Jesus was the true god

JESUS WAS THE TRUE GOD
EDITED BY GLENN PEASE
1 John 5:20 20Weknow also that the Son of God has
come and has given us understanding, so that we may
know him who is true. And we are in him who is true
by being in his Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God
and eternal life.
BIBLEHUB RESOURCES
The Sublimest Knowledge
1 John 5:18-20
W. Jones
We know that whosoeveris born of God sinneth not, etc. There are certain
things of which St. John writes without even the faintest tone of hesitationor
doubt, with the calmestand firmest assurance,and with the accentof deep
conviction. And the things of which he writes with so much certainty are of
the greatestandmost important. So in the paragraph before us he utters his
triple "we know" concerning some of the most vital and weighty questions.
Let us notice eachof these in the order in which they here stand.
I. THE KNOWLEDGE OF THE CHARACTER AND CONDITION OF THE
CHILDREN OF GOD. "We know that whosoeveris begottenof God sinneth

not; but he that was begottenof God keepethhimself, and the wickedone
toucheth him not." Here are three points for considerationconcerning true
Christians.
1. Their origination from God. They are "begottenof God?'They are "called
children of God," and are such.
2. Their abstention from sin. "Whosoeveris begottenof God sinneth not." He
will not commit the "sin unto death;" and in proportion as he participates in
the Divine life he will shun sin in any form (cf. 1 John 3:6-9; and see our
remarks on 1 John 3:6).
3. Their preservationfrom the evil one. "He that was begottenof God keepeth
himself, and the wickedone toucheth him not." Dangeris clearlyimplied
here. "Be sober, be vigilant; your adversarythe devil, as a roaring lion,
walkethabout, seeking whomhe may devour: whom resiststeadfastin the
faith." "Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against
the wiles of the devil," etc. (Ephesians 6:11-18). "Satantransformethhimself
into an angelof light." Hence the danger. But notice:
(1) The means of preservation. "He that was begottenof God keepeth
himself." He is sober and watchful and prayerful in order that he may not be
surprised by temptation and seducedinto sin. It has been well said by John
Howe, "He that is begottenof God keepethhimself from those deadly mortal
touches which would endangerhis precious life; that is, he is his own
underkeeper. We are every one to be our brother's keeper, much more our
own; but still in a subordinate sense, subservientto, and dependent upon, the
Supreme One. Indeed, it were a kind of monstrous thing in the creation, that
there should be so noble a life planted in us, but destitute of the self-
preserving faculty or disposition; whereas everylife, how mean soever, even
that of a worm, a gnat, or a fly, hath a disposition to preserve itself."
Christians are "kept by the powerof God through faith unto salvation."
(2) The nature of the preservation. "The wickedone toucheth him not." This
does not signify exemption from temptation, but victory over it. The great
adversary shall not touch" the true-born child of God" so as to destroy his
spiritual life or effecthis overthrow.

II. THE KNOWLEDGE OF PERSONALFILIAL RELATIONSHIP TO
GOD. "We know that we are of God, and the whole world lieth in the wicked
one." The assurancewith which the apostle writes is remarkable. Not, "we are
probably of God;' not," we hope we are of God," etc.; but "we know that we
are of God," etc. We may know this:
1. By our consciousnessofour Christian character. The genuine Christian can
say of his spiritual condition, "One thing I know, that, whereas I was blind,
now I see." He is conscious ofhis faith in Christ. "I know whom I have
believed," etc. (2 Timothy 1:12). He feels that the Saviour is precious unto him
(1 Peter2:7). He knows that he loves the Christian brotherhood; and "we
know that we have passedout of death into life, because we love the
brethren." He is conscious ofhis sincere desire and endeavour to follow Christ
as his greatExemplar, and to obey him as his Divine Lord.
2. By our consciousnessofour filial disposition toward God. We have
"receivedthe spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father." Our own
hearts assure us that we trust and love and reverence our heavenly Father.
Thus "we know that we are of God?
3. By the contrastbetweenourselves and the unchristian world. "The whole
world lieth in the wickedone." We have already endeavouredto indicate the
characterof" the world" of which St. John writes. "Concerning the world, he
says, not merely that it is of the wickedone, or has him for a father, and bears
his nature, but also that it 'lies in him,' that is, lies in his bosom,... like an
infant on the bosom of a mother or a father, which is absolutelygiven up to its
parent's power" (Ebrard). The true Christian knows that he is not in such a
condition, but in a decidedly opposite one - that he "abides in the Son, and in
the Father" (chapter 2:24).
III. THE KNOWLEDGE OF A TRANSCENDENT FACT, AND OF GREAT
PERSONALBENEFITS DERIVED THROUGHTHAT FACT. "And we
know that the Sonof God is come, and hath given us an understanding, that
we know him that is true," etc. Here are four points which require our
attention.

1. That the Son of God came into our world. "We know that the Sonof Godis
come." (This great facthas already engagedourattention in our homily on 1
John 4:9-11, and the apostle's assurance ofit in that on 1 John 4:14.)
2. That the Son of God hath given to us spiritual discernment that we might
know God. "And hath given us an understanding, that we know him that is
true." This does not mean that he has given to us any new faculty, but that he
has brought our spiritual faculties into a right condition for the apprehension
of the Divine Being. "As Christ has come (in the sense of 1 John 4:9)," says
Ebrard, "and through this act of love has kindled love in us (1 John 4:10),
thus communicating his nature to us, he has furnished us with the
understanding necessaryin order that we may know God. For God is,
according to 1 John 1:5 and 1 John 4:8, Light and Love; and only he who is
penetrated by his light, and kindled by his love, can know him." God was not
the Unknowable to St. John. He knew him through the revelationof Jesus
Christ, by the conscious realizationof his presence with his Spirit, and by
hallowedcommunion with him.
3. That we are in vital union with God and with his Son Jesus Christ. "We are
in him that is true, evenin his Son Jesus Christ." (We have already
consideredwhat it is to be in God, in our homily on 1 John 2:6.) The true
Christian is in God the Father through being in Christ the Son. He is in the
Father through the mediation of the Son.
4. That the Son of God is truly and properly Divine. "This is the true God,
and eternallife" (cf. verses 11-13). Let us seek to realize the exalted and
blessedknowledge whichwe have been considering. And if it be alreadyours,
let us endeavourto possess itin clearerlight and fuller measure. "Then shall
we know, if we follow on to know the Lord." - W.J.

Biblical Illustrator
We know that the Son of God is come
1 John 5:20
The gospelof the Incarnation
J. M. Gibbon.
"He is coining" is the word of the Old Testament;"He is come" is the better
word of the blew. John knew Jesus as the Son of God; and in his writings he
only tells us what he knows. "We know that the Son of God is come." Weft,
this is a simple fact, simply stated; but if you go down deep enough into it, you
will find a whole gospelinside.
I. BY HIS COMING HE HAS "GIVEN US AN UNDERSTANDING THAT
WE MAY KNOW HIM THAT IS TRUE." Now this does not mean, of course,
that Christ gives men any new intellectual power, that He adds to the faculties
of the mind any more than to the sensesofthe body. "Understanding" here
signifies rather the means of knowing, the power of understanding. By word
and life He has given us ideas about Fatherhood, holiness, pity, kindness, and
love, that we had not before. Purity, meekness, patience, andall the graces,
mean more now than they did before Christ lived and died. The horizon of
language has been widened, and its heaven lifted higher than before.

II. WELL, FOR WHAT PURPOSE HAS CHRIST GIVEN US THESE NEW
IDEAS AND OPENED THE EYES OF OUR UNDERSTANDINGS?In order
that we may "know Him that is true," in order that we may know God. In
Christ you will find the truth about God. There are mysteries still? Yes, but
they are all mysteries of goodness, holiness,and love. In a recently published
book of travel the authoress tells of gigantic camellia trees in Madeira, and
says that one man made an excursionto see them, and came back much
disappointed, having failed to find them. He was desired to pay a secondvisit
to the spot, and was told by his friends to look upwards this time, and was
much surprised and gladdened to see a glorious canopy of scarletand white
blossoms fifty feet overhead!Is not that the story of many more in our days?
They grub and moil amid molluscs and oceanslime; "they turn back the
strata granite, limestone, coaland clay, concluding coldly with, Here is law!
Where is God? I have sweptthe heavens with my telescope,"saidLalande,
"but have nowhere found a God!" Sirs, you are looking in the wrong
direction: look higher l Look as Ezekiellooked — above the firmament. In the
presence ofChrist Jesus you will find what you shall in vain seek elsewhere,
God, in all that He is, made manifest in the flesh.
III. "We know that the Son of God is come, and we are in Him that is true, in
His SonJesus Christ," i.e., IN CHRIST WE ARE IN GOD. Dr. Arnold used
to say that though the revelationof the splendour of God in the infinite fulness
of His nature may be something awaiting him in the world to come, he felt
sure that in this world he had only to do with Christ. Yes! it is with Christ we
have to do. God Himself is the ultimate, but Christ is the immediate object of
our faith. In our penitence we go straightas the Magdalene went, and, sitting
at the feetof Jesus, we know that we are confessing oursins to God. Our
prayers are as direct as that of Peter, when, beginning to sink in the boiling
sea, he cried, saying, "Lord, save me!" and we know that we are crying to
God for help.
IV. Lastly, the Son of God is come, AND TO BE IN HIM IS TO HAVE
ETERNALLIFE. "This is the true God (the God in Christ) and eternal life."
Victor Hugo said on his deathbed in a fit of greatpain, "This is death: this is
the battle of the day and the night." Yes, but for those who are in Christ the
day wins, not the night, and death is the gate leading to a largerlife.

