Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of 1 John 3:11
For this is the message that ye heard from the beginning, that we should love one another.
11. For this is the message that ye heard, &c. ] Or, Because the message which ye heard from the beginning is this: ‘this’ is probably the predicate (see on 1Jn 1:5). ‘From the beginning’ as in 1Jn 2:7: it was one of the very first things conveyed to them in their instruction in Christianity and had been ceaselessly repeated, notably by the Apostle himself. Jerome tells us that during S. John’s last years ‘Little children, love one another’ was the one exhortation which, after he had become too old to preach, he never ceased to give. “It is the Lord’s command,” he said; “and if this is done, it is enough.” ‘Love one another’ addressed to Christians must primarily mean the love of Christians to fellow-Christians; and this shews what ‘loving his brother’ must mean. But the love of Christians to non-Christians must certainly not be excluded: the arguments for enforcing brotherly love cover the case of love to all mankind.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
For this is the message – Margin, commandment. In the received text, this is angelia – a message brought; in several manuscripts, and in later editions, it is epangelia – annunciation, announcement; an order given, or a commandment, Act 23:21. It is not very material which reading is followed. The word command or rule would express the sense with sufficient clearness. The reference is to the law given by the Saviour as a permanent direction to his disciples.
That ye heard from the beginning, that we should love one another – See the Joh 13:34-35 notes; 1Jo 2:7 note.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 11. For this is the message] See 1Jo 1:5. From the beginning God hath taught men that they should love one another. How essentially necessary this is to the comfort and well-being of man in this state of trial and difficulty, every sensible man must see. All are dependent upon all; all upon each, and each upon all. Mutual love makes this dependence pleasant and doubly profitable. Nothing can be more pleasing to an ingenuous and generous mind than to communicate acts of kindness.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
From the beginning: see 1Jo 2:7,8; q.d. They cannot be of God, therefore, that cross so fundamental a precept, so expressive of his nature and will.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
11. the message“announcement,”as of something good; not a mere command, as the law. TheGospel message of Him who loved us, announced by His servants,is, that we love the brethren; not here all mankind, but thosewho are our brethren in Christ, children of the same family of God,of whom we have been born anew.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
For this is the message,…. Sent from God by Christ, or what he in his ministry declared, and is the commandment which was so frequently urged by him, Joh 13:34;
that ye have heard from the beginning; of the preaching of the Gospel to them, and of their conversion; see 1Jo 2:7;
that we should love one another; to which the command of Christ, the reason with which it is enforced, and the early notice of it, should engage.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
| Brotherly Love. | A. D. 80. |
11 For this is the message that ye heard from the beginning, that we should love one another. 12 Not as Cain, who was of that wicked one, and slew his brother. And wherefore slew he him? Because his own works were evil, and his brother’s righteous. 13 Marvel not, my brethren, if the world hate you.
The apostle, having intimated that one mark of the devil’s children is hatred of the brethren, takes occasion thence,
I. To recommend fraternal Christian love, and that from the excellence, or antiquity, or primariness of the injunction relating thereto: And this is the message (the errand or charge) which you heard from the beginning (this came among the principal parts of practical Christianity), that we should love one another, v. 11. We should love the Lord Jesus, and value his love, and consequently love all the objects of it, and thereupon all our brethren in Christ.
II. To dissuade from what is contrary thereto, all ill-will towards the brethren, and that by the example of Cain. His envy and malignity should deter us from harbouring the like passion, and that upon these accounts:– 1. It showed that he was as the first-born of the serpent’s seed; even he, the eldest son of the first man, was of the wicked one. He imitated and resembled the first wicked one, the devil. 2. His ill-will had no restraint; it proceeded so far as to contrive and accomplish murder, and that of a near relation, and that in the beginning of the world, when there were but few to replenish it. He slew his brother, v. 12. Sin, indulged, knows no bound. And, 3. It proceeded so far, and had in it so much of the devil, that he murdered his brother for religion’s sake. He was vexed with the superiority of Abel’s service, and envied him the favour and acceptance he had with God. And for these he martyred his brother. And wherefore slew he him? Because his own works were evil, and his brother’s righteous, v. 12. Ill-will will teach us to hate and revenge what we should admire and imitate. And then,
III. To infer that it is no wonder that good men are so served now: Marvel not, my brethren, if the world hate you, v. 13. The serpentine nature still continues in the world. The great serpent himself reigns as the God of this world. Wonder not then that the serpentine world hates and hisses at you who belong to that seed of the woman that is to bruise the serpent’s head.
Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary
Message (). In N.T. only here and 1:5, but (promise) fifty-one times.
From the beginning (‘ ). See 1:1 for this phrase and 2:7 for the idea. They had the message of love for the brotherhood from the beginning of the gospel and it goes back to the time of Cain and Abel (verse 12).
That we should love one another ( ). Sub-final clause (content of the ) with and present active subjunctive. John repeats the message of 2:7f.
Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament
From the beginning. See on 1 1.
That [] . The purport and aim of the message. See on Joh 14:13.
Fuente: Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament
1) “For this is the message that ye heard from the beginning.” Loving, living, and walking together in the light of Jesus is the message of Christian conduct taught by our Lord from the beginning of His ministry Joh 8:12; 1Jn 1:5; 1Jn 2:7.
2) “That we should love one another.” John, again, and again, reminds fathers, sons, and immature children of God that love shown one for another is an evidence and incontestable proof by which even the world (masses of humanity) may be convinced of their need of Christ. Joh 13:34; Joh 15:12; 1Jn 4:7.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
10 Whosoever doeth not righteousness. To do righteousness and to do sin, are here set in opposition the one to the other. Then, to do righteousness is no other thing than to fear God from the heart, and to walk in his commandments as far as human weakness will permit; for though righteousness in a strict sense is a perfect keeping of the law, from which the faithful are always far off; yet as offenses and fallings are not imputed to them by God, righteousness is that imperfect obedience which they render to him. But John declares that all who do not live righteously are not of God, because all those whom God calls, he regenerates by his Spirit. Hence newness of life is a perpetual evidence of divine adoption.
Neither he who loveth not his brother. He accommodates a general doctrine to his own purpose. For hitherto he has been exhorting the faithful to brotherly love; now, for the same end, he refers to true righteousness. Hence this clause is added instead of an explanation. But I have already stated the reason why the whole of righteousness is included in brotherly love. The love of God holds, indeed, the first place; but as on it depends love towards men, it is often, as a part for the whole, comprehended under it, and also the latter under the former. Then he declares that every one who is endued with benevolence and humanity, is thus just, and is to be so deemed, because love is rite fulfillment of the law. He confirms this declaration by saying that the faithful had been so taught from the beginning; for by these words he intimates that the statement which he made ought not to have appeared new to them.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
CHAPTER X
DIVINE SONSHIP PROVEN BY ACTIVE LOVE
(The Second Test . . . The Second Time)
1Jn. 3:11-24
A.
