The Great Commentary of Cornelius a Lapide: the First Epistle of S. John
3d. This testimony is the faith itself by which we believe the witness of God. There is a metonymy, because the object is put instead of the habit, or act tending to the object. It means, he who believes has a special gift of God, viz , faith. And this includes the witness, or testimony of God, and God Himself attests, which marvellously honours the believer, and makes him strong to confess Christ.
4th. This testimony may be taken to signify the regeneration and adoption, the grace and glory of the believer — meaning, He who believes in the Son of God hath in himself the witness of God, namely, that by which God witnesses to his soul and conscience by means of this faith with which he believes in Christ, that he is faithful, and a son and heir of God.
He that believeth not the Son , &c. As he that believeth in the Son, and receives God's testimony concerning Him, makes God to be true, and honours and worships Him ; so, on the contrary, he that believeth not the Son, and rejects God's testimony concerning Him, makes God false, and does Him great despite.
Observe: instead of believe , the Greek has πεπίστευκεν, hath believed . This is a Hebraism by which the perfect is put for any tense.
Ver. 11. — And this is the testimony , &c. This means, 1st. God hath not only testified that Christ is His Son, but also that He is our Saviour and Redeemer, so that he who believes in Him is justified, and receives the spiritual life of grace and glory.
2d. This very thing is the end and fruit of the testimony, i.e. of the faith by which we believe God's witness concerning Christ, by that faith we obtain the life of grace and glory. There is an allusion and reference to the words of the Gospel (xvii. 3), “ This is life eternal, that they may know Thee the only true God and Jesus Christ whom Thou hast sent.”
Hath given to us eternal life . By these words hath given, S. John denotes the firmness and certainty both of the Divine promise and of our hope, namely, that we are just as sure of everlasting life, if we persevere in faith and obedience, as if it had been actually now bestowed upon us.
The primitive Christians represented this faith and hope of life eternal by the Phoenix, which after death is said to be born again and rise up in a fresh and youthful life, as Lactantius testifies in his poem on the Phoenix. Therefore it was often depicted on the tombs of the faithful. S. Cecilia, as the Acts relate, ordered it to be sculptured on the sarcophagus of S. Maximus the Martyr. So too at Rome the Phoenix is often found depicted on tombs in the catacombs . For Christ rising again to life eternal is our Phoenix. And He, raising up Christians to the same life, will make them phoenixes likewise.
Ver. 12. — He that hath the Son , i.e. by faith, love, and obedience, hath life , — of grace in fact, of glory in hope. He alludes to the words in his own Gospel, “ He that believeth in the Son hath everlasting life, but he that believeth not the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him.” (iii. 35.)
Ver. 13. — These things I write unto you, that ye who believe in the name of the Son of God have eternal life. The Greek adds, that ye may believe in the name of the Son of God . But this seems to be tautologous. The name of the Son of God is put for the thing signified , the Son of God Himself. There is an allusion to his own Gospel (xx. 31): “These things are written that ye may believe that Jesus is the Son of God, and that believing ye may have life in His name.”
S. John here reckons up three fruits of a living faith in Christ. The first, life eternal in this verse ; the second, confidence of obtaining all things from God (ver. 14) ; the third is complete banishment of sin, and moral sinlessness (ver. 18).
Ver. 14. — And this is the confidence , &c. Truly says S. Augustine, “ Whatsoever we ask unprofitable for our salvation we do not ask in the name of the Saviour.”
And we know : the Greek adds ἐάν, i.e. if. This makes the words of the verse more connected : And if we know that He heareth us, whatsoever we shall ask , we know that we have the petitions which we have asked of Him.
Ver. 16. — He who knows his brother to sin a sin not unto death, let him ask, and life shall be given him for him that sinneth not unto death. (S. Ambrose, lib. 1 de Penitent c. 9, and Tertullian, de Pudicit c. 2, read, because he sinneth not to death.) There is a sin unto death. See. Instead of I do not say , S. Augustine reads in this place, non praecipio, I do not command. He means, If any one knows his brother to commit any sin, let him pray for him, and God will give him repentance and forgiveness. I except, however, the sin unto death. If any one sins a sin unto death, I dare not promise, nor have any certain hope, that thou wilt obtain pardon for him. Yet I do not altogether forbid prayer in such a case. Pray if thou wilt, but with a doubt of obtaining.
