1 john 5 commentary

1 JOHN 5 COMMENTARY
EDITED BY GLENN PEASE
Faith in the Incarnate Son of God
1 Everyone who believes that Jesus is the
Christ is born of God, and everyone who
loves the father loves his child as well.
1.BARNES, “Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ - Is the Messiah; the
anointed of God. On the meaning of the word Christ, see the notes at Mat_1:1. Of course, it is
meant here that the proposition, that “Jesus is the Christ,” should be believed or received in the
true and proper sense, in order to furnish evidence that anyone is born of God. Compare the
notes at 1Jo_4:3. It cannot be supposed that a mere intellectual acknowledgment of the
proposition that Jesus is the Messiah is all that is meant, for that is not the proper meaning of
the word believe in the Scriptures. That word, in its just sense, implies that the truth which is
believed should make its fair and legitimate impression on the mind, or that we should feel and
act as if it were true. See the notes at Mar_16:16. If, in the proper sense of the phrase, a man
does believe that Jesus “is the Christ,” receiving him as he is revealed as the Anointed of God,
and a Saviour, it is undoubtedly true that that constitutes him a Christian, for that is what is
required of a man in order that he may be saved. See the notes at Act_8:37.
Is born of God - Or rather, “is begotten of God.” See the notes at Joh_3:3
And everyone that loveth him that begat - That loves that God who has thus begotten
those whom he has received as his children, and to whom he sustains the endearing relation of
Father.
Loveth him also that is begotten of him - That is, he will love all the true children of
God; all Christians. See the notes at 1Jo_4:20. The general idea is, that as all Christians are the
children of the same Father; as they constitute one family; as they all bear the same image; as
they share his favor alike; as they are under the same obligation of gratitude to him, and are
bound to promote the same common cause, and are to dwell together in the same home forever,
they should therefore love one another. As all the children in a family love their common father,
so it should be in the great family of which God is the Head.
2. CLARKE, “Whosoever believeth, etc. - Expressions of this kind are to be taken in
connection with the subjects necessarily implied in them. He that believeth that Jesus is the
Messiah, and confides in him for the remission of sins, is begotten of God; and they who are
pardoned and begotten of God love him in return for his love, and love all those who are his
children.

3. GILL, “Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ,.... Or the Messiah that was
prophesied of old, was long promised to the Jews, and whom they expected; there was a person
spoken of in the writings of the Old Testament under this character, Psa_2:2; and the Jews
looked for him; and Jesus of Nazareth is he, as appears by all the characteristics of the Messiah
in prophecy being found upon him: this the Jews deny, but is the grand article of faith embraced
by the apostles and followers of Jesus, and is of very great importance; he that denies it is a liar,
and he that does not believe it shall die in his sins: the word signifies "anointed", and includes all
the offices of the Son of God, to which he was anointed, as prophet, priest, and King; so that to
believe him to be the Christ, is to believe him to be that prophet Moses said should come, and
who has declared the whole mind and will of his Father; and that he is that priest that should
arise after the order of Melchizedek, and make atonement for sin, and intercession for
transgressors; and that he is that King whom God has set over his holy hill of Zion, whose laws
are to be obeyed, and his commands observed: but to believe that Jesus is the Christ, or the
Messiah, is not barely to give an assent to this truth, or to acknowledge it; so the devils
themselves have done, Luk_4:41; and whole nations of men, multitudes of which were never
born of God; it is not a mere profession of it before men, or an idle, inoperative faith, which is
destitute of love to Christ, and obedience to him; but whereas his work and business, as the
Christ of God, was to bring in an everlasting righteousness, to procure the remission of sin, and
to make peace and reconciliation for it, and to obtain eternal salvation; true faith in him as the
Messiah is a believing with the heart unto righteousness, or a looking to, and trusting in the
righteousness of Christ for justification; and a dealing with his blood for pardon and cleansing,
under a sense of guilt and filth; and a laying hold on his atoning sacrifice for the expiation of sin,
and peace with God; and a reception of him as the only Saviour and Redeemer, or a dependence
on him for life and salvation; and which faith shows itself in love to him, and in a professed
subjection to his Gospel, and cheerful submission to his ordinances: and every such person
is born of God; is a partaker of the divine nature; has Christ formed, and every grace of the
Spirit implanted in him, among which faith in Christ is a considerable one; and such an one in
consequence is openly a child and heir of God, wherefore, to be born of God is an instance of
great grace, and an high honour and privilege, and of the greatest moment and importance.
Regeneration is not owing to the power and will of man, but to the abundant mercy and good
will of God, and is an instance of his rich mercy, great love, and free favour, and commands love
again:
and everyone that loveth him that begat; that is, God the Father, who has begotten them
again to a lively hope, according to his abundant mercy and sovereign will; and as he is their
Father that has begotten them, they cannot but love him: and such an one
loveth him also that is begotten of him; not only Jesus Christ, who by nature is the only
begotten of the Father; for those who know God to be their Father by adoption and regeneration,
will love Christ, who is the Son of God by nature; see Joh_8:42; but also every regenerate
person, all that are born of God; since they are the children of the same Father with them,
belong to the same household and family, and bear the image and likeness of their heavenly
Father on them.
4. HENRY, “I. The apostle having, in the conclusion of the last chapter, as was there observed,
urged Christian love upon those two accounts, as suitable to Christian profession and as suitable

to the divine command, here adds a third: Such love is suitable, and indeed demanded, by their
eminent relation; our Christian brethren or fellow-believers are nearly related to God; they are
his children: Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, 1Jo_5:1. Here the
Christian brother is, 1. Described by his faith; he that believeth that Jesus is the Christ - that he
is Messiah the prince, that he is the Son of God by nature and office, that he is the chief of all the
anointed world, chief of all the priests, prophets, or kings, who were ever anointed by God or for
him, that he is perfectly prepared and furnished for the whole work of the eternal salvation -
accordingly yields himself up to his care and direction; and then he is, 2. Dignified by his
descent: He is born of God, 1Jo_5:1. This principle of faith, and the new nature that attends it or
from which it springs, are ingenerated by the Spirit of God; and so sonship and adoption are not
now appropriated to the seed of Abraham according to the flesh, not to the ancient Israel of
God; all believers, though by nature sinners of the Gentiles, are spiritually descended from God,
and accordingly are to be beloved; as it is added: Every one that loveth him that begat loveth
him also that is begotten of him, 1Jo_5:1. It seems but natural that he who loves the Father
should love the children also, and that in some proportion to their resemblance to their Father
and to the Father's love to them; and so we must first and principally love the Son of the Father,
as he is most emphatically styled, 2Jo_1:3, the only (necessarily) begotten, and the Son of his
love, and then those that are voluntarily begotten, and renewed by the Spirit of grace.
5. JAMISON, “
1Jo_5:1-21. Who are the brethren especially to be loved (1Jo_4:21); Obedience, the test of
love, easy through faith, which overcomes the world. Last portion of the epistle. The spirit’s
witness to the believer’s spiritual life. Truths repeated at the close: Farewell warning.
Reason why our “brother” (1Jo_4:21) is entitled to such love, namely, because he is “born
(begotten) of God”: so that if we want to show our love to God, we must show it to God’s visible
representative.
Whosoever — Greek, “Everyone that.” He could not be our “Jesus” (God-Savior) unless He
were “the Christ”; for He could not reveal the way of salvation, except He were a prophet: He
could not work out that salvation, except He were a priest: He could not confer that salvation
upon us, except He were a king: He could not be prophet, priest, and king, except He were the
Christ [Pearson, Exposition of the Creed].
born — Translate, “begotten,” as in the latter part of the verse, the Greek being the same.
Christ is the “only-begotten Son” by generation; we become begotten sons of God by
regeneration and adoption.
every one that loveth him that begat — sincerely, not in mere profession (1Jo_4:20).
loveth him also that is begotten of him — namely, “his brethren” (1Jo_4:21).
6. BI, “Belief in Jesus as the Christ

This is the third virtual repetition of this truth (see 1Jn_4:2; 1Jn_4:15).
Now in the apostles’ days every Christian as such believed that Jesus was the Christ. By this
belief and its confession he was distinguished from a Jew on the one side and a heathen on the
other; and the same might be said of the confession that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh, for
this in the apostle’s eyes would be the same as that Jesus is the Christ, for if He was the Christ,
His assertion of Himself as being the true and only begotten of God, who came down from
heaven, must be true, for God would never send into the world one who would so misrepresent
His truth as to say that He was His special anointed messenger and representative when He was
not; and so with Jesus being the Son of God of 1Jn_4:14.
Faith and regeneration
I. What is the believing intended in the text?
1. The believing here intended is that which our Lord and His apostles exhorted men to
exercise, and to which the promise of salvation is always appended in the Word of God.
2. The faith here intended is the duty of all men. Jesus Christ is worthy of the confidence of
all men; it is therefore the duty of men to confide in Him.
3. At the same time this faith, wherever it exists, is in every case, without exception, the gift
of God and the work of the Holy Spirit. He has wrought all our works in us, and our faith too.
4. The faith intended in the text evidently rests upon a person—upon Jesus. “Whosoever
believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God.” What is meant by “Jesus is the Christ,” or
Jesus is the Anointed? First, that He is the Prophet; secondly, that He is the Priest; thirdly,
that He is the King of the Church, for in all these three senses He is the Anointed.
5. True faith is reliance. Have you confidence as well as credence? A creed will not save you,
but reliance upon the anointed Saviour is the way of salvation. Moreover, true faith is not a
flattering presumption, by which a man says, “I believe I am saved, for I have such delightful
feelings, I have had a marvellous dream, I have felt very wonderful sensations;” for all such
confidence may be nothing but sheer assumption. Faith, again, is not the assurance that
Jesus died for me. On such a theory every believer in a universal atonement would
necessarily be born of God, which is very far from being the case. Neither is it faith for me to
be confident that I am saved, for it may be the case that I am not saved, and it can never be
faith to believe a lie.
II. We must now pass on to show that wherever it exists it is the proof of regeneration.
“Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God.” “Ah!” I hear thee say, poor soul,
“the new birth is a great mystery; I am afraid I am not a partaker in it.” You are born again if you
are relying upon a crucified Saviour. Mystery or no mystery, the new birth is yours if you are a
believer. Electricity is a great mystery, and you cannot see it; but the operator tells you that the
electric current is moving along the wire. How does he know? “I know it by the needle.” How is
that? I could move your needles easily. “Yes; but do not you see the needle has made two
motions to the right, one to the left, and two to the right again? I am reading a message.” “But,”
say you, “I can see nothing in it; I could imitate that clicking and moving very easily.” Yet he who
is taught the art sees before him in those needles, not only electric action, but a deeper mystery
still; he perceives that a mind is directing the invisible force, and speaking by means of it. Not to
all, but to the initiated is it given to see the mystery hidden within the simplicity. The believer
sees in the faith, which is simple as the movements of the needle, an indication that God is
operating on the human mind, and the spiritual man discerns that there is an inner secret
intimated thereby, which the carnal eye cannot decipher. To believe in Jesus is a better indicator
of regeneration than anything else, and in no case did it ever mislead. Now let me reply to
certain questions. Must not a man repent as well as believe? Reply: No man ever believed but
what he repented at the same time. Faith and repentance go together. They must. If I trust

