GREEK. LATIN.
Αγαπητοι, αγαπωμεν Carissimi, diligamus
αλ ληλους, ὁτι ἡ αγαπη invicem, quoniam caritas
εκ του Θεου εστι, και ex Deo est, et
πας ὁ αγαπων εκ του omnis qui diligit ex
Θεου γεγεννηται και Deo natus est et cognoscit
γινωσκει τον Θεον· ὁ Deum. Qui non
μη αγαπων ουκ εγνω diligit non novit Deum,
τον Θεον· ὁτι ὁ Θεος quoniam Deus caritas
αγαπη εστιν. Εν τουτω est. In hoc apparuit
εφανερωθη ἡ αγαπη του caritas Dei in nobis,
Θεου εν ἡμιν, ὁτι τον quoniam Filium Suum
υιον αυτου τον μονογενη unigenitum misit Deus
απεσταλκεν ὁ Θεος εις in mundum, ut vivamus
τον κοσμον, ἱνα ζησωμεν per Eum. In hoc
δι αυτου. εν τουτω est caritas, non quasi
εστιν ἡ αγαπη, ουχ ὁτι nos dilexerimus Deum,
ἡμεις ηγαπησαμεν τον sed quoniam ipse dilexit
Θεον, αλλ' ὁτι αυτος nos et misit Filium
ηγαπησεν ἡμας και suum propitionem pro
απεστειλε τον υιον peccatis nostris. Carissimi,
αυτου ιλασμον περι si sic Deus
των ἁμαρτιων ἡμων. dilexit nos, et nos debemus
αγαπητοι, ει ουτως ὁ alterutrum diligere.
Θεος ηγαπησεν ἡμας, Deum nemo
και ἡμεις ὁφειλομεν vidit unquam: si diligamus
αλληλους αγαπαν. Θεον invicem, Deus
ουδεις πωποτε τεθεαται· in nobis manet, et
εαν αγαπωμεν αλληλους, caritas eius in nobis
ὁ Θεος εν ἡμιν μενει, perfecta est. In hos
και ἡ αγαπη αυτου intellegimus quoniam
τετελειωμενη εστιν εν in eum manemus et
ἡμιν. εν τουτω γινωσκομεν ipse in nobis, quoniam
ὁτι εν αυτω de Spiritu Suo dedit
μενομεν και αυτος εν nobis. Et nos vidimus
ἡμιν, ὁτι εκ του Πνευματος et testificamur quoniam
αυτου δεδωκεν ἡμιν. Pater misit Filium
Και ἡμεις τεθεαμεθα salvatorem mundi.
και μαρτυρουμεν ὁτι ὁ Quicunque confessus
πατηρ απεσταλκε τον fuerit quoniam Iesus
υιου σωτηρα του κοσμου. est Filius Dei, Deus in
ὁς αν ὁμολογηση ὁτι eo manet, et ipse in
Ιησους εστιν ὁ υιος του Deo. Et nos cognovimus
Θεου, ὁ Θεος εν αυτω et credimus, caritati
μενει και αυτος εν τω Dei quam habet
Θεω. Και ἡμεις εγνωκαμεν Deus in nobis. Deus
και πεπιστευκαμεν caritas est, et qui manet
την αγαπην ἡν εχει ὁ in caritate in Deo manet,
Θεος εν ἡμιν. ὁ Θεος et Deus in eo. In
αγαπη εστι, και ὁ μενων hoc perfecta est nobiscum
εν τη αγαπη εν τω Θεω caritas ut fiduciam
μενει, και ὁ Θεος εν habeamus in die iudicii
αυτω. Εν τουτω τετελειωται quia sicut ille est et
ἡ αγαπη μεθ' nos sumus in hoc
ἡμων, ἱνα παρρησιαν mundo. Timor non
εχωμεν εν τη ἡμερα της est in caritate, sed
κρισεως· ὁτι καθως perfecta caritas foras
εκεινος εστι και ἡμεις mittit timorem; quoniam
εσμεν εν τω κοσμω timor pœnam
τουτω. φοβος ουκ εστιν habet, qui autem timet
εν τη αγαπη, αλλ' ἡ non est perfectus in
τελεια αγαπη εξω βαλλει caritate. Nos ergo
τον φοβον, ὁτι ὁ φοβος diligamus invicem quoniam
κολασιν εχει, ὁ δε Deus prior dilexit
φοβουμενος ου τετελειωται nos. Si quis dixerit
εν τη αγαπη. ἡμεις quoniam diligo Deum,
αγαπωμεν αυτον, ὁτι et fratrem suum oderit,
αυτος πρωτος ηγαπησεν mendax est: qui enim
ημας. Εαν τις ειπη. non diligit fratrem
Ὁτι αγαπω τον Θεον, suum quem videt,
και τον αδελφον αυτου Deum quem non videt
μιση, ψευστης εστιν· ὁ quomodo potest diligere?
