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1Jn_4:16. The beginning of this verse: καὶ ἡμεῖς , is indeed of the same import as the beginning of 1Jn_4:14; but ἡμεῖς here does not merely mean the apostles (Myrberg), for otherwise ἐν ἡμῖν also would have to be referred to them, and a contrast, here inappropriate, would be drawn between the apostles and the readers, but it is used in its more general sense (as most commentators take it), which is also indicated by the connection of this verse with the preceding one.
With ἐγνώκαμεν καὶ πεπιστεύκαμεν , comp. Joh_6:69. As the object of faith must have been previously made known to us, and hence made the subject of knowledge before we can take hold of it in faith, and as, on the other hand, it is only through faith that knowledge becomes the determining principle of our life, and these two elements mutually condition each other continually in the Christian life, knowledge, therefore, can be put before faith, as here, and faith can also be put before knowledge, as in Joh_6:69.[269]
τὴν ἀγάπην , ἣν ἔχει ὁ Θεὸς ἐν ἡμῖν ] is not, with Wilke (Hermeneutik des N. T. II. 64), to be interpreted: “the love which God has in us, i.e. as a love dwelling in us,” or, with Ebrard: “God’s love which He has kindled in us, by means of which, as by His own nature, He works in us,” for the verbs ἐγνώκαμεν and πεπιστεύκαμεν show that the subject here is not something subjective, and therefore not our love (which only in so far as it is the outcome of the divine love is described as the love which God has in us), but something objective, and therefore the love of God, which has manifested itself in the sending of His Son for the propitiation for our sins. ἐν is used here just as in 1Jn_4:9. The following words: ὁ Θεὸς ἀγάπη ἐστὶ κ . τ . λ ., which are closely connected with what immediately precedes, form the keystone of the foregoing, inasmuch as the particular ideas of the previous context are all embraced in them.
On ὁ Θεὸς ἀγ . ἐστί , see 1Jn_4:8.
καὶ ὁ μένων κ . τ . λ . is the inference from the thought that God is love, in this way, namely, that all true love springs from Him. The idea of love here is not to be restricted to brotherly love (1Jn_4:12, ἐὰν ἀγαπῶμεν ἀλλήλους ), but (as also Düsterdieck, Braune, and Weiss remark)[270] is to be understood quite generally.[271] The idea of fellowship with God is here expressed just as in 1Jn_4:15. If John makes it at one time dependent on knowledge, and at another dependent on love, this is explained by the fact that to him both knowledge and love are the radiations of that faith by means of which the new birth operates.
[269] Lücke: “True faith is, according to John, intelligent and experienced; true knowledge is a believing knowledge. Both together form the complete Christian conviction, so that John, when he wants to express this very strongly, puts them both together, in which case it is indifferent whether the one or the other comes first.” Comp. also Neander on this passage, and Köstlin, der Lehrbegr. des Ev. etc., pp. 63, 215 ff.
[270] Weiss further erroneously observes that “here also being in God is not to be made dependent on love, but love on being in God.”
[271] Ebrard introduces a reference foreign to the passage when he includes in μένειν ἐν τῇ ἀγάπῃ also the “dwelling in the love of God to us, in faith in God’s love;” Erdmann also incorrectly interprets: “ τῷ μένειν ἐν τῇ ἀγάπῃ eadem animi nostri ad caritatem Dei relatio denotatur, quae verbis ἐγνώκαμεν καὶ πεπιστεύκαμεν significatur.” Had the apostle meant this, he would have added to ἀγάπῃ , as a more particular definition, τοῦ Θεοῦ . Comp. Gospel of Joh_15:10.