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Moral
Teaching in the Writings of St. John
Excerpt
from: Schnackenburg, Rudolf:
The Moral Teaching of the New Testament
(London, Burns & Oates, 1975); Part III., ch. 2. (pp 308-347)
Edited: #sub-headings added; some paragraphs divided;
bibliographies and footnotes omitted.
32. The
Summons to Man by the Revealer
33. Synthesis
in the Commandment of Faith and Love
34. Love for the
Brethren as the Proof of Communion with Christ
35. Christ, Church,
and World
36. Christ and
Sin
§
32. The Summons to Man by the Revealer
who has Come into the World
{308}
#Johannine
focus: Christology
JOHANNINE
theology, which has left its mark on the gospel and three epistles
of John, finds its focus in Christology. The main reason for the composition
of the last canonical gospel may very well have been to give Johannine
churches a picture of Christ which showed them in the earthly activity
of Jesus the glory of their Christ already shining, that eschatological
revealer and mediator of salvation through whom alone true information
and knowledge of God and his world, genuine communion with God and
share in the divine life, are to be obtained.
This
picture of Christ is outlined against a background of the intellectual
trends at the turn of the first Christian century, and is addressed
to a Christendom for which Christ's message had already become an
interior and well-pondered possession, but which also had problems
in its intellectual dealings with the world around it (Judaism, Hellenism,
Gnosticism) and in defending itself against false teachers from its
own ranks (1 John). The reflection on what is proper to, and characteristic
of, Christian faith in an atmosphere that is intellectually alert
and religiously full of life, involves as a consequence that the theological
lines are more sharply drawn, the view is deeper, the thoughts simplified
but directed to what is essential and permanent.
#Its
influence on his moral teaching
As
regards moral teaching that means that less prominence is given to
more specialized questions such as we find in Paul's dealings with
his churches, but there is a gain in comprehensive vision of principles
and this is to the advantage of the picture of the world and of man,
the understanding of reality and of salvation. In our age which has
raised the question of the actual concrete human situation and directed
attention more closely to man's historical lot, this Johannine message
deserves increased reflection, all the more so as it has been given
a special interpretation in terms of existential theology by R. Bultmann.(1)
{309} In contrast to the synoptic gospels in which the message regarding
the kingdom of God involves God's claim on man (cf. section 1), the
emphasis in St. John's gospel becomes a Christological one.
The
summons to man follows from John's own claim as God's eschatological
envoy. Because Jesus is the Messiah in a sense that transcended all
expectation, because he is the Son of God equal in nature to the Father
(cf. Jn 20:31), he in his person reveals the Father (Jn 14:8-11; Jn
8:19; Jn 12:45), and he designates himself as salvation (cf. Jn 8:12),
as the way (Jn 14:6), as life (Jn 11:25; cf. Jn 6:35, 48, 51). As
a consequence, however, he only makes the one demand, that
men should believe in him (Jn 3:16, 18, 36; Jn 5:24; Jn 6:29), follow
him (Jn 8:12; Jn 12:26), keep and observe his word (Jn 8:51f.; Jn
14:15, 21, 23; Jn 15:10).
The
clear recognition that only one has "descended from heaven"
and that only one "ascended" again in order to provide access
for all to the heavenly world of light and life, namely the Son of
man (cf. Jn 3:13, 31; Jn 6:33, 50f., 58, 62; Jn 20:17), illumines
at the same time the hopeless situation of the man in this world who
trusts to himself (cf. Jn 3:18, 36; Jn 8:24; Jn 12:35), and the only
possibility of salvation, which is to pass from the domain of death
to God's circle of light and life (Jn 5:24).
#Johannine presuppositions
Thought
of this kind presupposes God's infinite distance from all the transitoriness
of creatures, the frailty of what is earthly (cf. the antitheses sarx-pneuma
Jn 3:6f.; gê-ouranos Jn 3:31; katô-anô Jn 8:23),
and takes as an established fact that the "world"(2) has
as a matter of history turned aside to evil. This thought, however,
is only presented and sustained because God in the meantime has overcome
the gulf and taken the initiative in deliverance by sending his Son
into the world {310}
(Jn 3:17; Jn 12:47). The great eschatological event has taken place:
the eternal Logos himself has become "flesh" (Jn 1:14),
the heavenly witness and revealer has appeared on the earth (Jn 1:18;
Jn 3:32 ff.; Jn 8:26), he who lives from a divine source has come
in order to give life for ever to the world enslaved to death (Jn
4:14; Jn 5:21, 25f.; Jn 6:33, 51, 56; Jn 7:38; Jn 10:10; Jn 11:25f.).
Against
the dark background of a "dualist" view of the world, the
Christian message of salvation stands out all the more brightly. Besides,
Johannine theology, despite dualistic modes of expression, is far
removed from any extreme dualism. It is true that there is an
opposition of contrasted concepts, life and death, light and darkness,
truth and falsehood, freedom and slavery (only in Jn 8:31-6), being
from above and being from below (8:23), children of God and children
of the devil; but they are not traced back to two equally strong primordial
powers, or understood metaphysically; it is not a cosmological dualism
or one of principles.
It
is never forgotten that all that was made was created by God and by
the Logos (Jn 1:3), that to God and the Son of God there belongs,
even before "the foundation of the world" an inviolable
glory (Jn 17:5) and that God is always stronger than his adversary
"in the world" (1 Jn 4:4). The "world" is not,
as in Gnosticism, the "plenitude of evil" (Corpus Hermeticum
VI, 4), but is only full of evil tendencies such as the "concupiscence
of the flesh, the concupiscence of the eyes and the pride of life"
(1 Jn 2:15ff.). What belongs to the body and to matter is not bad
in itself or of less account in contrast to the soul and the spirit,
but only weak and frail, so that even the Logos could become "flesh"
(Jn 1:14) and "all flesh" (a Semitic expression for "all
human beings") could be called to share in eternal life (cf.
Jn 17:2). The "dualistic" perspective borrowed by John derives
from an historical conception of the "world" which has shut
itself against God, developed away from him (cf. Jn 1:5) and placed
itself under the rule of the "evil one" (1 Jn 5:19), that
is to say Satan, the "prince of this world" (Jn 12:31; Jn
14:30; Jn 16:11). There are no "children of the devil" {311}
by nature, but human beings who show themselves to be such by their
desires and deeds (Jn 8:44). "Whoever commits sin is of the devil,
for the devil sins from the beginning" and through sin the "children
of the devil" are manifest (1 Jn 3:8, 10).
#The contrasting oppositions in John
This
sharply contrasting opposition of two classes of men strongly recalls
the Dead Sea manuscripts which speak of the "sons of light"
in antithesis to the "sons of darkness". Those who joined
the community of Qumran were obliged to "love all the sons of
light each According to his lot (= place) in God's community and hate
the sons of darkness, each According to his guilt in God's vengeance"
(1 QS I, 9fE). The sons of light armed for the eschatological combat
against the sons of darkness (1 QM passim). There is instruction about
the two kinds of spirits, according to which each class walks (the
"spirits of truth and falsehood"), and in accordance with
which men's deeds are determined. Each of these opposed classes of
men is placed under a spiritual ruler ("an angel"): "In
the hands of the prince of light lies rule over all the sons of truth,
they walk in the ways of light; in the hands of the angel of darkness
lies rule over the sons of falsehood and they walk in the ways of
darkness" (3:20f.).
But
even this dualism which itself extends into what is supra-human and
cosmic, is subject to faith in the biblical God and creation. God
"created the spirits of light and darkness" (3:25), and
he retains dominion: "But God in the secrets of his understanding
and in his glorious wisdom has set time (or, an end) to the continuance
of falsehood; in the time of visitation he will destroy it for ever"
(IV, 18f.). The descriptions, though to a certain extent they sound
deterministic, leave no doubt that it is a matter of the moral decision
of men, in whose hearts "the spirits of truth and falsehood struggle"
(IV, 23), and that they are not absolved of responsibility. This dualism
of Qumran whose more specific nature and origin is, of course, still
disputed,(3) is certainly close to Johannine thought, at least in
its {312} formal structure
and moral aspect. What is special and distinctive in Johannine theology
derives from the sending of God's Son into the world. By his call,
the sole intention of which is to serve the deliverance of all men,
he summons men to a decision and this brings about a separation among
them (cf. Jn 3:18-21; Jn 8:47; Jn 9:39; Jn 12:44-50; Jn 18:37).