γαρ μη αγαπων τον Et hoc mandatum
αδελφον αυτου ὁν ἑωρακε habemus a Deo,
τον Θεον ὁν ουχ ἑωρακε ut qui diligat Deum
πως δυναται αγαπαν; diligat et fratrem suum.
και ταυτην την εντολην
εχομεν απ' αυτου, ἱνα Omnis qui credit
ὁ αγαπων τον Θεον quoniam Iesus est
αγαπα και τον αδελφον Christus, ex Deo natus
αυτου. est; et omnis qui diligit
eum qui genuit, diligit
Πας ὁ πιστευων ὁτι eum qui natus est
Ιησους εστιν ὁ Χριστος ex eo. In hoc cognoscimus
εκ του Θεου γεγεννηται· quoniam diligimus
και πας ὁ αγαπων τον natos Dei, cum
γεννησαντα αγαπα και Deum diligamus et
τον γεγεννημενον εξ mandata eius faciamus.
αυτου. εν τουτω γινωσκομεν Hæc est enim caritas
ὁτι αγαπωμεν Dei, ut mandata eius
τα τεκνα του Θεου, ὁταν custodiamus.
τον Θεον αγαπωμεν και
τας εντολας αυτου τηρωμεν.
αυτη γαρ εστιν
ἡ αγαπη του Θεου, ἱνα
τας εντολας αυτου τηρωμεν.
AUTHORISED VERSION. REVISED VERSION.
Beloved, let us love Beloved, let us love
one another: for love one another: for love
is of God; and every is of God; and every
one that loveth is born one that loveth is begotten
of God, and knoweth of God, and
God. He that loveth knoweth God. He
not knoweth not God; that loveth not knoweth
for God is love. In not God; for God
this was manifested is love. Herein was
the love of God toward the love of God manifested
us, because that in us, that God
God sent His only begotten hath sent His only begotten
Son into the Son into the
world, that we might world, that we might
live through Him. live through Him.
Herein is love, not Herein is love, not
that we loved God, that we loved God,
but that He loved us, but that He loved us,
and sent His Son _to be_ and sent His Son _to be_
the propitiation for our the propitiation for our
sins. Beloved, if God sins. Beloved, if God
so loved us, we ought so loved us, we also
also to love one another. ought to love one another.
No man hath No man hath
seen God at any time. beheld God at any
If we love one another, time: if we love one
God dwelleth in us, another, God abideth
and His love is perfected in us, and His love is
in us. Hereby perfected in us: hereby
know we that we dwell know we that we
in Him, and He in us, abide in Him, and He
because He hath given in us, because He hath
us of His Spirit. And given us of His Spirit.
we have seen and do And we have beheld
testify that the Father and bear witness that
sent the Son _to be_ the the Father hath sent
Saviour of the world. the Son _to be_ the
Whosoever shall confess Saviour of the world.
that Jesus is the Whosoever shall confess
Son of God, God dwelleth that Jesus is the
in him, and he in Son of God, God abideth
God. And we have in him, and he in
known and believed God. And we know
the love that God hath and have believed the
to us. God is love: love which God hath
and he that dwelleth in us. God is love;
in love dwelleth in and he that abideth in
God, and God in him. love abideth in God,
Herein is our love and God abideth in
made perfect, that we him. Herein is love
may have boldness in made perfect with us,
the day of judgment: that we may have boldness
because as He is, so in the day of
are we in this world. judgment; because as
There is no fear in He is, even so are we
love; but perfect love in this world. There
casteth out fear: because is no fear in love: but
fear hath torment. perfect love casteth out
He that feareth fear, because fear hath
is not made perfect punishment; and he
in love. We love that feareth is not
Him, because He made perfect in love.
first loved us. If a We love, because He
man say, I love God, first loved us. If a
and hateth his brother, man say, I love God,
he is a liar: for he and hateth his brother,
that loveth not his he is a liar: for he
brother whom he hath that loveth not his
seen, how can he love brother whom he hath
God whom he hath not seen, cannot love God
seen? And this commandment whom he hath not seen.
have we And this commandment
from Him, That he have we from
who loveth God love Him, that he who
his brother also. loveth God love his
brother also.
