The almost unvarying simplicity¹ of syntactical structure, the absence of connecting, notably of illative, particles,² and, in short, the generally Hebraic type of composition have been frequently remarked upon; yet I am not sure that the closeness with which the style has been moulded upon the Hebraic model, especially upon the parallelistic forms of the Wisdom Literature, has been sufficiently recognised.  One has only to read the Epistle with an attentive ear to perceive that, though using another language, the writer had in his own ear, all the time, the swing and the cadences of Old Testament verse.  With the exception of the Prologue and a few other periodic passages, the majority of sentences divide naturally into two or three or four sti,coi.

    Two-membered sentences are common, both synthetic and antithetic, which are strongly reminiscent of the Hebrew distich.  Examples of the synthetic variety are:

"He that loveth his brother abideth in the light,
And there is none occasion of stumbling in him" (2¹⁰);

"Hereby know we love, because He laid down His life for us:
And we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren" (3¹⁶).

"And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof:
But he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever" (2¹⁷);

"Whosoever abideth in Him sinneth not:
Whosoever sinneth hath not seen Him, neither known Him" (3⁶).

"That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you also,
That ye also may have fellowship with us:
Yea, and our fellowship is with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ" (1³)

"Beloved, no new commandment write I unto you,
But an old commandment which ye had from the beginning:
The old commandment is the word which ye heard" (2⁷)

"For whatsoever is begotten of God overcometh the world:
And this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith.
Who is he that overcometh the world,
But he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God" (5^4,5);

"Little children, it is the last hour:
And as ye heard that Antichrist cometh,
Even now have arisen many Antichrists;
Whereby we know that it is the last hour" (2¹⁸).³

"I write . . . I write . . . I write:
I have written . . . I have written . . . I have written."

"We know that every one that is begotten of God sinneth not;
But he that was begotten of God keepeth himself,
And the Wicked One toucheth him not.

We know that we are of God,
And the whole world lieth in the Wicked One.

We know that the Son of God is come,
And hath given us an understanding to know the True One,
And we are in the True One, in His Son Jesus Christ.

This is the True God, and Life Eternal;
Little children, guard yourselves from idols."⁵

    But we pass to the more important topic, the structure of the Epistle.  As has been already said, the impression left upon some, who cannot be supposed to have been cursory readers, is that the Epistle has no logical structure and exhibits no ordered progression of thought.  This estimate has a measure of support in the fact that there is no portion of Scripture regarding the plan of which there has been greater diversity of opinion.  It is nevertheless erroneous.

    The word that, to my mind, might best describe St. John's mode of thinking and writing in this Epistle is "spiral."  The course of thought does not move from point to point in a straight line.  It is like a winding staircase always revolving around the same centre, always recurring to the same topics, but at a higher level.  Or, to borrow a term from music, one might describe the method as contrapuntal.  The Epistle works with a comparatively small number⁶ of themes, which are introduced many times, and are brought into every possible relation to one another.  As some master-builder of music takes two or three melodious phrases and, introducing them in due order, repeating them, inverting them, skilfully interlacing them in diverse modes and keys, rears up from them an edifice of stately harmonies; so the Apostle weaves together a few leading ideas into a majestic fugue in which unity of material and variety of tone and effect are wonderfully blended.  And the clue to the structure of the Epistle will be found by tracing the introduction and reappearances of these leading themes.

    These⁶ are Righteousness, Love, and Belief.  For here let me say at once that, in my view, the key to the interpretation of the Epistle is the fact that it is an apparatus of tests; that its definite object is to furnish its readers with an adequate set of criteria by which they may satisfy themselves of their being "begotten of God."  "These things write I unto you, that ye may know that ye have eternal life" (5¹³).  And throughout the Epistle these tests are definitely, inevitably, and inseparably - doing righteousness; loving one another; and believing that Jesus is the Christ, come in the flesh, sent by the Father to be the Saviour of the world.  These are the connecting themes that bind together the whole structure of the Epistle.  After the prologue, in fact, it consists of a threefold repetition and application of these three fundamental tests of the Christian life.  In proof of this statement let us, in the first instance, examine those sections of the Epistle in which the sequence of thought is most clearly exhibited.  The first of these is 2^3-28, which divides itself naturally into three paragraphs, (A) 2^3-6 (B) 2^7-17 (C) 2^18-28.

