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Is there any future or hope for America when the President, the Congress and the Supreme Court do not uphold the law by deporting 45 million illegal aliens already residing in America on welfare and let hordes of unlawful migrants enter boldly and freely to ruin America???
This is the voice of an old dying American in the wilderness who does not seek money or power.
1. The new President must attack Mexico militarily for being the conduit of unlawful migrants for years.
2. Deport 45 million illegal aliens already residing in America and use military to prevent invasion of hordes of illegal migrants from entering the United States and reject all asylum seekers. Build walls and militarize the borders for safety and security.
3. Withdraw support from Ukraine, END the war, and execute the Ukraine leader for war crime and corruption.
4. Enact the law to require citizenship to apply for welfare, and all welfare recipients must work.
5. Annihilate Iran, terrorists Hamas, Hezbollah, Houthis; and force Palestinians to evacuate from the Jewish lands and go to lands of Arabs.
6. America has been playing the fool so long, of course America must be FIRST for America.
7. Former imperialists and colonialists must pay compensations to their former colonies. African nations are big talkers but small doers. Africa must be self-sufficient and receive no aid.
Is there any future or hope for the world where the terrorists Hamas, Hezbollah and Houthis make demands and UN, WHO, EU, all Arab-Muslim-Black nations serve and support them willingly?
The world is so confused! It is most incredible that chiefs of UN, WHO, all Arab-Muslim-Black nations speak for and support terrorists! Hamas, Hezbollah, Houthis are terrorists. What do you do with terrorists? Destroy them!!! The chiefs of UN and WHO must be replaced right away along with their high-paid officials. Palestinians must be expelled from illegal occupation of Jewish land without further delay. UN and WHO must be forced to reform within a year; cease and desist to help and support the terrorists.
How much money has the US given Ukraine since Russia’s invasion? Since February 2022, the United States has allocated $113.4 billion in emergency funding to support Ukraine in wartime.
Updated on Thu, March 7, 2024 by the USA Facts Team
Although the US national debt has surpassed $35 Trillions.
Hamas and Hezbollah terrorists are despicable people who hide in schools, hospitals, refugee camps behind children to get sympathy and protection. Palestinians are despicable Arabs who like to be called refugees in order to live free on international charity, they do not want to go to Arab lands to make a living on their own. As IDF eliminates terrorists Hamas in Gaza and Rafah, so IDF must eliminate terrorists Hezbollah in Lebanon and terrorists Houthis in Yemen without delay. It is strange and illegal that UN, WHO, ICJ, EU and all Arab-Islamic-Black nations recognize and support the terrorists.
If Iran attacks Israel, let the West begin the war of annihilation. The West can take out Iran’s nuclear capability.
This article does not relate to lending money and charge interest. English is a difficult language because one word may have several meanings, depending on what context you use.
Most defines interest as “the state of wanting to know or learn about
something or someone.”
But that is not a good definition.
Maxim Gorky said, “To speak the truth is the most difficult of all arts, for in its "pure" form, not connected with the interests of individuals, groups, classes, or nations, truth is almost completely unsuitable for use by the Philistine and is unacceptable to him.”
I. Meaning of Interest
Est 3:8, “Then Haman said to King Ahasuerus, “There is a certain people scattered and dispersed
among the peoples in all the provinces of your kingdom; their laws are different from those of all other people and they do not comply with the king's laws, so it is not in the king's interest to let them remain.”
Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible
And Haman said unto King Ahasuerus, Or "had said" (r), as some choose to render it; nor indeed is it likely that Haman should cast lots to know when would be a proper time to destroy the Jews, until he had got leave of the king to do it:
there is a certain people scattered abroad, and dispersed among the people in all the provinces of thy kingdom; for, though many of the Jews returned to their own land, on the proclamation of Cyrus, yet others remained, being well settled as to worldly things, and not having that zeal for God and his worship as became them, and not caring to be at the trouble and expense of such a journey, and especially those of the ten tribes; now Haman, through contempt of them, mentions them not by name, only describes them as a scattered insignificant people:
and their laws are different from all people; concerning their diet and observation of days, and other things; so Empedocles, an Heathen, observes (s) of the Jews, that they were a separate people from all others in those things; for he says,"they separated not only from the Romans, but even from all men; for, having found out an unmixed way of living, they have nothing common with men, neither table nor libations, nor prayers, nor sacrifices, but are more separate from us than the Susians or Bactrians, or the more remote Indians:"
neither keep they the king's laws; and, no doubt, he had a special respect to the non-observance of the king's command to give him reverence; and in like manner the Jews are represented by Heathen writers, as by Tacitus (t), Juvenal (u), and others:
therefore it is not for the king's profit to suffer them; that is, to dwell in his dominions; he got nothing by them, and they might be prejudicial to his subjects, and poison them with their notions; and since they were not obedient to the laws of the kingdom, it was not fit and equitable that they should be continued in it.
(r) "dixerat enim", Junius & Tremellius, Piscator, Drusius, so Patrick. (s) Apud Philostrat. Vit. Apollon. l. 5. c. 11. (t) Hist. l. 5. c. 4. (u) "Romanas antem soliti", &c. Satyr. 14. ver. 99.”
We can say the same about hordes of unlawful migrants who want to invade America by land via Mexico and by sea and the 45 million illegal aliens who are already residing in America -- they are not in the American interest to let them remain; however there are some interest groups and the Democratic Party and Democratic administrations who support unlawful and illegal aliens. Britons have riots against unlawful migrants because the British government is stupid like American.
Jhn 11:50, “nor are you taking into account that it is in your best interest that one man die for the people, and that the whole nation not perish instead.”
Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
50. expedient for us] For us members of the Sanhedrin. But the better reading gives, for you half-hearted Pharisees.
that one man] Literally, in order that one man; S. John’s favourite particle pointing to the Divine purpose: comp. John 4:34; John 4:36, John 6:29; John 6:50, John 9:2-3; John 9:39, John 12:23, and especially John 16:7.
the people] The Jews as a theocratic community (laos).
the whole nation] The Jews as one of the nations of the earth (ethnos). Comp. Luke 7:5; Acts 10:22. The same word in the plural, ‘the nations,’ means the Gentiles.”
Jhn 18:14, “Now Caiaphas was the one who had advised the Jews that it was in their best interest for one man to die in behalf of the people.”
Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible Now Caiaphas was he which gave council to the Jews,.... The chief priests and Pharisees, who met in council about Jesus, John 11:47, the counsel he gave was, that it was expedient that one man should die for the people; and which advice was given out of ill will and malice to Christ, and to prevent, as he thought, the people of the Jews being destroyed by the Romans; though the words have a very good sense which he did not understand. The people Christ was to die for, was not all the, people of the world, nor only the people of the Jews, nor all of them; but all the elect of God, whom God has chosen for his special and peculiar people, and has given to Christ as such: these Christ were to die for, and did, not merely as a martyr, to confirm his doctrine to them, or as an example to teach them meekness, patience, and courage, but in the room and stead of them, as a surety for them; and it was expedient that he should, in such sense, die for them, because of his suretyship engagements, that he might make satisfaction to the law and justice of God, and procure the salvation of his people, and send forth the Spirit to make application of it to them.” |
According Merriam Webster, interest is
“a feeling that accompanies or causes special attention to something or someone.”
I personally am not satisfied with the definition. I think it means “expediency”, but more than expediency. It includes “profit or benefit”, but not satisfied. It may mean “concern” but more than concern. However, when I use and quote it in many situations in this article may help to make its meanings become apparent.
Interest in this article always means self-interest. Self-interest is defined by Merriam Webster as “a concern for one's own advantage and well-being.” It is exclusive of anything and everything that makes one’s interest above everything else.
The interest of all nations are not the same, the more nationalistic a nation is, the more extreme the self-interest. People with a preponderance in self-interest can never become a good man or moral person. People of self-interest are usually selfish and full of greed. I am particularly dislike people who take advantage of others.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld said, “Self-interest makes some people blind, and others sharp-sighted.” By the grace of God I live to be an old man, I discover the White people are most interest-oriented than all other races. Once I cooked a dutch oven of chicken à la Wong and bringing it to a supervisor’s home. To my surprise, the white neighbor shamelessly said he wanted to join us although I had never met him before. If you have a deal with a White person, he will make sure you are the loser, he is the winner.
Franklin D. Roosevelt said, “Self-interest is the enemy of all true affection.”
Milton Friedman said, “Self-interest is not myopic selfishness. It is whatever it is that interests the participants, whatever they value, whatever goals they pursue. The scientist seeking to advance the frontiers of his discipline, the missionary seeking to convert infidels to the true faith, the philanthropist seeking to bring comfort to the needy - all are pursuing their interests, as they see them, as they judge them by their own values.”
Willie Wong says, “The national interest of certain nations are a threat to the security of the world.”
E. Urner Goodman said remarkably, “Things of the spirit are what count: brotherhood – in a day when there is too much hatred at home and abroad; cheerfulness – in a day when the pessimists have the floor and cynics are popular; service – in a day when millions are interested in getting or grasping, rather than giving.”
Chanakya said, “There is some self-interest behind every friendship. There is no friendship without self-interests. This is a bitter truth.”
After living almost half a century in America, I discovered no true friendship in America. You are considered a friend when you serve the interest of another. You are dropped and discarded when you no longer serve the interest of a certain person. It was reported when Spiro Agnew was popular and powerful he had many friends. When he failed from the grace, it was reported he had only one friend who helped him in need. Well, a friend in need is a friend indeed.
George Bancroft said, “The prejudices of ignorance are more easily removed than the prejudices of interest; the first are blindly adopted; the second wilfully preferred.”
Epicurus said, “Misfortune seldom intrudes upon the wise man; his greatest and highest interests are directed by reason throughout the course of life.”
Throughout my life I have not the pleasure of witnessing the West (America and Europe) directed by reason.
Willie Wong says, “The Bible will be a tough read for anyone whose interest is to make the truth fit himself.”
Noam Chomsky said, “A good education instills in you the intuitive comprehension - it becomes unconscious and reflexive - that you just don't think certain things, things that are threatening to power interests.”
Sadly, most people do not have a good education. I found a man who was worst educated but he had a Ed.D. from a fourth rate university in America. He was the worst psychopathic supervisor I had ever known.
Robert Wyatt said something quite true, “I think there are deep structural things that are wrong in the world. The US is the Western empire of the 19th century regrouping in the 20th, not out of wickedness, but because everybody else in Eurasia was so completely destroyed by the Second World War. Economically, that was quite a useful time for the US, so they ended up in the position of enormous power. And like any great power, they're going to act in their own interests. The problem is due to what the business community wants, which is to make as much money as they can out of what other people do and pay as little as possible for it.”
Albert Einstein said, “The Press, which is mostly controlled by vested interests, has an excessive influence on public opinion.”
In my opinion, the Western Press is the greatest agent of falsehood, disinformation, misinformation, and distortion of facts.
Irene Cara said, “I'll never be that trusting again, believing accountants and lawyers have my best interests at heart.”
The statement needs to add doctors, dentists, hospital owners, drug and insurance executives, etc.
Harrison Ford said, “Never again will I allow our political self-interest to deter us from doing what we know to be morally right. Atrocity and terror are not political weapons. And to those who would use them, your day is over. We will never negotiate. We will no longer tolerate and we will no longer be afraid. It's your turn to be afraid.”
John Glenn said, “If there is one thing I’ve learned in my years on this planet, it’s that the happiest and most fulfilled people I’ve known are those who devoted themselves to something bigger and more profound than merely their own self interest.”
The world will be better off if there are more people like John Glenn.
Russell Brand said, “I say us - obviously I don't vote as I believe democracy is a pointless spectacle where we choose between two indistinguishable political parties, neither of whom represent the people but the interest of powwerful business elites that run the world.”
Willie Wong says, “What interests me most is neither the peoples nor the nations, but how God causes all things to work together to accomplish His plan or purpose.” What is most difficult is to have a longitudinal view, because mankind does not live long. In retrospect, the life of Joseph illustrates the work of God.
John Foster Dulles said, “The United States of America does not have friends; it has interests.”
He was right. Sad and tragic is the case that the interest of America is world’s domination. Whoever stands in the way is treated as American enemy. For that reason and civilization, there is no true friendship in America. You are treated as a friend so long you serves the interest of that person. You are discarded like garbage the moment you stop being useful. In America, friendship is totally based on interest. You will be shocked if you think a certain person is your true friend. I want to assure you, the true friendship between Jonathan and David does not and cannot exist in America.
1Sa 18:1, “Now it came about, when he had finished speaking to Saul, that Jonathan committed himself to David, and Jonathan
loved him as himself.”
1Sa 18:3, “Then Jonathan made a covenant with David because he loved him as himself.”
1Sa 18:4, “Jonathan stripped himself of the robe that was on him and gave it to David, with his military gear, including his sword, his bow, and his belt.”
1Sa 19:1, “Now Saul told his son Jonathan and all his servants to put David to death. But Jonathan, Saul's son, greatly delighted in David.”
1Sa 19:2, “So Jonathan informed David, saying, “My father Saul is seeking to put you to death. Now then, please be on your guard in the morning, and stay in a hiding place and conceal yourself.”
1Sa 19:4, “Then Jonathan spoke well of David to his father Saul and said to him, “May the king not sin against his servant David, since he has not sinned against you, and since his deeds have been very beneficial to you.”
1Sa 20:3, “Yet David vowed again, saying, “Your father is well aware that I have found favor in your sight, and he has said, ‘Jonathan is not to know this, otherwise he will be worried.' But indeed as the LORD lives and as your soul lives, there is just a step between me and death.”
1Sa 20:4, “Then Jonathan said to David, “Whatever you say, I will do for you.”
1Sa 20:16, “So Jonathan made a covenant with the house of David, saying, “May the LORD demand it from the hands of David's enemies.”
1Sa 20:17, “And Jonathan made David vow again
because of his love for him, because he loved him as he loved his own life.”
1Sa 20:32, “But Jonathan replied to his father Saul
and said to him, “Why must he be put to death? What has he done?”
1Sa 20:33, “Then Saul hurled his spear at him to strike and kill him; so Jonathan knew that his father had decided to put David to death.”
1Sa 20:34, “Then Jonathan got up from the table in the heat of anger, and did not eat food on the second day of the new moon, because he was worried about David since his father had insulted him.”
1Sa 20:42, “Then Jonathan said to David, “Go in safety, since we have sworn to each other in the name of the LORD, saying, ‘The LORD will be between me and you, and between my descendants
and your descendants forever.'” So David set out and went on his way, while Jonathan went into the city.”
1Sa 23:16, “And Jonathan, Saul's son, set out and went to David at Horesh, and encouraged him in God.”
1Sa 23:18, “So the two of them made a covenant
before the LORD; and David stayed at Horesh, while Jonathan went to his house.”
By the grace of God I live to be an old man, all my life I have never heard or seen anything like the friendship of Jonathan and David. I can assure you there is no true friendship in America, what a poor nation!
Edward Abbey said, “Representative government has broken down. Our politicians represent not the people who vote for them but the commercial interests who finance their election campaigns. We have the best politicians that money can buy.”
James Madison said, “No man is allowed to be a judge in his own cause, because his interest would certainly bias his judgment.”
Charles Hodge said, “It is because God is infinitely great and good that his glory is the end of all things; and his good pleasure the highest reason for whatever comes to pass. What is man that he should contend with God, or presume that his interests rather than God's glory should be made the final end?”
P. M. Forni said, “Civility means a great deal more than just being nice to one another. It is complex and encompasses learning how to connect successfully and live well with others, developing thoughtfulness, and fostering effective self-expression and communication. Civility includes courtesy, politeness, mutual respect, fairness, good manners, as well as a matter of good health. Taking an active interest in the well-being of our community and concern for the health of our society is also involved in civility.”
William McKinley said, “Let us ever remember that our interest is in concord, not in conflict; and that our real eminence rests in the victories of peace, not those of war.”
Why American leaders and politicians are so dedicated to warmongering?
Robert Heilbroner said, “The cure for capitalism's failing would require that a government would have to rise above the interests of one class alone.”
Corliss Lamont said, “The theory that everyone acts from self-interest, direct or indirect, is psychologically unsound. . . . Throughout history . . . there have been millions of men and women with some sort of Humanist philosophy who have consciously given up their lives for a social ideal.
Ecc 5:16, “This also is a sickening evil: exactly as a person is born, so will he die. What then is the advantage for him who labors for the wind?”
Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible
And this also is a sore evil, that in all points as he came,
so shall he go,.... This seems not to be an evil or vanity, distinct from the former; but the same repeated and confirmed, and expressed, if possible, in stronger terms, that a man is in all respects alike, when he goes out of the world, as when he came in. A man's birth is signified by "coming", that is, out of his mother's womb, and into the world; and which is a description of every man born into it, John 1:9; he is of the earth, earthly; comes forth like a flower, and springs up as grass; he comes not of himself, nor casually, but by means of his parents; and according to the determinate will of God, and to answer some end or other: and his death is signified by "going": a going the way of all flesh; a going out of the world; a going to the grave, the house of all living, a man's long home; it is like going from one house to another; for death is not an annihilation of man, but a remove of him from hence elsewhere; and a man's birth and death are in all points alike. This is to be understood of natural and civil things; of riches and honours, which men cannot carry with them; and with respect to them, they are as they were born, naked and stripped of them; and with respect to the body, the parts of it then are the same, though more grown; it is as naked as it was born; and a man is as much beholden to his friends for his grave as for his swaddling clothes; it becomes what it was at first, earth and dust; and as a man comes not into the world at his own will and pleasure, so neither does he go out of it at his will, but the Lord's. The Midrash interprets it thus,
"as a man comes into the world, with crying, weeping, and sighing, and without knowledge, so he goes out.''
Likewise this is only true of natural and unregenerate men as to moral things; as they are born in sin, they die in sin; with only this difference, an addition of more sin; as they come into the world without the image of God, without a righteousness, without holiness, and without the grace of God, so they go out of it without these things: but this is not true of saints and truly gracious persons; they come into the world with sin, but go out of it without it; being washed in the blood of Christ, justified by his righteousness, and all their sins expiated and pardoned through his sacrifice: they are born without a righteousness, but do not die without one; Christ has wrought out an everlasting righteousness for them; this is imputed to them; is received by faith; given them; they are found in it, living and dying; and this introduces them into heaven and happiness: they are born without holiness, but do not live and die without it; they are regenerated and sanctified by the Spirit of God, and at the moment of death made perfectly holy. This only therefore is true of men, as natural, and with respect to natural and civil things: the Targum interprets it,
"as he comes into this world void of merit, so he shall go into that;''
and what profit hath he that hath laboured for the wind? for riches, which are as unsatisfying as the wind; which are as shifting, and as swift to flee away, as that; and can no more be held, when it is the will of God they should go, and especially at death, than the wind is to be held in the fist of men; and which are as unprofitable as that in the hour of death. Particularly, what profit has a man of all his riches, which he has got by labour, when he neither makes use of them in life for his own good, nor the good of others; and when he comes to die, they leave him and stand him in no stead; and especially having been unconcerned about his immortal soul; and having been wholly taken up in the pursuit of such vain and transitory things? see Matthew 16:26.”
I am in particular dislike people who take advantage of others.
II. INTEREST IS PREDICTABLE.
So many nations began wrong. They started with the wrong foot, so to speak. You would think nations would be grateful because you point out what is wrong with them. On the contrary, if you in detail point out what is wrong with a nation, you would be hated and targeted.
The whole world is driven by money, power and sex. The motive of the people is as clear as their actions. Most people are self-seeking, full of greed and wickedness. To know the situation of the end of the world you have to know the character of the people. There is nothing better for self-defence than the knowledge of the Word of God.
2Ti 3:1-13, “But realize this, that in the last days
dangerous times will come. For people will be lovers of self,
lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, slanderers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, unloving, irreconcilable, malicious gossips, without
self-control, brutal, haters of good, treacherous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, holding to a
form of godliness although they have denied its power; avoid such people as these. For among them are those who slip into households and captivate weak women weighed down with sins, led on by various impulses, always learning and never able to come to the
knowledge of the truth. Just as Jannes and Jambres opposed Moses, so these men also oppose the truth, men of depraved mind, worthless in
regard to the faith. But they will not make further progress; for their
foolishness will be obvious to all, just as was that also of Jannes and Jambres. Now you followed my teaching, conduct, purpose, faith, patience, love, perseverance, persecutions, and sufferings, such as happened
to me at Antioch, at Iconium, and at Lystra; what persecutions I endured, and out of them all the Lord rescued me! Indeed, all who want to live in a godly way in Christ Jesus will be persecuted. But evil people and impostors will proceed from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived.”
Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
1. This know also] Lit., ‘take notice of this,’ the present tense. Our Lord in Luke 12:39 has the same formula.
in the last days] ‘Not only the very last days, towards the end of the world, but in general (according to the Hebrew phrase) the days to come, or the future time, whether nearer or afar off. He supposeth this would begin to happen in the age of Timothy, 2 Timothy 3:5 from such do thou (thou, Timothy) turn away and avoid them,’ Bp Bull, Serm. xv. init. So Calvin, ‘universum Ecclesiae Christianae statum.’
perilous times shall come] Lit. ‘difficult,’ grievous; the meaning is well seen from the only other place where it occurs in N.T. Matthew 8:28, ‘two possessed with devils exceeding fierce,’ i.e. difficult to deal with, ‘so that no man could pass by that way.’ ‘Shall come,’ lit., will set in. Vulg. ‘instabunt,’ ‘will be upon us,’ ‘will be present.’ In Galatians 1:4 the perfect participle is used, ‘this present evil world.’
1–5. Appeal to Timothy for pure life in view of the worse days and lives to come
The same three thoughts are still in St Paul’s mind, viz. (1) his own life’s work and suffering now closed, (2) Timothy’s life and teaching as the pattern still for other ministers, (3) the false teachers to be shunned and stopped. They are blended in an old man’s artless way as each is uppermost, (3) 2 Timothy 3:1-5; (2) 5; (3) 6–9; (2) 10; (1) 10–12; (3) 13; (2) 14–17. But the main central thought—anxiety for Timothy—comes in, after the others, three times.
The connexion with chap. 2. seems to be: ‘do your best to win back those who are only in the first stage of opposition (see 2 Timothy 2:25, ‘those that are setting themselves contentiously’); there will be men ere long too far gone for this in evil living and false teaching; from these there is no help for it but to turn away.’”
Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
2. For men shall be lovers of their own selves] ‘The article is generic; the men who shall live in those times,’ Alford. Self-lovers, money-lovers; the first pair of adjectives in the description go naturally together; the first of the words occurs only here in N.T., the second only in Luke 16:14, ‘the Pharisees also who were lovers of money.’ The first and an almost exact synonym of the second occur together in Ar. Pol. ii. v. where Plato’s question is being discussed whether there ought to be private property or not. ‘It is clear then that the better plan is for the property to be held separately while the produce is common. Besides even for the pleasure of the thing it makes an unspeakable difference to regard a piece of property as one’s own. Indeed it is probably no mere chance that makes each of us hold himself first in his regard. It is human nature. But being a self-lover is rightly blamed. By this is not meant loving oneself, but doing so too much; just as we speak of the man who is a money-lover, since all love what belongs to them. But to support and succour friends or guests or comrades is a very delightful thing and this requires our having property of our own. The “community” idea robs us of the virtue of generosity in the use of property.’ See note on 1 Timothy 6:10.
boasters, proud, blasphemers] R.V. better, boastful, haughty, railers. Theophrastus (Characters c. 23) describes (‘boastfulness’ to be ‘an endeavour to pass for a man of greater consequence than one really is.’ In the next chapter he describes ‘haughtiness’ to be ‘a contempt for every one but a man’s self.’ The climax is (1) a spirit of vain glory in themselves, (2) an overweening treatment of others, (3) actual abuse and reviling of others. The first word describes a man who sins against truth, the second a man who sins against love, the third a man who sins against both. Cf. Romans 1:30; 1 John 2:16 (and Westcott’s note); Trench, Syn. § 29. For this general meaning of ‘railers’ rather than ‘blasphemers,’ cf. 1 Timothy 6:4 ‘envy, strife, railings.’
disobedient to parents] Or, in one word, unfilial; this with ‘unthankful, unholy,’ makes another triad: breakers of the fifth commandment go on to be breakers of the tenth; and thus throwing aside the second table go on to throw aside also the first, ‘unfilial, unthankful, unholy.’ The word for ‘unthankful’ occurs elsewhere only Luke 6:35 in the Sermon on the Mount. For ‘unholy’ see notes on 1 Timothy 1:9.”
Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
3. without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers] Or, unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, another triad which starts from another breach of the same fifth commandment, the rending of the family ties of love, and advances to a breach of the sixth commandment in a refusal to make peace, and further of the ninth commandment in calumnious attacks and slanders. The threefold contrary spirit is in the same Sermon on the Mount, Luke 6:27, ‘love your enemies, do good to them that hate you, bless them that curse you.’ The word for ‘unloving’ occurs only in Romans 1:31, the other similarities of which seem to suggest that St Paul may have it in his mind, and be sadly tracing the decline and fall of Christian men back to the old heathen state. The word for ‘unforgiving,’ means ‘unwilling to make a truce,’ the opposite of ‘peacemakers,’ Matthew 5:9. It has been wrongly introduced in Romans 1 from this place where only in N. T. it is found, though an ordinary classical word.
incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good] Vicious or uncontrollable, unapproachable, unkindly to all good, a descending triad, in which the characters of the libertine, the churl, the worldling are painted. The three words occur nowhere else in N.T. But the exact opposites are found together in Titus 1:8, ‘temperate, a lover of hospitality, a lover of good.’”
Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
4. traitors, heady, highminded] The last triad again descending, false and forward and full of conceit, the spirit of one who ‘with a light heart’ (1) betrays old friends, and (2) rushes headlong on new faiths, and (3) remains to the end impenetrably wrapped in clouds of self-esteem. The second word only occurs Acts 19:36, ‘to do nothing rash’; the third has been explained 1 Timothy 6:4; cf. 1 Timothy 3:6; a purely ‘pastoral’ phrase in N.T., though thoroughly classical. Note the weight and force of the perfect participle closing the list of epithets. Cf. 2 Timothy 2:25. The A.V. ‘highminded’ has entirely changed its meaning, as Romans 11:20 shews, ‘be not highminded, but fear.’ Cf. Lightfoot, Revision of N. T. p. 175; and see note on 1 Timothy 6:17.
lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God] Both compounds only occurring here, like the similar compounds ‘self-lovers’ and ‘money-lovers’ with which the passage opens. The word for ‘pleasures’ is always in a bad sense in N.T., Luke 8:14 ‘choked with … pleasures of this life.’ So James 4:1; James 4:3; 2 Peter 2:13.”
2Ti 3:5, “holding to a form of godliness although they have denied its power; avoid such people as these.”
Avoid in Greek is apotrepō which means to turn one’s self from; to shun; to keep away from; to withdraw from; -- which occurs 1 time in the New Testament. It is important to know that the Bible never commands the saint to help the wicked, the Bible never demands Christians to show sympathy to the wicked. Do not aid the wicked. Prostitutes are the wicked, do not help prostitutes. Do not help the wicked. The Bible actually commands saints to shun, avoid, turn away, and withdraw from the wicked. Be wise, the wicked do not deserve help pr sympathy. If they want to repent genuinely, they will show the initiative to repent of their sins.
Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
5. having a form of godliness] The word for ‘form’ is strictly ‘formation,’ its ending implying process rather than result, the producing of the form; hence in Romans 2:20 ‘thou hast the ideally perfect presentation of knowledge and truth.’ ‘The Jew believed that he had in the law the sole embodiment, the forming, of knowledge and truth, that he could give to knowledge and truth their right form, and so was the proper teacher of the world.’ Gifford. So here holding to a presentment of godliness; full ‘profession’ though there is little enough of the substance; ‘still making out that there is the real nature of godliness.’ The stress lies on the making out, the representation, whether as here the inner reality is absent or as Romans 2:20 present. Similarly ‘a professor of divinity’ is credited with exhibiting real truth and knowledge; not so ‘a religious professor.’ Compare too our Lord’s ‘I will profess to you I never knew you,’ Matthew 7:23, with the account of ‘the defiled and unbelieving’ who ‘profess that they know God, but by their works they deny him,’ Titus 1:16. The Greek word for ‘form,’ of which our word is the causative process, means ‘embodied substance,’ standing between ‘unclothed essence’ and ‘unsubstantial appearance’; see Lightfoot, Revision of N.T. p. 77.
denying the power thereof] The power lies in the production of ‘works’ as in Titus 1:16. Cf. Bp Bull ‘to deny the power of godliness is for a man by indecent and vicious actions to contradict his outward show or profession of godliness’ Serm. xv. p. 376 (Oxf. 1846). The force of the perfect pass, participle is noted 2 Timothy 2:25 living in denial of its power.
from such turn away] The conjunction emphasises the ‘such,’ but not without affecting also the verb turn away,’ cf. 2 Timothy 3:9; ‘offenders of the first degree try to win back; but from these men, hardened in error, make it your habit to turn away,’ see 2 Timothy 3:1. In harmony with this direction is the conduct of St John at Ephesus some 10 or 15 years later, according to the tradition. ‘John, the disciple of the Lord, going to bathe at Ephesus, and perceiving Cerinthus within, rushed out of the bathhouse without bathing, crying out, “Let us fly, lest even the bathhouse fall on us, because Cerinthus the enemy of the truth is within” (Iren. iii. iii. 4). Epiphanius substitutes Ebion for Cerinthus. Both Cerinthus and the Ebionites denied the reality of the Incarnation.’ Plummer, St John (Gosp.), Introduction, p. 15.”
Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
6–9. Appeal to Timothy for pure doctrine in view of the worse doctrines to come
6. For of this sort] For of these, the reason of the warning; the mischief has begun.
which creep into] The verb occurs only here in N.T., but is classical.
lead captive] For the primary sense cf. Luke 21:24; for the derived, Romans 7:23; 2 Corinthians 10:5.
silly women] The neuter gender and the diminutive ending of the word here indicate the degraded contemptible state to which they have come. Vulg. ‘mulierculas’; ‘womanlings,’ Farrar.
laden with sins] The simple verb occurs only Romans 12:20, where it is quoted from LXX., Proverbs 25:22 ‘thou shalt heap coals of fire’; the compound verb in 2 Timothy 4:3. Why such women especially? Their burdened conscience lays them open to any proselytisers who promise relief.
led away with divers lusts] Apparently the meaning is (not ‘lusts of the flesh’ but rather) as in 2 Timothy 4:3, which Wordsworth explains of persons ‘who in their prurient craving for something new, to stimulate and gratify their diseased appetite, accumulate to themselves a promiscuous heap of self-chosen teachers.’ ‘Led’ belongs to ‘women’; it occurs with the same construction, Romans 8:14.”
Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
7.never able] The negative used indicates the class of persons conceived of.
the knowledge of the truth] The fall knowledge, a ‘decisive and stable apprehension,’ Alford. See note on 1 Timothy 2:4. Cf. Lightfoot, Revision N.T. p. 61, where he defines our word as ‘the advanced or perfect knowledge which is the ideal state of the true Christian,’ and quotes 2 Corinthians 6:9 ‘as unknown and yet well known.’”
Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
8. Now as Jannes and Jambres] And like as; the conjunction should be translated ‘now’ only when there is more of a fresh departure; the present is only a small additional paragraph. Jannes and Jambres are nowhere else mentioned in Scripture. The Targum of Jonathan inserts their names in Exodus 7:11, Mambres which the Vulgate reads here being sometimes a later form for Jambres in the Jewish Commentaries. They were held to be the magicians who first imitated the wonders wrought by Moses and Aaron (see 2 Timothy 3:13 ‘impostors’ or ‘magicians’) but afterwards failing confessed that the power of God was with those whom they had withstood. Pliny, Hist. Nat. xxx. i. 2, mentions their story ‘est et alia magices factio a Mose et Jamne et Jotape Judæis pendens.’ He could not have derived his information from St Paul. There must have been an oral tradition or a lost book of Israelitish early history. Mr Poole (Art. Dict. Bib. from which this account is mainly taken) inclines to the latter supposition as more likely to preserve the exact names. That they are exact he thinks probable; since (1) the termination in Jambres or Mambres is like that of many Egyptian compounds ending with ra “the Sun,” as Men-kau-ra, (2) Jannes appears to be a transcription of the Egyptian name Aan, that of a king of the 15th dynasty who was probably the second predecessor of Joseph’s Pharaoh, and the most prevalent names among the Egyptians were those of kings then reigning or not long dead. The Rabbins state that Jannes and Jambres were sons of Balaam, and prophesied to Pharaoh the birth of Moses, and were authors of much mischief, subsequently perishing either in the Red Sea or in the tumult over the golden calf.
resist the truth] Rather, withstand, keeping the word.
of corrupt minds] Implies too much a natural viciousness; the perfect passive participle implies ‘having come to a corrupt state and remaining in it’ as above. In itself the word ‘corrupt’ from the Latin participle (cf. the Vulg. ‘corrupti mente)’ should have just this force, but in usage it is a mere adjective; render corrupted in mind.
reprobate] Just as in Titus 1:16, where see note.”
Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
9. But they shall proceed no further] The same words as in 2 Timothy 2:16, where their advance is predicted. Here the future beyond that advance is seen. The adverbial phrase with the verb lends itself to this double meaning, being in the comparative and so capable of being rendered there ‘still farther’ and here ‘not very far.’ So in St Luke’s usage, Acts 4:17, ‘that it spread no further’; but Acts 20:9, ‘while Paul was very long discoursing’; Acts 24:4, ‘that I may not weary thee at great length’; cf. 1 Timothy 3:14, ‘quite shortly’; 2 Timothy 1:18, ‘very well’; Acts 17:22, ‘somewhat superstitious.’
manifest] Lit. ‘thoroughly manifest,’ a strong classical compound occurring only here in N. T.
their folly] The noun occurs only here and Luke 6:11, where R.V. renders ‘madness’; Ellicott, ‘wicked as well as insensate folly’; Trench, ‘the foolishness which is akin to, and derived from wickedness’ (N. T. Syn. § 75); for the adjective see note on Titus 3:3.
as theirs also was] R.V. literally, came to be; the conjunction emphasises pronoun and verb as in 2 Timothy 3:5.”
Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
10. But thou hast fully known my doctrine] The ms. authority on the whole favours the aorist, which suits also the aorists of 2 Timothy 3:14 and does not assert, as the perfect would, the certainty of Timothy’s settled continuance in ‘following.’ The perfect may have come in from 1 Timothy 4:6, where it is more appropriate in connexion with the present participle ‘being continuously nourished.’ On the meaning of the word see note there: thou didst closely follow.
my doctrine; manner of life] Again, teaching; cf. 1 Timothy 1:10. ‘Manner of life’ is a word occurring here only in N.T., a substantive derived from the verb used above ‘led’ 2 Timothy 3:6 and Romans 8:14, which shews how conduct is the natural derived sense; cf. Gifford’s note ‘all who are moved and guided by the Spirit and follow His guidance.’ The word is classical in the general sense of ‘guidance,’ ‘course,’ ‘training’; and occurs Ar. Eth. N. x. vii. 3, as here.
purpose] In 2 Timothy 1:9, and wherever else it is used in St Paul’s epistles, refers to God’s purpose and plan of salvation. It occurs four times in N.T. to render’ the shew-bread.’ But in Acts 11:23 it is used of Barnabas who ‘exhorted them all that with purpose of heart they would cleave unto the Lord,’ and this is exactly the force here.
faith] In the same general and usual sense as in 2 Timothy 2:22; 1 Timothy 6:11, where ‘love’ and ‘brave patience’ also occur; for this last see also note on 2 Timothy 2:10.
longsuffering] Occurs with ‘brave patience’ or ‘endurance’ in Colossians 1:11, where Lightfoot distinguishes thus: ‘While “endurance” is the temper which does not easily succumb under suffering, “long-suffering” is the self-restraint which does not hastily retaliate a wrong. The one is opposed to cowardice or despondency, the other to wrath or revenge (Proverbs 15:18).’ In 1 Timothy 6:11 this ‘endurance’ is coupled with ‘meekness of heart’ which is rather the opposite of ‘rudeness,’ ‘harshness.’ See 2 Timothy 2:25, and note.
charity] As throughout N.T., love.
10–17. The appeal for pure life and doctrine in view both of St Paul’s own past and the evil future
The connexion is: ‘You were trained to a life the opposite of all this, in learning to copy me, in learning to rest all upon the Scriptures; see that you live the life.’”
Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
11. afflictions, which came unto me] It is better to make the ‘afflictions’ go with the preceding, and make a new clause commence with the relative. So R.V. sufferings; what things befell me; what persecutions.
The Antioch meant is that in Pisidia, originally planted by the Magnesians. Seleucus the son of Antiochus re-settled it, and called it Antioch after the name of his father: which name it kept, though under Augustus made a colony with the additional name of Cæsarea. Plin. N.H. v. xxvii. 24 ‘Pisidæ … quorum colonia Cæsarea, eadem Antiochia.’ Its ruins are still to be seen, one of the most striking objects being a very perfect aqueduct of twenty-one arches. See Lewin, Life of St Paul, i. 137. For the work and sufferings at Antioch see Acts 13:14-50. The place usually understood by Antioch would be the large and important city of Antioch in Syria; but in writing to Timothy, whose home was in that district, St Paul would use the word with its well-known local meaning.
Iconium lies S.E. of Antioch at a distance of sixty miles, on the dusty highroad connecting Ephesus with Antioch of Syria. It is still called Cogni, and, like Damascus, is an oasis in the desert, by the dry plains of Lycaonia. See Acts 13:51 to Acts 14:6.
Lystra lies about forty miles to the south of Iconium, on the same road, in a hollow, on the north side of which rises Kara Dagh or the Black Mountain. Its ruins remain and are called ‘the thousand and one churches,’ it having been an episcopal see under the Byzantine emperors. This was Timothy’s birth-place. See Acts 14:6-20.
St Paul mentions these places and his sufferings there, (1) because they were the first, in his first period of ministry, (2) they were well known to Timothy and may well have led him to cast in his lot with the Apostle. See Introduction, pp. 57, 59, 62.
but out of them all] Rather, and, yet with an ascending force which marks a contrast, so that ‘and yet’ is hardly too strong; though the more exact rendering is to lay stress on ‘all’ and on ‘delivered,’ cf. Winer,
Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
12. Yea, and all] The force of the two conjunctions is shewn in note on 1 Timothy 3:10.
that will live godly] Whose will is, compare Luke 16:26, ‘they whose will is to pass from hence to you.’ ‘In Christ Jesus.’ The whole phrase is nearly the equivalent of ‘to lead a godly and a Christian life’ (Baptismal Service, Pr.-Bk.).”
Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
13. But evil men and seducers] The word ‘seduce’ in A.V. occurs nine times in Old and New Testament always in the general sense of ‘lead astray’; everywhere except here it is used to represent the Greek word for this cognate to the English word ‘planet’ ‘the wanderer,’ (cf. Jude’s ‘wandering stars’) and almost immediately following here ‘deceiving,’ cf. 1 Timothy 4:1 and note. R.V. in these places varies between ‘seduce’ and ‘lead astray.’ The word so rendered here is properly ‘enchanter,’ from the cries of incantations used. So ‘magicians,’ and more generally ‘impostors.’ Compare for the general sense, the most probable here, the use of the verb by Plato, Phæd. 81, 13, ‘the soul having served and loved the body and been bewitched by it through desires and pleasures.’ Some think there may be a reference to the magic arts, such as those of Jannes and Jambres; and certainly Ephesus had an evil repute in this respect itself, cf. Acts 19:13; Acts 19:10. ‘Ephesian letters’ was a common expression for charms made up of magic words and worn as amulets.
shall wax worse and worse] The same verb as in 2 Timothy 3:9. The ‘progress’ is a ‘rake’s progress,’ step after step leading and being led astray. Compare Revelation 18:23, ‘with thy sorcery were all the nations deceived,’ 2 John 1:7, ‘many deceivers are gone forth into the world … this is the deceiver and the antichrist.’”
Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
14. But continue thou] ‘Thou’ emphatic; ‘continue,’ better abide, i.e. make no downward progress, go not astray: the construction of the next clause illustrates the brevity of the Greek use of the relative; lit. ‘in those things which thou didst learn, and as to which thou wert fully persuaded.’ The last verb occurs here only in N.T. But it is a good classical word.
which thou hast learned] The three past tenses of this verse are aorists, and should be rendered didst learn, wert assured, didst learn. A definite time is implied when the learning and the assurance came, in that early youth.
knowing of whom] ‘Knowing as thou dost’ as in 2 Timothy 2:23. The plural ‘of what persons’ should be read. Lois and Eunice must be understood, as in 2 Timothy 1:5.”
G. Edward Griffin said, “[...] it is generally accepted that the Civil War was fought over the issue of slavery. That, at best, is a half-truth. Slavery was an issue, but the primary force for war was a clash between the economic interests of the North and the South. Even the issue of slavery itself was based on economics.”
Epictetus said, “Be careful whom you associate with. It is human to imitate the habits of those with whom we interact. We inadvertently adopt their interests, their opinions, their values, and their habit of interpreting events.”
Say you are very rich and want to provide free means for 5,000 men and women. NOT that you do not welcome children, you cannot assume procedural liability for them. You make a commercial stating on certain date at 11 o’clock you have rented a large auditorium with a large entrance door and several exist doors, seating 5,000 adult individuals. The only qualification of the guests is poverty. You will need 3 policemen to guard the entrance door with one man holding the counter. When the counter registers 5,000 guests, the entrance door will close. However, the 3 policemen will have a hard time and squabble with people who drive Mercedes and wear Rollex watches and with children who seek entrance. In side the hall also will be 3 policemen to maintain proper seating and order.