Whosoever believeth
that Jesus is the Christ Whosoever believeth
is born of God: and that Jesus is the Christ
every one that loveth is begotten of God:
Him that begat loveth and whosoever loveth
Him also that is begotten Him that begat loveth
of Him. By this we Him also that is begotten
know that we love the of Him. Hereby
children of God, when we know that we
we love God, and keep love the children of
His commandments. God, when we love
For this is the love of God, and do His commandments.
God, that we keep For this
His commandments. is the love of God, that
we keep His commandments.
ANOTHER VERSION.
Beloved, let us love
one another, for love
is of God, and every
one that loveth is born
of God, and knoweth
God. He that loveth
not knoweth not God,
for God is love. In
this was manifested
the love of God in us,
because that God hath
sent His Son His only
begotten Son into the
world that we might
live through Him. In
this is The Love, not
that we loved God,
but that He loved us,
and sent His Son _as_
propitiation for our
sins. Beloved, if God
so loved us, we also
are bounden to love
one another. God no
one hath ever yet beholden:
if we love one
another God abideth
in us and His love is
perfected in us. Herein
know we that we
abide in Him, and He
in us, because He hath
given us out of the
_fulness_ of His Spirit.
And we have beheld
and are bearing witness
that the Father
hath sent the Son _as_
the Saviour of the
world. Whosoever
shall confess that Jesus
is the Son of God, God
abideth in him and he
in God. And we know
and have believed the
love which God hath
in us. God is love; and
he that abideth in love,
abideth in God, and
God in him. Herein
hath The Love been
perfected with us that
we may have boldness
in the Day of the
Judgment: because as
He is so are we in this
world. Fear is not in
love: but the perfect
love casteth out fear,
because fear bringeth
punishment with it.
He that is fearing is
not made perfect in his
love. We love Him
because He first loved
us. If a man say, I love
God, and hateth his
brother, he is a liar:
for he that loveth not
his brother whom he
hath seen, God whom
he hath not seen how
can he love? And
this commandment
have we from Him,
that he who loveth
God love his brother
also.
Whosoever believeth
that Jesus is the Christ
is born of God, and
every one who loveth
Him that begat loveth
also Him that is begotten
of Him. Herein
we know that we love
the children of God,
when we love God and
do His commandments:
for this is the love of
God, that we observe
His commandments.
DISCOURSE X.
_BOLDNESS IN THE DAY OF JUDGMENT._
"Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the
Day of Judgment: because as He is, so are we in this world."--1
JOHN iv. 17.
It has been so often repeated that St. John's eschatology is idealized
and spiritual, that people now seldom pause to ask what is meant by the
words. Those who repeat them most frequently seem to think that the
idealized means that which will never come into the region of historical
fact, and that the spiritual is best defined as the unreal. Yet, without
postulating the Johannic authorship of the Apocalypse--where the
Judgment is described with the most awful accompaniments of outward
solemnity[256]--there are two places in this Epistle which are allowed
to drop out of view, but which bring us face to face with the visible
manifestations of an external Advent. It is a peculiarity of St. John's
style (as we have frequently seen) to strike some chord of thought, so
to speak, before its time; to allow the prelusive note to float away,
until suddenly, after a time, it surprises us by coming back again with
a fuller and bolder resonance. "And now, my sons,"[257] (had the Apostle
said) "abide in Him, that if He shall be manifested, we may have
confidence, and not be ashamed shrinking from Him[258] at His
coming."[259] In our text the same thought is resumed, and the reality
of the Coming and Judgment in its external manifestation as emphatically
given as in any other part of the New Testament.[260]
We may here speak of the conception of the Day of the Judgment: of the
fear with which that conception is encompassed; and of the sole means
of the removal of that fear which St. John recognises.
I.
We examine the general conception of "the Day of the Judgment," as
given in the New Testament.
As there is that which with terrible emphasis is marked off as "_the_
Judgment,"[261] "_the_ Parousia," so there are other judgments or
advents of a preparatory character. As there are phenomena known as mock
suns, or haloes round the moon, so there are fainter reflections ringed
round the Advent, the Judgment.[262] Thus, in the development of
history, there are successive cycles of continuing judgment; preparatory
advents; less completed _crises_, as even the world calls them.