#The moral consequences of his mode of thought
This
Johannine antithetical mode of thought not only places Jesus' mission
in the clearest light from the point of view of the theology of redemption,
by teaching that is to be understood as the outcome of God's love
overcoming all distances (cf. Jn 3:16; 1 Jn 4:10), but also has important
consequences for moral theology. Decision concerning faith in regard
to the "Light" who has come into the world, calls for clear
and resolute turning away from all works of darkness. "For every
one that does evil hates the light and comes not to the light, that
his works may not be reproved. But he that does truth comes to the
light, that his works may be made manifest; because they are done
in God" (Jn 3:20f.).
To
this "Light" the whole man is transparent and he cannot
conceal his moral attitude; belief and "doing the truth"
are very closely linked. Just as believing acceptance of Jesus as
the revealer who incorruptibly announces God's word and truth presupposes
a pure disposition only concerned with God's honour (cf. Jn 5:40-4;
Jn 8:43ff.; Jn 12:43), so also "faith" signifies submission
to all that Jesus teaches and prescribes as his commandments. "My
doctrine is not mine, but his that sent me. If any man will do the
will of him, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God,
or whether I speak of myself" (Jn 7:16f.). This saying refers
in the first place to belief. God's will, the only "work"
that he demands, is to {313}
believe in him whom he has sent and to whom he has testified (cf.
Jn 6:29); but belief in this unique plenipotentiary of God, in whom
God himself speaks, also involves faithfully holding to his words
and commandments, which are summed up in the precept of mutual love
(Jn 8:31, 51 f.; Jn 14:15, 21), and of abiding in his love (Jn 15:7,
10).
This
very accomplishment of Christ's commandments becomes a confirmation
for the believer that Jesus is the saviour who comes from God, a concrete
proof by experience of the truth of belief in Christ. From it there
follows the closest conceivable connection between religion and morality,
between knowing God and keeping the commandments, between communion
with God and brotherly love, as the First Epistle of St. John shows
by its rejection of a pseudo-gnosis that was morally a failure.(4)
What
Jesus aimed at establishing and achieving by his double command of
love of God and the neighbour, the grounding of all moral activity
on the nexus with God (cf. section 11), was confirmed in a new way
by John's Christological perspective. His Christ who lives in complete
unity with the Father, subject to him in love and obedience, seeking
his honour only and fulfilling his command (cf. Jn 7:18; Jn 8:29,
55; Jn 10:17f.; Jn 12:49; Jn 14:31), requires of his disciples the
counterpart of this, and is their direct example and guide: "If
you keep my commandments, you shall abide in my love; as I also have
kept my Father's commandments and do abide in his love" (Jn 15:10).
He draws his own into loving community with the Father (Jn 17:26),
but also expects that they will produce the fruits of this communion
with God bestowed by him (Jn 15:8f.,16f.).
#Link between unbelief and sin
{314}
Just as the Johannine presentation of Jesus' eschatological mission
and message brings out the unity of the requirement of faith and love,
it also emphasizes the negative judgement on unbelief and sin, and
manifests the inner connection between them. Although the evangelist
knows the old Jewish concept of sin (cf. Jn 5:14; Jn 9:2f., 34), sin
only appears in its full horror when men refuse to believe and follow
the Son of God who takes away sin (cf. Jn 1:29). Anyone who in inexplicable
blindness (Jn 9:39; Jn 12:38ff.) bars this, the sole way to deliverance,
falls a victim totally and entirely to the dark domain of the "world".
He remains in his sins and will die in his sins (Jn 8:21, 24). Only
Jesus, the divine bringer of life, can lead him out of the lower world
of death and ruin (cf. Jn 3:16, 36; Jn 5:24). Consequently, unbelief
is sin absolutely as such. That is not only clearly stated in a saying
regarding the Paraclete (Jn 16:9), but also forms the tacit presupposition
of other passages in which instead of the many particular sins, only
"sin" is mentioned (Jn 8:12; Jn 9:41; Jn 15:22, 24; Jn 19:11).
John had reflected a great deal on the dark power of unbelief.(5)
How was it that so many people, and precisely those who should most
of all have recognized Jesus as the Messiah, namely the leading circles
among the Jews at that time (Pharisees, Scribes, high priests), shut
their hearts to this messenger of God from the world of light and
life? And although Jesus had done everything to bring them to belief?
"If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not have sin;
but now they have no excuse for their sin... If I had not done among
them the works that no other man hath done, they would not have sin;
but now they have both seen and hated both me and my Father"
(Jn 15:22,24).
Theirs
was a terrible, active and aggressive unbelief. From it developed
blind hate against the man sent by {315} God, which did not rest until
the latter was bleeding to death on the cross. How could men rage
in such a way against God and their salvation? Precisely because they
belong to that world hostile to God with which Jesus and his own have
nothing to do (Jn 15:18f.); they come from "below" just
as Jesus is from "above" (Jn 8:23). Because in this way
it might sometimes seem as though this unbelief were due to lack of
grace (Jn 6:44, 65) and to a hardening imposed by God (Jn 9:39; Jn
12:39f.), it is stated in other passages that these obstinate enemies
are themselves guilty of their own unbelief. They seek only their
own honour, not the honour of God (Jn 5:44; cf. Jn 12:43). They are
already sunk in evil deeds and darkness (Jn 3:20f.), and share the
desires of the liar and murderer from the beginning (Jn 8:44). To
his unbelieving "brethren", too, Jesus declares that the
world hates him because he has given testimony of it, that its works
are evil (Jn 7:7).
#The enigma of unbelief
John
makes these judgements in view of the attitude of men to the historical
Jesus in whom he confesses the Messiah and the Son of God. But in
addition his judgements gain additional weight for his readers also,
the Church of his time, and are important in general for the psychology
and evaluation of unbelief. Unbelief in regard to Jesus Christ is
and remains a dark, terrible enigma, a mystery of iniquity (cf.1 Jn
3:4),(6) in which the essence of sin is manifest. Sin is not to be
regarded superficially as an offence, an individual action or an omission
of good; it springs from the whole attitude of a human being towards
God, and only becomes visible in its true form to the eye of faith,
as the great power hostile to God in the life of man and the course
of history.
This narrower and yet profounder concept of sin which reveals the
nature and historical range of evil, this antithesis between the world
of evil and devil and God's world of light {316}
which is penetrated by his holiness (1 Jn 1:5; 1 Jn 2:10), gives to
moral exhortation great seriousness and confronts those who hear it
with a strict alternative. He who loves his brother dwells in light
and there is no scandal from him (or in him?), but he who hates his
brother is in darkness, not knowing where he is going because the
darkness has blinded his eyes (1 Jn 2:10f.). There is no middle way
between belief and unbelief, love and hate, any more than there is
any other choice except that between salvation and perdition. He who
has the Son possesses life; he who has not the Son does not possess
life.
#But radiant motives predominate
The
clear, radiant motives, however, predominate: knowledge of God's will
to save (Jn 3:17; Jn 12:47), confidence in his saving power (1 Jn
4:4), faith in the victory already won by Christ which is asserting
itself and ceaselessly prevailing (Jn 16:33; 1 Jn 5:4f.). "The
darkness is past and the true light now shineth" (1 Jn 2:8). Yet
the Church in the world is not spared conflict. Great tribulation
is laid upon it and the individual Christian must also struggle with
temptation, weakness and sin.