The Text
For this is the message which ye heard from the beginning, that we should love one another: (12) not as Cain was of the evil one, and slew his brother. And wherefore slew he him? Because his works were evil, and his brothers righteous. (13) Marvel not, brethren, if the world hateth you. (14) We know that we have passed out of death into life because we love the bretheren. He that loveth not abideth in death. (15) Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer: and ye know that no murderer hath eternal life abiding in him. (16) Hereby know we love, because he laid down his life for us: and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. (17) But whoso hath the worlds goods and beholdeth his brother in need, and shutteth up his compassion from him, how doth the love of God abide in him? (18) My little children, let us not love in word, neither with the tongue; but in deed and truth. (19) Hereby shall we know that we are of the truth, and shall assure our heart before him: (20) because if our heart condemn us, God is greater than our heart, and knoweth all things. (21) Beloved, if our heart condemn us not, we have boldness toward God; (22) and whatsoever we ask we receive of him, because we keep his commandments and do the things that are pleasing in his sight. (23) And this is his commandment, that we should believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ, and love one another, even as he gave us commandment. (24) And he that keepeth his commandments abideth in him, and he in him. And hereby we know that he abideth in us, by the Spirit which he gave us.
B.
Try to Discover
1.
What is the relation of command to love (1Jn. 3:11), to God as light (1Jn. 1:5) since both are presented as summary of the divine message?
2.
How does the first murder demonstrate the effect of hate on the one hating?
3.
Can a Christian ever be liked by the world? Explain. (Compare 1Jn. 3:13 and Act. 2:47)
4.
When do Christians pass from death to life?
5.
How can one be a murderer without killing anyone?
6.
What is the relationship of love to need?
7.
How do ones actions prove or disprove ones claim to Divine Sonship?
8.
Should a Christian ever feel guilty to the point of self-condemnation?
9.
Why are so many prayers seemingly unanswered?
10.
What is Christian behavior in matters where there is no express commandment of God?
11
How does the experience of answered prayer have any bearing on Johns argument that Jesus is indeed the Christ?
12.
How does the habit of believing Christ and loving our brothers affirm the deity of Christ?
13.
How does the presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives affirm the deity of Christ?
C.
Paraphrase
Because this is the message which ye have heard from the beginningThat we should be loving one another, (12) Not just as Cain was of the wicked one and slew his brother! And for what cause slew he him? Because his works were wicked, Whereas those of his brother were righteous. (13) Be not marvelling, Brethren, if the world is hating you (14) We know that we have passed over out of death into life, Because we love the brethren: He that loveth not abideth in death. (15) Whosoever is hating his brother is a murderer; And ye know that no murderer hath life age-during within him abiding. (16) Hereby have we come to understand love: In that He for us His life laid down, And we ought for the brethren our lives to lay down. (17) But whoso hath this worlds goods And beholdeth his brother having need, And shutteth up his tender affections from him How is the love of God abiding in him? (18) Dear children! Let us not be loving in word nor yet with the tongue, But in deed and truth. (19) Hereby shall we get to know that of the truth we are, And before Him shall persuade our heart; (20) Because if our own heart condemn us Greater is God than our heart, and perceiveth all things. (21) Beloved! if our heart be not condemning us Boldness have we towards God; (22) And whatsoever we are asking we are receiving from Him, Because his commandments are we keeping And the things that are pleasing before Him are we doing. (23) And this is His commandment, That we should believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ And be loving one anotherJust as He gave a commandment unto us. (24) And he that keepeth His commandments In Him abideth And He in him. And hereby perceive we That He abideth in us, By reason of the Spirit which unto us He hath given.
D.
Translation and Comments
1.
Reiteration of the Gospel in summary . . . 1Jn. 3:11
(1Jn. 3:11) Because this is the message which you heard from (the) beginning, that we should be loving one another;
This is the second time in I John that the entire meaning of the incarnation has been condensed as a single message. In 1Jn. 1:5, the summary is: God is light. Here the message is summarized: That we should love one another.
In the first instance, the summary concerns the nature of God. In this present text the abbreviated message concerns the practical outworking of God-likeness in His children. Just as God as light is the source of life to those who walk in the light, so we are to practice love in such a way as to bring and sustain life in others. (See comment on 1Jn. 1:5. i.e., love illustrated by the process of photo-synthesis)
It is the nature of the life which we have in God to become as source of life to others. (Cf. Joh. 4:14) This is done only when we love one another.
From the beginning, in this verse, goes back at least to the time of Cain and Abel. The new commandment is indeed old! (Cf. 1Jn. 2:7-8)
2.
The example of Cain proves the world hates those who practice righteousness . . . 1Jn. 3:12-13
a.
The example of Cain . . . reason for the first murder . . . 1Jn. 3:12
(1Jn. 3:12) not as Cain was of the evil one and slaughtered his brother. And for what reason did he slaughter him? Because his works were evil, and the ones of his brother righteous.
Note the interplay here between love and righteousness. Righteousness keeps Gods commandments: the commandment is to love. No one is righteous who does not love!
There is nothing so violent as the inter-reaction which takes place when righteousness and sin meet. When the righteousness of God meets the sin of man, the result is called the wrath of God. (Cf. Rom. 1:18ff) When righteousness in men meets unrighteousness in men, the result is murder!
The first demonstration of this truth is in the murder of Abel by Cain. John says it explicitly, And for what reason did he slay him? Because his works were evil and the ones of his brother righteous.
b.
The world may hate us also . . . 1Jn. 3:13
(1Jn. 3:13) Stop marveling, brothers, if the world is hating you.
Since the confrontation between righteousness and unrighteousness normally results in murder, we ought not be surprised if the world hates us. John will shortly show that hate is, after all, tantamount to murder. Since love is righteousness because it is obedience to Gods command, love may be expect to be crucified! Is not this what happened to our Lord?
John does not say that everyone in the world will always hate everyone who practices Christian love. Indeed many instances may be cited from the scriptures to prove otherwise. However, since hate is the natural reaction of unrighteousness to love, we ought not be surprised when it happens.
3.
Love is evidence of life . . . 1Jn. 3:14
(1Jn. 3:14) We know that we have passed over out of death into life, because we are loving the brothers. The one not loving is remaining in death.
The practice of loving the children of God is evidence that we have already passed out of death into life. To state it another way; when we have, as the normal course of our lives, the giving of ourselves to our brothers in such a way as to sustain life in them, we know we have passed out of death into life.
Here, again, is testimony of scripture that eternal life is not something that takes place only on the other side of physical death. Rather it begins here and now. Love for one another proves eternal life is a present reality.
A word of caution is needed here. Love as evidence of life does not mean our own loving causes us to live. We do not live because we love; we love because we live in Him. A man who does not love is a dead man. The man who does love, and so gives life to others, is alive.
4.
Just as loving gives life; hating takes life . . . 1Jn. 3:15-18
a.
Whoever hates is a manslayer and does not have eternal life . . . 1Jn. 3:15
(1Jn. 3:15) Everyone who is hating his brother is a manslayer, and you already know that every manslayer is not having eternal life remaining in him.
Just as darkness is the absence of light; hate is the absence of love. As does the absence of light, so does the absence of love result in death.
One does not need to uproot or chop down a plant to kill it, he need merely shut off the light. Likewise, one need not actually shoot or stab his brother to become a killer. He need only withhold the love which gives life.
Meseo, here translated hate, means simply indifference. It is the absence of the self-giving concern called love. It is the failure to become involved in the needs of our brothers.
In realizing that one who hates his brother is a manslayer, a taker of human life, we must bear in mind that the tests of life presented in I John are subjective. John is primarily concerned with what the absence of love does to the person who fails to practice it. The effect of hate is subjectively the same whether one actually kills or merely withholds the means of life.
Johns point here is that the failure to love is proof of the absence of life. A murderer is not only a taker or withholder of life, he is himself a dead man!
b.