    Here A (2^3-6) obviously consists of a threefold statement, with significant variations, of the single idea, that righteousness ("keeping His commandments," "keeping His word," "walking, even as He walked ") is the indispensable test of "knowing God" and "abiding in Him."  In B (2^7-17) the current of thought is interrupted by the parenthetical passage, 2^12-14; but, this being omitted, it is apparent that here, also, we have a paragraph formed upon one principal idea - Love the test of the Christian Life, the test being applied positively in 2^7-11 (the "new commandment"), and negatively in 2^15-17 ("Love not the world").  In C (2^18-28), again, the unity is obvious.  The theme of the paragraph is the Christian life tested by Belief of the truth, of which the Anointing Spirit is the supreme Witness and Teacher, that Jesus is the Christ and the Son of God.

    If, next, we examine the part of the Epistle that extends from 2²⁹-4⁶, we find precisely the same topics recurring in precisely the same order.  We have again three paragraphs (A) 2²⁹-3^10a, (B) 3^10b-24a, and (C) 3^24b-4⁶. And, again, it is evident that in A we have the test of Righteousness, in B the test of Love, and in C the test of Belief.

    In the third great section of the Epistle (4⁷-5²¹), though the sequence of thought is somewhat different, the thought-material is identical; and for the present it is sufficient to point out that the leading themes, the tests of Love (4^7-12 and 4^16b-21), Belief (4^13-16a and 5^5-12), and Righteousness (5^18,19) are all present, and that they alone are present.

    We seem, then, to have found a natural division of the Epistle into three main sections, or, as they might be most descriptively called, "cycles," in each of which the same fundamental thoughts appear, in each of which the reader is summoned to bring his Christian life to the test of Righteousness, of Love, and of Belief.  With this as a working hypothesis, I shall now endeavour to give an analysis of the contents of the Epistle.

    Passing by the Prologue (1^1-4), we have the

      It begins with the announcement, which is the basis of the whole section, that "God is Light, and in Him is no darkness at all" (1⁵).  And, since what God is determines the condition of fellowship with Him, this is set forth: first, negatively (1⁶) - "If we say that we have fellowship with Him and walk in darkness"; then positively (1⁷) - "If we walk in the Light as He is in the Light."  What, then, is it to walk in the Light, and what to walk in darkness?  The answer to these questions is given in all that follows, down to 2²⁸.

    (a) The first fact upon which the Light of God impinges in human life is Sin; and the first test of walking in the Light is sincere recognition of the true nature, the guiltiness, of Sin (1^8,9).  This test is applied both negatively - "If we say that we have no sin," and positively - "If we confess our sins."

    But, in the Light of God, not only is Sin, wherever present, recognised in its true character as guilt; it is revealed as universally present.  Whence arises a second test of walking in the Light - "If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar," etc.

    What follows is very significant.  Obviously the writer had intended to continue - "If we confess that we have sinned, we have a Paraclete with the Father, Jesus Christ the Righteous" (thus carrying forward the parallel series of antitheses: 1^6,8,10 = walking in darkness, 1^7,9 and what would have been 1¹¹ = walking in the light).  But before he writes this, his pen is arrested by the sudden fear that some might be so infatuated as to wrest these broad evangelical statements into a pretext for moral laxity.  He therefore interposes the earnest caveat, "My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not"; then carries forward the train of thought in slightly different forms, "And if any man sin," etc. (2^1,2).

    But if confession of sin is the test of walking in the Light, confession itself is to be tested by its fruits in new obedience.  If impenitence, the "lie" of the conscience (1⁸), renders fellowship with God impossible, no less does disobedience, the "lie" of the life (2⁴).  This is the purport of the verses that follow (2^3-6).  Christian profession is to be submitted to the test of Christian conduct; of which a threefold description is given - " keeping God's commandments" (2³); "keeping His word" (2⁵); and "walking even as He (Christ) walked" (2⁶).  With this the first application of the test of Righteousness is completed.