If you tell me the interest of certain groups of people, I can predict their behavior. For example, the West (America and Europe) will always have the vital interest of dominating the world. For that reason, no matter how much progress and how much good deeds China has done for the world, the West will oppose China because the West will never allow China to be number one in the world. The West will always want to be number one in the world.
In American corporate structure, the CEO is oblivious to the fact that vice presidents and directors who work under his leadership, engage in power struggle, grab a larger share of corporate budgets, expanding their own function. Their wrongful activity of working for themselves and against corporate management goals and objectives, produce lopsided and skewed results that a certain function under a vice president may do very well, while the overall corporation suffers and doing poorly. Many executives neither know management principles, nor understand the importance of corporate policies and procedures. On top of it, under managers there are many psychopathic supervisors who terrorize employees and hinder their performance. You wonder why American corporations are not doing well.
III. INTEREST HINDERS CHANGE
Mat 18:3, “and said, “Truly I say to you, unless you change and become like children, you will not enter the Kingdom of Heaven.”
Change in Greek is strephō which means to turn one’s self; turn around; change one’s mind; be converted; cause to be different; alter; transform; -- which occurs 21 times in the New Testament.
Except ye be converted - The word "converted" means changed or turned.
The verb means to change or turn from one habit of life or set of opinions to another, James 5:19; Luke 22:32. See also Matthew 7:6; Matthew 16:23; Luke 7:9, etc., where the same word is used in the original. It sometimes refers to that great change called the new birth or regeneration Psalm 51:13; Isaiah 60:5; Acts 3:19, but not always. It is a general word, meaning any change. The word "regeneration" denotes a particular change the beginning to live a spiritual life. The phrase, "Except ye be converted," does not imply, of necessity, that they were not Christians before, or had not been born again. It means that their opinions and feelings about the kingdom of the Messiah must be changed. They had supposed that he was to be a temporal prince. They expected he would reign as other kings did. They supposed he would have his great officers of state, as other monarchs had, and they were ambitiously inquiring who should hold the highest offices. Jesus told them that they were wrong in their views and expectations. No such things would take place. From these notions they must be turned, changed or converted, or they could have no part in his kingdom. These ideas did not fit at all the nature of his kingdom.
And become as little children - Children are, to a great extent, destitute of ambition, pride, and haughtiness They are characteristically humble and teachable. By requiring his disciples to be like them, he did not intend to express any opinion about the native moral character of children, but simply that in these respects they must become like them. They must lay aside their ambitious views and their pride, and be willing to occupy their proper station - a very lowly one. Mark says Mark 9:35 that Jesus, before he placed the little child in the midst of them, told them that "if any man desire to be first, the same shall be last of all and servant of all." That is, he shall be the most distinguished Christian who is the most humble, and who is willing to be esteemed least and last of all. To esteem ourselves as God esteems us is humility, and it cannot be degrading to think of ourselves as we are; but pride, or an attempt to be thought of more importance than we are, is foolish, wicked, and degrading.”
Esther Dyson said, “Change means that what was before wasn't perfect. People want things to be better.”
Richard Bach said, “What the caterpillar calls the end of the world the master calls a butterfly.”
Alfred North Whitehead said, “The art of progress is to preserve order amid change and to preserve change amid order.”
Reinhold Niebuhr said, “God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.”
Mignon McLaughlin said, “It's the most unhappy people who most fear change.”
Leo Tolstoy said, “Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself.”
Richard Bach said, “Here is the test to find whether your mission on Earth is finished: if you're alive, it isn't.”
Sun Tzu said, “Those who are victorious plan effectively and change decisively. They are like a great river that maintains its course but adjusts its flow.”
Alexander Graham Bell said, “When one door closes, another opens; but we often look so long and so regretfully upon the closed door that we do not see the one which has opened for us.”
Willie Wong says, “You have to change the way you think not because you will be more rewarding but because you must be facing reality.”
Willie Wong says, “If you want to change the culture of a nation, you must begin with the way of thinking.”
Willie Wong says, “If you love what you do, it does not mean you will be rewarded financially. The people who made the world rich did not have much of the world.”
Socrates said, “Remember, no human condition is ever permanent. Then you will not be overjoyed in good fortune nor too scornful in misfortune.”
Heraclitus said, “A man's character is his fate.”
Only you can change your character.
Ralph Waldo Emerson said, “No change of circumstances can repair a defect of character.”
There are many who have a defect of character.
Willie Wong says, “There is no tomorrow for a person who has not been converted.”
Willie Wong, “Christians are not told to change the world, Christians are told to change their conduct.”
Francis Bacon said, “Things alter for the worse spontaneously, if they be not altered for the better designedly.”
The world proceeds from evil to evil, gets worse and worse until the second coming of Jesus Christ. The world gets worse not so much because of physical environment gets worse such as pollutions, more so because human relations there are so many wicked people. I am convinced international games like Olympic Games did not help improve human relations. I had been to Paris to study the French society. Generally I dislike the French people for their hostile attitude toward foreigners, especially the fraudulent practice of French taxi drivers. Beware of colored women who claim to be French. Another example, there was a French young athlete although he lost yet he was so arrogant, imagine had he won. It decidedly provided a face to hate. Although I am not a person given to hate, the young French contestant provided a reason. When the character defects of so many races and peoples are on display right before your eyes, how could anyone honestly say to like them?
On the other hand, I do believe cooperation, not competition or conflict, can improve human relations. But I am not optimistic that the world will have more cooperation. The West alone puts forward so much confrontation, conflict, contention, clash, etc.
Num 23:19, “God is not a man, that He would lie,
Nor a son of man, that He would change His mind;
Has He said, and will He not do it? Or has He
spoken, and will He not make it good?”
Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible
God is not a man, that he should lie,.... Man is a creature consisting of a body of flesh and blood, and of a soul, a created and finite spirit; but God, though he has the parts of an human body ascribed to him in a figurative sense, yet is not to be conceived of in a corporeal manner; and though he is a Spirit, yet eternal, immense, and infinite; and much less is as a sinful man, who goes astray from the womb speaking lies; no, let God be true, and every man a liar: he is God, that cannot lie; his counsels of old are faithfulness and truth; his promises yea and amen in Christ; the Scriptures inspired by him are true, and the prophecies of them are punctually accomplished, particularly what he foretold of the people of Israel, and promised unto them; that they should be happy, and inherit the land of Canaan; that be would be true and faithful to them, and there could be no hope, by any means whatever, to make him false and unfaithful to his word: neither the son of man, that he should repent; repentance is found in men, who repent for what they have done, or change their minds, as to what they intended to do or set about; perceiving it to be wrong to do it, or that they are able to do it, some unforeseen thing turning up they were not aware of: but nothing of this kind belongs to God, or can befall him; he never changes his mind, alters his counsels, purposes, and decrees, and never varies in his affections to his people, nor makes void his choice of them, or covenant with them; and his calling of them by his grace, and his gifts of grace bestowed upon them, are without repentance: and particularly with respect to the people of Israel, there was no reason to hope or believe that God would change his purposes or promises respecting their outward happiness, and enjoyment of the land of Canaan; or that ever he would be prevailed upon to curse them, or admit them to be cursed, when he was determined, and had so peremptorily promised that he would bless them:
hath he said, and shall he not do it? or "hath he spoken, and shall he not make it good?" whether it be with regard to things temporal, spiritual, or eternal; for there is no variableness nor shadow of turning in his mind; he never forgets his word, he foresees all events, he is able to perform, and is true and faithful; and therefore whatever is gone out of his lips will never be altered, but will be most certainly fulfilled, Psalm 89:34 Isaiah 14:24.”
Most nations are set regarding their directions, it would be almost impossible for any nation to change its direction even though it is wrong. It would be a thankless task to tell any nation to change its direction.
George Bernard Shaw said, “Progress is impossible without change, and those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything.”
A dictator is suppressing the truth in unrighteousness, and he is leading the whole nation to the broad way of destruction like a herd of sheep going to be slaughtered and yet they are going happily.
This is the danger when one person decides the fate of a whole nation.
Charles Caleb Colton said, “The interests of society often render it expedient not to utter the whole truth, the interests of science never: for in this field we have much more to fear from the deficiency of truth than from its abundance.”
For instance, the vested interest of two parties, the Congress, the Administration, and the Courts make it impossible to have gun control or ban of all guns. By the same token it will not be a National HealthCare Plan or control OF the most costly and fraudulent health care system in the world. Vested interest groups are entrenched, they want to keep their self-interest and do not have any desire to change.
It is also true it is impossible to have a unicameral legislative body in America because the two houses make it impossible to change for effectiveness and efficiency of the American government.
Carroll Quigley said, “For the first time in its history, Western Civilization is in danger of being destroyed internally by a corrupt, criminal ruling cabal which is centered around the Rockefeller interests, which include elements from the Morgan, Brown, Rothschild, Du Pont, Harriman, Kuhn-Loeb, and other groupings as well. This junta took control of the political, financial, and cultural life of America in the first two decades of the twentieth century.”
I contend the banks take control of everything in America continuously until America is doomed.
George Carlin said, “There's a reason education sucks, and it's the same reason it will never ever ever be fixed. It's never going to get any better. Don't look for it. Be happy with what you've got, because the owners of this country don't want that. I'm talking about the real owners now... the real owners. The big wealthy business interests that control things and make all the important decisions. Forget the politicians. The politicians are put there to give you the idea that you have freedom of choice. You don't. You have no choice. You have owners.”
Willie Wong says, “If you do not have to work for a living, then you have a real choice and won't take up assignments that don't interest you.
Although I live to be an old man by the grace of God, I do not know anyone who has that choice.”
Willie Wong says, “I cannot simply see how let Palestinians who are Arabs to establish a state in the Jewish land can contribute to peace in the middle East.”
Willie Wong says, “Where in the world you see power and wealth are used in the interest of justice?”
Dallin H. Oaks said, “Our Savior gave Himself in unselfish service. He taught that each of us should follow Him by denying ourselves of selfish interests in order to serve others.”
Willie Wong says, “Without divine revelation you cannot know God, you cannot know the truth, you cannot know the reason of human existence.”
Henry A. Wallace said, “The American Fascists are most easily recognized by their deliberate perversion of truth and fact.... They cultivate hate and distrust of both Britain and Russia. They claim to be super-patriots, but they would destroy every liberty guaranteed by the Constitution. They demand free enterprise, but are the spokesmen for monopoly and vested interest. Their final objective, toward which all their deceit is directed, is to capture political power, so that using the power of the State and the power of the market simultaneously they may keep the common man in eternal subjection.”
Willie Wong says, “America is not free and democratic, how could America makes other countries free and democratic?”
George Bernard Shaw said, “Progress is impossible without change; and those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything.”
Abraham Lincoln said, “I shall adopt new views as fast as they shall appear to be true views.”
People who hold their old views as true views will not change. Culture and religion influence one’s views.
Willie Wong says, “Change almost never succeeds because it is too early. It almost always fails because it is too late.”
Is America too late to change? God knows.
Although the West (America and Europe) has done so much evils in the world including engaging in so many unjust wars, oppression, suppression, exploitation, charging high tariffs in trade, monopoly of technology and everything, control of export and import, etc., etc. but the most evil is the suppression of truth in unrighteousness as it is described in the Bible,
Rom 1:18-32, “For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness
of people who suppress the truth in unrighteousness,
because that which is known about God is evident
within them; for God made it evident to them.
For since the creation of the world His invisible
attributes, that is, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, being understood by what has been made, so that they are without excuse.
For even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks, but they became futile in their reasonings, and their senseless hearts were darkened.
Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and they exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an image in the form of corruptible mankind, of birds, four-footed animals, and crawling creatures.
Therefore God gave them up to vile impurity in the lusts of their hearts, so that their bodies would be dishonored among them. For they exchanged the truth of God for falsehood, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen. For this reason God gave
them over to degrading passions; for their women
exchanged natural relations for that which is contrary to nature, and likewise the men, too, abandoned natural relations with women and burned in their desire toward one another, males with males committing shameful acts and receiving in their own persons the due penalty of their error.
And just as they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a depraved mind, to do those
things that are not proper,
people having been filled with all unrighteousness, wickedness, greed, and evil; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, and malice; they are gossips,
slanderers, haters of God, insolent, arrogant, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, without
understanding, untrustworthy, unfeeling, and
unmerciful; and although they know the ordinance of God, that those who practice such things are worthy of death, they not only do the same, but also approve of those who practice them.”
I do not need to say anything, the Word of God cited above is clear.
IV. CAPITALISM EXPLOITS PEOPLE
Deu 24:14, “You shall not exploit a hired worker who is poor and needy, whether he is one of your countrymen or one of your strangers who are in your land in your towns.”
Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
6. poor and needy] See on Deuteronomy 15:11.
within thy gates] See on Deuteronomy 12:17. The preceding in thy land, omitted by Sam., LXX, is a gloss.
14, 15. Payment of the Wage-earner. Whether Israelite or gçr, if he be poor, his wage is to be paid the day he earns it; if he has to appeal to God it will be sin to thee.—Sg. with brother (not neighbour) and other deuteronomic phrases. Parallel to H, Leviticus 19:13 : thou shalt not oppress thy neighbour … the wage of a hireling shall not stay overnight with thee till morning. Cp. Malachi 3:5, Tob 4:14, James 5:4. Ḫammurabi fixes the daily money wages of labourers and artisans (273 f.), in other cases wages in kind are paid yearly (257 f., 261).”
Calvin Coolidge said, “If the Government gets into business on any large scale, we soon find that the beneficiaries attempt to play a large part in the control. While in theory it is to serve the public, in practice it will be very largely serving private interests. It comes to be regarded as a species of government favor and those who are the most adroit get the larger part of it.”
Hos 12:7, “A merchant, in whose hands are fraudulent balances, loves to exploit.”
Exploit in Hebrew is ʿāšaq which means to defraud; oppress; wrong; deceive; extort by fraud or violence; get deceitfully; treat unjustly; violate forcibly; -- which occurs 36 times in the Old Testament.
Hosea 12:7-8. He is a merchant, &c. — Bishop Horsley renders this verse thus: Canaan the trafficker! The cheating balances in his hand! He has set his heart upon over-reaching! On which the bishop observes, “God says to the prophet, Instead of turning to me, and keeping to works of charity and justice, he is a mere heathen huckster. Thou hast miscalled him Jacob: he is Canaan. Not Jacob the god1y, the heir of the promise: Canaan the cheat, the son of the curse.” The Hebrew word כנען, rendered merchant, is both a proper name and an appellative. And to preserve the ambiguity in his translation, the bishop joins the appellative and the proper name together. Without this, as he justly observes, the whole spirit of the original would be lost to the English reader. All the ancient versions, except the Chaldee, give the proper name. The first words of the verse, He is, not being in the Hebrew, some interpreters, without supplying any thing, render the clause, The balances of deceit are in the hand of the merchant; that is, instead of practising just and fair dealing, which was the way to please God, they made use of unjust weights and measures, and practised frauds, deceits, and cunning, in buying and selling; depreciating those things they wanted to buy, below what they knew they were really worth; and setting a greater value on, and saying more in praise of, those things they wanted to sell, than they really deserved. These deceits in buying and selling are but too much used among us now, though God has so strongly declared his abhorrence of them in the Scriptures. He loveth to oppress — The Hebrew rather signifies, He loveth to defraud; to use the arts of cozenage. And Ephraim said — Rather, Nevertheless Ephraim said, I am become rich —
I have gotten riches, however, by my cunning and deceit, and as that is the case, I have no need to concern myself; for, so I have but riches, none will ask how I came by them. In this description of Ephraim, we may see but too like a picture of many in our times; for riches are too generally and too much the pursuit of mankind, and are generally too much prized; so that if men have but riches, they think they have every thing that is to be desired. Bishop Horsley presents us with a different interpretation of this verse, thus: Nevertheless, Ephraim shall say, that is, the time will come when Ephraim will repent, and say, Although I became rich, I acquired to myself [only] sorrow; all my labours procured not for me what may expiate iniquity. Thus interpreted, the words contain the penitent confession of the Ephraimites in the latter days, wrought upon at last by God’s judgments and mercies.”
I recalled that I went to China to lecture at universities during my 3-week vacation. Once I questioned the representative of Edison-Power why I didn’t use power for 3 weeks, but my electric bill did not go down? The woman had the gall to reply that they did not charge according to usage. I could not afford a lawyer to sue them. Based on what did Edison-Power charge customers if it did not base on usage? You see, corporations are monopoly whose hands defraud and love to exploit.
According to https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/exploitation/
“Exploitation
First published Thu Dec 20, 2001; substantive revision Mon Oct 3, 2022
To exploit someone is to take unfair advantage of them. It is to use another person’s vulnerability for one’s own benefit. Of course, benefiting from another’s vulnerability is not always morally wrong—we do not condemn a chess player for exploiting a weakness in his opponent’s defence, for instance. But some forms of advantage-taking do seem to be clearly wrong, and it is this normative sense of exploitation that is of primary interest to moral and political philosophers.
Exploitation can be transactional or structural. In the former case, the unfairness is a property of a discrete transaction between two or more individuals. A sweatshop that pays low wages, for example, or a pharmaceutical research firm that tests drugs on poor subjects in the developing world, might be said to exploit others in this sense. But exploitation can also be structural—a property of institutions or systems in which the “rules of the game” unfairly benefit one group of people to the detriment of another. As we will see below, Karl Marx believed that the economic and political institutions of capitalism were exploitative in this sense. And some contemporary feminists have argued that the institution of traditional marriage is exploitative insofar as it preys upon and reinforces pernicious forms of inequality between men and women (Sample 2003: Ch. 4).
Exploitation can also be harmful or mutually beneficial. Harmful exploitation involves an interaction that leaves the victim worse off than she was, and than she was entitled to be. The sort of exploitation involved in coercive sex trafficking, for instance, is harmful in this sense. But as we will see below, not all exploitation is harmful. Exploitation can also be mutually beneficial, where both parties walk away better off than they were ex ante. Most philosophers think that what makes such mutually beneficial interactions nevertheless exploitative is that they are, in some way, unfair.
It is relatively easy to come up with intuitively compelling cases of unfair, exploitative behavior. Providing a philosophical analysis to support and develop those intuitions, however, has proven more difficult. The most obvious difficulty is specifying the conditions under which a transaction or institution may be said to be unfair. Does the unfairness involved in exploitation relate to the distribution of resources? Or a violation of her moral rights? Is the unfairness involved in exploitation a matter of procedure, substance, or both? And how, if at all, are the attitudes and motives of the would-be exploiter relevant to assessing charges of exploitation?”
Helen Keller said, “I have visited sweatshops, factories, and crowded slums. If I could not see it, I could smell it. The foundation of society is laid upon a basis of . . . individualism, conquest and exploitation . . . A social order such as this, built upon such wrong and basic principles, is bound to retard the development of all. The output of a cotton mill or a coal mine is considered of greater importance than the production of healthy, happy-hearted and free human beings. We, the people, are not free. Our democracy is but a name.”
Jawaharlal Nehru said, “The spectacle of what is called religion, or at any rate organised religion, in India and elsewhere, has filled me with horror and I have frequently condemned it and wished to make a clean sweep of it. Almost always it seemed to stand for blind belief and reaction, dogma and bigotry, superstition, exploitation and the preservation of vested interests.”
Mahatma Gandhi said, “My patriotism is not an exclusive thing. It is all-embracing and I should reject that patriotism which sought to mount the distress or exploitation of other nationalities.”
What is called patriotism is actually veiled nationalism.
Deng Xiaoping said, “China is not a superpower, nor will she ever seek to be one... If one day China should change her color and turn into a superpower, if she too should play the tyrant in the world, and everywhere subject others to her bullying, aggression and exploitation, the people of the world should identify her as social-imperialist, expose it, oppose it and work together with the Chinese people to overthrow it.”
I have never known any Western leader with such a candor.
Ed Crane said, The history of mankind is a history of the subjugation and exploitation of a great majority of people by an elite few by what has been appropriately termed the 'ruling class'. The ruling class has many manifestations. It can take the form of a religious orthodoxy, a monarchy, a dictatorship of the proletariat, outright fascism, or, in the case of the United States, corporate statism. In each instance the ruling class relies on academics, scholars and 'experts' to legitimize and provide moral authority for its hegemony over the masses.”
Ed Crane had an insight into the ugly exploitation.
Albert J. Nock said, “The State did not originate in any form of social agreement, or with any disinterested view of promoting order and justice. Far otherwise. The State originated in conquest and confiscation, as a device for maintaining the stratification of society permanently into two classes-an owning and exploiting class, relatively small, and a propertyless dependent class. . . . No State known to history originated in any other manner, or for any other purpose than to enable the continuous economic exploitation of one class by another.”
Helen Keller said, “Every modern war has had its roots in exploitation.”
