4. The Collective Son of God in 1 John
In part 1 of this series three important clauses were considered consisting of πᾶς + substantive singular participle. These are incorrectly translated in English versions as “whoever _________.” But these should not be translated as referring to individuals who meet a particular requirement, but instead as referring to the whole collective group as a single entity characterized by the participle:
1. The expression πᾶς ὁ πιστεύων (“whoever believes”) should be “the entire believing [entity].” (John 3:15,16, John 12:46, Acts 10:43; Rom. 10:11; 1 John 5:1).
2. The expression πᾶς ὁ γεγεννημένος, (“whoever is begotten/born”) should be “the entire having been begotten [entity]” (John 3:8; 1 John 3:9; 1 John 5:4,18).
3. The expression πᾶς ὁ ἀγαπῶν (“whoever loves”) should be “the entire loving [entity].” (1 John 4:7; 1 John 5:1).
Each of these refers to things which distinguish the true children of God as a collective whole, those who are joined to His only-begotten Son, thus viewed as one.
The book of 1 John makes this distinction repeatedly, which has a huge impact on theology and clarifies some very thorny issues which have been widely misunderstood because of the mistake in translation. (The Last Generation Version of the New Testament corrects this severe mistake). The entire epistle is devoted to a dichotomy between two opposing entities, the collective Son of God vs the collective son of the Adversary (the Devil). John took Jesus’ parable of the Wheat and Tares[1] one step further. In that parable, Jesus described two groups of people. “The field is the world, the good seeds are the sons of the kingdom, but the tares are the sons of the wicked one.”[2] Yet Jesus also referred to the sons of the Kingdom as a single entity. “But Jesus cried out and said, ‘The one believing unto Me is not believing unto Me, but unto the one sending Me. And the one seeing Me sees the one sending Me. I have come a light into the world so that the whole [entity] believing unto Me should not remain in darkness.”[3] John did the same in His Gospel and in his epistles. He also applied the same principle to the “sons of the wicked one,” as being one body or entity with Satan. He did this also in Revelation. “Blessed are those washing their robes so that they should have a right to the tree of life, and they may enter through the gates into the city. But excluded are dogs, drug users, fornicators, murderers, idolaters, and the entire [entity] loving and practicing the lie.”[4]
John made this very clear distinction between the collective Son of God and the collective son of the wicked one because an imposter “church” was arising alongside pristine apostolic Christianity. This occurred shortly after the deaths of Paul and Peter and the destruction of Jerusalem and is referred to as Gnosticism. It was first apparent in John’s day among the Nicolaitans[5] and the followers of Cerinthus. This body of Antichrist was driven by “the spirit/breath of antichrist/error”[6] in opposition to the “body of Christ” driven by the “Anointing which we have received”[7] which is the “Breath of Truth.”[8]
John began his epistle by first addressing the dynamics within the collective body of Christ, describing who is and who is not a part of it, and how and why imperfections within individual Christians are resolved within the “fellowship” of the body joined to the Son and thus joined to God.
1 John 1:5 – 2:2 (LGV) 5 And this is the message which we have heard from Him and report to you, that God is light, and no darkness is in Him, none. 6 If we should say that we have fellowship with Him, and should be walking in darkness, we are lying and not practicing the truth. 7 But if we should be walking in the light, as He is in the light, we are having fellowship with one another and the blood of Jesus, the Anointed, His Son, is cleansing us from every sin. 8 If we should say that we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us. 9 If we should concede our sins, He is faithful and just so that He might forgive us the sins and might cleanse us from every injustice. 10 If we should say that we have not sinned, we are making Him a liar and His Logos is not among us. 2:1 My children, I write these things to you so that you should not sin. And if anyone may sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus, the Anointed, the Just one. 2 And He is the atoning sacrifice concerning our sins, …”
John dealt first with the individual Christian within the whole collective Son of God, showing that by remaining in Christ,[9] by “walking in the light,”[10] the remission of sins is continuous for those who acknowledge the sins they commit as “sin.”
Only after first clearly showing the internal dynamics of the collective Son of God and how and why His sacrifice continually cleanses us, John then contrasted the collective son of the devil, referring to counterfeit (Gnostic) Christianity which denied the true doctrine of Christ based on Greek philosophy, presenting another Christ. The Gnostics also claimed that their fleshly practices (including fornication) were not really “sin” because the acts of the flesh body allegedly did not contaminate the “soul” which consisted of pure spirit. With these concepts in mind, let us consider the correct translation of the third chapter of 1 John.