(J. M. Gibbon.)
Three greatestthings
Homilist.
In this verse we have three of the greatestthings.
I. The greatestFACT IN HUMAN HISTORY. That the Sonof God has come.
There are many greatfacts in the history of our race. But of all the facts the
advent of Christ to our world eighteencenturies ago is the greatest. This fact
is the most —
1. Undeniable.
2. Influential.
3. Vital to the interests of every man.
II. The greatestCAPABILITY OF THE HUMAN MIND. What is that? "An
understanding, that we may know Him that is true." Men are endowed with
many distinguishing faculties — imagination, memory, intellect. But the
capacityto know Him who is true is for many reasons greaterthan all.
1. It is a rare faculty. The mighty millions have not this power, "O righteous
Father, the world hath not knownThee."
2. It is a Christ-imparted faculty — "He hath given us." What is it? It is love.
"He that loveth not, knoweth not God." Christ generatesthis love. Love alone
can interpret love, "God is love."
III. The greatestPRIVILEGE IN HUMAN LIFE. "We are in Him that is
true, evenin His Son Jesus Christ." This means, Jesus Christ is the true God.
(Homilist.)
Soul evidence of the divinity of Christ

H. W. Beecher.
Christ was Divine. As there can be no argument of chemistry in proof of
odours like a present perfume itself; as the shining of the stars is a better
proof of their existence than the figures of an astronomer;as the restored
health of his patients is a better argument of skill in a physician than laboured
examinations and certificates;as the testimony of the almanac that summer
comes with June is not so convincing as is the coming of summer itself in the
sky, in the air, in the fields, on hill and mountain, so the powerof Christ upon
the human soul is to the soul evidence of His divinity basedupon a living
experience, and transcending in conclusivenessanyconvictions of the intellect
alone, founded upon a contemplation of mere ideas, howeverjust and sound.
(H. W. Beecher.)
Christ manifestedin the heart the life of His people
S. Ramsey, M. A.
I. THE CHARACTER HERE GIVEN OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST —
"Him that is true," "the true God and eternallife," "the Son of God."
1. The first object in this glorious description which claims our notice refers to
the truth of our Saviour's characterand mission — "Him that is true." This
title is descriptive of our blessedLord's faithfulness, and His punctuality in
the performance of every engagement;He is true to His word of promise,
though "heavenand earth shall pass away, yet His word shall not pass away
till all be fulfilled." This title also refers to the validity of His claim to the
characterof Messiah. He was no pretender to a stationwhich did not of right
pertain unto Him — He was the true Messiah. Jesus Christis also called
"true," to express that all the types and shadows ofthe Levitical dispensation
receiveda complete fulfilment in Him, "who is the end of the law for
righteousness to everyone that believeth."
2. The next appellation is, "the true God." This epithet is not conferred upon
the Redeemermerely as an honorary distinction — no, it is given to Him as

asserting His Divine nature; a declaration, that He is "very Godof very God."
If Christ be not truly and properly God, He cannotbe the Saviour of sinners.
3. Another epithet here applied to Christ is, "eternallife." He is so called with
reference to His glorious work, as the Saviour of sinners. By the gospelHe has
"abolisheddeath, and brought life and immortality to light," — has "opened
the kingdom of heaven to all believers";and by His meritorious death has
obtained life for them; hence He is calledthe Prince of life. By His mighty
powerspiritual life is revealedin the hearts of His people.
4. The concluding words of the clause now under considerationare, "His Son
Jesus Christ," which confirms His claim to the Divine character. The Father
and the Son are one in nature, as well as in affection.
II. THE PRESENTSTATE OF TRUE BELIEVERS. "We are in Him that is
true, evenin His Son Jesus Christ." To be in Christ is to be united to Him by
faith, which workethby love. The nature and necessityof this union with the
Lord Jesus are most beautifully illustrated in His last discourse with His
disciples previous to His sufferings: "I am the true vine," etc. Believers are
"cut out of the olive tree which is wild by nature, and are graftedcontrary to
nature into a goodolive tree," the influences of Divine grace flow into their
souls, they bring forth fruit unto perfection, and are at length gathered into
the garnerof God.
III. THE KNOWLEDGE AND EXPERIENCEOF BELIEVERS.
1. "We know that the Son of God is come." The import of these words
appears to be this — we are satisfiedthe promised Christ has actually made
His appearance in the flesh; and believe that Jesus ofNazareth was that
person. I apprehend that these words refer to the revelation of our Lord
Jesus, in the believer's heart, by the Holy Spirit of God.
2. "He hath given us an understanding that we may know Him that is true."
We have alreadyobserved that Jesus is the truth. Now we are not naturally
acquainted with Him; we know not His glorious excellences;hence, when
beheld by the eye of carnal reason, the Redeemerseems to have no beauty in
Him; there is no form or comeliness, thatwe should desire Him. This darkness

remains upon the mind till dispersed by a light from heaven, and when that
light shineth, Jesus is revealedin the soul, and becomes the supreme objectof
the believer's affections. Menmay, by dint of application, become systematic
Christians; they may understand the theory of the gospel;but they cannot
thus become wise unto salvation.
(S. Ramsey, M. A.)
John's triumphant certainties
A. Maclaren, D. D.
This third of his triumphant certainties is connectedcloselywith the two
preceding ones. It is so, as being in one aspectthe ground of these, for it is
because "the Son of God is come" that men are born of God and are of Him.
It is so in another way also, for properly the words of our text ought to read
not "And we know," rather "but we know." Theyare suggested, that is to say,
by the preceding words, and they present the only thought which makes them
tolerable. "The whole world lieth in the wickedone. But we know that the Son
of God is come." Falling back on the certainty of the Incarnation and its
present issues, we canlook in the face the grave condition of humanity, and
still have hope for the world and for ourselves.
I. I would deal with THE CHRISTIAN'S KNOWLEDGE THAT THE SON
OF GOD IS COME. Now, our apostle is writing to Asiatic Christians of the
secondgenerationat the earliest, most of whom had not been born when Jesus
Christ was upon earth, and none of whom had any means of acquaintance
with Him exceptthat which we possess — the testimony of the witnesses who
had companied with Him. "We know; how canyou know? You may go on the
principle that probability is the guide of life, and you may be morally certain,
but the only way by which you know a fact is by having seenit. And even if
you have seenJesus Christ, all that you saw would be the life of a man upon
earth whom you believed to be the Sonof God. It is trifling with language to
talk about knowledge whenyou have only testimony to build on." Well I
There is a greatdeal to be said on that side, but there are two or three

considerations which, I think, amply warrant the apostle's declarationhere,
and our understanding of his words, "We know," in their fullest and deepest
sense. Letme just mention these briefly. Remember that when John says "The
Son of God is come" he is not speaking abouta past fact only, but about a fact
which, beginning in a historicalpast, is permanent and continuous. And that
thought of the permanent abiding with men of the Christ who once was
manifest in the flesh for thirty years, runs through the whole of Scripture. So
it is a present fact, and not only a past piece of history, which is assertedwhen
the apostle says, "The Sonof God is come." And a man who has a companion
knows that he has him, and by many a token, not only of flesh but of spirit, is
conscious thathe is not alone, but that the dear and strong one is by his side.
Such consciousnessbelongs to all the maturer and deeper forms of the
Christian life. Further, we must read on in my text if we are to find all which
John declares is a matter of knowledge. "The Sonof God is come, and hath
given us an understanding." I point out that what is here declaredto be
known by the Christian soul is a present operationof the present Christ upon
his nature. If a man is aware that through his faith in Jesus Christ new
perceptions and powers of discerning solid reality where he only saw mist
before have been grantedto him, the apostle's triumphant assertionis
vindicated. And, still further, the words of my text, in their assuranceof
possessing something far more solid than an opinion or a creedin Christ
Jesus, and our relation to Him, are warranted, on the considerationthat the
growth of the Christian life largely consists in changing a belief that rests on
testimony for knowledge groundedin vital experience. "Now we believe, not
because ofyour saying, but because we have seenHim ourselves, and know
that this is indeed the Christ, the Saviour of the world." That is the advance
which Christian men should all make from the infantile, rudimentary days,
when they acceptedChrist on the witness of others, to the time when they
acceptedHim because, in the depth of their own experience, they have found
Him to be all that they took Him to be. The true test of creed is life. The true
way of knowing that a shelter is adequate is to house in it, and be defended
from the pelting of every pitiless storm. The medicine we know to be powerful
when it has cured us.

II. Note THE NEW POWER OF KNOWING GOD GIVEN BY THE SON
WHO IS TO COME. John says that one issue of that Incarnation and
permanent presence ofthe Lord Christ with us is that "He hath given us an
understanding that we may know Him that is true." Now, I do not suppose
that He means thereby that any absolutely new faculty is conferred upon men,
but that new direction is given to old ones, and dormant powers are
awakened. Thatgift of a clarified nature, a pure heart, which is the condition,
as the MasterHimself said, of seeing God — that gift is bestowedupon all
who, trusting in the Incarnate Son, submit themselves to His cleansing hand.
In the Incarnation Jesus Christ gave us God to see;by His present work in
our souls He gives us the power to see God. The knowledge ofwhich my text
speaks is the knowledge of"Him that is true," by which pregnant word the
apostle means, to contrastthe Fatherwhom Jesus Christsets before us with
all men's conceptions ofa Divine nature, and to declare that whilst these
conceptions, in one wayor another, fall beneath or diverge from reality and
fact, our God manifested to us by Jesus Christis the only One whose nature
corresponds to the name, and who is essentiallythat which is included in it.
But what I would dwell on especiallyis that this gift, thus given by the
Incarnate and present Christ, is not an intellectual gift only, but something far
deeper. Inasmuch as the apostle declares thatthe objectof this knowledge is
not a truth about God but God Himself, it necessarilyfollows that the
knowledge is such as we have of a person, and not of a doctrine. Or, to put it
into simpler words, to know about Godis one thing, and to know God is quite
another. To know about God is theology, to know Him is religion. That
knowledge, if it is realand living, will be progressive. More and more we shall
come to know. As we grow like Him we shall draw closerto Him; as we draw
closerto Him we shall grow like Him. So, if we have Christ for our medium
both of light and of sight, if He both gives us God to see and the powerto see
Him, we shall begin a course which eternity itself will not see completed.
III. Lastly, note here THE CHRISTIAN INDWELLING OF GOD WHICH IS
POSSIBLE THROUGHTHE SON WHO IS COME. "We are in Him that is
true." Of old Abraham was calledthe Friend of God, but an augustertitle
belongs to us. "Know ye not that ye are the temples of the living God, and that
the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?" But notice the words of my text for a

moment, where the apostle goes onto explain and define how "we are in Him
that is true," because we are "in His Son Jesus Christ." That carries us away
back to "Abide in Me, and I in you." John caught the whole strain of such
thoughts from those sacredwords in the upper room. And will not a man
"know" that? Wilt it not be something deeperand better than intellectual
perception by which he is aware of the presence of Christ in his heart?
(A. Maclaren, D. D.)
That we may know Him that is true
Ultimates of knowledge andbeginnings of faith
N. Smyth, D. D.
How can we now reachsuch heights of assurance as are marked by these
words of St. John? First of all, we need to go straight through our own
experiences, thoughts, and questionings, until we find ourselves facing the
ultimates of our life and knowledge.Manya young man comes nowadays to
church in a state of mental reserve;and this is one of the real practical
hindrances to clear, bright discipleship. It hinders the progress ofthe Church
as fogs hinder navigation. Men in this state listen to the greatcommandments
of the gospel — repent, believe, confess Christbefore men — and while not
intentionally or deliberately rejecting them, they receive them and lose sight
of them in this greatfog bank of mental uncertainty which lies in their minds
all around the horizons of present and near duties. Back, then, let us force
ourselves to the ultimates of our life! Back in all honesty and urgency let us
go, until we face "the flaming bounds of the universe"!I find four ultimates,
then, upon which to stand; four fundamentals of human life and knowledge
from which to survey all passing clouds and turmoil. One of these ultimates —
the one nearestto the common sense ofmankind, and which I only need to
mention — is the final fact that there is some all-embracing Powerin the
universe. This is the last word which the senses, andthe science ofthe senses,
have to speak to us — force. But when I look this physical ultimate of things in
the face, and ask what it is, or how I have learnedto give this name of power

