The First Letter of St. John, Chapter Two

Here is my commentary on the first fourteen verses of chapter two of St. John's First Letter:

1. My little children, these things I write to you, that you may not sin. But if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the just. 2. And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for those of the whole world. 3. And by this we know that we have known him, if we keep his commandments.

John tells the recipients of his letter that his purpose in confirming the truth about Jesus Christ, that he is God and man, is to assist them in living the virtuous life, "that you may not sin".  Belief is linked inextricably to action.  It is not a belief in the abstract, but in the tangible.  He reminds them, though, that if anyone does sin, Jesus -- the tangible one -- is his advocate with the Father.  Note that John does not say "when" anyone sins, but "if", as though it were difficult for John to imagine that a person acquainted with Jesus Christ would choose to sin.  John calls Jesus an "advocate".  In his gospel, John quotes Jesus as applying this term to the Holy Spirit.  Indeed, both are advocates, but of different kinds.  It is the Son who stands before the Father in heaven, pleading for us with his sacred wounds.  The Holy Spirit, proceeding from both the Father and the Son, abides with us forever (cf. John 14, 16) and will give testimony of Jesus, and will enable his followers to give testimony of him as well.  John calls Jesus the propitiation for our sins and for those of the world.  Jesus does not merely make propitiation for our sins, he is this propitiation.  This may remind us of Paul's words, that he became sin for us (2 Corinthians 5, 21), so that the propitiation might be made.  The Lord did this not for a limited number of initiates into his mysteries, or those who possess secret knowledge of him, or those who have magic words, but for everyone in the world.  He has brought about our redemption, though not all will receive salvation.  In order to hope in this salvation, we examine our lives in order to know that we keep his commandments.

4. He who saith that he knoweth him and keepeth not his commandments

is a liar: and the truth is not in him. 5. But he that keepeth his word, in him in very deed the charity of God is perfected. And by this we know that we are in him. 6. He that saith he abideth in him ought himself also to walk even as he walked. 7. Dearly beloved, I write not a new commandment to you, but an old commandment which you had from the beginning. The old commandment is the word which you have heard. 8. Again a new commandment I write unto you: which thing is true both in him and in you, because the darkness is passed and the true light now shineth.

"The truth is not in him", that person is a hypocrite, or, "The Truth is not in him", as Jesus is the Way, the Truth, and the Life.  John emphasized the humanity of Jesus previously, and now he focuses on the consequent need to obey his commandments.  This would be especially necessary for the Gentiles to hear.  They would be acquainted, of course, with state laws, but these ordinances merely outlawed certain actions.  The laws of Christ, "You shall love the Lord your God", and "You shall love your neighbor as yourself" go far beyond these, and have validity not only because God commanded them, but because the Son of God embodied them.  John speaks of the "old" commandment and the "new commandment".  He means that which concerns love of neighbors.  It is "old" in the sense that the recipients of this letter had learned it some time before, but it is "new" in that it is not a dead letter which is learned and then forgotten, but which must be lived now, with the aid of the Holy Spirit.  "Which thing is true both in him and in you": an ambiguous statement, but which could mean that the commandment was made in the old law, and is made again in the new law -- this time fulfilled in the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus, "the darkness" of the old law, written on stone tablets, thus giving rise to the "new Light", which illuminates those tablets. John explains this old and new commandment of fraternal love in the following verses.  

9. He that saith he is in the light and hateth his brother is in darkness even until now. 10. He that loveth his brother abideth in the light: and there is no scandal in him. 11. But he that hateth his brother is in darkness and walketh in darkness and knoweth not whither he goeth: because the darkness hath blinded his eyes.

John quotes Jesus as using the images of light and darkness in his Gospel, as in chapter 3, verses 19-21.  "Light" equates with truth, life, and grace; "darkness" with lies, death, and sin.  For this reason, one who hates his brother commits mortal sin and loses the life of grace in his soul.  On the other hand, one who loves his brother "abides" in light, that is, he dwells in light as a proper inhabitant.  There is no "scandal" in him: the Greek here is "skandalon", sometimes translated as "stumbling block".  The meaning is that hatred of one's brother is a snare laid by the enemy to catch others, perhaps tempting the hated one to hate in return.  "Brother" is the Greek "adelphon".  This work primarily is used in the Gospels and other New Testament writings to mean "one's fellow Christians".  The Lord uses a word translated as "neighbor" to mean a fellow human being, whether joined with one in religion or not (cf. Luke 10, 25-37).  The emphasis John gives on loving one's brother may help us to see the congregation(s) to whom he was writing as consisting of members of all classes, including slaves, and various ethnicities which might have harbored hostility towards each other.  "He knoweth not where he goeth": his sin causes him to stray from the "strait and narrow way" to life, leaving him to wander through the wastelands of life without grace.

12. I write unto you, little children, because your sins are forgiven you for his name's sake. 13. I write unto you, fathers, because you have known him who is from the beginning. I write unto you, young men, because you have overcome the wicked one. 14. I write unto you, babes, because you have known the Father. I write unto you, young men, because you are strong, and the word of God abideth in you, and you have overcome the wicked one.

The Rheims translation here does not accurately reflect the change in the tenses of the Greek verb.  From verse twelve through verse thirteen, John says, in the present active, "I write".  In verse fourteen, he says, in two instances, in the perfect active, "I have written", implying a previous letter.  In these verses, John calls all in his Christian audience "little children" cf. below, 2, 18), whose sins are forgiven in baptism, then distinguishes between the "young men" and the "fathers".  The young men have "overcome" the devil and his temptations, considered especially dangerous for the young.  The fathers "have known" the Lord through, at least, the witness of the Apostles and through prayer, which is less distracted because the heat of youth is done with.  "I have written [or, "wrote"] to you, children" -- not "babes", but, as indicated by the Greek word (and distinct from the earlier word translated as "little children"), children under the age of twelve.  John might here also intend to address all baptized Christians, for, in grace, all have "seen the Father".  "You have overcome the wicked one".  The Greek here, "poneron" can mean "the wicked one", "the jealous one", or "the vicious one".