    (A) Positively the old-new commandment (2^7-11).

    This is linked on to the immediately preceding verses by the word "commandment."  Love is the commandment which is "old," familiar to the Apostle's readers from their first acquaintance with the rudiments of Christianity (2⁷); but also "new," a commandment which is ever fresh and living to those who have fellowship with Christ in the True Light, which is now shining forth (2⁸).  But from this follows necessarily, that "He that saith he is in the light, and hateth his brother, is in darkness." The antithesis of 2^8,9 is then repeated, with variation and enrichment of thought, in 2^10,11 (Then follow the parenthetical verses ^12-14, the motive for the insertion of which will be discussed elsewhere.⁷  These being treated as a parenthesis, the unity of the paragraph at once becomes apparent.)

    (b) Negatively.  The commandment to love is completed by the great "Love not" (2^15-17).  If walking in the light has its guarantee in loving one's "brother," it is tested no less by not loving the "world."  One cannot at the same time participate in the life of God and in a moral life which is dominated by the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the vainglory of the world.

    The Light of God not only reveals Sin and Righteousness, the children of God (our "brother") and the "world" in their true character, so that, walking in that Light, men must confess Sin and follow after Righteousness, love their "brother" and not love the "world"; it also reveals Jesus in His true character as the Christ, the Incarnate Son of God.  And all that calls itself Christianity is to be tested by its reception or its rejection of that truth.  In this paragraph, it is true, the Light and the Darkness are not expressly referred to.  But the continuity of thought with the preceding paragraphs is unmistakable.  Throughout the whole of this first division of the Epistle the point of view is that of Fellowship with God, through receiving and walking in the Light which His self-revelation sheds upon all things in the spiritual realm.  Unreal Christianity in every form is comprehensively a "lie."  It may be the Antinomian lie of him who says "he has no sin" (1⁸), and, on the other hand, is indifferent to keeping God's commandments (2⁴); the lie of lovelessness (2⁹); or the lie of the Antichrist who, claiming spiritual enlightenment, denies that Jesus is the Christ (2²²).  Every one who does this walks in darkness, and asserts what is untrue and impossible, if he say or suppose that he has fellowship with God, Who is Light.  Minuter analysis of this paragraph is, for our present purpose, unnecessary.

    The first main division of the Epistle began with the assertion of what God is relatively to us - Light; and from this it deduced the condition of our fellowship with Him.  The light of God's self-revelation in Christ becomes to us the light in which we behold ourselves, our sin, our duty, our brother, the world, the reality of the Incarnation; and only in acknowledging the "truth" thus revealed and loyally acting it out can we have fellowship with God.  The point of view is ethical and psychological.  This second division, on the other hand, begins with the assertion of what the Divine nature is in itself, and thence deduces the essential characteristics of those who are "begotten of God."  Righteousness, Love, Confession of Christ are the proofs, because the results, of participation in the Divine nature; Sin, Hate, Denial of Christ, the proofs of non-participation.  The point of view is, predominantly, biological.  The key-word is "begotten of God."

    Here (2²⁹) the idea of the Divine Begetting is introduced for the first time.  And, as the first test applied to Fellowship in the Light was the attitude toward Sin and Righteousness, so, likewise, it is the first applied to the life of Divine sonship.  As the Light convicts of sin and at the same time reveals both the content and the absolute imperative of Righteousness, so the Divine Life begotten in man has a twofold action.⁸  The harmony of the human will with the Divine, which is the necessary result of the community of nature, reveals itself both in "doing righteousness" and in entire antagonism to sin.  "If ye know that He is righteous, know that every one also that doeth righteousness is begotten of Him."   But here the writer is immediately arrested by the wonder and thanksgiving that fill and overflow his soul at the thought that sinful men should be brought into such a relation as this to God.  "Behold what manner of love!" (3^1a).  This leads him further to contemplate, first, the present concealment of the glory of the children of God (3^1b); then, the splendour of its future manifestation (3²); and, finally, the thought that the fulfilment of this hope is necessarily conditioned by present endeavour after moral likeness to Christ leads back to the main theme of the paragraph, that the life of Divine sonship is, by necessity of nature, one of absolute Righteousness, of truceless opposition to sin (3^4-10a).  This is now exhibited in a fourfold light: (1) in the light of what sin is, lawlessness (3⁴); (2) in the light of Christ the purpose of all that is revealed in Christ is the removal and abolition of sin (3^5-7); (3) in the light of the Divine origin of the Christian life - only that which is sinless can derive from God (3^9,l0a); (4) intertwined with these cardinal arguments there is a fourth, that all that is of the nature of sin comes from a source which is the antithesis of the Divine, and which is in active hostility to the work of Christ - the Devil (3^8-10a).  The last clause of the paragraph reverts to and logically completes the proposition with which it began.  To the positive, "Every one that doeth righteousness is begotten of God" (2²⁹), is added the negative, "Whosoever doeth not righteousness is not of God" (3^10b).  The circle is completely drawn.  The "begotten of God" include all who "do righteousness"; all who do not are excluded.