to it; then I find myself standing before a secondultimate of knowledge. That
is the factof intelligence. I cannot, in my thought, go before or behind that last
fact of mind, and reasoncompels me to go up to it and admit it; there is mind
above matter; there is intelligence running through things. Upon the shores
then, of this restless mysteryof our life are standing, calm and eternal, these
two ultimates of knowledge, Powerand Reason, Intelligence andForce;and
they stand bound together — an intelligent Power, a Force of Mind in things.
But there is another line of facts in our common experience, the end of which
is not reachedin these ultimates of science andphilosophy. You and I had not
merely a cause forour existence;I had a mother, and you had before you a
fact of love in the mother who gave you birth. Love breathes through life and
pervades history. It is the deathless heart of our mortality. Moreover, this fact
of love in which our being is cradled, and in which, as in our true element,
man finds himself, has in it law and empire. In obedience to this supreme
authority men will even dare to die. There are, then, for us such realities as
love, devotion, duty. And with this it might seemas though I had gone around
the compass ofour being and saidall that canbe said of the last facts of our
lives. But I have not. There is another last factin this world which not only
cannot be resolvedinto anything simpler than itself, and with which,
therefore, we must rest, but which, also, is itself the truth abiding as the light
of day over these fundamental facts of our knowledge. It is the illumination of
man's whole life. I refer, of course, to the characterofJesus Christ. The
Personof the Christ is the ultimate factof light in the history of man. We
cannot resolve the characterofJesus into anything before itself. We cannot
explain Him by anything else in history. The more definite we make the
comparisonbetweenJesus and men the more striking appears His final
unaccountablenessupon the ordinary principles and by the common laws of
human descent. We can bring all human genius into organic line with its
ancestry, or into spiritual unity with its nationality or age. Rome and the
Caesarexplaineachthe other. Human nature in Greece,vexedby the
sophists, must give birth both to an Aristotle and a Socrates.These two types
of mind are constantly reproduced. And the Buddha is the in carnationof the
Oriental mind. But Jesus is something more than Judaea incarnate. Jesus is
something unknown on earth before incarnated in a most human life. He was
in this world but not of it. He was the fulfilment of the history of God in Israel,

yet He was not the product of His times. He chose to callHimself, not a
Hebrew of the Hebrews, not a Greek of the Gentiles, but simply and solelythe
Son of Man. And we can find no better name for Him. He is for us an ultimate
fact, then, unaccountedfor by the lives of other men, unaccountable exceptby
Himself; as much as any element of nature is an original thing not to be
explained by any thing else that is made, so is the characterof Jesus Christ
elementalin history, the ultimate factof God's presence with man. Now, then,
such being the fundamental facts of our knowledge — the ultimates of bureau
experience — it is perfectly legitimate for us to build upon them; and any man
who wishes to build his life upon the rock, and not upon the sands, will build
upon them. A Powernot ourselves upon which we are dependent — a first
intelligence and love, source of all our reasonand life of our heart — and
Jesus Christ the final proof of God with us and for us — such are the
elementalrealities upon which our souls should rest. He who stands upon
these Divine facts in the creationand in history shall not be confounded.
(N. Smyth, D. D.)
The Holy Trinity
Bp. Westcott.
"The Son of God is come and hath given us an understanding that we may
know Him that is true." That advent lays open God's judgment on goodand
evil as it is involved in the Divine nature. That advent gives us the powerof an
ever-increasing insight into an eternal life and the strength of an eternal
fellowship. It teaches us to wait as God waits. To this end, how ever, we must
use ungrudging labour. "The Son of God...hathgiven us an understanding
that we may know..." He does not — we may say, without presumption, He
cannot — give us the knowledge,but the power and the opportunity of
gaining the knowledge. Revelationis not so much the disclosure of the truth as
the presentment of the facts in which the truth can be discerned. It is given
through life and to living men. We are required eachin some sense to win for
ourselves the inheritance which is given to us, if the inheritance is to be a
blessing. We learn through the experience of history, and through the

experience of life, how God acts, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, and
by the very necessityofthought we are constrainedto gatherup these lessons
into the simplest possible formula. So we come to recognise a Divine Trinity,
which is not sterile, monotonous simplicity; we come to recognise a Divine
Trinity which is not the transitory manifestation of separate aspects ofOne
Personor a combination of Three distinct Beings. We come to recognise One
in whom is the fulness of all conceivable existencein the richestenergy, One
absolutely self-sufficientand perfect, One in whom love finds internally
absolute consummation, One who is in Himself a living God, the fountain and
the end of all life. Our powers of thought and language are indeed very feeble,
but we can both see and to some extent point out how this idea of the Father
revealedthrough the Son, of the Son revealedthrough the Spirit, one God,
involves no contradiction, but offers in the simplest completeness oflife the
union of the "one" and the "many" which thought has always striven to gain:
how it preserves whatwe speak ofas "personality" from all associationsof
finiteness; how it guards us from the opposite errors which are generally
summed under the terms Pantheism and Deism, the lastissues of Gentile and
Jewishphilosophy; how it indicates the sovereigntyof the Creatorand gives
support to the trust of the creature. We linger reverently over the conception,
and we feel that the whole world is indeed a manifestationof the Triune God,
yet so that He is not included in that which reflects the active energy of His
love. We feel that the Triune God is Lord over the works ofHis will, yet so
that His Presence is not excluded from any part of His Universe. We ponder
that which is made knownto us, that when time began "the Word was with
God" in the completeness ofpersonalcommunion; that the life which was
manifested to men was already in the beginning with the Father (1 John 1:2)
realisedabsolutely in the Divine essence. We contemplate this archetypal life,
self-containedand self-fulfilled in the Divine Being, and we are led to believe
with deep thankfulness that the finite life which flows from it by a free act of
grace corresponds withthe source from which it flows. In this way it will at
once appear how the conceptionof the Triune God illuminates the central
religious ideas of the Creationand the Incarnation. It illuminates the idea of
Creation. It enables us to gain firm hold of the truth that the "becoming"
which we observe under the condition of time answers to "a being" beyond
time; that history is the writing out at length of that which we may speak of as

a Divine thought. It enables us to take up on our part the words of the four-
and-twenty elders, the representatives ofthe whole Church, when they cast
their crowns before the throne and worshipped Him that sits thereon, saying,
"Worthy art Thou, our Lord, and our God, to receive the glory and the
honour and the power; for Thou didst create allthings, and because ofThy
will they are and were created;" they were absolutely in the ineffable depths
of the mind of God, they were createdunder the limitations of earthly
existence. The same conceptionilluminates also the idea of the Incarnation. It
enables us to see that the Incarnation in its essenceis the crown of the
Creation, and that man being made capable of fellowship with God, has in his
very constitution a promise of the fulfil meat of his highestdestiny. It enables
us to feelthat the childly relation in which we stand to God has its ground in
the Divine Being; and to understand that not even sin has been able to destroy
the sure hope of its consummation, howeversadly it may have modified in
time the course by which the end is reached. Anyone who believes, however
imperfectly, that the universe with all it offers in a slow successionto his gaze
is in its very nature the expressionof that love which is the Divine Being and
the Divine Life; who believes that the whole sum of life defacedand disfigured
on the surface to our sight "means intensely and means good";who believes
that the laws which he patiently traces are the expressions ofa Father's will,
that the manhood which he shares has been takeninto God by the Son, that at
every moment, in every trial, a Spirit is with him waiting to sanctify thought,
and word, and deed; must in his own characterreceive something from the
Divine glory on which he looks. Whatcalm reserve he will keepin face of the
perilous boldness with which controversialistsdealin human reasonings with
things infinite and eternal. What tender reverence he will cherishtowards
those who have seensome thing of the King in His beauty. With what
enthusiasm he will be kindled while he remembers that, in spite of every
failure and every disappointment, his cause is won already. After what
holiness he will strain while he sees the light fall about his path, that light
which is fire, and knows the inexorable doom of everything which defiles. So
we are brought back to the beginning. The revelationof God is given to us
that we may be fashionedafter His likeness. "Godfirstloved us" that
knowing His love we might love Him in our fellow men. Without spiritual

sympathy there canbe no knowledge. Butwhere sympathy exists there is the
transforming power of a Divine affection.
(Bp. Westcott.)
This is the true Godand eternal life
The eternallife
D. Rhys Jenkins.
These are the strongestwords that can be used in reference to any object.
I. THE APOSTLE'S KNOWLEDGE OF CHRIST.
1. John knew that the long expectedand earnestly lookedfor Saviour had
made His appearance among men. What mere man could talk of going to and
coming from heaven, as though he were speaking ofgoing into and coming out
of a room in a house and claim to be sane? He was "Emmanuel, God with us,"
who, while here below, remained there always. "And we know that the Son of
God is come."
2. The apostle receiveda priceless gift from the "Sonof God." And hath given
us an "understanding." The importance of the "understanding" that Christ
gives may be seenin the objectwhich it understands. A teacherwho succeeds
in making a greatand difficult subject clearto our minds deserves our
profoundest gratitude and highest admiration. The "Son of God" gives
mankind an understanding that apprehends the greatestofall objects —
"Him that is true." The Son comprehends God and He gives us
understandings to apprehend Him. Such an understanding is truly a great
gift, the greatestofits kind possible. When we bear in mind that by it Christ
places us in the light in which we may see and know God, we cannot fail to feel
that it is indeed such. For, like all objects of the mind, God can only be known
in His own light. The only way we can possibly understand a greatauthor is to
possessthe light in which he wrote his work — we must see with his
intellectual eyes as it were — then we shall understand him, not otherwise.
The understanding which Christ gives us includes much more than a mere

capacityto apprehend an object, it includes a suitable spirit in which to enter
upon the study of it. Indeed, unless we are in fullest sympathy with the spirit
of the objectwe are studying we shall fail to understand it. It is something to
be able to understand the greatworks that have been produced by the
illustrious men of the different ages;their sublime and inspiring poetry, their
wise and informing philosophy, their splendid pictures, their fine statuary,
and their grand architecture. But the "understanding" which the "Sonof
God" gives apprehends God; it knows "Him that is true." Such a mind must
be capacious indeed.
II. THE APOSTLE'S RELATION TO CHRIST AND GOD.
1. "And we are in Him that is true, even in His SonJesus Christ." A closer
relationship than these words describe cannotbe conceived;they imply that
the most thorough and vital union subsists betweenGod, Christ, and the
Christian. That is a triple union the strong hand of death cannotsever, nor
will the damps and chills of the grave impair the golden cord that binds the
Christian to God and the Saviour. Eternity will only add to its powerand
perpetuity. To be in Him that is true is to know Him.
2. They possessedan intelligent assurance ofthe intimate relationwhich they
sustainedto Christ: "And we are in Him that is true, even in His Son Jesus
Christ." They had entered into the close union with God by means of Christ,
but they had not severedthemselves from Christ in order to keepup the union
with God; they were in Him that is true, "evenin His Son Jesus Christ." All
who are in "His Son Jesus Christ" see Godfrom the only standpoint from
whence it is possible for the soul to see Him really and satisfactorily. A visitor
who went to TrafalgarSquare to view Landseer's lions, selecteda position on
low ground from which he could look up at them, where the stately
proportions of the whole column could be seento the greatestadvantage.
Quite another effectis produced by looking down upon them from the terrace
in the front of the NationalGallery; the column seems dwarfed and the lions
out of proportion. The standpoint made all the difference in the view. Christ is
the only standpoint from which we can see Godreally: in Christ we "stand on
the mount of God, with sunlight in our souls," and see the Fatherof our
spirits.

