not have the Father. False teachers preached: "You and I may have different ideas about Jesus, but we all believe in one thing God." John declares that this cannot be - a person cannot deny the Son and at the same time declare that he recognizes the Father. How does John come to this conclusion?
He comes to it because it inevitably follows from the New Testament. The New Testament consistently teaches - and Jesus Himself affirmed this - that without Him and apart from Him no one can know God. Jesus made it very clear that no one knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son reveals this knowledge. (Matthew 11:27; Luke 10:22). When Philip asked Jesus to show them the Father, Jesus replied, “He who has seen Me has seen the Father.” (John 14:8-9). Jesus said: “Whoever believes in Me does not believe in Me, but in Him who sent Me. And whoever sees Me sees Him who sent Me.” (John 12:44.45). After all, it was through Jesus that people came to know God; it was in Jesus that people can draw closer to God. Whoever denies Jesus denies His special knowledge and His special relationship with God, and cannot be sure of what He says. Then all His words become just guesses that any virtuous and great person. Without Jesus and apart from Jesus, we have no reliable knowledge of God; to deny Jesus is to completely lose God.
In addition, Jesus said that a person's attitude towards Him is an indicator of his attitude towards God, and this attitude ultimately determines the destiny of a person now and in eternity. Jesus said: “Therefore everyone who confesses Me before men, him will I confess before My Father who is in heaven; but whoever denies Me before men, him will I also deny before My Father who is in heaven.” (Matthew 10, 32.33). Whoever renounces and denies Jesus is excommunicated from God, because our relationship with God depends on our relationship with Jesus.
Denying Jesus is real skillful, terry lie, because it means completely losing the faith and knowledge that only He can give us.
It can be said that the New Testament reflects three creeds of faith in relation to Jesus:
Jesus - Son of God (Matthew 16:16; John 9:35-38); Jesus - Lord (Phil. 2:11); and Jesus - Messiah (1 John 2:22). The essence of every creed is that Jesus stands in a completely unique relationship to God, and to deny this relationship is to deny the certainty that everything Jesus said about God is true. All Christian faith comes from this unique relationship of Jesus to God; and therefore John is right: a person who rejects the Son is also excommunicated from God.
UNIVERSAL PRIVILEGE (1 John 2:24-29)
John implores his listeners and recipients to hold fast to the standards they have learned, because then they will abide in Christ. Of particular interest in this passage is an expression already used once by John. IN 2,20 he already talked about anointing, received by his flock from the Holy One, and through whom they received knowledge. Here John speaks of the anointing which they received, which abides in them, and which taught them all things. What does John mean by anointing? To understand this, we must turn to the worldview of the ancient Jews.
In the understanding and practice of the ancient Jews, anointing was associated with three groups of people.
1. Anointing of priests. The ritual norms read: “And take the anointing oil, and pour it on his (priest) head, and anoint him.” (Ex. 29:7; cf. 40:13; Lev. 16:32).
2. Anointing of kings. Samuel anointed Saul (1 Kings 9:16; 10:1). Samuel later anointed David (1 Samuel 16:3.12). Elijah was to anoint Hazael and Jehu (3 Kings 19,15.16). The anointing, as now, symbolized the coronation.
3. Anointing of the Prophets. Elijah was to anoint Elisha as a prophet in his place (3 Kings 19:16). The Lord God anointed the prophet Isaiah to preach the gospel to the people (Isa. 61:1).
Here's the first important point. In former times, anointing was the privilege of a select few: priests, prophets and kings, but now it is the privilege of every Christian, no matter how poor and humble he may be. Thus, the anointing symbolizes, first of all, the privileged position of the Christian in Jesus Christ.
The High Priest was called anointed but supreme Anointed was Messiah (Messiah in Hebrew it means Anointed One A Christ has the same meaning in Greek). So Jesus is Anointed over. This raises the question: when was He anointed? The Church has always given one answer to this: at baptism Jesus was anointed with the Holy Spirit (Acts 10:38).
Anointing was also known in the Greek world. It was one of the elements of the initiation ceremony into a mystery religion, during which it was assumed that a person would acquire a special knowledge of God. We know that at least some false teachers claimed to be specially anointed and given special knowledge of God. Through one of the Greek Church Fathers, Hippolytus, we know that the false teachers declared: “Of all people, we alone are true Christians, completing the sacrament at the third gate and anointed with the silent unction.” To this John responds that the only true anointing received from Jesus resides in the common Christian.
When did Christians receive the anointing, and what is it?