    In structure, this paragraph is less regular; its contents are not so closely knit to the leading thought.  But what the leading thought is, is clearly fixed at the beginning: "He that loveth not his brother is not begotten of God" (3^10b).  That brotherly love is the test of Divine sonship is the truth that dominates the whole.  Instead, however, of developing this thought dialectically, the Apostle does so, in the first instance, pictorially; setting before us two figures, Cain and Christ, as the prototypes of Hate and Love.  The contemplation of Cain and of the disposition out of which the first murder sprang (3¹²), suggests parenthetically an explanation of the World's hatred of the children of God (3¹⁸); but, chiefly, the truth that in loving our brethren we have a reliable guarantee that we have passed from death unto life (3¹⁴); while, on the other hand, whosoever hateth his brother is potentially a murderer and assuredly cannot have the Life of God abiding in him (3¹⁵).  Next, in glorious contrast to the sinister figure of Cain, who sacrificed his brother's life to his morbid self-love, the Apostle sets before us the figure of Christ who sacrificed His own life in love to us, His brethren (3^16a); and draws the inevitable inference that our life, if one with His, must obey the same spiritual law (3^16b).  In 3¹⁷ this test is brought within the scope of everyday opportunity; and is followed (3¹⁸) by a fervent exhortation to love "not in word, neither with the tongue, but in deed and in truth."  This introduces a restatement of the purport of the whole paragraph - that such Love is the test of all Divine sonship, and affords a valid and accessible ground of assurance before God, even should our own hearts condemn us (3^19,20).  In the remainder of the paragraph the subject of assurance and its relation to prayer is further dwelt upon (3^21,22).  And, finally, in setting forth the grounds upon which such assurance rests, the Apostle combines all the three cardinal tests - Righteousness (" keeping His commandments," 3²²), Belief (" in the name of His Son Jesus Christ," 3^23a), and Love (3^23b).  All these are, in fact, "commandments," and he that keepeth them abideth in God, and God in him (3^24a).

    Here, again, the test to be applied is broadly and clearly indicated at the outset. "Hereby know we that He abideth in us, by the Spirit⁹ which He hath given us."  As in the corresponding paragraph 2^18-28, so here also the argument is conducted in view of the concrete historical situation, upon the consideration of which we do not now enter.  The essence of the paragraph lies in 4^2,3b and ^6b:  "Hereby know ye the Spirit of God.  Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus is the Christ come in the flesh is of God; and every spirit that confesseth not Jesus is not of God."  "By this we know the Spirit of truth and the spirit of error."

    To recur to the general structure of the Epistle, it may be noted that we have found the first and second "cycles" corresponding exactly in subject-matter and in order of development.  In 1⁵-2⁶ and in 2²⁹-3^10a the Christian life has been tested by its attitude to Sin and Righteousness, in 2^7-17 and in 3^10b-24a by Love, and in 2^18-28 and 3^24b-4⁶ by Belief.