But against one somewhat widely-spread way of blotting the Day of the
Judgment from the calendar of the future--so far as believers are
concerned--we should be on our guard. Some good men think themselves
entitled to reason thus--"I am a Christian. I shall be an assessor in
the judgment. For me there is, therefore, no judgment day." And it is
even held out as an inducement to others to close with this conclusion,
that they "shall be delivered from the bugbear of judgment."
The origin of this notion seems to be in certain universal tendencies
of modern religious thought.
The idolatry of the immediate--the prompt creation of effect--is the
perpetual snare of _revivalism_. _Revivalism_ is thence fatally bound at
once to follow the tide of emotion, and to increase the volume of the
waters by which it is swept along. But the religious emotion of this
generation has one characteristic by which it is distinguished from that
of previous centuries. The revivalism of the past in all Churches rode
upon the dark waves of fear. It worked upon human nature by exaggerated
material descriptions of hell, by solemn appeals to the throne of
Judgment. Certain schools of biblical criticism have enabled men to
steel themselves against this form of preaching. An age of soft
humanitarian sentiment--superficial, and inclined to forget that perfect
Goodness may be a very real cause of fear--must be stirred by emotions
of a different kind. The infinite sweetness of our Father's heart--the
conclusions, illogically but effectively drawn from this, of an
Infinite good-nature, with its easy-going pardon, reconciliation all
round, and exemption from all that is unpleasant--these, and such as
these, are the only available materials for creating a great volume of
emotion. An invertebrate creed; punishment either annihilated or
mitigated; judgment, changed from a solemn and universal assize, a bar
at which every soul must stand, to a splendid, and--for all who can say
I _am saved_--a triumphant pageant in which they have no anxious
concern; these are the readiest instruments, the most powerful leverage,
with which to work extensively upon masses of men at the present time.
And the seventh article of the Apostles' Creed must pass into the limbo
of exploded superstition.
The only appeal to Scripture which such persons make, with any show of
plausibility, is contained in an exposition of our Lord's teaching in a
part of the fifth chapter of the fourth Gospel.[263] But clearly there
are three Resurrection scenes which may be discriminated in those words.
The first is spiritual, a present awakening of dead souls,[264] in those
with whom the Son of Man is brought into contact in His earthly
ministry. The second is a department of the same spiritual resurrection.
The Son of God, with that mysterious gift of Life in Himself,[265] has
within Him a perpetual spring of rejuvenescence for a faded and dying
world. A renewal of hearts is in process during all the days of time, a
passage for soul after soul out of death into life.[266] The third scene
is the general Resurrection and general Judgment.[267] The first was the
resurrection of comparatively few; the second is the resurrection of
many; the third will be the resurrection of all. If it is said that the
believer "cometh not into _judgment_," the word in that place plainly
signifies _condemnation_.[268]
Clear and plain above all such subtleties ring out the awe-inspiring
words: "it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the
Judgment;" "we must all appear before the judgment-seat of Christ."[269]
Reason supplies us with two great arguments for the General Judgment.
One from the conscience of history, so to speak; the other from the
individual conscience.
1. General history points to a general judgment. If there is no such
judgment to come, then there is no one definite moral purpose in human
society. Progress would be a melancholy word, a deceptive appearance, a
stream that has no issue, a road that leads nowhere. No one who believes
that there is a Personal God, Who guides the course of human affairs,
can come to the conclusion that the generations of man are to go on for
ever without a winding-up, which shall decide upon the doings of all who
take part in human life. In the philosophy of nature, the affirmation or
denial of purpose is the affirmation or denial of God. So in the
philosophy of history. Society without the General Judgment would be a
chaos of random facts, a thing without rational retrospect or definite
end--_i.e._, without God. If man is under the government of God, human
history is a drama, long-drawn, and of infinite variety, with
inconceivably numerous actors. But a drama must have a last act. The
last act of the drama of history is "The Day of the Judgment."
2. The other argument is derived from the individual conscience.
Conscience, as a matter of fact, has two voices. One is _imperative_;
it tells us what we are to do. One is _prophetic_, and warns us of
something which we are to receive. If there is to be no Day of the
General Judgment, then the million prophecies of conscience will be
belied, and our nature prove to be mendacious to its very roots.
