Chapter 2

Chapter 2 — Exposition of the Second Chapter

¹ My little children, these things I write to you, that you may not sin. And if anyone does sin, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. And He Himself is the propitiation for our sins; and not for ours only, but also for the whole world.[1][2] Knowing the unsteadiness and the proneness to fault in our nature, and that, since we always have dwelling alongside us both an inclination toward what is worse and the envious demon who lies in wait against our salvation, it is inevitable that those who do not live watchfully should sin—even those already made intimate with God through confession—he adds these words: that even if, after the remission, we should stumble, we should not despair of ourselves. For by turning back we may yet again obtain salvation through the mediation of the Lord Jesus Christ. For He, interceding with the Father on our behalf, will make propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only, but also for the whole world. And he said this because he was writing to Jews; and so that he might not confine the things of repentance to those alone, but might extend it also to the nations; or because the promise belonged not only to those of that time, but to all who should come after. And he calls Him an Advocate as calling upon the Father, that is, exhorting Him, on our behalf. But these things are said in a more human and more economic manner [3] —like the saying, “The Son can do nothing of Himself”;[4] for He says these things lest He should seem to be set against God. Since that the Son also has authority to forgive sins, He showed in the case of the paralytic.[5] And indeed, by giving to the disciples this power to forgive sins, He made it plain that He bestows this as one having sovereign mastery in Himself. But, as we have said, the Apostle now says this in an economic manner, or else to present the oneness of nature (connaturality) and equal power of the Son with the Father, and that whatever one of the three sanctifying hypostases does is common also to the rest. [6]

² And by this we know that we have known Him, if we keep His commandments. It is the custom of this blessed man to use words of the same form in one and the same place, just as also: “He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world knew Him not”[7].[8] So then here also he employs “to have known” in this manner of like-sounding senses. For “to know” is said both of being acquainted with something and of being wholly commingled with someone; in which latter sense is the saying, “The Lord knew those who are His”;[9] and the saying, “Him who knew no sin He made to be sin on our behalf”.[10]

³ He who says, “I have known Him,” and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and in him the truth is not. But whoever keeps His word, truly in him the love of God has been perfected. By this we know that we are in Him. And from the contrary he establishes the same point, using the demonstration in a more abundant way.

⁴ He who says he abides in Him ought himself also so to walk, just as He walked. By works, he says, perfect love is shown. Yet since it is possible for some to make commandments upright and exact while remaining themselves the more sluggish in disposition—which is far from God—for this reason he says that he who has been made intimate with God should live worthily, according to his intimacy with God.

⁵ Beloved, I write to you no new commandment, but an old commandment, which you had from the beginning. The old commandment is the word which you heard from the beginning. He turns next to the love that is toward one’s neighbor, and says that the commingling with God—that is, love for Him[11]—is first known from love toward one’s neighbor. For it is not possible that one enlightened by the knowledge of God, and filled with His love, should have the darkness that comes from hatred of his brother. For light and darkness are, in one and the same subject and concerning the same thing, things that cannot coexist. So that he who is enlightened by love toward God, and has God, has also the light toward his brother, which is kindled from love of the brother. But he who says indeed that he loves God, while hating his brother, dwells in perpetual darkness, ever blind in his cognitive eyes, inasmuch as he has lost the light of the commingling both toward God and toward his brother. And he no longer knows what use to make of himself.

