OVERVIEW: We are now living in the last times, which are characterized by the coming of the antichrist. Here John uses this word in the plural, as well as in the singular, and it is clear that he has heretics primarily in view. Antichrists are people who once belonged to the church in formal terms but who never shared its spirit and who eventually went off to proclaim their own beliefs. The most common of these was that Jesus was not the Messiah come from God to save us from our sins. The Fathers recognized that this denial of Christian orthodoxy could come in many forms, ranging from Judaism to the heresies of the fourth and fifth centuries, but the precise details were secondary. It was only to be expected that heretics would have confused and contradictory beliefs. All that mattered is that whatever they were, they were a departure from the faith once delivered by the apostles.
As the lamb is sacrificed in the evening, the Lord will return at the end of time (JEROME, ANDREAS). Then the world will reach the limits of what evil can do (OECUMENIUS). Blasphemies of those who have once been Christian (DIDYMUS) will precede his coming (ANDREAS). Some will not persevere (AUGUSTINE). The antichrists were never really a part of us (BEDE, OECUMENIUS). Had they been truly faithful, they would have continued with us (ANDREAS). All who have withdrawn from the love and the unity of the universal church are adversaries, antichrists (CYPRIAN).
By contrast, the faithful received the sacred anointing (SEVERUS) by their baptism (ANDREAS) and by the same Holy Spirit (BEDE) who led them into all truth (OECUMENIUS). You all know the same truth because you received it in the rule of faith that you professed at your baptism (HILARY OF ARLES). Never lie (AUGUSTINE). Any lie is foreign to Christ (BEDE). To deny that Jesus is the Christ (ANDREAS) is the supreme lie (BEDE). It is a lie to say that the Christ is merely another human being and not truly God (OECUMENIUS). No one comes to the Father except through the Son (HILARY OF ARLES, ANDREAS). Only by confessing him in heart, word and deed by the Spirit (BEDE) will you have fellowship with both the Father and the Son (ANDREAS). To have eternal life is to know the one true God, and Jesus Christ whom he has sent (THEOPHYLACT). Insofar as you have been taught by the indwelling Holy Spirit, you do not need innovative teachers. The anointing of which John speaks is the love of God itself, which has been poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit (BEDE). Those in the church who were filled with the Holy Spirit came to know what that teaching was. They did not require further instruction about it, though they did need exhortation and encouragement to live up to it, in spite of every temptation and inducement to do otherwise. Perfect righteousness is possible for those who trust God’s righteousness by faith, who have not succumbed to pride but who have remained attentive to the Word of God and accepted no lord other than the One who created them (BEDE). When the Lord appears at his second coming, the one who knows the Son and the Father will have confidence and will not shrink in shame or be confounded (CLEMENT OF ALEXANDRIA, ANDREAS, BEDE, OECUMENIUS).
