Online Resource Library
Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadHeinrich Meyer Commentary - 1 John 4:6 - 4:6
(Show All Books | Show All Chapters)
This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
1Jn_4:6. ἠμεῖς ] Antithesis of αὐτοί , 1Jn_4:5; either specially John and the other apostles (Storr, Düsterdieck, Brückner, Braune, etc.) as the true teachers, or believers generally (Calvin, Spener, Lücke, de Wette, etc.); in favour of the former interpretation is the fact that believers are addressed in this section in the second person, together with the following ἀκούει ἠμῶν , as also the antithesis to ψευδοπροφῆται indicates teachers.
With ἐκ τοῦ Θεοῦ ἐσμεν we are to supply, according to 1Jn_4:5, the thought διὰ τοῦτο ἐκ τοῦ Θεοῦ λαλοῦμεν ; the following words: ὁ γινώσκων τὸν Θεὸν ἀκούει ἡμῶν , contain the proof of the thought just expressed.
ὁ γιν . τὸν Θεόν forms the antithesis of ὁ κόσμος , and is synonymous with ὅς ἐστιν ἐκ τ . Θεοῦ , for it is only he who is a child of God that possesses the true knowledge of God. According to Lücke and others, the apostle means by this those to whom belongs the “general ἐκ τοῦ Θεοῦ εἶναι , i.e. the divine impress and instinct, which is the condition of childhood of God in Christ;” but the expression itself is opposed to this, for the knowledge of God is necessarily conditioned by faith in Christ.
In the second clause: ὃς οὐκ ἔστιν … οὐκ ἀκ . ἡμῶν , ὃς … Θεοῦ forms the antithesis to ὁ γινώσκων τ . Θεόν . This is the antithesis between “world” and “church of the children of God.”
In the concluding clause: ἐκ τούτου … τῆς πλάνης , it is to the immediately preceding thought that ἐκ τούτου refers. According to the usual view, with which Düsterdieck agrees, the sense of this passage is: He who hears the apostles shows thereby that the πνεῦμα τῆς ἀληθείας is in him; he who, on the contrary, does not hear them, shows that the πν . τῆς πλάνης is in him; it is in his relation to the apostolic teaching that any one shows of what spirit he is the child.[259] But, according to the train of thought in this section, it is not the spirit of the hearers, but that of the teachers that is the subject (so also Myrberg and Braune); the sense therefore is: That the πνεῦμα τῆς πλάνης prevails in the false prophets, may be known by this, that the world hears them; that in us, on the contrary, the πνεῦμα τῆς ἀληθείας dwells, may be perceived by this, that those who know God, i.e. the children of God, hear us. The πν . τῆς ἀληθείας cannot be in him whom the world hears, nor can the πν . τῆς πλάνης be in him whom the children of God hear; Braune: “the πν . τῆς πλάνης is certainly in him whom the world hears, and the πν . τῆς ἀληθείας in him whom the children of God hear.”
τὸ πνεῦμα τῆς ἀληθείας ; comp. Joh_14:17; Joh_15:26; Joh_16:13; a description of the Holy Ghost, inasmuch as He not only produces a knowledge of the truth, but “makes the truth His very nature” (Weiss).[260] τὸ πν . τῆς πλάνης , the spirit that emanates from the devil, which seduces men to falsehood and error; comp. chap. 1Jn_1:8; 1Th_2:3; 1Ti_4:1.
[259] Luther: “If we hear God’s true messengers, that is a plain token of true religion; if, however, we despise and mock them, that is a plain token of error.”
[260] The thought of this passage corresponds with that of Joh_10:3-5, where Christ appeals for a proof that He is the Good Shepherd to the fact that the sheep know and hear His voice, whilst they do not know the voice of the stranger, and flee from it.