52 - 1Jn 3:23
Καὶ αὕτη ἐστὶν ἡ ἐντολὴ αὐτοῦ, ἵνα πιστεύσωμεν τῷ ὀνόματι τοῦ υἱοῦ αὐτοῦ Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ, καὶ ἀγαπῶμεν ἀλλήλους, καθὼς ἔδωκεν ἐντολὴν ἡμῖν. The commandments which the apostle is discoursing of and commending are now exhibited by him again with reference to their meaning and aim. Two things strike us on a superficial glance: the precepts we must obey are described in their unity (the singularἐντολή [“commandment”]),then being again described as twofold; and the import of the second is specified by the wordπιστεύειν [“to believe”], which now for the first time enters the Epistle. As to the former of these points, the two commandments of faith and brotherly love are in the same sense one commandment, as the two tables of the law are in the issue one table and one law: they enforce simply and only this, I am the Lord thy God, walk before me and bethouperfect. The other question is moredifficult,how it is that faith is here so suddenly mentioned, coming inunintroducedby anything that precedes, and without any bearing on anything that follows. Whenever Christ has been before alluded to, the objective value of His work has been specified as anἱλασμός [“atoning sacrifice”]securing the forgive ness of sins, without any reference to the method of subjective appropriation; and whenever the subjective position of man before God has been spoken of, the confirmation of it in act and deed has alone been made prominent, without any side glance at the root and spring of this action. Similarly in the fourth chapter the πιστεύειν [“to believe”]recedes into the background in comparison of the ὁμολογεῖν [“confession”]: obviously for the same reason again, because the Epistle has for its aim the confirmation and consummation of the joy of faith by means of the active work of religion, the external expressions of faith. It is not until the fifth chapter that the idea ofπίστις[“faith”] begins to lead the development of the thought. All this makes it more urgent to ask why theπιστεύειν [“to believe”] enters precisely in our passage, where the wordἐντολή [“commandment”]itself points to a course of action and not a state of being, while, on the other hand, it forms the conclusion of a section that professedly treats of works and of works alone.
If we now look at the other ideas brought forward in these verses, it becomes evident that they also are not the same with those which have ruled the contents of the third chapter, but that they have reverted back again to the thoughts and phraseology of the first two chapters. It has been already remarked that τηρεῖντὰςἐντολὰς [“to keep the commandments”], 1Jn 3:22, has in the first part of the second chapter its own distinctive position; and similarly, the combination of the variousἐντολαὶΘεοῦ [“commandments of God”]into the unity of one single commandment, just as we have it here, is observable in the same earlier part of the second chapter. In1Jn 3:24 we find the reciprocal abiding of God in us and our abiding also in God which was already present in the second chapter; and not only so, its juxtaposition or co-ordination with theτηρεῖντὰςἐντολὰςαὐτοῦ[“to keep his commandments”] is substantially to be discerned in that chapter, though not expressed in precisely the same words. On the other hand, any such emphasis on the works as we find pervading the whole of the second chapter is altogether wanting in 1Jn 3:23-24. The first and second chapters contain, as has been fully shown, an exhibition of fellowship with God and the brethren as belonging to the internal character of Christians; and this is met in the third chapter by a requirement of the outward confirmation of that sentiment in act. From this it appears why at the close of this final exposition the apostle falls back again into the tone of the first chapters. The former is supposed to be only the superstructure upon the foundation of the latter. If I approve my fellowship with God, then must I have it already; and on this having, this internal characteristic of the Christian, rests here in conclusion the apostle’s eye. By the works of love to God and man we discern that we keep the commandment of God; but this commandment itself points first and directly, not to the external demonstration of an internal character, but to that internal character itself: not to show that we are, but to be. Thus, therefore, in the requirement of theπιστεύειν [“to believe”]and theἀγαπᾶν [“to love”], the internal state of the heart is made prominent, of which we all should be and must be partakers. But all this has only served to vindicate the substance of the πιστεύειν τῷ ὀνόματι Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ[“to believe in the name of Jesus Christ”] as appropriate in this place; it is the ἐντολή [“commandment”]in its interior spirit and tone; but the expression or phrase itself is not accounted for. Would it not seem more obvious that the apostle should have used the phrase περιπατεῖνἐνφωτί [“walk in the light”],or something like that? But we must remember how emphatically the writer has in1Jn 3:2 ff.laid it down that the one essential thing on earth as the indispensable earnest of eternal glory is the following of Christ; that he has, further, from the beginning onwards shown that the manifestation of Christ is the principle of our entire Christian new life(μένεινἐντῷυἱῷ [“abide in the Son”],1Jn 2:3, 1Jn 2:6). Accordingly, throughout the whole process of his discussion it must have been natural to the apostle to lay emphasis upon fellowship with Christ in particular when meaning fellowship with God. That His self-manifestation(ἐντῷὀνόματι [“in the name”])as the Son of God (τοῦυἱοῦαὐτοῦ [“his Son”])and as the Saviour of the world (ἸησοῦΧριστοῦ [“Jesus Christ”]) at the same time and especially, has passed into our being and inmost consciousness as a fact determining our life(πιστεύσωμεν [“we believe”]):that is the will of God on one side. And that this self-revelation of Christ should determine us in the obedience of His commandments(καθὼς ἔδωκεν ἐντολὴν ἡμῖν [“just as he gave us a commendment”])to love the brethren(ἀγαπῶμεν ἀλλήλους [“we should love one another”]):that is the will of God on another side. Thus is explained also theaorist πιστεύσωμεν [“we believe”]:brotherly love presupposes faith, and this preterite form of the verb serves to indicate that very presupposition. And this shows that in ἔδωκεν ἐντολὴν [“he gave commendment”],at the close of the verse, Christ is the subject, which is to be assumed also for other reasons, especially because the addition, after the already preceding αὕτη ἐστὶν ἡ ἐντολὴ αὐτοῦ [“this is his commandment”], would otherwise be perfectly pleonastic. Moreover, brotherly love is throughout the Epistle exhibited by preference as the commandment of Christ; and, further, His person is formally alluded to at the close, and that with a specific emphasis on its two aspects, the divine and the human natures. Faith also is defined as a commandment, though not of Christ but of the Father; and in presence of the fact that precisely in St. John’s Gospel the awakening of such a faith is represented as the final goal of the entire work of Christ among men, we need not seek for specific passages that demand from man this faith. Yet these are not entirely wanting. First, John 6:40 comes at once into consideration: τοῦτ᾽ ἐστιν τὸ θέλημα τοῦ πέμψαντός με, ἵνα πᾶς ὁ πιστεύων εἰς τὸν υἱὸν ἔχῃ ζωὴν αἰώνιον [“this is the will of the one who sent me, that everyone who believes in the Son may have eternal life”]. For it is plain that these words declare not only that in the divine will the believer shall have eternal life, but also that faith is the commanded condition of this life, and therefore equally and in the first instance the matter of the divine will. So again in John 14:1: πιστεύετε εἰς τὸν Θεὸν, καὶ εἰς ἐμὲ πιστεύετε [“you beleive in God, beleive also in me”], where faith in the Lord enters not as a second requirement by the side of faith in God, but is introduced as the way to the latter, and is really therefore the first requirement of all.