The proof of love is not words but deeds . . . 1Jn. 3:16-18
(1Jn. 3:16) In this we have come to know love, because He, in our behalf, laid down His life; we ought also, in behalf of the brothers, to go on laying down our lives. (1Jn. 3:17) Whoever may be having the necessities of the life of the world and may see his brother having need and shuts up his affections from him, how is the love of God remaining in Him? (18) Children, let us not go on loving by word, neither with the tongue, but in work and reality.
We know love only through the incarnation, and especially through Calvary. In all the pre-Christian Papiri on which Koine Greek was written, the word agape (love) has been found less than ten times. Such self-effacement to meet the needs of others, regardless of their response, was virtually unknown before Christ.
Our awareness of this love, and especially since we have come to know it as the supreme will of God for man, carries with it the moral obligation to demonstrate it as He demonstrated it. The world of men will only come to know love as we know it when they see it in us as we saw it in Him.
How are we to do this? John says we are to be constantly ready to lay down our lives as He laid down His; not as a martyr, but in the presence of need and for the purpose of giving and sustaining life. Laying down our lives, in this sense, involves living for others more than dying for them.
Giving our lives, which must be themselves redeemed by His life, obviously cannot be the means of atonement for others. Only Christ can do this. However, the same love which motivated Him can be shown to the world when we give what we possess of the necessities of life to sustain the temporal life of others.
What He did on the higher plain in His atoning death, we do on the lower plain when we give our means of livelihood to assure the necessities of temporal life to others. Johns question is rhetorical. The life of Christ does not remain in the person who withholds the necessities of life from another.
John is not talking about the giving of our surplus to meet the needs of others. That is not love. It is not even giving. It is only when we give the means of sustaining our own lives to sustain the lives of others that we are following the example of Christ.
Jesus did not give a spare life, He gave the only one He had. The widow who gave the mite had learned the lesson of love. She gave what she needed to meet the needs of others.
The reason this is so necessary in assuring our own life is made clear in Jesus statement, Inasmuch as ye did it unto one of these, my brethren, (even) these least, ye did it unto me. (Mat. 25:40) When we consider that this statement was made by Jesus in reference to the final judgment, it becomes evident that giving is literally a matter of life and death: life and death, not only for the recipient, but for the giver also. It really is more blessed to give than to receive!
According to Mat. 25:44, there are going to be some surprised people at the judgment; lost because they never learned to demonstrate their love by giving treasure rather than talk.
The word children in 1Jn. 3:18 is intended to call attention to the claim of Divine Sonship. This claim is proven by active love for our brothers in His family. If it is not so proven, Divine Sonship does not, in fact, exist at all.
5.
Love of our brothers issues in full confidence of our own sonship . . . 1Jn. 3:19-22
a.
Knowledge of our own situation, and consequent assurance before God results from love rather than words . . . 1Jn. 3:19
(1Jn. 3:19) In this we shall get to know that we are of reality and before Him we shall assure our heart.
Contemplation of ones actual relationship to God, in terms of eternal life and eternal death is a staggering experience. It can result either in the most hollow dismay or the most joyous confidence of the future.
Arrival at a reassuring conclusion in such vital personal invoice is determined by facts rather than fancy. If we actually give beyond our means for the sake of bringing life to others, we have tangible evidence that our own situation is as it ought to be. The conclusion can now be reached on the basis of fact instead of philosophy or feeling.
This assurance is not intended to bring us to a smug self-righteousness, but to a calm inner confidence which John calls boldness. The experience of loving is the expeller of doubts.
b.
Gods infinite knowledge linked with His mercy and compassion . . . 1Jn. 3:20
(1Jn. 3:20) because if our heart should know (something) against us, God is greater than our heart and is knowing everything.
Any honest person can think of a million reasons why God should not claim him as His child. For this reason, many people will never say I am a Christian. When asked if he is a Christian, such a person will reply, I hope so or Id like to be. This fearful and negative evaluation of self by one who actually does strive to obey God, to face his own guilt, to love his brothers, and to hold fast his faith in Jesus Christ, is totally unnecessary.
No child of God has any right to a guilt complex. Even though he may hold in the recesses of his heart the remembrance of the most heinous sin, one begotten of Him need not live in constant horror of death or terror of facing God.
Even if our heart knows something real and terrible against us, God is greater than our hearts. God knows both the deed and the reason. He does not make excuses for our guilt, and neither should we. But He does make propitiation for our guilt in the blood of Christ, and we cannot but accept it. No matter how terrible the sin nor how far reaching the hurt, when it is given over to God to be washed away by the blood of Calvary, we have no right to hold it any longer as our own.
We said earlier that one of the greatest blessings of the Christian life is realized forgiveness. In 1Jn. 3:20, we have come face to face with the reason this is so.
The incidence of suicide among church members is evidence of how desperately we need to realize the mercy and compassion of God toward one who is acutely aware of his own guilt. How desperately we need to practice this mercy and compassion toward one another! Otherwise how does the love of God abide in us?
c.
Understanding of 1Jn. 3:20 results in assurance before God . . . 1Jn. 3:21
(1Jn. 3:21) Beloved, if our heart should not know anything against us, we are having boldness toward God,
Because all have sinned, there is no basis upon which an honest persons heart can keep from condemning him, save in the realization of the mercy and compassion of God. When we do realize this, our hearts no longer condemn us.
We must not delude ourselves. The mercy and companion of God, as well as the cleansing from that for which our hearts condemn us, are to be had only in the confession of our guilt. (1Jn. 1:8-9) We ought never assume that forgiveness is ours because we have rationalized away our guilt by blaming the pressures of life for our sins.
Nevertheless, when, in the realization of forgiveness, our hearts no longer condemn us, we may indeed walk tall and straight as children of God. There are no second class sons in His family!
d.
The fact of answered prayer is evidence of the deity of Jesus . . . 1Jn. 3:22
(1Jn. 3:22) and whatever we may ask we are receiving from Him because we are keeping His commandments and the things pleasing in His sight we are doing.
If prayer in His name is answered, it is evidence that Jesus is indeed who He claimed to be. If Jesus is not God, and therefore unable to answer prayer, it is absurd to pray in His name.
To the first century Christian, answered prayer was a common occurrence. It was an experience so normal that it could be cited as evidence of Jesus deity. This is obviously not the case among modern Christians, so Johns argument here is weakened.
Perhaps the reason real prayer is a rare commodity in the average New Testament congregation today is that we have lost sight of the conditions upon which prayer is answered. Too much contemporary prayer is merely the vain repetition of pious platitudes and selfish desires. Often our prayers sound more like ordering a meal in a restaurant than they sound like letting our request be made known of God. (Php. 4:6)
John reminds his readers that the two-fold circumstance within which prayer is answered has to do with the life of the one praying rather than the form of the prayer. The common attitude of ones everyday life must seek the will of God in all things.
First, it must be the predisposition of our lives to keep His commandments. Whenever we are confronted with a specific command, our immediate response must be willing obedience.
Secondly, in areas of life where there is no thus saith the Lord, the habitual course of action must be motivated by the desire to be well pleasing to God.
With these two conditions fulfilled, prayer in Jesus name becomes a mighty means, not of getting our will done in Heaven, but Gods will done on earth, and particularly in our own personal lives. When a totally committed person goes to his knees in such an attitude, he can rise from prayer with the full assurance that whatever he has asked is his.
Such prayer is so common an everyday experience of those totally committed to God in Christ that the experience can be used as evidence of the truth of the Gospel. There is no question whether prayer will be answered. Rather the frequency of answered prayer becomes a confirmation of faith. Where this is not true, total commitment is obviously lacking.