Harry S. Truman said, “Of course I believe in free enterprise but in my system of free enterprise, the democratic principle is that there never was, never has been, never will be, room for the ruthless exploitation of the many for the benefit of the few.”
Stephen Hawking said, “One can see from space how the human race has changed the Earth. Nearly all of the available land has been cleared of forest and is now used for agriculture or urban development. The polar icecaps are shrinking and the desert areas are increasing. At night, the Earth is no longer dark, but large areas are lit up. All of this is evidence that human exploitation of the planet is reaching a critical limit. But human demands and expectations are ever-increasing. We cannot continue to pollute the atmosphere, poison the ocean and exhaust the land. There isn't any more available.”
Che Guevara said, “There is no other definition of socialism valid for us than that of the abolition of the exploitation of man by man.”
Mahatma Gandhi said, “I look upon an increase in the power of the State with the greatest fear because, although while apparently doing good by minimizing exploitation, it does the greatest harm to mankind by destroying individuality which lies at the heart of all progress.”
Henry Hazlitt said, “The whole gospel of Karl Marx can be summed up in a single sentence: Hate the man who is better off than you are. Never under any circumstances admit that his success may be due to his own efforts, to the productive contribution he has made to the whole community. Always attribute his success to the exploitation, the cheating, the more or less open robbery of others. Never under any circumstances admit that your own failure may be owing to your own weakness, or that the failure of anyone else may be due to his own defects - his laziness, incompetence, improvidence, or stupidity.”
Aldous Huxley sad, “Industrialization is the systemic exploitation of wasting assets. In all too many cases, the thing we call progress is merely an acceleration in the rate of that exploitation.”
Jennifer Weiner said, “Whenever people with money have power over people with less money, you have the potential for exploitation.”
2Pe 2:3, “and in their greed they will exploit you with false words; their judgment from long ago is not idle, and their destruction is not asleep.”
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers
(3) And through covetousness.—Better, In covetousness. This is the atmosphere in which they live. (See Notes on 2Peter 2:18 and 2Peter 1:1-2; 2Peter 1:4; 2Peter 1:13.) Wiclif and Rheims have “in.” Simon Magus offering St. Peter money, which no doubt he was accustomed to take himself for his teaching, may illustrate this (Acts 8:18; comp. 1Timothy 6:5; Titus 1:10-11). These false teachers, like the Greek Sophists, taught for money. A bombastic mysticism, promising to reveal secrets about the unseen world and the future, was a very lucrative profession in the last days of Paganism, and it passed over to Christianity as an element in various heresies. (Comp. the Shepherd of Hermas, Sim. IX. xix. 3.)
Make merchandise of you.—The verb means literally to travel, especially as a merchant on business; and hence “to be a merchant,” “to trade,” and, with an accusative, “to deal in,” “make merchandise of.” (Comp. our commercial phrase, “to travel in” such and such goods.) It may also mean simply “to gain,” or “gain over,” which would make good sense here; but our version is perhaps better. The word occurs elsewhere only in James 4:13. “With feigned words” possibly refers back to “cunningly devised fables” (2Peter 1:16).
Lingereth not.—Literally, is not idle, the cognate verb of the adjective in 2Peter 1:8. Their sentence has long since been pronounced, is working, and in due time will strike them. We have a similar thought in 1Peter 4:17.
Their damnation slumbereth not.—Better, their destruction. (See fourth Note on 2Peter 2:1.) Wiclif and Rheims have “perdition.” The destruction involved in the judgment pronounced by God is awake and on its way to overtake them. The word for “slumbereth” occurs in Matthew 25:5 only.
We now pass on to see how it is that this judgment “of a long time” has been working. It was pronounced against all sinners, such as they are, from the first beginning of the world.”
John Maynard Keynes said, “Capitalism is the astounding belief that the most wickedest of men will do the most wickedest of things for the greatest good of everyone.”
Eleanor Roosevelt said, “One of the first things we must get rid of is the idea that democracy is tantamount to capitalism.”
In practice, America and Europe still believe the idea of democracy is tantamount to capitalism.
Benjamin Harrison said, “I pity the man who wants a coat so cheap that the man or woman who produces the cloth will starve in the process.”
I pity the corporation who manufactures a coat that makes executives earn so much that the workers earn so little.
Willie Wong says, “The democracy of the West is publicly defined as a government of the people by the people for the people; in reality it is a government of corporations by corporations for corporations”
Henry George said, “There are only three ways by which any individual can get wealth — by work, by gift or by theft. And, clearly, the reason why the workers get so little is that the beggars and thieves get so much.”
Richard D. Wolff said, “The capitalist workplace is one of the most profoundly undemocratic institutions on the face of the Earth. Workers have no say over decisions affecting them. If workers sat on the board of directors of democratically operated self-managed enterprises, they wouldn't vote for the wildly unequal distribution of profits to benefit a few and for cutbacks for the many.”
Abraham Lincoln said, “These capitalists generally act harmoniously and in concert, to fleece the people.”
I always have great respect for the opinion of Noam Chomsky who said. “Capitalism is a system in which the central institutions of society are, in principle, under autocratic control. Thus, a corporation or an industry is, if we were to think of it in political terms, fascist, that is, it has tight control at the top and strict obedience has to be established at every level. [...] Just as I'm opposed to political fascism, I am opposed to economic fascism. I think that until the major institutions of society are under the popular control of participants and communities, it's pointless to talk about democracy.”
Bertrand Russell said, “I dislike Communism because it is undemocratic, and capitalism because it favors exploitation.”
Milton Friedman said, “To the free man, the country is the collection of individuals who compose it, not something over and above them. He is proud of a common heritage and loyal to common traditions. But he regards government as a means, an instrumentality, neither a grantor of favors and gifts, nor a master or god to be blindly worshipped and served.”
David Korten said, “Capitalism and the market are presented as synonymous, but they are not. Capitalism is both the enemy of the market and democracy.”
Willie Wong says, “Unemployment is capitalism's way of getting you to starve and taste a sense of desperation.”
Albert Einstein said, “This crippling of individuals I consider the worst evil of capitalism. Our whole educational system suffers from this evil. An exaggerated competitive attitude is inculcated into the student, who is trained to worship acquisitive success as a preparation for his future.”
Willie Wong says, “Capitalism always serves under imperialism or authoritarianism. It is protected by them.”
David Korten said, “Capitalism is not about free competitive choices among people who are reasonably equal in their buying and selling of economic power, it is about concentrating capital, concentrating economic power in very few hands using that power to trash everyone who gets in their way.”
James Wolfensohn said, “Today, you have 20 percent of the world controlling 80 percent of the Gross Domestic Product; you've got a $30 trillion (US) world economy, and $24 trillion of it is in the developed countries... These inequities can't exist. So if you are talking about systemic breakdown, I think you have to look in terms of social breakdown.”
My calculation is a little different, today, you have 10 percent of the world controlling 90 percent of the Gross Domestic Product. The world’s GDP is about US$120 trillion, the West (America and Europe) controls 90 percent of the Gross Domestic Product.
The West rules the world with capitalism, but fools the world with phony democracy.
Noam Chomsky said, “Predatory capitalism created a complex industrial system and an advanced technology; it permitted a considerable extension of democratic practice and fostered certain liberal values, but within limits that are now being pressed and must be overcome. It is not a fit system for the mid-twentieth century.”
Milton Friedman said, “Freedom is a rare and delicate plant. Our minds tell us, and history confirms, that the great threat to freedom is the concentration of power.”
Willie Wong says, “The inevitable consequence of concentration of wealth is the concentration of power. The concentration of power means dictatorship and slavery. However, there are people who want you to believe that concentration of power is the innovative good of democracy.”
John Maynard Keynes said, “I work for a Government I despise for ends I think criminal.”
My question is this, how can you bear to work for an entity that you despise knowing its ends are criminal?
Milton Friedman said, “There is one and only one responsibility of business: to use its resources and engage in activities designed to increase its profits so long as it stays within the rules of the game.”
The truth is historically, capitalism never stays within the rules of the game, as its protector imperialism does the same.
Thomas Jefferson said, “A wise and frugal Government, which shall restrain men from injuring one another, which shall leave them otherwise free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned. This is the sum of good government, and this is necessary to close the circle of our felicities.”
Willie Wong says, “Since when capitalism is open and free competition without deception or fraud? Since when the West is open and free competition without deception and fraud? Imperialism, capitalism, colonialism are not compatible with truth and honesty.
Aldous Huxley said, “Democracy can hardly be expected to flourish in societies where political and economic power is being progressively concentrated and centralized. But the progress of technology has led and is still leading to just such a concentration and centralization of power.”
Louis D. Brandeis said, “We can have democracy in this country, or we can have great wealth concentrated in the hands of a few, but we can't have both.”
Abraham Lincoln said, “Labor is prior to, and independent of, capital. Capital is only the fruit of labor, and could never have existed if labor had not first existed. Labor is the superior of capital, and deserves much the higher consideration.”
Milton Friedman said, “The great advances of civilization, whether in architecture or painting, in science or literature, in industry or agriculture, have never come from centralized government.”
John Adams said, “If "Thou shalt not covet," and "Thou shalt not steal," were not commandments of Heaven, they must be made inviolable precepts in every society, before it can be civilized or made free.”
Terry Tempest Williams said, “I believe capitalism will eventually be replaced by a communitarian ethic where the rights and care of all beings will be taken into consideration, not just the greed of a corporate few.”
V. Christians have different interests.
You cannot combine the love of the world with the love of God; they are not compatible.
Luke 16:13, “No servant can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money."
Luke 16:13. No servant can serve two masters — See note on Matthew 6:24. As if he had said, You cannot be faithful to God, if you trim between him and the world; if you do not serve him alone. Beware, therefore, of indulging, even in the least degree, the love of the world, for it is absolutely inconsistent with piety: “insomuch that a man may as well undertake, at one and the same time, to serve two masters of contrary dispositions and opposite interests, as pretend to please God while he is anxiously pursuing the world for its own sake. In this manner did Jesus recommend the true use of riches, power, knowledge, and the other advantages of the present life, from the consideration that they are not our own, but God’s; that they are only committed to us as stewards, to be employed for the honour of God and the good of men: that we are accountable to the proprietor for the use we make of them, who will reward or punish us accordingly; and that every degree of covetousness is such a serving of mammon as is really idolatrous, and altogether inconsistent with the duty we owe to God.” — Macknight.”
1Jo 2:15, “Do not love the world nor the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the
Father is not in him.”
Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
15. Love not the world] The asyndeton is remarkable. S. John has just stated his premises, his readers’ happiness as Christians. He now abruptly states the practical conclusion, without any introductory ‘therefore’. As was said above on 1 John 2:2, we must distinguish between the various meanings of the Apostle’s favourite word, ‘world.’ In John 3:16 he tells us that ‘God loved the world’, and here he tells us that we must not do so. “S. John is never afraid of an apparent contradiction when it saves his readers from a real contradiction … The opposition which is on the surface of his language may be the best way of leading us to the harmony which lies below it” (Maurice). The world which the Father loves is the whole human race. The world which we are not to love is all that is alienated from Him, all that prevents men from loving Him in return. The world which God loves is His creature and His child: the world which we are not to love is His rival. The best safeguard against the selfish love of what is sinful in the world is to remember God’s unselfish love of the world. ‘The world’ here is that from which S. James says the truly religious man keeps himself ‘unspotted’, friendship with which is ‘enmity with God’ (James 1:27; James 4:4). It is not enough to say that ‘the world’ here means ‘earthly things, so far as they tempt to sin’, or ‘sinful lusts’, or ‘worldly and impious men’. It means all of these together: all that acts as a rival to God; all that is alienated from God and opposed to Him, especially sinful men with their sinful lusts. ‘The world’ and ‘the darkness’ are almost synonymous; to love the one is to love the other (John 3:19): to be in the darkness is to be of the world.
neither the things that are in the world] Or, nor yet the things, &c., i.e. ‘Love not the world; no, nor anything in that sphere.’ Comp. ‘Not to consort with … no, nor eat with’ (1 Corinthians 5:11). ‘The things in the world’, as is plain from 1 John 2:16, are not material objects, which can be desired and possessed quite innocently, although they may also be occasions of sin. Rather, they are those elements in the world which are necessarily evil, its lusts and ambitions and jealousies, which stamp it as the kingdom of ‘the ruler of this world’ (John 12:31) and not the kingdom of God.
If any man love the world] Once more, as in 1 John 2:1, the statement is made quite general by the hypothetical form: everyone who does so is in this case. The Lord had proclaimed the same principle; ‘No man can serve two masters … Ye cannot serve God and mammon’ (Matthew 6:24). So also S. James; ‘Whosoever would be a friend of the world maketh himself an enemy of God’ (1 John 4:4). Comp. Galatians 1:10. Thus we arrive at another pair of those opposites of which S. John is so fond. We have had light and darkness, truth and falsehood, love and hate; we now have love of the Father and love of the world. The world which is coextensive with darkness must exclude the God who is light. By writing ‘the love of the Father’ rather than ‘the love of God’ (which some authorities read here) the Apostle points to the duty of Christians as children of God. ‘The love of the Father’ (a phrase which occurs nowhere else) means man’s love to Him, not His to man: see on 1 John 2:5. A fragment of Philo declares that ‘it is impossible for love to the world to coexist with love to God’.
15–17. The Things to be Avoided;—the World and its Ways
Having reminded them solemnly of the blessedness of their condition as members of the Christian family, whether old or young, and having declared that this blessedness of peace, knowledge, and strength is his reason for writing to them, he goes on to exhort them to live in a manner that shall be worthy of this high estate, and to avoid all that is inconsistent with it.”
Christians are in the world but they do not belong to this world. Therefore Christians conduct themselves in a manner worthy of the Gospel of Christ. Christians walk as children of light.
Arthur Schopenhauer said, “The art of not reading is a very important one. It consists in not taking an interest in whatever may be engaging the attention of the general public at any particular time. When some political or ecclesiastical pamphlet, or novel, or poem is making a great commotion, you should remember that he who writes for fools always finds a large public. A precondition for reading good books is not reading bad ones: for life is short.”
Rom 8:5-13, “For those who are in accord with the flesh set their minds
on the things of the flesh, but those who are in accord with the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. For the mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace, because the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God; for it does not subject itself to the law of God, for it is not even able to do so, and those who are in the flesh cannot please God. However, you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him. So then, brothers and sisters, we are under obligation, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh—for if you are living in accord
with the flesh, you are going to die; but if by the Spirit you are putting to death the deeds of the body, you will live.”
Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
5. they that are] This “being after the flesh” is the state of which “walking after the flesh” is the exhibition and proof.—St Paul here, and in a measure to the close of Romans 8:11, expands and illustrates the difference between the past and present state of the Christian.
after the flesh] i.e. obeying it, (as the organ of sin;) making it their rule, in spite of their knowledge of right and wrong.
do mind] Same word as Colossians 3:2, where E. V. has “set your affection on.” It means far more than to “like,” or “care for;” it indicates the full preoccupation of thought and will with a chosen and engrossing object.—Such, according to St Paul, is the natural state of men, as regards any real bias of will and love to the true claims of the true God.
the things of the flesh] All things that the unregenerate nature prefers to the “things above,” whether in themselves guilty or innocent.
they that are after the Spirit] Ruled and determined by His awakening, regenerating, illuminating presence; characterized by the fact that He dwells in them.—It is plain (a) that St Paul regards the two classes as mutually exclusive, and together exhaustive of mankind; (b) that he makes the “being in the Spirit” to be a strictly supernatural state, the result of a Divine Indwelling once unknown to the soul, but now real and living; and (c) that this state is, in his teaching, an absolutely necessary condition of the true “sonship” of men towards God. Further, he does not mean by it a state of unnatural exaltation, (for nothing can be more practical than his view of daily life and duty; see ch. 12. &c., &c.,) nor of freedom from trial, (Romans 8:17,) nor of absence of inner conflict with sin (Romans 8:13). He means a state in which the will is decisively roused to that conflict, by the knowledge and love of God.””
Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
6. For] The reference of this “for” is not clear at first sight. Probably the sequence of thought is that the difference of carnal and spiritual preferences is profoundly real; for the former involves death, the latter, life and peace. And it is implied that the respective persons cannot possibly therefore interchange their preferences.
to be carnally minded] Lit. the mind of the flesh. The noun rendered “mind” is cognate to the verb rendered “do mind” in Romans 8:5. See note there. The idea includes choice, engrossment, affection towards a congenial object. See Art. IX. of the Church of England, where “the wisdom of the flesh” is the only phrase not admissible in a strict explanation. The E. V. here gives the sense as well as is possible, perhaps, in a brief form.
death] Is this legal or moral death? On the whole, we explain it of legal death, i.e. of doom. This idea implies the other, for the soul which is incurring the Divine Sentence cannot be morally “alive to God” in the sense of peace, love, and purity. But the connexion makes the idea of doom more prominent: see Romans 8:7, where antagonism to the Law is specified as the inevitable state of the “carnal mind.” Thus the words here mean that to have the choices and affections of unregenerate humanity is to lie under God’s sentence, and to be on the way to its infliction.
to be spiritually minded] Lit. the mind of the Spirit. See last note but one.
life and peace] This (by analogy with the view of “death” just above) means a state of acceptance, in its aspect (a) of pardon and consequent glory; (see last note on ch. Romans 5:18;) and (b) of secure and loving intercourse with God, with all its attendant blessings. See on ch. Romans 5:1.—Here of course, in view of the argument of cch. 3 and 4 especially, we must note how the being spiritually minded “is” life and peace; viz. not as the procuring cause of these blessings, which cause is the Propitiation (accepted by faith) alone; but as the state of mind in which only they can be realized and enjoyed.”
Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
7. Because] The reason of the radical difference of the two “minds” is now further shewn by a description of the essential condition of the “mind of the flesh.”
the carnal mind] Lit. the mind of the flesh; the same phrase in Gr. as that rendered “to be carnally minded,” Romans 8:6.
enmity] Cp. ch. Romans 5:10. The expression here is as forcible as possible. As truly as “God is Love,” so truly, essentially, and unalterably is the “mind of the flesh,” the liking and disliking of unregenerate man, “enmity,” “personal hostility,” towards the true God and His real claims.
Nothing short of this is St Paul’s meaning. It is not to be toned down, as by the theory that other impulses in the unregenerate may counterbalance, or at least modify, this enmity. We must keep clearly in view the reality of the claim of the Holy Creator to the love of the whole being. To decline this, when it is the creature that declines it, is not mere reserve; it is hostility.
the law] In its two great Precepts. Matthew 22:37-39.
can be] Again a perfectly uncompromising statement. The will of the unregenerate, as such, is incapable of cordial submission to the claim of the true God. Its essence is alienation from Him; self, not God, is its central point. When the man in reality “yields himself to God,” ipso facto he is proved to be no longer “in the flesh,” (see next verse,) but “in the Spirit.”
Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
8. So then] Lit. But; and perhaps better thus. The opposition is to the idea implied by the previous clauses of a condition which can love and submit.
in the flesh] Of course in the moral sense of “the flesh,” and as being not merely beset by it, but characterized and determined by it. Practically the phrase = “after the flesh” (Romans 8:4). The difference in idea is that between a condition and the resulting action.—It is clear that “they that are in the flesh” means “all men before special grace.” For the only other condition of the soul contemplated by St Paul is the being “in the Spirit,” i.e. actuated and ruled by “the Holy Ghost given unto us.”
cannot please God] See Colossians 1:10 for the bright contrast of the state of grace.—This ver. proves that “the mind of the flesh” is viewed by St Paul as the true, ruling, determining, “mind” of the unregenerate man. It is not only a dangerous element, but that which gives its quality to his whole attitude towards God. He “cannot” (a moral impossibility of course is meant) “please God;” he cannot make God his supreme choice, object, and rule; in short he cannot “love Him with all his mind;” and no other condition of the soul than this can, in the true sense of the word, “please God.” Particular acts, in themselves, He may approve; but not the real attitude of the doer’s soul.”
Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
9. But, &c.] After this dark foil, in the picture of the fleshly state, St Paul now gives (what is his main aim all the while) the opposite picture; that of the spiritual, regenerate, state.
ye] Who are “in Christ Jesus;” “Jesus Christ’s called ones.” (Romans 1:6) in the Spirit] See long note on Romans 8:4; and note on “in the flesh,” Romans 8:8. To be “in the Spirit” is to be in that state of soul which results in a “walk after the Spirit;” a state therefore in which the Holy Ghost is the ruling influence.—The meaning is illustrated by the use of the same phrase for ecstatic inspiration, (another result of the same Agency,) Revelation 1:10.
if so be] The Gr. particle is more than merely “if,” (which often = “since,” or “as,”) and suggests just such doubt and enquiry as would amount to self-examination. See 2 Corinthians 13:5.
dwell] See John 14:17, and cp. Ephesians 3:16. The word indicates the intimacy and permanence of the Holy Spirit’s action and influence in the regenerate man.
in you] i.e. of course, as individuals. For see the next words “If any man have not, &c.”
the Spirit of Christ] Evidently not in the essentially modern sense of His (Christ’s) principles and temper, but in that of the Personal Holy Spirit as profoundly connected with Christ. Same word as Php 1:19; 1 Peter 1:11; and see Galatians 4:6.—The phrase is indeed remarkable, just after the words “the Spirit of God:” it at least indicates St Paul’s view of the Divine majesty of Messiah. On the other hand, it is scarcely a text in point on the great mystery of the “Procession” of the Holy Ghost; the emphasis of the words here being rather on the work of the Holy Ghost as the Revealer of Christ to the soul. See again Ephesians 3:16.
none of his] See again 2 Corinthians 13:5, as the best comment on this brief warning. Evidently St Paul reminds the reader that a vital requisite to union with Christ is the present veritable indwelling of His Spirit; such an indwelling as he is treating of here, which determines the man to be “not in the flesh.”—The question thus solemnly suggested was to be answered (we may be sure) by no visionary tests, but by a self-searching enquiry for “the fruit of the Spirit.” See the whole passage, Galatians 5:16-26; and cp. 1 John 3:24.”
Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
10. If Christ be in you] Observe the immediate transition from “the Spirit of Christ” to “Christ.” See again Ephesians 3:16, for a deeply suggestive parallel. See too each of the Seven Epistles (Revelation 2, 3) for the identification (in a certain sense) of the Voice of Christ and the Voice of the Spirit. The supreme work of the Spirit is to acquaint the soul with Christ; hence the indwelling of the Spirit as the Divine Teacher results by holy necessity in the indwelling of Christ as the Divine Guest. Again cp. 2 Corinthians 13:5.
the body, &c.] Lit. the body indeed is dead, &c. The sentence may be paraphrased; “though the body is dead, &c., yet the spirit is life.”—“The body” is here the literal body (see next ver.), doomed to death, and so already “as good as dead;” not yet “redeemed” (Romans 8:23). It cannot here mean “the flesh” (in the sense of that word in this context) because just below it is promised that the body shall be “made alive” hereafter by the Holy Ghost; whereas “crucifixion” is the doom of “the flesh.” In short, the Christian is here reminded that the penal results of sin still affect the body so that it must die; but that the regenerate spirit is rescued from the spirit’s death.—Many bodies, indeed, (those of the living at the Last Day) will not, in the common sense, die; but they will cease to be “flesh and blood.” (1 Corinthians 15:50-52.)
the spirit] Here the context seems to give the sense of the human spirit; that which now “liveth unto God” in the regenerate man; the soul, in the highest sense of that word. See long note on Romans 8:4.
is life] A powerful phrase. Cp. “ye are light,” Ephesians 5:8. The spirit is not only “alive:” life is its inmost characteristic. The “life” here is that of acceptance and peace with God; the antithesis of the doom of death. Of course the idea of the “life” of love and energy is inseparably connected with this; but it is not identical with it.
Observe here that “Christ in us” is presented as the proof that the “spirit is life.” Here again (as on Romans 8:6; see last note there,) we must remember that “Christ for us” is the procuring cause of life; “Christ in us” is the evidence that that cause has, for us, taken effect. See next note.
righteousness] Here, surely, the Righteousness of Christ, the meriting cause of justification, and so of the gift of the Spirit, and so of the indwelling of Christ. See on Romans 1:17; Romans 5:17; Romans 5:21; where it is explained in what way “righteousness” may be taken as a practical synonym (in proper contexts) for Justification.”
Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
11. But] Here the fact of the death-state of the body is met and qualified by the prospect of life for it also.
the Spirit of him that raised, &c.] i.e. of the Father; so described here because of the following statement. See Romans 6:4, and cp. Hebrews 13:20.—Here again the indwelling of the Spirit is practically identical with the indwelling of Christ in Romans 8:10.—“Jesus” and “Christ” are not mere synonyms here: Jesus is the Risen One as to Himself; Christ the Risen One as the Head of His people. So Bengel.
quicken] make alive. Though the word “raise” is not used, the reference is to the resurrection-day. Cp. 1 Corinthians 15:22. The word is no doubt chosen to include the case of those who shall “remain to the coming.”
your mortal bodies] The Religion of Scripture alone of religions (excepting Mahometanism, whose element of truth is all borrowed from it) promises immortal bliss to the body.
by his Spirit] Lit., and far better, on account of His Spirit. The body is the Spirit’s “temple” now, (1 Corinthians 6:19,) and as such it is for ever “precious in the sight of the Lord.” Our Lord indicates this same deep connexion between the soul’s intercourse with God now and the body’s glory hereafter, Matthew 22:31-32.”
Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
12. debtors] An emphatic word in the verse. Q. d., “We are debtors to the Giver of the Spirit; to the flesh we indeed owe nothing, for its result is death.” The first part of this statement is unexpressed, but obviously in point.”
Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
13. ye shall die] Lit. ye are about to die; on the way to die. The phrase indicates a sure effect from the given cause.
through the Spirit] The Holy Spirit; see next verse, and note above on Romans 8:4.
mortify] put to death; an antithesis to the “death” just mentioned as the result of sin. The verb is in the present tense, and indicates a continued process of resistance and self-denial. For the metaphor, so strong and stern, cp. Galatians 5:24; Colossians 3:5.
the deeds of the body] the doings, almost the dealings. (“Praktiken, Machinationen;” Meyer.) On “the body,” as used here, see note on Romans 6:6. Cp. also the instructive parallel, Colossians 3:5, where “your limbs that are on the earth” = “the body of sin.”—This passage, and the parallels, shew how fully St Paul recognized the element of sinfulness as present still in the regenerate—so present as to call for intense resistance.”
Augustine was right, “In order to discover the character of people we have only to observe what they love.”
Tell me what you love, I will tell you who you are!
Why in the last days times are perilous?
The character of the wicked becomes more apparent and prominent. Among other things, men become lovers of themselves (power), lovers of money (greed), and lovers of pleasure (sex). The three combinations of power, money, and sex can blow up the whole world. That is the underlying cause of the problems of America. That is the character of America. Do you know or observe any American leaders and politicians who do not love power, money, and sex? There is no truth, integrity, and justice in any government. There is no truth, integrity, and justice in government departments and agencies. The Democratic Party and the Republican Party do not serve the American or national interest. There is no truth, integrity, and justice in business and industry. A crook and criminal dared to assume the name of the director of FBI, using emails to defraud boldly and brazenly innumerable persons in the world without penalty. Laws, rules and regulations have become a mockery. The law-abiding citizens have become desperate because there is no one to help. America is demoralized not so much by external forces, more so by internal forces. The forces of darkness rule over the whole country, the whole world.
Christians are other worldly. We are citizens of Heaven. On the day a typhoon was fiercely attack Fujian, I was observing the sky in Shanghai. There were a bunch of white cloud below the sky. The white clouds were fleeting and flying across the sky, but the blue sky remains. This kept me thinking of the passing of the world like the clouds.
1Jo 2:15-24, “Do not love the world nor the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life, is not from the Father, but is from the world. The world is passing away and also its lusts; but the one who does the will of God continues to live forever. Children, it is the last hour; and just as you heard that antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have appeared; from this we know that it is the last hour.They went out from us, but they were not really of us; for if they had been of us, they would have remained with us; but they went out, so that it would be evident that they all are not of us. But you have an anointing from the Holy One, and you all know. I have not written to you because you do not know the truth, but because you do know it, and because no lie is of the truth. Who is the liar
except the one who denies that Jesus is the Christ? This is the antichrist, the one who denies the Father and the Son. Whoever denies the Son does not have the Father; the one who confesses the Son
has the Father also. As for you, see that what you heard from the beginning remains in you. If what you heard from the beginning remains in you, you also will remain in the Son and in the Father.”
Love not the world - The term "world" seems to be used in the Scriptures in three senses:
(1) As denoting the physical universe; the world as it appears to the eye; the world considered as the work of God, as a material creation.
(2) the world as applied to the people that reside in it - "the world of mankind."
(3) as the dwellers on the earth are by nature without religion, and act under a set of maxims, aims, and principles that have reference only to this life, the term comes to be used with reference to that community; that is, to the objects which they especially seek, and the principles by which they are actuated.
Considered with reference to the first sense of the word, it is not improper to love the world as the work of God, and as illustrating his perfections; for we may suppose that God loves his own works, and it is not wrong that we should find pleasure in their contemplation. Considered with reference to the second sense of the word, it is not wrong to love the people of the world with a love of benevolence, and to have attachment to our kindred and friends who constitute a part of it, though they are not Christians. It is only with reference to the word as used in the third sense that the command here can be understood to be applicable, or that the love of the world is forbidden; with reference to the objects sought, the maxims that prevail, the principles that reign in that community that lives for this world as contradistinguished from the world to come. The meaning is, that we are not to fix our affections on worldly objects - on what the world can furnish - as our portion, with the spirit with which they do who live only for this world, regardless of the life to come. We are not to make this world the object of our chief affection; we are not to be influenced by the maxims and feelings which prevail among those who do. Compare the Romans 12:2 note, and James 4:4 note. See also Matthew 16:26; Luke 9:25; 1 Corinthians 1:20; 1 Corinthians 3:19; Galatians 4:3; Colossians 2:8.
Neither the things that are in the world - Referred to in the next verse as "the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life." This explanation shows what John meant by "the things that are in the world." He does not say that we are in no sense to love "anything" that is in the material world; that we are to feel no interest in flowers, and streams, and forests, and fountains; that we are to have no admiration for what God has done as the Creator of all things; that we are to cherish no love for any of the inhabitants of the world, our friends and kindred; or that we are to pursue none of the objects of this life in making provision for our families; but that we are not to love the things which are sought merely to pamper the appetite, to please the eye, or to promote pride in living. These are the objects sought by the people of the world; these are not the objects to be sought by the Christian.
If any man love the world ... - If, in this sense, a person loves the world, it shows that he has no true religion; that is, if characteristically he loves the world as his portion, and lives for that; if it is the ruling principle of his life to gain and enjoy that, it shows that his heart has never been renewed, and that he has no part with the children of God. See the James 4:4 note; Matthew 6:24 note.”
Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
7. Love not the world] The asyndeton is remarkable. S. John has just stated his premises, his readers’ happiness as Christians. He now abruptly states the practical conclusion, without any introductory ‘therefore’. As was said above on 1 John 2:2, we must distinguish between the various meanings of the Apostle’s favourite word, ‘world.’ In John 3:16 he tells us that ‘God loved the world’, and here he tells us that we must not do so. “S. John is never afraid of an apparent contradiction when it saves his readers from a real contradiction … The opposition which is on the surface of his language may be the best way of leading us to the harmony which lies below it” (Maurice). The world which the Father loves is the whole human race. The world which we are not to love is all that is alienated from Him, all that prevents men from loving Him in return. The world which God loves is His creature and His child: the world which we are not to love is His rival. The best safeguard against the selfish love of what is sinful in the world is to remember God’s unselfish love of the world. ‘The world’ here is that from which S. James says the truly religious man keeps himself ‘unspotted’, friendship with which is ‘enmity with God’ (James 1:27; James 4:4). It is not enough to say that ‘the world’ here means ‘earthly things, so far as they tempt to sin’, or ‘sinful lusts’, or ‘worldly and impious men’. It means all of these together: all that acts as a rival to God; all that is alienated from God and opposed to Him, especially sinful men with their sinful lusts. ‘The world’ and ‘the darkness’ are almost synonymous; to love the one is to love the other (John 3:19): to be in the darkness is to be of the world.
neither the things that are in the world] Or, nor yet the things, &c., i.e. ‘Love not the world; no, nor anything in that sphere.’ Comp. ‘Not to consort with … no, nor eat with’ (1 Corinthians 5:11). ‘The things in the world’, as is plain from 1 John 2:16, are not material objects, which can be desired and possessed quite innocently, although they may also be occasions of sin. Rather, they are those elements in the world which are necessarily evil, its lusts and ambitions and jealousies, which stamp it as the kingdom of ‘the ruler of this world’ (John 12:31) and not the kingdom of God.
If any man love the world] Once more, as in 1 John 2:1, the statement is made quite general by the hypothetical form: everyone who does so is in this case. The Lord had proclaimed the same principle; ‘No man can serve two masters … Ye cannot serve God and mammon’ (Matthew 6:24). So also S. James; ‘Whosoever would be a friend of the world maketh himself an enemy of God’ (1 John 4:4). Comp. Galatians 1:10. Thus we arrive at another pair of those opposites of which S. John is so fond. We have had light and darkness, truth and falsehood, love and hate; we now have love of the Father and love of the world. The world which is coextensive with darkness must exclude the God who is light. By writing ‘the love of the Father’ rather than ‘the love of God’ (which some authorities read here) the Apostle points to the duty of Christians as children of God. ‘The love of the Father’ (a phrase which occurs nowhere else) means man’s love to Him, not His to man: see on 1 John 2:5. A fragment of Philo declares that ‘it is impossible for love to the world to coexist with love to God’.
15–17. The Things to be Avoided;—the World and its Ways
Having reminded them solemnly of the blessedness of their condition as members of the Christian family, whether old or young, and having declared that this blessedness of peace, knowledge, and strength is his reason for writing to them, he goes on to exhort them to live in a manner that shall be worthy of this high estate, and to avoid all that is inconsistent with it.”
Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
8. Proof of the preceding statement by shewing the fundamental opposition in detail.
all that is in the world] Neuter singular: in 1 John 2:15 we had the neuter plural. The material contents of the universe cannot be meant. To say that these did not originate from God would be to contradict the Apostle himself (John 1:3; John 1:10) and to affirm those Gnostic doctrines against which he is contending. The Gnostics, believing everything material to be radically evil, maintained that the universe was created, not by God, but by the evil one, or at least by an inferior deity. By ‘all that is in the world’ is meant the spirit which animates it, its tendencies and tone. These, which are utterly opposed to God, did not originate in Him, but in the free and rebellious wills of His creatures, seduced by ‘the ruler of this world’.
the lust of the flesh] This does not mean the lust for the flesh, any more than ‘the lust of the eyes’ means the lust for the eyes. In both cases the genitive is not objective but subjective, as is generally the case with genitives after ‘lust’ (ἐπιθυμία) in N. T. Comp. Romans 1:24, Galatians 5:16, Ephesians 2:3. The meaning is the lusts which have their seats in the flesh and in the eyes respectively.
“Tell me where is fancy bred.
It is engendered in the eyes.”
Merchant of Venice, III. ii.
The former, therefore, will mean the desire for unlawful pleasures of sense; for enjoyments which are sinful either in themselves or as being excessive.
Note that S. John does not say ‘the lust of the body.’ ‘The body’ in N.T. is perhaps never used to denote the innately corrupt portion of man’s nature: for that the common term is ‘the flesh.’ ‘The body’ is that neutral portion which may become either good or bad. It may be sanctified as the abode and instrument of the Spirit, or degraded under the tyranny of the flesh.
the lust of the eyes] The desire of seeing unlawful sights for the sake of the sinful pleasure to be derived from the sight; idle and prurient curiosity. Familiar as S. John’s readers must have been with the foul and cruel exhibitions of the circus and amphitheatre, this statement would at once meet with their assent. Tertullian, though he does not quote this passage in his treatise De Spectaculis, is full of its spirit: “The source from which all circus games are taken pollutes them … What is tainted taints us” (VII., VIII.). Similarly S. Augustine on this passage; “This it is that works in spectacles, in theatres, in sacraments of the devil, in magical arts, in witchcraft; none other than curiosity.” See also Confessions VI. vii., viii., X. xxxv. 55.
the pride of life] Or, as R. V., the vainglory of life. Latin writers vary much in their renderings: superbia vitae; ambilio saeculi; jactantia hujus vitae; jactantia vitae humanae. The word (ἀλαζονεία) occurs elsewhere only James 4:16, and there in the plural; where A. V. has ‘boastings’ and R. V. ‘vauntings.’ The cognate adjective (ἀλάζων) occurs Romans 1:30 and 2 Timothy 3:2, where A. V. has ‘boasters’ and R. V. ‘boastful’. Pretentious ostentation, as of a wandering mountebank, is the radical signification of the word. In classical Greek the pretentiousness is the predominant notion; in Hellenistic Greek, the ostentation. Compare the account of this vice in Aristotle (Nic. Eth. IV. vii.) with Wis 5:8, 2Ma 9:8; 2Ma 15:6. Ostentatious pride in the things which one possesses is the signification of the term here; ‘life’ meaning ‘means of life, goods, possessions’. The word for ‘life’ (βίος) is altogether different from that used in 1 John 1:1-2 and elsewhere in the Epistle (ζωή). This word (βίος) occurs again 1 John 3:17, and elsewhere in N.T. only 8 times, chiefly in S. Luke. The other word occurs 13 times in this Epistle, and elsewhere in N. T. over 100 times. This is what we might expect. The word used here means (1) period of human life, as 1 Timothy 2:2; 2 Timothy 2:4; (2) means of life, as here, 1 John 3:17, Mark 12:44; Luke 8:14; Luke 8:43; Luke 15:12; Luke 15:30; Luke 21:4 (in 1 Peter 4:3 the word is not genuine). With the duration of mortal life and the means of prolonging it the Gospel has comparatively little to do. It is concerned rather with that spiritual life which is not measured by time (1 John 1:2), and which is independent of material wealth and food. For this the other word (ζωή) is invariably used. By ‘the vainglory of life’ then is meant ostentatious pride in the possession of worldly resources.
These three evil elements or tendencies ‘in the world’ are co-ordinate: no one of them includes the other two. The first two are wrongful desires of what is not possessed; the third is a wrongful behaviour with regard to what is possessed. The first two may be the vices of a solitary; the third requires society. We can have sinful desires when we are alone, but we cannot be ostentatious without company. See Appendix A.
is not of the Father] Does not derive its origin from (ἐκ) Him, and therefore has no natural likeness to Him or connexion with Him. S. John says ‘the Father’ rather than ‘God’ to emphasize the idea of parentage. Its origin is from the world and its ruler, the devil. Comp. ‘Ye are of (ἐκ) your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will to do’ (John 8:44). The phrase ‘to be of’ is highly characteristic of S. John.
A. The Three Evil Tendencies in the World
The three forms of evil ‘in the world’ mentioned in 1 John 2:16 have been taken as a summary of sin, if not in all its aspects, at least in its chief aspects. ‘The lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the vainglory of life’ have seemed from very early times to form a synopsis of the various modes of temptation and sin. And certainly they cover so wide a field that we cannot well suppose that they are mere examples of evil more or less fortuitously mentioned. They appear to have been carefully chosen on account of their typical nature and wide comprehensiveness.
There is, however, a wide difference between the views stated at the beginning and end of the preceding paragraph. It is one thing to say that we have here a very comprehensive statement of three typical forms of evil; quite another to say that the statement is a summary of all the various kinds of temptation and sin.
To begin with, we must bear in mind what seems to be S. John’s purpose in this statement. He is not giving us an account of the different ways in which Christians are tempted, or (what is much the same) the different sins into which they may fall. Rather, he is stating the principal forms of evil which are exhibited ‘in the world,’ i.e. in those who are not Christians. He is insisting upon the evil origin of these desires and tendencies, and of the world in which they exist, in order that his readers may know that the world and its ways have no claim on their affections. All that is of God, and especially each child of God, has a claim on the love of every believer. All that is not of God has no such claim.
It is difficult to maintain, without making some of the three heads unnaturally elastic, that all kinds of sin, or even all of the principal kinds of sin, are included in the list. Under which of the three heads are we to place unbelief, heresy, blasphemy, or persistent impenitence? Injustice in many of its forms, and especially in the most extreme form of all—murder, cannot without some violence be brought within the sweep of these three classes of evil.
Two positions, therefore, may be insisted upon with regard to this classification.
1. It applies to forms of evil which prevail in the non-Christian world rather than to forms of temptation which beset Christians.
2. It is very comprehensive, but it is not exhaustive.
It seems well, however, to quote a powerful statement of what may be said on the other side. The italics are ours, to mark where there seems to be over-statement. “I think these distinctions, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye, and the pride of life, prove themselves to be very accurate and very complete distinctions in practice, though an ordinary philosopher may perhaps adopt some other classification of those tendencies which connect us with the world and give it a dominion over us. To the lust of the flesh may be referred the crimes and miseries which have been produced by gluttony, drunkenness, and the irregular intercourse of the sexes; an appalling catalogue, certainly, which no mortal eye could dare to gaze upon. To the lust of the eye may be referred all worship of visible things, with the divisions, persecutions, hatreds, superstitions, which this worship has produced in different countries and ages. To the pride or boasting of life,—where you are not to understand by life, for the Greek words are entirely different, either natural or spiritual life, such as the Apostle spoke of in the first chapter of the Epistle, but all that belongs to the outside of existence, houses, lands, whatever exalts a man above his fellow,—to this head we must refer the oppressor’s wrongs, and that contumely which Hamlet reckons among the things which are harder to bear even than the ‘slings and arrows of outrageous fortune.’ In these three divisions I suspect all the mischiefs which have befallen our race may be reckoned, and each of us is taught by the Apostle, and may know by experience that the seeds of the evils so enumerated are in himself” (Maurice).