Christ to save me from sin, I am at the same time repenting of sin, and my mind is changed in
relation to sin, and everything else that has to do with its state. All the fruits meet for repentance
are contained in faith itself.
III. Now what flows out of this? Love is the legitimate issue I We must love if we are begotten of
God all those who are also born of God. First, I love God, and therefore I desire to promote
God’s truth, and to keep God’s gospel free from taint. But then I am to love all those whom God
has begotten, despite the infirmities and errors I see in them, being also myself compassed
about with infirmities. Life is the reason for love, the common life which is indicated by the
common faith in the dear Redeemer is to bind us to each other. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
The theory of brotherly love
Four things are here associated, and said to arise out of one another—faith, regeneration, the
love of God, and the love of man.
I. Faith—“whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ.” Jesus is found to be all that the
Scripture predictions declared the Messiah should be. They who discover this harmony can say,
“we have found the Messiahs, which is, being interpreted, the Christ.” Even in this state of mind
there are the elements of rich promise, but there is far more in the reception of Jesus as the
Christ. He is acknowledged, not merely in general terms, as a Divine Saviour; but He is
appreciated in the special offices which He bears for the redemption of men.
II. The regeneration connected with it—“is born of God.” Faith and regeneration are united.
This view is brought out still more fully in Joh_1:12-13. We ask what must be the moral effect
produced by accepting Christ in His gracious offices? It is plain it must be vital and saving. We
see at once how just and reasonable is the representation of the text—that faith and regeneration
are united.
III. In every mind thus influenced the love of God obtains a prominent place. “Everyone that
loveth Him that begat.” It must be so, considering the change that has been produced. It is a new
birth. God is seen to be the only Master who can claim unreserved obedience. A mind thus
enlightened must love God. Especially must it be so when it is considered that He is the Author
of this change. In His gracious love He has been pleased to put forth His power, and create the
soul anew in righteousness. How calculated is such a contemplation to call forth the warmest
exercise of love! Add to this, that when such a change is effected in the soul by God, it brings us
into a new relation to Him, and one that eminently calls forth our love. It is that of a child. It is
natural to a child to love his parent. Nor let it be overlooked how God is continually increasing
His claims on His own children. They are constrained to say (Eph_1:3).
IV. The love of God is accompanied by the love of man. “Everyone that loveth Him that begat,
loveth Him also that is begotten of Him.” (J. Morgan, D. D.)
Love to man inspired by new life
If we do not love Him more than what lies around us—houses and lands, father or mother, son
or daughter—we are not worthy of Him. Nor are we worthy of them. Unless we come to them
and they to us in the richness of a life inspired and quickened by Him, in the wealth of
affections, impulses, desires, and hopes thus quickened and inspired by a loftier faith, we come
to one another as trees encased in ice. But if, first of all, we give ourselves to Him, and the
generous hopes and affections which faith in Him may awaken in us, we shall be like these same
trees, lifting up their branches to the spring day sun, till from the lowest root to the highest twig

they feel the pulses of a new life bursting out into leaf and blossom, while birds nestle within
their shade, and the air is burdened with their melodies. (H. W. Beecher.)
7. CALVIN, “1Whosoever believeth He confirms by another reason, that faith and brotherly love are
united; for since God regenerates us by faith he must necessarily be loved by us as a Father; and this
love embraces all his children. Then faith cannot be separated from love.
The first truth is, that all born of God, believe that Jesus is the Christ; where, again, you see that Christ
alone is set forth as the object of faith, as in him it finds righteousness, life, and every blessing that can be
desired, and God in all that he is. (89) Hence the only true way of believing is when we direct our minds to
him. Besides, to believe that he is the Christ, is to hope from him all those things which have been
promised as to the Messiah.
Nor is the title, Christ, given him here without reason, for it designates the office to which he was
appointed by the Father. As, under the Law, the full restoration of all things, righteousness and
happiness, were promised through the Messiah; so at this day the whole of this is more clearly set forth in
the gospel. Then Jesus cannot be received as Christ, except salvation be sought from him, since for this
end he was sent by the Father, and is daily offered to us.
Hence the Apostle declares that all they who really believe have been born of God; for faith is far above
the reach of the human mind, so that we must be drawn to Christ by our heavenly Father; for not any of
us can ascend to him by his own strength. And this is what the Apostle teaches us in his Gospel, when he
says, that those who believe in the name of the only-begotten, were not born of blood nor of the flesh.
(Joh_1:13.) And Paul says, that we are endued,not with the spirit of this world, but with the Spirit that is
from God, that we may know the things given us by him. (1Co_2:12.) For eye hath not seen, nor ear
heard, nor the mind conceived, the reward laid up for those who love God; but the Spirit alone penetrates
into this mystery. And further, as Christ is given to us for sanctification, and brings with it the Spirit of
regeneration, in short, as he unites us to his own body, it is also another reason why no one can have
faith, except he is born of God.
Loveth him also that is begotten of him Augustine and some others of the ancients have applied this to
Christ, but not correctly. For though the Apostle uses the singular number, yet he includes all the faithful;
and the context plainly shows that his purpose was no other than to trace up brotherly love to faith as its
fountain. It is, indeed, an argument drawn from the common course of nature; but what is seen among

men is transferred to God. (90)
But we must observe, that the Apostle does not so speak of the faithful only, and pass by those who are
without, as though the former are alone to be loved, and no care and no account to be had for the latter;
but he teaches us as it were by this first exercise to love all without exception, when he bids us to make a
beginning with the godly. (91)
(89) Literally, “ the whole God — totum Deum .” — Ed.
(90) The literal rendering of the verse is as follows, —
“ one who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been begotten by God; and every one who loves the
begetter loves also the begotten by him.” — Ed.
(91) The subject no doubt is love to the brethren throughout; and this passage shews this most clearly.
Love to all is evidently a duty, but it is not taught here. — Ed.
2
This is how we know that we love the
children of God: by loving God and
carrying out his commands.
1.BARNES, “By this we know that we love the children of God ... - This is repeating
the same truth in another form. “As it is universally true that if we love Him who has begotten
us, we shall also love His children, or our Christian brethren, so it is true also that if we love His
children it will follow that we love Him.” In other places, the apostle says that we may know that
we love God if we love those who bear His image, 1Jo_3:14. He here says, that there is another
way of determining what we are. We may have undoubted evidence that we love God, and from
that, as the basis of an argument, we may infer that we have true love to His children. Of the fact
that we may have evidence that we love God, apart from that which we derive from our love to
His children, there can be no doubt. We may be conscious of it; we may find pleasure in
meditating on His perfections; we may feel sure that we are moved to obey Him by true

attachment to Him, as a child may in reference to a father. But, it may be asked, how can it be
inferred from this that we truly love His children? Is it not easier to ascertain this of itself than it
is to determine whether we love God? Compare 1Jo_4:20. To this it may be answered, that we
may love Christians from many motives: we may love them as personal friends; we may love
them because they belong to our church, or sect, or party; we may love them because they are
naturally amiable: but the apostle says here, that when we are conscious that an attachment
does exist toward Christians, we may ascertain that it is genuine, or that it does not proceed
from any improper motive, by the fact that we love God. We shall then love Him as His children,
whatever other grounds of affection there may be toward them.
And keep his commandments - See the notes at Joh_14:15.
2. CLARKE, “By this we know that we love the children of God - Our love of God’s
followers is a proof that we love God. Our love to God is the cause why we love his children, and
our keeping the commandments of God is the proof that we love him.
3. GILL, “By this we know that we are the children God,.... The Ethiopic version reads,
"by this know that we love God"; which, in connection with what follows, makes a tautology, and
is a proving "idem per idem": whereas the apostle's view is to show when love to the saints is
right; and that is,
when we love God, and keep his commandments: love to the brethren may arise from
such a cause, as may show that it is not brotherly love, or of a spiritual kind; it may arise from
natural relation, or civil friendship, or from a benefit or favour received from them, and from
some natural external excellency seen in them; and a man may do acts of love and kindness to
the brethren, from what may be called good nature in himself, or with sinister views; but true
love to the brethren springs from love to God: such who love the saints aright, and by which they
may know they do so, they love them because they themselves love God, and in obedience to his
command; they love them because they belong to God, and are the objects of his love; because
his grace is wrought in them, and his image stamped upon them.
4. HENRY, “The apostle shows, 1. How we may discern the truth, or the true evangelical nature
of our love to the regenerate. The ground of it must be our love to God, whose they are: By this
we know that we love the children of God, when we love God, 1Jo_5:2. Our love to them
appears to be sound and genuine when we love them not merely upon any secular account, as
because they are rich, or learned, or kind to us, or of our denomination among religious parties;
but because they are God's children, his regenerating grace appears in them, his image and
superscription are upon them, and so in them God himself is loved. Thus we see what that love
to the brethren is that is so pressed in this epistle; it is love to them as the children of God and
the adopted brethren of the Lord Jesus. 2. How we may learn the truth of our love to God - it
appears in our holy obedience: When we love God, and keep his commandments, 1Jo_5:2. Then