    In this closing section the Epistle rises to its loftiest heights; but the logical analysis of it is the hardest part our task. The subject-matter is identical with that which has been already twice used, not a single new idea ~ing introduced except that of the "sin unto death."  But order and proportion of treatment are different; the test of Righteousness takes here a subordinate place (5^2,3,5¹⁸); and the whole "Cycle" may be broadly divided into sections, the first, 4⁷-5^3a, in which the dominant theme is Love (with, however, the Christological passage 4^13-15 embedded in it); the second, 5^3b-21, in which it is Belief.  The same practical purpose is still steadfastly adhered to as in the preceding "Cycles" - the application of the three great tests to everything that calls itself Christian.  But here an additional aim is, I think, partly discernible, namely, to bring out the necessary connections and inter-relations of Righteousness, Love, and Belief.  Hitherto the writer has been content to exhibit these simply as collateral elements in the Christian life, each all indispensable to its genuineness.  He has made no serious effort to show why these three elements must coalesce in the unity of life, - why the Life of which one manifestation is Belief in the Incarnation must also manifest itself in keeping God's commandments and loving one another.  Here, however, as he traverses the same ground for the third time, he does seem to be feeling after a closer articulation.  Thus in 4^9-16 the inner connection between Belief and Love is strongly suggested; in 5^2-3a we find the synthesis of Love and Righteousness; and in 5^3b-5, the synthesis of Righteousness and Belief.  Without asserting that the writer's conscious purpose in this third handling of his material was to exhibit these interdependencies, it may be said that in this consists its distinctive feature.

    Christian Love is deduced from its Divine source.  Regarding Love, the same declaration, precisely and verbally, is now made as was formerly made regarding Righteousness (2²⁹).  "God is Love"; and every one that loveth is begotten of God (4⁷ and, negatively, 4⁸).  But here, feeling his way to a correlation of Love and Belief, St. John advances to the further statement, that the mission of Christ alone is the perfect revelation of the fact that the nature of God is Love (4⁹); nay, that it furnishes the one absolute revelation of the nature of Love itself (4¹⁰).  From this follows the inevitable consequence, "If God so loved us, we ought also to love one another" (4¹¹); and the assurance that, if we love one another, the invisible God abideth in us; His nature is incorporate with ours; His Love is fulfilled in us (4¹²).

    As in 2^20-28 and 3^24b-4⁶ the gift of the Spirit, by whom confession is made of Jesus as the Son of God, is cited as proof that God abideth in us and we in Him (4^13-15), and seems to be merely collateral with the proof already adduced from "loving one another" (4¹²).  But it becomes evident, on closer examination, that the two paragraphs (4^7-12 and 4^13-16) stand in some more intimate relation than this.  We observe the parallel statements, "If we love one another, God abideth in us" (4¹²); then, "Whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God abideth in him and he in God" (4¹⁵); then a second time, "He that abideth in love abideth in God, and God in him" (4¹⁶).  We observe, further, that the confession of Jesus as the Son of God (4¹⁶) is paralleled by the statement that "the Father sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world" (4¹⁴), which points back to that revelation of God as Love (4^9,10) in which the moral obligation and spiritual necessity of loving one another have been already disclosed (4¹¹).  And we observe, finally, that the confession of Jesus as the Son of God, sent by the Father to be the Saviour of the world (4^14,15), is personally appropriated in this, "We know and have believed the Love which God hath toward us," followed by the reiterated "God is Love; and he that abideth in Love abideth in God, and God in him" (4¹⁶).  Thus closely observing the structure of the passage, we cannot doubt that the writer is labouring to express the truth that Christian Belief and Christian Love are not merely concomitant, but vitally one.  Yet, what the inter-relation of the two is in the Apostle's mind; which, if either, is anterior and instrumental to the other; whether we are begotten through the medium of spiritual perception into love, or through the medium of a love into spiritual perception, it would be hazardous to say.

    1. The effect of Love is assurance toward God (4^17,18).  It is a notable example of the symmetry with which the Epistle is constructed that the sequence of thought here is minutely the same as in 3^19,20.  Here, as there, Love has, as its immediate result, confidence toward God; and with precisely the same condition, that Love be in "deed and in truth" (cf. 3^18,19 with 4²⁰).