⁶ Again, a new commandment I write to you, which is true in Him and in you, because the darkness is passing away, and the true light already shines. He who says he is in the light, and hates his brother, is in the darkness until now. He who loves his brother abides in the light, and there is no stumbling-block in him. But he who hates his brother is in the darkness, and walks in the darkness, and knows not where he goes, because the darkness has blinded his eyes. Since the Epistle is catholic and common to all alike, both Jews and Greeks, with respect to the Jews there is good reason to say that he writes to them no new commandment concerning love, but an old one. For indeed in the tablets of Moses it is written, “You shall love—after God—also your neighbor as yourself”.[12] But with respect to the Greeks, what could one say about an old commandment, since this is nowhere to be found among them? We say, then, that to these also the law concerning love toward neighbors has been written. And how? Written in the tablet of the heart by natural notions. And that the notions sown within us are called a natural law, Paul is sufficient to confirm the statement, saying, “But I see another law warring against the law of my mind, the one that is in me”.[13] A law, then—that is, an old commandment—the Greeks also received, nature legislating that they be gentle toward one another and toward all that is akin to them, inasmuch as man is also a herd-dwelling animal, which could not exist apart from love. Moreover, the old histories record many men who died for one another [14] —which our Savior declares to be the mark of the greater love, saying, “Greater love than this has no one, than that a man lay down his life for his friends”.[15] Thus, since love toward neighbors is a commandment laid down for both Jews and Greeks, he says that, in addition to the old commandment which you heard concerning love of neighbor, I still write to you also a new commandment—the one that has the truth in the God who has made you His own through fellowship with Him, and in you who have entered into fellowship with Him. For since He says, “I have come as light into the world”,[16] and “the true light,” according to His word, already shines, and in the light there is no darkness,[17] let the light of love henceforth shine forth—the light of disposition and unfeigned—and let the ⟨darkness⟩ [18] of hatred be put away. The word “is passing away” has its meaning also in the blessed Paul, when ⟨he says, “The fashion of this world is passing away.”⟩ [19]

⁷ I write to you, little children, because your sins are forgiven you for His name’s sake. Since he had said, “A new commandment I write to you,” he indicates also the disposition of those who would receive the Epistle. And he indicates it by means of an advancement and progress corresponding to bodily growth. For he knew that not all would receive the word with equal honor, nor with equal earnestness, but some more as beginners, like children—to whom he also pledges forgiveness of sins through faith in Christ; and others as having advanced to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ,[20] and so as to be able even to beget others as children—to whom he testifies that they also have the knowledge of Him who is from the beginning. And who is this, if not the Word of God, who was also in the beginning with God?[21] And others as young men, to whom, as being youthful and full of vigor, he testifies the victory over the passions of dishonor. Then again, by another approach, he takes up the same point, fitting his teacherly discourse to the measure of the spiritual age. Since therefore, he says, I thus know that you will receive what is written by me according to the differences of your ages, it is necessary that I too measure out my teaching to the disposition of your age: and to those of you who, as little children, have come to know the Father (and he means God) to speak in one way; but to those who are as fathers, who have more than the little children in respect of knowledge—namely, that they have known Him not as Father only, but, beyond this, have learned [22] in knowledge and come to know His existence as from the beginning and without end (for He was from the beginning)—to these it is fitting to render a more perfect discourse concerning God. And to the young men, being strong and apt for wrestling and contests, to whom he says belongs also the renown that comes from victory, he shows that there is need of words that are noble and more befitting a general.

⁸ I write to you, fathers, because you have known Him who is from the beginning.[23] — Little children: as having sinned through the unripeness and want of discernment of infancy. Wherefore they are also accounted worthy of pardon, he says, when it has come to pass for you to have known that “the Lord is good to all, and His tender mercies are over all His works”.[24] — Fathers: as having taken up, through their advance in age, the knowledge of Him who is from the beginning. Young men: those who are experienced, by reason of their being in their prime, and who readily carry off the prize against their adversaries.

⁹ I write to you, young men, because you have overcome the Evil One. I have written to you, children, because you have known the Father. I have written to you, fathers, because you have known Him who is from the beginning. I have written to you, young men, because you are strong, and the Word of God abides in you, and you have overcome the Evil One. The aforementioned names he fitted, from the standpoint of age, to his moral discourse; but the present ones he takes up from the standpoint of disposition, administering his admonition without omission.