we truly, and in gospel account, love God, when we keep his commandments: For this is the love
of God, that we keep his commandments; and the keeping of his commandments requires a
spirit inclined thereto and delighting herein; and so his
5. JAMISON, “By — Greek, “In.” As our love to the brethren is the sign and test of our love
to God, so (John here says) our love to God (tested by our “keeping his commandments”) is,
conversely, the ground and only true basis of love to our brother.
we know — John means here, not the outward criteria of genuine brotherly love, but the
inward spiritual criteria of it, consciousness of love to God manifested in a hearty keeping of
His commandments. When we have this inwardly and outwardly confirmed love to God, we can
know assuredly that we truly love the children of God. “Love to one’s brother is prior, according
to the order of nature (see on 1Jo_4:20); love to God is so, according to the order of grace
(1Jo_5:2). At one time the former is more immediately known, at another time the latter,
according as the mind is more engaged in human relations or in what concerns the divine
honor” [Estius]. John shows what true love is, namely, that which is referred to God as its first
object. As previously John urged the effect, so now he urges the cause. For he wishes mutual
love to be so cultivated among us, as that God should always be placed first [Calvin].
6. BI, “How shall we be certified that we love the brethren
To reply to this inquiry seems to be the specific object of these verses.
Contemplating them in this connection, they suggest four evidences.
I. The first is that we love God. “By this we know,” etc. It must seem strange, at first sight, to
find the love of God cited as a proof of the love of His people. We would expect rather the reverse
order. This too is found to be the usual practice (see 1Jn_4:7-8). At the same time there is a
sense in which the love of God ought to be sought in our hearts as a proof of the love of His
people. It is one that will readily occur to a mind jealous of itself. It is not unnatural to ask, Does
his love of the people of God arise out of the love of God? In this view he might properly seek for
the love of God as a proof of the love of the brethren. The least reflection may show the necessity
for such an inquiry. Brotherly love, or what appears to be such, may arise from other sources
besides the love of God. It may be a natural feeling and not a gracious affection. We may love our
kindred, friends, neighbours, benefactors, and yet not love God. It is possible there may be even
an active benevolence where this heavenly principle does not exist. It will be asked how is such a
subject to be investigated? And we reply in one of two ways, or in both. It may be either by
examining whether our deeds of brotherly love are prompted and influenced by the love of God;
or by inquiring into the general principle, whether the love of God has ever been shed abroad in
our hearts by the Holy Ghost.
II. The profession of brotherly love may be tested by obedience to the commandments of God.
“We know that we love the children of God, when we love God, and keep His commandments.”
Viewing the subject in the restricted light of the context, the meaning of this test must be, that in
our exercises of brotherly love, we are guided by the commandments of God. Assuming this to
be the just interpretation, there are two aspects in which our conduct may be contemplated, the
one a refusal to do that which God forbids, although it may be desired as an expression of
brotherly love, and the other a readiness to exercise it in every way which God has required.
III. The next evidence of brotherly love is akin to the second, and may be regarded indeed as a
summary of the two already considered, and an extension of their meaning and application. “For
this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments.” There is great force in the expression,

“This is the love of God.” This is that in which it consists, by which its existence is manifested,
and without which it cannot be. A child obeys his parent because he loves him, and as he loves
him. The same may be said of the master and servant, the king and his subjects. If there be not
love, uniform and hearty obedience cannot be rendered. In the case of Christ and His people, the
claims are peculiarly strong on the one hand, and the obligations specially felt on the other.
There is no love so strong as that by which they are bound to one another. It takes precedence of
every other. The consequence is, that the love of Christ urges His people to the obedience of
every commandment. No matter how trifling it may seem to be, it is enough that He has
declared it to be His will.
IV. There is one other evidence in the verses before us, but it may almost be regarded as a part
of that which has just been noticed. It is such an apprehension of the commandments of God
that they are not considered to be a burthen. “His commandments are not grievous.” This saying
is universally and absolutely true of the commandments of God in their own nature. They are all
“holy, and just, and good.” Such, however, is not the sentiment of the ungodly. They consider
many of God’s commandments to be grievous. We might instance such commands as these—
“Whatsoever ye do, whether ye eat or drink, do all to the glory of God,” “Abstain from all
appearance of evil,” “The very God of peace sanctify you wholly; your whole spirit, and soul, and
body.” These are felt to be grievous by the ungodly. No so by the godly: They may not obey them
as they would, but they approve of them.
1. The great reason is their love of God. They so love Him that they account nothing which
He has commanded grievous.
2. Another reason is that his heart is in the service itself. He likes it. Prayer and holiness are
agreeable to him. They are not a drudgery, but a delight.
3. He forms, moreover, the habit of obedience, and this greatly confirms his desire for it. The
more he practises it, the better he finds it.
4. Besides, the Holy Spirit helps his infirmities, and furthers his labours.
5. And we may add, he is animated by the prospect of a rich reward. (J. Morgan, D. D.)
Whereby know we that we love God’s children
I. Who are described by this title—“the children of God.” This title, “the children of God,” is
given upon several accounts.
1. By creation the angels are called “the sons of God,” and men His “offspring.” The reason of
the title is—
(1) The manner of their production by His immediate power.
(2) In their spiritual, immortal nature, and the intellectual operations flowing from it,
there is an image and resemblance of God.
2. By external calling and covenant some are denominated His “children”; for by this
evangelical constitution God is pleased to receive believers into a filial relation.
3. There is a sonship that arises from supernatural regeneration.
II. What is included in our love to the children of God.
1. The principle of this love is Divine (1Pe_1:22).
2. The qualifications of this love are as follows:

(1) It is sincere and cordial. A counterfeit, formal affection, set off with artificial colours,
is so far from being pleasing to God, that it is infinitely provoking to Him.
(2) It is pure. The attractive cause of it is the image of God appearing in them.
(3) It is universal, extended to all the saints.
(4) It must be fervent. Not only in truth, but in a degree of eminency. “This is My
commandment, that ye love one another, as I have loved you” (Joh_15:12).
(5) This love includes all kinds of love.
(a) The love of esteem, correspondent to the real worth and special goodness of the
saints.
(b) The love of desire, of their present and future happiness.
(c) The love of delight, in spiritual communion with them.
(d) The love of service and beneficence, that declares itself in all outward offices and
acts for the good of the saints. If Christians thus loved one another, the Church on
earth would be a lively image of the blessed society above.
III. The love of God and obedience to his commands, the product of it.
1. The love of God has its rise from the consideration of His amiable excellences, that render
Him infinitely worthy of the highest affection; and from the blessed benefits of creation,
preservation, redemption, and glorification, that we expect from His pure goodness and
mercy.
2. The obedience that springs from love is—
(1) Uniform and universal.
(2) This is a natural consequence of the former. The Divine law is a rule, not only for our
outward conversation, but of our thoughts and affections, of all the interior workings of
the soul that are open before God.
(3) Chosen and pleasant (1Jn_5:3). The sharpest sufferings for religion are sweetened to
a saint from the love of God, that is then most sincerely, strongly, and purely acted
(2Co_12:10).
(4) The love of God produces persevering obedience. Servile compliance is inconstant.
IV. From the love of God, and willing obedience to his commands, we may convincingly know
the sincerity of our love to his children.
1. The Divine command requires this love.
2. Spiritual love to the saints arises from the sight of the Divine image appearing in their
conversation. As affectionate expressions to the children of God, without the real supply of
their wants, are but the shadows of love, so words of esteem and respect to the law of God,
without unfeigned and universal obedience, are but an empty pretence.
3. The Divine relation of the saints to God as their Father is the motive of spiritual love to
them. (W. Bates, D. D.)
The love of God and universal obedience
I. The nature of true love to God.

1. The peculiar acts of true love to God.
(1) It has a high approbation and esteem of God.
(2) It has a most benevolent disposition towards God.
(3) Its earnest desire is after God.
(4) Its complacency and delight is in God.
(5) It is pleased or displeased with itself, according as it is conscious to its own
aboundings or defects.
2. The properties of true love to God.
(1) It is a judicious love.
(2) It is an extensive love.
(3) It is a supreme love.
(4) It is an abiding love.
3. The effects of this love. A holy imitation of God and devotedness to Him, self-denial,
patience, and resignation to His will, the government of all our passions, appetites and
behaviour, a departure from everything that offends Him, and laborious endeavours by His
grace, to approve ourselves to Him, and glorify His name in all that we do.
II. The influence that true love to God has unto our obedience, or unto our keeping his
commandments.
1. Love to God enters into the very nature of all true and acceptable obedience.
2. Love to God inclines and even constrains us to keep all His commands.
3. Love to God gives us a delight in keeping His commands. They are suited to the holy
nature of a newborn soul, whose prime affection is love to God; this takes off distastes, and
makes all His precepts agreeable to us; it makes them our choice and our pleasure; it
sweetens our obedience, and makes us think nothing a trouble or a burden that God calls us
to, and nothing too great to do or suffer for Him, whereby we may please and honour Him,
and show our gratitude, love and duty to Him.
4. Love to God will make us persevere in keeping His commands.
Use: 1. Let this put us upon serious inquiry whether the love of God dwells in us.
2. Let the sinner against God behold how odious and unworthy the principle is that refuses
to obey Him.
3. Let us prize the gospel of the grace of God, and seek help from thence to engage our love
and obedience.
4. Let us look and long for the heavenly state, where all our love and obedience shall be
perfected. (John Guyse.)
Loving God through human love
The love of man is involved in the love of God. There is no real love of God that does not include
the love of His children. Love is a state of the human spirit; an atmosphere in which one abides;
he who is in that atmosphere loves the human that appeals to him no less than the Divine.
Loving God is not merely a feeling toward Him—a gushing out of emotion: it is a practical

