1 John 2:25

And this is the promise that he hath promised us, even eternal life.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

2:24-29 The truth of Christ, abiding in us, is a means to sever from sin, and unites us to the Son of God, Joh 15:3,4. What value should we put upon gospel truth! Thereby the promise of eternal life is made sure. The promise God makes, is suitable to his own greatness, power, and goodness; it is eternal life. The Spirit of truth will not lie; and he teaches all things in the present dispensation, all things necessary to our knowledge of God in Christ, and their glory in the gospel. The apostle repeats the kind words, little children; which denotes his affection. He would persuade by love. Gospel privileges oblige to gospel duties; and those anointed by the Lord Jesus abide with him. The new spiritual nature is from the Lord Christ. He that is constant to the practice of religion in trying times, shows that he is born from above, from the Lord Christ. Then, let us beware of holding the truth in unrighteousness, remembering that those only are born of God, who bear his holy image, and walk in his most righteous ways.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

And this is the promise that he hath promised us, even eternal life - This is evidently added to encourage them in adhering to the truths which they had embraced respecting the Son of God. In maintaining these truths they had the promise of eternal life; in departing from them they had none, for the "promise" of heaven in our world is made only to those who embrace one class of doctrines or opinions. No one can show that any "promise" of heaven is made to the mere possessor of beauty, or wealth, or talent; to the accomplished or the "happy"; to those who are distinguished for science, or skill in the arts; to rank, or birth, or blood; to courage or strength. Whatever expectation of heaven anyone may entertain on account of any of these things, must be traced to something else than a "promise," for there is none in the Bible to that effect. The "promise" of heaven to people is limited to those who repent of their sins, who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and who lead a holy life; and if anyone will base his hope of heaven on a "promise," it must be limited to these things. And yet what well-founded hope of heaven "can" there be, except that which is based "on a promise?" How does anyone know that he can be saved, unless he has some assurance from God that it may and shall be so? Is not heaven his home? How does anyone know that he may dwell there, without some assurance from Him that he may? Is not the crown of life His gift? How can anyone know that he will possess it, unless he has some promise from Him? However people may reason, or conjecture, or hope, the only "promise" of eternal life is found in the Bible; and the fact that we have such promise should surely be a sufficient inducement to us to hold fast the truth. On the promise of life in the gospel, see John 17:2; Romans 2:6-7; Mark 16:16; Matthew 25:46.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

25. this is the promise—Eternal life shall be the permanent consummation of thus abiding in the Son and in the Father (1Jo 2:24).

he—Greek, "Himself," Christ, "the Son" (compare 1Jo 1:1).

promised—(Joh 3:15, 36; 6:40, 47, 57; 17:2, 3).

Matthew Poole's Commentary

Which perseverance they are highly encouraged to by the promise of so great a thing as eternal life at length.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

And this is the promise that he hath promised us,.... Either God the Father, who is that God that cannot lie, who in the covenant of his grace, before the world began, made this promise unto his people,

even eternal life; which promise, with all others, was put into the hands of Christ, where, with them, it is yea and amen; and also the thing itself promised, where it is hid, and lies safe and secure: or the Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, who has promised it in the Gospel; for this is the sum of the Gospel declaration, that whoever believes in him shall have everlasting life; and this lies in the knowledge of the Father, and of the Son, and in the enjoyment of them, and conformity to them; wherefore the doctrine respecting them ought to be retained, and firmly adhered to.

Geneva Study Bible

And this is the promise that he hath promised us, even eternal life.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Meyer's NT Commentary

1 John 2:25. Καὶ αὕτη ἐστὶν ἡ ἐπαγγελία κ.τ.λ.] αὕτη may be referred either to what precedes, or to the concluding words of this verse: τὴν ζωὴν τὴν αἰώνιον. In the first case the meaning is: and this remaining is what He has promised, namely, eternal life. Gagnejus: “Manere in filio et patre promissio est, quam nobis pollicitus est orans pro nobis patrem Dominus John 17:20. Bene ergo ait de hoc Johannes: haec est promissio, quam pollicitus est nobis, quae quidem est vita aeterna; vita enim aeterna est manere in Deo eoque frui hic per gratiam, in futuro per gloriam;” τὴν ζωὴν τὴν αἰώνιον then forms an apposition, by which that very remaining is described as happiness; this view in Oecumenius, and among modern commentators in Sander, Besser, Weiss. In the second case the thought is: “and eternal life is the promise which He has given us;” taking this view, a new thought, it is true, enters with 1 John 2:25, and it requires something to be supplied to connect it with the preceding, perhaps what a Lapide gives: si in ipso maneamus (Spener: that is the promise if we remain in the Word, and consequently in the Father and the Son); but nevertheless it is, in accordance with the analogy of John’s mode of expression, to be preferred; comp. chap. 1 John 1:5, 1 John 5:14; similarly also chap. 1 John 3:23, 1 John 5:11; in the last two passages the connection with what precedes appears clearly enough by both being connected with the same idea, whereas here there is no previous mention of the ἐπαγγελία; but even here the connection is not to be mistaken, because the ζωὴ αἰώνιος is directly connected with the μένειν ἐν τῷ υἱῷ κ.τ.λ. This second interpretation in a Lapide, Grotius, Lorinus, Russmeyer, Spener, Lücke, de Wette, Düsterdieck, Erdmann, Myrberg, Ebrard, Braune, and others.