ANTICHRISTS WERE ONCE CHRISTIANS. DIDYMUS THE BLIND: These things are not said of all who teach false doctrine but only of those who join a false sect after they have heard the truth. It is because they were once Christians that they are now called antichrists. COMMENTARY ON 1 JOHN.1
IT IS THE LAST HOUR. AUGUSTINE: Let us recall how long ago it was that John said that it is the last hour. If we had been alive then and had heard this, how could we have believed that so many years would pass after it, and would we not rather have hoped that the Lord would come while John was still present in the body? LETTERS 199.7.2
THE CLOSE OF THE AGES. JEROME: Why is the lamb offered up in the evening and not during the day? The reason is plain enough, for our Lord and Savior suffered his passion at the close of the ages, which is why John called it the last hour. SERMONS 91.3
HIS COMING ANNOUNCED. ANDREAS: The antichrist will come at the end of the world, and the heresies have already announced his coming, for they are his friends and brothers, since they both blaspheme Christ. CATENA.4
THE ELEVENTH HOUR. BEDE: As Jesus indicated in the parable of the vineyard, this is the last hour. The laborers who were in the vineyard from the first hour cultivated the Lord’s vine, which means that by teaching and living righteous lives they served the will of their Creator. The laborers who entered at the third hour are those who came in after the time of Noah. The sixth hour was the time of Abraham. The ninth hour was the time at which the law was given. The eleventh hour is the time from the incarnation of our Lord until the end of time, which is described by divine revelation as follows. During the eleventh hour the Savior will return in the flesh, and the plague of the antichrist, who will attack the messengers of salvation, will follow. ON 1 JOHN.5
THE LIMITS OF WHAT EVIL CAN DO. OECUMENIUS: It is possible that John calls this the last hour because in it we have reached the limits of what evil can do. For since the coming of the Savior the world has been upset by great evils caused by the devil, either as a way of testing the good or as a way of confusing those who are better still, so that they will no longer know the difference between good and evil. Therefore he calls this the last hour, because things cannot get any worse than they are now. This interpretation is supported by what he goes on to say about the antichrist. COMMENTARY ON 1 JOHN.6
PLAIN TO ALL. CYPRIAN: This verse makes it plain that all who are known to have withdrawn from the love and the unity of the universal church are adversaries of the Lord and antichrists. LETTERS 69.1.7
SOME WILL NOT PERSEVERE. AUGUSTINE: It seems to us that all who appear to be good and faithful ought to receive the gift of final perseverance. God, however, has judged it better to mingle some who will not persevere with the certain number of his saints, so that those for whom security in the temptations of this life is not helpful cannot be secure. ON THE GIFT OF PERSEVERANCE 8.19.8
THEY WERE NEVER REALLY WITH US. ANDREAS: John says this because there were some people who had become teachers but had subsequently departed from the truth in order to follow the blasphemies of their own minds. But even if they were once among us, John adds, they were never really part of us, since if they had been, they would have stayed with us. CATENA.9
THE BENEFIT OF REMOVING A TUMOR. BEDE: John says that the antichrists have gone out from us but then adds the comforting words that they were never really with us beforehand. In fact, he is saying that no one except an antichrist would even leave us, for those who are not against Christ will cling to his body. In the body of Christ there are those who are still being healed and who will not be fully well again until the resurrection of the dead. But there are also others who are malignant tumors, and when they are removed the body is spared. Thus it is that the departure of such people is of great benefit to the church. ON 1 JOHN.10
THEY WENT OUT FROM US. OECUMENIUS: Some people will ask where the antichrists have come from, and the sad answer is that they have come from our midst. That way they can pretend to have all the credibility of true disciples and stand a better chance of seducing the unwary. They became disciples themselves at first but then departed from the truth and invented their own blasphemies to replace it. COMMENTARY ON 1 JOHN.11