There is no essential article of the Christian creed like this which
can be isolated from the rest, and treated as if it stood alone. There
is a _solidarity_ of each with all the rest. Any which is isolated is
in danger itself, and leaves the others exposed. For they have an
internal harmony and congruity. They do not form a hotchpot of
credenda. They are not so many _beliefs_ but one _belief_. Thus the
isolation of articles is perilous. For, when we try to grasp and to
defend one of them, we have no means left of measuring it but by terms
of comparison which are drawn from ourselves, which must therefore be
finite, and by the inadequacy of the scale which they present, appear
to render the article of faith thus detached incredible. Moreover,
each article of our creed is a revelation of the Divine attributes,
which meet together in unity. To divide the attributes by dividing the
form in which they are revealed to us is to belie and falsify the
attribute; to give a monstrous development to one by not taking into
account some other which is its balance and compensation. Thus, many
men deny the truth of a punishment which involves final separation
from God. They glory in the legal judgment which "dismisses hell with
costs." But they do so by fixing their attention exclusively upon the
one dogma which reveals one attribute of God. They isolate it from the
Fall, from the Redemption by Christ, from the gravity of sin, from the
truth that all whom the message of the Gospel reaches may avoid the
penal consequences of sin. It is impossible to face the dogma of
eternal separation from God without facing the dogma of Redemption.
For Redemption involves in its very idea the intensity of sin, which
needed the sacrifice of the Son of God; and further, the fact that the
offer of salvation is so free and wide that it cannot be put away
without a terrible wilfulness.
In dealing with many of the articles of the creed, there are opposite
extremes. Exaggeration leads to a revenge upon them which is, perhaps,
more perilous than neglect. Thus, as regards eternal punishment, in
one country ghastly exaggerations were prevalent. It was assumed that
the vast majority of mankind "are destined to everlasting punishment";
that "the floor of hell is crawled over by hosts of babies a span
long." The inconsistency of such views with the love of God, and with
the best instincts of man, was victoriously and passionately
demonstrated. Then unbelief turned upon the dogma itself, and argued,
with wide acceptance, that "with the overthrow of this conception goes
the whole redemption-plan, the Incarnation, the Atonement, the
Resurrection, and the grand climax of the Church-scheme, the General
Judgment." But the alleged article of faith was simply an
exaggeration of that faith, and the objections lay altogether against
the exaggeration of it.
II.
We have now to speak of the removal of that terror which accompanies the
conception of the Day of the Judgment, and of the sole means of that
emancipation which St. John recognises. For terror there is in every
point of the repeated descriptions of Scripture--in the surroundings, in
the summons, in the tribunal, in the trial, in one of the two sentences.
"God is love," writes St. John, "and he that abideth in love abideth
in God: and God abideth in him. In this [abiding], love stands
perfected _with us_,[270] and the object is nothing less than this,"
not that we may be exempted from judgment, but that "we may have
boldness in the Day of the Judgment." Boldness! It is the splendid
word which denotes the citizen's right of free speech, the masculine
privilege of courageous liberty.[271] It is the tender word which
expresses the child's unhesitating confidence, in "saying all out" to
the parent. The ground of the boldness is conformity to Christ.
Because "as He _is_," with that vivid idealizing sense, frequent in
St. John when he uses it of our Lord--"as He is," delineated in the
fourth Gospel, seen by "the eye of the heart"[272] with constant
reverence in the soul, with adoring wonder in heaven, perfectly true,
pure, and righteous--"even so" (not, of course, with any equality in
degree to that consummate ideal, but with a likeness ever growing, an
aspiration ever advancing[273])--"so are we in this world," purifying
ourselves as He is pure.
Let us draw to a definite point our considerations upon the Judgment,
and the Apostle's sweet encouragement for the "day of wrath, that
dreadful day."
It is of the essence of the Christian faith to believe that the Son of
God, in the Human Nature which He assumed, and which He has borne into
heaven, shall come again, and gather all before Him, and pass sentence
of condemnation or of peace according to their works. To hold this is
necessary to prevent terrible doubts of the very existence of God; to
guard us against sin, in view of that solemn account; to comfort us
under affliction.
What a thought for us, if we would but meditate upon it! Often we
complain of a commonplace life, of mean and petty employment. How can
it be so, when at the end we, and those with whom we live, must look
upon that great, overwhelming sight! Not an eye that shall not see
Him, not a knee that shall not bow, not an ear that shall not hear the
sentence. The heart might sink and the imagination quail under the
burden of the supernatural existence which we cannot escape. One of
two looks we must turn upon the Crucified--one willing as that which
we cast on some glorious picture, or on the enchantment of the sky;
the other unwilling and abject. We should weep first with Zechariah's
mourners, with tears at once bitter because they are for sin, and
sweet because they are for Christ.