exercise of His Spirit. It is a real doing of His commandments. “What is loving God? Is it
anything more than loving men, and trying in His name to do them good?” “I do not think I love
God, for I do not feel towards Him as I do towards those I love best.” “It is hard to think of God
as the Great Energy that fills all things, and yet to love Him as a Father.” These are all
expressions of sincere minds trying to get into the real atmosphere of the truth and to live the
spiritual life. I should like, if possible, to help clear up the difficulties indicated. Let us recognise
the fact that nothing but emptiness and disappointment can come from the effort to love an
abstract conception. Love goes out only toward personality. And the personality must lie warm
and living in our hearts, or it fails to quicken affection into life. Israel, for instance, was
labouring for a thousand years to bring forth its idea of Godhead. In the old notion of Jahveh as
God of Israel only, there was a sort of personal warmth akin to patriotism; a common affection
which went out in a crude way to their personal champion. When the prophets began to see in
Him much more than this—the God of all the earth, “who formeth the mountains and createth
the wind, and declareth to man His thought”—while there was an immense gain in breadth and
truth of conception, there was a loss of the nearness that begets personal attachment, until, a
little later, God’s relation to the whole nation gave place to the new idea of His direct relation to
every man in all the affairs of his life. That gave birth to all that is best in the Psalms of Israel,
with their outgoing of personal confidence and affection. Then after the coming of Jesus and the
intense feeling that sprang up on His departure that He was God manifest in the flesh, there was
a leap of thought and life which showed how the real heart of man hungered for something more
close and personal than Judaic religion could ever give it. So complete was this change, and so
central to the Apostolic age, that for eighteen hundred years the same phenomenon has been
witnessed of placing Jesus in the central place, with God removed to a vague back ground, the
Being “whom no man hath seen or can see,” dreaded, reverenced, and worshipped, but never
standing in the intimate relation of close fatherhood in which He was the warmth and light of
the life of Jesus Himself. There was abundant reason for this. The human heart, seeking for a
real religion, must have some thing concrete and close and warm; it cannot love an abstract
idea. Jesus was seen as God reduced to the human compass, enshrined in a human and personal
love. The whole responsive life of man went out to Him. And so it came to pass that He did what
He did not in the least aim to do, but rather the contrary—He did not bring the real Godhead of
the universe nearer to the average mind, but took the place of it, letting it even sweep backward,
farther out of sight—farther into the impenetrable mystery. We are pillowed in our infancy on a
bosom of affection. It is long before we know it; but when we do awake, it is to our mothers that
the earliest love goes forth. And if we ever do love God, we come to it by rising from the home
love, or some later and even stronger love that awakes in us, to the higher affection. This makes
the common affections of life sacred and Divine, in that without them there is no ground in us
for the love to God. All love has one source. Do our mothers love us? It is God in them that
breaks out into love in its highest manifestations, with its Divine unselfishness and its clinging
power. Wherever love is, we get a glimpse of the Divine and infinite. It is only as such love
responds to the Spirit of God in it that it does and dares, and clings to us and will not let us go,
though it cost struggle and patience and sacrifice and pain. And this love, as a channel of the
love of God, is the power that most often lifts us up into the clearer realms where we are at one
with the Divine, and its love becomes real to our hungry hearts. The love we have to God is
realised in our love to men. It cannot abide alone. They who have thought to gain it by
retirement and meditation have found it only a will-o’-the-wisp save as it has issued in the love
that seeks men and tries to do them good. For the love of God is not a mere feeling, a gush of
emotion in which the soul is rapt away to things ineffable. It is a spirit, an atmosphere, in which
one lives; and “he who dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him.” But to dwell in love, to
be really baptized with its spirit, is to have that energy of it within us that seeks continually to
find exercise for itself and actually to give itself to others. Unfortunately, the service of God has
too often been conceived of as the conferring of something on Him by worship or sacrifice, by

which it is thought He will be pleased. But what can we do for Him by our offering of gifts for
His use, or by the singing of His praises, save to give expression to what is in us and thereby
satisfy our own cravings? The real love of God will manifest itself in what we do for men. It will
set itself to help on the kingdom of God on earth as the dearest end it can set before itself. The
Samaritan did not worship in the Jerusalem temple; his own on Mount Gerizim had long been
levelled to the ground. But when he took care of the wounded man on the road to Jericho, he
showed himself a lover of God beyond the priest and Levite of orthodox connections and habits,
who passed by on the other side. Men and women are warned not to love each other too dearly,
lest God be jealous; not to love their children too much, lest He take them away. This is not
religion. Real love does not exhaust itself by giving; it grows by giving. The more you love your
child, if it be unselfish love, the more you will love God, for the loving of a little child brings you
into that atmosphere and spirit of love where the heart is living and warm and goes forth to God
as naturally as the sunlight streams into the ether. You will need to be cautioned lest your love of
human kind become selfish and exclusive, and is indulged as a mere luxury. That vitiates it. But
the more you love your brother whom you have seen, unselfishly, the more you will love God and
see Him, too, with the spiritual vision. To sum up, then, this relation of Divine and human love:
all love is of One, and the line cannot be drawn where the human stops and the Divine begins.
But we may feel sure of this, that to see the love of God in all the love that comes to us, to
recognise it in all the unselfishness we see, is the only way to know it truly, and the most direct
road to the clearer sense of it as an indwelling life. (H. P. De Forest, D. D.)
7. CALVIN, “2By this we know He briefly shows in these words what true love is, even that which is
towards God. He has hitherto taught us that there is never a true love to God, except when our brethren
are also loved; for this is ever its effect. But he now teaches us that men are rightly and duly loved, when
God holds the primacy. And it is a necessary definition; for it often happens, that we love men apart from
God, as unholy and carnal friendships regard only private advantages or some other vanishing objects.
As, then, he had referred first to the effect, so he now refers to the cause; for his purpose is to shew that
mutual love ought to be in such a way cultivated that God may be honored.
To the love of God he joins the keeping of the law, and justly so; for when we love God as our Father and
Lord, reverence must necessarily be connected with love. Besides, God cannot be separated from
himself. As, then, he is the fountain of all righteousness and equity, he who loves him must necessarily
have his heart prepared to render obedience to righteousness. The love of God, then, is not idle or
inactive. (92)
But from this passage we also learn what is the keeping of the law. For if, when constrained only by fear,
we obey God by keeping his commandments, we are very far off from true obedience. Then, the first
thing is, that our hearts should be devoted to God in willing reverence, and then, that our life should be
formed according to the rule of the law. This is what Moses meant when, in giving a summary of the law,
he said,

“ Israel, what does the Lord thy God require of thee, but to love him and to obey him?” (Deu_10:12.)
(92) The love of God,” here clearly means love to God: it is the love of which God is the object. — Ed.
3
In fact, this is love for God: to keep his
commands. And his commands are not
burdensome,
1.BARNES, “For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments - This
constitutes true love; this furnishes the evidence of it.
And his commandments are not grievous - Greek, “heavy” - βαρεሏαι bareiai; that is,
difficult to be borne as a burden. See Mat_11:30. The meaning is, that his laws are not
unreasonable; the duties which he requires are not beyond our ability; his government is not
oppressive. It is easy to obey God when the heart is right; and those who endeavor in sincerity to
keep his commandments do not complain that they are hard. All complaints of this kind come
from those who are not disposed to keep his commandments. Indeed, they object that his laws
are unreasonable; that they impose improper restraints; that they are not easily complied with;
and that the divine government is one of severity and injustice. But no such complaints come
from true Christians. They find his service easier than the service of sin, and the laws of God
more mild and easy to be complied with than were those of fashion and honor, which they once
endeavored to obey. The service of God is freedom; the service of the world is bondage. No man
ever yet heard a true Christian say that the laws of God, requiring him to lead a holy life, were
stern and “grievous.” But who has not felt this in regard to the inexorable laws of sin? What
votary of the world would not say this if he spoke his real sentiments? Compare the notes at
Joh_8:32.
2. CLARKE, “For this is the love of God - This the love of God necessarily produces. It is
vain to pretend love to God while we live in opposition to his will.
His commandments - To love him with all our heart, and our neighbor as ourselves, are
not grievous - are not burdensome; for no man is burdened with the duties which his own love
imposes. The old proverb explains the meaning of the apostle’s words, Love feels no loads. Love
to God brings strength from God; through his love and his strength, all his commandments are
not only easy and light, but pleasant and delightful.

On the love of God, as being the foundation of all religious worship, there is a good saying in
Sohar Exod., fol. 23, col. 91: “Rabbi Jesa said, how necessary is it that a man should love the
holy blessed God! For he can bring no other worship to God than love; and whoever loves him,
and worships him from a principle of love, him the holy blessed God calls his beloved.”
3. GILL, “For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments,.... Keeping of
the commandments of God is an evidence of love to God; this shows that love is not in word and
tongue, in profession only, but in deed and in truth; and that such persons have a sense of the
love of God upon their souls, under the influence of which they act; and such shall have, and
may expect to have, greater manifestations of the love of God unto them:
and his commandments are not grievous; heavy, burdensome, and disagreeable; by which
are meant, not so much the precepts of the moral law, which through the weakness of the flesh
are hard to be kept, and cannot be perfectly fulfilled; though believers indeed, being freed from
the rigorous exaction, curse, and condemnation of the law, delight in it after the inward man,
and serve it cheerfully with their spirit; and still less the commands of the ceremonial law, which
were now abolished, and were grievous to be borne; but rather those of faith in Christ, and love
to the saints, 1Jo_3:23; or it may be the ordinances of the Gospel, baptism, and the Lord's
supper, with others, which though disagreeable to unregenerate persons, who do not care to be
under the yoke of Christ, however easy and light it is, yet are not heavy and burdensome to
regenerate ones; and especially when they have the love of God shed abroad in them, the
presence of God with them, communion with Jesus Christ, and a supply of grace and strength
from him; then are these ways ways of pleasantness, and paths of peace, and the tabernacles of
the Lord are amiable and lovely.
4. HENRY, “How we may learn the truth of our love to God - it appears in our holy obedience:
When we love God, and keep his commandments, 1Jo_5:2. Then we truly, and in gospel
account, love God, when we keep his commandments: For this is the love of God, that we keep
his commandments; and the keeping of his commandments requires a spirit inclined thereto
and delighting herein; and so his commandments are not grievous, 1Jo_5:3. Or, This is the love
of God, that, as thereby we are determined to obedience, and to keep the commandments of
God, so his commandments are thereby made easy and pleasant to us. The lover of God says, “O
how I love thy law! I will run the way of thy commandments, when thou shalt enlarge my
heart (Psa_119:32), when thou shalt enlarge it either with love or with thy Spirit, the spring of
love.”
5. JAMISON, “this is — the love of God consists in this.
not grievous — as so many think them. It is “the way of the transgressor” that “is hard.”
What makes them to the regenerate “not grievous,” is faith which “overcometh the world”
(1Jo_5:4): in proportion as faith is strong, the grievousness of God’s commandments to the
rebellious flesh is overcome. The reason why believers feel any degree of irksomeness in God’s
commandments is, they do not realize fully by faith the privileges of their spiritual life.