καί is not used here αἰτιολογικῶς (Oecumenius), but is the simple copula.

ἡ ἐπαγγελία: “the promise.” Lücke unnecessarily conjectures that instead of this perhaps ἀπαγγελία is probably to be read, or that ἐπαγγελία has here the meaning: “proclamation,” for neither is it the case that the idea of the promise refers only to the distant future life, nor, according to John, that Christ does not bestow any promise.[178]

αὐτός is Christ, who in this whole passage forms the centre round which all the statements of the apostle move.

On the accusative τὴν ζωήν, which has occurred through the attraction of the verb in the relative clause, comp. Winer, p. 552; VII. p. 583; Buttmann, p. 68.

[178] From this passage it is clear that with John ζωὴ αἰώνιος and the knowledge of God are not by any means, as Weiss thinks, identical ideas, for if John here, according to the view of Weiss, describes the abiding in the Son and in the Father as the ζωὴ αἰώνιος, he then mentions what this consists in, as something plainly transcending the idea of knowledge; but if αὕτη is directly connected with τὴν ζ. τ. αἰών., then the abiding in the Son and the Father is considered as the condition of the ζωή; it is impossible, however, for it to be the condition of knowledge, for it rather presupposes the latter.

Expositor's Greek Testament

1 John 2:25. ἐπαγγελία, repromissio, “promise”; only here in the Johannine writings (see note on 1 John 1:5). αὐτός, i.e., the Father. God is the Promiser, and His promises are made in Christ (cf. 2 Corinthians 1:20).

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

25. And this is the promise that he hath promised us] Or, and the promise which He promised us is this: the aorist had better be retained, and ‘this’ is probably the predicate, referring to what follows (comp. John 5:22, 1 John 1:5, 1 John 5:14) and not the subject, referring to what precedes. This view is confirmed by 1 John 3:23 and 1 John 5:11. The connexion with what precedes is close, ‘eternal life’ being only another view of ‘abiding in the Father and the Son’. The ‘He’ is emphatic, and perhaps ‘He Himself would not be too strong as a rendering. Of course Christ is meant, “who in this whole passage forms the centre round which all the statements of the Apostle move” (Huther). For the promise see John 3:15; John 4:14; John 6:40, &c. &c. The best MS. (B) reads ‘promised you’, for ‘promised us’.

Bengel's Gnomen

1 John 2:25. Αὐτὸς, He) The Son: 1 John 2:27-28.—ἡμῖν) to us, if we abide in Him.—τὴν ζωὴν, life) The construction follows the verb going before, He hath promised. The sense is, the promise is life eternal.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 25. - And the promise which he promised us is this, even the eternal life. Αὐτός is Christ; αὕτη looks forward to "the eternal life," not backwards to the abiding in the Father (John 3:16; John 5:24; John 6:40, 54). Τὴν ζωὴν τὴν αἰώνιον is in the accusative by attraction to ἥν. "What St. John would have us feel is this, that there can be no promise to compare with this - that we should share the eternal life, the life of God.... We often speak as if people were to be paid for being good; not as if the being good were itself God's highest gift and blessing" (Maurice). The reading ὑμῖν (B) for ἡμῖν is worthy of notice. In verses 16, 17 St. John gives two reasons for shunning the world: because

(1) the world is alien to the Father;

(2) it is passing away.

So here he gives two for holding fast the truth originally delivered to them: because the truth leads

(1) to fellowship with God;

(2) to eternal life. 1 John 2:25

Vincent's Word Studies

The promise (ἡ ἐπαγγελία)

See on Acts 1:4.

Eternal life (τὴν ζωὴν τὴν αἰώνιον)

Lit., the life, the eternal (life).