But, above all things, let us hear how St. John sings us the sweet low
hymn that breathes consolation through the terrible fall of the triple
hammer-stroke of the rhyme in the _Dies iræ_. We must seek to lead
upon earth a life laid on the lines of Christ's. Then, when the Day of
the Judgment comes; when the cross of fire (so, at least, the early
Christians thought) shall stand in the black vault; when the sacred
wounds of Him who was pierced shall stream over with a light beyond
dawn or sunset; we shall find that the discipline of life is complete,
that God's love after all its long working with us stands perfected,
so that we shall be able, as citizens of the kingdom, as children of
the Father, to say out all. A Christlike character in an un-Christlike
world--this is the cure of the disease of terror. Any other is but the
medicine of a quack. "There is no fear in love; but the perfect love
casteth out fear, because fear brings punishment; and he that feareth
is not made perfect in love."[274]
We may well close with that pregnant commentary on this verse which
tells us of the four possible conditions of a human soul--"without
either fear or love; with fear, without love; with fear and love; with
love, without fear."[275]
NOTES.
Ch. iv. 7, v. 3.
Ver. 3. This verse should divide about the middle.
FOOTNOTES:
[256] Apoc. xx. 12, 13.
[257] 1 John ii. 28.
[258] αισχυνθωμεν απ' αυτου, see Jerem. xii. 13 (for מִן בּושׁ). Prof.
Westcott happily quotes, "as a guilty thing surprised."
[259] _Coming_, εν τη παρουσια αυτου. The word is not found elsewhere
in the Johannic group of writings. But by his use of it here, St. John
falls into line with the whole array of apostolic witnesses--with St.
Matthew (xxiv. 3-27, 37, 39); with St. Paul (_passim_); with St. James
(v. 7, 8); with St. Peter (2 Peter i. 16, iii. 4-12). This fact may
well warn critics of the precarious character of theories founded upon
"the negative phenomena of the books of the New Testament." (See
Professor Westcott's excellent note, _The Epistles of St. John_, 80.)
[260] (εν τη ἡμερα της κρισεως)--"in the Day of the Judgment"--cf.
Apoc. xiv. 7. We have "in THE Judgment" (Matt. xii. 41, 42; Luke x.
14, xi. 31, 32)--the indefinite "day of judgment" (Matt. x. 15, xi.
22, 24; Mark vi. 11).
[261] 2 Pet. ii. 9, iii. 7--but "_The_ Day of _The_ Judgment," here
only.
[262] Cf. our Lord's words--"_henceforth_ (απ' αρτι) ye shall see the
Son of Man _coming_." (Matt. xxvi. 64.)
[263] John v. 21, 29.
[264] Ver. 21.
[265] Ver. 26.
[266] Ver. 24.
[267] Ver. 28, 29.
[268] The writer ventures to lament the substitution of "judgment" for
"condemnation," ver. 24. R.V. It is a verbal consistency, or minute
accuracy, purchased at the heavy price of a false thought, suggested
to many readers who are not scholars. "In John's language κρισις is,
(_a_) that _judgment_ which came in pain and misery to those who
rejected the salvation offered to mankind by Christ, iii. 19, κ.τ.λ.,
ερχεσθαι εις κρισιν, to _fall into the state of one thus condemned_,
v. 24. (_b_) Judgment of condemnation to the wicked, with ensuing
rejection, v. 29." Grimm. Lex. N.T. 247. Between this passage of the
fourth Gospel and Apoc. xx., there is a marvellous inner harmony of
thought. "The first resurrection" (ver. 6) = John v. 21, 26; then vv.
11, 12, 13 = John v. 28, 29.
[269] Heb. ix. 27; 2 Cor. v. 10, cf. Rom. xiv. 10; Apoc. xx. 11, 12, 13.
[270] μεθ' ἡμων--God's love in itself is perfected. It might be made
as perfect as man's nature will admit by an instantaneous act; but God
works jointly, in companionship with us. The grace of God "preventing
us that we may will, _works with us_ when we will." The essential idea
of μετα is _companionship_ or _connexion_. (See Donaldson, _Gr. Gr.,
50, 52 a._)
[271] ελευθεριας ἡ πολις μεστη και παρρησιας γιγνεται. (Plat., _Rep._,
557 B). The word is derived from παν and ῥησις.
[272] Ephes. i. 18.
[273] Cf. Matt. v. 48.
[274] Ver. 18.
[275] Bengel. The writer must acknowledge his obligation to Professor
Westcott, whose exposition gives us a peculiar conception of the depth
of St. John's teaching here. (_The Epistles of St. John_, 149-153).