Do we not feel in reading this that S. John’s words have been somewhat strained in order to make them cover the whole ground? One sin produces so many others in its train, and these again so many more, that there will not be much difficulty in making the classification exhaustive, if under each head we are to include all the crimes and miseries, divisions and hatreds, which that particular form of evil has produced.
Some of the parallels and contrasts which have from early times been made to the Apostle’s classification are striking, even when somewhat fanciful. Others are both fanciful and unreal.
The three forms of evil noticed by S. John in this passage are only partially parallel to those which are commonly represented under the three heads of the world, the flesh, and the devil. Strictly speaking those particular forms of spiritual evil which would come under the head of the devil, as distinct from the world and the flesh, are not included in the Apostle’s enumeration at all. ‘The vainglory of life’ would come under the head of the world; ‘the lust of the flesh’ of course under that of ‘the flesh;’ while ‘the lust of the eyes’ would belong partly to the one and partly to the other.
There is more reality in the parallel drawn between S. John’s classification and the three elements in the temptation by which Eve was overcome by the evil one, and again the three temptations in which Christ overcame the evil one. ‘When the woman saw that the tree was good for food (the lust of the flesh), and that it was pleasant to the eyes (the lust of the eyes), and a tree to be desired to make one wise (the vainglory of life), she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat’ (Genesis 3:6). Similarly, the temptations (1) to work a miracle in order to satisfy the cravings of the flesh, (2) to submit to Satan in order to win possession of all that the eye could see, (3) to tempt God in order to win the glory of a miraculous preservation (Luke 4:1-12).
Again, there is point in the contrast drawn between these three forms of evil ‘in the world’ and the three great virtues which have been the peculiar creation of the Gospel (Liddon Bampton Lectures VIII. iii. B), purity, charity, and humility, with the three corresponding ‘counsels of perfection,’ chastity, poverty, and obedience.
But in all these cases, whether of parallel or contrast, it will probably be felt that the correspondence is not perfect throughout, and that the comparison, though striking, is not quite satisfying, because not quite exact.
It is surely both fanciful and misleading to see in this trinity of evil any contrast to the three Divine Persons in the Godhead. Is there any sense in which we can say with truth that a lust, whether of the flesh or of the eyes, is more opposed to the attributes of the Father than to the attributes of the Son? Forced analogies in any sphere are productive of fallacies; in the sphere of religious truth they may easily become profane.”
Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
9. and the world passeth away] Or, is passing away; as in 1 John 2:8 : the process is now going on. We owe the verb ‘pass away’ here to Coverdale: it is a great improvement on Tyndale’s ‘vanisheth away.’ Comp. ‘The fashion of this world is passing away’ (1 Corinthians 7:31), where the same verb is used, and where the active in a neuter sense is equivalent to the middle here and in 1 John 2:8.
and the lust thereof] Not the lust for the world, but the lust which it exhibits, the sinful tendencies mentioned in 1 John 2:16. The world is passing away with all its evil ways. How foolish, therefore, to fix one’s affections on what not only cannot endure but is already in process of dissolution! ‘The lust thereof’ = ‘all that is in the world.’
the will of God] This is the exact opposite of ‘all that is in the world’. The one sums up all the tendencies to good in the universe, the other all the tendencies to evil. We see once more how S. John in giving us the antithesis of a previous idea expands it and makes it fructify. He says that the world and all its will and ways are on the wane: but as the opposite of this he says, not merely that God and His will and ways abide, but that ‘he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever’. This implies that he who follows the ways of the world will not abide for ever. Again he speaks of the love of the world and the love of the Father; but as the opposite of the man who loves the world he says not ‘he that loveth the Father,’ but ‘he that doeth the will of the Father’. This implies that true love involves obedience. Thus we have a double antithesis. On the one hand we have the world and the man who loves it and follows its ways: they both pass away. On the other hand we have God and the man who loves Him and does His will: they both abide for ever. Instead of the goods of this life (βίος) in which the world would allow him to vaunt for a moment, he who doeth the will of God has that eternal life (ζωή) in which the true Christian has fellowship with God. ‘For ever’ is literally ‘unto the age’, i.e. ‘unto the age to come’, the kingdom of heaven; the word for ‘age’ (αἰών) being the substantive from which the word for ‘eternal’ (αἰώνιος) is derived. He who does God’s will shall abide until the kingdom of God comes and be a member of it. The latter fact, though not stated, is obviously implied. It would be a punishment and not a blessing to be allowed, like Moses, to see the kingdom but not enter it. The followers of the world share the death of the world: the children of God share His eternal life.
Here probably we should make a pause in reading the Epistle. What follows is closely connected with what precedes and is suggested by it: but there is, nevertheless, a new departure, which is made with much solemnity."
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18–26. The Persons to be Avoided;—Antichrists
18. Little children] Or, Little ones. It is difficult to see anything in this section specially suitable to children: indeed the very reverse is rather the case. The same word (παιδία) is used here as in 1 John 2:14 and John 21:5. S. John’s readers in general are addressed, irrespective of age. Both his Epistle and Gospel are written for adults and for well-instructed Christians.
it is the last time] More literally, it is the last hour; possibly, but not probably, it is a last hour. The omission of the definite article is quite intelligible and not unusual: the idea is sufficiently definite without it, for there can be only one last hour. Similarly (Judges 18) we have ‘in (the) last time there shall be mockers walking after their own ungodly lusts’: and (Acts 1:8; Acts 13:47) ‘unto (the) uttermost part of the earth’. A great deal has been written upon this text in order to avoid a very plain but unwelcome conclusion, that by the ‘last hour’ S. John means the time immediately preceding the return of Christ to judge the world. Hundreds of years have passed away since S. John wrote these words, and the Lord is not yet come. Rather, therefore, than admit an interpretation which seemed to charge the Apostle with a serious error, commentators have suggested all kinds of explanations as substitutes for the obvious one. The following considerations place S. John’s meaning beyond all reasonable doubt.
1. He has just been stating that the world is on the wane and that its dissolution has already begun. 2. He has just declared that the obedient Christian shall abide ‘unto the age’ of Christ’s kingdom of glory. 3. He goes on to give as a proof that it is the ‘last hour’, that many Antichrists have already arisen; it being the common belief of Christians that Antichrist would immediately precede the return of Christ. 4. ‘The last day’ is a phrase peculiar to S. John (John 6:39-40; John 6:44; John 6:54; John 11:24; John 12:48), and invariably means the end of the world, not the Christian dispensation. 5. Analogous phrases in other parts of N.T. point in the same direction: ‘In the last days grievous times shall come’ (2 Timothy 3:1); ‘Ye are guarded through faith unto a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time’ (1 Peter 1:5); ‘In the last days mockers shall come with mockery’ (2 Peter 3:3). These and other passages shew that by ‘the last days’, ‘last time’, ‘last hour’, and the like, Christian writers did not mean the whole time between the first and second coming of Christ, but only the concluding portion of it. 6. We find similar language with similar meaning in the sub-apostolic age. Thus Ignatius (Eph. XI.) writes; “These are the last times. Henceforth let us be reverent; let us fear the longsuffering of God, lest it turn into a judgment against us. For either let us fear the wrath which is to come, or let us love the grace which now is.”
Of other interpretations of ‘the last hour’ the most noteworthy are these. (1) The Christian dispensation, which we have every reason to believe is the last. This is the sense in which S. John’s words are true; but this is plainly not his meaning. The appearance of Christ, not of Antichrist, proves that the Christian dispensation is come. (2) A very grievous time, tempora periculosa pessima et abjectissima. This is quite against usage whether in classical or N.T. Greek: comp. 2 Timothy 3:1. The classical phrase, ‘to suffer the last things’, i.e. ‘to suffer extremities’ (τὰ ἔσχατα παθεῖν), supplies no analogy: here the notion of ‘grievous’ comes from the verb. (3) The eve of the destruction of Jerusalem. How could the appearance of Antichrist prove that this had arrived? And Jerusalem had perished at least a dozen years before the probable date of this Epistle. (4) The eve of S. John’s own death. Antichrists could be no sign of that.
It is admitted even by some of those who reject the obvious interpretation that “the Apostles expected a speedy appearing or manifestation of Jesus as the Judge of their nation and of all nations” (Maurice): which is to admit the whole difficulty of the rejected explanation. Only gradually was the vision of the Apostles cleared to see the true nature of the spiritual kingdom which Christ had founded on earth and left in their charge. Even Pentecost did not at once give them perfect insight. Being under the guidance of the Holy Spirit they could not teach what was untrue: but, like the Prophets before them, they sometimes uttered words which were true in a sense far higher than that which was present to their own minds. In this higher sense S. John’s words here are true. Like others, he was wrong in supposing ‘that the kingdom of God was immediately to appear’ (Luke 19:11), for ‘it was not for them to know times or seasons which the Father hath set within His own authority’ (Acts 1:7). He was right in declaring that, the Messiah having come, it was the ‘last hour’. No event in the world’s history can ever equal the coming of Christ until He comes again. The epoch of Christianity, therefore, is rightly called the ‘last hour’, although it has lasted nearly two thousand years. What is that compared with the many thousands of years since the creation of man, and the limitless geological periods which preceded the creation of man? What again in the eyes of Him in whose sight ‘a thousand years are but yesterday?’
“It may be remarked that the only point on which we can certainly say that the Apostles were in error, and led others into error, is in their expectation of the immediate coming of Christ; and this is the very point which our Saviour says (Mark 13:32) is known only to the Father” (Jelf).
as ye have heard that Antichrist shall come] Better, even as ye heard that Antichrist cometh: the first verb is aorist, not perfect; the second present, not future; and the conjunction is of the same strong form as in 1 John 2:6. This seems to be a case in which the aorist should be retained in English (see on 1 John 2:11). As in 1 John 2:7, the reference is probably to a definite point in their instruction in the faith: and ‘cometh’ should be retained in order to bring out the analogy between the Christ and the Antichrist. The one was hoped for, and the other dreaded, with equal certainty; and hence each might be spoken of as ‘He that cometh’. ‘Art Thou He that cometh?’ (Matthew 11:3; Luke 19:20). Comp. Mark 8:38; Mark 11:9; John 4:25; John 6:14; John 11:27, &c. &c. And as to the coming of Antichrists the N. T. seems to be as explicit as the O. T. with regard to the coming of Christ. ‘Many shall come in My name, saying I am the Christ; and shall lead many astray … There shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall shew great signs and wonders; so as to lead astray, if possible even the elect’ (Matthew 24:5; Matthew 24:24). Comp. Mark 13:22-23; Acts 20:29; 2 Timothy 3:1; 2 Peter 2:1; and especially 2 Thessalonians 2:3, which like the passage before us seems to point to one distinct person or power as the one Antichrist, whose spirit animates all antichristian teachers.
The term ‘Antichrist’ in Scripture occurs only in the First and Second Epistles of S. John (1 John 2:18; 1 John 2:22, 1 John 4:3; 2 John 1:7). The earliest instance of its use outside Scripture is in S. Polycarp (Ep. ad Phil, VII.), in a passage which shews that this disciple of S. John (a.d. 140–155) knew our Epistle: see on 1 John 4:3. The term does not mean merely a mock Christ or false Christ, for which the N.T. term is ‘pseudo-Christ’ (Matthew 24:24; Mark 13:22). Nor does it mean simply an opponent of Christ, for which we should probably have ‘enemy of Christ’, like ‘enemy of the Cross of Christ’ (Php 3:18) and ‘enemy of God’ (James 4:4). But it includes both these ideas of counterfeiting and opposing; it means an opposition Christ or rival Christ; just as we call a rival Pope an ‘antipope’. The Antichrist is, therefore, a usurper, who under false pretences assumes a position which does not belong to him, and who opposes the rightful owner. The idea of opposition is the predominant one.
It is not easy to determine whether the Antichrist of S. John is personal or not. But the discussion of this question is too long for a note: see Appendix B.
even now are there many Antichrists] Better, as R.V., even now have there arisen many Antichrists: the Christ was from all eternity (1 John 1:1), the Antichrist and his company arose in time; they are come into being. We have a similar contrast in the Gospel: ‘In the beginning was the Word’; but ‘There arose a man, sent from God, whose name was John’ (John 1:1; John 1:6). These ‘many Antichrists’ are probably to be regarded as at once forerunners of the Antichrist and evidence that his spirit is already at work in the world: the one fact shews that he is not far distant, the other that in a sense he is already here. In either case we have proof that the return of Christ, which is to be heralded by the appearance of Antichrist, is near.
whereby we know that it is the last time] Or, whence we come to know that it is the last hour: as in 1 John 2:3; 1 John 2:5 the verb indicates acquisition of and progress in knowledge. ‘Whence’ in the sense of ‘from which data, from which premises’ hardly occurs elsewhere in N.T. except perhaps in the Epistle to the Hebrews (1 John 2:17, John 7:25, John 8:3), where the same Greek word (ὅθεν) is uniformly rendered ‘wherefore’ in both A.V. and R.V.
It is difficult to see what S. John could have meant by this, if by the ‘last hour’ he understood the Christian dispensation as a whole and not the concluding portion of it (comp. 2 Timothy 3:1). The multitude of false teachers who were spreading the great lie (1 John 2:22) that Jesus is not the Christ, were evidence, not of the existence of Christianity, but of antichristianity. Nor could evidence of the former be needed by S. John’s readers. They did not need to be convinced either that the Gospel dispensation had begun, or that it was the last in the history of the Divine Revelation. The Montanist theory that a further dispensation of the Spirit, distinct from that of the Son, was to follow and supersede the Gospel, as the Gospel had superseded Judaism, the dispensation of the Father, was a belief of later growth. (For an account of this theory as elaborated by Joachim of Flora [fl. a.d. 1180–90] see Döllinger’s Prophecies and the Prophetic Spirit in the Christian Era, pp. 114–119.) In the Apostolic age the tendency was all the other way;—to believe that the period since the coming of Christ was not only the last in the world’s history, but would be very brief. It was thought that some of the generation then existing might live to see the end (1 Thessalonians 4:15-16; 1 Corinthians 15:51-52).
B. Antichrist
In the notes on 1 John 2:18 it has been pointed out that the term ‘Antichrist’ is in N. T. peculiar to the Epistles of S. John (1 John 2:18; 1 John 2:22; 1 John 4:3; 2 John 1:7), and that in meaning it seems to combine the ideas of a mock Christ and an opponent of Christ, but that the latter idea is the prominent one. The false claims of a rival Christ are more or less included in the signification; but the predominant notion is that of hostility.
It remains to say something on two other points of interest. I. Is the Antichrist of S. John a person or a tendency, an individual man or a principle? II. Is the Antichrist of S. John identical with the great adversary spoken of by S. Paul in 2 Thessalonians 2? The answer to the one question will to a certain extent depend upon the answer to the other.
I. It will be observed that S. John introduces the term ‘Antichrist,’ as he introduces the term ‘Logos’ (1 John 1:1; John 1:1), without any explanation. He expressly states that it is one with which his readers are familiar; ‘even as ye heard that Antichrist cometh.’ Certainly this, the first introduction of the name, looks like an allusion to a person. All the more so when we remember that the Christ was ‘He that cometh’ (Matthew 11:3; Luke 19:20). Both Christ and Antichrist had been the subject of prophecy, and therefore each might be spoken of as ‘He that cometh.’ But it is by no means conclusive. We may understand ‘Antichrist’ to mean an impersonal power, or principle, or tendency, exhibiting itself in the words and conduct of individuals, without doing violence to the passage. In the one case the ‘many antichrists’ will be forerunners of the great personal opponent; in the other the antichristian spirit which they exhibit may be regarded as Antichrist. But the balance of probability seems to be in favour of the view that the Antichrist, of which S. John’s readers had heard as certain to come shortly before the end of the world, is a person.
Such is not the case with the other three passages in which the term occurs. ‘Who is the liar but he that denieth that Jesus is the Christ? This is the Antichrist, even he that denieth the Father and the Son’ (1 John 2:22). There were many who denied that Jesus is the Christ and thereby denied not only the Son but the Father of whom the Son is the revelation and representative. Therefore once more we have many antichrists, each one of whom may be spoken of as ‘the Antichrist,’ inasmuch as he exhibits the antichristian characteristics. No doubt this does not exclude the idea of a person who should have these characteristics in the highest possible degree, and who had not yet appeared. But this passage taken by itself would hardly suggest such a person.
So also with the third passage in the First Epistle. ‘Every spirit which confesseth not Jesus is not of God: and this is the (spirit) of the Antichrist, whereof ye have heard that it cometh, and now is in the world already’ (1 John 4:3). Here it is no longer ‘the Antichrist’ that is spoken of, but ‘the spirit of the Antichrist.’ This is evidently a principle; which again does not exclude, though it would not necessarily suggest or imply, the idea of a person who would embody this antichristian spirit of denial.
The passage in the Second Epistle is similar to the second passage in the First Epistle. ‘Many deceivers are gone forth into the world, even they that confess not Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh. This is the deceiver and the Antichrist’ (1 John 2:7). Here again we have many who exhibit the characteristics of Antichrist. Each one of them, and also the spirit which animates them, may be spoken of as ‘the Antichrist;’ the further idea of an individual who shall exhibit this spirit in an extraordinary manner being neither necessarily excluded, nor necessarily implied.
The first of the four passages, therefore, will have to interpret the other three. And as the interpretation of that passage cannot be determined beyond dispute, we must be content to admit that the question as to whether the Antichrist of S. John is personal or not cannot be answered with certainty. The probability seems to be in favour of an affirmative answer. In the passage which introduces the subject (1 John 2:18) the Antichrist, of which the Apostle’s little children had heard as coming, appears to be a person of whom the ‘many antichrists’ with their lying doctrine are the heralds and already existing representatives. And it may well be that, having introduced the term with the personal signification familiar to his readers, the Apostle goes on to make other uses of it; in order to warn them that, although the personal Antichrist has not yet come, yet his spirit and doctrine are already at work in the world.
Nevertheless, we must allow that, if we confine our attention to the passages of S. John in which the term occurs, the balance in favour of the view that he looked to the coming of a personal Antichrist is far from conclusive. This balance, however, whatever its amount, is considerably augmented when we take a wider range and consider—(a) The origin of the doctrine which the Apostle says that his readers had already heard respecting Antichrist; (b) The treatment of the question by those who followed S. John as teachers in the Church; (c) Other passages in the N. T. which seem to bear upon the question. The discussion of this third point is placed last because it involves the second question to be investigated in this Appendix;—Is the Antichrist of S. John identical with S. Paul’s ‘man of sin.’
(a) There can be little doubt that the origin of the primitive doctrine respecting Antichrist is the Book of Daniel, to which our Lord Himself had drawn attention in speaking of the ‘abomination of desolation’ (Matthew 24:15; Daniel 9:27; Daniel 12:11). The causing the daily sacrifice to cease, which was one great element of this desolation, at once brings these passages into connexion with the ‘little horn’ of”
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19. The relation of these antichristian teachers to the Church of Christ. They were formerly nominal members, but never real members of it. They are now not members in any sense. Note the repetition, so characteristic of S. John, of the key-word ‘us’, which means the Christian Church. It occurs 5 times in this one verse.
