1 Jn 2:22. WHO IS A LIAR?
But who is the one who speaks and teaches such lies in the doctrine of the faith, unless it is he who denies? Just as the Jews deny, who are unfaithful and await another Messiah, because Jesus is the Christ—that is, that he whom we call Jesus, or Savior, is the Christ, or Messiah, promised long ago in the Law and the Prophets. In Greek: “unless the one who denies that Jesus is not the Christ” (NISI QUI NEGAT QUONIAM JESUS NON EST CHRISTUS). No one, therefore, brings forward this denial—“Jesus is not the Christ”—except the one who denies, which in meaning coincides with what our interpreter has translated.
Now St. John does not say that no one else is a liar in matters of faith except this one, but that no one is a liar unless he is the one who denies this, because this is so execrable a lie that, in comparison with it, other falsehoods seem either small or even nonexistent. As Bede says, it is a capital error at the very first foundation of the Christian religion.
THIS IS THE ANTICHRIST.
He is one of the lesser antichrists, the forerunners of that famous Antichrist, who denies the Father and the Son. He not only denies the Son but also denies that the first Person in the divine Persons is Father, for there is no Father in the Godhead except the Father of Jesus Christ, just as there is no Son except Jesus Christ.
1 Jn 2:23. EVERYONE WHO DENIES THE SON…
He proves that such an antichrist denies both the Father and the Son, because whoever denies that he is the Son of God the Father—who truly is his Son—does not have the Father either. That is, he does not truly apprehend the Father by faith, since correlatives are simultaneous both in nature and in knowledge, and neither can be known without the other. Therefore, if one errs concerning the true Son, who is the terminus of the Father’s relation, it necessarily follows that one also errs concerning the fatherhood which regards that terminus and no other. Hence our Lord Christ says, “You know neither me nor my Father” (John 8:19).
WHOEVER CONFESSES THE SON…
Under the notion and relation of Son, also has the Father, whom the Son regards as his terminus and correlative. Hence Christ says, “If you knew me, perhaps you would also know my Father” (John 8:19).
St. John, however, requires confession of heart, voice, and work, as Bede says. This is the confession of which Paul speaks when he says, “No one can say ‘Jesus is Lord’ except in the Holy Spirit” (1 Corinthians 12:3). That is, as Bede explains, “No one can openly say it except by the gift of the grace of the Holy Spirit, and serve Christ the Lord with perfect profession and action.” For the pious affection of the heart, which comes forth into outward confession by word or deed, must be inspired by the Holy Spirit.
This clause, “whoever confesses” (QUI CONFITETUR), is not found in the Greek texts commonly in use today; nevertheless, it is found in certain ancient Greek manuscripts, and the Syriac interpreter reads it. Hence Beza, as he himself admits, restored it to his text from four manuscripts. From this it is evident that our Latin text is, in some respects, more genuine than the common Greek text, contrary to what heretics are accustomed to shout about the supposed purity of the modern Greek text over our Latin Vulgate.
1 Jn 2:24. LET WHAT YOU HAVE HEARD…
From the beginning—that is, from the earliest times of the nascent Church—remain in you, through constancy of faith. For even if an angel from heaven were to preach to you something other than what has been preached, let him be anathema (Galatians 1:8). This faith of the Apostles is the sole and royal road to eternal life, from which the new byways of the heresiarchs attempt to lead you astray.
Therefore, it is necessary to return upward to the times of the Apostles, so that we may understand what the faith was and what their preaching was, once confirmed by miracles. Hence St. Augustine says (On the Usefulness of Believing, chapter 17): “We do not hesitate to place ourselves in the bosom of that Church which, by succession of bishops from the Apostolic See, has attained the summit of authority, while heretics bark around her in vain—condemned partly by the judgment of the people themselves, partly by the gravity of councils, and partly by the majesty of miracles.”
And in chapter 4 of Against the Epistle of the Foundation he says: “There are many things which most justly keep me in the bosom of the Catholic Church. The consensus of peoples and nations holds me; authority begun by miracles, nourished by hope, increased by charity, and strengthened by antiquity holds me; the succession of priests holds me, from the very See of Peter the Apostle, to whom the Lord entrusted the feeding of his sheep after the resurrection, down to the present episcopate.”