A. T. Robertson has summed it up incisively, In form no limitations are placed here (on prayer) save that of complete fellowship, which means complete surrender of our will to that of God our Father.
e.
The two-fold commandment confronting Christians in the context of the gnostic crisis . . . 1Jn. 3:23-24
(1Jn. 3:23) and this is the commandment of Him, that we should believe the name of His Son Jesus Christ, and that we should love one another just as He gave us commandment. (1Jn. 3:24) And the one keeping His commandments is remaining in Him and He in him; and in this we are knowing that we are remaining in Him, from the spirit which He has given us.
Repeatedly in I John we are reminded that the child of God must habitually keep His commandments, Obedience is to be the normal response of his life to his Father. This was easily understood in the patriarchal society of that day. The fathers word was law in any household, and to say that God was Father brought to mind first of all His authority.
This is in contrast to the image of sentimental overindulgence which so often comes to mind when the word father is mentioned in our society. We have unseated the father, where authority is concerned, and have replaced him with the unfettered self-expression of the individual. In so doing we have made it very difficult to think of God as Father in the way the first century Christian thought of Him in this role.
Nevertheless, it is required in all ages that the child of God, confronted with a command from the Father, obey at once and without question.
In the gnostic crisis, the commands which the Father sets before His children are believe and love. Obedience to the first is necessary if the Christian Gospel is to survive at all. Obedience to the second is necessary if the family of God is to remain united rather than torn asunder by the quarrel over the gnostic heresy.
Faith must have an object. The Christian faith has as its object the personal identity of Jesus of Nazareth as the Eternal Christ, the Son of God. The name of a person stands for all that he is. To believe the name of His Son Jesus Christ, is to believe that He is Who He is and Who He has ever been from eternity.
It is very popular, in some pseudo-intellectual circles among present day theologians, to say that the important thing is to confront men with the question, Whom say Ye that I am; that the answer is entirely subjective and therefore of secondary importance.
John will have none of this. Rather, he informs us, we are commanded to believe the name of His Son Jesus Christ.
The translation of this verse which reads, . . . that we should believe in the name of His Son Jesus Christ, is unfortunate. The phrase to onomati tou hui ou (translated in the name of) does not contain the preposition en (in). The construction is in the dative case! The case of personal interest. When it is used, as here, as the direct object of a verb it is done for a reason, since the normal case of the direct object is the accusative.
Other passages, where the English has in, or on His name, use the Greek eis, (literally into). (For examples, read 1Jn. 5:13, Joh. 1:12; Joh. 2:23; Joh. 3:18) The point is that Johns grammar in this verse makes the command a very personal matter. He is not concerned with formal creedal statements drawn up by councils, as was done at Nicea some time later to settle the gnostic controversy. John is concerned with personal individual conviction that the man, Jesus of Nazareth, is de facto, the unique Son of God.
The second command confronting the child of God in the gnostic crisis is that we love one another. To understand the vital necessity of obedience to this command, we must keep in mind the prayer of Christ (Joh. 17:1-26) and the insistence of the apostles, (eg. Eph. 4:1-5) that the church must be united if it is ever to do the will of God or be worthy of the call of the Gospel.
The controversy brought about by the introduction of gnosticism was furious, and a century after John wrote it, threatened to tear the church permanently asunder. John insists that the protagonists must love one another.
The command obviously applies first of all to those who are on the side of truth! This is no easy command to heed in the face of false teaching, especially when we remember that love is the complete giving of ones self to another for the others benefit and regardless of his reaction to us.
Nevertheless, love is still the only hope of healing the breaches which have been brought about in the family of God by the introduction of false teaching. And the command must be first of all obeyed by those who are on the side of truth. 1Co. 13:1-13 is particularly apropos in controversy. It is in such a situation that love is evidence of Divine Sonship.
It is only in the keeping of these two commandments, to believe and to love, that we remain in Him. Except we believe He is Who He is and our attitude toward our brothers is what His is, we are not actually in Him at all.
Being in Him and He in us recalls at once the truth mentioned above in connection with 1Jn. 2:18-27. He is the Anointed One. We have also been anointed by the gift of the Spirit when we were baptized into Him. (Compare Act. 2:38-39 and Gal. 3:27) We share with Him in the Family of God through this anointing. So, says John, We are knowing that we are remaining in Him, from the Spirit which He has given us.
E.
Questions for Review
1.
The second summary of the message of the incarnation in 1Jn. 3:11 is _____________________________.
2.
It is the nature of the life which we have in Christ to become a source of ___________ to others.
3.
This is accomplished when we _____________________.
4.
How does the murder of Abel by Cain demonstrate that the world is prone to hate those who practice righteousness?
5.
The confrontation of righteousness by unrighteousness normally results in ____________________.
6.
Because love is obedience to God it is also ___________.
7.
When does a Christian pass out of death into life?
8.
Do we love because we have eternal life, or do we have eternal life because we love?
9.
Hate is the absence of ___________ just as ___________ is the absence of light.
10.
The word translated hate in 1Jn. 3:15 means ________________.
11.
Failure to love is proof of the absence of ______________________.
12.
How does the world become aware of love as we know it in Christ?
13.
How do we demonstrate divine love in such a way that it is recognizable?
14.
Just as He brought eternal life in the presence of our need, so we are to give ___________________ in the presence of temporal needs.
15.
Does giving what we can afford demonstrate divine love? Explain.
16.
Many will be surprised in the judgment, who expect to be saved, because they have not learned to give ______________________ rather than ______________________.
17.
How may we have assurance before God, even when our hearts condemn us?
18.
Explain the statement, No Christian has any right to a guilt complex.
19.
One of the greatest blessings of the Christian life is realized forgiveness. Explain this statement in light of 1Jn. 3:20.
20.
The only basis upon which ones heart can fail to condemn him is __________________.
21.
The experience of answered prayer is evidence of _____________ according to 1Jn. 3:22.
22.
What are the two conditions which must be present in our lives in order to pray effectively?
23.
When the word father was mentioned in the society of the first century, the first impression was of parental __________________.
24.
Why does the term father not suggest authority to us today?
25.
Which is more important, the question, Who is Jesus, or our personal belief in the answer, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God?
26.
______________________ is still the only hope of healing the divisions caused by false teaching.
27.
How does the anointing of the Spirit demonstrate that we are in the Christ?
Fuente: College Press Bible Study Textbook Series
(4) BROTHERLY LOVE THE NECESSARY FLOWER OF THE DIVINE LOVE IN THE DIVINE BIRTH (1Jn. 3:11-18).In 1Jn. 2:10 St. John showed the necessary connection between righteousness and love; there is no contradiction between the two: the one is necessary to the other. Justice will become sternness without love; love will be weakness without justice. The two thoughts are introduced and connected in both halves of the Epistles. (See 1Jn. 2:3-11.) Here the duty of love is still more strongly insisted on, as the general subject is the love of God, as in the first half of the Epistle it was the light of God. We have (a) the command or message of Christ; then (b) the contrast of Cain; then (c) the similar conduct of the world (a thought which had occurred before, in 1Jn. 2:1); then (d) the comfort of the connection between love and life, as contrasted with hatred and death; then (e) the identification of the hater with the murderer, and the impossibility of associating the idea of eternal life with the destroyer of temporal life; then (f) the example of Gods love in the death of the Son, urging us even to the same extremity of self-sacrifice; then, (g) as a minor premise, the thought thrust home, for a practical conclusion, that the smaller self-sacrifice of daily assistance to others is an, essential to the Christian life.
