1 John, verse-by-verse
Session 4 | 1 John 2:3-11
1 John 2:3-7 | Sin Not: by keeping His Commandments
Verses 3-4 -- Note: these verses were included on session 3 but are revised here. In the previous session I took the pronoun he to be a reference to the Father. In further study, it should be a reference to the Son.
Verse 3 --
The author is seeking to get the nation to come to Jesus as Messiah (see heading, vv. 1-2). How does a Jew know that he knows the Messiah? He will keep his commandments.
The word know is γινώσκω [ginosko], to know in the personal/experiential sense.
The first use is in the present tense, a current reality.
T“an action which is viewed as having been completed in the past, once and for all, not needing to be repeated."
The standard for this knowledge is to keep his commandments.
Jesus, of course, commanded the keeping of His commandments (see Jn. 14:15, 15:10, etc.).
One of His commandments was to keep the Law, in totality (Mt. 5:19).
“you are not a Christian if you do not keep Torah?" This would be a ridiculous and works-based theology, so devoid of Pauline truth that it simply should be unacceptable to Christians. However, it is prevalent in all corners of Christendom.
Verse 4 --
This epistle is an instruction manual for Jews who recognize Jesus as Messiah and want their nation to receive Him and His Kingdom.
In Revelation 12:17 the believing Jews are those who keep the commandments of God, along with the testimony of Jesus Christ. See also Revelation 14:12.
Both 1 John 2:4 and John in the Revelation teach the exact same thing.
It is not Pauline (as it is clearly works based) because it is about a kingdom gospel rather than the individual gospel.
If one says rejects my premise and rather says that this verse speaks of behavior after salvation and not a requirement for salvation, they are still left out of the ability to say that salvation is not of works, for works are required in the equation, simply moved places in the equation.
Verse 5 --
The phrase keepeth his word stands as the opposite of keepeth not his commandments (v. 3). The one who keeps the word of Jesus is the one in whom the love of God [is] perfected.
The word perfected is from τελος [telos] which is the word for taking something to its full end (like telescope takes vision to its full end).
Keeping the word of the Messiah is the only way the Jew can know...that we are in him.
To be in Christ is not something that belongs to the Body of Christ alone. Consider, for example, Romans 16:7.
Verse 6 --
Jesus said essentially these same words in John 15:4-7.
“WWJD" prescription for Christian living, based on passages like this one, is misguided, failing to recognize that Jesus Christ was a minister of the circumcision and that we are not of the circumcision.
For those of us in the Body of Christ, we abide by Paul's instruction to be ye followers of me, even as I also am of Christ (1 Cor. 11:1).
Verse 7 --
This verse is decidedly unpauline.
“stay the course."
He wants them to keep the old commandment which ye had from the beginning. The questions are, which commandment and the beginning of what?
I think that the author is saying, I am not giving you a new dispensation, but asking you to continue walking under the same rule you've been under.
The commandment then is the Law which they have had from the beginning of their nation.
1 John 2:8-11 | Sin Not: by Keeping A New Commandment
Verse 8 --
The writer moves with ease from no new commandment in verse 7 to a new commandment in verse 8.
This new commandment is true in him and in you.
It seems that the pronoun him must continue to be Jesus the Messiah. The pronoun you must continue to be the nation.
Here the author is changing the commandment of the Lord just slightly. Jesus had given a new commandment in John 13:34, to love as I have loved you. Now the author says, in effect, this must be true in you. Why? Because the darkness is past, and the true light now shineth.
Here he speaks of the darkness of no Messiah, and the light of the presence and knowledge of the Messiah.
Compare John 1:4-5, where the darkness did not receive the light. Now the nation is told that it is time to receive it.
Verse 9 --
The new commandment of Jesus was to love one another; as I have loved you (Jn. 13:34).
Now this epistle says that this must be true in you (v. 8). But I believe the author speaks of a specific brother, namely, Jesus Christ. Those who hate Jesus Christ are in darkness even until now*.*
Verses 10-11 --
Elaborating on the truth and instruction of verse 9, and using the interpretation of brother given there, these verses instruct the nation that abiding in the light required loving Jesus.
On the flip side, to hate Jesus was to abide in darkness, a darkness that is debilitating to the point of blindness. The author surely knows that blindness in part is happened to Israel (Rom. 11:25).
