3. The Spirit. Our Lord left a promise, "the promise of the Father," that when he had gone from earth the Spirit would supply his place. The Holy Ghost would be the Gift of a risen Saviour. He it was who "should baptize with the Holy Ghost." The narratives in the Acts of the Apostles are the confirmation of this. The four Gospels rake the work of Christ up to the point when the atonement was "finished;" the Acts or' the Apostles continue the record of Christ from the point when the baptism with the Holy Ghost was bestowed (see Acts 2:1-47., et seq.). This was the crowning seal that Christ was the Son of God. Note: In John 1:29-36 the threefold witness concerning our Lord is summed up. John had baptized him with water; had heard the voice from heaven, "This is my beloved Son;" had pointed out Jesus as the sacrificial Lamb, and yet as the Baptizer with the Holy Ghost; and on the whole he remarks, "I saw and bare record, that this is the Son of God."
III. THESE THREE WITNESSES ALL AGREE IN ONE. (Verse 8.) By which we understand, not merely that they confirm one another as to the one fact that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, however true that unquestionably is, but that they all agree in setting forth the glory of his mission. For the testimony is "that God hath given to us eternal life," as well as that "this life is in his Son." And the Son of God brings about the life by taking out of the way what would prevent it, in order that he may grant what would ensure it. Now, "the Spirit, the water," "the blood," all bear, primarily and directly, on man's great enemy "sin." By the water sin is acknowledged; by the blood sin is atoned; by the Spirit sin is destroyed. The voice from heaven owned the first; the Resurrection ratified the second; the living Church is the standing result of the third.
IV. THESE WITNESSES, THUS AGREEING IN ONE, ARE GIVING FORTH THE PERPETUAL TESTIMONY OF GOD TO US CONCERNING HIS SON. These historic facts—the baptism, the sacrifice, the gift of the Holy Spirit—are not events that once had a significance and now are done with; they are not merely incidents unwoven into the texture of history, which cannot be torn out of it without leaving a disfiguring rent, but they are continuous voices of God, which are now speaking to us, and which will continue to speak to men in tones as loud and clear as ever. And the message they give forth is ever this: "God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son." They say:
1. Here is One who, by the dignity of his nature, is the Son of God, though through the lowliness of his form you see him only as the Son of man.
2. He, the Son of God, the Lord of man, has taken human flesh and blood, that, coming into the race, he might bear its liabilities on himself, and, by bearing their burden on him, might throw it off for ever.
3. In stepping into the stream, and numbering himself with the transgressors, he publicly assumed the sinner's place, as if laden with the sinner's guilt.
4. Thus laden with the guilt of the race, through having voluntarily taken it on himself, he bore the burden to the cross, there atoned for sin, cried out, "It is finished!" and the burden was flung off for ever.
5. The validity of his work was sealed by his resurrection and his ascension to heaven.
6. The Gift of the Heir Ghost was his own promised proof of his having received all power in heaven and on earth; and now he reigns Head over all, having received gifts for men, to bestow on us the gift of eternal life, having atoned for the sin which forfeited the life, and. having received authority and power to give and to sustain the life. This is "the testimony of God."
The Divine witness subjectively verified.
Connecting link: The main topic is now the witness of God. In the preceding sketch we dwelt upon the witness of God objectively given. Now we have for our topic—The witness of God verified in the individual experience. The apostle gives us this in two forms—the positive and the negative.
I. LET US INQUIRE WHAT THIS INWARD WITNESS IS. "The witness in himself." So far as the expression is concerned, apart front the context, the apostle's words might bear either of two meanings:
1. God gives man life through Christ, and premises it to all that believe.
2. Man believes unfeignedly in the testimony God has given of his Son.
3. Believing in Jesus, he already enjoys the life which God has promised to bestow.
4. Therefore he has within him an actual verification of God's own faithful Word. He believed the testimony was true, and no he knows it to be so.