    2.  The motives to brotherly Love:  These are God's love to us (4¹⁹), the only possible response to which is to love one's brother (4²⁰); the express commandment of Christ (4²¹); and the instincts of spiritual kinship (5¹).¹⁰

    3.  The synthesis of Love and Righteousness.
    This is exhibited in a two-fold light.  True love to man is righteous, and is possible only to those who love God and keep His commandments (5²).  True. love to God consists in keeping His commandments (5^3a).

    It may seem sufficiently arbitrary to make the clause "And His commandments are not grievous" the point of departure for a new paragraph.  But so closely is the texture of thought woven in these verses, that the same objection would apply equally to any other line of division.  There is, however, an obvious transition in 5^3-5 from the topic of Love to that of Belief; and it seems most suitable to regard the transition as effected at this point.  "This is the Love of God, that we keep His commandments," is St. John's last word concerning Love.  All that is now to be said has as its subject, more or less directly, Belief.  And, while the clause "and His commandments are not grievous" is intimately linked on to the first half of the verse by the common topic "commandments," it introduces an entirely new train of thought.

    1. The synthesis of Belief and Righteousness (5^3b,4).  God's commandments are not burdensome to the believer.  That which would make them burdensome, the power of the World, is overcome by the victorious divine power given to every one who is "begotten of God"; and the medium through which the victorious power is imparted is our Christian Belief.

    2.  The substance of Christian Belief is that "Jesus is the Son of God, even He that came by water and by blood" (5^5,6).

    3.  Next, the basis on which it rests is: the witness of the Spirit (5⁷); the coincident witness of the Spirit, the water and the blood (5⁸); which is the witness of God himself (5⁹); and which, when received, becomes an inward and immediate assurance, a self-evidencing certitude (5^10a).  On the other hand, to reject this witness is to make God a liar (5^10b).

    4.  The issue of Christian Belief.  The witness of God to His Son Jesus Christ is fundamentally this, that He is the source of Eternal Life to men (5¹¹).  This Life is present possession of all who spiritually possess Him; and to be without Him is to be destitute of it (5¹²).

    The end of the paragraph thus answers sublimely to its beginning.  That which has eternal life in it (5¹²) must conquer, and alone can conquer, the World, whose life is bound up with transitory aims and objects.  Because it makes the truth that "he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever" a living power, faith wins its everlasting victory over the world which "passeth away with the lust thereof."

    1.  Its certainty of Eternal Life.  To promote this in all who believe in the name of the Son of God is the Apostle's purpose in writing this Epistle (5¹³).

    2.  Its certainty regarding Prayer (5^14-17).  "If we ask anything according to God's Will, He heareth us" (5¹⁴); and, consequently, we have these things for which we have made petition (5¹⁵).  An example of the things which we may ask with assurance is "life" for a brother who sins "a sin not unto death" (5^16a); and an example of the things regarding which we may not pray with such confidence is the restoration of a brother who has committed sin unto death (5^16b).  To this is appended a statement regarding the nature and effect of sin (5¹⁷).

    3.  The certainty regarding the regenerate Life, that Righteousness is its indefeasible characteristic, that it is a life of uncompromising antagonism to all sin (5¹⁸).

    4.  The certainty as to the profound moral contrast between the Christian life and the life of the world (5¹⁹).

    5.  The certainty of Christian Belief as to the facts upon which it rests, and the supernatural power which has quickened it to perception of those facts (5^20a).

    Then with a final reiteration of the whole purport of the Epistle, "This is the true God and Eternal Life" (5^20b), and an abrupt and sternly affectionate call to all believers to beware of yielding the homage of their trust and dependence to the vain shadows which are ever apt to usurp the place of the True God, the Epistle ends, "Little children, keep yourselves from idols" (5²¹).

        1⁵. The fundamental announcement, "God is Light."

     1^6,7.  General statement of the condition of fellowship with God, Who is Light.
  1⁸-2⁶. Walking in the Light tested by the attitude to Sin and Righteousness.
 

        (a)  By love of one's brother (vv.^7-11).
            [Parenthetic address to the readers (vv. ^{12- 4}).]
        (b)  By not loving the World (vv. ^15-17).