YOU HAVE BEEN ANOINTED. SEVERUS OF ANTIOCH: All have been anointed, not only the prophets and holy men who lived in their days but also and especially all those who later believed in the great and only true anointed one (Christ), our God and Savior, along with those who continue to believe in him. For in the divine washing of regeneration and baptism when we are symbolically anointed with myrrh, we receive his inheritance by the Holy Spirit and his rich gifts, by which we know that we are heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ. CATENA.12
ANOINTED AT BAPTISM. ANDREAS: This is what each of us has received at baptism. CATENA.13
SPIRITUAL ANOINTING. BEDE: The spiritual anointing is the Holy Spirit himself, who is given in the sacrament of anointing. John says that they all have this anointing and can distinguish good people from evil ones, so that he has no need to teach them what they already know because of their anointing. Because he is talking about heretics in this passage, he points out that they have received their anointing from the Holy One in order to underline the fact that the heretics and all antichrists are deprived of that gift and do not belong to the Lord but rather are servants of Satan. ON 1 JOHN.14
YOU ALL KNOW. OECUMENIUS: They had all received the sacred anointing by their baptism and by the same Holy Spirit who led them into all truth. Because of this John was not writing to the ignorant but to people who knew what he was talking about. COMMENTARY ON 1 JOHN.15
WE OUGHT NOT TO LIE. AUGUSTINE: Therefore it is not true that sometimes we ought to lie. What is not true we should never try to persuade anyone to believe. AGAINST LYING 18 (37).16
YOU KNOW THE TRUTH. HILARY OF ARLES: You all know the truth because you received it in the rule of faith which you professed at your baptism. INTRODUCTORY COMMENTARY ON 1 JOHN.17
LIES FOREIGN TO CHRIST. BEDE: You know the truth of faith and life because you have been anointed by the Spirit, and you have no need to be taught anything other than that you should continue along the path you have already embarked upon. . . . We have been warned how to recognize the antichrist, for Christ said: “I am the truth.”18 Therefore every lie is foreign to Christ, and those who tell lies do not belong to him. ON 1 JOHN.19
DENYING THAT JESUS IS THE CHRIST. ANDREAS: This was the heresy of Simon, which said that Jesus and the Christ were two different people. According to them, Jesus was a man, the son of Mary, but Christ descended from heaven in the form of a dove at the Jordan. John therefore condemns those who think like that and brands their belief with the name of the devil. There were still others who made a distinction between the Father and some nameless deity beyond him, whom they called the Father of Christ. These too denied Jesus, saying that he was a mere man and did not have the nature of God. CATENA.20
THE SUPREME LIE. BEDE: John has already said that every lie is a departure from the truth, but as there are many different kinds of lies, here he is more specific. Denial of Christ is the supreme lie, a lie so great that it is hard to think of anything which can be compared with it. It is a lie which is evident among the Jews, of course, but the heretics, who do not believe in Christ in the right way, are guilty of it as well. It is also the case that orthodox people who do not follow Christ’s commands are guilty of denying that Jesus is the Christ, not because they refuse to give Christ the love and devotion which is his due as the Son of God but because they treat him as if he were a man of no account and are not afraid to contradict what he says. ON 1 JOHN.21
DENYING THE FATHER AND THE SON. OECUMENIUS: In addition to the Simonians there were other heretics who followed Valentinus, who said that there was another being who was called the “father” apart from the Father of Christ. They also denied the Son, claiming that he was just a human being and did not possess the nature of God. COMMENTARY ON 1 JOHN.22
THROUGH THE SON. HILARY OF ARLES: You cannot know the Father if you deny the Son, because no one comes to the Father except through him.23 INTRODUCTORY COMMENTARY ON 1 JOHN.24
NO ONE WHO DENIES THE SON HAS THE FATHER. ANDREAS: There were other heretics who denied the Son but claimed to know the Father. In fact of course they did not know the Father either, because if they had known him they would have known that he is the Father of the only-begotten Son. These people were similar to the Jews, who say that they know the Father but do not accept the Son. They are also like the Simonians, who share the same ungodly confusion. CATENA.25
CONFESSION BY HEART, WORD AND DEED. BEDE: John is looking for a confession of faith which involves the heart, as well as confessing in both word and deed. He is saying the same thing as the apostle Paul when he wrote: “No one can say that Jesus is Lord, except by the Holy Spirit,”26 which means that unless the Holy Spirit gives us the power to do so, we cannot serve Christ with perfect faith and action. ON 1 JOHN.27