6. SBC, “Love for God’s Commands.
I. People talk of "going to heaven" as if admission to future happiness had nothing to do with the
bent and tone of their minds and their inward being here on earth. But salvation is the
consummation of that eternal life which begins for Christ’s true servants in this world. This
essence of eternal life is union with Him who is the Eternal, and is the Life. To possess it, in
however imperfect a measure, is to be in moral fellowship with the Father, through the Son, in
the Holy Spirit. There is nothing arbitrary in the Divine awards. Alike for weal and for woe, there
is a true continuity between a man’s character as formed and settled in this world and the
portion assigned to him in the next. Perdition is no vindictive infliction for bygone evil, but the
inevitable, one might say the natural, result of obdurate persistency in evil, or, as it has been
expressed, a free will self-fixed in obstinate refusal of God, and therefore necessarily left to itself;
and salvation must similarly be the complete development of a moral and spiritual condition
which may be described as the renewal of the soul by the joint operation of grace on the one
hand and of responsiveness to the aid of grace on the other, which condition must at any rate
have been inaugurated if the soul is to depart in what is called the state of grace. In short, we
must be grateful for salvation if we would be saved.
II. And how is this to be done? By loving what God commands—that is, by putting our wills into
a line with His will; by giving Him our hearts; by sympathising, if we may so speak, with His
intentions towards us and for us. Thus to love what He commands is accepted by Him as in
substance love for Himself.
W. Bright, The Morality of Doctrine, p. 154.
7. CALVIN, “3His commandments are not grievous This has been added, lest difficulties, as it is
usually the case, should damp or lessen our zeal. For they who with a cheerful mind and great ardor have
pursued a godly and holy life, afterwards grow weary, finding their strength inadequate. Therefore John,
in order to rouse our efforts, says that God’ commandments are not grievous.
But it may, on the other hand, be objected and said that we have found it far otherwise by experience,
and that Scripture testifies that the yoke of the law is insupportable. (Act_15:2.) The reason also is
evident, for as the denial of self is, as it were, a prelude to the keeping of the law, can we say that it is
easy for a man to deny himself? nay, since the law is spiritual, as Paul, in Rom_7:14, teaches us, and we
are nothing but flesh, there must be a great discord between us and the law of God. To this I answer, that
this difficulty does not arise from the nature of the law, but from our corrupt flesh; and this is what Paul
expressly declares; for after having said that it was impossible for the Law to confer righteousness on us,
he immediately throws the blame on our flesh.
This explanation fully reconciles what is said by Paul and by David, which apparently seems wholly
contradictory. Paul makes the law the master of death, declares that it effects nothing but to bring on us

the wrath of God, that it was given to increase sin, that it lives in order to kill us. David, on the other hand,
says that it is sweeter than honey, and more desirable than gold; and among other recommendations he
mentions the following — that it cheers hearts, converts to the Lord, and quickens. But Paul compares the
law with the corrupt nature of man; hence arises the conflict: but David shews how they think and feel
whom God by his Spirit has renewed; hence the sweetness and delight of which the flesh knows nothing.
And John has not omitted this difference; for he confines to God’ children these words, God’
commandments are not grievous, lest any one should take them literally; and he intimates that, it comes
through the power of the Spirit, that it is not grievous nor wearisome to us to obey God.
The question, however, seems not as yet to be fully answered; for the faithful, though ruled by the Spirit,
of God, yet, carry on a hard contest with their own flesh; and how muchsoever they may toil, they yet
hardly perform the half of their duty; nay, they almost fail under their burden, as though they stood, as
they say, between the sanctuary and the steep. We see how Paul groaned as one held captive, and
exclaimed that he was wretched, because he could not fully serve God. My reply to this is, that the law is
said to be easy, as far as we are endued with heavenly power, and overcome the lusts of the flesh. For
however the flesh may resist, yet the faithful find that there is no real enjoyment except in following God.
It must further be observed, that John does not speak of the law only, which contains nothing but
commands, but connects with it the paternal indulgence of God, by which the rigor of the law is mitigated.
As, then, we know that we are graciously forgiven by the Lord, when our works do not come up to the
law, this renders us far more prompt to obey, according to what we find in Psa_130:4,
“ thee is propitiation, that thou mayest be feared.”
Hence, then, is the facility of keeping the law, because the faithful, being sustained by pardon, do not
despond when they come short of what they ought to be. The Apostle, in the meantime, reminds us that
we must fight, in order that we may serve the Lord; for the whole world hinders us to go where the Lord
calls us. Then, he only keeps the law who courageously resists the world.
8. CHARLES SIMEON, “THE COMMANDMENTS NOT GRIEVOUS
1Jn_5:3. His commandments are not grievous.
IT is a painful office which I have to discharge at this time. I must vindicate religion from an aspersion too
generally cast upon it; and stand up in justification of Almighty God himself against the accusation of

being a hard Master. The Apostle evidently supposed that there were in his day, and would from time to
time arise, persons ready to calumniate their Maker, as having imposed upon them burthens which they
were not able to bear, and as having exacted an obedience which it was unreasonable for him to require.
Our own observation abundantly confirms and justifies the supposition: so that I need make no apology
for proceeding to shew,
I. Whence it is that we are apt to account God’s commandments grievous—
That the great mass of mankind does account them grievous, is a fact too notorious to admit of doubt.
And whence is it? Is it that they are indeed unreasonably severe? No; it springs,
1. From our inveterate love of sin—
[Man, in his fallen state, is altogether corrupt: his carnal mind is enmity against God, so that it neither is,
nor can be, subject to the law of God, so as to render to it any willing obedience.
We are alienated from God himself. As Adam, after he had sinned, fled from God, so, at this time, the
language of fallen man to God is, “Depart from us; we desire not the knowledge of thy ways.” And, when
the faithful servants of God endeavour to bring them to a better mind, they reply, “Prophesy not unto us
right things; prophesy unto us smooth things; prophesy deceits: make the Holy One of Israel to cease
from before us.”
To every particular command, not of the law only, but of the Gospel itself, the heart of man is averse.
Repentance is too painful a work: faith in Christ is too humiliating: an unreserved surrender of the soul to
Christ is too strict and rigorous. Man wishes to be a god unto himself. “Who is Lord over us?” is the reply
of all, when urged to renounce their evil ways, and to turn unto their God. They will not endure restraint,
but “will walk after the imagination of their own evil hearts.” Fire and water are not move opposed to each
other, than they are to the commands of God; and hence they regard every injunction, whether of the Law
or Gospel, as a yoke too grievous to be borne.]
2. From the real difficulty which there is in obeying them—
[To man in Paradise the commands of God were easy, because his whole soul was in unison with them:
but to fallen man they are not easy, even after he is renewed by grace. St. Paul justly says, “The flesh
lusteth against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary the one to the other: so
that ye cannot do the things that ye would.” Indeed, the metaphors by which the Christian life is set forth

in the Holy Scriptures clearly shew, that it is not maintained without great difficulty. A race is not won
without great exertion, nor a warfare gained without severe conflicts. Indeed, the terms in which our duty
is set forth clearly shew, that obedience, in our present fallen state, is no easy task. We are called to
“mortify our members upon earth,” and to “crucify the flesh with the affections and lusts.” We are enjoined
to “pluck out the right eye, and to cut off the right hand or foot, that may offend us.” No wonder therefore
that the unregenerate man accounts such commandments grievous: for it must be confessed, that they
are altogether against the current of corrupt nature; and that, in order to obey them, we are constrained to
urge our way continually against the stream.]
But, whilst I acknowledge the difficulty which even the best of men experience in obeying the
commandments, I can by no means admit that they are, or ought to be, considered, “grievous.” Indeed, a
little reflection will shew us,
II. How far they are from deserving such a character—
1. They are all most reasonable in themselves—
[Can any thing be more reasonable than that we should improve for God the faculties we have received
from him; and that we should serve Him, in whom we live, and move, and have our being? Is it
unreasonable to require of us that we love the Saviour, who has so loved us as to give himself for us? or
that, when “he has bought us with his own precious blood, we should glorify him with our bodies and our
spirits, which are his?”
If it be said, that we are required even to lay down our lives for Christ’s sake, I answer, True, we are: but
has not he laid down his life for our sake? Has he not done this for us, too, when we were enemies? Is it
not reasonable, then, that we should be ready to die for him who is our greatest Friend? If he endured all
the curses of God’s broken law for us, yea, and for our sakes sustained all the wrath of Almighty God,
should we think it a hard matter to encounter the wrath of feeble man, who, at most, “can only kill the
body, and after that has no more that he can do?” Were there no recompence beyond the grave, we
could not justly complain of this command: but what shall we say, when we reflect on the crowns and
kingdoms which every victorious servant of the Lord shall have awarded to him? Does any man account it
a hard matter to sustain a momentary pain or trouble, in order to procure a prolongation of his bodily life?
How, then, can any thing be considered hard that ensures to us the possession of eternal happiness and
glory?]
2. They are all, without exception, conducive to our happiness—