¹⁰ Do not love the world, nor the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. Having thus apportioned his discourse to the ages of the spirit, he next brings forward the word of exhortation, and says: “Do not love the world.” These things he says as to little children; for children are always frightened [25] about the seeming-sweet thing. Then, having stated the cause of why one ought not to love the world and the things in the world, he next brings his teaching to bear upon the fathers and the young men; for such men are of a more perfect condition. And lest you suppose that “world” signifies the system composed of heaven and earth, he goes on to explain what the world is and what the things in the world are. And by “world” he means the rabble crowd, which does not even have the love of the Father in itself. And what are the things in the world? The things accomplished according to the evil desire of the flesh, which, being worked through the senses, stir up desire. For through the eyes, the most sovereign of the senses, it lays hold of the rest as well. And about desire every evil is seen to gather—adultery, drinking-bouts, unseemly passions, murders: some through covetousness, others through the wish to do away with adversaries. Deceits too are these, that we may make subject to our deceit everything that stands in the way; and, in a word, all things hateful to God are accomplished in us through fleshly desire.

¹¹ For all that is in the world—the desire of the flesh, and the desire of the eyes, and the pride of life—is not from the Father, but is from the world. And the world is passing away, and the desire of it; but he who does the will of God abides forever. We have already said that he calls the rabble crowd “the world,” wherefore the Lord also says to His disciples, “You are not of the world, even as I am not of the world”.[26] And of this world the father is the devil—of the worldly love of pleasure, I mean, and of its confusion. Wherefore the Lord also says concerning His disciples to the Father, “I do not ask that You take them out of the world, but that You keep them from the evil one”[27] —that is, from the world, which He says elsewhere also lies in the evil one.[28] At the same time, if the evil one is set against the good Father, and he who is a slave to the desires of the world is not from the Father but from the world, it is plain that he who is not from the Father but from the world is from the devil; as also in the Gospels He says to the Jews, “You are from your father the devil”[29] —that is, from the fleshly pursuits, of which the devil is both sower and gardener. And these worldly desires, he says, do not have what is abiding and standing fast; but the things according to the will of God are enduring and everlasting. And it is not the part of sober men to run past the things that stand fast and to cling to the things that pass into nothing—doing the same as one who builds [30] a house upon phantoms.

¹² Little children, it is the last hour; and as you heard that the Antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have come to be; whence we know that it is the last hour. The saying, “It is the last hour,” is taken in this way, without harshness: Since it is a catholic Epistle, suited to every man, and since the appointed boundary of life is not one and the same for all, and the proper end is uncertain to each—he reasonably set each man before his own end, so that, as though the last hour of life were at hand for each, watchfulness might follow; and so a blameless life and purity of deeds might forever be the citizenship of Christians. Otherwise: there is no room for the man who, out of melancholy, would mock at these things. For since every matter is divided into three—first, and middle, and last—it is in no way unfitting that all that comes from the middle onward be called “last.” So that if the Lord came at the middle of the ten-thousand-year span (for His coming upon earth occurred at nearly the five-thousand-five-hundredth year, i.e. its midpoint), no one could find fault if all that follows from this point, as from the middle, be called “last.” Since therefore the ten-thousand-year span has passed beyond its midpoint from the coming of the Lord, all that follows from this might well be called “last.” This indeed is most true, and according to the golden John [31] as well.

¹³ They went out from us, but they were not of us. For if they had been of us, they would have remained with us; but that they might be made manifest that not all are of us. Having spoken concerning the antichrists, he brings in also from whom they came, and says, “From us.” And he brings this in without making any distinction for the clarity of the statement. I mean, it is as though, having asked himself, “And whence are these antichrists?” he thus says, “From us.” So then, though he ought to have done it in this way, he did not so handle it, displaying by the very confusedness of the statement the distastefulness of their case. But why are the antichrists from the disciples of the Lord? So that they might be able to bring credibility to those who are led astray, as being from the disciples and acting, in the message of the preaching, according to the mind of the teacher, and not at all carried in a wholly contrary direction to the preaching. For this reason he says, “From us.” And the “went out” means that, having become disciples, they departed from the truth and devised blasphemies of their own. For they were not of us—that is, of the portion of those being saved. For if this had been so, they would have remained with their own. But now, he says, they have done this so that they might be made manifest—that is, become evident—that they are wholly estranged from us. For there are some among these who are also not of us, to whom plainly those who went out from us have joined themselves. On whose account, he says, I have said also, “Not all are of us.”