(4 a.) (11) For states the reason why brotherly love was added to righteousness at the end of the last paragraph: because it was the earliest and most prominent feature of Christianity presented to them.
Love one another.The injunction is perfectly general, without the restrictions of society; wherever Christian love is due, there it must immediately be paid. (Comp. 1Pe. 1:22.)
(4 b.) (12) Not as Cain, who was of that . . .Rather, Not as Cain was of that . . .; an abrupt conversational form. (Comp. Joh. 6:58.) Cain is introduced as the prototype of envy, jealousy, and the inward hatred which the evil feel at the good.
(4 c.) (13) The conduct of the world to Christians is of a piece with this invariable characteristic of those who are in darkness, exemplified in Cain. (Comp. Joh. 15:18-19; Joh. 17:14; 2Ti. 3:12.)
Marvel not is equivalent to Be not dismayed; be of good courage.
(4 d.) (14) This is a characteristic instance of St. Johns logic. From the terseness and pregnancy of his style, he does not give all the steps of an argument, but frequently turns it upside down, in order more speedily to bring out a forcible spiritual truth. But for this he would have written, We love the brethren, because we have passed from death unto life; but he that abideth in death loveth not. But wishing to put these ideas in the form of a direct encouragement, in face of a hating world, he puts the reason as the conclusion, and the conclusion as the reason. This unexpected turn rivets the attention far more than a rigid deduction. Another ground of assurance has been stated in 1Jn. 2:2 : keeping the behests of Christ, of which (as we have seen) love is the most prominent. The brothers means all the members of the human family: the love of Christ which, in 1Jn. 2:16, we are bidden to imitate, was for the whole world of sinners. (Comp. Mat. 5:44; 1Co. 4:12.)
Passed from death unto life.This dates from the beginning of the new birth, the dawn of eternal life in the converted heart. And just as the perfect Christian love embraces all other Christian virtues, so not only does actual hatred, but the absence of love, indicate absolute spiritual deadness.
(4 e.) (15) Regarding the absence of love as of one class with the presence of hatred, St. John here puts more prominently forward the active member of the class than the quiescent. The statement is intended as an illustration of the fact that where no love is there can neither be eternal life. The full argument would be Where love is not, there is hatred; where hatred is, there is murder; where murder is, there can be no eternal life. (Comp. Mat. 5:21-26.)
(4 f.) (16) Hereby perceive we the love of God.Rather, Hereby know we the true love; meaning, of course, that perfection of love which is God Himself. Christ, the Word made flesh, is regarded as identical with this love, so only the pronoun is used. The highest proof of love is the sacrifice of that which is most precious: nothing could be more precious than the life of the Word made flesh. (Comp. Joh. 10:11; Joh. 10:15; Joh. 10:17-18; Joh. 13:37-38; Joh. 15:13; Gal. 2:20; Eph. 5:2; Eph. 5:25.)
For us.Rather, on our behalf. (See Rom. 5:8.)
And we ought.The reason of this consequence is that we are to be like Christ in everything; as our being is orbed in His, so whatever was His spirit will be ours: even His unparallelled act of self-sacrifice must be reproduced in us, at however great a distance. For the good of our fellows we must be even ready to die. (Comp. Joh. 13:34; Joh. 15:12-13; Rom. 9:3; Rom. 16:3-4.)
(4 g.) But implies a progress from the greater duty to the less; if the less is neglected, far more completely is the command disobeyed.
Good.Rather, sustenance, or necessaries of life.
World is not here used in a bad sense, but merely of such elements of existence as are not spiritual.
The word see is strong, and implies calm and attentive contemplation.
The word translated bowels of compassion is used in the LXX. (Pro. 12:10) for tender mercies. It is used in the New Testament as we use heart, and has nothing to do with bowels. It should be translated compassion.
How abideth.In 1Jn. 2:15 it was eternal life; here St. John thinks of our love to God as one of the two chief signs and products of eternal life: eternal life bringing into activity its relation to its source.
(18) The words My little children, are, as usual, a mark of a sudden access of warmth, tenderness, and earnestness. Word, of course, is antithetical to deed, tongue to truth. The construction of the first pair (which is different from that of the second) implies merely the instruments of the love; that of the second implies its whole condition. St. John hints that there is some danger of this conventionality amongst his friends, and earnestly exhorts them to genuineness. He forbids all the traitorous babble of heartless insincerity, and urges that just, active, straightforward, all-embracing affection which was complete in Christ alone. (Comp. Rom. 12:9; Eph. 4:15; Jas. 2:15-17; 1Pe. 1:22; 2Jn. 1:1; 3Jn. 1:1.)
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
4. This purification is manifested in love to our brother and in actual benefaction, 1Jn 3:11-18.
11. The message from the beginning The original announcement by Christ was the law of love.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
‘For this is the message which you heard from the beginning, that we should love one another, not as Cain was of the evil one, and killed his brother. And why did he kill him? Because his works were evil, and his brother’s righteous.’
‘For this is the message which you heard from the beginning.’ Compare 1Jn 1:5. Here the reference to ‘the beginning’ is possibly to the beginning of their Christian lives, for the message is to love one another. Compare 1Jn 2:24. Alternatively the thought may be that ‘the beginning’ that they heard from was Genesis 2-4 (compare 1Jn 3:8). For relationships between brothers have been there since the beginning of mankind. The message that God is light is now being followed by the message that God is holy love, but it is love that is compatible with that light.
John begins the section by concentrating on the importance of Christians loving fellow-Christians, those true to the essentials of the faith. He points out that it has been true from the beginning, even from the time of Adam. For there were two brothers (Genesis 4). One was righteous. He sought to be faithful to the will of God. The other was rebellious. He did not ‘do well’. He did not seek the will of God. And so, instead of repenting, rebellious Cain slew righteous Abel. He revealed himself as of the Evil One. He revealed himself for what he was, a rebel against God, deceived and influenced by Satan (but not a worshipper of Satan. His descendants probably worshipped God as El). And it was revealed in his failure to love his brother.
And why did he not love his brother? Because his own deeds were sinful and his brother’s righteous. Thus he became inflamed against his brother and killed him.
In both Jewish and early Christian writings Cain appears as a type of those who refuse to obey God and who refuse to love their brothers. The Testament of Benjamin (Joh 7:5), for example, looks forward to the punishment of those who “are like Cain in the envy and hatred of brothers.” Philo expanded on the whole theme. Jude speaks of ‘the way of Cain’ (Jud 1:11). And so on.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
The Essential Nature of Christian Love As A Test Of Faithfulness to God ( 1Jn 3:11-15 ).
In all this we must keep in mind that the emphasis is on loving our brothers who are true to the Gospel, those who walk in the light. As we have seen earlier, whether men love those who are true to the Gospel reveals their own attitude to the Gospel. They love those who are of the truth because they love the truth. The same is true here. One final test of a Christian is love for those who are true to God, and love for the truth itself, resulting from walking in the light.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
The Centrality of Christian Love ( 1Jn 3:11 to 1Jn 4:21 ).
