Online Resource Library
Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadCambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges - 1 John 4:21 - 4:21
(Show All Books | Show All Chapters)
This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
21. For ἀπʼ αὐτοῦ ([754][755][756]) [757] and Vulgate have ἀπὸ τοῦ θεοῦ. [758] omits from τόν to τόν: homoeoteleuton.
[754] 4th century. Brought to Rome about 1460. It is entered in the earliest catalogue of the Vatican Library, 1475. All three Epistles.
[755] 9th century. All three Epistles.
[756] 9th century. All three Epistles.
[757] 5th century. Brought by Cyril Lucar, Patriarch of Constantinople, from Alexandria, and afterwards presented by him to Charles I. in 1628. In the British Museum. All three Epistles.
[758] 4th century. Brought to Rome about 1460. It is entered in the earliest catalogue of the Vatican Library, 1475. All three Epistles.
Once more note that [759] very rarely supports a doubtful reading, and never an impossible one, excepting the accidental omission in 1Jn 4:21.
[759] 4th century. Brought to Rome about 1460. It is entered in the earliest catalogue of the Vatican Library, 1475. All three Epistles.
The main subject still continues, that God is Love; and that from this truth flows the moral obligation on Christians not only to love God but one another. But, as in chap. 3, there are subdivisions, each of which has a unity in itself as well as intimate and subtle relations to the whole. These subdivisions are mainly two: The Spirit of Truth and the Spirit of Error (1–6); Love as the Mark of the Children of the God who is Love (7–21). If we are asked as to the relation which this chapter bears to the preceding one, the answer would seem to be something of this kind. Chap. 3. insists upon the necessity of deeds in order to prove our relationship to God (1Jn 3:3; 1Jn 3:7; 1Jn 3:10; 1Jn 3:16-18; 1Jn 3:22); chap. 4. points out the certainty of our relationship to God as attested by our deeds (1Jn 4:4; 1Jn 4:6-7; 1Jn 4:12-13; 1Jn 4:15-17). The one gives us the evidence of our sonship, viz. deeds of righteousness towards God (1Jn 3:1-10) and deeds of love towards men (1Jn 3:11-21): the other shews us the source of our sonship, viz. possession of the Spirit as proved by confession of the Incarnation (1Jn 4:1-6) and by love of the brethren (1Jn 4:7-21).