vs. 1: address those who are walking in the light and yet sin through frailty. to walk in light we must confess our sin if we sin, we have a righteous Advocate, who is Jesus.
vs. 2: Christ is an offering rather than the one who offers. Our sins are the subject matter of his propitiatory work. The propitiation is for all, not for the 1st band of believers only. No man--Christian, Jew Gentile--is outside the mercy of God--unless he places himself there deliberately, "loving darkness rather than light."
vs. 3: walking in light involves obedience
vs. 4: "Knowing him" really is having fellowship with him-just as not keeping his commandments is the same as walking in darkness
vs. 5: "His Word" referring to "his doctrine"--from vs 4 we see that really knowing God involves loving him--that what really matters is our love of God rather than God's love for us. Knowing God implies keeping his Word and keeping his word involves loving him, and being in him and have that fellowship with him and his Son in which the Christian's life consists.
vs.6: Christianity is a habitual condition. Obedience, not feeling, is the test of union, and the Christian who is really such has least to tell of "experiences" of such visitations. He who is ever in the light has few sensible illuminations to record: nothing less than the "measure of the structure of the fullness of Christ" (Eph. 4:13) is to be aimed at. "Ye therefore shall be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect." (Matthew 5:48)
vs.7: verses 7-28 talk about (mostly) what walking in the light excludes--things to avoid--Antichrists. vs. 7 and 8 are simply an intro
vs. 8: the real, perfect, the very light--Christ is the perfect light as he is the perfect bread and perfect vine
vs. 9-11: walking in the light excludes all hatred towards brethren, for such hatred is a form of darkness. "hate" is not to be watered down into "neglect" or "fail to love." Love is love, and hate is hate, and between the two there is no neutral ground, anymore than between life and death. "He that is not with me is against me." "Love is the moral counterpart of intellectual light."
vs. 12: John is apparently writing to those who have had their sins washed away in the blood of Christ, therefore he writes this Epistle
vs. 13-14: old and young men referring to age as Christians--mature Christians
vs. 15: "the world" meaning the sinful elements of human life--which is all that is alienated from God. St. John is not condemning a love of those material advantages which are God's gifts, nor of nature, which is God's work. He's forbidding those things the love of which rivals and excludes the love of God. "You cannot serve God and mammon."
vs. 16: not talking about loving material objects--but not loving evil dispositions and aims of men--lust of flesh, lust of the eyes (curiosity, covetousness), pride of life--the empty pride in fashion and display. It includes the desire to outshine our neighbors.
vs. 17: If a Christian live, he lives to the Lord; if he dies, he dies to the Lord. If he toils, he does God's will. If he suffers, he bears it. If he be on earth, he fulfills his Father's will in his life--"he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever."
vs.18: the "last time" here refers to the end of a world as was known in John's time--(Rome would fall), Because why would an inspired writer tell the Church that the "last time" was here, if it was not there? I believe this refers to the terrible persecution under Nero (Anti-Christ), and the fall of Jerusalem.
vs. 19: speaking of people who had abandoned the Christian faith, so they wouldn't be persecuted
vs. 20-22: so an Antichrist denies the Messiahship of Christ and both Father and Son virtually (see II Thess. 2:4) because..
vs. 23: to deny Jesus as Christ is to deny the Son of God--and to deny the Son of God is to deny the Father also, for "no one knoweth the Father but the Son, and he to whom the Son will reveal him."
vs. 24: let good seed abide in your heart and not be snatched away by evil. Then not only will it abide, but you also will abide in the Son and therefore with the Father.
vs. 2: Christ is an offering rather than the one who offers. Our sins are the subject matter of his propitiatory work. The propitiation is for all, not for the 1st band of believers only. No man--Christian, Jew Gentile--is outside the mercy of God--unless he places himself there deliberately, "loving darkness rather than light."
vs. 3: walking in light involves obedience
vs. 4: "Knowing him" really is having fellowship with him-just as not keeping his commandments is the same as walking in darkness
vs. 5: "His Word" referring to "his doctrine"--from vs 4 we see that really knowing God involves loving him--that what really matters is our love of God rather than God's love for us. Knowing God implies keeping his Word and keeping his word involves loving him, and being in him and have that fellowship with him and his Son in which the Christian's life consists.
vs.6: Christianity is a habitual condition. Obedience, not feeling, is the test of union, and the Christian who is really such has least to tell of "experiences" of such visitations. He who is ever in the light has few sensible illuminations to record: nothing less than the "measure of the structure of the fullness of Christ" (Eph. 4:13) is to be aimed at. "Ye therefore shall be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect." (Matthew 5:48)
vs.7: verses 7-28 talk about (mostly) what walking in the light excludes--things to avoid--Antichrists. vs. 7 and 8 are simply an intro
vs. 8: the real, perfect, the very light--Christ is the perfect light as he is the perfect bread and perfect vine
vs. 9-11: walking in the light excludes all hatred towards brethren, for such hatred is a form of darkness. "hate" is not to be watered down into "neglect" or "fail to love." Love is love, and hate is hate, and between the two there is no neutral ground, anymore than between life and death. "He that is not with me is against me." "Love is the moral counterpart of intellectual light."
vs. 12: John is apparently writing to those who have had their sins washed away in the blood of Christ, therefore he writes this Epistle
vs. 13-14: old and young men referring to age as Christians--mature Christians
vs. 15: "the world" meaning the sinful elements of human life--which is all that is alienated from God. St. John is not condemning a love of those material advantages which are God's gifts, nor of nature, which is God's work. He's forbidding those things the love of which rivals and excludes the love of God. "You cannot serve God and mammon."
vs. 16: not talking about loving material objects--but not loving evil dispositions and aims of men--lust of flesh, lust of the eyes (curiosity, covetousness), pride of life--the empty pride in fashion and display. It includes the desire to outshine our neighbors.
vs. 17: If a Christian live, he lives to the Lord; if he dies, he dies to the Lord. If he toils, he does God's will. If he suffers, he bears it. If he be on earth, he fulfills his Father's will in his life--"he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever."
vs.18: the "last time" here refers to the end of a world as was known in John's time--(Rome would fall), Because why would an inspired writer tell the Church that the "last time" was here, if it was not there? I believe this refers to the terrible persecution under Nero (Anti-Christ), and the fall of Jerusalem.
vs. 19: speaking of people who had abandoned the Christian faith, so they wouldn't be persecuted
vs. 20-22: so an Antichrist denies the Messiahship of Christ and both Father and Son virtually (see II Thess. 2:4) because..
vs. 23: to deny Jesus as Christ is to deny the Son of God--and to deny the Son of God is to deny the Father also, for "no one knoweth the Father but the Son, and he to whom the Son will reveal him."
vs. 24: let good seed abide in your heart and not be snatched away by evil. Then not only will it abide, but you also will abide in the Son and therefore with the Father.
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This is a site where we all want to impart "grace unto the hearer"(Eph.4:29). Let us not attack each other but admonish with love, if we must rebuke a fellow believer. Also keep in mind I would appreciate no improper language or phrases.
Thank you for sharing your opinions with us.
God bless you,
Miss Hannah