I apologize for failing to post last Tuesday. I had a little health problem. I feel much better now. Here is the commentary for the entirety of the second chapter of the First Letter of St. John:
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".
15. Love not the world, nor the things which are in the world. If any man love the world, the charity of the Father is not in him. 16. For all that is in the world is the concupiscence of the flesh and the concupiscence of the eyes and the pride of life, which is not of the Father but is of the world. 17. And the world passeth away and the concupiscence thereof: but he that doth the will of God abideth for ever.
"Love not the world." John does here mean the earth, which God found "good" after creating it, and which glorifies him in its beauty (cf. Psalm 8). When the Lord and the Apostles after him speak of "the world" they mean false values such as money, fame, power, and the draw these things have on humans, and drawing them away from the love and service of God. Thus, too much concern for one's reputation or pursuing a secular ambition are seen as "belonging to the world". The Fathers point out also that we cannot serve two masters, as the Lord said. The charity of the Father is "not with him" when a person is preoccupied with that which is "worldly".
2:18. Little children, it is the last hour: and as you have heard that Antichrist cometh, even now there are become many Antichrists: whereby
we know that it is the last hour.
"It is the last hour", that is, "the end of the age", or, "in the final age". With the Ascension of Christ, the end of the world will come "soon", although we do not know the exact time. Indeed, the ability to calculate the "exact" time is a modern accomplishment unimaginable to the ancients. The very word "hour" in ancient times, had a broad meaning. Thus, we may be in the "last hour", but we do not know where we are within it. "As you have heard that Antichrist cometh": Only in John's letters do we encounter the term "antichrist". It is not found in the Gospels, or in St. Paul's letters, or even in the Book of Revelation, although the antichrist(s) are described and foreseen in those places. St. Paul speaks of the one "whose coming is according to the working of Satan, in all power, and signs, and lying wonders, and in all seduction of iniquity to them that perish" (2 Thessalonians 2, 8-10), but whom "the Lord Jesus shall kill with the spirit [or, "breath"] of his mouth" (2 Thessalonians 2, 8). Jerome says that he will be born in the region of Babylon. Other Fathers assert that he will be born from the tribe of Dan, that he will rebuild the Temple in Jerusalem and declare himself to be the Christ. He will even appear to raise the dead and to cause signs to appear in the skies. "There are many Antichrists": John here speaks of heretics who deny the humanity of the Lord Jesus. Indeed, any who oppose the reality or commandments of the Lord can be described as "antichrists", and these are forerunners of the principal antichrist who will persecute the Church at the end of time.
19. They went out from us but they were not of us. For if they had been of us, they would no doubt have remained with us: but that they may be manifest, that they are not all of us.
Those who were denying the human nature of Jesus Christ had learned about him among the Christians and perhaps had even accepted baptism, but their faith and understanding were weak. John, as the other Apostles in their letters, emphasizes the invisible but very real communion of true Christians with one another. They did not have visible signs as the Jews did in their circumcision and in their use of the Hebrew language, and so their sense of belonging as members of one another required constant reinforcing.
20. But you have the unction from the Holy One and know all things.
The "unction" here, that is, the anointing, is of the Holy Spirit in baptism, conferring spiritual gifts such as faith, wisdom and prudence.
2:21. I have not written to you as to them that know not the truth, but
as to them that know it: and that no lie is of the truth.
"The truth": "The revelation of the mystery which was kept secret from eternity" (Romans 16, 25). That is, "the mystery of [the Father's] will . . . which he has purposed" in Christ. (Ephesians 1, 9), God's saving plan for us in his Son, formed from before all ages, and not understood until Christ himself revealed it.
22. Who is a liar, but he who denieth that Jesus is the Christ? This is Antichrist, who denieth the Father and the Son.
Jesus is the anointed one, the one sent by the Father and anointed -- Christos -- with the Holy Spirit. Here, John presupposes the knowledge of his audience that the "Christ", with his human nature, must be the Son of God.
23. Whosoever denieth the Son, the same hath not the Father. He that
confesseth the Son hath the Father also.
To deny that Jesus is the eternally begotten Son of God, who came in mortal flesh, is, to the mind of the Apostle, a denial of the Father as well. The Venerable Bede reminds us that the Father was not called "the Father" until Jesus declared him to be so. Indeed, he is Father principally in relation to his Son, begotten before eternity. This is his natural Son, while those who are baptized are adopted children of the Father. To deny that Jesus is the Son is to deny that God is the Father.
24. As for you, let that which you have heard from the beginning abide in you. If that abide in you, which you have heard from the beginning, you also shall abide in the Son and in the Father.
The verb John uses here, "abide", is one he uses advisedly because it refers to a wonderful intimacy with and in God. John quotes the Lord Jesus, "If anyone love me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him, and will make our abode with him" (John 14, 23). This means something more than simply that the Father and the Son will smile upon or favor the person who "keeps his word".
25. And this is the promise which he hath promised us, life everlasting.
"Life everlasting". The Greeks believed that after death, a person's "shade" was ferried into the underworld by the boatman Charon, and that they entered into the realm ruled by Hades. This was a place of bare existence, without joy. In Homer's epic poem "The Odyssey", the hero Odysseus goes down alive to this kingdom and the shade of Achilles, killed at Troy, appears to him and laments his fate there. When Odysseus attempts to console him, Achilles breaks forth with bitter words: "I would rather be a paid servant in a poor man's house and be above ground than be king of kings among the dead" (Book 11, 594-597). The life of which John speaks is something entirely new to the Gentiles, a life of perpetual happiness with God in heaven. It is necessary, in reading the letters of Paul, and John to Gentile Christians, to keep in mind how wildly impossible this promise must have sounded to the majority of their neighbors.
26. These things have I written to you concerning them that seduce you.
That is, the warning regarding the heretics who defined the human nature of the Lord Jesus.
2:27. And as for you, let the unction, which you have received from him abide in you. And you have no need that any man teach you: but as his unction teacheth you of all things and is truth and is no lie. And as it hath taught you, abide in him.
"You have no need that any man teach you." John quotes the Lord as saying, "But the Paraclete, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things, and bring to your mind all things whatsoever I shall have told you" (John 14, 26). There is no need for the formed Christian to learn from any man, but there is always need for him to learn from the Holy Church, which is filled by the Holy Spirit.
28. And now, little children, abide in him, that when he shall appear we may have confidence and not be confounded by him at his coming.
As will be the damned, gathered on the King's left side (cf. Matthew 25, 44).
29. If you know that he is just, know ye, that every one also who doth
justice is born of him.
This is justice as the Lord himself defines it, rather than humans, with their varying and unsettled, and sometimes unjust definitions. Everyone who is baptized and made an adopted child of God knows him as just in a way no one else can, and is capable, through grace, of doing the justice of God.
