John Gill
John Gill (1697 - 1771). English Baptist pastor, theologian, and author born in Kettering, Northamptonshire. Self-educated after leaving grammar school at 11 due to nonconformist convictions, he mastered Latin, Greek, Hebrew, and logic by his teens. Converted at 12, he was baptized at 19 and began preaching, becoming pastor of Horsleydown Church in London in 1719, serving 51 years. A leading Particular Baptist, he wrote A Body of Doctrinal and Practical Divinity and a comprehensive Exposition of the Bible, covering every verse, still used by Reformed scholars. Gill published The Cause of God and Truth defended Calvinist theology against Arminianism. He edited Matthew Henry’s Commentary and published hymns. Married to Elizabeth Negus in 1721, they had one daughter. His library of 3,000 books aided his prolific writing, shaping Baptist doctrine. Gill’s works, online at ccel.org, remain influential in Reformed circles despite his hyper-Calvinist leanings.
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John Gill emphasizes the importance of aligning one's actions with their professed knowledge of God, warning against the hypocrisy of claiming to know Him while disregarding His commandments. He critiques those who, like the Gnostics, boast of spiritual enlightenment yet fail to demonstrate obedience, revealing their true ignorance. Gill asserts that true knowledge of God is evidenced by a life of obedience, and without this, one is a liar and lacks the truth of the Gospel in their heart.
1 John 2:4
Ver. 4. He that saith I know him,.... God or Christ, as the Gnostics did, who pretended to great, even perfect, knowledge of divine things: and keepeth not his commandments; which the above persons had no regard to, and as many who profess great light and knowledge in our days show no concern for: is a liar; he contradicts what he says, and gives the lie to it; for though in words he professes to know God, in works he denies him, and which betrays his ignorance of him: and the truth is not in him; there is no true knowledge of God and Christ in him; nor is the truth of the Gospel in his heart, however it may be in his head; nor is the truth of grace in him, for each of these lead persons to obedience. The Ethiopic version renders it, "the truth of God is not with him"; See Gill on "1Jo 1:8".
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John Gill (1697 - 1771). English Baptist pastor, theologian, and author born in Kettering, Northamptonshire. Self-educated after leaving grammar school at 11 due to nonconformist convictions, he mastered Latin, Greek, Hebrew, and logic by his teens. Converted at 12, he was baptized at 19 and began preaching, becoming pastor of Horsleydown Church in London in 1719, serving 51 years. A leading Particular Baptist, he wrote A Body of Doctrinal and Practical Divinity and a comprehensive Exposition of the Bible, covering every verse, still used by Reformed scholars. Gill published The Cause of God and Truth defended Calvinist theology against Arminianism. He edited Matthew Henry’s Commentary and published hymns. Married to Elizabeth Negus in 1721, they had one daughter. His library of 3,000 books aided his prolific writing, shaping Baptist doctrine. Gill’s works, online at ccel.org, remain influential in Reformed circles despite his hyper-Calvinist leanings.