III. THE APOSTLE'S SUBLIME TESTIMONYTO CHRIST. "This is the
true God and eternallife." Jesus Christ was not a Divine man merely: if He
were not more than that John would not have said that He was "the true
God." He was the best of men, but He was infinitely more; He was "the true
God and eternallife." As the earth is the source of the life of all the fields and
forests — as much the source of the life of the majestic oak as the sweetand
fragrant violet — so Christ is the source of the soul's life. Separatedfrom the
earth, the most vital plant or tree would wither, droop, and die; no plant,
howevervigorous and beautiful, has life in itself. Jesus Christ is, in the fullest
sense, the source of the soul's life; "Forit pleasedthe Father that in Him
should all fulness dwell. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men." As
the fountain of eternal life He imparts it to all who possessit. "I give unto
them eternal life." The source of all the waters of the world must be an
immense reservoir. If it were possible for the question to be put to all the
waters found on the earth, to all streams, rivers, and lakes, "Where is your
source?" do you think that they would answer, "Oh, some spring that takes its
rise at the foot of a distant little hill." No, if anyone hinted that such a spring
was their source they would scoutthe idea at once as the very acme of
absurdity. Their united answerwould be, "Our source must be an
inexhaustible ocean."Thencan a mere man be the author of "eternallife"?
Impossible.
(D. Rhys Jenkins.)
The lastwords of the lastapostle
A. Maclaren, D. D.
I. HERE WE HAVE THE SUM OF ALL THAT WE NEED TO KNOW
ABOUT GOD. "This is the true God." When he says, "This is the true God"
he means to say, "This God of whom I have been affirming that Jesus Christ
is His sole Revealer, andof whom I have been declaring that through Jesus
Christ We may know Him and dwell abidingly in Him." "This" — and none
else — "is the true God." What does John mean by "true"? By that
expressionhe means, wherever he uses it, some personor thing whose nature

and charactercorrespondto his or its name, and who is essentiallyand
perfectly that which the name expresses. Ifwe take that as the signification of
the word, we just come to this, that the God revealedin Jesus Christ, and with
whom a man through Jesus Christ may have fellowship of knowledge and
friendship, that He and none but He answers to all that men mean when they
speak of a God; that He, if I might use such expressions, fully fills the part. If
we only think that, howeverit comes (no matter about that) every man has in
him a capacityof conceiving of a perfect being, of righteousness,power,
purity, and love, and that all through the ages ofthe world's yearnings there
has never been presentedto it the embodiment of that dim conception, but
that all idolatry, all worship, has failed in bodying out a personwho would
answerto the requirements of a man's spirit, then we come to the position in
which these final words of the old fisherman go down to a deeperdepth than
all the world's wisdom, and carry a message ofconsolationand a true gospel
to be found nowhere besides. Whatsoeverembodiments men may have tried
to give to their dim conceptionof a God, these have been always limitations,
and often corruptions of it. And to limit or to separate is, in this case, to
destroy. No Pantheoncan ever satisfythe soul of man who yearns for One
Personin whom all that he can dream of beauty, truth, goodness shallbe
ensphered. "This is the true God." And all others are corruptions, or
limitations, or divisions, of the indissoluble unity. Then are men to go forever
and ever with the blank misgivings of a creature moving about in worlds not
realised? For, considerwhat it is that the world owes to Jesus Christ in its
knowledge ofGod. Rememberthat to us as orphaned men He has come and
said, as none ever said, and showedas none ever showed:"Ye are not
fatherless, there is a Father in the heavens." "Godis a Spirit." "Godis love."
And put these four revelations together, the Father; Spirit; unsullied Light;
absolute Love; and then let us bow down and say, "Thou hast saidthe truth,
O agedSeer." This is our God; we have waitedfor Him, and He will save us.
"This" — and none beside — "is the true God." I know not what the modern
world is to do for a God if it drifts awayfrom Jesus Christ and His
revelations.
II. HERE WE HAVE THE SUM OF HIS GIFTS TO US. "This is the true
God, and eternal life." By "eternallife" He means something a greatdeal

more august than endless existence. He means a life which not only is not
ended by time, but which is above time, not subject to its conditions at all.
Eternity is not time spun out forever. That seems to part us utterly from God.
He is "eternallife"; then, we poor creatures downhere, whose being is all
"cribbed, cabin'd, and confined" by succession, andduration, and the
partitions of time, what can we have in common with Him? John answers for
us. For remember that in the earlierpart of this Epistle he writes that "the life
was manifested, and we show unto you that eternal life which was with the
Father, and was manifested unto us, and we declare it unto you; and we
declare it unto you, that ye also may have fellowship with us, and our
fellowship is with the Father, and with His Son." But we are not left to wander
about in regions of mysticism and darkness. Forwe know this, that however
strange and difficult the thought of eternal life, as possessedby a creature,
may be, to give it was the very purpose for which Jesus Christ came on earth.
"I am come that they might have life, and have it more abundantly." And we
are not left to grope in doubt as to what that eternal life consists in; for He has
said: "This is life eternal, that they might know Thee, the only true God, and
Jesus Christ whom Thou hast sent." Thus, then, there is a life which belongs
to God on His throne, a life lifted above the limitations of time, a life
communicated by Jesus Christ, as the waters ofsome land lockedlake may
flow down through a sparkling river, a life which consists in fellowship with
God, a life which may be, and is, ours, on the simple condition of trusting Him
who gives it, and a life which, eternal as it is, is destined to a future all
undreamed of, in that future beyond the grave, is now the possessionofevery
man that puts forth the faith which is its condition.
III. Lastly, WE HAVE HERE THE CONSEQUENTSUM OF CHRISTIAN
ACTION. "Little children, keepyourselves from 'idols'" — seeing that "this
is the true God" — the only One that answers to your requirements, and will
satisfy your desires. Do not go rushing to these shrines of false deities that
crowdevery cornerof Ephesus — ay! and every corner of Manchester. Is the
exhortation not needed? In Ephesus it was hard to have nothing to do with
heathenism. In that ancient world their religion, though it was a superficial
thing, was intertwined with daily life in a fashion that puts us to shame. Every
meal had its libation, and almostevery art was knit by some ceremonyor

other to a god. So that Christian men and women had almostto go out of the
world in order to be free from complicity in the all-pervading idol worship.
You and I callourselves Christians. We saywe believe that there is nothing
else, and nobody else, in the whole sweepofthe universe that cansatisfy our
hearts, or be what our imagination canconceive but God only. Having said
that on the Sunday, what about Monday? "They have forsakenMe, the
Fountain of living water, and hewedto themselves broken cisterns that can
hold no water." "Little children" — for we are scarcelymore mature than
that — "little children, keepyourselves from idols." And how is it to be done?
"Keep yourselves." Thenyou can do it, and you have to make a dead lift of an
effort, or be sure of this — that the subtle seductionwill slide into your heart,
and before you know it you will be out of God's sanctuary, and grovelling in
Diana's temple. But it is not only our own effort that is needed, for just a
sentence ortwo before, the apostle had said: "He that is born of God" — that
is, Christ — "keepethus." So our keeping of ourselves is essentiallyour
letting Him keepus. Here is the sum of the whole matter. There is one truth
on which we can stay our hearts, on God in whom we can utterly trust, the
God revealedin Jesus Christ. If we do not see Him in Christ we shalt not see
Him at all, but wander about all our days in a world empty of solid reality.
(A. Maclaren, D. D.)
COMMENTARIES
MacLaren's Expositions
1 John
III.-TRIUMPHANT CERTAINTIES

1 John 5:20.
ONCE more John triumphantly proclaims ‘We know.’Whole-souled
conviction rings in his voice. He is sure of his footing. He does not say ‘ We
incline to think,’ or even ‘We believe and firmly hold,’ but he says ‘ We
know.’A very different tone that from that of many of us, who, influenced by
currents of present opinions, feel as if what was rock to our fathers had
become quagmire to us! But John in his simplicity thinks that it is a tone
which is characteristicofevery Christian. I wonderwhat he would say about
some Christians now.
This third of his triumphant certainties is connectedcloselywith the two
preceding ones, which have been occupying us in former sermons. It is so, as
being in one aspectthe ground of these, for it is because ‘the Son of God is
come’that men are born of God, and are of Him. It is so in anotherway also,
for properly the words of our text ought to read not ‘And we know,’rather
‘But we know.’ They are suggested, thatis to say, by the preceding words, and
they present the only thought which makes them tolerable. ‘The whole world
lieth in the wickedone. But we know that the Sonof God is come.’Falling
back on the certainty of the Incarnation and its present issues, we canlook in
the face the grave condition of humanity, and still have hope for the world and
for ourselves. The certainty of the Incarnation and its issues, Isay. Forin my
text John not only points to the past factthat Christ has come in the flesh, but
to a present fact, the operationof that Christ upon Christian souls-’He hath
given us an understanding.’ And not only so, but he points, further, to a
dwelling in God and God in us as being the abiding issue of that past
manifestation. So these three things -the coming of Christ, the knowledge of
God which flows into a believing heart through that Incarnate Son, and the
dwelling in God which is the climax of all His gifts to us-these three things are
in John’s estimation certified to a Christian heart, and are not merely matters
of opinion and faith, but matters of knowledge.

