He that saith he abideth in him ought himself also to walk even as he walked.
ο λεγων εν αυτω μενειν οφειλει καθως εκεινος περιεπατησεν και αυτος ουτως περιπατειν
9 Church Fathers comment on this verse
Perfect love, he says, is proved by deeds. But it happens that someone outwardly appears to keep the commandments rightly and precisely, while his inner disposition is impure. For this reason he is far from God.
Therefore the apostle says that the one who has made himself God's own must live as nearness to God requires.
Therefore, whoever says that he abides in Him ought himself also to walk as He walked. How, brothers? Who will teach us? Whoever says that he abides in Him, that is, in Christ, ought also to walk just as He walked.
Perhaps he teaches us to walk on the sea? Certainly not. Then he teaches us to walk on the path of righteousness. What path? I have already mentioned it. He was nailed to the Cross, and He walked on this path. This path is the path of love: "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do" (Lk 23:34).
So then, if you learn to pray for your enemy, you walk on the path of the Lord.
We abide in Him in three ways: through faith, through hope, and through love. God abides in us through patience and humility.
Let us follow Him with all the powers of our reason. In order to deserve the right to enter the gates of His Kingdom, let us apply every effort to live as He lived during His sojourn on earth.
The holy Theologian sets forth the proposed truth more clearly by pointing to the example of the most perfect life of the Lord Jesus Christ. Earlier he said: whoever says, “I have known Him,” the Savior of the world, but does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him. Now he shows how one may attain the point where he can say without error: “I have known God; I abide in Him.” How is this to be attained? St. John answers: walk as He, Jesus Christ, walked. Imitate the example of His most holy life. Be meek and humble in heart, after the example of the Lord, Who says: “Learn from Me, for I am meek and humble in heart” (Mt 11:29). Care for the fulfillment of God’s will in all things as for the daily food of your soul, after the Lord’s example.
He teaches: “My food is to do the will of Him Who sent Me, and to accomplish His work” (Jn 4:34). Keep God’s commandments with all your strength, so that you may bear true love for God in your soul and abide in His love, after the Lord’s example: “If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love, just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love” (Jn 15:10). Love your neighbors as yourself, according to the Lord’s commandment. And when duty requires it, be ready to die for your neighbors, after the example of the Lord, Who suffered and died for us, as He Himself foretold: “I lay down My life for the sheep” (Jn 10:15). And what great blessedness it is to walk as Jesus Christ walked! He Himself bears witness: “I am the light of the world; he who follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life” (Jn 8:12).
Therefore whoever says that he abides in Jesus Christ must always and in all things act as Christ acted, remembering His word: "I have given you an example, that as I have done to you, you also should do" (Jn 13:15).
And what else do we see in this exalted pattern but boundless love, meekness, humility, obedience, and all those virtues which show the absence of every sin and the abundance of every righteousness in divine grace?
"Whoever says," and so forth: "He also confirms the same thing from the opposite side, using the fullest proof" (Theophylact). The expressions concerning believers and Christ, "to be in Him," "to abide in Him," and "to have communion with Him," have the same general meaning. Yet they also have a certain subtle distinction or shade.
To abide in Him means a fuller, deeper, and inward communion with Him in love. It means complete union with Him, such as union with Him in the most exalted Mystery of His Body and Blood.
"To walk as He walked": this means to live and act, and in life and action to express inward properties and qualities like those of Christ. "Perfect love," he says, "is proved by works. But since it happens that someone seems outwardly to keep the commandments rightly and exactly, while his inward disposition is impure, and therefore he is far from God, the apostle says that one who has made himself God's own must also live as closeness to God requires" (Theophylact).
Christ left an example and pattern for how Christians should act in life (1 Pet 2:21), or how they should follow in His steps. Whoever abides inwardly in Him necessarily also walks, or strives to walk, in life and action as He walked. If he does not walk so, then he does not abide in Him. He is a liar, deceives himself, and the truth is not in him (1 Jn 1:6 and parallels).
In the first half of the second chapter, the foundations of all Christianity are drawn from what precedes (1 Jn 2:1-14). First, sinlessness is possible for Christians when Jesus Christ is their Advocate. “He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world” (1 Jn 2:2). That is, not only for the sins of us who live at the present time, but also for those who lived before His coming into the world. Likewise, it is for those who will live until His second coming to earth and will appropriate to themselves His boundless merits. Second, true knowledge of God is the keeping of His word out of love for Him.
“He who says, ‘I have known Him,’ that is, God, and does not keep His commandments, is false.” Such a man’s knowledge is cold and dead; it only puffs up and does not save. “But whoever keeps His word, in him the love of God has truly been perfected.” That is, perfect and saving love is seen in him, as the fruit of living knowledge of God (1 Jn 2:4-8). Third, true walking in the light consists in loving one’s brother. “He who loves his brother abides in the light,” that is, he is a true Christian. “But he who hates his brother is in darkness” (1 Jn 2:9-11). That is, he is in the darkness of ignorance concerning true Christianity, for the fundamental principle of Christian life has not yet touched his own life. Of course, in life there are infinitely many degrees of love. But the Apostle speaks in opposites and absolutely: either love or hatred.
Contrasting true knowledge of Jesus Christ with the imagined knowledge in which the false teachers, the Gnostics, boasted, the Apostle John, like the Apostle Peter, points to the close bond between intellectual knowledge and its practical application in deed. In this he follows the Savior’s teaching, that men are to be judged by their fruits, and he remembers His farewell commandment: “If you love Me, keep My commandments” (Jn 14:15). In the Apostle’s characteristic manner of speech, after considering a subject from one side, he then considers it from the opposite side. Having said that Christians know Christ, the Apostle then, in the spirit of his own fiery zeal, calls those deceivers who boast of knowledge of Christianity but do not show this knowledge in deed.
Further reproducing the Lord’s farewell discourse, the Apostle raises the keeping of the commandments to that fundamental principle indicated there, namely, love. “He who has My commandments and keeps them, it is he who loves Me; and he who loves Me will be loved by My Father,” says Jesus Christ (Jn 14:21). The Apostle says something similar in verses 5 and 6; compare Jn 13:34.
Passages read together with this verse.
Greek text, 13 words with lemma, transliteration and Strong’s number. Tap to expand.
THEOSIS