§
33. The Synthesis of Moral Teaching
in the Commandment of Faith and Love
#Why this focus on faith and love
AFTER
reading Paul, who in his letters decides moral problems of the most
varied kinds, the Johannine message seems simple and uniform: faith
and love, and that is all. But we have seen (section 32), that the
reduction of all requirements to these two fundamental attitudes is
deliberate and has its ground in the Christological focus. Belief
in Jesus the Messiah and Son of God is the only means and the only
possible way to attain life; love, however, especially active, fraternal
love, is the necessary {317}
consequence of adherence to Jesus in faith. St. John does once, in
fact, summarize the "commandment of God" in the words, "that
we should believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ, and love one
another" (1 Jn 3:23). Comparison of this with the synoptic gospels
makes it appear even more impressive. Of Jesus' basic requirements
for entry into the kingdom of God, only one has survived: faith. But
this has acquired quite a different fullness and profundity from what
it had in the synoptic gospels. "This is the (only) work of God:
that you believe in him whom he has sent" (Jn 6:29).
#How
is faith "the work of God"?
In
making this reply to the Jews, Jesus was not intending an achievement,
a performance, like the Jewish works of the law, but rather was merely
taking up the words of his interlocutors and explaining to them that
instead of all the many human endeavours they had been prepared to
undertake (v. 28), there is one fundamental decision to be made: to
believe in him, whom God had sent. In the Johannine writings we frequently
hear of the commandments of God; (7) but this does not indicate a
rehabilitation of legalism. St. Paul himself could not have formulated
the difference between the old and the new order of salvation more
succinctly than it is expressed in the prologue to St. John's gospel:
"For the law was given by Moses; grace and truth came by Jesus
Christ" (1:17). When he speaks of the commandments of God or
Christ it is with the sole intention of indicating the binding character
of faith and love. Faith rightly understood also includes love for
God, Christ, and the brethren, and the fulfilment of the moral duties
springing from love.
More precisely, Johannine faith has assimilated two commandments of
the Jesus of the Synoptic Gospels: repentance {318}
and discipleship. It is noteworthy that the word "repent"
does not occur in the Johannine writings (apart from the Apocalypse).
But we must remember that in consequence of Johannine dualism, faith
implies determined renunciation of the "world" hostile to
God, rejection of all the works of darkness. The believer steps completely
out of the dark realm of death into the bright expanse of the divine
life (Jn 5:24). Anyone in this light, must also walk in light, that
is, holy and without sin (cf.1 Jn 1: 6f.; 1 Jn 2:9-11). In the moral
judgement of condemnation passed on the disbelief of the "Jews"
(Jn 3:19-21; Jn 5:44; Jn 7:7; Jn 12:43), there is contained the idea
that they would have needed "repentance" in the sense of
the first three evangelists, in order to begin to believe in Jesus.
But these opponents, whose minds are closed to the word of God, are
blind and obdurate.
#Conversion
in John
St.
John nowhere describes or mentions an act of conversion (not even
with the Samaritan woman in chapter four); but he does bring before
us people who possess an outlook of a kind that disposes them to belief:
Nathanael, who was at first sceptical, but whom Jesus called a "true
Israelite... in whom there is no guile" (Jn 1:47); the Samaritan
woman, who had fallen very deeply into sin, but who was a soul seeking
God and thirsting for salvation (Jn 4); the man born blind, who would
let neither remonstrance nor terrorization obscure his realization
of Jesus' majesty and holiness (Jn 9); Martha, the sister of the dead
Lazarus, who in spite of her severe shock on the human plane did not
become confused about Jesus' person and mission (Jn 11:20-27); Jesus'
close disciples themselves, who were so often puzzled and yet loyally
continued in his company (cf. Jn 6:66-69). They were all people whom
Jesus did not have to accuse, as he accused his faithless enemies,
of seeking their own glory, but not the glory of the one God (Jn 5:44;
Jn 12:43).
Even
the gloomy picture of the Jewish leading circles is somewhat relieved
by the mention of the two councillors, Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus
(Jn 19:38f.). If Jesus had believed that it was impossible for a man
to turn to faith, he could not {319}
have cried to the multitude until the last moment, "While you
have the light, believe in the light, that you may be the children
of light" (Jn 12:36).
#Discipleship in John
Johannine
faith binds the believer to adherence to Jesus, not always in that
closest of bonds, that of the twelve who shared Jesus' wandering life
and continuing his preaching, but, nevertheless, to a real "discipleship",
as John himself could calls it by using the word in a wider sense.(8)
Jesus once cried out to a great multitude of people who were ready
to believe, "If you continue in my word, you shall be my disciples
indeed" (Jn 8:31).
Expressions
synonymous with "believing" in this gospel are, "keeping
Jesus' words" (Jn 8:51), "hearing" and "keeping"
them (Jn 12:47), and "following" Jesus (Jn 8:12; cf. Jn
1:9ff). Unbelief leads immediately to the end of one's "walking"
with Jesus (Jn 6:67). The use of "keeping Jesus' words"
(Jn 12:47) shows that adherence to him in faith also makes moral demands.
Because faith is obedience (cf. Jn 3:36b), perfect self-submission
to the Son of God, it must lead to loving observance of all his instructions
(cf. Jn 14:15, 21, 23).
#The Cost of Discipleship
The
believer must be resolved to accept even the ultimate consequence
of following Jesus: he must be prepared for suffering and martyrdom.
There is one text in the gospel of St. John which directly recalls
the words of Jesus in the synoptic gospels on following the way of
the cross (Mk 8:34f. par.; Mt 10:38f. par.): "Whoever loves his
life (tên psuchên) shall lose it and he that hates his
life in this world keeps it unto eternal life (eis zôên
aiônion). If any man serves me, let him follow me. And where
I am, there also shall my servant be" (Jn 12:25f.).
These words are not addressed directly to the Twelve, but are, it
would seem, deliberately left undefined. Moreover, the saying has
been recast by John.(9) The addition "in this world" {320}
is new, and correspondingly the promise of eternal life. The synoptic
saying is more pithy, the Johannine clearer: compare the two different
words for "life". John contrasts "this" cosmos
of death with the true, divine realm of life. The second saying about
"ministering" (with synoptic parallels at Mk 9:35 par.;
Mk 10:43 par.; Mt 23:11) is already looking forward to Jesus' highest
ministration of love in the washing of the disciples' feet and the
sacrifice of the cross as it is interpreted in the gospel of St. John
(cf. Jn 13:1, 12-17). Another wholly Johannine idea here is that Jesus'
servant will be where he himself is, that is, in the heavenly world
of glory, into which Jesus leads the way for his followers (cf. Jn
14:3; Jn 17:24).
This text is all the more significant because just before it Jesus
had applied to himself the image of the grain of wheat, which must
fall into the soil and die, if it is to bring forth fruit. Here the
Johannine Christ too is requiring of his disciples that, uniting themselves
as intimately as possible with his own destiny, they should follow
him even to death. What glory for the disciple whom the Lord deems
worthy to follow him even to martyrdom (cf. Jn 21:18). In conjunction
with the prophecies of sufferings for the disciples (Jn 15:18-20;
Jn 16:1-4), Jn 12:25f. is enough to show that John, too, was aware
of the severity of serving Jesus, of the radical nature of his demands.
He does not, however, offer the disciple a more fully elaborated moral
doctrine. It seems to him enough to believe in a lively and unfading
way in Jesus, and love him unto death (cf. Jn 21:15-17). However,
these words about love require special attention too.
#Love for Jesus and for God
It
is only in the gospel of St. John that Jesus speaks of love for himself.(10)
Faith and discipleship are perfected only in love, but this love of
the disciple for his Master does not appear as a commandment, but
as the consequence and fruit of true faith. The "first farewell
discourse" (Jn 14) is especially informa-{321}tive
on this point. The whole of the first part of this (Jn 14:1-14) is
concerned with the necessity and power of faith in Jesus, which makes
the disciples proof against all the shocks of the coming hour of darkness
(cf. Jn 13:19; Jn 14:29; Jn 16:4). When such faith is fully mature,
it leads to a loving community with Jesus. The second part of the
discourse, treating of the mystical communion of the disciples with
Jesus and the Father (esp. Jn 14:18-24), replaces faith by love. The
exhortation in these verses is that love for Jesus must be confirmed
by keeping his commandments. So then effectual love grows out of the
actual mystical union with him. This emerges even more clearly from
the discourse in chapter fifteen, where John writes that the disciples
should remain in Jesus (vv. 4ff.), especially in his love (v. 9f.),
that is, they should do everything to preserve the love and community
given them by Jesus.