[Truly, if we would designate obedience to God’s commandments by its right name, we must call it rather
privilege than duty. Was it not Adam’s privilege in Paradise to know, and love, and serve his Creator? and
is it not a privilege to all the saints and angels in heaven to be incessantly occupied in singing praises to
God and to the Lamb? Or if we look at the duties of repentance, and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, shall
we not esteem them high privileges? Offer them to the unhappy souls that are shut up in the prison of hell
under the wrath of Almighty God, and then tell me, whether they will not be regarded as privileges. But I
will venture to ask of persons in this present life; Who amongst you ever spent a day or an hour in
humiliation before God, and does not at this moment look back to it as the best season of his life? Who
does not regret that such a season has passed away without a due improvement of it? and who would not
be glad to have it renewed, protracted, perfected? In truth, holiness in all its branches is the very
perfection of our nature, and the restoration of our pristine happiness: and if we were as holy as the
glorified saints and angels are, we should be not one atom inferior to them in peacefulness and bliss.
Say, then, whether the commandments of our God deserve to be accounted grievous? No, in truth: “they
are all holy, and just, and good;” and “inkeeping of them there is great reward.”]
Address—
1. Those who entertain prejudices against religion as a hard service—
[Why will ye not believe our blessed Lord and Saviour, when he says to you, “My yoke is easy, and my
burthen is light?” You will say, perhaps, This is contrary to experience; for every one finds how difficult it is
to be truly religious. But what is it that makes it so? It is nothing but your own corruption that renders a
conformity to God’s commandments difficult: and, if once you obtain a new heart, and have the law of
God written on it by his Holy Spirit, I will pledge myself that you will find obedience to be as food to the
hungry, health to the sick, and life to the dead. Nor was there ever a human being turned effectually from
sin to holiness, but he found religion’s “ways to be ways of pleasantness and peace.”]
2. Those who profess to serve God according to his Gospel—
[Men will judge of religion, in a great measure, by what they see in you. If they behold you rendering
service to God on as contracted a scale as you think will consist with your ultimate safety, they will be
confirmed in their notions of religion as a painful yoke, to which no one submits but from necessity. And if
they behold you going to the world for happiness, they will feel assured, that, whatever you may affirm to
the contrary, religion of itself is not sufficient to make you happy. On the other hand, if they behold you
devoting yourselves wholly and unreservedly to the Lord, and walking cheerfully in his holy ways, they will

be constrained to acknowledge, that there is something in religion which they have never tasted, and of
which they at present can form no just conception. Remember then, I pray you, how many eyes are upon
you, and how great may be the influence of your conduct in the world. You may unhappily cast a
stumbling-block before men, and involve them in ruin; or you may recommend the ways of God, and be
the means of saving many souls alive. Get the love of God in your hearts, and then all will be
comparatively easy. You will still, indeed, “find a law in your members warring against the law in your
minds:” but, on the whole, you will “delight in the law of God after your inward man;” and be able so to
walk, that all who shall behold your light shall be constrained to “acknowledge, that God is with you of a
truth.”]
9. EBC. “BIRTH AND VICTORY
ST. JOHN here connects the Christian Birth with Victory. He tells us that of the supernatural life
the destined and (so to speak) natural end is Conquest.
Now in this there is a contrast between the law of nature and the law of grace. No doubt the first
is marvellous. It may even, if we will, in one sense be termed a victory; for it is the proof of a
successful contest with the blind fatalities of natural environment. It is in itself the conquest of a
something which has conquered a world below it. The first faint cry of the baby is a wail, no
doubt; but in its very utterance there is a half triumphant undertone. Boyhood, youth, opening
manhood-at least in those who are physically and intellectually gifted generally possess some
share of "the rapture of the strife" with nature and with their contemporaries.
"Youth hath triumphal mornings; its days bound from night as from a victory."
But sooner or later that which pessimists style "the martyrdom of life" sets in. However brightly
the drama opens, the last scene is always tragic. Our natural birth inevitably ends in defeat.
A birth and a defeat is thus the epitome of each life which is naturally brought into the field of
our present human existence. The defeat is sighed over, sometimes consummated, in every
cradle; it is attested by every grave.
But if birth and defeat is the motto of the natural life, birth and victory is the motto of everyone
born into the city of God.
This victory is spoken of in our verses as a victory along the whole line. It is the conquest of the
collective Church, of the whole mass of regenerate humanity, so far as it has been true to the
principle of its birth-the conquest of the Faith which is "The Faith of us," who are knit together
in one communion and fellowship in the mystical body of the Son of God, Christ our Lord. But it
is something more than that. The general victory is also a victory in detail. Every true individual
believer shares in it. The battle is a battle of soldiers. The abstract ideal victory is realised and
made concrete in each life of struggle which is a life of enduring faith. The triumph is not merely
one of a school, or of a party. The question rings with a triumphant challenge down the ranks-
"who is the ever-conqueror of the world, but the ever-believer that Jesus is the Son of God?"
We are thus brought to two of St. John’s great master conceptions, both of which came to him
from hearing the Lord who is the Life-both of which are to be read in connection with the fourth
Gospel-the Christian’s Birth and his victory.

I The Apostle introduces the idea of the Birth which has its origin from God precisely by the
same process to which attention has already been more than once directed.
St. John frequently mentions some great subject; at first like a musician who with perfect
command of his instrument touches what seems to be an almost random key, faintly, as if
incidentally and half wandering from his theme.
But just as the sound appears to be absorbed by the purpose of the composition, or all but lost in
the distance, the same chord is struck again more decidedly; and then, after more or less
interval, is brought out with a music so full and sonorous, that we perceive that it has been one
of the master’s leading ideas from the very first. So, when the subject is first spoken of, we hear-
"Everyone that doeth righteousness is born of Him." The subject is suspended for a while; then
comes a somewhat. more marked reference. "Whosoever is born of God is not a doer of sin; and
he cannot continue sinning, because of God he is born." There is yet one more tender recurrence
to the favourite theme-"Everyone that loveth is born of God." Then, finally here at last the chord,
so often struck, grown bolder since the prelude, gathers all the music round it. It interweaves
with itself another strain which has similarly been gaining amplitude of volume in its course,
until we have a great Te Deum, dominated by two chords of Birth and Victory. "This is the
conquest that has conquered the world-the Faith which is of us."
We shall never come to any adequate notion of St. John’s conception of the Birth of God,
without tracing the place in his Gospel to which his asterisk in this place refers. To one passage
only can we turn-our Lord’s conversation with Nicodemus. "Except a man be born again, he
cannot see the kingdom of God-except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter
into the kingdom of God." The germ of the idea of entrance into the city, the kingdom of God, by
means of a new birth, is in that storehouse of theological conceptions, the Psalter. There is one
psalm of a Korahite seer, enigmatical it may be, shadowed with the darkness of a divine
compression, obscure from the glory that rings it round, and from the gush of joy in its few and
broken words. The 87th Psalm is the psalm of the font, the hymn of regeneration. The nations
once of the world are mentioned among them that know the Lord. They are counted when He
writeth up the peoples. Glorious things are spoken of the City of God. Three times over the
burden of the song is the new birth by which the aliens were made free of Sion.
This one was born there, This one and that one was born in her, This one was born there.
All joyous life is thus brought into the city of the newborn. "The singers, the solemn dances, the
fresh and glancing springs, are in thee." Hence, from the notification of men being born again in
order to see and enter into the kingdom, our Lord, as if in surprise, meets the Pharisee’s
question-"how can these things be?"-with another -"art thou that teacher in Israel, and
understandest not these things?" Jesus tells His Church forever that every one of His disciples
must be brought into contact with two worlds, with two influences-one outward, the other
inward; one material, the other spiritual; one earthly, the other heavenly; one visible and
sacramental, the other invisible and divine. Out of these he must come forth newborn.
Of course it may be said that "the water" here coupled with the Spirit is figurative. But let it be
observed first, that from the very constitution of St. John’s intellectual and moral being things
outward and visible were not annihilated by the spiritual transparency which he imparted to
them. Water, literal water, is everywhere in his writings. In his Gospel more especially he seems
to be ever seeing, ever hearing it. He loved it from the associations of his own early life, and from
the mention made of it by his Master. And as in the Gospel water is, so to speak, one of the three
great factors and centres of the book; so now in the Epistle, it still seems to glance and murmur
before him. "The water" is one of the three abiding witnesses in the Epistle also. Surely, then,
our Apostle would be eminently unlikely to express "the Spirit of God" without the outward
water by "water and the Spirit." But above all, Christians should beware of a "licentious and

