04/18/2021 – Day 336 – 1 John 1-3// 2 of ? / 1 John 3:16 commentary: “You are more sinful that you ever dared to believe, but you are more loved than you ever dared to hope.” quote by Mark Liederbach
Isn’t that funny!: My title is a quote by Mark Liederbach, generated from the Biblical text of 1 John 3:16: “By this we know love, because He laid down His life for us. And we also ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.” Isn’t that interesting that the first clause is a John 3:16 pointed them, with the 2nd clause pronouncing an imperative for us given the unfathomable Truth of the 1st. Note: The verse numbering came much later in church history.
First, I am going to share with you an amazing sublime commentary from John Gill on 1 John 3: 8 -9. I have mentioned this recently but John Gill may have been the 1st man to write an entire commentary on every single verse in the bible. Search on the tag field: “John Gill” and you can read a little on his testimony and life story from a post I published. Or , you can search on your own of course. I had to chuckle that perhaps I come by an affinity for John’s verse commentary naturally seeing as how Nancy and I have selected a reformed baptist church as our next church home, given that we couldn’t find a PCA denomination church that had a particularly strong commitment to the mission fields we thought God is calling us to. This new church has the destinations that we sense we are being called to. And John Gill was an English baptist 18th century preacher that leaned shall we say to Puritan theology. (One of my favorite books ever, outside of the Bible itself and commentary is: “A Puritan Theology – Doctrine for Life” by Joel R. Beeke & Mark Jones ) So, it is not a stretch to say, living today and where we live, he too would have selected a reformed baptist church that is about 50+ miles from our home. Ok, let’s delve into the importance of this moment:
For this one: I will type out the verses for you , followed by the link to John Gill’s commentary for the verses.
1 John 3: 8 – 9 : “He who sins is of the devil, for the devil has sinned from the beginning. For this purpose, the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil. Whoever has been born of God does not sin, for His seed remains in Him; and he cannot sin, because he has been birth of God.”
Many theological questions can result from these two verses, so I give you John Gill:
(This is verse the link to verse 9. I encourage you to read verse 8 as well. Just go to the top of the page and click on 8. One can navigate to the verse either before or after on each commentary.)
https://www.biblestudytools.com/commentaries/gills-exposition-of-the-bible/1-john-3-9.html
Now, I have some really sublime commentary quotes from famous faith leaders. For these I will ask you to read the Bible verse in conjuntion with the quote. Blessings! These come out of my Evidence Bible footnotes. As I have noted before, I can’t believe I haven’t read these footnotes in my previous read throughs. After all these years, by Gods grace, it was triggered I believe from my own posts over the year.
Function of the Law – 1:7:
“The Law is the surgeon’s knife that cuts out the proud flesh that the wound may heal. The Law by itself only sweeps and raises the dust, but the gospel sprinkles clean water upon the dust, and all is well in the chamber of the soul. The Law kills, the gospel makes alive, the Law strips, and then Jesus Christ comes in and robes the soul in beauty and glory. All the commandments, and all the types direct us to Christ, if we will but heed their evident intent.” Charles Spurgeon
Isn’t that sublime. Another coincidence here: Charles Spurgeon preached in the same English church as John Gill one hundred years later. And Spurgeon was not seminary trained. (better to be infused by the Holy Spirit if you will permit me to understate…)
Commentary from 1 John 1:9 / The Christian who sins
“It needs to be remembered that were it not for Christ’s finished work on the cross and His present intercession in heaven, the least sin would result in his banishment from God’s presence and eternal ruin.” Unger’s Bible Dictionary
Jimmy note – God’s perfect Holiness and unfathomable love is just as unfathomable as his power. The former is witnessed by the cross, the later His creation. Recall that God told Moses that we would appear to him in the cleft of the rock as he passed by. For if he saw Him fully, he would be vaporized. By the way, this was another roadblock for the Jew to believe in Emmanuel, God in the flesh among us!
Commentary from 1 John 2:11:
“The incarnation is the ultimate reaon why the service of God cannot be divorced from the service of man. He who says he loves God and hates his brother is a liar.” Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Commentary from 1 John 2:15:
“Sense of sin and deep hatred to it, faith in Christ and love to him, delight in holiness and longing more of it, love to God’s people and distaste for the things of the world — these are the signs and evidences which always accompany true conversion.” J.C. Ryle
1 John 2:24:
“The most terrible warning to impenitent men in all the world is the death of Christ. For if God spared not His only son, on whom was only laid imputed sin, will He spare sinners whose sins are their own?”
(Jimmy note: as you may have heard but judgment from God is: “Thy will be done.” For those in their own sins have the Devil as their father, as so it is with him.)
Commentary from 1 John 3:12:
“The cool impudence of Cain is an indication of the state of heart which led up to the murdering of his brother, and it was also a part of the result of his having committed that terrible crime. He would not have proceeded to the cruel deed of bloodshed if he had not first cast off the fear of God and been ready to defy his Maker.” Charles Spurgeon
Jimmy note: I was just commenting on how the church has cast off the fear of God, let alone society at-large. For the world, that puts personal safety and comfort first and foremost, that is a very loud and ominous alarm bell indeed. We must reach out, for how can they identify it if they have abandoned God?
Soli Deo Gloria! Stay tuned to next Sunday as we conclude our study of 1 John.