Not even the first part of the great commandment, to love God with
all one's heart and soul, is to be found in John's gospel in precisely
that form. Most of the texts which people used to interpret as referring
to our love for God are probably intended to refer to divine love,
God's love active within us, that is, to the love characteristic of
those who are God's and of which they have been made capable by the
love they have received from God.(11) John is not merely thinking
here of the willingness of human beings to love; he is convinced that
the fire of love has to be enkindled by God himself. If God
himself has begotten them "from above" and filled them with
his holiness and love, they are, of course, to respond to him both
in attitude of mind and in their actions. It is in this way, through
the co-operation of God and man that God's love "is perfected"
in the Christian (1 Jn 4:18), "his charity is perfected in us"
(1 Jn 4:12) and we have "perfect charity" (1 Jn 4:18). Of
those who are not God's it {322}
can be said that "you have not the love of God in you" (Jn
5:42). John is profoundly convinced that our love is a gift from God
(cf.1 Jn 3:1; 1 Jn 4:10). If we allow ourselves to be moved to a corresponding
love and to obedience, the love of God will be bestowed on us even
more fully (Jn 14:21, 23). At the moment of his departure, Christ
prayed that the Father would draw us ever more deeply into communion
with him (Jn 17:23, 26).
#The "new" commandment
Strictly
speaking, in John the plenitude of the moral commandments is summed
up not in the double commandment to love God and one's neighbour,
but in the "new" commandment, to love the brethren alone.
A single text in the first Epistle seems to contrast love for God
with love for the "world": "Love not the world, nor
the things which are in the world. If any man love the world, the
charity of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world
is the concupiscence of the flesh and the concupiscence of the eyes
and the pride of life, which is not of the Father but is of the world"
(1 Jn 2:15f.). In reality this text is meant neither to warn against
certain vices nor to comprise all virtues in love for God. It is a
dualistically coloured warning against toying with the world, that
perilous temptress, and coming to terms with her, a warning in keeping
with general early Christian paraenesis.(12) At every stage John remains
faithful to his single-minded and urgent call to faith and love, a
call that contains all that God requires of his children in this world.(13)
{323}
§
34. Active Love for the Brethren as the
Proof of Communion with Christ and God
THE EXHORTATION to love of the brethren is the characteristic feature
of Johannine moral teaching. In the fourth gospel, even when Jesus
is speaking of his commandments (Jn 14:15, 21), his primary aim is
to urge on his disciples love for the brethren (Jn 13:34; Jn 15:12,
17). "To keep Jesus' word" (Jn 14:23, or "words"
v. 24) means the same thing, except when it refers to faith (Jn 8:51f
15:20). But in the last resort faith, keeping Jesus' word and loving
the brethren are all different facets of obedience to the Son of God.
In 1 John 2:3f., the commandments of God, or the word of God (Jn 2:5),
are explicitly interpreted as relating to the old and yet new commandment
of brotherly love (cf. 2:7-11). The (moral) message brought to Christians
from the very beginning has been that they should love one another
(Jn 3:11).
#How is this a "new" commandment?
But
why does he call this a "new" commandment? Was not fraternal
love already axiomatic in Judaism?(14) Was it not sincerely practised
in many Jewish communities (the "fellowship" of the Pharisees,
the monastic communities of the Essenes and Therapeutae, the Damascus
sect and the closely-related brotherhood at Khirbet Qumran), and indeed
in many pagan, Hellenistic religious societies?(15) Only the answer
to this question, what the "new" element in Christian love
of the brethren was, brings understanding of Johan-{324}nine
thought. Jesus adds the words "as I have loved you" (Jn
13:34; Jn 15:12)(16) and so provides the key to understanding: because
he has loved his own in the world to the uttermost (Jn 13:1), so giving
them an example (Jn 13:15), his disciples, acting explicitly as his
disciples (Jn 13:35), should love one another in precisely the same
way. Jesus is their precursor, their model, their master and their
teacher. The act enshrining and revealing in an unparalleled way this
loving attitude of Jesus, expressing his love and making it fruitful,
was his voluntary loving sacrifice upon the cross (cf. Jn 10:11, 15,
17f.; Jn 15:13).
#Based on the example of Jesus
Probably,
within the framework of the Johannine narrative, the washing of the
feet is intended to be the pre-eminent "sign" of this and
is to be seen (perhaps in addition to another interpretation cf. 13:10)
as a model for love only in connection with Jesus' sacrificial death.
The sacrificing of oneself for one's brethren, serving them selflessly
in accordance with the great pattern of Jesus may be, in John's mind,
the "new" element in the commandment to love.(17) Otherwise
John could not have written, "Again a new commandment I write
unto you; which thing is true both in him and in you, because the
darkness is passed and the true light now shineth" (1 Jn 2:8).
It is also remarkable how strongly John emphasizes the example of
Christ in his own moral exhortation (cf.1 Jn 2:6; 1 Jn 3:3, 7; 1 Jn
4:17). And above all he draws from Jesus' highest proof of love the
conclusion "We ought to lay down our lives {325}
for the brethren" (1 Jn 3:16). In these words he bases the interpretation
of the "new" commandment of love on faith, for only the
believer realizes the uniqueness of the love of God expressed on the
cross of Golgotha and the compelling force with which it binds us.
There God revealed out of the primordial depths of his own nature,
a love which the world did not know, and enkindled a movement of love
that brought something new into the world (1John4:9f.). In obedience
to his Father (Jn 10:18; Jn 14:31), Jesus, the bearer and revealer
of the divine nature, expressed this divine love in action. The result
is that his commandment to love one another "According as I have
loved you", cannot but seem to be something new.(18)
#The essence of discipleship
Consequently
what is new in the Johannine commandment of love must consist in two
things, the profoundly understood idea of discipleship, namely that
of following Jesus' example and model to the utmost, in his loving
disposition and activity, which is binding on the disciple and, closely
connected with this, the eschatological novelty of such an attitude.
For John such unselfish love which sacrifices itself to the utmost,
has only been made possible and realized by God's initiative, by the
eschatological mission and sacrifice of his Son, which is the consequence
of his incomprehensible, paradoxical love for the sinful world. The
"new" commandment has "become a reality in him (Christ)
and in you, because the darkness is past and the new light is already
shining" (1 Jn 2:8). In Jesus the love of God has become visibly
perceptible and has entered this world as a divine power lightening
the darkness and it is received, continued and put into practice by
his disciples who are really worthy of the name. "We know that
we have passed from death to life (that of God), because we love the
brethren" (1 Jn 3:14). It is understandable how urgent the call
for {326} brotherly
love is, since it is to manifest the new state of affairs that God
has brought about.
In addition there were also historical grounds why St. John should
esteem brotherly love so highly and make it the characteristic mark
of those who are disciples of Christ and begotten of God. In his first
and second Epistles at least he was warding off certain false teachers
whose tendency was clearly towards gnosticism. They altogether despised
the divine commandments (1 Jn 2:3ff.) and even claimed to be in communion
with God without moral obligations of this kind (1Jn l:6ff.; 1 Jn
2:9 ff.). They also seem to have maintained that they loved God, but
St. John would have nothing to do with such bare assertions: "If
any man say: I love God, and hates his brother, he is a liar. For
he that loves not his brother whom he sees, how can he love God whom
he sees not?" (1 Jn 4:20). Thus, outwardly perceptible love of
the brethren becomes a proof of the interior love for God that cannot
be directly tested. John deepens this thought (which can already be
found in the writings of the noble Jew Philo)(19) still further, by
his teaching about faith.