1 John 3:1-24 (LGV) 1 Observe the kind of love the Father has given to us so that we may be called ‘children of God!’ Because of this the world does not know us because it did not know Him. 2 Beloved, now we are children of God. And it has not yet been made manifest what we will be. But we have observed that when He should be made manifest, we will be like Him because we will see Him accordingly as He is. 3 And the whole [entity] having this hope over it is purifying itself, according as that One is pure. 4 The whole [entity] practicing sin also practices lawlessness, and sin is lawlessness. 5 And you have observed that this One was made apparent so that He may take away our sins, and no sin is in Him. 6 The whole [entity] remaining in Him does not sin. The whole [entity] sinning has not seen Him nor has known Him. 7 Children, let no one deceive you. The [entity] practicing justice is just, according as that One is just. 8 The [entity] practicing sin is out from the Adversary, because the Adversary sins from the beginning. For this the Son of God was manifested, so that He should destroy the works of the Adversary. 9 The whole [entity] having been begotten out of God does not practice sin, because His Seed remains among it, and it is powerless to sin because it has been begotten out of God. 10 In this is the offspring of God and the offspring of the Adversary apparent – the whole [entity] not practicing justice is not out from God, and the one not loving his brother, 11 since this is the message which we heard from the first, so that we should love one another. 12 Not according as Cain, who was out from the wicked one and killed his brother. And for what benefit did he kill him? Because his acts were wicked but his brother’s were just. 13 Do not be surprised, brothers, if the world hates you. 14 We have observed that we have stepped out of the death into the life because we love the brothers. The one not loving a brother continues in the death. 15 The whole [entity] hating his brother is a murderer. And we have observed that no murderer has age-enduring life continuing in him. 16 We have known the love of God in this – that that One laid down His soul for us, and we are obligated to lay down our souls for the brothers. 17 Yet whoever may have the lifestyle of the world, and should see his brother having need, and should lock up his compassions from him, how is the love of God continuing in him? 18 Children, we should not love in word or in tongue, but action and truth. 19 And we know that we are out from the truth, and we will assure our hearts before Him in this, 20 because if our heart should condemn us, that God is greater than our heart and knows all things. 21 Beloved ones, if our heart should not condemn us, we have boldness toward God, 22 and whatever we should request we receive from Him because we keep His commandments and do what is pleasing in His sight. 23 And this is His commandment, so that we should believe unto the name of His Son Jesus the Anointed, and we should love one another according as He gave us instructions. 24 And the one keeping His commandments continues in Him and He in him. And in this we know that He remains among us, from the Breath which He gave to us.
This chapter is severely misunderstood by most Christians. The way it is translated using the clause “whoever ______” (as a conditional clause referring to the individual) makes it appear that anyone who commits a sin cannot be a child of God which then contradicts what was stated in chapter 1. For example, compare verse 6 in the LGV to the NKJV and NASB.
LGV 6 The whole [entity] remaining in Him does not sin. The whole [entity] sinning has not seen Him nor has known Him.
In this verse, John intended to draw a clear contrast between what characterized the true body of Christ and the pseudo-body of Christ, the gnostic false churches, which were in reality the body of antichrist and who justified indulging in sins of the flesh by their Platonic dualistic view of man. Yet this is completely lost in our English translations, which wrongly make verse 6 about the individual.
NKJV 6 Whoever abides in Him does not sin. Whoever sins has neither seen Him nor known Him.
NASB 6 No one who abides in Him sins; no one who sins has seen Him or knows Him.”
These readings make it appear that John was teaching sinless perfection and that committing one sin proves that someone does not know God. This incorrect concept has caused many Christians to live in self-condemnation, and perhaps has even led to some abandoning the Faith because the standard is completely out of reach.
The ESV and NIV, realizing that something is amiss here, attempted to soften the language by changing the present indicative verb ἁμαρτάνει (sin/sins) to a present participle “keeps on sinning.” But that is not what the text actually says. This passage is not about the individual, but the collective whole, the collective Son of God, the body of Christ which is joined with Christ and seen as one entity. If the “body” collectively sins, then Christ Himself sins.[11]
Before we can fully comprehend the entire third chapter quoted above, we need to consider two more verses:
1 John 4:7 (LGV) 7 Beloved, we should love one another because the love is out from God, and the whole [entity] loving has been begotten out of God and knows God.
1 John 5:1 (LGV) 1 The whole [entity] believing that Jesus is the Anointed has been begotten out of God. And the whole [entity] loving the begetter also loves what has been begotten out from Him.