The reference to loving one’s brother, deliberately added almost as an appendage in 1Jn 3:10 in order to introduce the next section, now leads on to that section where love is pre-eminent. Previously any emphasis has been on God’s love for His own (1Jn 2:5; 1Jn 2:15; 1Jn 3:1) although love of fellow-Christians has not been totally ignored (1Jn 2:8-11), but from now on the thought becomes central. The emphasis has been on the fact that God is pure, unalloyed light (1Jn 1:5), and His love must therefore be seen as coming from within that sphere of light, but now he tells us that from the God Who is light issues forth His holy love, for He is not only light but love (1Jn 4:8). God, says John, is holy love, love which is also pure, righteous and true, and so we who live in the light should love one another, for if we are His it will be part of what we are.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
1Jn 3:11. For this is the message In this verse we have St. John’s first reason why Christians should love one another; namely, “It is the message or command of God in Christ.”
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
1Jn 3:11 . confirms the thought expressed in the foregoing, that he who does not love his brother is not of God.
] refers to the following , with a retrospective allusion to . . . The word = “ message ,” is here to be taken in the meaning of “ commission ,” “ commandment. ” With the reading , comp. 1Jn 1:5 . By the words , which do not refer to the Old Testament period (Grotius: etiam sub lege), or to “the beginning of history” (Ebrard), the commandment of brotherly love is characterized as the which is necessarily connected with the preaching of the gospel; comp. chap. 1Jn 2:7 .
. . .] states, not the purpose for which the is given, but the import of it, as frequently with words of wishing, commanding, etc.; comp. Buttm. p. 203 ff. [219] The shows that the apostle is in this section treating of the love of Christians towards one another; it is self-evident that the Christian has to fulfil the general commandment of love even to those who are not Christians. Yet John does not here enter on that, as it would be inappropriate, for he has here to do with the ethical antithesis between Christians as children of God and those who are opposed to them as children of the devil; it is only on the ground of this antithesis that it can be said: , 1Jn 2:15 .
[219] Braune would have the idea of purpose retained; but in his interpretation: “it is not merely the substance of a commandment that is treated of, but a commandment which is contained as a task in the gift of the message ,” he quite overlooks the fact that if = in order that (and only thus is the original idea of purpose retained), it cannot refer to .
Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary
4. Brotherly Love is the Sum-Total of the Divine Law
1Jn 3:10-18 (10b-18)
10b Whosoever20 doeth not righteousness is not of God, neither21 he that loveth not his 11brother. For22 this is the message23 that ye heard from the beginning, that we should love one another. 12Not as Cain, who was of that wicked one,24 and slew his brother. And wherefore slew he him? Because his own25 works were evil, and26 his brothers righteous. 13Marvel not, my brethren,27 if the world hate28 you. We know that we 14have passed from29 death unto life, because we love the brethren. He that loveth not 15his brother30 abideth in death. Whosoever31 hateth his brother is a murderer:32 and 16ye know that no murderer13 hath eternal life abiding in him. Hereby perceive33 we the love of God, because he laid down his life for us: and we ought to lay down34 our lives for the brethren. 17But whoso hath this worlds good,35 and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up his bowels of compassion36 from him,37 how dwelleth the38 18love of God in him? My39 little children, let us not love in word, neither in40 tongue; but in deed and in truth.
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
The transition. 1Jn 3:10 b.
1Jn 3:10 b. Every one that doeth not righteousness, is not of God.Thus the Apostle compresses the one, positive, formally taken and described side of the preceding section and having thus fully, concisely and distinctly recapitulated, he now quickly adds the essential characteristic of that righteousness as the leading theme of what follows, viz.:
And he that loveth not his brother.Calvin: Hoc membrum vice expositonis additum est. It is interesting to compare the progress of thought in this part with that in the first part: this section 1Jn 3:10-18 is related to 1Jn 2:29; 1Jn 3:1-10 like 1Jn 2:6-11 to 1Jn 1:5 and 1Jn 1:6 to 1Jn 2:5; 1Jn 2:6-7; 1Jn 2:11 : , , brotherly love, and 1Jn 3:11 the , 1Jn 2:7 : 1Jn 3:11 : as in 1Jn 3:11; the 1Jn 2:6; 1Jn 3:16; and both times after the example of Christ; respectively disclosing our relation to death and life here (1Jn 3:14-15) and to light and darkness there (1Jn 2:9-11). But this section draws more on life (Cain and Abel 1Jn 3:12, poverty and benevolence 1Jn 3:17-18) and reaches more into life.
refers back to 1Jn 2:29; 1Jn 3:7, but the omission of the Article renders the idea more general and indicates the leading thought with the self-evident reference to God and Christ. Thus denotes here both to be born of God and to be the child of God. before is epexegetical, and explains as ; hence it is neither=proinde (Episcopius) nor adds a new particular, something different (Rickli, Socinus, who defines as Christian virtue excelling Jewish legality); nor is a part or moment of (Bengel, Spener, Neander, Gerlach), but its substance and nature (Huther,41 also Dsterdieck). Cf. Rom 13:8-10; Gal 5:14; Col 3:14; 1Ti 1:5; Joh 13:34 sq.; Joh 14:15; Joh 15:12; Joh 15:17. Brotherly love is the sum-total of all right-doing (Besser), love is the fulfilling of the law. , in the Johannean passages like here, denotes brotherly love, the love which Christians have for one another; so also in the corresponding sections 1Jn 2:9-11; 1Jn 4:20-21. is consequently not= Luk 10:36 (Ebrard, who sees here a contradiction to Mat 5:44; 1Co 4:12, but without sufficient reason; Rickli and others).
The commandment of Christ, 1Jn 3:11.
1Jn 3:11. Because this is the message which ye have heard from the beginning, that we should love one another.He that loves the brother must be (out) of God, and brotherly love is the deed of righteousness, because the commandment is from Him. is here= 1Jn 2:7. Bengels remark is only half true: liberalissima appellatio, nunquam legem appellat; occurs often, but never. But the message implies the commandment as indicated by . The reading , promise, cannot be sustained without a forced interpretation: it is the goodness, power and grace of God that we should love one another. The commandment of brotherly love has been given from the beginning, since the Gospel has been preached, since you have been Christians; it is and remains indissolubly united with the Gospel and Christianity; applies to the first and to all Christians. denotes the purpose, the work to be done and not only the substance or contents of the (Huther), for the reference is not only to the substance of a commandment, but to a commandment specified by means of the message, which lies in the message given as a task, a work to be done.
The opposite in Cain. 1Jn 3:12-13.
