47 - 1Jn 3:16
Ἐν τούτῳ ἐγνώκαμεν τὴν ἀγάπην, ὅτι ἐκεῖνος ὑπὲρ ἡμῶν τὴν ψυχὴν αὑτοῦ ἔθηκε· καὶ ἡμεῖς ὀφείλομεν ὑπὲρ τῶν ἀδελφῶν τὰς ψυχὰς τιθέναι. To the negative view, the dehortation from hatred, the apostle appends as an antithesis the positive (1Jn 3:16-18), love as shown in act and not merely in sentiment. As he has sharply exhibited hatred of the brother in the example which proclaimed first in the history of man and in the most fearful manner its type, so that in him and in his acts we may learn what hatred really is; so now in the verses before us he places Him in contrast who furnishes the supreme and perfect type of what love is, that we may learn it from Him—Jesus Christ. But as the apostle is writing to Christians, who, according to 1Jn 3:14, ἐκ τοῦ θανάτου εἰς τὴν ζωὴνμεταβεβήκσεν [“passed out of death into life”], their learning of Christ is supposed to have already taken place, ἐγνώκαμεν [“we know”]. The counterpart or opposite of Cain, which the Lord presents, is as perfect as can be conceived by the mind. Cain’s hatred consisted in this, that he sacrificed his brother’s life for his own advantage; and in this consisted, by contrast, the love of Christ, that He sacrificed His own life for our good. Τὴνψυχὴναὑτοῦἔθηκε [“he laid down his life”]: a unique expression, found in Greek literature only in St. John. We meet with it in the Gospel, and often especially in the tenth chapter (Joh 10:12, John 10:15, John 10:17-18), as also in Joh 13:37-38; John 15:13; and we have it here. That it occurs first in the discourses of our Lord Himself, which are pervaded by Old Testament references, must suggest a derivation from the Old Testament; which, indeed, is otherwise much more probable than the explanation that makes it an application of profane Greek, such as θέσθαιἀσπίδας[LSJ] [“to lay down one’s arms”], and so forth. The Hebrew at once presents the verb שׂוּם [“to put”], which in so many ways responds to theτιθέναι [“to lay down”]. More specifically we have then, on the one hand, the phrase בְּכַפּוֹשׂׅיםנֶפֶשׁ [“he put his life in his hand” cf. 1Sa 19:5], and on the other, a suggestion ofIsa 53:10אָשָׁםנֶפֶשׁתָּשׂׅים [“he will make his life a guilt offering”].The former of these applications signifies not so much the surrender of life as the staking it, and therefore expresses no more than the readiness to surrender life; whether that life be lost or not, is in the first place irrelevant. In the passage of Isaiah the case is otherwise. For if in this place, as we think,תָּשׂׅים[“to appoint”] is in the third person, andנֶפֶשׁ[“life”] the subject preceding, then we must translate: when the soul(sc.of the servant of Jehovah) pledges compensation. Wherein the compensation consists is not contained in the words; for we must not give the verb a reflexive aspect, and translate: “when his soul shall pledge itself for compensation.” But what is not justified as translation is nevertheless true of the matter itself: the sacrifice of restitution consists essentially in the life of Him who pays it down, that is, in the life of the Messiah. But the chief thing is here to take the verbשׂׅים[“put”] in both the phrases not in the sense of “laying down,” but in that of “pledging,” gauging His life for something. But this interpretation is not merely possible here; it is the only one which harmonizes with the connection, as will presently be shown. Nothing is here said of thatsatisfactio vicariaof which the passage in Isaiah speaks; for then we should have read,τὴνψυχὴντιθέναι ἀντίἡμῶν [“to lay down life instead of us”],whereas theὑπέρ[“in behalf of”] only indicates that the interposition of the life of Christ was for our advantage: every more exact determination of it the apostle leaves untouched. In this act of Christ we have learned to knowτὴνἀγάπην[“the love”],—that is, not His love, but love generally, what it means to love. And, in fact, there can be no more profound conception of love than that which is contained in the words τιθέναι τὴνψυχήν [“to lay down life”].Every deed of love is a staking of theψυχή [“life”]:I cannot discharge the slightest office of charity to anyone without in some degree denying myself, my own I. As the denying of the personality of the brother on my own account is the essence of all hatred, so the denying of my own I for the brother’s sake is the essence of all love. And as the apostle already in 1Jn 2:6,[N] and that with special reference to love, had declared that καθὼςἐκεῖνοςπεριεπάτησεκαὶαὐτὸςοὕτωςπεριπατεῖν [“ought himself also to walk just as he walked”], so here also the same requirement is urged with specific reference to the demonstrations of love: as the mind of the Redeemer’s love found expression in the τιθέναι τὴνψυχήν [“to lay down life”], so it is our obligation (ὀφείλομεν [“we ought”]) to copy this expression of love in our own life.