II. WHAT IS THE SPECIAL VALUE OF THIS INWARD EVIDENCE? It has a sevenfold value.
1. It is a distinctively personal verification of the truth of God's Word concerning his Son. It is emphatically the believer's own, which may be paralleled in the experience of others, but cannot be shared by them. There is first of all a firm and unwavering certitude that he has a life above and beyond that of nature. Then there is the knowledge gained by continuous experience that only by and through Christ has such a life been initiated, nourished, and sustained.
2. It is an evidence that attends him everywhere. It is always with him. He affirms, "The life I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God." This is what Dr. Chalmers used to call "the portable evidence of Christianity." It can be carried about with a man, go where he will. It takes up no space on the shelves in his library, but ever fills a snug corner of his heart.
3. It is an evidence which is independent of what man may say. At one time, when the only evidence he knew of was that which is external to the man, he was dependent on what this or that one might say, and his belief would be stronger or weaker according to the speaker's success or failure in argument. But his faith is no longer a traditional one. It is the result of the Spirit's work within him; and if no other advocate for the Saviour should appear, what Christ has done for him and in him would lead him to say from his own experience, "I know that this is indeed the Christ, the Saviour of the world."
4. It is an evidence which brings a joy along with it, with which a stranger intermeddleth not. Evidence which merely shows a man the glory of what he ought to believe, and that it is binding on him to believe, may but irritate, and will, if there, be a dislike to the truth. But when a man has God's witness within himself, then he knows whom he has believed, and the knowledge brings a joy unspeakable and full of glory. His may be—yea, is—a life of calm resting in the promise, "Where I am there shall also my servant be."
5. Such an evidence gives him power as a pleader for God. With what zest can he tell to sinners round what a dear Saviour he has found! He can speak, not from hearsay, not merely out of a book, but of "what he has tasted and handled and felt of the Word of life."
6. This evidence accumulates in strength with advancing years. The longer his experience of the power and grace of Christ to sustain in him the eternal life, the more he has received from the fullness of the Saviour, and the severer and the more frequent the trials which have thrown him on his Redeemer for sympathy and for strength,—the stronger will this inward evidence become. The value of the testimony, "Not one thing hath failed of all that the Lord hath spoken," must needs increase with the number of the years that such testimony includes.
7. This is an evidence of which its possessor cannot be deprived. All evidences that are without a man—historical, philosophical, moral—may lose their hold on him, "when mind and memory flee." And besides, of any evidence for which he is dependent on man, by man he can be deprived. An evidence of which man cannot rob us must be an evidence man cannot give us. And here it is: "The witness in himself"—the life within, which, when nature sinks, will rise the higher, and which will enable the believer even in death to shout, "Thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory!"
Note:
1. When we summon up before our imagination the thousands and millions of this and of past ages who have known and declared that life in Christ is their certain experience, we see how great the problem which the destructive skeptic has to solve ere he can demolish the evidences of and for Christianity! He might as well try to put out the sun's light! If it were possible (which it is not) for an unbeliever to know all the evidence of Christianity, objective and subjective, he would give up his puny attempts at disproof thereof.
2. Let those who do not possess this inward witness look at the fact that, unless they arc to disbelieve in, or to regard as fools, the holiest of their friends who speak of the life in Christ as theirs, this evidence, though inward to their friends, is outward to themselves, and as such must be taken into account by them as pertaining to human experience. For it is by no means allowable to claim experience as a basis of evidence, and at the same time to decide a priori what that experience ought to be.
3. If a man knows that some have an experimental and living faith which he himself lacks, if he feels painfully that religion is as yet something entirely outside him, how great should be his desire to pass from a dead faith which is dependent on man, to a living one imparted and sustained by God!
4. Let us use the doctrine of the text as the basis of an earnest and loving appeal; and say, "We know what Christ is, for he is our Saviour; we know how freely he forgives, for he has forgiven us; we 'speak that we do know, and testify that we have seen,' we have tried his own words, and have found them true, 'He that believeth on me hath the everlasting life.'"
Human and Divine testimony compared.