The first question is easy to answer. All Christians went through only one ritual - through baptism. As can be seen from one of the Latin Church Fathers, Tertullian (c. 160-230), in later times, anointing with sacred oil at baptism became a practice.
The second question is not so easy to answer. There are two possible answers.
1. Anointing can mean the descent of the Spirit on a Christian in the rite of baptism. This happened in the most obvious way in the early Christian Church. (Acts 8:17). If in this passage we instead anointing read Holy Spirit, then we will understand the meaning perfectly.
2. But there is another possibility. Verses 24 and 27 almost exactly the same. IN 2,24 we read: “What you have heard from the beginning, let this abide in you”; and in 2:27 we read: “... the anointing which you received from Him abides in you.” Expression what you heard from the beginning V 2,24 corresponds anointing in 2:27, and therefore the anointing received by Christians is an instruction in the Christian faith upon entering the Church.
It is possible that we do not need to choose between these two interpretations, and that both meanings are present here. And this means something very important. Every new teaching must be examined twice: 1. Is it consistent with the Christian tradition in which we are instructed? 2. Does it correspond to the testimony of the Holy Spirit speaking in us?
Here they are, the criteria of Christian truth: external testing every doctrine according to the Holy Scriptures and internal the test is the Holy Spirit witnessing in our hearts.
ABIDE IN CHRIST (1 John 2:24-29 (continued))
Before moving on to the next passage, we must note two more important and practical points.
1. B 2,28 John urges his flock to abide in Christ, so that when He appears in power and glory, they will not have to be ashamed before Him. Undoubtedly, those who live with Him every day are best prepared for the coming of Christ; in this case, His arrival will not be something amazing and unexpected, but will only be an entry into immediate proximity with the One with whom he has lived for so long.
Even if we have doubts that Christ will come in the flesh at His Second Coming, this remains the truth, for the life of every person comes to an end. God calls everyone to stand up and say goodbye to this world. For those who have never thought about God or rarely thought about Christ, this will be the beginning of a journey into the terrible unknown. And for those who have been consciously in the presence of Christ, who have spoken and walked with God day by day, it will be a call to come home and enter into the immediate presence of a friend, not a stranger.
2. B 2,29 John returns to a thought that never escapes his sight. A Christian has only one way to show that he abides in Christ - by living a virtuous life. Human behavior always confirms or refutes words and statements.
This is exactly what is written in the New Testament, in the letter of the Apostle John, that “whoever loves the world cannot have God’s love in him.” How so? God created this world! And he loved the world so much that he gave his only begotten Son for the sins of the whole world. Are we commanded not to love the world? Moreover, if we love the world, then the love of God is NOT in us? Is this some kind of contradiction?! What's wrong? And how should all this be understood?
This is where REVELATION from GOD is needed in order to understand the spiritual, heavenly with a carnal, earthly mind. Everyone simply MUST ask God for revelations in order to understand God. I will share how this has been revealed to me today.
Yes, it’s true, God really created this world with great love. With selfless love for people, He incarnated into man, so that by Him we could be redeemed from spiritual death. And by faith they were able to accept into themselves the Life of God - eternal Life. And thus - to return that lost communication between man and God, which was in Eden.
When is this possible, and is it possible? Is this not fiction?
No. This is not fiction. God is Spirit, Christ taught, and God seeks for Himself worshipers in spirit and truth (in Christ, the Word of God, since this is the Truth).
That is, we are now called to leave the material world by faith. And not just come out, but come out through death. Like Christ when he died in our place. But only by faith. That is, we, with Him who died, consider ourselves also dead to the material world lying in sin.
And then, we must enter in the same way by faith - into spiritual world, where God is. Just as Jesus was resurrected in a spiritual body, so by faith we consider ourselves to have been resurrected with Him. As one with Him (His Body, Church). And we have to live in spirit, and not in our material essence. Although in the body, the main thing is no longer the body, but the reborn spirit, which has different values and priorities.
Thus, we enter into the New Covenant with God - for life according to the spirit, in Jesus Christ. As the Apostle Paul wrote about this, we are baptized into the death of Christ and into His resurrection. (we are baptized - this translated into our language means let's dive in). And we promise God to live according to His, God’s, requirements that He gave us in the Teaching of the New Testament. We no longer belong to ourselves. We belong only to God who redeemed us, as children newly adopted by Him in Jesus Christ.
If the flesh is looking for what it wants, is familiar and loves, then the spirit is looking for what God wants, and what He approves as what will be for our good (not for earthly goods, but first of all, for salvation, for eternal life). God guides our spirit, instructing and admonishing it, guiding it, so that we learn everything spiritual that is necessary in our new, spiritual state.