Christians
are the children of God in a very real sense (3:1), for, through baptism,
they have been "begotten of God".(20) "Every one that
loves him who begot, loves him also who is born of him" (5:1),
that is, loves those who, like himself, are born of him, or in other
words, his brothers: it is a fact and law of nature. But for the Christian
it is also the express wish and will of his Father (4:21; cf. 3:23;
2 Jn 4). If in general it is true to say that the children of God
must have love as a sign, as it were, of their relationship with God,
"who is love" (l Jn 4:7f., 16), so too this love must be
made apparent in the concrete, {327}
in love for the brethren. In its nature their love is very similar
to that revealed to us as proper to God's own essence by the mission
and death of his Son (4:9-11), a completely unselfish, generous, merciful
love, a love seeking the salvation of others, a love that for the
most part does not correspond to the "natural" feelings
of men, and surpasses all other human kinds of love.(21)
#Johannine mysticism includes judgment
One
often hears references to Johannine mysticism. It is indeed true that
this great theologian did make our communion with Christ and God the
central point in his thinking. But so that there should be no misunderstandings,
no pantheistic, ecstatic, or magical mysticism, or any that fuses
God and man, he demanded love of the brethren as the expression and
realization of our exalted communion with God. "No man has seen
God at any time. If we love one another, God abides in us; and his
charity is perfected in us" (1 Jn 4:12).
But in spite of all his "mysticism", St. John also sees
God as our Lord and judge. As a result of his sins, even the Christian's
conscience may still prick and disturb him. Doubts can appear, if
we belong wholly to God at all. It is then, however, that we recognize,
through the operation of active, practical love, that we are "of
the truth" (that is, participate in the divine nature) and calm
our heart in the sight of God with regard to everything for which
it condemns us, because God is greater than our hearts and knows everything
(1John3:19f.). John is not saying here that loving good works on our
part can outweigh previous guilt; his purpose is rather to give us
a criterion for our participation in the life of God.
#John the Christian realist
Fraternal
love expressed in action is so great, so important, so indispensable;
it is, as it were, the outer mark of our divine sonship, the unmistakable
sign of our union with God. A simple act of true love is a rock on
which the dreamer founders, but {328}
those heavily burdened or in doubt find respite. Here St. John the
"mystic" shows himself to be a very practical Christian
realist. The concrete demands of John's brotherly love were already
appreciated within the framework of the charitable life of the early
Church.
But
is it not true to say that in John the commandment to love one's neighbour
is narrowed down into love of one's brethren? It has frequently been
asserted that this is so, yet closer examination of the texts shows
that it is not so. For John, love is the completely universal characteristic
of the children of God, in contrast to hate, the token of the "world"
(1 Jn 3:13f.). If he is reproaching the "world" for its
hatred towards Christians, it would be unintelligible of him to limit
the Christian's love to the circle of the community of the Church.
He nowhere preaches hate or speaks of revenge.
By
comparing love for our human brethren whom we can see, with love for
the invisible God (4:20), he is giving the title "brother"
a comprehensive meaning; in the next verse he seems to be referring
to Jesus' great commandment. Clearly, then, John has expressed the
synoptics' "love of one's neighbour" as "love of the
brethren", and hence he cannot be using this in any exclusive
sense. All John does, is to point first to the community of his brethren
in the faith, as a sphere in which the Christian may express his love.
But in doing so, he does not mark any frontier.
The
fact that he orders that heretics be expelled and refused even a greeting
(2 John l0f.) is due to his anxiety about the faith. It is self-evident,
however, that he did not mean to forbid Christians to play the part
of the Good Samaritan. We should not expect to find all Christ's teachings
repeated in these occasional writings. But fresh prominence is given
to one new duty, hospitality to brethren who are travelling and support
for wandering missionaries (cf. 3Jn 2-8). This passage reflects the
changed, more complex situation of the Church at the end of the first
century. A certain shift of emphasis is perceptible here, but no fundamental
change in charitable attitude and practice. St. John is not only {329}
a loyal guardian of Christ's inheritance preserving his spirit but
also a disciple of the Lord illumined by the Holy Spirit, giving added
profundity to the commandment of love and raising it to be the ruling
principle of Christian morality throughout all ages.
§
35. Christ, Church, and World
#Summoned to decision
BY
THE message of the Johannine Christ, the individual human being is
summoned to decide for salvation or to abide under the wrath of God
(Jn 3:36). In accordance with thought of this eschatological stamp,
it could not be otherwise. If Jesus is the definitive and complete
revealer of salvation who has come down from heaven, and to believe
in him is the only way to deliverance from the situation of perdition
that hangs threateningly over man, the summons concerns each individual
personally with inescapable rigour and urgency. Each faces an alternative
and has to make up his mind. Hence the impression that in St. John's
gospel more markedly than in the other New Testament writings, a turning
to the individual has occurred, an individualism regarding salvation,
which is not of course to be overlooked in the teaching of Jesus in
the synoptics, but is noteworthy here by the very marked form it assumes,
in view {330} of the
usual mode of thought in the New Testament which is linked with the
redeemed community, the Church.
This
impression is strengthened by the stylistic form of "revelation
discourse" which is found in St. John's gospel, together with
majestic "I am" statements and apostrophes to the reader
with pleas and also with warnings (cf. Jn 6:35; Jn 8:12, 24; Jn 10:7-10;
Jn 11:25f.; Jn 14:6; Jn 15:5f.), or which makes the revealer in the
third person but in a similar absolute manner (cf. Jn 3:13-21, 31-6;
Jn 5:19-30; Jn 12:44-50).(22) The same effect is produced by certain
sharply antithetical sentences in the First Epistle of John which
announce to the individual, communion with God and salvation or remoteness
from God and perdition (cf.1 Jn 2:4-6, 9-11; 1 Jn 2:22f.; 1 Jn 3:4-6;
1 Jn 4:2f.; 1 Jn 5:10-12). In form these may be analogous to "revelation
discourse" or the formulas of baptismal vows, or the polemic
against false teachers,(23) but at all events the individual is addressed
in his personal responsibility, placed as it were directly before
God and subjected to his judgement. It is not surprising that existential
theology has taken John as a basis in order to work out the "situation
of eschatological decision" of the individual under the summons
of the Word of God.
#The
individual as a member of the Church
But
if by that the revelation event is reduced {331} to a meeting in personal
relationship between the individual and God, and its binding character
is made simply to mean the "radical obedience" of the individual
in the particular situation that is his, essential aspects and interrelations
of Johannine theology and ethics are lost from view. For all the claim
he makes on the individual, John does not represent a moral individualism
or an existential ethics. With all the early Church he always envisages
the individual as a member of the Church which transmits to him Christ's
instructions and calls for their realization within the Church. Reference
to the community is not established only by the precept of brotherly
love (which can also find place in an individualist existentialist
ethics), but is much more deeply anchored in John's thought. The Church
is constitutive and regulative of Johannine Christianity and permeates
his theology more strongly than might at first sight appear.(24) Without
the Church as believing and redeemed community, Christian life for
John too is impossible of accomplishment. The Church, by its appearance
and position in the midst of the "world", contributes most
strongly to affect and determine the being and action of the individual.
This must be made rather more plain, in view of some of the questions
raised at the present time.
#Trusting in the witnesses
That
the individual Christian necessarily belongs to and is bound to belong
to the community of brethren in the faith (united in true confession
of faith), is expressed as a clear conviction in the First Epistle
of John, and is emphatically insisted upon. Community with God only
receives its foundation through community with those who experienced
a direct and believing encounter with the incarnate "Word of
Life", that eternal life that was with the Father and appeared
to men, and with those who bore witness to this and proclaimed it
as the occurrence of salvation (1 Jn 1:4). From this follows the duty
of all believers to accept the confession of Christ of {332}
these legitimate and authoritative informants (1 Jn 2:22f.; 1 Jn 4:2f.;
1 Jn 5:1, 5f.); for only this Jesus Christ who has come in the flesh
is "the true God and eternal life" (1 Jn 5:20), that is,
to say, the revealer and saviour who bestows communion with God (1
Jn 1:3; 1 Jn 2:23; 1 Jn 4:15), and divine life (1 Jn 5:11f.). But
in precisely the same way, however, they must take seriously and keep
the commandments of God that he taught (1 Jn 2:3ff), or with the eyes
fixed on Jesus himself "also walk even as he walked" (1
Jn 2:6). That is ultimately only one commandment, that of brotherly
love (1 Jn 2:7; 1 Jn 3:11), and only one example comprising everything
else, namely "that he has laid down his life for us" (1
Jn 3:16). The spokesman and guarantor of this "old" yet
"new" commandment, however, is the community of true believers,
which was already looking back on a certain extent of time during
which the gospel had been preached. "The old commandment is the
word which you have heard" (2:7b). Precisely because those addressed
possess this and nothing else "from the beginning" (1 Jn
2:7a), it must not be nullified. The same holds good of true belief
in Christ. Just as they have heard it "from the beginning"
they must abide in it in order to abide in the Son and in the Father.