Connecting link: There is a topic suggested in these verses closely bearing on the themes of the two preceding homilies. The Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, has come into the world, bearing a message from the eternal throne. Of the contents and value of the message there are three witnesses—the Spirit, the water, and the blood. The message is that God has given to us eternal life, and that this life is in his Son. Where the Son of God has been received by faith, there is the life actually existing; and this inward life is a distinctive personal seal of the truth of God's words, whereby they are verified by every one who shares the life. But, granting that this verification is lacking (as it is) in those who have not the life, and that in consequence the only testimony to the truth of God's words is that which comes to them from without, how, then, does the case stand as to the sufficiency of that outer testimony? Thus there are certain well-understood laws which govern belief in human testimony; there are circumstances under which no one would think of rejecting such testimony—under which, if he were to reject it, be would be doing a manifold wrong. Much more is this the case with regard to the testimony of God concerning Jesus Christ. It is in every respect greater, fuller, clearer, than the testimony of man. "If we receive," etc., Faith in God's testimony concerning his Son is required by the laws which ordinarily govern human belief.
I. THERE ARE CERTAIN CIRCUMSTANCES UNDER WHICH THE TESTIMONY OF MAN WOULD BE UNHESITATINGLY ACCEPTED. "If we receive the testimony of man," etc. If, not as expressing a doubt whether we do or no. The "if" is nearly equivalent to "since" or "inasmuch as." The fact is taken for granted, as one well known, that receiving testimony from man is a commonly accepted way of gaining knowledge. We can but offer in our limited space the very barest outline of how this matter stands.
1. More than three-fourths of every man's knowledge comes to him from the testimony of others. Even those who demand "verification" are content to accept the verification of another in every department save their own. If it were not so, the progress of man would be slow indeed.
2. What is required in a witness is
Let these conditions be fulfilled, and few would gainsay his testimony.
3. If for a particular fact, call it x, there were not only one, two, or three, but twelve witnesses.
4. If the twelve witnesses were all men of unimpeachable character, and teachers and examples of the loftiest morality the world has ever known.
5. If they one and all gave up all that the world holds dear, and risked, or even forfeited, life itself in giving their testimony.
6. If it was well-known that the testimony was directly opposed to the very strongest prepossessions in which they had been nursed and nurtured; and if:
7. The effect of their testimony was to impart soundness, joy, life, love, where only disease, sorrow, death, and selfishness reigned before;—in such a case, we venture to say, such testimony would be regarded as warranting, and even demanding, belief. It could not and would not be rejected. Be it so: then observe—
II. THE TESTIMONY OF GOD IS STILL WEIGHTIER THAN EVEN SUCH HUMAN TESTIMONY WOULD BE. Evidently the apostle's meaning is that, if we feel it incumbent on us not to reject human testimony when clear and adequate, much more ought we to feel it binding on us to receive the testimony of God. For this (and specially this concerning Christ) is greater than any human testimony could possibly be. In what sense? In many.
1. It is greater in its origin. "God." It may, and probably would, be urged by an unbeliever here, "I grant that at once, that God's testimony is greater than man's; but the difficulty with me is, is it God's testimony?" That is just the thing to be shown. The following hints may serve.
(a) it claims to be from God, if
(b) it justifies that claim,£ and if
(c) there is nothing inconsistent with the claim,—then the proof of the validity of its testimony is complete.
The carrying out of this argument will Trove that the Christian testimony is from God. We have a heavenly treasure, though put into earthen vessels.
2. It is greater in its contents. It is a grand proclamation that "the gift of God is eternal life, through Jesus Christ our Lord."
3. It is greater in the manifoldness and strength of the evidence. Let all the tests suggested under the first division be applied, e.g., to the testimony for the resurrection of Christ, and it will stand them all, while the evidence from the perfection of the moral character of the Christ is absolutely unique and sufficient.
4. It is greater, consequently, in its binding force. Well we know, alas! that, inevitable as this conclusion is, it is precisely the one many would evade and avoid; and, in fact, it may even be that, because they see this to be the issue of the inquiry, some decline to enter upon it. They do not like to be bound. Their spirit is Psalms 2:3. And the clearer the evidence, the greater their wrath. But John 7:17 (Greek) shows us what the conclusion will be with a man who is "of God" (John 8:47).