With Jesus Christ a new era has come to earth, new life- the newly born again human spirit. And now we need to live by the instructions that God gave in the Teachings of the New Testament. This is the doctrine of the new creation and the guidance of the Spirit of God - in us, God's children. And whoever does not have this new spirit, reborn from God, in himself and does not live by it, is not yet saved.
As soon as I began to read the Gospel Teaching in the book of the New Testament, I asked God a lot how I could be born again. But it turned out that this does not depend on me either. I need to accept the Gospel teaching (New Testament) by faith and this will happen by itself. God gives birth to us, not ourselves.
Alena asksAnswered by Alexandra Lanz, 07/03/2012
Question: "I'm confused...God loves EVERYONE, no matter whatthat we should follow his example. But what then to do with the pagans?or just angry people, etc? in theory we have them toomust love. But God says do not love the world, nor the things in the world: wholoves the world, the Father's love is not in it. .What then? After allWe must love every brother and sister as ourselves, no matter who they are or what they do.”
Peace to you, Alena!
You are confused because you are not yet in the habit of carefully studying Scripture, looking not only at individual words and phrases, but also at the context in which they are found, and bringing in other passages of Scripture that would explain what you are reading.
This is what you see now:
“Do not love the world, nor the things in the world”
Here's the immediate context:
“Do not love the world, nor the things in the world; whoever loves the world does not have the love of the Father. For everything that is in the world: the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not from the Father, but from this world.”
Do you see? The Apostle John contrasts two, so to speak, types of love:
1) love for the world;
2) love Desperate
What are the characteristics of “love of the world”?
... “lust of the flesh”, when I, submitting to the desires of my fallen flesh, satisfy its demands not in order to simply maintain the vital activity of my body at the most productive level, but in order to feed my flesh with pleasures as much as possible. Hence the transmission or leading to accidents of starvation, hence sexual promiscuity, various kinds of “mania” and other lusts, which, strengthening in me, choke my life and me.
..."lust of the eyes", when I just can’t be satisfied with what I already have in my life (), learning to use these resources for the benefit of my neighbor, but I snoop around everywhere with insatiable eyes, obeying my “want” this, that, that... in other words, when I I envy those who have what I don’t have. Those. I love this material world so much that I really want to push it all, or at least partially, into my life, and if it doesn’t work out, then it makes me very, very sad. And from here will flow such words and actions of mine that will certainly turn out to be destructive both for me as an individual and for the people around me.
..."pride of life" when, for the sake of praise or my own self-affirmation, I can take any wrong action that destroys my life and the lives of others.
In other words, love for the world is such a state of the human heart when I want, take, use... and everything for myself. It’s terrible, but this love for the world can take on incredibly perverted forms, when, for example, I seem to be giving everything away to people, serving people, but in reality I’m doing this only because it somehow flatters my vanity, somehow helps me to realize myself. , i.e. it still works on the field of my egoism, satisfying the desires of my fallen self, hiding from God’s justice.
What is the love of the Father? Let's look at the central verse of the Bible? It is there that the answer to our question is contained.
“God so loved the world that he gave His only begotten Son, so that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life” ().
The Father so loved the people who were perishing in their sins that he gave the most precious thing that He had - His Own Son. For what? To save humanity. And here a very important question arises: save humanity - from what?
Unfortunately, in the hearts of many people who call themselves believers, the answer to this question is very vague. But in essence, it’s simple. The Father gave his Son to save people from their sins. In order to give people the opportunity to live and not sin.
Many believers, unfortunately, think that Christ will save them from their sins. This is a false gospel. Christ saves us from sins. And it saves you from them here and now, in real time. He appeared the first time to cleanse sins, and the second time He will appear to simply take for Himself those who allowed Him to cleanse them, i.e. allowed Christ to give them strength and opportunity live according to the laws of God's Kingdom already here on the dying earth (). Therefore, those who think that by calling Christ Lord they have already been saved, which means they can continue to live as they lived, sinning left and right, or just a little sin, should think again, and think very seriously ().
So, the Father’s love is to give what is most precious for the salvation of others, so that these others will cease to be vile, stupid, disgusting, opposing the love of God... so that they will stop sinning.
Do you remember the new commandment that God could only give us after He Himself had demonstrated to us what true love is?
“A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; just as I have loved you, so should you love one another” (). The Father loved humanity so much that he gave his Son to save people from their sins. The Son loved humanity so much that he gave his own life for the same. What are we, who call ourselves believers in Christ Jesus, willing to give to save people from their sins?
Sincerely,
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