1Jn 3:12. Not, as Cain was of the wicked one and slew his brother.The sentence is imperfect like Joh 6:58, and is a breviloquentia, of frequent and diversified occurrence in the classics; cf. Winer, p. 646, who cites in a note a parallel sentence from Demosthenes (Mid. p. 415). The comparison is left incomplete, as in animated conversation when there is no room for misunderstanding; there is nothing to be supplied; the reader or hearer knows from the context what is meant. In the present case: Not, as Cain was of the wicked one and slew his brother, (shall it or may it be so with us). [See note 5 in Apparat. Crit.M.]. Hence it is neither an independent exclamation (Sander); nor need we supply (Grotius, Lcke), nor (Beza, Socinus), nor sitis or the like. refers back to 1Jn 3:8 as contrasted with 1Jn 3:10 b. Hence the reference is to the wicked one. The sentence specifies the reason of that action, even as 1Jn 3:8. and are correlates. [The wild notion of the Rabbis concerning the diabolical nature of Cain may be interesting to the student (Zohar in Genes, Gen 4:1): Rabbi Eeazar dixit: Cum projecisset serpens ille immunditiem suam in Evam, eaque illam suscepisset, remque cum Adam habuisset, peperit duos filios, unum ex latere illo immundo et unum ex latere Adami; fuitque Cain similis imagine superiorum h. e. angelorum et Abel imagine inferiorum h. e. hominum, ac propterea divers fue-runt vi istius ab illius viis. Equidem Cain fuit filius spiritus immundi, qui est serpens malus; Abel vero fuit filius Adami; et propterea quod venit de parte angeli mortis, ideo interfecit fratrem suum.–M.]. The verb denotes cultro jugulum aperire ut sanguis effluat, then to kill, in sacrifice, as the martyrs were slain by the ungodly. Rev 5:6; Rev 6:4; Rev 6:9; Rev 18:24. Hence the word does not warrant the inference that the knife was the instrument of the murder (Piscator), but rather denotes that the death of Abel was martyrdom inflicted by an ungodly hand, or finely intimates that Cain, in his hatred, offered a sacrifice to his God, the devil. The next clause, at all events gives prominence to the diabolical character of Cains deed, the eager question And wherefore slew he him? being promptly answered thus: Because his works were wicked, but his brothers righteous. answers to , and denotes Cains whole manner of life (Spener), of which the murder of his brother was one form of expression, his whole manner of life as well as this specific exhibition of it being identical as to cause and originnamely the devil. For if the wicked one had not influenced Cains whole manner of life and if that had not been wholly wicked, he would not and could not have committed this specific act of fratricide. The term , as distinguished from is very significant. , from or , denotes toil or hardship (and is opposed to , good, honest, useful, friendly, serviceable) and then malignity, malignus; , bad, malus, is the opposite of , good and valuable. Rev 16:2; Sir 31:4; Mat 7:11; Mat 12:35; Mat 5:11; Luk 12:35; 3Jn 1:10. The inwardly evil nature is , that which is inimical, hurtful and displeasing to others is . is the most suitable term to describe the nature of Satan, the enemy of God, His kingdom and His people, as well as the works of the devils children. The additional clause the context requires us to refer to , as pointing out that the piety and the walk of the children of God exactly answering to the law of God are loathsome to the anti-divine world. That devilishness continues still Joh 3:19; Joh 7:7; Joh 17:14. Hence the monition:
1Jn 3:13. Marvel not, brethren, if the world hateth you.The same idea is already expressed in 1Jn 3:1 ( ) Cain is the type of the; 1Jn 2:15-17). Magis esset mirabile, si diligerent eos. (Didymus). The address in this connection exerts a beneficial influence: John expresses his love of those whom the world hates and this expression contains a ground of their rejoicing and conveys to them the sweet consolation of the fellowship of love. The particle is and remains=if; if it had been the Apostles object to describe the hatred of the world as actually present, he might have used ; but he signifies by that the readers collectively or individuals at the time being, will not in the end have to endure hatred; but the Indicative denotes that the case will doubtless arise. So Mar 15:44 (Vulgate falsely: si jam odisset); Act 26:8; Winer, Grammar p. 307; Khner, 2:480 sq. Hence Sander, who makes =, S. Schmidt who makes it=etiamsi, and Ebrard who explains=if ever the case occurs, are in the wrong, for the reference is to a necessary condition. [ denotes neither a doubt nor only a possibility, for it is not only possible but from the nature of the case necessary, that the world hates the children of God; only the form of the sentence is hypothetical, not the thought it expresses. Cf. Joh 15:18. Huther.M.].
Amplification of the Antitheses: Love and Life, Hatred and Death; 1Jn 3:14-15.
1Jn 3:14. We Know.In John includes himself among those he had just called and expresses their confident assurance, the world and its hatred notwithstanding, which is and ought to be a source of strength and consolation. The object affirmed in the sequel shows that the reference is to the experience of believers, of the children of God, and not to the Apostles only, (Lyra) or that it is only the conclusion drawn on the ground of a good conscience, (Estius).
That we have passed over out of Death into Life.The Prefect signifies an action of the past or the past of an action still continuing in the present, in the condition that has been effected: we are those who have passed over, Winer, Grammar, p. 288, 299. The Perfect must not be taken per enallagen, for the Future (Schlichting) or the Present (Didymus, Oecumenius), or the verb must not be construed =jus or spem habere ad vitam (Grotius, Carpzov). Cf. Joh 5:24 : . Of course cannot be taken physically but spiritually, but it must be taken as a real fact; it is= , 1Jn 2:29 : for is the real life, divine, eternal life (1Jn 1:1-2; 1Jn 2:17; 1Jn 2:25),=the and the (1Jn 1:5; 1Jn 2:21-22) of which the children of God are partakers; the is the opposite of this life,=the and the , all of which belong to the . The Apostle, therefore, does not speak of a sentiment (Paulus) or caligo, infelicitas moralis (Semler), but of relations and conditions, of regeneration, of the new life of the reconciled child of God. This implies that those who have, not yet passed over, are still or will be before this transition into life in Christ; hence there is not the faintest colour for the assertion of Hilgenfeld, that the Apostle did share the gnostic view of the original metaphysical difference of men.
Because we love the brethren.From this conduct we may know that relation, from these acts of brotherly love that state of adoption by God. Hence the former is the first and this the second and it is false to consider brotherly love as the cause of regeneration or even as a part of justification in order to complete it, and as conditio gratiose a Deo requisita, as do the R. Catholics (Estius, Lyra) and the Pelagians (Episcopius). Brotherly love is only the condition of the certainty of the knowledge that we are justified and the children of God, and not the condition of this new life itself. [ and are really one and the same thing with this difference that is the state and the activity of the believer; from this blissful, eternal life groweth love, and love in its turn worketh happiness and eternal life; hence the Apostle adds(Huther)M].
He that loveth not, abideth in death.As usual (1Jn 1:8, sqq., 1Jn 2:22, sqq.), the negative is added in a concise, pregnant form. [See note 11 in Appar. Critic.M]. The statement is quite general he that loveth not, without specifying the object, viz. the brother. The force of the Present should be retained. To be in death is connected, as something permanent, with not loving. They are one in the other, yet not so that the not loving is the cause of the abiding in death, but, as is manifest from the context, so that we may know the abiding in death from the not loving. [The two are identical. Besser, Where hatred is there is death, where love is there is life; yes, love is life itself.M.].
1Jn 3:15. Every one that hateth his brother is a man-killer. denotes the universal application of this thought. Not loving is described as equal to hating ones brother. [Not to love=to hate.M.]; pure indifference is impossible to the living spirit of man (Huther). Luther rightly observes: Nova sententia coram mundo, quod non diligere sit occidere. Bengel: Omne odium est conatus contra vitam; at vita vitam non insectatur; qui odit fratrem, aut ilium autse ipsum vult occidere. Lyra (odisse pejus quam non diligere.), Schlichting (Qui non amat, nec bene vult nec male; qui vero odit, male vult ); and others are wrong. Not loving is only the state of quiescence exhibited in acts of hatred. According to our Lords exposition of the fifth commandment (Mat 5:21-26) he is an that hateth his brother. Nam quem odimus, vellemus periisse (Calvin); hatred is not only a beginning or cause of murder, but a murder in heart, be it a wish, a thought or a purpose or only the passion which afflicts the brothers life without thinking of his death. Latro es, antequam inquines manum (Seneca). Here is evidently a reference to Cain, 1Jn 5:12; the case of Cain shows plainly how hatred of ones brother and homicide go together. The word , only here and Joh 8:44, in this place applies to Cain who slew Abel, his brother, in the Gospel to Satan who destroyed, murdered Adam. Notwithstanding this difference, the two passages are connected with each other, the one shedding light on the other. Cf. Lange on Joh 8:44; Vol. IV. p. 244 sq.The devil, having seduced Eve, and Adam through her to sin, to the transgression of the divine law of which death was the penalty fixed by God.Sin causing mortality is itself a kind of dying, the fall or falling into death [German: The fall of sin, i.e. the fall, a fall of death.M], and sin, born of lust, when it is finished, bringeth forth death (Jam 1:15); the first sin was a falling from the life created (out) of God into death threatened as a punishment. Thus Satan became the murderer of Adam and Eve in the strictest sense of the word (Wis 1:11-13; Wis 2:23-24). With the entrance of sin, moreover, there died in Eve the love of her husband whom she had seduced, and in Adam the love of his wife whom he accused to God and on whom he laid the guilt. There hatred and death are again together. In Cain also there was the hatred of his brother united with the murder of his brother, whereby he showed that he was . Cf. Stier, Reden Jesu, Vol. I 3:414 sqq.