From this the objection of heretics is easily resolved. When we demand miracles from them for their new doctrine, they in turn demand the same from Catholic preachers in Holland and England. But we are not bound to perform new miracles, because the ancient miracles of the Apostles and Saints—once performed for the confirmation of the faith—are ours, since through the succession of bishops we show that our faith is the Apostles’ faith. But as for them, announcing a new faith, we cannot prudently believe them unless they produce new miracles, by which it may be clear that God has sent them as new apostles to overthrow the ancient faith of the Church by a superimposed novelty.
IF IT REMAINS IN YOU…
Namely, sincere and as it flowed from the Apostolic source, not disturbed by heretical mud nor infected with poison—you will remain in the Son and in the Father. This occurs by grace on the way, and by glory in the homeland. For the soul, through knowledge and love, adheres to God, is as it were immersed in him, and rests in him.
The Holy Spirit is not mentioned here because shortly before mention had been made only of the Father and the Son. The Son is named before the Father lest future Arians should infer that he is less than the Father because he is never named before him in Scripture; or rather, because no one comes to the Father except through the Son, as Bede says.
1 Jn 2:25. AND THIS IS THE PROMISE—in Greek, “that promise” (ILLA PROMISSIO).
And this abiding in the Son and the Father is that excellent and glorious thing promised, which the Son himself so often promised in the Gospel, as in Matthew 19:29, John 3:15, and elsewhere. He promised it to us as the reward of faith and good works: eternal life.
According to strict Latin syntax, one ought to say vita aeterna, but the preceding noun is placed, in the Hebrew manner, in the same case as its relative pronoun, as in “The stone which the builders rejected became…” (Psalm 117 [118]). The Latins also use such a phrase, hence our interpreter freely translated “The word which you heard is not mine” (John 14:24), although the Greek reads, “The word which you heard…”.
Life, however, when mentioned absolutely and without qualification, famously signifies eternal and blessed life, as Augustine says on that verse of Psalm 118: “Let your mercies come to me, and I shall live.” As if, he says, living were nothing other than living without end and without any misery—truly living.
1 Jn 2:26. THESE THINGS I HAVE WRITTEN TO YOU
From verse 18 onward, concerning those who are deceiving you, that is, concerning antichrists and heresiarchs who, as far as lies in them, attempt to lead you away from the straight path of faith into their own errors.
1 Jn 2:27. AND AS FOR YOU, THE ANOINTING WHICH YOU HAVE RECEIVED FROM HIM…
The words are to be arranged thus: “And the anointing which you have received from him” (ET UNCTIONEM QUAM VOS ACCEPISTIS AB EO). The particle “and” (ET) is taken, in the Hebrew manner, as adversative rather than copulative, as in Genesis 42:10: “But your servants…” (Hebrew: “And your servants…”).
Then again there is the figure antiptosis, as shortly before in verse 25, whereby the accusative case is put for the nominative: unctionem instead of unctio. But this anointing is the grace of the Holy Spirit, which, as Bede says, you have received from Christ—who was anointed above his companions and who anoints his members through the Holy Spirit—through faith and charity poured out into your hearts.
LET IT REMAIN IN YOU.
Grace remains, enlightening the intellect and strengthening the will, so that you do not allow yourselves to be led astray by those antichrists. This anointing remains especially in those in whom faith is not idle but works through charity; for those who diligently keep the commandments of God are not easily allowed to fall into heresies. For heresy is never usually the first sin; rather, one arrives at it through previously corrupted morals, and most especially through lust or pride.
AND YOU HAVE NO NEED…
He excuses himself again, as in verse 21, lest he seem to reproach their ignorance or arrogantly to usurp the office of teaching, that anyone should teach you, as though you were untrained and still elementary in matters of faith.