They went out from us] It was their own doing, a distinct secession from our communion: in the Greek, ‘from us’ comes first for emphasis. It is incredible that the words can mean ‘they proceeded from us Jews’. What point would there be in that? Moreover, S. John never writes as a Jew, but always as a Christian to Christians. ‘Us’ includes all true Christians, whether of Gentile or Jewish origin. Comp. S. Paul’s warning to the Ephesian presbyters; ‘From among your own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away the disciples after them’ (Acts 20:30); where the Greek is similar to what we have here: and ‘Certain men, the children of Belial’, are gone out from among you, and have withdrawn the inhabitants of their city, saying, Let us go and serve other gods, which ye have not known’ (Deuteronomy 13:13); where the Greek of LXX. is still closer to this passage.
but they were not of us] They have a foreign origin. The single act of departure (aorist) is contrasted with the lasting condition of being ‘of us’ (imperfect). ‘Of us’ here is exactly analogous to ‘of the Father’ and ‘of the world’ in 1 John 2:16. It is difficult to bring out in English the full force of the antithesis which is so easily expressed in the Greek. ‘From out of us they went forth, but they were not from out of us’; where ‘from out of us’ (ἐξ ἡμῶν) is of course used in two different senses, ‘out from our midst’ and ‘originating with us.’
they would no doubt have continued with us] Better, they would have abided with us: there is nothing in the Greek to represent ‘no doubt,’ and the verb is S. John’s favourite word ‘abide’ (see on 1 John 2:24). Almost all the earlier English Versions go wrong as to ‘no doubt’. Tyndale and Cranmer have ‘no dout’, the Genevan has ‘douteles’, and the Rhemish ‘surely’. Probably these are attempts to translate the utique of the Vulgate, permansissent utique nobiscum: and the utique, which is as old as Tertullian (De Praescr, Haer. III.) is a mistaken endeavour to give a separate word to represent the Greek particle ἄν. Oddly enough, Wiclif, who worked from the Vulgate, has nothing to represent utique; ‘they hadden dwelte with us. Luther inserts ‘ja’; ‘so wären sie ja bei uns geblieben’; which looks as if he also were under the influence of the utique. There is a similar instance John 8:42, where Wiclif has ‘sothli ye schulden love Me’, Cranmer, ‘truly ye wolde love Me’, and the Rhemish, ‘verely ye would love Me’, because the Vulgate (not Tertullian) gives diligeretis utique Me for ἠγαπᾶτε ἂν ἐμέ. The meaning here is that secession proves a want of fundamental union from the first. As Tertullian says: Nemo Christianus, nisi qui ad finem persevcraverit. Note that S. John does not say ‘they would have abided among us (ἐν ἡμῖν),’ but ‘with us (μεθ' ἡμῶν)’. This brings out more clearly the idea of fellowship: ‘these antichrists had no real sympathy with us’.
but they went out that they might be made manifest] As the italics in A.V. shew, there is no Greek to represent ‘they went out’. ‘But that’ or ‘but in order that’ (α'λλ' ἵνα) is an elliptical expression very frequent in S. John’s Gospel (John 1:8, John 9:3, John 13:18, John 14:31, John 15:25). We may often fill up the ellipse in some such way as ‘but this took place’, or ‘this came to pass, in order that’. S. John’s favourite construction ‘in order that’ (see on 1 John 1:9) again points to the Divine government of events. It was in accordance with God’s will that these spurious members should be made known as such. The process which all through his Gospel the Apostle depicts as a necessary result of Christ’s coming, still continues after His departure; the separation of light from darkness, of the Church from the world, of real from unreal Christians (see introductory note to John v.). S. John assures his readers that the appearance of error and unbelief in the Church need not shake their faith in it: it is all in accordance with the Divine plan. Revelation of the truth necessarily causes a separation between those who accept and those who reject it, and is designed to do so. God does not will that any should reject the truth; but He wills that those who reject should be made manifest. S. Paul states this truth the other way; that the faithful need to be distinguished. ‘For there must be also heresies among you, that (ἵνα) they which are approved may be made manifest among you’ (1 Corinthians 11:19).
that they were not all of us] Or, that not all are of us, as in the margin of R.V. But this is doubtful; the Greek being οὐκ εἰσὶν πάντες, not οὐ πάντες εἰσιν. The Greek is somewhat ambiguous, but certainly we must have ‘are’ and not ‘were’. Two ideas seem to be in the Apostle’s mind, and his words may be the expression partly of the one, and partly of the other: 1. that these antichrists may be made manifest as not really of us; 2. that it may be made manifest that not all professing Christians are really of us.
In this verse S. John does not teach that the Christian cannot fall away; his exhortations to his readers not to love the world, but to abide in Christ, is proof of that. He is only putting in another form the declaration of Christ, ‘I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, and no one shall snatch them out of My hand’ (John 10:28). Apostasy is possible, but only for those who have never really made Christ their own, never fully given themselves to Him.”
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20. But ye have an unction from the holy One] Better, as R.V., And ye have an anointing (as in 1 John 2:27) from the Holy One. S. John, in his manner, puts two contrasted parties side by side, the Antichrist with his antichrists, and the Christ with His christs; but the fact of there being a contrast does not warrant us in turning S. John’s simple ‘and’ (καί) into ‘but’. Tyndale holds fast to ‘and’, in spite of Wiclif’s ‘but’ and the Vulgate’s sed. Just as the Antichrist has his representatives, so the Anointed One, the Christ, has His. All Christians in a secondary sense are what Christ is in a unique and primary sense, the Lord’s anointed. ‘These anointed’, says the Apostle to his readers, ‘ye are’. The ‘ye’ is not only expressed in the Greek, but stands first after the conjunction for emphasis: ‘ye’ in contrast to these apostates. The word for ‘anointing’ or ‘unction’ (χρίσμα) strictly means the ‘completed act of anointing:’ but in LXX. it is used of the unguent or anointing oil (Exodus 30:25); and Tyndale, Cranmer and the Genevan have ‘oyntment’ here. In N.T, it occurs only here and 1 John 2:27. Kings, priests, and sometimes prophets were anointed, in token of their receiving Divine grace. Hence oil both in O. and N.T. is a figure of the Holy Spirit (Psalm 45:6-7; Psalm 105:15; Isaiah 61:1; Acts 10:38; Hebrews 1:9; 2 Corinthians 1:21). It is confusing cause and effect to suppose that this passage was influenced by the custom of anointing candidates at baptism: the custom though ancient (for it is mentioned by S. Cyril of Jerusalem, c. a.d. 350, Catech. Lect, XXI. 3, 4), is later than this Epistle. More probably the custom was suggested by this passage. The opening of S. Cyril’s 21st Lecture throws much light on this passage. “Having been baptized into Christ and … being made partakers of Christ, ye are properly called christs, and of you God said, Touch not My christs, or anointed. Now ye were made christs by receiving the emblem of the Holy Spirit; and all things were in a figure wrought in you, because ye are figures of Christ. He also bathed Himself in the river Jordan, and … came up from them; and the Holy Spirit in substance lighted on Him, like resting upon like. In the same manner to you also, after you had come up from the pool of the sacred streams, was given the unction, the emblem of that wherewith Christ was anointed; and this is the Holy Spirit”. Similarly S. Augustine; “In the unction we have a sacramental sign (sacramentum); the virtue itself is invisible. The invisible unction is the Holy Spirit (Hom. III. 12).
It may be doubted whether S. John in this verse makes any allusion to the anointing which was a feature in some Gnostic systems.
from the holy One] This almost certainly means Christ, in accordance with other passages both in S. John and elsewhere (John 6:69; Revelation 3:7; Mark 1:24; Acts 3:14; Ps. 20:10), and in harmony with Christ being called ‘righteous’ in vv,. 1, 29, and ‘pure’ in 1 John 3:3. Moreover in John 14:26; John 15:26; John 16:7; John 16:14 Christ promises to give the Holy Spirit. It may possibly mean God the Father (Habakkuk 3:3; Hosea 11:9; 1 Corinthians 6:19). It cannot well mean the Holy Spirit, unless some other meaning be found for ‘anointing’.
and ye know all things] There is very high authority for reading and ye all know (this), or, omitting the conjunction and placing a colon after ‘Holy One’, ye all know (this). If the reading followed in A.V. and R.V. be right, the meaning is, ‘It is you (and not these antichristian Gnostics who claim it) that are, in virtue of the anointing of the Spirit of truth, in the possession of the true knowledge’. Christians are in possession of the truth in a far higher sense than any unchristian philosopher. All the unbeliever’s knowledge is out of balance and proportion. The assertion here is strictly in harmony with the promise of Christ; ‘When He, the Spirit of truth is come, He shall guide you into all the truth’ (John 16:13). In the same spirit S. Ignatius writes, “None of these things is hidden from you, if ye be perfect in your faith and love towards Jesus Christ” (Eph. xiv. 1); and similarly S. Polycarp, “Nothing is hidden from you” (Phil. xii. 1). Comp. ‘They that seek the Lord understand all things’ (Proverbs 28:5).”
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21. I have not written] Literally, as in 1 John 2:13-14; 1 John 2:26, I wrote not, or, did not write: it is the aorist in the Greek. But (whatever may be true of 1 John 2:13-14) what we have here is almost certainly the epistolary aorist, which may be represented in English either by the present or by the perfect. ‘I have written’ probably does not refer to the whole letter, but only to this section about the antichrists; this seems clear from 1 John 2:26. ‘Do not think from my warning you against lying teachers that I suspect you of being ignorant of the truth: you who have been anointed with the Spirit of truth cannot be ignorant of the truth. I write as unto men who will appreciate what I say. I write, not to teach, but to confirm’. “S. John does not treat Christianity as a religion containing elements of truth, or even more truth than any religion which had preceded it. S. John presents Christianity to the soul as a religion which must be everything to it, if it is not really to be worse than nothing” (Liddon).
because ye know not the truth; but because ye know it, and that, &c.] There are no less than three ways of taking this, depending upon the meaning given to the thrice-repeated conjunction (ὅτι), which in each place may mean either ‘because’ or ‘that’. 1. As A.V.; because, … but because … and that. The A.V. follows the earlier Versions in putting ‘that’ in the last clause: so Wiclif, Tyndale, Cranmer, &c. 2. As R.V.; ‘because’ in each clause. 3. ‘That’ in each clause: ‘I have not written that ye know not the truth, but that ye know it, and that &c.’ This last is almost certainly wrong. As in 1 John 2:13-14 the verb ‘write’ introduces the reason for writing and not the subject-matter or contents of the Epistle. And if the first conjunction is ‘because’, it is the simplest and most natural to take the second and third in the same way. The Apostle warns them against antichristian lies, not because they are ignorant, but (1) because they possess the truth, and (2) because every kind of lie is utterly alien to the truth they possess. “There is the modesty and the sound philosophy of an Apostle! Many of us think that we can put the truth into people, by screaming it into their ears. We do not suppose that they have any truth in them to which we can make appeal. S. John had no notion that he could be of use to his dear children at Ephesus unless there was a truth in them, a capacity of distinguishing truth from lies, a sense that one must be the eternal opposition of the other” (Maurice).
no lie is of the truth] Literally, every lie is not-of-the truth: the negative belongs to the predicate (comp. 1 John 3:15). ‘Of the truth’ here is exactly analogous to ‘of the Father’ and ‘of the world’ in 1 John 2:16 and to ‘of us’ in 1 John 2:19. Every lie is in origin utterly removed from the truth: the truth springs from God; lying from the devil, ‘for he is a liar and the father thereof’ (John 8:44). See on 1 John 2:16.”
Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
22. Who is a liar] More accurately, as R.V., Who is the liar: the A.V. here again follows the earlier English Versions. But we must beware of exaggerating the article in interpretation, although it is right to translate it. It merely marks the passage from the abstract to the concrete: ‘Every lie is absolutely alien from the truth. Who then is the one who speaks lies? There are no liars if he who denies that Jesus is the Christ is not one’. The exactly parallel construction in 1 John 5:4-5 shews that ‘the liar’ here does not mean ‘the greatest liar possible’. Moreover, this would not be true. Is denying that Jesus is the Christ a greater lie than denying the existence of the Son, or of God?
The abruptness of the question is startling. Throughout these verses (22–24) “clause stands by clause in stern solemnity without any connecting particles.”
but he that denieth] These Gnostic teachers, who profess to be in possession of the higher truth, are really possessed by one of the worst of lies.—For the way in which the Gnostics denied the fundamental Christian truth of the Incarnation see the Introduction, p. 19.
He is Antichrist] Better, as R.V., This is the antichrist, or The antichrist is this man: ‘this’, as in 1 John 2:25 and 1 John 1:5, may be the predicate. The article before ‘antichrist’, almost certainly spurious in 1 John 2:18, is certainly genuine here, 1 John 4:3, and 2 John 1:7. But ‘the antichrist’ here probably does not mean the great personal rival of Christ, but the antichristian teacher who is like him and in this matter acts as his mouth-piece.
that denieth the Father and the Son] This clause is substituted for ‘that denieth that Jesus is the Christ’. By this substitution, which is quite in S. John’s manner, he leads us on to see that to deny the one is to deny the other. Jesus is the Christ, and the Christ is the Son of God; therefore to deny that Jesus is the Christ is to deny the Son. And to deny the Son is to deny the Father; not merely because Son and Father are correlatives and mutually imply one another, but because the Son is the revelation of the Father, without whom the Father cannot be known. ‘Neither doth any know the Father, save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son willeth to reveal Him’ (Matthew 11:27). ‘No one cometh unto the Father but by Me’ (John 14:6). Comp. John 5:23; John 15:23. Some would put a full stop at ‘antichrist,’ and connect what follows with 1 John 2:23, thus; This is the antichrist. He that denieth the Father (denieth) the Son also: every one that denieth the Son hath not the Father either.”
Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
23. The previous statement is emphasized by an expansion of it stated both negatively and positively. The expansion consists in declaring that to deny the Son is not merely to do that, and indeed not merely to deny the Father, but also (οὐδέ) to debar oneself from communion with the Father. So that we now have a third consequence of denying that Jesus is the Christ. To deny this is (1) to deny the Son, which is (2) to deny the Father, which is (3) to be cut off from the Father. ‘To have the Father’ must not be weakened to mean ‘to hold as an article of faith that He is the Father’; still less, ‘to know the Father’s will’. It means, quite literally, ‘to have Him as his own Father’. Those who deny the Son cancel their own right to be called ‘sons of God’: they ipso facto excommunicate themselves from the great Christian family in which Christ is the Brother, and God is the Father, of all believers. ‘To as many as received Him, to them gave He the right to become children of God’ (John 1:12).
but he that acknowledged the Son] Better, as R. V., he that confesseth the Son: it is the same verb (ὁμολογεῖν) as is used 1 John 1:9, 1 John 4:2-3; 1 John 4:15; 2 John 1:7. It is surprising that A. V., while admitting the passage about the three Heavenly Witnesses (1 John 5:7) without any mark of doubtfulness, prints the second half of this verse in italics, as if there were nothing to represent it in the Greek. Excepting the ‘but’, the sentence is undoubtedly genuine, being found in all the best MSS. (אABC) and many other authorities. A few authorities omit it accidentally, owing to the two halves of the verse ending in the Greek with the same three words (τὸν πατέρα ἔχει). Tyndale and the Genevan omit the sentence: Cranmer and the Rhemish retain it; Cranmer marking it as wanting authority, and both omitting ‘but’, which Wiclif inserts, although there is no conjunction in the Vulgate. The asyndeton is impressive and continues through three verses, 22, 23, 24. “The sentences fall on the reader’s soul like notes of a trumpet. Without cement, and therefore all the more ruggedly clasping each other, they are like a Cyclopean wall” (Haupt). It would be possible to translate, ‘He that confesseth, hath the Son and the Father’ (comp. 2 John 1:9): but this is not probable.”
Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
24. Let that therefore abide in you] The ‘therefore’ is undoubtedly to be omitted: it is a mistaken insertion in many of those inferior MSS. which omit the second half of 1 John 2:23. This verse begins with a very emphatic pronoun; As for you (in contrast to these antichristian liars), let that abide in you which ye heard from the beginning. The pronoun in the Greek is a nominativus pendens: comp. John 6:39; John 7:38; John 14:12; John 15:2; John 17:2; Revelation 2:26; Revelation 3:12; Revelation 3:21. The verb is an aorist and should be retained as such, as in 1 John 2:7 : it points to the definite period when they were first instructed in the faith. ‘Hold fast the Gospel which ye first heard, and reject the innovations of these false teachers’.
If that which ye have heard … shall remain in you, ye also shall continue] Better, as R. V., if that which ye heard … abide in you, ye also shall abide. Here the arbitrary distinctions introduced by the translators of 1611 reach a climax: the same Greek word (μένειν) is rendered in three different ways in the same verse. Elsewhere it is rendered in four other ways, making seven English words to one Greek: ‘dwell’ (John 1:39; John 6:56; John 14:10; John 14:17), ‘tarry’ (John 4:40, John 21:22-23), ‘endure’ (John 6:27), ‘be present’ (John 14:25). The translators in their Address to the Reader tell us that these changes were often made knowingly and sometimes of set purpose. They are generally regrettable, and here are doubly so: (1) an expression characteristic of S. John and of deep meaning is blurred, (2) the emphasis gained by iteration, which is also characteristic of S. John, is entirely lost. ‘Let the truths which were first taught you have a home in your hearts: if these have a home in you, ye also shall have a home in the Son and in the Father’.”
Naomi Klein said, “We have not done the things that are necessary to lower emissions because those things fundamentally conflict with deregulated capitalism. ... We are stuck because the actions that would give us the best chance of averting catastrophe - and would benefit the vast majority - are extremely threatening to an elite minority that has a stranglehold over our economy, our political process, and most of our major media outlets.”
Cecily McMillan said, “Jail is just another micro-society. It just happens that here, the problems are far more out in the open, we don't live with the facades of lies that democracy or capitalism creates for us.”
Rosa Luxemburg said, “Freedom only for the supporters of the government, only for the members of one party – however numerous they may be – is no freedom at all. Freedom is always and exclusively freedom for the one who thinks differently. Not because of any fanatical concept of ‘justice’ but because all that is instructive, wholesome and purifying in political freedom depends on this essential characteristic, and its effectiveness vanishes when ‘freedom’ becomes a special privilege.”
Phl 3:20, “But we are citizens of Heaven, where the Lord Jesus Christ lives. And we are eagerly waiting for him to return as our Savior.”
Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
20. For] The A.V., by marking Php 3:18-19 as a parenthesis, connects this “for” with Php 3:17. But there is no need for this. A suppressed link of thought is easily seen and expressed between Php 3:19-20; somewhat thus: “such principles and practices are wholly alien to ours; for &c.” In a grave oral address or dialogue such links have often to be supplied, and the Apostle’s written style is a very near approach to the oral.
A reading “But,” or “Now,” has much support in early quotations, but none in MSS. See Lightfoot here.
our] He refers to the “ensamples” mentioned Php 3:17, as distinguished from their opponents. Or perhaps we should say, from their false friends. For very possibly these antinomians claimed to be the true disciples of Pauline truth, the true exponents of free grace as against legalism.
conversation] R.V. “citizenship”; margin, “commonwealth.” The A.V. is the rendering also of all our older versions, except Wyclif’s, which has “lyuyng.” It represents the conversatio of the Latin versions, a word which means not “mutual speech” but “the intercourse of life” (see on Php 1:27); and the meaning is thus, in effect, that “we live on earth as those whose home is in heaven.”—The same English is found (in A.V.) Psalm 50:23; 2 Corinthians 1:12; Galatians 1:13; Ephesians 2:3; Ephesians 4:22; above Php 1:27 (where see note); &c. But the Greek in all these places is quite different from the Greek here, where the word is polîteuma. (connected with polis, city, polîtês, citizen), a word which occurs nowhere else in N.T., nor in LXX., nor in the Apocrypha. In classical Greek it denotes (a) a “measure,” or “policy,” of state; (b) the governing body of a state, its “government”; (c) the constitution of a state, including the rights of its citizens. On the whole, this last meaning best suits the present context, or at least approaches it most nearly. What the Apostle means is that Christians are citizens of the heavenly City, enrolled on its register, free of its privileges, and, on the other hand, “obliged by the nobility” of such a position to live, whether in the City or not as yet, as those who belong to it and represent it. “Our citizenship, our civic status, is in heaven,” fairly gives this thought. In the anonymous Epistle to Diognetus, a Christian writing of cent. 2 (printed with the works of St Justin), a sentence occurs (c. 5) which well illustrates this passage, and perhaps refers to it, and is in itself nobly true: “Christians, as dwellers, are on earth, as citizens, in heaven.”—The verb cognate to the noun here is used there; see, on the verb, note on Php 1:27 above.
is] More strictly and fully, subsists. See second note on Php 2:6 above, where the same word occurs. The thought is that the “citizenship” is at any moment an antecedent and abiding fact, on which the citizen may fall back.
in heaven] Lit., in (the) heavens; as often in N.T. On this plural see note on Ephesians 2:10, in this Series.—Cp. Galatians 4:26; Hebrews 12:22; Revelation 3:12 (where see Abp Trench’s full note, Epistles to the Seven Churches, pp. 183–187), xxi., xxii., for the revealed conception of the heavenly City, the Ourănopolis, as it is finely called by St Clement of Alexandria (cent. 2), and Eusebius of Cæsarea (cent. 4); and other Greek Fathers use the word ouranopolîtês of the Christian.—The great treatise of St Augustine (cent. 4–5), On the City (Civilas) of God, contains a wealth of illustration of the idea of this verse. To Augustine, writing amidst the wreck of Old Rome (about a.d. 420), the Christian appears as citizen of a State which is the antithesis not of human order, which is of God, and which is promoted by the true citizens of heaven, but of “the world,” which is at enmity with Him. This State, or City, is now existing and operating, through its members, but not to be consummated and fully revealed till the eternity of glory shall come in (see Smith’s Dict. of Christian Biography, 1., p. 221). The thought of the Holy City was dear to St Augustine. The noble medieval lines,
Me receptet Syon illa,
Urbs beata, urbs tranquilla,
(quoted at the close of Longfellow’s Golden Legend), are taken almost verbally from Augustine, de Spiritu et Animâ, c. lx. See Trench, Sacred Latin Poetry, p. 332 (and cp. pp. 312–320).
from whence] Lit., “out of which (place).” The pronoun is singular, and so cannot refer directly to the plural noun, “the heavens.” The construction must be either (a) a merely adverbial one, an equivalent for the adverb “whence”; or (b) the pronoun must refer back to the noun politeuma (on which see above). In the latter case, we must suppose that the idea of citizenship suggests, and passes into, that of city, the local home of the citizens, and the word denoting citizenship is treated as if it denoted city[24]. The solution (a) is no doubt simpler, but clear evidence for the usage (where ideas of place are in view), is not apparent, though the fact is asserted (e.g. by Winer, Grammar of N. T. Greek, Moulton’s Ed., p. 177). Happily the grammatical problem leaves the essential meaning of the clause quite clear.