III. IF GOD'S TESTIMONY CONCERNING HIS SON BE SO GREAT AND SO CLEAR, WHAT THEN?
1. The believer is abundantly justified in his faith; so that he is doubly happy, for the outer evidence justifies his faith when he believes, and the inner evidence verifies the faith after he believes.
2. The unbeliever is condemned. The apostle makes a terrible charge against him—he maketh God a liar. How? Thus: he declares the greatest work which God has ever done in the world to have its basis in a delusion and a lie. The noblest life that the world has received has been grounded on the belief that Jesus is the Son of God. The man denies that. In doing so he consequently declares that God builds up his noblest lives on an untruth. What is this but making God a liar?
3. The sinner has abundant warrant for saying—
"Hence and for ever from my heart
I bid my doubts and fears depart,
And to those hands my soul resign
That bear credentials so Divine."
£
On believers knowing that they have eternal life.
Connecting link: The statements which have just been made point out very clearly who have the eternal life and who have it not. But it is quite possible that such statements may exist, may be before a man's eye, may have been read over again and again, and yet they may have been left unapplied to himself by him who reads them. But it is not enough to know what the eternal life is, and what are the marks of its existence. It is all-important for the individual himself to possess the life, and to indicate it by its appropriate signs. And it is also important—though it cannot be said to be equally so—that, if a man has this life, he should know that he has it. Hence the apostle declares that the object of his writing thus has been that those who believe on the Name of the Son of God should know, clearly and decisively, that they have life, and that the life they have is an eternal one. Topic—On believers knowing that they have eternal life.
I. TO EVERY ONE WHO BELIEVES IN CHRIST THE GIFT OF ETERNAL LIFE BELONGS. This is the repeated and clear declaration of the Word of God (John 5:24; John 6:47; John 3:36; John 3:12; Romans 6:23; John 1:12 compared with Romans 8:17, Romans 8:38, Romans 8:39). (For remarks on the meaning and contents of eternal life, see homily on 1 John 2:25.)
II. IT IS POSSIBLE FOR A TRUE BELIEVER TO BE UNAWARE OF HIS WEALTH. He may have the life eternal and not know it. So, at any rate, the Apostle John declares, by implication, in this verse. We gather this:
1. From such Scriptures as the one before us.
2. From observation. Have we not known many of the most devout believers in Christ "go mourning all their days" through the lack of the full assurance of faith and hope?
3. From experience. There are times, even with those who usually live in the sunshine of God's love, when their joys seem clouded over. It may be asked—What are the causes of this uncertainty? They are various. Probably no two cases are exactly alike; but, among others, we suggest
III. SUCH IGNORANCE OF OUR REAL POSITION IS MOST UNDESIRABLE.
1. It seriously hinders spiritual joy. Who can glory in the hope of heaven when he cannot tell whether he is an heir of its bliss?
2. It dishonours God; for it casts reflection on the completeness of his provision for his children's peace, when believers seem as if they never knew whether they were children of God or no.
3. It cripples their advocacy of the cause of God. How unattractive the invitation to believe in Christ will seem when it comes from one who is moaning and groaning, instead of singing the songs of Zion!
4. It will seriously interfere with their progress. Men cannot walk fast if their legs are like lead rather than like cork.
IV. THE TEACHING OF GOD'S WORD IS INTENDED AND ADAPTED TO REMOVE THAT IGNORANCE.
1. There are four things clearly unfolded concerning the life eternal.
—even faith, righteousness, love; where these are, the man is born of God and has the eternal life.
2. By the careful and candid application to his own case of these four lines of teaching, a man may come to a distinct and decisive conclusion as to his possession of eternal life. For, be it ever remembered, this eternal life is not to be regarded as something which is to commence in the next state of being, but as something already possessed, to be tested and verified now, as a blessed possession over which death will have no power.
INFERENCES.
1. It is no virtue to be the subject of "doubts and fears."
2. If we are uncertain, or if we remain in uncertainty as to our having this greatest of all boons, it is time that we
3. Our religious life has not blossomed into its full beauty until we are perfectly at home in the love of God in Christ, and move as freely and step as firmly there as children in their Father's house that the question "whether we are children," or "whether we are at home," never comes up at all. A loving confidence never to be disturbed—this, oh! this is "knowing that we have the eternal life."