Confession of faith and conduct of life, an indissoluble unity, are
therefore determined by what is proclaimed in the Church "from
the beginning" as true and authoritative.
#The false teachers
Incorporation
of the individual in the Church and his living bond with it are viewed
even more profoundly, in a supernatural way; membership of the redeemed
community is ultimately a disposition of God's grace. This conviction
emerges in reflection on the false teachers who left the Church. "They
went out from us but they were not of us, for if they had been of
us they would no doubt have remained with us; but that they may be
manifest that they are not all of us", that is to say, by what
they are, do not belong to us (1 Jn 2:19). Their departure, however,
shows that despite their outward membership of the Church, they were
not to be reckoned in the ranks of "the children of God"
(cf. 1 Jn 3:10). The author, therefore, had a very {333}
clear and lofty conception of the nature of the Christian. Church
to which the individual Christian must belong externally and interiorily
in order to make his way to salvation. Consequently it is not without
reason that the society of the brethren is indicated to all as the
most immediate field for the exercise of their love (1 Jn 4:21; cf.
section 34).
This significance of the Church, which has also received the Spirit
of God (1 Jn 3:24b; 1 Jn 4:13; 1 Jn 2:20, 27), is of course particularly
evident in the First Epistle of John, on account of the condemnation
of false teachers and their moral indifferentism, but it can also
be recognized in St. John's gospel. The farewell discourses in particular
(John chapters 13-17), that is, in Jesus' instructions, admonitions
and consolations addressed to the circle of close disciples which
already prefigured the later Church, throw light on it. Jesus will
reveal himself to the disciples, not to the "world" after
the Resurrection (14:22). He will ask the Paraclete of the Father
for them, "the Spirit of truth whom the world cannot receive"
(14:16f.), and he himself in his living reality will be united with
them (14:19). But associated with him they will also be able to bear
fruit if they abide in him and his love and keep his commandments
(Jn 15:1-10).
At
this moment of parting he gives them the "new commandment"
(Jn 13:34f.; Jn 15:12-17), which he intends to be understood very
concretely, after his own example (Jn 13:1-17). That all these discourses
to the community of disciples as such, are addressed to the later
Church, can be recognized by the fact that even the operation of the
Paraclete can only take place in the closest connection with the Church
and through the Church. The Paraclete gives the Church that introduction
into "all truth" (Jn 16:13; cf. Jn 14:26), by which he will
convince the world (Jn 16:8-11). So, too, the separation from Christ
which leads to withering and ruin (Jn 15:6), must not only have meant
abandonment of communion with Christ (by sin), but at the same time
and perhaps chiefly, separation from the community linked with Christ.
#The
vine and the branches
The
metaphor of the vine and the branches certainly has {334}
ecclesiological significance. It is sufficient to recall the Old Testament
background with Israel as God's vineyard (Is 5), or as his chosen
vineyard (Jr 2:21; Ps 7, 9-16), and in the New Testament, the Pauline
parallel of the "Body of Christ". The Church as the worshipping
community of the New Covenant also finds a place in St. John's gospel.
Jesus' glorified body after the Resurrection is the eschatological
temple (Jn 2:21), and the worship introduced by him and made possible
by him, the adoration "in spirit and truth" (Jn 4:23), is
certainly accomplished in the community of those who are born "of
God", "of water and the Spirit" (Jn 1:13; Jn 3:5) and
who are now also called to a priestly service of God in adoration
and moral action.(25) Similarly the sacraments are to be kept in mind
in more than one passage of St. John's gospel as the fundamental means
of salvation which alone make possible a holy life free from sin (cf.
section 36).(26)
#Against the unbelieving cosmos
Ultimately,
therefore, the Johannine Christians do not take up their position
in relation to the "world" on their own account, but within
the Church to which they belong; and this is aware of itself as altogether
separate from the unbelieving cosmos which denies Christ and
is hostile to God. Once again the First Epistle of John is particularly
clear. In face of the terrifying number of false prophets and their
outwardly successful influence in the world (4:1-5), the author affirms:
"You are of God, little children, and have overcome him, because
greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world" (4:4).
The Church in its {335}
close unity and bond with God is the bastion which the "Antichrist"
(cf. verse 5) cannot capture.
Of
course the "world" is also certainly envisaged in its seductive
influence on the individual (2, 15ff.; cf. section 32), but the power
to conquer "the wicked one" (2:13f.), springs not only from
the individual's link with God, but also from the consciousness of
standing in the society of those born of God. "We know that we
are of God and the whole world is sealed in (the sphere of influence
of) wickedness. We know that the Son of God is come; and he has given
us understanding that we may know 'him who is true' and we are in
'him who is true', in his Son, Jesus Christ" (5:19f.). The Johannine
Church is engaged in a hard defensive struggle, but it also possesses
an unconquerable sense of victory, as is shown by the repetition of
"we know".
This knowledge of the situation of the Church in the world has already
its foundation in the gospel. In the most pointed antithetical terms
Jesus foretells to his disciples in the room of the Last Supper hatred
and persecution by the "world". "If the world hate
you, know that it has hated me before you. If you had been of the
world, the world would love its own; but because you are not of the
world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world
hates you" (15:18f.). In what follows it is clear that what is
meant is quite concretely the persecutions (on the part of the unbelieving
Jews) in the time of the evangelist, or they are included (16:2-4).
Christ's parting discourse to his disciples is also addressed to the
later Church. "In the world you shall have distress. But have
confidence. I have overcome the world" (16:33; cf.1 Jn 5: 4ff.).
For the position of the Church in the world the prayer of Christ before
his departure (Jesus' sacerdotal prayer) in Jn 17 is also significant.
As he himself is leaving the world and returning to the Father, he
recommends his own to the immediate protection and care of the Father.
"Yours they were and to me you gave them. And they have kept
your word" (verse 6). Here too, therefore, is the thought of
the supernatural {336}
call to the flock of Christ or God, which, of course, those who are
called must themselves abide in (verse 12). In regard to God's "property",
we even read words which it would be easy to misunderstand: "I
pray not for the world, but for them whom you have given me, because
they are thine" (verse 9). This band of Christ's disciples who
belong to God stands in the midst of the world and is even sent into
the world, but on that account needs God's special protection (verse
11), and the sanctification which is guaranteed by Christ's sacrificial
consecration (verses 18f.).
Christ
says expressly, "I pray not that you take them out of the world,
but (only) that you keep them from the evil one" (verse 15).
For in fact the "world" hates them, the "evil one"
lays snares for their purity and attachment to God, because they bear
God's nature and are not of the nature of the "world", as
was the case with Jesus before them (verses 14:16). In this situation
it is of particular importance that the community of Christ's disciples
is united within itself, with that ultimate most profound unity which
is an image and consequence of the unity that exists between the Father
and the Son (verses 11, 21-23), and so becomes a proof of the divine
origin of Christ's mission and work, in contrast to the destructive
powers of the evil one disintegrating divine order in the "world".
#The
missionary ideal towards the world
The
missionary ideal is also unmistakably present. Christ before his departure
also prays for those "who through their word shall believe in
me"; his mind is already directed to his future flock, to which
other sheep as well as those of the house of Israel will belong (cf.
