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5. The statement in 1Jn 2:3 is still further emphasized by taking the opposite of 1Jn 2:4, which is the opposite of 1Jn 2:3. But this does not bring us back to 1Jn 2:3, but to an expansion of it. S. John’s apparent retrogressions are real advances.
τὸν λόγον is a wider expression than τὰς ἐντολάς, covering the sum total of the revelation of God’s will: comp. 1Jn 2:14. It is certainly wrong to interpret this of the ‘continued indwelling’ of ‘the Personal Word.’ Here the emphasis is on τηρῇ; in 1Jn 2:4 on ἐντολάς. ἀληθῶς, should be truly, or of a truth, to distinguish it from ἀμήν, verily, in our Lord’s discourses. Here it stands first for emphasis, as in Joh 8:31 : truly in him. Like 1Jn 1:7, this verse insists on the necessity for reality in holiness.
ἡ ἀγάπη τ. Θεοῦ τετελείωται. The full force of the perfect is found here as in 1Jn 1:1-2; 1Jn 1:10 : ‘hath been made perfect and remains so’; perfecta est or consummata est: Beza has adimpleta est. Obedience, not feeling, is the test of perfect love. This declaration shews that it is quite wrong to make ‘we know Him’ in 1Jn 2:3 and ‘I know Him’ in 1Jn 2:4 a Hebraism for ‘love Him’. Even if ‘know’ is ever used in the sense of ‘love,’ which may be doubted, S. John would hardly in the same sentence use ‘know’ in two totally different senses (1Jn 2:3). S. John’s mention of love here shews that when he means ‘love’ he writes ‘love’ and not ‘know.’ He declares that true knowledge involves love, but they are not identical, any more than convex and concave. Ἡ ἀγάπη τ. Θεοῦ here means ‘the love of man to God’: this is the common usage in this Epistle (1Jn 2:15; 1Jn 3:17; 1Jn 4:12; 1Jn 5:3) Winer, 232. Only once is the genitive subjective and means ‘the love of God for man’; and there the context makes this quite clear (1Jn 4:9). Ἀγάπη and ἀγαπᾶν are among S. John’s favourite words. His Gospel is the Gospel of Love and his Epistle the Epistle of Love. Τελειοῦν is also much more common in his writings than elsewhere in N.T., excepting the Epistle to the Hebrews, especially in the passive voice (1Jn 4:12; 1Jn 4:17-18; Joh 17:23; Joh 19:28). S. John is here speaking, as often in this Epistle, of an ideal state of things. No Christian’s love to God is perfect: but the more perfect his knowledge, the more perfect his obedience and his love. For the parallel in the Διδαχὴ τῶν ιβʹ Ἀποστόλων see Appendix F.
ἐν αὐτῷ ἐσμέν. Comp. ἐν αὐτῷ ζῶμεν καὶ κινούμεθα καὶ ἐσμέν (Act 17:28).