deluding alchemy of interpretation which maketh of anything whatsoever it listeth." In immortal
words-"when the letter of the law hath two things plainly and expressly specified, water and the
Spirit; water, as a duty required on our part, the Spirit, as a gift which God bestoweth; there is
danger in so presuming to interpret it, as if the clause which concerneth ourselves were more
than needed. We may by such rare expositions attain perhaps in the end to be thought witty, but
with ill advice."
But, it will further be asked, whether we bring the Saviour’s saying "except any one be born
again of water and the Spirit"-into direct connection with the baptism of infants? Above all,
whether we are not encouraging every baptised person to hold that somehow or other he will
have a part in the victory of the regenerate?
We need no other answer than that which is implied in the very force of the word here used by
St. John-"all that is born of God conquereth the world." "That is born" is the participle perfect.
The force of the perfect is not simply past action, but such action lasting on in its effects. Our
text, then, speaks only of those who, having been born again into the kingdom, continue in a
corresponding condition, and unfold the life which they have received. The Saviour spoke first
and chiefly of the initial act. The Apostle’s circumstances, now in his old age, naturally led him
to look on from that. St. John is no "idolater of the immediate." Has the gift received by his
spiritual children worn long and lasted well? What of the new life which should have issued from
the New Birth? Regenerate in the past, are they renewed in the present? This simple piece of
exegesis lets us at once perceive that another verse in this Epistle, often considered of almost
hopeless perplexity, is in truth only the perfection of sanctified (nay, it may be said, of moral)
common sense; an intuition of moral and spiritual instinct. "Whosoever is born of God doth not
commit sin: for his seed remaineth in him; and he cannot sin, because he is born of God." We
have just seen the real significance of the words "he that is born of God"-he for whom his past
birth lasts on in its effects. "He doeth not sin," is not a sin-doer, makes it not his "trade," as an
old commentator says. Nay, "he is not able to be" (to keep on) "sinning." "He cannot sin." He
cannot! There is no physical impossibility. Angels will not sweep him away upon their resistless
pinions. The Spirit will not hold him by the hand as if with a mailed grasp, until the blood spurts
from his fingertips, that he may not take the wine cup, or walk out to the guilty assignation. The
compulsion of God is like that which is exercised upon us by some pathetic wounded-looking
face that gazes after us with a sweet reproach. Tell the honest poor man with a large family of
some safe and expeditious way of transferring his neighbour’s money to his own pocket. He will
answer, "I cannot steal"; that is, "I cannot steal, however much it may physically be within my
capacity, without a burning shame, an agony to my nature worse than death." On some day of
fierce heat, hold a draught of iced wine to a total abstainer, and invite him to drink. "I cannot,"
will be his reply. Cannot! He can, so far as his hand goes; he cannot, without doing violence to a
conviction, to a promise, to his own sense of truth. And he who continues in the fulness of his
God-given Birth "does not do sin," "cannot be sinning." Not that he is sinless, not that he never
fails, or does not sometimes fall; not that sin ceases to be sin to him, because he thinks that he
has a standing in Christ. But he cannot go on in sin without being untrue to his birth; without a
stain upon that finer, whiter, more sensitive conscience, which is called "spirit" in a son of God;
without a convulsion in his whole being which is the precursor of death, or an insensibility
which is death actually begun.
How many such texts as these are practically useless to most of us! The armoury of God is full of
keen swords which we refrain from handling, because they have been misused by others. None is
more neglected than this. The fanatic has shrieked out -"Sin in my case! I cannot sin. I may hold
a sin in my bosom; and God may hold me in His arms for all that. At least, I may hold that which
would be a sin in you and most others; but to me it is not sin." On the other hand, stupid
goodness maunders out some unintelligible paraphrase, until pew and reader yawn from very

weariness. Divine truth in its purity and plainness is thus discredited by the exaggeration of the
one, or buried in the leaden winding sheet of the stupidity of the other.
In leaving this portion of our subject we may compare the view latent in the very idea of infant
baptism with that of the leader of a well known sect upon the beginnings of the spiritual life in
children.
"May not children grow up into salvation, without knowing the exact moment of their
conversion?" asks "General" Booth. His answer is-"Yes, it may be so; and we trust that in the
future this will be the usual way in which children may be brought to Christ." The writer goes on
to tell us how the New Birth will take place in future. When the conditions named in the first
pages of this volume are complied with- when the parents are godly, and the children are
surrounded by holy influences and examples from their birth, and trained up in the spirit of
their early dedication-they will doubtless come to know and love and trust their Saviour in the
ordinary course of things. The Holy Ghost will take possession of them from the first. Mothers
and fathers will, as it were, put them into the Saviour’s arms in their swaddling clothes, and He
will take them, and bless them, and sanctify them from the very womb, and make them His own,
without their knowing the hour or the place when they pass from the kingdom of darkness into
the kingdom of light. In fact, with such little ones it shall never be very dark, for their natural
birth shall be, as it were, in the spiritual twilight, which begins with the dim dawn, and increases
gradually until the noonday brightness is reached; so answering to the prophetic description,
"The path of the just is as the shining light, that shineth more and more unto the perfect day."
No one will deny that this is tenderly and beautifully written. But objections to its teaching will
crowd upon the mind of thoughtful Christians. It seems to defer to a period in the future, to a
new era incalculably distant, when Christendom shall be absorbed in Salvationism, that which
St. John in his day contemplated as the normal condition of believers, which the Church has
always held to be capable of realisation, which has been actually realised in no few whom most
of us must have known. Further, the fountainheads of thought, like those of the Nile, are
wrapped in obscurity. By what process grace may work with the very young is an insoluble
problem in psychology, which Christianity has not revealed. We know nothing further than that
Christ blessed little children. That blessing was impartial, for it was communicated to all who
were brought to Him; it was real, otherwise He would not have blessed them at all. That He
conveys to them such grace as they are capable of receiving is all that we can know. And yet
again; the Salvationist theory exalts parents and surroundings into the place of Christ. It
deposes His sacrament, which lies at the root of St. John’s language, and boasts that it will
secure Christ’s end, apparently without any recognition of Christ’s means.
II The second great idea in the verses dealt with in this chapter is Victory. The intended issue of
the New Birth is conquest-"All that is born of God conquers the world."
The idea of victory is almost exclusively confined to St. John’s writings. The idea is first
expressed by Jesus-"Be of good cheer: I have conquered the world." The first prelusive touch in
the Epistle hints at the fulfilment of the Saviour’s comfortable word in one class of the Apostle’s
spiritual children. "I write unto you, young men, because ye have conquered the wicked one. I
have written unto you, young men, because ye have conquered the wicked one." Next, a bolder
and ampler strain-"Ye are of God, little children, and have conquered them: because greater is
He that is in you, than he that is in the world." Then with a magnificent persistence, the trumpet
of Christ wakens echoes to its music all down and round the defile through which the host is
passing-"All that is born of God conquereth the world: and this is the conquest that has
conquered the world-the Faith which is ours." When, in St. John’s other great book, we pass
with the seer into Patmos, the air is, indeed, "full of noises and sweet sounds." But dominant
over all is a storm of triumph, a passionate exultation of victory. Thus each epistle to each of the
seven Churches closes with a promise "to him that conquereth."

The text promises two forms of victory.
1. A victory is promised to the Church universal. "All that is born of God conquereth the world."
This conquest is concentrated in, almost identified with "the Faith." Primarily, in this place, the
term (here alone found in our Epistle) is not the faith by which we believe, but the Faith which is
believed - as in some other places; not faith subjective, but The Faith objectively. Here is the
dogmatic principle. The Faith involves definite knowledge of definite principles. The religious
knowledge which is not capable of being put into definite propositions we need not trouble
ourselves greatly about. But we are guarded from over-dogmatism. The word "of us" which
follows "the Faith" is a mediating link between the objective and the subjective. First, we possess
this Faith as a common heritage. Then, as in the Apostles’ creed, we begin to individualise this
common possession by prefixing "I believe" to every article of it. Then the victory contained in
the creed, the victory which the creed is (for more truly again than of Duty may it be said of
Faith, "thou who art victory"), is made over to each who believes. Each, and each alone, who in
soul is ever believing, in practice is ever victorious.
This declaration is full of promise for missionary work. There is no system of error, however
ancient, subtle, or highly organised, which must not go down before the strong collective life of
the regenerate. No less encouraging is it at home. No form of sin is incapable of being
overthrown. No school of antichristian thought is invulnerable or invincible. There are other
apostates besides Julian who will cry -"Galilaee, vicisti!"
2. The second victory promised is individual, for each of us. Not only where cathedral spires lift
high the triumphant cross; on battlefields which have added kingdoms to Christendom; by the
martyr’s stake, or in the arena of the Coliseum, have these words proved true. The victory comes
down to us. In hospitals, in shops, in courts, in ships, in sick rooms, they are fulfilled for us. We
see their truth in the patience, sweetness, resignation, of little children, of old men, of weak
women. They give a high consecration and a glorious meaning to much of the suffering that we
see. What, we are sometimes tempted to cry-is this Christ’s Army? are these His soldiers, who
can go anywhere and do anything? Poor weary ones with white lips, and the beads of death
sweat on their faces, and the thorns of pain ringed like a crown round their foreheads; so wan, so
worn, so tired, so suffering, that even our love dares not pray for them to live a little longer yet.
Are these the elect of the elect, the vanguard of the regenerate, who carry the flag of the cross
where its folds are waved by the storm of battle; whom St. John sees advancing up the slope
with such a burst of cheers and such a swell of music that the words-"this is the conquest" -
spring spontaneously from his lips? Perhaps the angels answer with a voice which we cannot
hear-"Whatsoever is born of God conquereth the world." May we fight so manfully that each
may render if not his "pure" yet his purified "soul unto his captain Christ, Under whose colours
he hath fought so long":-that we may know something of the great text in the Epistle to the
Romans, with its matchless translation-"we are more than conquerors through Him who loved
us"- that arrogance of victory which is at once so splendid and so saintly.

