37 - 1Jn 3:3
Καὶ πᾶς ὁ ἔχων τὴν ἐλπίδα ταύτην ἐπ᾽ αὐτῷ, ἁγνίζει ἑαυτὸν, καθὼς ἐκεῖνος ἁγνός ἐστι. The apostle’s aim in inserting here the reference to the future consummation in the other world, becomes obvious in the third verse. His eschatology is one that is altogether practical. To this estate of glory we attain only through intermediate stages; it is not reached through an act of divine despotic power; but a way is definitely marked out. If the goal is likeness to Christ, it is of the utmost importance to have that goal always and steadily and practically in view. Thus the third verse impresses its seal on our interpretation of the previous one. That is to say, taking as we have done both pronouns (αὐτός [“he”], 1Jn 3:2, and ἐκεῖνος [“he”], 1Jn 3:3) as indicating Christ, the idea is extremely plain: Would you be hereafter perfectly like Christ, you must even now aim at this same end. On the other hand, if we refer the αὐτός [“he”] of the second verse to the Father, the point of connection with the third is lost: how from the hope of becoming like God may spring the zeal to preserve the ἁγνεία [“purity”] of Christ is not said; and yet it is that we should expect. But we must even now aim to resemble the ἁγνεία [“purity”] of our Lord. We must be on our guard against taking this idea as interchangeable with that of the ὅμοιονεἶναι αὐτῷ [“to be like him”] in the previous verse. Ἁγνεία [“purity”] is essentially the requirement of sinlessness; this is exhibited as the goal and problem of the earthly development of the Christian. But if I think of this requirement as fulfilled, yet this is far from including the full meaning of the ὅμοιονεἶναι αὐτῷ [“to be like him”] as it was still more closely defined by the addition καθώςἐστι [“just as he is”]. Christ was, indeed, sinless here upon earth; but that did not constitute Him the glorified one whom we are to become like. The weakness of which the Apostle Paul speaks, in relation to Christ’s earthly life (2Co 13:4), the constraints and manifold limitation to which He had subjected Himself, would remain in us also, even if we were supposed to be sinless. It is therefore with perfect propriety that St. John regards this ἁγνεία [“purity”] as only a preliminary and condition of the ὅμοιονεἶναι αὐτῷ [“to be like”] hereafter to be attained. But the requirement of ἁγνεία [“purity”] requires to be defined more closely. Despite its etymological affinity with ἅγιος [“holy”], the word ἁγνός [“pure”], in profane as well as in scriptural use, has a perfectly distinct and definite meaning apart from ἅγιος [“holy”]. On the one hand, it is to be observed that ἁγνός [“pure”] contains even in classical Greek a negative element, which takes form in an abundance of connections, such as ἁγνὸςφόνου [“pure murder”], ἁγνὸςγάμου [“pure marriage”]. Further, the etymological link with ἅζεσθαι[LSJ] [“stand in awe”], fear, and ἅγαμαι[LSJ] [“wonder at”], wonder at, is more firmly adhered to in ἁγνός [“pure”] than in ἅγιος [“holy”]. Ἁγνός [“pure”] is he who is by any authority, or by any power swaying him, preserved from evil. The ἁγνὸν εἶναι [“to be holy”] comes to effect through the αἰδώς [“reverence”], the sacred fear. Hence the word is never used of God Himself; though ἅγιος [“holy”] is used of Him, signifying as it does generally severance from all evil. Hence, further, ἁγνός [“pure”] is especially used of the chaste spirit; it rests essentially on the internal abhorrence of anything that would, tarnish virgin purity and honour. Similarly, when ἁγνός [“pure”] is said of the Nazarite: his abstinentia is grounded on the dread of tainting by contact with the profane the divine to which lie is consecrated. In like manner, the word is in Exodus applied to preparation for the divine revelation of the law: here, also, there is a dread of bringing the natural into too close proximity to the divine. From all this it appears that ἁγνεία [“purity”] is substantially the virtue of reverentia. But this being so,—and all passages of the New Testament in which ἁγνός [“pure”], and words derived from it, appear, confirm it,—the idea seems altogether inappropriate to the exalted Christ. If we read καθὼς ἐκεῖνος ἁγνός ἦν [“just as he himself was pure”], that would not seem quite so strange, for we might suppose this reverentia to have been displayed by the Lord while on earth; His perpetual waiting on the will of the Father, which is so prominent in St. John’s Gospel, is nothing but that holy fear. But can this be affirmed also of the glorified Christ? Is that now necessary to Him? can He indeed yet exercise that? The breath of disciplinary severity, which cannot be detached from the word ἁγνεία [“purity”], may yet in a certain way be predicated even of the Exalted One. For His present glory He reached, according to Scripture, only through His absolute obedience, in virtue of His overcoming all temptations, and most entirely submitting Himself to the obedience of the Father’s will. And that which He thus as man attained through exercise of the ἁγνεία [“purity”] is now still stamped’ upon the countenance of the Redeemer; even as He is beheld by the same St. John in the form and under the aspect of the ἀρνίονἐσφαγμένον [“a lamb that has been slain” cf. Rev 5:6]. Nothing of what the Lord possessed upon earth has passed away; everything has become an eternal element of His personality. As with man nothing that he has experienced and has become passes away, but without it he would be through the ages of ages different from what he is, so also with the Lord. If, then, we are to become hereafter like Him, the apostle says, we must on our part appropriate to ourselves the ἁγνεία [“purity”] which the Lord exercised here below, in virtue of which He passed into His glory. There is no word which to the same extent as this expresses the whole grace and tenderness of the ethical habit.
Let us now gather up the connection of the strain now developed. St. John taught us, in 1Jn 2:29, that we shall have confidence in the day of judgment only on the ground of the ποιεῖντὴνδικαιοσύνην [“to practice righteousness”], which will approve us as γεγεννήσθαιἐκτοῦΘεοῦ [“having been born of God”]. This γεγεννήσθαιἐκτοῦΘεοῦ [“having been born of God”] is first of all, as we have seen, and as the apostle himself firmly establishes by the ἔδωκεν [“he has given”], a divine gift, entirely independent of human act, the gift, that is, of the Spirit, or, more particularly, of the Spirit of Jesus Christ. That is the beginning of all Christian development. We are called the sons of God (κληθῶμεν [“we may be called”], 1Jn 3:1) not on account of anything we do, but in virtue of a divine act accomplished in us. But, on the other hand, we are to become, ἐὰνφανερωθῇ [“if it may be made known”], like Christ; and that can take place only if the possibility of this likeness is on our part afforded by the ἁγνίζειν [“to purify”]. Between that originating divine act, by which He gives us the Holy Spirit and declares us to be His children, and this conclusive and consummating divine act, by which He makes us like Christ, that is, glorifies us, there is thus a mediating human act or doing, which is called as to its internal characteristic ἁγνεία [“purity”], and according to its outward expressions ποιεῖντὴνδικαιοσύνην [“to practice righteousness”]. Thus, while God now beholds us as His sons on the ground of His gift. He will call us such in the judgment only if, in the strength of that gift, we have become sons in our act, that is, in the full transformation of our life. The subject, therefore, of the first three verses of our chapter is to establish the ground of the assurance that the regenerate have confidence through the working of righteousness: the reason is contained in the exposition that the sonship as the gift of God is only the beginning, and that between this and the consummation (1Jn 3:2) the ἁγνεία [“purity”], or the moral character and life by which that beginning is to be confirmed and approved, is to be intermediately carried out.