10:16). How the evangelist understood this, is shown by his interpretation
of the unwitting prophecy of the high priest Caiaphas. By his death
Jesus was to "gather together in one the children of God that
were dispersed" (11:52). The "world" has "notknown"
God, but Christ possessed this "knowledge" of God and has
bestowed it on those who have recognized and affirmed him to be God's
envoy (17:25f.). Once again the conviction of the later Church is
also expressed when Christ goes on to say {337}
"And to them I will make your name more known, that the love
by which you have loved me may be in them and I in them" (verse
26).
#To heal the world
As
well as showing Jesus' attitude, the words quoted are also clear evidence
of how the Johannine Church saw itself and its position in regard
to the "world". It does not exclude itself from the world
but marks itself off from it.(27) If the question is once more raised,
what kind of a concept of the "world" this presupposes,
the answer must be that the "world" does not mean God's
creation, nor the sum of existing things and conditions which man
is called upon to care for, to administer in due order and to shape,
but it means the "world" as an historical factor, existing
in a particular historical condition, and precisely as the world of
men in its relation to God and the moral order established and intended
by him.
Even
more does it signify "this world" in its attitude to God's
eschatological envoy Jesus Christ who was intended most profoundly
to heal its shattered order, bring life and redemption to men, but
against whom it shuts itself in unbelief and hatred. In face of it,
the Johannine Church sees itself in the same strained and paradoxical
situation as the fourth evangelist shows us in Jesus' encounter with
his own nation, the Judaism of that time. Into this world in need
of redemption, but encompassed with God's merciful love (cf. Jn 3:16;
1 Jn 4:9,14), Jesus was sent and his Church is now sent. Yet like
Jesus, the Church finds itself faced with incomprehensible rejection,
blindness and enmity, which is only to be explained by the influence
of God's adversary, the "evil one". This experience makes
the judgement passed on "this world" a darker one, and also
prompts scepticism regarding everything that is "in the world"
(1 Jn 2:15ff.).
Yet
at the same time it does not lead to any pessimism of principle; it
is not forgotten that the "world" before all its history
of perdition, was once God's creation, formed throughout by the {338}
divine Logos (Jn 1:3), and that the latter came "to his own"
(1:11), nor does the slightest doubt arise that Jesus Christ will
bring to conclusion on the cosmic scale the victory won on the cross
over the "prince of this world" (Jn 12:31; Jn 16:33), and
in fact will do so through his Church despite all resistance (1 Jn
4:4; 1 Jn 5:4f.). The struggle against the moral powers of perdition
is waged simultaneously on two levels: in the life of the individual
Christian (cf. section 36), and in the Church's encounter with the"world"; but once again those are not separate battlefields. The
Church carries on its struggle in the world through its individual
members, and in the same way the individual receives help and support
in the community of brethren in the faith, the Church assisted and
defended by the Paraclete.
§
36. Christ and Sin
THE CHRISTIAN in the world finds himself confronted with yet another
serious and in fact harassing problem, that of overcoming sin. The
more clearly God's nature as holiness without shadow (1 Jn 1:5) is
recognized, the more deeply Christian union with Godis understood
as "being of God" (Jn 8:47; 1 Jn 3:10b; Jn 4:2-6; Jn 5:19),
and as "being born of God" (Jn 1:13; 1 Jn 3:9; 1 Jn 4:7;
1 Jn 5:1,4,18), the more incomprehensible it
{339} becomes that the Christian himself has still to struggle with
sin and is not infrequently overcome by it. In Johannine theology,
sin is disclosed as of diabolical nature (1 Jn 3:8), and as eschatological
power of "iniquity" (avoj Aioc,1 Jn 3:4), which is diametrically
opposed to God and his radiant light. Christ, however, himself sinlessly
holy, has brought that divine nature as a new power of life into the
cosmos (cf. Jn 8:24, 34, 46; 1 Jn 3:5, 6, 8b, 9; 1 Jn 5:18). He is
the "lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world" (Jn
1:29), the "propitiation" for our sins and those of the
whole world (1 Jn 2:2; 1 Jn 4:10). After the Resurrection he gave
to his disciples the power of forgiving sins (Jn 20:23); the sins
of Christians are forgiven for Jesus' name's sake (1 Jn 2:12). Jesus'
intention of "destroying the works of the devil" is realized
in those who are born of God (1John3:8f.). Nevertheless sin occurs
even in the Christian life, and it would be self-deception and falsehood
to say we are without sin (1 Jn 1:8,10). Our heart can alarm us by
reprehending us, that is to say, accusing us of sin and guilt (3:19f.).
It also happens that the Christian sees his brother sin, whether it
be "by sin not to death" or even "by sin unto death"
(5:16). Sin is, therefore, a harsh and sinister fact in Christian
life which it is impossible to ignore.
The depth of the problem is only fully realized when it is considered
that God has imparted to the Christian powers which enable and bind
him to lead a holy life without sin. "Whosoever is born of God
commits not sin, for his seed abides in him. And he cannot sin, because
he is born of God" (3:9). And the author of the First Epistle
continues in logical accord with this, "In this the children
of God are manifest, and the children of the devil. Whosoever is not
just is not of God and (especially) not he that loves not his brother"
(verse 10). The author sees in the absence of sin, and positively
in brotherly love, a criterionf or distinguishing the children of
God from the children of the devil; so convinced is he of the efficacy
of the divine powers. At the end of the epistle this is again shown
in the awareness of {340}
these Johannine Christians. "We know that whosoever is born of
God sins not; but the man born of God preserves him (or, 'the man
born of God holds fast to him')(28) and the wicked one touches him
not." It is, therefore, not only a question of the Christian's
being still weak and sinful, and of his failing like a human being,
but rather that what God has done in man ought really to prevent a
new fall into sin, and yet, as experience teaches, often does not
prevent it. How is this antinomy to be resolved >
It must first be inquired what was the context and function in the
Church's life of the affirmations which seem so contradictory. They
chiefly occur in the sections 1 Jn 1:6-2:2; 1 Jn 3:4-10; 1 Jn 5:16-18.
In 1 Jn 1:6-2:2, the condemnation of the false Gnostic teachers who
had fallen victims to moral indifferentism must have occasioned the
sharp emphasis on the persistent sinfulness. In contrast to them the
author had to stress that to genuine fellowship with God, there belongs
"walking in the light" (cf. also 1 Jn 2:9-11); and "doing
the truth". On the other hand, in view of their notion that they
have "known God" (1 Jn 2:3f.), and are "in God"
(1 Jn 2:5), he cannot admit that "We have no sin" (1 Jn
1:8), particularly as these Gnostics evidently thought little of brotherly
love. No human being, not even the Christian, has completely overcome
sin; he still needs to be cleansed by the Blood of Christ (cf. 1 Jn
1:7). But this explanation does not completely clear up the various
statements; it only adds a difficulty; for in other passages, polemic
against false teachers is quite absent. As the end of the epistle
shows, the problem is also {341}
one within the Church. Unmastered sin is a burden on the Christian
communities.
It has long been recognized that the question of sin in the Christian's
life arises in view of baptism, the saving grace it bestows and the
obligations it imposes. The "birth from God" occurs in the
fundamental Christian sacrament which fills man in his weak frail
"flesh" (sarx,) as he is, with the divine Spirit (pneuma)
and "from above", from the heavenly, divine world, makes
of him a new man (cf. Jn 1:13 with Jn 3:3-8). God's "seed"
is bestowed on him (cf.1 Jn 3:9), and as an enduring vital power (en
autô menei), which makes him capable of life without sin.(29)
Consequently it is now true to say that "Whoever abides in him
sins not" (1 Jn 3:6a). John is so thoroughly convinced of the
reality and efficacy of the divine Spirit of life and holiness that
he can write (3: 6b), "Whosoever sins has not seen him nor known
him"; that is to say, with such a person there has not really
been communion with Christ and God.