        2¹⁸.  Rise of the antichrists.
        2¹⁹. Their relation to the Church.
    2^20,21.  The source and guarantee of the true Belief.
    2^22,23.  The crucial test of Truth and Error.
    2^24,25.  Exhortation to steadfastness.
    2^26,27.  Reiterated statement of the source and guarantee of the true Belief.
       2²⁸. Repeated exhortation to steadfastness.

        2²⁹.  This test inevitable.
       3^1,3.  The present status and the future manifestation of the children of God:  the possession of this hope conditioned by
               assimilation to the purity of Christ.
     3^4-l0a.  The absolute contrariety of the life of Divine Sonship to all sin.
          a.  In the light of the moral authority of God (v.⁴).
          b.  In the light of Christ's character and of the purpose of His mission (vv.^5-7).
          g.  In the light of the origin of Sin (v.⁸).
          d.  In the light of its own Divine source (v.⁹).
          e.  In the light of fundamental moral contrasts (v.^10a).

  3^l0b.,11.  This test inevitable.
      3¹².  Cain the prototype of Hate.
      3¹⁸.  Cain's spirit reproduced in the World.
     3^14a.  Love, the sign of having passed from Death unto Life.
  3^14b,15.  The absence of it, the sign of abiding in Death.
      3¹⁶.  Christ the prototype of Love; the obligation thus laid upon us.
   3^17,18.  Genuine Love consists not in words but in deeds.
   3^19,22.  The confidence toward God resulting from such Love, especially in Prayer.
  3^23,24b.  Recapitulatory; combining under the category of His "commandment," Love and also Belief on His Son Jesus
              Christ. Thus a transition is effected to Paragraph C.

   3^24b.  This test inevitable.
     4¹.  Exhortation in view of the actual situation.
   4^2,3.  The true Confession of Faith.
   4^4-6.  The relation thereto of the Church and the World.

    4^7,8.  Love indispensable, because God is Love.
      4⁹.  The mission of Christ the proof that God is Love.
     4¹⁰.  The mission of Christ the absolute revelation of what Love is.
     4¹¹.  The obligation thus imposed upon us.
     4¹².  The assurance given in its fulfilment.

     4¹³. The True Belief indispensable as a guarantee of Christian Life, because the Spirit of God is its author.
  4^14,15.  The content of the true Belief, "Jesus is the Son of God."
     4¹⁶.  In this is found vital ground of Christian Love.

   4^17,18.  The effect, confidence toward God.
 4¹⁹-5¹.  The motives to Love: (1) God s love to us; (2) the only possible response to which is to love our brother; (3)
             Christ's commandment; (4) the instincts of spiritual kinship.
    5^2,3a.  The synthesis of Love and Righteousness.

    5^3b,4.  The synthesis of Belief and Righteousness.  In Belief lies the power of obedience.
       5⁵.  The contents of Christian Belief.
    5^7-10.  The evidence upon which it rests.
  5^11,12.   Its issue, the possession of Eternal Life.

      5¹³.  Its certainty of Eternal Life.
   5^14,15.  Of prevailing in Prayer.
    [5¹⁶.  Instance in which such certainty fails.]
    [5¹⁷.  Appended statement regarding Sin.]
     5¹⁸.  Of Righteousness, as the essential characteristic of the Christian Life.
     5¹⁹.  Of the moral gulf between the Christian Life and the life of the World.
     5²⁰.  Of itself the facts on which it rests, and the supernatural power which has given perception of these facts.
     5²¹.  Final exhortation.

    Note. - After this chapter was completely written, there came into my hands an article by Theodor Haring in the Theologische Abhandlungen Carl von Weizsacker gewidmet (Freiburg, 1892).  I am gratified to find that in this article, which is of great value, the analysis of the Epistle is on precisely the same lines as that which I have submitted.  The only difference worth noting is that Haring, by combining Righteousness and Love, finds in each "cycle" only two leading tests, which he calls the "ethical" and the "Christological."  This gives a more logical division; but I am still of opinion that my own is more faithful to the thought of the Epistle, in which the comprehension of Righteousness and Love under any such general conception as "ethical" is not achieved.