1 John 4

Notes

Ver. 1. Take heed, my dear fellow-Christians, to whom God has given his Spirit, that ye do not hearken to nor be seduced by every pretender to that Spirit, or by every doctrine which such a one may broach under colour of extraordinary light and immediate revelation; but, before you espouse these high pretenders, carefully examine, by the oracles of God, what manner of spirit they have, what doctrine they preach, what lives they lead, and what aims they follow; and there is great need of your being very cautious on this head, as, according to our Saviour's predictions, multitudes of impostors are now gone abroad, and making a great noise in the world. 2, 3. Now, that ye may certainly distinguish the spirits, know that every one who, under profession of preaching by the light and inspiration of the Spirit, cordially believes, freely owns, and boldly professes his faith in Christ as the eternal Son of God, who hath assumed our nature, and fulfilled all righteousness in our stead, and, for our eternal salvation, appears to be truly inspired and authorized by God. But whoever denies that Christ is the true God, or promised Messiah, or denies his true manhood, or satisfaction therein for our sins, is not enlightened nor authorized, nor born of God; but is actuated by that spirit of opposition to Christ and his truths which has already begun to appear in the world. 4. Ye, my dear children, are born of God, and have been taught by his Spirit to avoid, withstand, and overcome these impostors, and their errors and wicked practices, by the steadfastness of your faith, profession, and obedience—God, who dwells in you by his Spirit, being infinitely superior in wisdom and power to that antichristian spirit which is gone forth into the world, and to Satan himself, under whom it acts and works in the children of disobedience. 5. The views, interests, and doctrines of these impostors relate to the riches, honours, and pleasures of this present evil world, and therefore they propagate such notions of secular dominion and grandeur as are agreeable to carnal men; and hence their hearers, who place their happiness in worldly things, hearken to them, and greedily suck in their corrupt doctrines, as most suitable to their own inclinations. 6. But we who preach an incarnate and crucified Saviour as the only way to everlasting happiness, are enlightened, approved, sent, and owned by, as well as born of, God. Whoever therefore truly knows anything of God, according to the discoveries which he has made of himself in Christ by the gospel, diligently attends to and heartily receives the divine truths which we preach by the direction of his Spirit. But they who have not been enlightened and renewed by God pay no regard to our spiritual doctrine concerning Christ as the only true Messiah, nor to us who preach it. By this we easily and clearly discern whether men preach under the direction of God's Spirit of truth, or under the influence of the erroneous spirit of the devil.—7, 8. Now, to return to what I much aim at in this epistle, let all of us labour always to maintain, express, and show forth the most sincere and brotherly affection one to another; for such love is begotten, commanded, and approved by God, and it manifests him that lives in the exercise of it to be a child of God, regenerated by his Spirit, and possessed of an experimental, appropriating, and transforming knowledge of the perfections and will of God; and, on the other hand, he that is a stranger to the exercise of love to the saints or his neighbours, appears ignorant of the nature and will of God; for God is, in his very nature, an infinity of grace, mercy, and love; and in his thoughts, purposes, and dispensations, has manifested himself an infinitely glorious and engaging pattern of kindness and good-will. 9, 10. And this his love has been peculiarly manifested towards us in his freely sending his only begotten and infinitely well-beloved Son to assume our nature, and by obeying and dying in our stead to atone for our sins, who are mean worms, enemies, and ungodly wretches, that thereby he might secure eternal salvation and happiness for us, and graciously give it by faith. 11. Now, if God loved us at so high and astonishing a rate, we whom he has thus loved and redeemed by the precious blood of his Son most certainly ought, under the influence of this love, and in imitation of it, to maintain the most ardent affection towards our Christian brethren for his sake, and in obedience to his will. 12. But since our love to God himself cannot be drawn out by any bodily sight of him, let us show it by our regard to the saints, those visible representations of him; for if we love one another as bearing his image, it manifests that we love him, and that he dwells in us by his Spirit to produce this love; and thereby his love to us is eminently and most effectually manifested, and ours to him is brought to its true form, and eminently exercised and proved to be sincere: 13. Yea, by this we have a comfortable evidence of our dwelling, by faith and love, in union and communion with God through Christ, and of his dwelling in our souls by gracious manifestations and influences; because he has freely afforded us rich communications of his Spirit to win and animate this faith and love, and to cast a light upon his own work in us. 14. And we apostles who were eyewitnesses of Christ's manhood, preaching, miracles, sufferings, death, resurrection, and ascension to glory, do, upon infallible evidence, attest that the eternal Father sent his only begotten Son to take upon him our nature, and by this his course of obedience and sufferings to be the Redeemer of both Jews and Gentiles, who do or shall believe on him, throughout the whole world. 15. Whoever therefore, in these perilous times, from a principle of faith and love, boldly confess Jesus Christ to be the only begotten Son of God and only Saviour of lost sinners, thereby manifest that God dwells in them by his Spirit, who has led them to these just sentiments of Christ, and that they dwell in God by faith and love, through the great Mediator.—16. And we who have the experience of this are fully persuaded, on the ground of gospel revelation, and the concurring witness of the Spirit with our spirits, that the most peculiar, transcendent, and distinguishing love is in the heart of God towards us, and is manifested in his sending his Son to be the propitiation for our sins, that we might live through him, and thus enjoy God, as altogether love, mercy, and grace to us; without any mixture of fury or wrath against us. And if we live under the power of a hearty and ardent love to him, and to his children for his sake, he and we have the most delightful and reciprocal union and communion: 17. Yea, this manifestation of the sincerity and strength of our love encourages us to hope that we shall appear, with humble confidence, before him, as true believers, in the awful day of judgment; because, as he is all love to us, so we, even in this tempting and insnaring world, have our hearts filled with a supreme love to him, and with a sincere and ardent love to his children for his sake. 18. This love is indeed ever attended with a holy filial reverence of him, and cautious fear of offending him; yet, as we thereby know that we are passed from death to life, there is no distrustful, despairing, or terrifying fear of him in it, as if he were our enemy. And the more strong and fervent our love is, under an assuring sense of his love to us, the more effectually it banishes all diffident, slavish, and tormenting fear of him. 19. For our love to him is kindled by, and is the fruit and effect of, his free love to us, which was from eternity in his gracious purposes, and was manifested in time by gracious declarations and works, in order that our hearts might be won in love to him; 20. And this our superlative love to him is necessarily connected with a sincere love to all his children. To pretend to love God, and yet indulge an uncharitable, irreconcilable, and malicious temper towards our fellow-Christians, is to give the lie to our profession, and to all the declarations of Scripture, concerning true love to him; for if we bear not a love to our brethren in the faith and fellowship of the gospel, whom we have seen with our bodily eyes, and in whom we discern visible traces of the image of God, how can we ever love God himself, who, being invisible, can make no impression of himself upon our bodily senses to affect our heart, or move or engage our affection!

