And this is his commandment
Having mentioned the keeping of the commandments of God, the
apostle proceeds to show what they are; that they are faith in
Christ, and love to one another; which two are reduced to one,
because they are inseparable; where the one is, the other is;
faith works by love.
That we should believe on the name of his Son Jesus
Christ;
Christ is the object of faith, and he is no, as he is Jesus, a
Saviour; faith deals with him as such, and will have no other
Saviour but he: and now to believe in him, is not merely to
believe that he is the Son of God, the true Messiah, the Saviour
of the world, that he is come in the flesh, has suffered, and
died, and rose again from the dead, is ascended into heaven, and
is set down at the right hand of God, makes intercession for his
people, and will come again to judge the quick and dead; but it
is to go forth in special and spiritual acts upon him, such as
looking at him, coming to him, venturing on him, trusting in him
for life and salvation, committing all into his hands, and
expecting all from him. And this is called a "commandment", and
comes under the notion of one; not that it is properly a law, or
belongs to the law; for faith in Christ Jesus is a fruit of
electing grace, and a blessing of the covenant of grace; it is
the free gift of God, and the operation of his Spirit, and is
peculiar to the elect of God, and sheep of Christ; and so cannot
belong to the law of works; but, as the Hebrew words,
(hrwt) , and (hwum) , both signify any doctrine,
and instruction in general; see ( Psalms 19:7 Psalms 19:8 ) ; so the
word here used designs an evangelical doctrine, a divine
instruction of our Lord Jesus Christ, in the Gospel, which
declares that he that believes in Christ shall be saved; and so
the word is used for a doctrine in this epistle, ( 1 John 2:7 ) ; and that
of the next command or doctrine, which follows,
and love one another as he gave us commandment;
that is, as Christ taught and instructed his disciples, (
John 13:34 ) (
15:17 ) .