Liberty and prevalence in prayer.
Connecting link: The knowledge that we have eternal life is, in fact, a coming to feel perfectly at home in the redeeming love of God in Christ Jesus. Where this is the case, confidence, freedom of speech, is enjoyed towards God; and this holy freedom will find expression in prayer. The thought uttered here by the apostle is nearly akin to that in 1 John 3:22 (see homily on 1 John 3:19-22). There are, however, one or two not uninteresting points of detail peculiar to these verses, which will suggest a very brief homiletic outline. Topic—Liberty and success in prayer.
I. ONE OF THE PRIVILEGES OF KNOWING THAT WE HAVE ETERNAL LIFE IS FREEDOM IN PRAYER. (See closing sentences of preceding homily.) The word παῤῥησία, as remarked in homilies on 1 John 2:24, 1 John 2:28; 1 John 3:19-22; 1 John 4:17, 1 John 4:18, is equivalent to "freedom of speech." If we know that we have eternal life, we shall have unreserved openness in communing with our God. The relation between the knowledge and that freedom is clear.
1. Knowing thereby that we are the sons of God, we can speak freely to the Father.
2. Knowing that we are redeemed and saved, we can be at entire liberty in communing with our Saviour.
3. Knowing that we are "alive unto God," we can breathe out that life towards its Giver and Sustainer.
II. ONE FORM OF PRAYER WILL BE "MAKING REQUEST UNTO GOD."£ ἐάν τι αἰτώμεθα. "One form," we say, and that advisedly. For the outbreathing of love and desire to God will be the habit of the soul, and will include vastly more than the asking for specific objects. So that we must regard the apostle here as not covering the whole ground of prayer, but as simply indicating one direction that prayer may take (in the next homily a still further limitation is noted). We may freely "make our requests known unto God." Faith, reverence, and love will, however, regulate this boldness in prayer. "If we ask anything according to his will, he hears us." Even so. God's will is infinitely wiser than ours. And our faith in him wilt lead us to offer all our petitions subject to that will. This is not, however, a fetter upon our freedom. It is a safeguard to it. Otherwise the greater the freedom the greater the peril.
III. SUCH REQUESTS WILL CERTAINLY BE GRANTED, There are two issues of such a prayer.
1. We know that he hears us. The ἐὰν in 1 John 4:15 does not indicate any uncertainty. If we know, as we certainly do, that he hears us,£ our petitions are not wasted breath; they go not forth to empty air (Psalms 50:15). This fellows from the truth in Psalms 103:13.
2. We know that we have the petitions we desired of him. τὰ αἰτήματα, if not τὰ αἰτηθέντα, "The substance of the requests, if not necessarily the actual things asked for," says Canon Westcott, beautifully. The mother of Augustine prayed earnestly that he might not go to Rome, fearing it would be his bane. Her son, however, went to Rome; but his going was one of the steps which led to his conversion. As Augustine himself said afterwards, God regarded the hinge of the petition. So it ever is. God hears the prayer, but answers it according to his infinite wisdom rather than according to our limited foresight. Note: Though this at first sight seems a restriction upon prayer, yet it is precisely this which makes us free to pray. Were it otherwise, we could not open our lips to ask aught which we deemed a boon, should the gift asked for be. granted even though it would prove a bane. God, in his love, buries our mistakes in prayer, and gives us just what we should most desire could we see as he sees.
Intercessory prayer: its sphere and its issues.
Connecting Sink: We have freedom in prayer. That freedom will show itself in making intercession for others. At once there is suggested our topic—Intercessory prayer. There are six matters here requiring notice.
I. HERE IS AN OUTLOOK PRESENTED. We are surrounded with brethren—not only Christian brethren, whether those that are really or those that are nominally such; but with "brethren" in the world, those of our own race, of our own flesh and blood, owned as "brethren" by him who took human nature on himself, and certainly not to be disowned as such by his followers.£ Such may be seen giving way to sin. Sins are of two kinds—those "unto death" and "sin not unto death." Inasmuch as all sin persisted in and unrepented of is "unto death," we seem to be shut up to the inference that there is a state of sinning which is beyond the boundary-line of hope; while there are also sins which by no means involve any such sad conclusion. The case they present may be grievous, but it is by no means hopeless. It is to be hoped that the absolutely hopeless cases are rare indeed. "All injustice is sin;" it stains the soul, but need not destroy it.