You will ask, what is the sin unto death ? 1st. Tertullian (de pudicit. caps . 2 and 19) is of opinion from this passage that there are some sins, like those of the devils while they were yet in a state of probation , so deadly that they are absolutely irremissible in this life. Such a sin was adultery after baptism. But this is an error condemned in Scripture and the Lateran Council under Innocent III.
2d. Origen thinks it is a sin which leads to destruction, and drags down to hell.
3d. Surrianus (lib. 4 pro Epist. Pont. c. 3) thinks it is a sin which involves excommunication. For an excommunicate person is impenitent. And it is not lawful to pray for one excommunicate in the public prayers of the Church. But S. John is speaking of any kind of prayer, even in private.
4th. S. Augustine (lib. 1 in Serm. Dorn.) thought it was the sin of envy, by which any one envies his brother's grace, virtue, and salvation. But this opinion S. Augustine afterwards modified and retracted.
5th. The same S. Augustine (lib. de corrept. et grat. c. 12) and many others think it is the sin in which any one perseveres unto death. Lorinus thinks that it is the sin of hatred and murder. Others think it means the sins of the reprobate, and of those who will be damned. But it is uncertain who and what those are. Yet S. John says, he who knows his brother sin a sin not unto death.
6th. The Gloss supposes it to be a mortal sin. For to pray for such sins is the duty ex officio , so to say, of the Priest alone. But for venial sins any layman whatever may pray. But what S. John says is opposed to this, For he intimates that he is speaking, not of venial, but of mortal sins, and subjoins, “ life shall be given him."
7th. S. Jerome (in cap. 14 Jerem.) thinks it is some very grave sin which God has determined to punish. “ For he who once,” saith he, “hath been devoted to the sword, or famine, or pestilence, cannot be delivered by any prayers. Wherefore it was said to the Prophet that he should not ask in vain what he could not obtain.”
8th. Dionysius thinks it is the sin of final impenitence. Wherefore the Bishop of Rochester (Art. 17 cont. Luther) proves the doctrine of Purgatory from this passage. For S. John says we are to pray for those who are not finally impenitent, that is, who depart in a state of justification or repentance. And this surely implies prayer that they be delivered from Purgatory.
9th. Anastasius Niceenus thinks it is a sin against God, such as blasphemy, concerning which it is said (1 Sam. ii. 25), “If a man sin against God, who shall pray for him ? ”
10th. Gagneius thinks it is the sin of apostasy and infidelity, by which any one falls from the faith into heresy or idolatry.
11th. S. Hilary (in Ps. cxl.) thinks it is the sin which any one commits of set purpose and malice.
12th. S. Ambrose thinks (lib. 1 de Pen. c. 8) it is every very grave sin which is remitted with difficulty.
Most of these opinions are true, and partly explain, but few touch the exact point of the difficulty.
My own opinion is, that the sin unto death is every very grave sin which, either on account of its enormity or long habit, obstinacy or malice, is irremediable according to the ordinary rule of grace which God gives. Such was the sin of Judas in betraying Christ. It was sin unto death because of its enormity; and incorrigible, because of his obstinate persistence in it. So too the sin of the Jews in blasphemy and slaying Christ was a sin unto death, because so heinous and persisted in. Therefore the sin unto death is a chronic and irremediable one, the pardon of which is despaired of, and which so provokes the wrath of God that the ordinary prayers of the saints cannot pacify it, and one therefore which with absolute certainty brings the sinner to the destruction of hell, unless some especially eminent saint, like another Moses, obtains for him from God extraordinary grace and forgiveness. This sin unto death is as if a physician was summoned to a sick man, and after examining him were to say, I cannot heal him, he is sick unto death, the vital parts are mortifying. In like manner, says S. John, when a Christian sees a heretic and an apostate, let him say, I should not dare to pray for him, he is sinning unto death. His vitality is gone. He casts away faith, which is the principle of spiritual life. This is the mind and general opinion of S. Augustine and Jerome, Origen, Bernard, Bonaventura, S. Thomas, and many others. There is a reference to the words of Christ to the Jews (John viii. 21 and 24), “ I go away, and ye shall seek Me, and shall die in your sin.” From which passage we gather that though the sin unto death be of various and multiform kinds, as impenitence, obstinacy, determination to persevere in any sin until death, and so on, yet strictly by the sin unto death S. John understands and intends a sin by which a Christian departs from the faith and Church of Christ, and maliciously attacks them, and strives to draw others away into his own heresy, or idolatry. This was what some were doing in S. John’s time, to his great fear and grief. Wherefore, in order to deter the faithful from being led away, he calls such persons sinners unto death.