The fact that the Trinity is involved in these statements leads naturally to the second of John’s reasons why Christians must love other Christians. The second reason is God’s gift of Jesus Christ His Son for our salvation.
The fact that the Trinity is involved in these statements leads naturally to the second of John’s reasons why Christians must love other Christians. The second reason is God’s gift of Jesus Christ His Son for our salvation.
John begins with a passionate exhortation to his readers to “love one another,” a phrase which is repeated three times in verses 7, 11, and 12. This is his great concern, and the reasons for that concern are given in connection with this threefold repetition. The first reason is that love is of God’s own nature; therefore, Christians are to “love one another.” The second reason concerns God’s gift in Christ; therefore, Christians are to “love one another.” The third reason is God’s present activity in and through His people; for this reason, too, Christians are to “love one another.”
To this point much of John’s letter has been given over to developing the three tests by which a person who has become a child of God may know that he truly is a child of God. They are: the moral test, which is righteousness; the social test, which is love; and the doctrinal test, which is the test of truth or of belief in the Lord Jesus Christ as God incarnate. The tests have been developed one by one, but it has been obvious even as John talks about them that they belong together and that each is important.
The tragedy of our time is that we have not enough men and women to proclaim and defend that doctrine. So the truth is not clearly defined, and the way is not clearly illuminated. The doctrine of the apostles, the only true doctrine of the church, illuminates it; and the incarnation of God’s Christ defines and gives a focal point to that doctrine. It is for us to determine whether or not we believe that doctrine and, if we do, to respond to it. There are not three ways, according to the apostle. There are not four, or five, or more. There are only two ways: the way of truth and the way of error, the way of Christ and the way of antichrist. We are called to serve Christ, and those who are truly of God will do so.
At this point we may feel that the discussion has become somewhat theoretical and even unreal, for we are not often confronted today by those who claim to be prophets. Our difficulty is rather of knowing on the purely human level whether or not a teacher speaks truly. Can we test those who speak on this level? Can truth be distinguished from error here? The objection is valid, of course, and the questions are good ones. Consequently, we are not surprised to find John turning to deal with this matter in the remaining verses.
John has already indicated that behind every prophet stands a spirit, either the Spirit of God or the demonic spirit of antichrist (v. 3). He has spoken of the need to test the spirits by their origin. But how are they to be tested? How can a normal Christian know whether the spirit is of God or of antichrist? Here John applies precisely the test given in Deuteronomy 13, though in terms appropriate to the situation occasioned by the Gnostic challenge. “What do they say about Christ?” is John’s question. Do they acknowledge that Jesus is the Christ come in the flesh or do they deny this? If they deny Christ, they are not of God no matter how marvelous their activity.
In these verses John deals with this problem of the need to discern teaching in the church and, therefore, also with our own need to exercise such discernment. His reply has three parts. First, there is the command to test those who claim to be inspired. Second, there is a standard to be used in testing them. Third, there is an application of these ideas to the problem of distinguishing between true and merely professing Christians. In this last section John deals once more with the radical distinction between the church and the world and shows the relation of each to the apostolic doctrine.
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