Ah I brethren, if our Christianity had that firm strain, and was conscious of
that verification, it would be less at the mercy of every wind of doctrine; it
would be less afraid of every new thought; it would be more powerful to rule
and to calm our own spirits, and it would be more mighty to utter persuasive
words to others. We must know for ourselves, if we would lead others to
believe. So I desire to look now at these three points which emerge from my
text, and
I. I would deal with the Christian’s knowledge that the Son of God is come.
Now, our Apostle is writing to Asiatic Christians of the secondgenerationat
the earliest, mostof whom had not been born when Jesus Christ was upon
earth, and none of whom had any means of acquaintance with Him except
that which we possess-the testimonyof the witnesseswho had companied with
Him. And yet, to these men-whose whole contactwith Christ and the Gospel
was, like yours and mine, the result of hearsay -he says, ‘We know.’Was he
misusing words in his eagernessto find a firm foundation for a soul to rest on?
Many would saythat he was, and would answerthis certainty of his ‘We
know,’with, How canhe know? You may go on the principle that probability
is the guide of life, and you may be morally certain, but the only wayby which
you know a fact is by having seen it; and even if you have seenJesus Christ,
all that you saw would be the life of a man upon earth whom you believed to
be the Son of God. It is trifling with language to talk about knowledge when
you have only testimony to build on.
Well! there is a greatdeal to be said on that side, but there are two or three
considerations which, I think, amply warrant the Apostle’s declarationhere,
and our understanding of his words, ‘We know,’in their fullest and deepest
sense. Letme just mention these briefly. Remember that when John says ‘The
Son of God is come’he is not speaking-as his language, if any of you can
consult the original, distinctly shows -about a past fact only, but about a fact

which, beginning in a historicalpast, is permanent and continuous. In one
aspect, no doubt, Jesus Christhad come and gone, before any of the people to
whom this letter was addressedheard it for the first time, but in another
aspect, if I may use a colloquialexpression, when Jesus Christcame, He ‘came
to stay.’ And that thought, of the permanent abiding with men, of the Christ
who once was manifest in the flesh for thirty years, and
‘Walkedthe acres ofthose blessedfields
For our advantage,’
runs through the whole of Scripture. Nor shall we understand the meaning of
Christ’s Incarnation unless we see in it the point of beginning of a permanent
reality. He has come, and He has not gone-’Lo!I am with you alway’-and that
thought of the fullness and permanence of our Lord’s presence with Christian
souls is lodged deep and all-pervading, not only in John’s gospel, but in the
whole teaching of the New Testament. So it is a present fact, and not only a
past piece of history, which is assertedwhenthe Apostle says ‘The Sonof God
is come.’And a man who has a companionknows that he has him, and by
many a token not only of flesh but of spirit, is conscious that he is not alone,
but that the dear and strong one is by his side. Such consciousness belongsto
all the maturer and deeperforms of the Christian life.
Further, we must read on in my text if we are to find all which John declares
to be a matter of knowledge. ‘The Son of God is come, and hath given us an
understanding.’ I shall have a word or two more to say about that presently,
but in the meantime I simply point out that what is here declaredto be known
by the Christian soul is a present operation of the present Christ upon his
nature. If a man is aware that, through his faith in Jesus Christ, new
perceptions and powers of discerning solid reality where he only saw mist

before have been grantedto him, the Apostle’s triumphant assertionis
vindicated.
And, still further, the words of my text, in their assurance ofpossessing
something far more solid than an opinion or a creed, in Christ Jesus and our
relation to Him, are warranted, on the considerationthat the growthof the
Christian life largely consists in changing belief that rests on testimony into
knowledge groundedin vital experience. At first a man accepts JesusChrist
because, forone reasonor another, he is led to give credence to the evangelical
testimony and to the apostolic teaching:but as he goes onlearning more and
more of the realities of the Christian life, creed changes into consciousness;
and we can turn round to apostles andprophets, and say to them, with
thankfulness for all that we have receivedfrom them, ‘Now we believe, not
because ofyour saying, but because we have seenHim ourselves, and know
that this is indeed the Christ, the Saviour of the world.’ That is the advance
which Christian men should all make, from the infantile, rudimentary days,
when they acceptedChrist on the witness of others, to the time when they
.acceptedHim because, in the depth of their own experience, they have found
Him to be all that they took Him to be. The true test of creed is life. The true
way of knowing that a shelter is adequate is to house in it, and be defended
from the pelting of every pitiless storm. The medicine we know to be powerful
when it has cured us. And every man that truly grasps Jesus Christ, and is
faithful and persevering in his hold, can sethis sealto that which to others is
but a thing believed on hearsay, and acceptedontestimony.
‘We know that the Sonof Godis come.’Christian people, have you such a
first-hand acquaintance with the articles which constitute your Christian
creedas that? Over and above all the intellectual reasons whichmay lead to
the acceptance,as a theory, of the truths of Christianity, have you that living
experience of them which warrants you in saying ‘We know’? Alas! Alas! I
am afraid that this supreme ground of certitude is rarely trodden by
multitudes of professing Christians. And so in days of criticism and upheaval

they are frightened out of their wits, and all but out of their faith, and are
nervous and anxious lestfrom this corner or that corneror the other corner
of the field of honest study and research, there may come some sudden shock
that will blow the whole fabric of their belief to pieces. ‘He that believeth shall
not make haste,’and a man who knows whatChrist has done for him may
calmly welcome the advent of any new light, sure that nothing that canbe
establishedcan touch that serene centre in which his certitude sits enshrined
and calm. Brother, do you seek to be able to say,’I know in whom I have
believed’?
II. Note the new power of knowing God given by the Son who is come.
John says that one issue of that Incarnation and permanent presence of the
Lord Christ with us is that ‘He hath given us an understanding that we may
know Him that is true.’ Now, I do not suppose that he means thereby that any
absolutely new faculty is conferred upon men, but that new direction is given
to old ones, and dormant powers are awakened. Justas in the miracles of our
Lord the blind men had eyes, but it needed the touch of His finger before the
sight came to them, so man, that was made in the image of God, which he has
not altogetherlostby any wandering, has therein lying dormant and
oppressedthe capacityof knowing Him from whom he comes, but he needs
the couching hand of the Christ Himself, in order that the blind eyes may be
capable of seeing and the slumbering powerof perceptionbe awakened. That
gift of a clarified nature, a pure heart, which is the condition, as the Master
Himself said, of seeing God-that gift is bestowedupon all who, trusting in the
Incarnate Son, submit themselves to His cleansing hand.
In the Incarnation Jesus Christ gave us God to see;by His present work in
our souls He gives us the power to see God. The knowledge ofwhich my text
speaks is the knowledge of‘ Him that is true,’ by which pregnant word the
Apostle means to contrastthe Father whom Jesus Christ sets before us with

all men’s conceptions ofa Divine nature; and to declare that whilst these
conceptions, in one wayor another, fall beneath or diverge from reality and
fact, our God manifested to us by Jesus Christis the only One whose nature
corresponds to the name, and who is essentiallythat which is included in it.
But what I would dwell on especiallyfor a moment is that this gift, thus given
by the Incarnate and present Christ, is not an intellectual gift only, but
something far deeper. Inasmuch as the Apostle declares thatthe objectof this
knowledge is not a truth about God but God Himself, it necessarilyfollows
that the knowledge is such as we have of a person, and not of a doctrine. Or,
to put it into simpler words:to know about God is one thing, and to know God
is quite another. We may know all about the God that Christ has revealedand
yet not know Him in the very slightestdegree. To know about God is theology,
to know Him is religion. You are not a bit better, though you comprehend the
whole sweepof Christ’s revelation of God, if the God whom you in so far
comprehend remain a strangerto you. That we may know Him as a man
knows his friend, and that we may enter into relations of familiar
acquaintance with Him, Jesus Christ has come in the flesh, and this is the
blessing that He gives us-not an accurate theology, but a loving friendship.
Has Christ done that for you, my brother?
That knowledge, if it is real and living, will be progressive. More and more we
shall come to know. As we grow like Him we shall draw closerto Him; as we
draw closerto Him we shall grow like Him. So the Christian life is destined to
an endless progress, like one of those mathematicalspirals which ever climb,
ever approximate to, but never reach, the summit and the centre of the coil.
So, if we have Christ for our medium both of light and of sight, if He both
gives us God to see and the power to see Him, we shall begin a course which
eternity itself will not witness completed. We have landed on the shores ofa
mighty continent, and for ever and for ever and ever we shall be pressing
deeper and deeper into the bosom of the land, and learning more and more of
its wealth and loveliness. ‘We know that we know Him that is true.’ If the Son

of God has come to us, we know God, and we know that we know Him. Do
you?
III. Lastly, note here the Christian indwelling of God, which is possible
through the Sonwho is come.
Friendship, familiar intercourse, intimate knowledge as ofone with whom we
have long dwelt, instinctive sympathy of heart and mind, are not all which, in
John’s estimation, Jesus Christ brings to them that love Him, and live in Him.
For he adds, ‘We are in Him that is true.’ Of old Abraham was calledthe
Friend of God, but an auguster title belongs to us. ‘Know ye not that ye are
the temples of the living God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?’ Oh
brethren, do not be tempted, by any dread of mysticism, to deprive yourselves
of that crown and summit of all the gifts and blessings ofthe Gospel, but open
your hearts and your minds to expectand to believe in the actualabiding of
the Divine nature in us. Mysticism? Yes! And I do not know what religion is
worth if there is not mysticism in it, for the very heart of it seems to me to be
the possible interpenetration and union of man and God-not in the sense of
obliterating the personalities, but in the deep, wholesome sensein which
Christ Himself and all His apostles taught it, and in which every man who has
had any profound experience of the Christian life feels it to be true.
But notice the words of my text for a moment, where the Apostle goes onto
explain and define how ‘we are in Him that is true,’ because we are ‘in His
Son Jesus Christ.’That carries us away back to ‘Abide in Me, and I in you.’
John caught the whole strain of such thoughts from those sacredwords in the
upper room. Christ in us is the deepesttruth of Christianity. And that God is
in us, if Christ is in us, is the teaching not only of my text but of the Lord
Himself, when He said, ‘We will come unto him and make our abode with
him.’