Ver. 2. The Docetæ, an early race of antichristian teachers, denied the humanity of Christ, and against them this test seems to be directed. It will not, however, follow, as Humanitarians would infer, that our Lord was a mere man; but, on the contrary, clearly implies, as does Paul elsewhere, that he might have come in the 'nature of angels,' or in 'the form of God,' He. 2. 14-16; Phi. 2. 6. C.

Ver. 3. That spirit (rather, 'mark') of antichrist 'which confesses not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh,' Romanists deny to be applicable to the Popedom, because it confesses to this doctrine. Now, in one sense this is true; in another, and the only important sense, it is untrue. By the coming of Jesus Christ in the flesh, 'he bore our sins in his own body on the tree,' 'and his blood cleanseth us from all sin;' whereas the Romish traditions ascribe the cleansing from sin and acceptance with God to penances, purgatory, and masses, the merits and intercessions of the Virgin Mary, apostles, saints, and angels; and thus, setting up human inventions, make altogether void the scriptural doctrine of the incarnation and atonement of the Son of God. C.

Ver. 12. No man hath seen God at any time—that is, in his spirituality and infinity; for his spirituality is essentially invisible to bodily eyes, and his infinity incomprehensible by any created intellect. But God has, since the creation, been manifest by his Word. God the Word, by a divine manifestation, appeared to our first parents, to Abraham, to Moses, and, finally, he 'was manifest in the flesh,' and the apostles 'beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.' C.

Ver. 18. That 'there is no fear in love,' is a simple statement of fact; for love is the desire of, and delight in, and devotedness to God, on account of his excellencies. But while 'there is no fear in love,' it does not follow that there is no species of fear attendant upon, or inseparably connected with, love. A slavish fear of God as a King, a guilty fear of God as a Judge, there is none in the believer; but a filial fear of God as a Father is equally excited by all his attributes. C.

Reflections.—When, in every age, there are so many crafty seducers, there is always great need to try preachers and doctrines by the unerring standard of God's Word. And it is a mercy that, when worldly-minded men so eagerly follow worldly-minded impostors, God so marks his faithful ministers with truth, holiness, and success, in winning souls, that every unbiassed observer may discern the difference.—Astonishing is God's love to us in first so caring for us as to give his only begotten Son to be our atoning sacrifice, and our effectual Saviour and portion; and in giving his Spirit to dwell in us, for the gracious application of all his glorious blessings. What can engage our hearts to a grateful love to God, a candid and open confession of his truths, and a sincere and affectionate love to his people, if this do not? The consciousness of God's loving us, and our loving him by his grace, affords us great comfort and boldness in all our dealings with him.—But never let me reckon myself a Christian if I do not love all men, especially the saints, as far as they bear Christ's image.