If the "engendered of God" in 1 Jn 5:18b does mean Christ,
the statement is made that Christ himself preserves the Christian
from sin and defends him from the clutches of the evil one (Satan);
if the expression refers to the baptized person, it testifies no less
clearly that the latter holds fast to God by the power of God bestowed
on him and that the evil one cannot touch him. Yet the need for human
collaboration is never in doubt; the condition is always implied that
the Christian "abides" in Christ and God. With insistence
equal to that with which it is categorically stated that God's word
"abides" in those addressed, and that they have "overcome"
the wicked one (1 Jn 2:14), that God's "seed" abides in
those born of God (1 Jn 3:9), that God himself abides in us, as can
be recognized from the {342}
fact that he has given us of his Spirit (5:13; cf. 1 Jn 3:24), the
conditions for such continuance in fellowship with God are impressed
on the recipients of the epistle. "(Only) he who keeps his commandments
abides in him and he in him" (1 Jn 3:24); "If we love one
another, God abides in us" (1 Jn 4:12); "Whoever abides
in love abides in God and God in him" (1 Jn 4:16). From the point
of view of right belief, which is also the work of the divine Spirit
(the "unction"), and an obligation on man, indicative and
imperative, statement and precept are even juxtaposed. "Let the
unction which you have received from him abide in you... and as it
has taught you, abide in him" (1 Jn 2:27).
This
Johannine "abiding" is like a bracket linking God's action
and man's endeavour; the divine and the human side are each referred
to equally definitely. Consequently we are confronted with the same
state of affairs as we have already observed in Pauline theology.
The indicative sentences about redemption themselves involve the imperative
moral precepts (cf. section 28), and we are obliged to give the same
explanation as with Paul (cf. section 29). After the saving event
has taken place by grace (in baptism), the Christian belongs as a
child of God (cf.1 Jn 3:1) to the holy world of God (cf. 1 Jn 3:3)
- in Pauline terms he is a new creation in Christ -, and yet he is
still in the "world" (cf. 1 Jn 2:15 ff.), - in Pauline terms in "this
aeon" - and must now put to the proof and authenticate by his
manner of life the divine life bestowed on him. In somewhat different
categories from those of Paul, the fundamental experience of the Christian
in the world is thus brought out. His existence is both earthly and
heavenly, in history and yet eschatological.
The
tension manifest in the two sets of statements, one deriving from
God and the other concerning man's situation in redemptive history,
is not removed thereby, but to some degree rendered intelligible.
Consequently all endeavours to weaken and harmonize hard sayings by
drawing distinctions such as "impeccability in principle and
human weakness", "incapable of mortal sin, impossibility
of avoiding daily faults", "apostasy and moral lapse",
are unsatisfactory and {343}
inadequate.(30) Clearly every baptized person is called to a perfectly
sinless life (1 Jn 3:3, 9; 1 Jn 5:18), yet each is also threatened
by sin, even by "sin unto death" (1 Jn 5:16) and total apostasy.
Baptism as such does not guarantee final salvation, does not lead
automatically to sinlessness, does not operate magically without moral
effort on man's part. Only those who abide in what is given them,
only those who give to others the love they have received (1 Jn 3:1,
11), only those who actively practise brotherly love have "eternal
life abiding" in them (1 Jn 3:15). If the author of the First
Epistle of John refuses to regard apostates and those who reject charity,
as "born of God", and declares them to be "children
of the devil" (cf. 1 Jn 3:8, 10; 1 Jn 4:3, 8), that says nothing
against baptism but certainly concerns the abuse of baptism, disregard
of the obligations imposed by baptism.
Only if this fundamental theological perspective is assured, is it
permissible to note that "sin" and "sinning" are
not used in the same sense in all passages in the First Epistle of
John. There are texts which obviously refer to the "daily"
sins that no Christian can avoid; these texts mirror no doubt the
experience of Christians in the world. The passage 1 Jn 1:8-2:2 is
one such text, and gives proof of sound Christian realism. Confession
of "our" sins, that is, of those committed among Christians,
is necessary, but takes place with trust in the faithful and merciful
God who remits our sins and cleanses us from all iniquity (verse 9).
In the paraenetic apostrophe to his readers (1 Jn 2:1), the author
expresses the wish that they may not sin, yet "if any man sin,
we have an advocate (Paraclete) with the Father, Jesus Christ the
just" (1 Jn 2:1). The propitiation for the whole world (1 Jn
2:2), who now dwells at the right hand of the Father continues, therefore,
to intervene on behalf of his weak sinful human brethren, a thought
that is also found in Rm 8:34 and Heb 7:25. The trust expressed is
directed to God {344}
himself who "is greater than our heart" (1 Jn 3:20), "if
our heart reprehends us". The reason for the trouble of heart
is not of course stated, but may most likely be considered to be sins
that a Christian has committed out of weakness. We are to approach
God at the judgement with "frankness" or confidence; yet
we are not yet rid of fear of the divine judge, but we are to drive
it out by perfect love (4:17f.). Here, too, it is not said what the
cause of the fear is; but it is likely that sin and guilt are responsible.
Finally, there is a passage in the last chapter which deals plainly
enough with the failure of Christians: "Whoever knows his brother
to sin a sin (which is) not to death, let him ask (for him) and (new)
life shall be given to him (by God)" (5:16). The author only
exhorts fraternal prayer of petition for such as do not "sin
unto death". "All iniquity is sin. And (yet) there is a
sin not (leading) unto death" (5:17).(31) Accordingly by that
is meant an offence which does not remove the sinner entirely from
the sphere of God's life, yet which weakens and endangers the divine
life in him. For the intercession is to move God to "give life"
(no article!), that is to say, to provide new strength which will
unite him again more closely to God, and also permit him to overcome
his condition of moral weakness. In contrast to this, there is also
"sin unto death" and the author expressly excludes prayer
of intercession for such sinners by their brethren (verse 16c).
There has been much discussion about how that is to be understood.
Many commentators have suggested a hardening of the sinner in his
attitude of hostility to God, which would make conversion impossible,
a "sin against the Holy Spirit" (cf.{345}
Mk 3:29 parallels), so-called unforgivable sins; but the text does
not say that but simply excepts "sin unto death" from prayer
of intercession. Not a few therefore would prefer to think it refers
to apostasy, and especially to joining the false teachers with whom
the author has already severed the bond of fellowship (cf. 1 Jn 2:19;
1 Jn 4:3, 6; also 2 Jn 10f.). But that is not certain either, for
the author scarcely allows such apostates the name of brother any
more. Consequently, other commentators suggest the offences later
termed capital sins, apostasy, murder, graver kinds of unchastity,
idolatry, or the sins of the "way of death" (Didache 1-5);
but that is merely conjecture, which is excluded, for lack of more
precise indications. The author takes for granted that those he is
writing to will understand. So it is only possible to say that a way
of acting is meant which "is the negation of full community of
life with God, Christ and the brethren".(32)
Johannine thought regarding the antithetical spheres of life and death
(cf. section 32) also influences the teaching about sin. Ultimately
there is only the choice between walking in "light" or in
"darkness"; but sober observation of Christian life as it
is lived "in this world", though of course According to
the way and pattern of Christ (cf.1 Jn 2:6; 1 Jn 3:3; 1 Jn 4:17c),
yet in human failure too, has led to realization that even the children
of God still can and do fall into sins of both slight and serious
kind. And it is to be hoped that it does not go as far as complete
separation from God, the loss of divine life, "sin unto death"!
Certainly later doctrine about sin is based on the fundamental distinction
between mortal sin and venial sin; but it may be questioned whether
the divisions, often too diagrammatically drawn, correspond to John
the theologian's intention. Anyone who has any sense of the latter's
horror of the domain of death far from God, will be cautious about
rapid identification of "mortal sin" in the life of a seriously
striving Christian. The author of the {346}
epistle who perhaps throws most light onto this set of problems, is
convinced that God's "commandments are not heavy", for "whatsoever
is born of God overcomes the world" (1 Jn 5:3f.). And this optimism
based on the divine powers in the believing and loving Christian,
should animate all who are painfully conscious of the "evil one".
The same piece of writing which implacably reveals the seriousness
of our situation in regard to salvation, is also full of hope and
confidence and keeps pointing out to the struggling Christian the
path of love. "But perfect love casts out fear" (4:18).
{347}
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