And will not a man ‘know’ that? Will it not be something deeperand better
than intellectual perception by which he is aware ofthe presence ofthe Christ
in his heart? Cannot we all have it if we will? There is only one way to it, and
that is by simple trust in Jesus Christ. Then, as I said, the trust with which we
beganwill not leave us, but will be glorified into experience with which the
trust will be enriched.
Brethren, the sum and substance of all that I have been trying to sayis just
this: lay your poor personalities in Christ’s hands, and lean yourselves upon
Him; and there will come into your hearts a Divine power, and, if you are
faithful to your faith, you will know that it is not in vain. There is a
tremendous alternative, as I have already pointed out, suggestedby the
sequence ofthoughts in my text, ‘the whole world lieth in the wickedone’ but’
we are in Him that is true.’ We have to choose ourdwelling-place, whether we
shall dwell in that dark region of evil, or whether we shall dwell in God, and
know that God is in us.
If we are true to the conditions, we shall receive the promises. And then our
Christian faith will not be dashed with hesitations, nor shall we be afraid lest
any new light shall eclipse the Sun of Righteousness, but, in the midst of the
babble of controversy, we may be content to be ignorant of much, to hold
much in suspense, to part with not a little, but yet with quiet hearts to be sure
of the one thing needful, and with unfaltering tongues to proclaim ‘We know
that the Son of God is come, and we are in Him that is true.’
BensonCommentary
1 John 5:20-21. We know — By all these infallible proofs; that the Son of God
is come — Into the world; and hath given us an understanding — Hath
enlightened our minds; that we may know him that is true — The living and
true God, namely, the Father, of whom the apostle appears here to speak;and
we are in him that is true — In his favour, and in a state of union and
fellowship with him; even — This particle is not in the Greek;in — Or rather;

through; his Son Jesus Christ — Through whose mediation alone we can have
access to, or intercourse with, the Father. This — Ουτος, he, namely, Christ,
the personlast mentioned; is the true God and eternal life — He partakes
with the Fatherin proper Deity, and our immortal life is supported by union
with him. Little — Or beloved; children, keepyourselves from idols — From
all false worship of images, orof any creature, and from every inward idol:
from loving, desiring, fearing any thing more than God. Seek all help and
defence from evil, all happiness, in the true Godalone.
Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary
5:18-21 All mankind are divided into two parties or dominions; that which
belongs to God, and that which belongs to the wickedone. True believers
belong to God: they are of God, and from him, and to him, and for him; while
the rest, by far the greaternumber, are in the power of the wickedone; they
do his works, and support his cause. This generaldeclarationincludes all
unbelievers, whatevertheir profession, station, or situation, or by whatever
name they may be called. The Son leads believers to the Father, and they are
in the love and favour of both; in union with both, by the indwelling and
working of the Holy Spirit. Happy are those to whom it is given to know that
the Sonof Godis come, and to have a heart to trust in and rely on him that is
true! May this be our privilege; we shall thus be kept from all idols and false
doctrines, and from the idolatrous love of worldly objects, and be kept by the
powerof God, through faith, unto eternal salvation. To this living and true
God, be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen.
Barnes'Notes on the Bible
And we know that the Son of God is come - We know this by the evidence that
John had referred to in this Epistle, 1 John 1:1-4; 1 John 5:6-8.
And hath given us an understanding - Notan "understanding" consideredas
a faculty of the mind, for religion gives us no new faculties; but he has so
instructed us that we do understand the greattruths referred to. Compare the
notes at Luke 24:45. All the correctknowledgewhichwe have of God and his
government, is to be traced directly or indirectly to the greatProphet whom

God has sentinto the world, John 1:4, John 1:18; John 8:12; John 9:5;
Hebrews 1:1-3; Matthew 11:27.
That we may know him that is true - That is, the true God. See the notes at
John 17:3.
And we are in him that is true - That is, we are united to him; we belong to
him; we are his friends. This idea is often expressedin the Scriptures by being
"in him." It denotes a most intimate union, as if we were one with him - or
were a part of him - as the branch is in the vine, John 15:4, John 15:6. The
Greek constructionis the same as that applied to "the wickedone," 1 John
5:19, (ἐν τῷ ἀληθινᾧ en tō alēthinō.)
This is the true God- o There has been much difference of opinion in regard
to this important passage;whether it refers to the Lord Jesus Christ, the
immediate antecedent, orto a more remote antecedent - referring to God, as
such. The question is of importance in its bearing on the doctrine of the
divinity of the Saviour; for if it refers to him, it furnishes an unequivocal
declarationthat he is divine. The question is, whether John "meant" that it
should be referred to him? Without going into an extended examination of the
passage, the following considerations seemto me to make it morally certain
that by the phrase "this is the true God," etc., he did refer to the Lord Jesus
Christ.
(1) the grammaticalconstruction favors it. Christ is the immediate antecedent
of the pronoun "this" - οὗτος houtos. This would be regardedas the obvious
and certainconstruction so far as the grammar is concerned, unless there
were something in the thing affirmed which led us to seek some more remote
and less obvious antecedent. No doubt would have been ever entertained on
this point, if it had not been for the reluctance to admit that the Lord Jesus is
the true God. If the assertionhad been that "this is the true Messiah;" or that
"this is the Son of God;" or that "this is he who was born of the Virgin
Mary," there would have been no difficulty in the construction. I admit that
his argument is not absolutelydecisive;for casesdo occur where a pronoun
refers, not to the immediate antecedent, but to one more remote; but casesof
that kind depend on the ground of necessity, and can be applied only when it

would be a clearviolation of the sense ofthe author to refer it to the
immediate antecedent.
(2) this constructionseems to be demanded by the adjunct which John has
assignedto the phrase "the true God" - "eternallife." This is an expression
which John would be likely to apply to the Lord Jesus, consideredas "life,"
and the "source oflife," and not to God as such. "How familiar is this
language with John, as applied to Christ! "In him (i. e. Christ) was life, and
the life was the light of people - giving life to the world - the bread of life - my
words are spirit and life - I am the way, and the truth, and the life. This life
(Christ) was manifested, and we have "seenit," and do testify to you, and
declare the eternal life which was with the Father, and was manifested to us,"
1 John 1:2." - Prof. Stuart's Letters to Dr. Channing, p. 83. There is no
instance in the writings of John, in which the appellation life, and "eternal"
life is bestowedupon the Father, to designate him as the author of spiritual
and eternallife; and as this occurs so frequently in John's writings as applied
to Christ, the laws of exegesisrequire that both the phrase "the true God,"
and "eternallife," should be applied to him.
(3) if it refers to God as such, or to the word "true" - τὸν ἀληθινόν(Θεὸν) ton
alēthinon (Theon) it would be mere tautology, or a mere truism. The
rendering would then be, "Thatwe may know the true God, and we are in the
true God: this is the true God, and eternallife." Can we believe that an
inspired man would affirm gravely, and with so much solemnity, and as if it
were a truth of so much magnitude, that the true God is the true God?
(4) this interpretation accords with what we are sure John would affirm
respecting the Lord Jesus Christ. Can there be any doubt that he who said,
"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word
was God;" that he who said, "all things were made by him, and without him
was not anything made that was made;" that he who recorded the declaration
of the Saviour, "I and my Father are one," and the declarationof Thomas,
"my Lord and my God," would apply to him the appellation "the true God!"
(5) if John did not mean to affirm this, he has made use of an expression
which was liable to be misunderstood, and which, as facts have shown, would

be misconstrued by the greatportion of those who might read what he had
written; and, moreover, an expressionthat would lead to the very sin against
which he endeavors to guard in the next verse - the sin of substituting a
creature in the place of God, and rendering to another the honor due to him.
The language whichhe uses is just such as, according to its natural
interpretation, would lead people to worship one as the true God who is not
the true God, unless the Lord Jesus be divine. For these reasons, itseems to
me that the fair interpretation of this passagedemands that it should be
understood as referring to the Lord Jesus Christ. If so, it is a direct assertion
of his divinity, for there could be no higher proof of it than to affirm that he is
the true God.
And eternal life - Having "life in himself," John 5:26, and the source and
fountain of life to the soul. No more frequent appellation, perhaps, is given to
the Saviourby John, than that he is life, and the source oflife. Compare John
1:4; John 5:26, John 5:40; John 10:10;John 6:33, John 6:35, John 6:48, John
6:51, John 6:53, John 6:63; John 11:25;John 14:6; John 20:31; 1 John 1:1-2;
1 John 5:12.
Jamieson-Fausset-BrownBible Commentary
20. Summary of our Christian privileges.
is come—is present, having come. "He is here—all is full of Him—His
incarnation, work, and abiding presence, is to us a living fact" [Alford].
given us an understanding—Christ's, office is to give the inner spiritual
understanding to discern the things of God.
that we may know—Some oldestmanuscripts read, "(so)that we know."
him that is true—God, as opposed to every kind of idol or false god (1Jo 5:21).
Jesus, by virtue of His oneness withGod, is also "He that is true" (Re 3:7).
even—"we are in the true" God, by virtue of being "in His SonJesus Christ."
This is the true God—"This JesusChrist (the last-named Person)is the true
God" (identifying Him thus with the Fatherin His attribute, "the only true
God," Joh 17:3, primarily attributed to the Father).

and eternallife—predicated of the Sonof God; Alford wrongly says, He was
the life, but not eternal life. The Fatheris indeed eternal life as its source, but
the Sonalso is that eternal life manifested, as the very passage(1Jo 1:2)which
Alford quotes, proves againsthim. Compare also 1Jo 5:11, 13. Plainly it is as
the Mediatorof ETERNALLIFE to us that Christ is here contemplated. The
Greek is, "The true God and eternal life is this" Jesus Christ, that is, In
believing in Him we believe in the true God, and have eternallife. The Son is
called"He that is TRUE," Re 3:7, as here. This naturally prepares the way
for warning againstfalse gods (1Jo 5:21). Jesus Christ is the only "express
image of God's person" which is sanctioned, the only true visible
manifestation of God. All other representations ofGod are forbidden as idols.
Thus the Epistle closes as it began(1Jo 1:1, 2).
Matthew Poole's Commentary
It is here signified how satisfying a knowledge andcertainty sincere Christians
had, that Christ was indeed come, by that blessedeffectthey found upon
themselves, viz. a clearand lively light shining, by his procurement and
communication, into their minds, whereby they had other apprehensions,
more vivid and powerful than ever before, of
the true God, as John 17:3, so as thereby to be drawn into union with him,
and to be in him: or, which in effectis the same thing, (so entire is the oneness
betweenthe Fatherand the Son), we are in his Son Jesus Christ, who also
is the true God, as John 1:1,
and eternallife, as he is called, 1Jo 1:2.
Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible
And we know that the Son of God is come,.... Thatthe secondPersonin the
Godhead, who is equal to the Father, and of the same nature with him, is

come from the Father, from heaven into this world, not by localmotion, but
by assumption of nature; that he is come in the flesh, or is become incarnate,
in order to work out salvationfor his people, by his obedience, sufferings, and
death; and this John and others knew, for they had personal knowledge of
him, and converse with him; they saw him with their eyes, heard him, and
handled him: he dwelt among them, preachedto them, wrought miracles
before them, which proved him to be what he was;and it may be known that
the Messiahmust become, since Daniel's weeks, whichfixes the time of his
coming, are long ago up; the sceptre is departed from Judah, and the second
temple is destroyed, neither of which were to be till the Messiahcame;and
that Jesus ofNazareth is he who is come may be known by the characters of
him, and the works done by him:
and hath given us an understanding; not a new faculty of the understanding
but new light into it; a knowledge ofspiritual things of himself, and of God in
him, and of the truths of the Gospel, and of all divine and heavenly things; for
he, the Sonof God, is come a light into the world, and gives spiritual light to
men:
that we may know him that is true; or "the true God", as the Alexandrian
copy and some others, and the Vulgate Latin, Arabic, and Ethiopic versions
read; that is, God the Father, who is the true God, in opposition to the false
gods of the Heathens, though not to the exclusionof the Son and Spirit; and
the spiritual knowledge ofhim as the Father of Christ, and as a covenant God
and Fatherin him, is only given to men by Christ, and this is life eternal; see
Matthew 11:27;
and we are in him that is true, even in his Son Jesus Christ; the words "Jesus
Christ" are left out in the Alexandrian copy, and in the Vulgate Latin version;
however, certainit is, that Jesus Christ is meant by his Son, who is the Son of
the true and living God, and is himself "true"; not only true God, as hereafter
asserted, but true man, having a true body and a reasonable soul, and was
true and faithful in the discharge of his offices, as prophet, priest, and King;
he faithfully declaredthe whole will of God, and taught the way of God in
truth; he was faithful to him that appointed him, by securing his glory when
he made reconciliationfor the sins of the people; and all the administrations