4
for everyone born of God overcomes the
world. This is the victory that has
overcome the world, even our faith.
1.BARNES, “For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world - The world, in its
maxims, and precepts, and customs, does not rule him, but he is a freeman. The idea is, that
there is a conflict between religion and the world, and that in the heart of every true Christian
religion secures the victory, or triumphs. In Joh_16:33, the Saviour says, “Be of good cheer; I
have overcome the world.” See the notes at that verse. He obtained a complete triumph over him
“who rules the darkness of the world,” and laid the foundation for a victory by his people over all
vice, error, and sin. John makes this affirmation of all who are born of God. “Whatsoever,” or, as
the Greek is, “Everything which is begotten of God,” (πᇰν τᆵ γεγενηµένον pan to gegenemenon;)
meaning to affirm, undoubtedly, that “in every instance” where one is truly regenerated, there is
this victory over the world. See the Jam_4:4 note; 1Jo_2:15-16 note. It is one of the settled
maxims of religion, that every man who is a true Christian gains a victory over the world; and
consequently a maxim as settled, that where the spirit of the world reigns supremely in the
heart, there is no true religion. But, if this be a true principle, how many professed Christians are
there who are strangers to all claims of piety - for how many are there who are wholly governed
by the spirit of this world!
And this is the victory - This is the source or means of the victory which is thus achieved.
Even our faith - Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, 1Jo_5:5. He overcame the world, Joh_16:33,
and it is by that faith which makes us one with him, and that imbues us with his Spirit, that we
are able to do it also.
2. CLARKE, “Whatsoever is born of God - Παν το γεγεννηµενον· Whatsoever (the neuter
for the masculine) is begotten of God: overcometh the world. “I understand by this,” says
Schoettgen, “the Jewish Church, or Judaism, which is often termed ‫עולם‬‫הזה‬ olam hazzeh, this
world. The reasons which induce me to think so are,
1. Because this κοσµος, world, denied that the Messiah was come; but the Gentiles did not
oppose this principle.
2. Because he proves the truth of the Christian religion against the Jews, reasoning according
to the Jewish manner; whence it is evident that he contends, not against the Gentiles, but
against the Jews. The sense therefore is, he who possesses the true Christian faith can
easily convict the Jewish religion of falsity.”
That is, He can show the vanity of their expectations, and the falsity of their glosses and
prejudices. Suppose we understand by the world the evil principles and practices which are
among men, and in the human heart; then the influence of God in the soul may be properly said
to overcome this; and by faith in the Son of God a man is able to overcome all that is in the
world, viz., the desire of the flesh, the desire of the eye, and the pride of life.

3. GILL, “For whatsoever is born of God,.... Which may be understood either of persons
born; of God; or of the new creature, or principle of grace wrought in them, particularly faith
hereafter mentioned, which is an heaven born grace, the gift of God, and the operation of his
Spirit: this
overcometh the world; the god of the world, Satan; the lusts which are in the world; false
prophets gone forth into the world; and the wicked men of the world, who by temptations,
snares, evil doctrines, threatenings, promises, and ill examples, would avert regenerate ones
from observing the commands of God; but such are more than conquerors over all these,
through Christ that has loved them:
and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith. The Arabic and
Ethiopic versions read, "your faith"; great things, heroic actions, and wonderful victories, are
ascribed to faith; see Heb_11:33; which must not be understood of the grace itself, as separately
considered, but of Christ the object of it, as supported, strengthened, assisted, and animated by
him: and then it does wonders, when it is enabled to hold Christ, its shield, in its hand, against
every enemy that opposes.
4. HENRY, “What is and ought to be the result and effect of regeneration - an intellectual
spiritual conquest of this world: For whatsoever is born of God, or, as in some copies, whosoever
is born of God, overcometh the world, 1Jo_5:4. He that is born of God is born for God, and
consequently for another world. He has a temper and disposition that tend to a higher and
better world; and he is furnished with such arms, or such a weapon, whereby he can repel and
conquer this; as it is added, And this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith,
1Jo_5:4. Faith is the cause of victory, the means, the instrument, the spiritual armour and
artillery by which we overcome; for, (1.) In and by faith we cleave to Christ, in contempt of, and
opposition to, the world. (2.) Faith works in and by love to God and Christ, and so withdraws us
from the love of the world. (3.) Faith sanctifies the heart, and purifies it from those sensual lusts
by which the world obtains such sway and dominion over souls. (4.) It receives and derives
strength from the object of it, the Son of God, for conquering the frowns and flatteries of the
world. (5.) It obtains by gospel promise a right to the indwelling Spirit of grace, that is greater
than he who dwells in the world. (6.) It sees an invisible world at hand, with which this world is
not worthy to be compared, and into which it tells the soul in which it resides it must be
continually prepared to enter; and thereupon,
5. JAMISON, “For — (See on 1Jo_5:3). The reason why “His commandments are not
grievous.” Though there is a conflict in keeping them, the sue for the whole body of the
regenerate is victory over every opposing influence; meanwhile there is a present joy to each
believer in keeping them which makes them “not grievous.”
whatsoever — Greek, “all that is begotten of God.” The neuter expresses the universal
whole, or aggregate of the regenerate, regarded as one collective body Joh_3:6; Joh_6:37,
Joh_6:39, “where Bengel remarks, that in Jesus’ discourses, what the Father has given Him is
called, in the singular number and neuter gender, all whatsoever; those who come to the Son are
described in the masculine gender and plural number, they all, or singular, every one. The
Father has given, as it were, the whole mass to the Son, that all whom He gave may be one
whole: that universal whole the Son singly evolves, in the execution of the divine plan.”

overcometh — habitually.
the world — all that is opposed to keeping the commandments of God, or draws us off from
God, in this world, including our corrupt flesh, on which the world’s blandishments or threats
act, as also including Satan, the prince of this world (Joh_12:31; Joh_14:30; Joh_16:11).
this is the victory that overcometh — Greek aorist, “... that hath (already) overcome the
world”: the victory (where faith is) hereby is implied as having been already obtained
(1Jo_2:13; 1Jo_4:4).
6. BI, “The greatest character and the greatest conquest
I.
The greatest character. “Born of God.” This means a moral generation in men of a Divine
character. It implies three things.
1. Filial devotion.
2. Moral resemblance. Like begets like, children are like their parents. He who is morally
born of God resembles God in spirit and in character.
3. Glorious heirship. “If a son, then an heir of God through Christ.”
II. The greatest conquest. “Overcometh the world.” The world is here used to represent the
mighty aggregation of evil. The conquest of the world includes the subordination—
1. Of matter to mind. The rendering of all material elements, circumstances, and influences,
subservient to the elevating of the reason and the ennobling of the soul. It includes the
subordination—
2. Of the mind to God. The devotion of the intellect to the study of God; of the heart to the
love of God; of the conscience to the will of God. Sublime conquest this! The grand difference
between a man Divinely born and others is this, that he conquers the world whilst others are
conquered by it. (Homilist.)
Worldliness
I. The Christian’s life is a lengthened contest with the three enemies—“sin, the world, the devil.”
What is the “world,” and what is “worldliness”? Can we find in the Scriptures any full lists of acts
which are worldly? No. It is the genius of Christianity to give us principles, and not precise rules.
II. Is this wry liberty consists the strictness of the law. And owing to this, too, there is a difficulty
in obeying it, far beyond that of obeying a law, To escape this difficulty various attempts have
been made to lay down precise rules, and to define exactly what is and what is not “the world”
and “worldly.” The most common of these tests is, as is well known, that of presence at social
reunions and amusements of a particular class. It seems uncharitable to pronounce as
necessarily irreligious those who, with every other token of sincere piety, are found nevertheless
sometimes in places where others of us are never to be seen. If a person whose whole life and
walk is that of a Christian says that he really before God has come to the conclusion that his
spiritual growth is in no wise retarded by the enjoyment of some pleasure—not in itself sinful—
and that his example is not likely to be injurious to others, it does seem monstrous to say to him,
“That is one of the things I have set down as belonging to the world; and as you see no harm in
it, you are outside the covenant.” To our own Master we each of us stand or fall. Moreover, the

test is insufficient, and therefore deceptive. It is quite possible to bear it without a particle of
religion, or without even any profession of religion. Another evil arising from this arbitrary and
most inadequate test of worldliness is, that the persons who apply it are very liable to be
deceived by it themselves. From habitually speaking of one kind of worldliness they lapse into
the practical belief that there is none other; and, having clearly overcome that—sometimes after
a long trial of physical rather than spiritual strength—they imagine that they have given up the
world, and that their contest with that enemy, at all events, is at an end. If we do strip off our
ornaments of gold and cast them into the fire, we must take heed lest we worship the calf into
which they are molten. Another, and not a trifling danger of these false tests arises from the fact
that very many of those who use them are among the best, the most pious, and the most truly
unworldly persons on earth. Now, when such persons use as tests of victory over the world the
forsaking of those two or three courses or habits, the impression conveyed to the thoughtless
votary of dissipation is this—“These amusements, then, are what I have to give up; on the
subject of these is the main difference, between myself and those about whose piety there can be
no doubt. Well, I shall give them up assuredly at some time, as many have done before me, and
then I shall stand in their position.” And, as time and change of circumstances will in many
cases bring about this resemblance, they leave it to time to bring about, and make no effort to
overcome a “world” which, as they have been accustomed to hear it described, will in all
probability one day fly away of its own accord.
III. Precise rules upon matters intrinsically indifferent, but capable of being made occasions of
fostering a worldly spirit, are to be avoided, because they give to those who at present want to be
guided neither by the letter nor the spirit a false impression as to what that world is by the
subjugation of which we are told the child of God is characterised. Before you come to be
Christians you must bear far stricter tests than these. Especially in these cravings for excitement
and gaiety, which are by your own admissions the forms in which the world is most alluring, and
because they are so, you must be completely changed. But the contest does not end there or
then. To you and all of us it ends on earth, and while we live, nowhere and never, For “the
world” is not a time, or a place, or a class of persons, or a definable course of acts, or a definite
set of amusements; it is a system pervading every, place, extending from age to age, tempting us
in all our occupations, mixing itself with all our thoughts, insinuating itself under forms the
most unsuspected, lurking in pursuits the most harmless—yea, in pursuits, without it, the most
holy—checking aspirations the most noble, sullying affections the most pure. (J. C. Coghlan, D.
D.)
The glory of a truly good man
I. He has the highest moral pedigree. In conventional society there are fools who pride
themselves in their ancestry.
1. In him there is a moral resemblance to the greatest Being. As the human offspring
partakes of the nature of his parent, so the good man partakes of the moral character of God,
a character loving, pure, just.
2. Over him there is the tenderest care of the greatest Being. “As a father pitieth his
children,” etc.
3. In him there is the most loyal devotion to the greatest Being. He loves the “Most High”
supremely, constantly, practically.
II. He achieves the highest moral conquest. He overcomes the world. He conquers errors, lusts;
he overcomes bad habits and reforms corrupt institutions. (Homilist.)

1 john 5 commentary

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1 john 5 commentary