NOTES for Jo1 2:25
25 And this is the promise that he hath promised us, even eternal life. |
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Today not only Christians know about eternal life; almost everyone has heard of it. But what is the apostle speaking about? The answer looks obvious: life after death, which is usually identified with the Kingdom of God. At the same time it is taken for granted that eternal life begins "there," "beyond the grave," in the life after death, while the life we live here can by definition only be temporary. But is this what John has in mind? According to the meaning of the Greek text, "eternal life" is not so much life that continues forever as life that belongs to eternity. And that, of course, is not the same thing.
In principle, life that continues forever can be imagined, at least theoretically, even in relation to an untransfigured human being in an untransfigured world. More than that, the Bible gives us no reason to doubt that before the fall man, still untransfigured but also sinless, possessed what could be called practical immortality: in principle he could die, but death, including death from old age, was not inevitable for him. Yet even this sinless but natural life had no relation to eternity in the New Testament sense. In fact, John, like the other apostles, when speaking of eternity, has first of all the Kingdom of God in mind.
The eternity of the Kingdom is not linear, empty infinity, not a chain of moments stretching from the past into the future, but the fullness of times, where everything that exists exists as a single whole, not broken apart into successive moments as it is in the untransfigured world. And eternal life can plainly be considered only life connected with this fullness of times, rooted in it, and therefore rooted in the Kingdom. For us, if we are Christians, the Kingdom is not future but present. Of course, in our world, which is being transfigured but has not yet been transfigured to the end, it is not the only reality.
Until full transfiguration, the old order of things will also remain in it and make itself known alongside the Kingdom entering the world. But the eternal life of which the apostle speaks can already now be, and truly is, part of the Kingdom, regardless of where its existence unfolds. And at the end of time this rootedness will become visible to everyone, so that each person who has shared in eternal life may receive the fullness of the Kingdom he was seeking.
Other notes
For Jo1 2:22-28
22 Who is a liar but he that denieth that Jesus is the Christ? He is antichrist, that denieth the Father and the Son. |
23 Whosoever denieth the Son, the same hath not the Father: (but) he that acknowledgeth the Son hath the Father also. |
24 Let that therefore abide in you, which ye have heard from the beginning. If that which ye have heard from the beginning shall remain in you, ye also shall continue in the Son, and in the Father. |
25 And this is the promise that he hath promised us, even eternal life. |
26 These things have I written unto you concerning them that seduce you. |
27 But the anointing which ye have received of him abideth in you, and ye need not that any man teach you: but as the same anointing teacheth you of all things, and is truth, and is no lie, and even as it hath taught you, ye shall abide in him. |
28 And now, little children, abide in him; that, when he shall appear, we may have confidence, and not be ashamed before him at his coming. |
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Readings for 9 February 2026
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