II. A CASE SUPPOSED. A believer sees a brother sin a sin which is not unto death (for of the hopeless cases we do not just now speak). Such a case may fall under one of three heads.
1. It may be the case of a real Christian surprised into a fault (Galatians 6:1).
2. It may be that of a nominal Christian who says he has faith, but has not works.
3. It may be that of one entirely outside the Christian camp—who is
In all such instances there is cause for grief, there is urgent need of laying the case before God; but there is no need for despair.
III. A COURSE ADOPTED. "He will ask," i.e., he will plead for such a one with God. The apostle does not lay this down as an injunction; he says "he will" do it, as if by the instinctive promptings of an earnest spirit. It is not said for what he will ask; that is understood. He will ask for "life"—for new life where there has been none, for more life where it is feeble, for revived life where it is flagging. Note also that it is here supposed that the intercessory prayer will not lose its point by wandering over general themes and spheres, but will aim at laying the case of one sinning brother before God. How much point and power would our prayers gain if they were more intercessory! How much force would accrue to intercessory prayer if it were more specific!
IV. A BOON SECURED. "He shall give him life for them that sin not unto death;" and these are those for whom the petitions are offered. There are four points to be noted.
1. The gift is life. This suggestive word includes all spiritual good in each case as it is needed.
2. The Giver is God; the Divine name is not specified, but we cannot be in doubt, since
3. The gift of life is for those who have sinned, but not unto death. These are the wanderers whose case was borne upon the pleader's heart.
4. This gift of life for the dead and dying ones is God's gift to the anxious pleader. Beautiful gift! To see life from God coming to those for whom we pray is surely the largest gift our hearts can desire. It is the "open reward" of the prayers offered to the Father in secret. Not thousands of gold and silver, yea, not the wealth of worlds, can compare with a boon like this! What must be the joy of him who can point to a thousand living souls turned from the error of their ways in answer to his prayer!
V. A QUESTION RESERVED "There is sin unto death" (not "a sin." Whether that be so or no, it is not what the apostle says here. He is speaking rather of the state than of a specific act). Great obscurity rests on this phrase; for the reason given in division I, we regard it as necessarily meaning a state of sinning that is beyond the hope-line.
1. What is this state? The following texts sum up nearly all that we know: John 15:6; Luke 12:10; Philippians 3:19; Hebrews 6:4-6.
Either of these is a state of "sin unto death." There are rocks out at sea in perpetual mist. Such is this rock of fatal sin. We cannot sketch it, nor point out its exact locus. God keep us all far away from it! But granting such a case:
2. What is to be done?£ Is no intercessory voice to go up for such a one? The apostle is alarmingly silent. He does not say. An appalling thought is here brought into the field of vision. That possibly a man may be so far gone in sin that not the fondest intercessor could offer up a prayer for him, if he knew how far the sin had gone. We cannot venture to write on such a theme without fear and trembling. But we ask the reader to note the words we have italicized, "If he knew," etc. We are never in a position to pronounce a case hopeless; hence there is nothing to bar our pleading for the worst of sinners. Besides, if a man be a man of prayer, the Spirit of God will guide him for whom to pray and what to pray for; and wherever a praying man is borne along by God's Spirit to pray without ceasing for the conversion of this one or that one, such inward groaning, divinely born, is a pledge of a gracious answer. In the life of a medical missionary (Dr. Henderson) we are told by him that he had ten thousand cases under his care in the hospital. For some cases he could not open his lips in prayer. In other cases he was borne along to plead again and again for their recovery; and when this was so, he never lost a case.
VI. THE RESULT, when all such reserved cases are allowed for. The boon secured as touched on in division IV will still remain, a witness to the power of prayer, a seal to the reality of communion with God, and a blessed reward for the "strong crying and tears" of the faithful pleader. Note:
1. "The apostolic teaching recognizes a mysterious dependence of man on man in the spiritual order, like that which is now being shown to exist in the physical order" (Canon Westcott). Even so. There are wandering souls whose weal is bound up with the intercession of the saints.
