They went out from us
Which intends not the persons that went down from Judea to
Antioch, ( Acts 15:1 Acts 15:24 ) , who
preached destructive doctrines to the Gentiles, which the
apostles and the church of Judea disowned and censured; by which
it appeared, that all the preachers of these doctrines were not
of them, and of the same mind with them: for this sense makes
these antichrists to be only preachers; whereas, though many of
them might be such, yet not all; for whoever, in a private
capacity denied the Father and the Son, or that Christ was come
in the flesh, was antichrist; and to these private believers are
opposed in ( 1 John 2:20 ) ; and it
also makes the "us" to be the apostles, whereas they were all
dead but John; and these antichrists were men that had risen up
then in the last time, and therefore could not, with propriety,
be said to go out from the apostles; besides, whenever the
apostle uses this pronoun "us", he includes with himself all true
believers, and may more especially here intend the churches of
Asia; or rather the members of the church at Ephesus, where he
was; nor is it likely he should have in view the church of Judea,
and a case in which that was concerned near forty years ago:
moreover, such a sense makes the going out to be merely local and
corporeal, and which is in itself not criminal; the persons that
went from Judea to Antioch were not blamable for going thither,
nor for going out from the apostles thither, but for troubling
the disciples with words, to the subverting of their souls; nor
was a corporeal departure from the apostles any evidence of not
being of the same mind with them; for they often departed one
from other, yet continued of the same mind, and in the same
faith: but the sense is, that there were some persons in the
Apostle John's time, who had made a profession of religion, were
members of the church, and some of them perhaps preachers, and
yet they departed from the faith, and dropped their profession of
it, and withdrew themselves from the church, or churches to which
they belonged, and set up separate assemblies of their own:
but they were not of us:
they were of the church, and of the same mind with it, at least
in profession, antecedent to their going out; for had they not
been in communion with the church, they could not be properly
said to go out of it; and if they had not been of the same mind
and faith in profession, they could not be said to depart from
it; but they were not truly regenerated by the grace of God, and
so apparently were not of the number, of God's elect:
notwithstanding their profession and communion with the church,
they were of the world, and not of God; they were not true
believers; they had not that anointing which abides, and from
which persons are truly denominated Christians, or anointed ones:
for if they had been of us, they would [no doubt] have
continued
with us;
in the doctrine of the apostles, and in the fellowship of the
church, as true believers do: if their hearts had been right with
God, they would have remained steadfast to him, his Gospel,
truths, and ordinances, and faithful with his saints; for such
who are truly regenerate are born of an incorruptible seed, and
those that have received the anointing which makes them truly
Christians, that abides, as does every true grace, faith, hope,
and love; and such who are truly God's elect cannot possibly fall
into such errors and heresies as these did, and be finally
deceived, as they were:
but [they went out];
"they went out from us", so the Syriac version reads;
that they might be made manifest that they were not all of
us;
the word "all" is left out in the Syriac version. The defection
and apostasy of these persons were permitted by God, that it
might appear they had never received the grace of God in truth;
and their going out was in such a manner, that it was a certain
argument that they were not of the elect; since they became
antichrists, denied the deity or sonship of Christ, or that he
was come in the flesh, or that he was the Christ, and therefore
are said to be of the world, and not of God, ( 1 John 2:22 ) (
1 John 4:1
1 John
4:3-6 ) , so that this passage furnishes out no argument
against the saints' perseverance, which is confirmed in (
1 John 2:20 )
.