¹⁴ And you have an anointing from the Holy One, and you know all things. I have not written to you because you do not know the truth, but because you know it, and because no lie is of the truth. Who is the liar, if not he who denies that Jesus is the Christ? This is the Antichrist, he who denies the Father and the Son. Everyone who denies the Son does not have the Father either. He who confesses the Son has the Father also. As for you, let what you heard from the beginning abide in you. If what you heard from the beginning abides in you, you also will abide in the Father and in the Son. And this is the promise which He Himself promised us, the eternal life. Having said the things prepared beforehand, lest anyone should suppose that he assigns the knowledge of these things to himself alone, and through them vaunts himself over the other faithful as being the only one who knows it, he reasonably brings in, “And you have an anointing”—as if he were saying: But why do I go through these things to you as to those who are ignorant of them? And there is among you no ignorance of these matters. For you received from holy baptism the sacred anointing, and through it the divine Spirit. And since you know this, that I wrote these things to you not as to those who are ignorant but as to those who know—the last time, the rush of antichrists, the fact that all are full of falsehood. Because, then, falsehood has multiplied, for this reason I say, he says, that the antichrists also have become many. For if Christ is truth, whom you also, having known, have the truth in yourselves, then surely the liar, being contrary to the truth—that is, to Christ—is an antichrist. And who is the liar? He who denies that Jesus is the Christ. This Simon the all-defiled babbled,[32] that Jesus was one and Christ another: Jesus being the one from the holy Mary, and Christ the one who came down from heaven upon the Jordan. He, then, who is associated with this falsehood, this man, he says, is an antichrist. But also he who denies the Father and the Son—this man too, he says, is a liar and an antichrist. For there were others again, sectaries (from whom the accursed Valentinus was spawned),[33] who said that there was another, unnameable Father besides the one called the Father of Christ. And these same men also deny the Son, by calling Him a mere man and not God by nature, as being God from God. Wherefore he goes on: “Everyone who denies the Son does not have the Father either”—just as the Jews, who deny the Son while pretending to know the Father. But let these men know that they have not yet known the Father either. For if they had known Him, they would have known the Son also, since He is the Father of an only-begotten Son. And the followers of Simon prated the same thing. Those men, then, were thus. But as for you, the things you heard from the beginning—that is, Christ confessed as God [34] —keep with yourselves. For this he means by “Let it abide in you.” For if this abides in you, which you heard from the beginning, you also will abide in the Son and in the Father—that is, you will be partakers of Him. For this is the promise which says, “As I am in You, Father”;[35] and again, “That they may have eternal life: You, the only true God, and Him whom You sent”.[36]

¹⁵ These things I have written to you concerning those who lead you astray. Having completed his discourse concerning the things aforementioned,[37] he adds also the discourse concerning those who lead them astray—that is, on account of the heresies that have flooded in. Then again he brings in what we said also before this, securing for them the freedom from harshness: that “You too have the anointing which you received”; and what is this? It has already been explained that he means the Holy Spirit; and this Spirit which you received, since you hold it firm with yourselves, you have no need that anyone teach you; but as that same Spirit teaches you concerning all things, even as it also taught you, you will abide in it. For what it taught you is true and no lie.

¹⁶ And as for you, let the anointing which you received from Him abide in you, and you have no need that anyone teach you; but as the same anointing teaches you concerning all things, and it is true and is no lie, and even as it taught you, you will abide in Him. The sense in order is thus: The anointing which you received from Him, since it abides in you, you have no need that anyone teach you; but even as it taught you, you must abide in Him.

¹⁷ And now, little children, abide in Him, that when He is made manifest we may have boldness, and not be put to shame before Him at His coming. If you know that He is righteous, know that everyone who does righteousness has been begotten of Him.