of his kingly office are just and true; yea, he is truth itself, the substance of all
the types, in whom all the promises are yea and amen, and who has all the
truths of the Gospeland treasures ofwisdom in him; now his people are in
him; they were secretlyin him before the world was, being loved by him,
chosenin him, put into his hands, preserved in him, and representedby him;
and openly, at conversion, when they are anew createdin him, brought to
believe in him, and live upon him, and he lives in them, and they are in him as
branches in the vine; and this is knownby his Spirit being given them, by the
communication of his grace unto them, and by the communion they have with
him.
This is the true Godand eternal life; that is, the Son of God, who is the
immediate antecedentto the relative "this"; he is the true God, with his
Father and the Spirit, in distinction from all false, fictitious, or nominal
deities; and such as are only by office, or in an improper and figurative sense:
Christ is truly and really God, as appears from all the perfections of deity, the
fulness of the Godhead being in him; from the divine works of creationand
providence being ascribedto him; and from the divine worship that is given
him; as well as from the names and titles he goes by, and particularly that of
Jehovah, which is incommunicable to a creature;and he is called "eternal
life", because it is in him; and he is the giver of it to his people; and that itself
will chiefly consistin the enjoyment and vision of him, and in conformity to
him.
Geneva Study Bible
And we know that the Son of God is come, and hath given us an
understanding, that we may know him that is true, and we are in him that is
true, evenin his Son Jesus Christ. This is the true {m} God, and eternal life.
(m) The divinity of Christ is most clearly proved by this passage.
EXEGETICAL(ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)
Meyer's NT Commentary
1 John 5:20. In conclusion, the apostle indicates whence the εἶναι ἐκ τῷ Θεῷ
(the result of the εἶναι ἐκ τοῦ Θεοῦ) has come to him and his readers;and he

does this by expressing it through οἴδαμενas the substance oftheir Christian
consciousness.
οἴδαμενδέ, ὅτι ὁ υἱὸς τοῦ Θεοῦ ἥκει] The conditioning cause ofthe former is
the coming of the Son of God.
The particle δέ is here used to indicate the antithesis to the immediately
preceding thought; Brücknerhas with justice decided in favour of this
reading (contrary to καὶ οἴδαμεν;see the critical notes).
ἥκει is not = adest (Bengel), but: “has come;” the reference is to the
incarnation of the Son of God.
καὶ δέδωκεν ἡμῖν διάνοιαν, ἵνα γινώσκομεντὸν ἀληθινόν] Still dependent on
ὅτι.
The subject of δέδωκενis not: ὁ Θεός (Bengel), but: ὁ υἱὸς τοῦ Θεοῦ, as the
close connectionofthis clause with that immediately preceding clearlyshows;
τὸν ἀληθινόν, on the other hand, is not a description of the Son (Bengel), but
of God.
By διάνοια we are not to understand, with Lücke and de Wette, “knowledge,”
or even “insight,” but the capability of knowledge (Düsterdieck,Ebrard), yet
in its living activity, hence “the faculty of knowing.”[331]
By ἵνα γινώσκομενκ.τ.λ. it is neither the purpose: “in order that,” nor even
the result: “so that,” that is stated, but the objectto which the διάνοια is

directed, and which it attains. We can only regard ἵνα as the particle of
purpose, if we unjustifiably understand by διάνοια “the spiritual disposition”
(contrary to Braune).
The idea γινώσκειν is here used with the same force as in chap. 1 John 2:4-5,
where it is similarly connectedwith ἐν αὐτῷ εἶναι. By τὸν ἀληθινόν God is
described, in distinction from all idols, especiallyfrom the idol which the false
teachers made of God, as the true God; Calvin: Verum Deum intelligit, non
veraccm, sedcum qui re vera Deus est, ut cum ab idolis omnibus discernat;
comp. John 17:3[332](similarly Lücke, de Wette, Neander, Erdmann,
Düsterdieck, Myrberg, Ebrard, Braune, etc.). He is the true God, who has sent
His Soninto the world; the coming of Christ has not been ineffectual, but has
produced in believers the knowledge ofGod—a knowledge which is one with
being in God. Therefore the apostle continues: ΚΑῚ ἘΣΜῈΝ ἘΝ Τῷ
ἈΛΗΘΙΝῷ. These words are not dependent on ὍΤΙ (Vulg.: et simus), but
form an independent sentence. The ἘΝ Τῷ ἈΛΗΘΙΝῷ refers back to ΤῸΝ
ἈΛΗΘΙΝΌΝ;considering the close connectionofthe two sentences, it must be
the same subject, namely God, that is meant by the same word (Brückner,
Braune); it is arbitrary to understand by τὸν ἀληθινόν God, and by Τῷ
ἈΛΗΘΙΝῷ, on the other hand, Christ, and it is, moreover, forbidden by the
context, in accordancewith which the ΚΑῚ ἘΣΜῈΝ ἘΝ Τῷ ἈΛΗΘΙΝῷ
states the consequenceofthe preceding, namely of the factthat the Son of God
has come and has given to us the capability of knowing the true God.[333]
Therefore also the following words: ἐν τῷ υἱῷ αὐτοῦ Ἰησοῦ Χριστῷ, are not to
be taken as apposition to ἐν τῷ ἀλ. (Weiss), againstwhicheven the αὐτοῦ
testifies, for then it would have to be referred, not to τῷ ἀληθινῷ, but beyond
it to τὸν ἀληθινόν. The additional clause shows in what the εἶναι ἐν τῷ
ἀληθινῷ has its ground and stability (Brückner, Braune); ἐν is not = per, but
indicates, as generallyin the formula ἐν Ἰησ. Χριστῷ, the relationship of
intimate fellowship: the believer is in God, inasmuch as he is in Christ.

Before the last warning, connectedwith this (1 John 5:21), the apostle
expressivelyconcludes with the statement: οὗτός ἐστιν ὁ ἀληθινὸς Θεὸς καὶ
ζωὴ αἰώνιος. As is well known, views have differed from old times about the
meaning of οὗτος. While the Arians understand οὗτος of God, the orthodox
refer it to the immediately preceding ἐν τῷ υἱῷ Ἰ. Χρ., and use this passageas
a proof of the divinity of the Son. This interpretation remained the prevailing
one in the Church, even after Erasmus had remarked: “hic estverus Deus”
referri potestad Deum verum Patrem qui praecessit;and againstthis the
Socinians, and then Grotius, Wetstein, the English Antitrinitarians, and the
German Rationalists followedthe opposite view. It is not to be denied that on
both sides the different dogmatic interests did not remain without influence on
the interpretation, until in more recent times a more unbiassed consideration
has led the way. Among the latestcommentators, Rickli, Lücke, de Wette,
Neander, Gerlach, Frommann, Düsterdieck, Erdmann, Myrberg, even
Brücknerand Braune (who, however, leave room for doubt), similarly
Hofmann (Schriftbew. 2d ed. I. p. 146), Winer (p. 142;VII. p. 148), and Al.
Buttmann (p. 91), have decided in favour of the reference to God; Sander,
Besser, Ebrard, Weiss, etc., forthe reference to the Son. The dispute cannot
be settled on grammatical lines, for οὗτος canbe referred both to τὸν
ἀληθινόν[334]and also to τῷ υἱῷ; the addition: καὶ ζωὴ αἰώνιος, seems to
support the latter reference, forChrist, in the Gospelof John, calls Himself
preciselyἡ ζωή, and also in the beginning of this Epistle it is the Son of God
that is to be understoodby ἡ ζωή and ἡ ζωὴ ἡ αἰώνιος. The former reference,
on the other hand, is supported by the expression:ὁ ἀληθινὸς Θεός;for, in the
first place, it is more natural to understand here the same subjectas is
previously designatedby ὁ ἀληθινὸς, than any other; and, in the secondplace,
the Fatherand the Son, God and Jesus Christ, are always so definitely
distinguished throughout the whole Epistle that it would be strange if, at the
close ofit, and, moreover, just after both subjects have been similarly
distinguished immediately before, Christ—without further explanation, too—
should be describedas ὁ ἀληθινὸς Θεός, especiallyas this designationis never
ascribedto the Son in the writings of John, definitely though the divinity of
the Sonis taught in them.[335] To this it may be added that, after John has
brought out as the peculiar characteristic ofthe Christian’s life, of which he
partakes in the Son of God, the ΕἾΝΑΙ ἘΝ Τῷ ἈΛΗΘΙΝῷ, the clause in

question has its right meaning only if it states who that ἈΛΗΘΙΝΌς is, namely
that he is the ἈΛΗΘΙΝῸς ΘΕῸς ΚΑῚ ΖΩῊ ΑἸΏΝΙΟς. Now, though
elsewhere it is only Christ that is calledexactly Ἡ ΖΩΉ, yet He has the
ΖΩΉ—according to His own words, John 5:26—onlyfrom the Father, who
originally has the life in Himself (Ὁ ΠΑΤῊΡ ἜΧΕΙ ΖΩῊΝ ἘΝ ἙΑΥΤῷ),
and may therefore be called ΖΩῊ ΑἸΏΝΙΟς no less than the Son. Besides, it
is to be observedthat ΖΩῊ ΑἸΏΝ. is here used without the article, so that the
expressioncomes under the same categoryas the expressions:Ὁ ΘΕΌς ἘΣΤΙ
Φῶς (1 John 1:5), ἈΓΆΠΗ (1 John 4:16), ΠΝΕῦΜΑ (Gospelof John 4:24).
The objectionthat “it would be a feeble repetition, after the Father had twice
been calledὉ ἈΛΗΘΙΝΌς, againto say: this is the ἈΛΗΘΙΝῸς ΘΕΌς”
(Ebrard, similarly Weiss;also Schulze, Menschensohn, etc. p. 263[336]), is the
less valid, as the apostle has alreadyin view the warning of 1 John 5:21, and
by ἘΝ Τῷ ΥἹῷ ΑὐΤΟῦ Ἰ. ΧΡ. it is indicated that He alone is the true God,
with whom we are in fellowshipin Christ: it is only the Father of Jesus Christ
that is the true God.
The connectionof the words: ΚΑῚ ΖΩῊ ΑἸΏΝΙΟς, as a secondpredicate,
with ΟὟΤΟς, has appeareda difficulty to many commentators. Socinus
wanted to take ΟὟΤΟς = ΤΟῦΤΟ, with reference to the whole preceding
thought, and then he paraphrases ΤΟῦΤΟ by ἘΝ ΤΟΎΤῼand interprets: in
eo, quod diximus, estille verus Deus et vita aeterna;nam quatenus quis habet
et cognoscitChristi Patrem et ipsum Christum, habet et illum verum Deum et
aeternamvitam; similarly Ewald, when he paraphrases:“this, both these
things together, that we know and that we are all this, this is the true God and
eternal life.” The arbitrariness of this explanation is self-evident. Others, as
Clarke, Benson, Lücke (in his 1st ed.), supply before ΖΩῊ ΑἸΏΝ. an ΑὝΤΗ
ἘΣΤΊΝ out of ΟὟΤΌς ἘΣΤΙΝ, referring ΑὝΤΗ either to Ὁ ΥἹΌς or to the
idea ΕἾΝΑΙ ἘΝ Τῷ ἈΛΗΘ. Lücke has rightly withdrawn this explanation in
his 2d edition as unwarrantable, and correctlysays: “ΚΑῚ ΖΩῊ ΑἸΏΝ. can
certainly not be grammatically connecteddirectly with ΟὟΤΟς;” Lücke,