[24] We might thus perhaps render, or explain, politeuma by “seat of citizenship.”
we look for] Better, with R.V., we wait for. The form of the verb implies a waiting full of attention, perseverance, and desire. The verb occurs elsewhere, Romans 8:19; Romans 8:23; Romans 8:25; 1 Corinthians 1:7; Galatians 5:5; Hebrews 9:28; 1 Peter 3:20. Of these passages all but Gal.(?) and 1 Pet. refer to the longed for Return of the Lord, the blessed goal of the believer’s hope. Cp. Luke 12:35-38; Acts 1:11; Acts 3:20-21; Romans 8:18; Romans 8:23-25; Romans 13:11-12; 1 Corinthians 11:26; 1 Corinthians 15:23, &c.; Colossians 3:4; 1 Thessalonians 1:10; 1 Thessalonians 2:19; 1 Thessalonians 3:13; 1 Thessalonians 4:14 to 1 Thessalonians 5:10; 1 Thessalonians 5:23; 2 Thessalonians 1:7-10; 1 Timothy 6:14; 2 Timothy 2:11-12; 2 Timothy 4:8; Titus 2:13; Hebrews 10:25; Hebrews 10:37; James 5:7-8; 1 Peter 1:7; 1 Peter 1:13; 1 Peter 4:13; 1 Peter 5:4; 2 Peter 3:4; 2 Peter 3:9; 2 Peter 3:13; 1 John 2:28; 1 John 3:2-3; Revelation 2:25; Revelation 22:20.
the Saviour &c.] There is no article in the Greek; and therefore render, perhaps, as our Saviour, the Lord &c. The A.V. is by no means untenable grammatically, but the word “Saviour” is so placed as to suggest not only emphasis but predicative force. And the deep connexion in the N.T. between the Lord’s Return and the full and final “salvation” of the believer’s being (cp. esp. Romans 13:11) gives a natural fitness to this use of the holy Title here.
“The Lord Jesus Christ”:—this full designation of the Blessed Person suits the tone of solemn hope and joy in the passage.”
Rev 3:12, “All who are victorious will become pillars in the Temple of my God, and they will never have to leave it. And I will write on them the name of my God, and they will be citizens in the City of my God—the New Jerusalem that comes down from Heaven from my God. And I will also write on them my new name.”
Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
11. Him that overcometh] Lit. He that overcometh, I will make him, as in Revelation 2:26.
a pillar] Used of chief men in the Church in Galatians 2:9, and perhaps 1 Timothy 3:15. All Christians are living-stones in the Temple (Ephesians 2:20 sqq., 1 Peter 2:5), all necessary to its completeness, but some of course filling in it a more important position than others: and such important position is indicated by the image of the “pillars” ll.cc. But here the promise is not for Apostles or their successors only, but for all the faithful: the point is not “he shall be one of the great and beautiful stones on which the others rest,” but “he shall be so placed that he cannot be removed while the whole fabric stands.”
I will write upon him] We repeatedly have in this book the image of the divine Name written on the foreheads of God’s servants: see Revelation 7:3, Revelation 14:1, Revelation 22:4. Hence the inscribing the name is here equally appropriate to the figure and the thing signified: probably the metaphor of the pillar is not dropped, but writing the name on the pillar means the same as writing it on the man.
the name of my God, and the name of the city] Cf. Isaiah 44:5; Jeremiah 23:6; Jeremiah 33:16; Ezekiel 48:35, for the junction of these two names. The three names joined here are in a manner those of the Trinity, the Church being representative of the Spirit. It is probable that passages like this did much to suggest the use of the sign of the Cross on the forehead, both at Baptism and on other occasions that seemed to call for a profession of faith: and the image of the “new name” (cf. Revelation 2:17) harmonises well with the much later usage of conferring a name in Baptism.
which cometh down] Revelation 21:2; Revelation 21:10.
my new name] See on Revelation 2:17, and Revelation 19:12 there referred to.”
Act 4:32-37, “And the congregation of those who believed were of one heart and soul; and not one of them claimed that anything belonging to him was his own, but all things were common property to them.
And with great power the apostles were giving testimony
to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and abundant grace was upon them all. For there was not a needy person among them, for all who were owners of land or houses would sell them and bring the proceeds of the sales and lay them at the apostles’ feet, and they would be distributed to each to the extent that any had need. Now Joseph, a Levite of Cyprian birth, who was also called Barnabas by the apostles (which translated means Son of Encouragement), owned a tract of land. So he sold it, and brought the money and laid it at the apostles’ feet.”
Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
32–37. Unanimity and Love among the first Christians
32. of one heart and of one soul] A Hebrew form of expressing complete accord. Thus (1 Chronicles 12:38) “all the rest of Israel were of one heart to make David king,” and (Jeremiah 32:39) “I will give them one heart and one way.”
neither said any of them that ought of the things which he possessed was his own] It is more emphatic in the Greek, and not one of them said, &c. Each felt that he held his possessions only as a trust, and if occasion called for it, they were to be given up. Such love towards one another, Christ had foretold, should be a mark of His disciples (John 13:35). All those who have sketched a perfect society, as Plato in his Republic, and Sir Thos. More in his Utopia, have placed among their regulations this kind of community of goods which was established by the first Christians. In theory it is the perfection of a commonwealth, but there is need of perfection in the citizens before it can be realized. There can be no question that an expectation of Christ’s immediate return from heaven, acting along with the unity of thoughts and feeling, made these men willing to part with their possessions and goods, there being, as we shall see from the case of Ananias, no constraint upon them to do so.”
Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
33. And with great power gave the apostles witness] [Better, their witness.] The Greek verb implies a great deal more than our English gave. It is the word so constantly used for paying a debt (Matthew 18:25; Luke 7:42), or rendering an account (Matthew 12:36; Hebrews 13:17). So that there is implied in it the sense of obligation under which the Apostles felt themselves to lie of declaring “the things which they saw and heard” (Acts 4:20).
and great grace was upon them all] i.e. like their Master, while experiencing the favour of God, they were also finding favour with men. Cp. Acts 5:13.”
Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
34. Neither was there any among them that lacked] The A. V. omits the word for, which is represented in the Greek and is needed for the sense. “For neither was there, &c.” This was one reason for their favour among men. All could see and admire the spirit of self-sacrifice which was exhibited by what they were doing.
brought the prices of the things that were sold] The language here expressly avoids saying that these men sold all they had. They sold some things, and the sum realized by what was sold was offered to the common store. We never hear that a similar fund was raised in any place except Jerusalem.”
Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
35. and laid them down at the apostles’ feet] A significant act, whereby it was shewn that they gave the Apostles entire control over the bestowal of these sums. For the figure, cp. Psalm 8:6, and Cicero Proverbs Flacco (xxvii. § 68), ante pedes praetoris in foro expensum est auri pondo centum paullo minus.
and distribution was made unto every man according as he had need] Better, unto each according as any had need. There were no doubt many who were not in need, and they of course lived on their own. The distribution was intended only for the needy, as widows, &c., and for those who could not otherwise support themselves while they took part, as many did, in the active propagation of the new faith. It may be, too, that some were deprived of the means of support because they had become Christians. Cp. the threat of the authorities, John 9:22.”
Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
36. and laid them down at the apostles’ feet] A significant act, whereby it was shewn that they gave the Apostles entire control over the bestowal of these sums. For the figure, cp. Psalm 8:6, and Cicero Proverbs Flacco (xxvii. § 68), ante pedes praetoris in foro expensum est auri pondo centum paullo minus.
and distribution was made unto every man according as he had need] Better, unto each according as any had need. There were no doubt many who were not in need, and they of course lived on their own. The distribution was intended only for the needy, as widows, &c., and for those who could not otherwise support themselves while they took part, as many did, in the active propagation of the new faith. It may be, too, that some were deprived of the means of support because they had become Christians. Cp. the threat of the authorities, John 9:22.”
Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
37. having land] Lit. a field. It seems likely that Joses is chosen as an example of the primitive liberality of the Christian body, because there was something remarkable in the kind of gift or the nature of the sacrifice which he made.”
IT was good that the early Christians had proved the power of one heart and soul and the distribution of need among believers. But the most important thing for the Church to do is not material things, but the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
Act 5:42, “And every day, in the temple and from house to house, they did not stop teaching and preaching the good news of Jesus as the Christ.”
Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
42. And daily in the temple, and in every house] Read, as in Acts 2:46, in the temple and at home. These are their two fields of labour, in the Temple, while they may be there, and then in their own houses; and it may be that some would not be able to go to the Temple, yet these at home were teachers still.
Jesus Christ] Better, Jesus the Christ, i.e. the anointed, the Messiah. This is the Name of Acts 5:41.”
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers (42) And daily in the temple.—Probably, as before, in the Portico of Solomon; the captain of the Temple now acting on the resolution just taken, and letting the movement take its course without interruption. And in every house.—Better, as in Acts 2:46, at home: in their place, or, it may be, places, of meeting. To teach and preach Jesus Christ.—Better, to teach and to declare the good tidings of Jesus Christ. The word for “preach” is literally to “evangelise,” as in Acts 8:4; Acts 8:12; Acts 8:25; Romans 10:15, and elsewhere. As the chief members of the Sanhedrin disappear from the scene at this stage, it may be well to note the later fortunes of those who have been prominent up to this point in the history. (1) Annas lived to see five of his sons fill the office of high priest (Jos. Ant. xx. 9, § 1); but his old age was overclouded by the tumults raised by the Zealots under John of Gischala, in the reign of Vespasian, and before he died the sanctuary was occupied by them, and became in very deed a “den of robbers” (Jos. Wars, iv. 3, § 7). (2) Joseph, surnamed Caiaphas, his son-in-law, who owed his appointment to Gratus (Jos. Ant. xviii. 2, § 2), was deposed by the Proconsul Vitellius, A.D. 36 (Jos. Ant. xviii. 4, § 3), and disappears from history. (3) On John and Alexander, see Notes on Acts 4:6. (4) Gamaliel, who is not mentioned by Josephus, continued to preside over the Sanhedrin under Caligula and Claudius, and is said to have died eighteen years before the destruction of Jerusalem, and to have sanctioned the Anathema, or “Prayer against heretics,” drawn up by Samuel the Little (Lightfoot, Cent. Chorograph, c. 15). Christian traditions, however, represent him as having been secretly a disciple of Christ (Pseudo-Clement, Recogn. i. 65), and to have been baptized by Peter and Paul, with Nicodemus, who is represented as his nephew, and his son Abibas (Photius Cod. 171, p. 199). In a legendary story, purporting to come from a priest of Syria, named Lucian, accepted by Augustine, he appears as having buried Stephen and other Christians, and to have been buried himself in the same sepulchre with the Protomartyr and Nicodemus at Caphar-algama (August. de Civ. Dei xvii. 8, Serm. 318). Later Rabbis looked on him as the last of the great Teachers or Rabbans, and noted that till his time men had taught the Law standing, while afterwards they sat. The glory of the Law, they said, had departed with Gamaliel.” |
Rom 1:18, “For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of people who suppress the truth in unrighteousness.”
The West (America end Europe) has done much evils in the world, from engaging in unjust wars to military, political and economic oppression, suppression, to high tariffs in trade, import and export control, and all sorts of monopoly -- the worst of all interests in the sight of God is the suppression of truth in unrighteousness.
You have learned a lot from the Scriptures how God hates nations and peoples who suppress the truth in unrighteousness. Repent and believe in the Son of God and Savior of the world so that your sins may be forgiven.
To receive Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior is to receive the eternal life.
WILLIE WONG THOUGHT
WILLIE WONG
JUNE 8, 2025
https://williewongthought.hpage.com/
Copyright © 2018 - 2024 by Willie Wong
The following beautiful pictures are provided by FREEIMAGES, photographer Roxana ANGHEL.
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apt-get install libapache2-mod-headers
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systemctl restart apache2
<IfModule mod_headers.c>
Header set X-Frame-Options SAMEORIGIN
</IfModule>
systemctl reload apache2
header("X-Frame-Options: SAMEORIGIN");
systemctl restart apache2
<?php
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?>
<IfModule mod_headers.c>
Header set X-Frame-Options SAMEORIGIN
</IfModule>
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There is no hope for the world because what should be done is not done:
1.For all war crimes and terrorist acts, Putin failed to annihilate Ukraine and execute its nincompoop and left Ukraine desolate and never be rebuilt. NATO & EU be aslo abolished.
2.The chiefs of UN & WHO and all high-paid officials must be replaced, be reformed in a year.
3.Terrorists Hamas, Hezbollah and Houthis must be destroyed FOR GOOD.
4.The nuclear facilities of Iran must be demolished for good.
5.Palestinians must be evacuated from Jewish lands and resettle in Arab lands to build a Palestinian state and make living on their own.
6. Undeveloped nations and peoples who do nothing to help themselves must be left to gut and rot.
7.The USA must give up its empire, world domination.
World media portrays Palestinians as victims in struggle. The world believes in a lie! The truth is the fact Palestinians were Arabs who surreptitiously moved into Palestine without pay during the British colonial rule. They bred like rabbits and occupied the Jewish lands. The Palestinian authority is not a state, and misleads the Palestinians to a path of destruction. Palestinians are irrational, bad, irresponsible, unmotivated and useless people. They would rather be classified as refugees so that they can get everthing free through international aid, they would not go to Arab lands to build its own Palestinian state and make a life of their own.
Any country who shares destiny with corrupt countries will certainly come to RUIN!!!
https://theexchange.africa/countries/most-corrupt-countries-africa/
https://historycollection.com/ten-corrupt-african-dictators-modern-history/
https://tradingeconomics.com/country-list/corruption-rank?continent=africa
https://tradingeconomics.com/country-list/corruption-index
https://www.vanguardngr.com/2024/07/10-most-corrupt-countries-in-africa-in-2024/
bscholarly.com/most-corrupt-countries-in-africa/
talkafricana.com/top-20-most-and-least-corrupt-countries-in-africa-2025/
If terrorists Hamas, Hezbollh and Houthis are destroyed, and Palestinians repartriated and resettled in Arab lands, the conflict of Palestine and Israel will be no more. If Iran nuclear facilities are destroyed, Iran will be no more threat to the world. If the Ukaranian nincompoop is executed for his war crime, corruption and abuse of power, the Ukraine and Russia conflict will be gone. If the traitorous leaders of People Progressive Party are executed, Taiwan will reunify with China at once.
What the heck, won’t it wonderful if all nations and peoples seek peace and justice? The Bible gives one reason why not, 1Jo 5:19, “We know that we are of God, and that the whole world lies in the power of the evil one.”
Evil is like fire will destroy the nation and peoples. When preferential treatment is given to a certain race, all races suffer discrimination. Rejection of unqualified and undisciplined black employees and discharge because poor performance are not racial discriminations. Affirmative Action is illegal and unconstitutional, it must be completely eliminated. Diversify has gone too far, it must be abundoned. Harvard is the richest university in the world; universities are not for education, they are for money and ideology. Student loans cannot default or be forgiven, they must get jobs to pay back. Universities can have academic freedom, and freedom of speech but no federal funding. There are too many parasites who live on government funds; no subsidy of any business or contracts. Illegal aliens are unlawful criminals, they have no civil right, human right and do not deserve humanitarian aid. They cannot be on welfare. They deserve only to be deported without payment. All races must compete on an equal footing. How is there any hope for the ugliest, darkest, laziest and useless people who only eat and drink and produce many children they cannot support? Why EU and NATO support the evil and corrupt Ukraine nincompoop and prolong the war? America aids support evil.
1Jo 2:17-18, “The world is passing away and also its lusts; but the one who does the will of God continues to live forever. Children, it is the last hour; and just as you heard that antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have appeared; from this we know that it is the last hour.”
I agree with Arnold J. Toynbee who said, “ Civilizations die from suicide, not by murder.”
“As an American by nationality” I have to do my best to warn my fellow Americans:
1. America is committing suicide by failing to deport 45 million illegal aliens already residing in America, most of them are on welfare; failing to deter and prevent hordes of unlawful migrants to enter the United States. America needs to punish Mexico who is the conduit for illegal migrants to enter America. Unlawful migrants are criminals who do not have any right, civil or humanitarian.
2. America is committing suicide because wealth and power are in the hands of leaders and politicians, the two parties, courts, the military, bureaucrats, and vested interests. Watch out the global demostrators who oppose federal cuts, but endorce debt and deficits, waste and fraud in the government.
3. America is committing suicide by media promoting the wrong cultural values, lewdness, violence and unwholesome behavior; over representing and over employing blacks. Jobs must be earned, they cannot be given. If a journalist by accident received classified information, he should not and would not publish it because he/she is patriotic. If classified information is published, the journalist is a traitor.
4. America is committing suicide by not making the American English the only official language in America.
5. America is committing suicide by unnecessarily making Russia and China enemies and rivals.
6. America is committing suicide by failing to disregard pathetic EU (including Britain, Australia, Canada); dismiss NATO & QUAD; and discard Ukraine, Phillippines, Türkiye, Japan, South Korea, South Africa and Taiwan.
7. America is committing suicide by being an empire to dominate the world instead of seeking a just and lasting peace for the world as President Richard Nixon did.
8. America is committing suicide by letting the U.S. Health Care the most costly in the world, by letting doctors, dentists, hospital owners, drug and insurance companies, hospital and medical suppliers to defraud and overcharge patients with indemnity.
9. America is committing suicide by having a diet which produces an increasing large population of overweight people.
10. IRS can cut its employees 2/3 by simple change of policy and procedure. Henceforth, there will be no deductions, exemptions, expenses, number of dependents for individual taxpayers or business corporations. They will not have to pay for CPA or tax consultant.
$50,000 income and Under $50,000 is tax free.
$60,000 to $1 million pay 5%.
$1 million $100,000 to $10 million pay 10%.
$10 million $100,000 to $20 million pay 20%.
$20 million $100,000 to $40 million pay 40%.
$40 million $100,000 to $50 million pay 50%.
$50 million $100,000 to $1 billion pay 80%.
$1 billion $100,000 and above pay 90%.
11. America is committing suicide by using tariffs as weapons.
12. It is in the self-interest of America to help Israel to destroy terrorists Hamas, Hezbollah, and Houthis. All Palestinians must be evacuated from Gaza, etc. the Jewish land and relocate permanently in Arab lands to build their Palestinian state. The aim of Israel is not to defeat Hamas, but to destroy Hamas, Hezbollah, and Houthis. Hamas should never be allowed to return to Gaza; all Pelestinians must be instructed by Palestinian Authority, UN, WHO, ALL ARAB-ISLAMIC-BLACK nations to evacuate from Jewish land and settle in Arab lands to build their Palestinian state.
If China space program can create space vehicles loaded with nuclear weapons, on earth by a press of button, can target and annihilate any hostile nations and peoples in less than half an hour -- then China is free indeed -- no nation can threaten China anymore. Then China can deal with corruption, organized crime, abuse of power, fraud, fake news, and dirty toilets effectively. There are dark and evil forces inside China who want to destroy China.
“As a Chinese by race”, I am doing my best in sincerity to suggest strategy to the land of my ancestors:
1. China’s modernization can succeed by demanding manufacturers to produce only quality products; by protecting the environment and by increasing the standard of living for the people including people on wheel chair. China construction machinery is a good example of China’s modernization. The stupidity is to program robots to engage in fighting like boxing.
2. China’s modernization can succeed by stopping all foreign aid to help the China’s poor first, by reducing debt and deficits to do the following strategic projects:
3. China needs to use AI in all technologies including manufacturing, industry, transportation, navigation, logistics, agriculture, and modernizing toilet facilities.
4. China needs to train 5 million doctors, dentists, nurses, teachers, professors, scientists, and technicians in the next 5 years.
5. China needs to eliminate corruption, organized crime, harmful fake news, counterfeit money, fraud by execution of the culprits.
6. China needs to repair the Great Wall, conquer the deserts, dust storms, natural and man-made disasters.
7. Chinese TV and movies need to promote cultural values, morality, responsibility and integrity.
8. China's troops should never be sent under UN's peace-keeping force to countries habitually having conflicts and civil wars --to die for nothing.
9. Talking is useless: China needs to liberate Taiwan now by force, and execute traitorous leaders of People’s Progressive Party in public.
10. China needs to rebuild Yuan Ming Garden which was burned down and looted by the allied 8-nation troops. They must pay compensation through diplomacy now or by military force later.
11. Pay for all costs and reward financially women who give births.
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