2. It is by this intercessory service that the priesthood of believers is to become a practical reality. We are "kings and priests unto God" (Revelation 1:6). No priest was ever made such for his own sake. Priests are for others. We are to go into the holy of holies, and there to bear precious souls upon our heart before God.
3. What vast possibilities of life are wrapped up in a believer's prayers! When the breath of prayer rises up from man to God, the breath of life will be unbreathed by God to man.
4. Who would not wish to spend and be spent in prayer, if we may receive, as God's blessed boon, life for souls! Why are we not more unselfish in our prayers? Why is so large a portion of them for ourselves, so small a portion for others? And why are we not more specific in prayer? Let us call up before us some brother or brethren for whose return to God we long and yearn; for them let us plead, and never, never give up. And if by our pleading many are visited by Heaven's best gift of life, they may never know who prayed for them; but our prayers will go up for a memorial before God, and we shall find it true that "they that sow in tears shall reap in joy."
The strong foe and the stronger Friend.
Connecting link: It is not without reason that the apostle had just written of life from God as the needed gift to those who are sinning, whether their state be that of sin unto death or no; for the fact is that whosoever is born of God is not sinning. By the fact of the new birth he has been delivered out of that state in which the evil one would fain have held him, as that evil one still holds the world. But now the evil one is powerless, for his power is neutralized by the watchful care of the only begotten Son of God. Note: According to the Authorized Version this verse seems to teach that the believer has and exercises an instinct of self-preservation. The Revised Version and the Revisers' Greek text should be studied. Instead of ἑαυτὸν, we now read αὐτὸν. And further, the ὁ γεννηθεὶς plainly points to another than ὁ γεγεννημένος, even to him that was and is the Begotten One of God. He it is who so watches over the new-born child of God that the evil one has no power to touch him. Topic—The conquering and the conquered ones.
I. THERE IS A GREAT FOE, OF MAN. "The evil one." The personality of the evil one is clearly implied in such passages as these: Matthew 4:1; Matthew 13:39; Matthew 25:41; John 8:44; John 13:2; Ephesians 4:27; 1 Timothy 3:6; James 4:7; 1 Peter 5:8; 1 John 3:8; Luke 22:31; Romans 16:20; 1 Corinthians 5:5; 2 Corinthians 4:4. It is not possible fairly to interpret all these passages as indicating only an all-pervasive, impersonal evil. If any demur, let them consider these two points.
1. It is not possible for moral evil to exist apart from some personal being in whom it exists.
2. Whatever evil is in man is there whether there be a devil or no. If there be no devil, and all man's evil is self-originated, then man's nature is a great deal worse than the Scriptures declare it to be.
II. THOUGH MAN HAS A GREAT FOE, HE HAS A GREATER FRIEND. This Friend is the "Begotten One of God;" "the only begotten Son." He beheld this world usurped by the destroyer, and came to set it free. His work is fourfold.
1. He came and worsted the evil one in single combat.
2. He laid down his life for men, and claims the globe as his.
3. He has assumed the sovereignty over all, and dethroned the evil one (John 12:31, John 12:32).
4. He is now engaged by his Word and Spirit in
III. THROUGH THIS FRIEND (the only begotten Son of God) THERE ARE THOSE WHO ESCAPE THE EVIL.
1. Who are these? Those who are born again (2 Corinthians 4:18). All of them.
2. How do they escape the evil? Through the watchful care of the Lord Jesus. He guards πηρεῖ them. The word "expresses a watchful regard from without, rather than safe custody" (so Westcott). This guardianship is exercised
3. What is the effect? The wicked one does not touch them with a contaminating, poisoning hand. lie would, but he cannot. This must be the issue.
The life which is guarded without and sustained within by the Son of God is a perpetual proof that there are some whom evil cannot touch. They move amid the evil, but it harms them not. Let the world get more and more corrupt, they do but become more and more like their Lord.