however, thinks that there is an ellipsis in the expression, and that it is to be
interpreted: “this … the true God is eternal life, which can either be
understood of the factthat God is the cause and source of eternallife, or thus:
His fellowshipis eternal life.” But why could not John have described by ζωὴ
αἰών. the substantial characterof the divine nature? If God has ΖΩΉ in
Himself (John 5:26), namely the ΖΩΉ which He has given to the Son, and
which believers possess throughthe Son (John 5:24), then God in His very
nature is ζωή, and ΖΩῊ ΑἸΏΝΙΟς too. As John mentions this as the
characteristic ofGod’s nature, there certainly lies in this the indication that
God is the source oflife for us.
[331]It is quite arbitrary, with Semler, to interpret the idea διάνοια =
μετάνοια καὶ πίστις. Paulus lays a specialemphasis on διά: “thinking through
(out) in contrastto a vague acceptanceandthoughtless belief” (!).
[332]Baumgarten-Crusius thinks that ἀληθ. means more here than in John
17:3, namely: “he who gives a satisfaction, in quo uno acquiescendum est;”
but if this were really containedin the idea here, that would be the case in
John 17:3 also.
[333]This explanation is so much the more justifiable, as it is to be expected
from John that at the close ofhis Epistle he would express in brief language
the highestthing that can be said of the life of the believer, and this is the εἶναι
ἐν τῷ Θεῷ (τῷ ἀληθινῷ).
[334]It lies in the very nature of the case that οὗτος may refer to the principal
subject, nay, that this is the reference mostsuitable to the word; comp. 1 John
2:22; 2 John 1:7; Acts 4:11; Acts 7:19. Calvin’s rule, which Sanderrepeats, is
erroneous:Pron. demonstr. οὗτος ordinarie, nisi evidenter textus aliud
requirat, immediate antecedens nomen respicit ac demonstrat.

[335]It is only through a superficial considerationthat, for the refutation of
this assertion, appealcanbe made to John 1:1; John 20:28, and the passages
in the Apocalypse in which the predicate ἀληθινός is ascribed to Christ.—
How little care is sometimes exercisedin the proof of the truth that what is
statedby John of Jesus Christ really proclaims Him as the true God, is shown,
amongstothers, by Schulze, in the way in which he appeals on behalf of this to
John 17:23; John 14:20, since it would follow from this that even the disciples
of Jesus could be describedas the true God.
[336]Brückner and Braune also considerthe “tautology” atleastas
something not quite out of the question; but a real tautologyis here so far
from being the case, that“Θεός” is here added to ἀληθινός, and the idea ζωὴ
αἰώνιος is directly connectedwith the idea ὁ ἀληθινὸς Θεός.
Expositor's Greek Testament
1 John 5:20. The Assurance and Guarantee of it all—the fact of the
Incarnation (ὅτι ὁ Υἱὸς τοῦ Θεοῦ ἥκει), an overwhelming demonstration of
God’s interest in us and His concernfor our highest good. Not simply a
historic fact but an abiding operation—not“came (ἦλθε),“but” hath come and
hath given us”. Our faith is not a matter of intellectual theory but of personal
and growing acquaintance with God through the enlightenment of Christ’s
Spirit, τὸν ἀληθινόν, “the real” as opposedto the false God of the heretics. See
note on 1 John 2:8. ἐν τῷ ἀληθινῷ, as the world is ἐν τῷ πονηρῷ.
Cambridge Bible for Schools andColleges
20. And we know] This introduces the third greatfact of which believers have
certain knowledge.The first two Christian certitudes are that the believer as a
child of God progressesunder Christ’s protection towards the sinlessness of
God, while the unbelieving world lies wholly in the powerof the evil one.
Therefore the Christian knows that both in the moral nature which he
inherits, and in the moral sphere in which he lives, there is an ever-widening
gulf betweenhim and the world. But his knowledge goesbeyond this. Even in

the intellectualsphere, in which the Gnostic claims to have such advantages,
the Christian is, by Christ’s bounty, superior.
The ‘and’ (δέ) brings the whole to a conclusion:comp. Hebrews 13:20;
Hebrews 13:22. Or it may mark the opposition betweenthe world’s evil case
and what is statedhere; in which case δέ should be rendered ‘but.’
is come]This includes the notion of ‘is here’ (ἥκει); but it is the coming at the
Incarnation rather than the perpetual presence that is prominent in this
context.
hath given us an understanding] Or, hath given us understanding, i.e. the
capacityfor receiving knowledge, intellectualpower. The word (διάνοια)
occurs nowhere else in S. John’s writings.
that we may know] Literally, ‘that we may continue to recognise, as we do
now’ (ἵνα with the indicative; see on John 17:3). It is the appropriation of the
knowledge that is emphasized; hence ‘recognise’(γινώσκομεν)rather than
‘know’ (οἴδαμεν). The latter word is used at the opening of these three verses:
there it is the possessionofthe knowledge that is the main thing.
him that is true] God; another parallel with Christ’s Prayer; ‘that they should
know Thee the only true God’ (John 17:3), where some authorities give ἵνα
with the indicative, as here. ‘True’ does not mean ‘that cannot lie’ (Titus 1:2),
but ‘genuine, real, very,’ as opposedto the false gods of 1 John 5:21. See on 1
John 2:8. What is the Gnostic’s claim to superior knowledge in comparison
with this? We know that we have the Divine gift of intelligence by means of
which we attain to the knowledge ofa personalGod who embraces and
sustains us in his Son.

and we are in him] A fresh sentence, not dependent on either preceding ‘that’.
‘Him that is true’ againmeans God. It is arbitrary to change the meaning and
make this refer to Christ. ‘The Son has given us understanding by which to
attain to knowledge ofthe Father.’ Insteadof resuming ‘And we do know the
Father,’the Apostle makes an advance and says:‘And we are in the Father.’
Knowledge has become fellowship(1 John 1:3, 1 John 2:3-5). God has
appearedas man; God has spokenas man to man; and the Christian faith,
which is the one absolute certainty for man, the one means of re-uniting him
to God, is the result.
even in his Son Jesus Christ]Omit ‘even’ which has been inserted in A.V. and
R.V. to make ‘in Him that is true’ refer to Christ. This last clause explains
how it is that we are in the Father, viz. by being in the Son. Comp. 1 John
2:23; John 1:18; John 14:9; John 17:21;John 17:23. Tyndale boldly turns the
second‘in’ into ‘through’; ‘we are in him that is true, through his sonne Jesu
Christ.’ We have had similar explanatory additions in 1 John 5:13; 1 John
5:16.
This is the true God] It is impossible to determine with certainty whether
‘This’ (οὗτος)refers to the Father, the principal substantive of the previous
sentence, orto Jesus Christ, the nearestsubstantive. That S. John teaches the
Divinity of Jesus Christ both in Epistle and Gospelis so manifest, that a text
more or less in favour of the doctrine need not be the subject of heated
controversy. The following considerations are in favour of referring ‘This’ to
Christ. 1. Jesus Christ is the subject last mentioned. 2. The Fatherhaving
been twice called ‘the true One’ in the previous verse, to proceedto say of
Him ‘This is the true God’ is somewhattautological. 3. It is Christ who both in
this Epistle (1 John 1:2, 1 John 5:12) and also in the Gospel(John 11:25, John
14:6) is called the Life. 4. S. Athanasius three times in his Orations againstthe
Arians interprets the passagein this way, as if there was no doubt about it
(III. xxiv. 4, xxv. 16;IV. ix. 1). The following are in favour of referring ‘This’

to the Father. 1. The Fatheris the leading subjectof all that follows
‘understanding.’ 2. To repeat what has been already stated and add to it is
exactly S. John’s style. He has spokenof ‘Him that is true’: and he now goes
on ‘This (true One) is the true God and eternal life.’ 3. It is the Fatherwho is
the source ofthat life which the Sonhas and is (John 5:26). 4. John 7:3
supports this view. 5. The Divinity of Christ has less specialpoint in reference
to the warning againstidols: the truth that God is the true God is the basis of
the warning againstfalse gods:comp. 1 Thessalonians 1:9. But see the
conclusionof the note on ‘from idols’ in the next verse:see also note k in Lect.
v. of Liddon’s Bampton Lectures.
Bengel's Gnomen
1 John 5:20. Ἥκει)is come. Thus, ἡκω, Mark 8:3, note.—δέδωκεν, has given)
that is, God: for in the preceding clause also the subject is by implication God,
in this sense:God sent his own Son: and to this is referred αὐτοῦ, of Him,
which presently follows.—διάνοιαν, understanding) not only knowledge, but
the faculty of knowing.—τὸνἀληθινὸν, the True One) Understand, His Son
Jesus Christ: as presently afterwards. Whence it is perceived with what great
majesty the Son thus entitles Himself: Revelation3:7.—οὗτος)This, the True
One, the Son of God Jesus Christ: to whom the title of Life eternal is
befitting.—ζωὴ αἰώνιος, Life eternal) The beginning and the end of the Epistle
are in close agreement.
Pulpit Commentary
Verse 20. - And we know. The "and" δέ is here rightly given - it sums up the
whole with a final asseveration. Whateverthe world and its philosophy
choosesto assert, Christians know that the Son of God has come in the flesh,
and has endowed them with mental faculties capable of attaining to a
knowledge ofthe true God. The Christian's certainty is not fanaticismor
superstition; he is "readyalways to give answerto every man that asketha
reasonconcerning the hope that is in him" (1 Peter3:15); by the gift of Christ
he is able to obtain an intelligent knowledge ofhim who is indeed God. "Him
that is true" does not mean God, who is not, like the devil, a liar, but "very
God," as opposedto the idols againstwhich St. John goes on to warn them.

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