BUT AS HIS ANOINTING…
That is, in that manner and by that means by which the luminous grace of Christ teaches you, by assisting and inwardly illuminating you concerning all things that, according to the dictate of faith, are to be done or avoided. For it is proper to the grace of the Holy Spirit, says Cajetan—this grace which is called “anointing”—to incline the intellect to assent to all things that belong to the faith and to dissent from the contrary, provided they are proposed as such. Therefore, in the case of those who truly know and are not deceived through ignorance, it is fully verified that the anointing teaches them all things that pertain to the faith, both those to be accepted and those to be rejected.
St. John therefore speaks only of the faithful who are perfectly and fully illuminated and instructed, whom the indwelling Holy Spirit is accustomed to enlighten and teach, so that they flee heresies and firmly embrace the truth. And although not all were so perfectly instructed, sacred writers are accustomed to address the whole body of the Church even when they have regard to only one part of it.
AND IT IS TRUE.
What the anointing teaches you is true, for the Spirit of truth cannot teach falsehood.
AND IT IS NOT A LIE.
According to the Hebrew manner, the same thing is inculcated by negating the contrary, as in Isaiah 38:1: “You shall die and not live.”
AND JUST AS IT HAS TAUGHT YOU…
From the beginning, through the ministry of the Apostles who planted and watered, while the anointing of Christ and of the Holy Spirit meanwhile gave the increase inwardly. For unless the Holy Spirit is present to the heart of the hearer, the speech of the teacher is idle, as Bede says.
Therefore, let no one attribute to a human teacher what he understands from the teacher’s mouth, because unless there is one within who teaches, the tongue of the teacher labors outwardly in vain. For the sound of our words strikes the ears, as St. Augustine says here, but the Master is within. “As far as I am concerned,” he says, “I have spoken to all of you; but those to whom that anointing does not speak inwardly, whom the Holy Spirit does not teach within, return uninstructed.” External teachings are certain aids and admonitions; he who teaches hearts has his chair in heaven. Hence in the Gospel it is said, “Do not be called teachers, for one is your teacher, the Christ” (Matthew 23:10).
Thus the farmer, although he plants and waters, does he therefore form the fruit? Does he clothe the nakedness of the trees with the shade of leaves?—as the same Augustine says here.
ABIDE IN HIM.
Persevere in what that first anointing taught you, and do not give assent to any novelty under the pretext of a new inspiration, as Cajetan says. For no one will ever be able to find the way of eternal life, says Bede, unless he follows that purity of faith and works which was first given to the Church through the Apostles.
1 Jn 2:28. AND NOW, LITTLE CHILDREN…
Thus he calls all the faithful out of tenderness of affection, as above in verse 12, and not only those who are little or imperfect in age or in faith. Titelmann, Erasmus in his paraphrase, and certain others think that the particle “now” (nunc) is here not an adverb of time but of entreaty, as a similar adverb is sometimes used by the Hebrews, as in Genesis 18:30: “Please, do not be angry, Lord” (Hebrew: “Do not now, Lord”).
ABIDE IN HIM.
As if he were saying: because of the dangers that threaten you, I again urge and beseech you to persevere in what the first anointing of the Holy Spirit taught you through the Apostles. Or “in him,” that is, in Christ, as members in a body, as Cajetan, Hesselius, the Carthusian, and others hold.
SO THAT WHEN HE APPEARS…
That is, when Christ appears as judge of the living and the dead, of whom mention was made in the preceding verse when he said, “just as his anointing…” The appearance of Christ famously signifies that appearance by which, at the end of the age, he will appear to the whole world as judge.
WE MAY HAVE CONFIDENCE.
That is, confidence and freedom, as the Greek word παρρησία (parrēsia, “boldness” or “free confidence”) signifies, such as one has who stands and speaks freely and fearlessly before a judge.
AND NOT BE PUT TO SHAME…
That we may not be affected with shame by him, that is, by Christ, who will confound with eternal shame and condemnation those who have fallen away from the doctrine of faith they once embraced through apostasy, and also those preachers of the word who were the cause of some falling away from the faith because they did not diligently and assiduously water what had been planted.
For this reason St. John seems suddenly to pass from the second person to the first: “Abide… so that we may have…,” for the perseverance of disciples is a sign that the teachers have rightly fulfilled their office.
AT HIS COMING, that is, at the universal judgment.
CONTINUE
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