YOU WILL ABIDE. ANDREAS: Rejecting ungodliness, John goes on to teach the doctrine of godliness and to encourage his listeners to accept it, saying that by it they will have fellowship with both the Father and the Son, as well as the promise of eternal life. CATENA.28
FROM THE BEGINNING. BEDE: Follow with all your heart that faith and that teaching which you have received from the apostles at the beginning of the church, for only this will make you partakers of divine grace. ON 1 JOHN.29
FELLOWSHIP WITH GOD. OECUMENIUS: This means that if you do these things you will have fellowship with God. COMMENTARY ON 1 JOHN.30
WHAT HE PROMISED US. HILARY OF ARLES: Christ’s promise is that we shall receive a hundred times over in this life,31 and eternal life in the next. INTRODUCTORY COMMENTARY ON 1 JOHN.32
WHY FOLLOW CHRIST? BEDE: John adds this as if to answer those who want to know what point there is in following Christ. What are we going to get out of it? The answer is that we have been promised eternal life. ON 1 JOHN.33
ETERNAL LIFE. THEOPHYLACT: What is eternal life? It is that we should know the one true God and Jesus Christ whom he has sent.34 COMMENTARY ON 1 JOHN.35
A WARNING AGAINST HERESIES. HILARY OF ARLES: People want to deceive us in order to teach you some heresy or other. John has written in order to warn us about this. INTRODUCTORY COMMENTARY ON 1 JOHN.36
THE DECEIVERS. BEDE: The deceivers about whom John is writing are not only the heretics who try to turn us away by their false doctrine but all those who divert weak minds from the promise of eternal life, either by charming them with the lusts of the flesh or by threatening them with the world’s disapproval. ON 1 JOHN.37
AWAITING IN FAITH. AUGUSTINE: All who await him in faith will rejoice when he comes. Those who are without faith will be ashamed when what they do not now see has indeed come. TEN HOMILIES ON 1 JOHN 4.2.38
THE OIL UNMIXED. ANDREAS: Do not mix anything earthly with the oil of anointing with which you have been anointed, and the devil will not get hold of you. CATENA.39
HIS ANOINTING TEACHES YOU. BEDE: Since you have been taught by the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit, you do not need contrary teachers to teach you. The anointing of which John speaks may be understood as the love of God itself, which has been poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.40 ON 1 JOHN.41
WHEN HE APPEARS. CLEMENT OF ALEXANDRIA: When the Lord appears at his second coming, the one who knows the Son and the Father according to knowledge will have confidence and will not be confounded, for confusion is a great punishment. ADUMBRATIONS.42
THE HOLY SPIRIT AS TEACHER. ANDREAS: Having the Holy Spirit as your teacher of godly knowledge, do not go after deceiving spirits, but think in the way that he has taught you, so that at his appearing in glory we may stand with confidence before him. CATENA.43
NOT SHRINKING FROM HIM IN SHAME. BEDE: Those who stand firm against the persecutions of unbelievers and the ridicule which comes from worldly people around them will have complete confidence when Christ comes again, because they know that the patience of the poor will not perish at the end. But anyone who is ashamed to stand up for Christ in this life or to do anything else which the Lord commands, or who in time of persecution is afraid to be known as a believer, will have no confidence at all when Christ returns, because he has not stuck to his profession of faith in this life. ON 1 JOHN.44
CONFIDENCE WHEN CHRIST APPEARS. OECUMENIUS: Why does John tell us to remain in Christ? So that we may have confidence in him when he appears. For what could be better or more desirable than to have confidence with which to show Christ the works we have done in this life and to do this with full assurance, not being ashamed of anything? COMMENTARY ON 1 JOHN.45
BORN BY FAITH. CLEMENT OF ALEXANDRIA: To be born of him means to be born again by faith. ADUMBRATIONS.46
YOU MAY BE SURE. BEDE: Our righteousness is based exclusively on faith. Perfect righteousness exists only in the angels, and not even in them if they are compared to God. Nevertheless, to the extent that the righteousness of angels and the saints whom God created can be perfect, perfect righteousness is also possible for the righteous and the good, who have not fallen away or succumbed to pride but who have remained faithful and attentive to the Word of God and accepted no lord other than the One who created them. ON 1 JOHN.47
THE ONE WHO IS RIGHTEOUS. OECUMENIUS: It is obvious that the One who is righteous produces offspring who are also righteous. COMMENTARY ON 1 JOHN.48