These two verses are critically important because they apply the principle of “has been begotten out of God” to the collective whole only, never to the individual. The clause πᾶς ὁ ἀγαπῶν (lit. “the whole loving [entity]”) uses the present participle and thus implies continuous action of loving. This whole entity (which continuously loves) is then characterized as “ἐκ τοῦ θεοῦ γεγέννηται (lit. “out from God having been begotten”). Here the perfect tense participle is used. This refers to a present state of the whole collective (the having been begotten) which is the result of past action.
Finally, consider again the following verses from chapter 3 which contrasts the true body of Christ from the pseudo-body, which is in reality the body of Antichrist.
1 John 3:6-9 (LGV) 6 The whole [entity] remaining in Him does not sin. The whole [entity] sinning has not seen Him nor has known Him. 7 Children, let no one deceive you. The [entity] practicing justice is just, according as that One is just. 8 The [entity] practicing sin is out from the Adversary, because the Adversary sins from the beginning. For this the Son of God was manifested, so that He should destroy the works of the Adversary. 9 The whole [entity] having been begotten out of God does not practice sin, because His Seed remains among it, and it is powerless to sin because it has been begotten out of God.
“His Seed,” who remains among “the whole [entity] having been begotten out of God,” is Jesus Christ Himself. He, as the “only-begotten of the Father”[12] and “only begotten Son of God,” remains among the true body of Christ through “the Breath which He gave to us”[13] which is “the anointing.”[14] So the collective whole “is powerless to sin” simply because Jesus Himself, as God’s literal and “only-begotten Son” is part of the collective whole. If the whole collective is said to sin, then Jesus is a sinner. This is what makes John’s explanation in chapter one, concerning the dynamics of the continual cleansing within the fellowship, absolutely critical.
It should also be noted that the early Christians linked the beginning of the collective body of Christ, the church, with the beginning of the creation. Since they unanimously taught that the Son was “Wisdom” of Proverbs 8 who was literally “begotten” out of God as “the Beginning,” they also considered the collective “Son of God” to have its beginning at the beginning of creation. That is, the “Church of God” was begotten when the Son was begotten out of God, and then men of faith were added to this “fellowship, the collective, the “having been begotten out of God.” Here is one example from a transcript of the earliest known Christian sermon which the ancients attributed to Clement of Rome.
“So, then, brethren, if we do the will of our Father God, we shall be members of the first church, the spiritual, — that which was created before sun and moon; … So, then, let us elect to belong to the church of life, that we may be saved. I think not that ye are ignorant that the living church is the body of Christ (for the Scripture, saith, “God created man male and female;” the male is Christ, the female the church,) and that the Books and the Apostles teach that the church is not of the present, but from the beginning. For it was spiritual, as was also our Jesus, and was made manifest at the end of the days in order to save us. The church being spiritual, was made manifest in the flesh of Christ, signifying to us that if any one of us shall preserve it in the flesh and corrupt it not, he shall receive it [life] in the Holy Spirit.”[15]
It is apparent that the doctrine of the origin and pre-human existence of the Son of God was inherently linked with the concept of the literal preexistence of the Church of God. The Son of God is indeed the Founder and Finisher of the Abrahamic Faith as stated plainly in Hebrews 12:1-3. The reference to “male and female” above is not some strange allegorical interpretation of Genesis 1:27 but is a reference to Paul’s explanation of the “mystery” of Christ and the church in Eph. 5:25-32.
In the fifth and final installment of this series we will look at how the distinction between Jesus as “the only begotten of the Father” and the “whole entity having been begotten out of God.” This distinction critically affects how we treat one particular verse in John’s prologue to his Gospel, John 1:13.
Go to: 5. The Son begotten out of God (John 1:13)
[1] Matt. 13:1-30
[2] Matt. 13:38 NKJV
[3] John 12:44 (LGV)
[4] Rev. 22:14-15 (LGV)
[5] Rev. 2:6,15
[6] 1 John 4:3; 1 John 4:6
[7] 1 John 2:20,27
[8] 1 John 4:6
[9] John 15:1-10
[10] Remaining within the sphere of the “light,” striving to follow imitate the true teachings of Christ
[11] Cf. Paul’s statements in 1 Cor. 3:16-17 & 1 Cor. 6:15-17.
[12] John 1:14
[13] 1 John 3:24
[14] 1 John 2:20,27
[15] 2 Clement, ch. xiv