And ye know that no man-killer hath eternal life abiding in him.This concludes the thought: 1Jn 3:10 b led the Apostle to speak of 1Jn 3:14, then of 1Jn 3:15 and in remembrance of Cain of ; he first said 1Jn 3:10 b , but here . Before he said, he is in death, but now, in him is not eternal life, consequently death is in him. The Apostle denies that he possesses permanently and fully (Lcke) eternal life and thus denotes the permanent state of death (Dsterdieck) of him that hates and kills his brother. The Present has respect to this present life; it is not habebit (a Lapide). Hence not the future glory (a Lapide, Bede and others). certainly intimates the existence of eternal life, of baptism, etc., out of or in the word of God by means of Christian instruction and the Christian family-discipline; for the Apostle speaks of and to Christians. But even such gifts of God are consumed by hatred abiding; hence he loses entirely the possession of eternal life, so that nothing thereof abideth in him; is therefore not an intensified to be (Huther), nor must the want of the Article be pressed as if the reference were only to powers of the future world (Ebrard). This the Apostle lays down as an undeniable fact of Christian experience and consciousness (); hence they know it not from the fifth commandment (S. Schmidt) or from the Old Testament with its death-penalty in the case of murderers, spiritually interpreted (Grotius, Lcke).
Description of brotherly love, 1Jn 3:16-18.
1Jn 3:16. Hereby have we known love that He laid down His life for us.S. Schmidt: Ne quis vel se ipsum decipiat, vel ab aliis decipiatur, exponendum etiam erit, que sit vera et Christiana caritas. First after the example of Christ. On cf. on 1Jn 2:3; on , 1Jn 3:3; 1Jn 3:7; 1Jn 2:6; = cognitum habemus. should be taken in a general sense without any further qualification: love.Bengel: Amoris natura. In Christ may be known love, the being and nature of love. Hence we must not supply (Carpzov and others), or (Grotius, Calov, Spener, al.); the Vulgate (amorem Dei) constrains the Romanists to do so. Ebrards explanation is rather forced: we have known love as consisting in this, as if we had , and this were described in the following as the predicate and as if had only an introductory and secondary sense. Both the form (the position of the words) and the thought (to give His life = love) render that exposition untenable. The point is that whereby love is known: (Joh 15:13; cf. Joh 10:11; cf. Joh 10:15; cf. Joh 10:17-18; Joh 13:37-38)=vitam ponere (Cicero ad Fam. 9:24); this is the highest proof of love; for love imparts her very best, her most precious goods, the or (Gal 2:20; Eph 5:2); this makes Christ the object of the Fathers love (Joh 10:17). The context required here , for our protection; literally over us, who had fallen, were wounded, in danger, of perishing from our wounds or in the hands of enemies, fighting against the enemies, protecting us, becoming our substitute and assuming the fight for us: hence it is not exactly identical with , and yet the two prepositions touch each other in thought in indissoluble correlation (Dsterdieck) cf. 1Jn 2:2.
And we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.From the act of Christs love for us springs a duty towards our brethren, incumbent on us (); the thought is similar to 1Jn 2:3; 1Jn 2:6. The example of Christ must not be without corresponding works on our part (1Jn 3:3; 1Jn 3:7). The essential union of believers to Christ must exhibit itself in the real moulding of their life after the pattern of Christ, in the use of the imparted gifts and the solution of the task assigned to us by the bestowal of that gift. Cf. Joh 13:34; Joh 15:12-13; Joh 21:18-19; Rom 16:3-4.
1Jn 3:17. But whoso has the worlds goods (sustenance of life).
By the adversative John denotes the progress from the greater, which is justly insisted upon, to the less, the non-performance of which, therefore, appears as a correspondingly greater violation of the rule just laid down. (Dsterdieck), makes the sentence quite general. The proverb quoted by Grotius: gives the double sense of life, and the necessaries of life, or the means of sustaining life. Cf. Mar 12:44 (Luk 21:4); Luk 8:45; Luk 15:30. Col. 5:12. Beza: res mundan, des biens de ce monde. The Genitive simply points to the sphere to which the belongs, and, according to 1Jn 2:17, denotes the profane and worthless character of these goods, as contrasted with the eternal love and the eternal life in Christ. is the antithesis of ; the Christian shares the latter with Christ, the former with the world. The reference is not to uncommon wealth, but rather to any kind of property (, emphatically in anteposition), though it be in limited circumstances, a mere mite, or bread and potatoes. He that hath the means to give and
Seeth his brother have need. pictorially describes the attitude and activity of the spectator; it is not a hasty look, but permanent looking on and into it (Mat 27:35; Mar 15:40; Mar 15:47; Mar 12:41; Luk 21:6; Luk 23:35; Joh 2:23; Joh 6:19; Joh 6:62; Joh 7:3; Joh 9:8; Joh 10:12; Joh 14:17; Joh 16:10; Joh 16:16); he has it before him like a picture which he contemplates with calmness and attention, . On the expression and the thought cf. Eph 4:28; Mar 2:25. Act 2:45; Act 4:35; Act 20:34; Act 28:10; Php 4:6. [He beholds the brothers need with unmoved eyeM.].
And shutteth up his bowels [inwards] from Him.After the analogy of the Hebrew , is =, Pro 12:10 and very often in the New Testament. Bengel: Cum visceribus clauditur vel aperitur res familiaris. Aspectus miserorum corda spectatorum illico pulsat vel etiam aperit. The heart ought to open itself in compassion and sympathy and move and open the hand to communicate; but it is under the aggravating circumstances of his having the means and beholding his brothers need that he shutteth up his heart and turns away from him ( ). The same pregnancy of thought occurs at 1Jn 2:28. A similar use of may be seen at Luk 19:42; Joh 12:36 b. Hence we need neither supply (Carpzov), nor =coram (Socinus). [This was the case of Dives. He saw Lazarus flung at his gate, Lazarus desiring to be fed with the crumbs which fell from the rich mans table, but he desired in vain; Dives saw him lie in misery; the dogs had pity and sympathized with the poor man, but Dives, who fared sumptuously every day, looked with unpitying eye on his brothers distress; he saw in him a beggar, not a brother. See Augustine, Serm. 178, c. 3, and Massillons beautiful Lent Sermon on this subject.M.]The negative is emphatically expressed with an implied paracletical inference in the interrogative sentence:
How abideth the love of God in him?A similar construction may be seen 1Jn 4:20; Joh 3:12; Joh 5:47. The substance of the question answers to 1Jn 3:15 : , where eternal life not abiding and even not being in him is inferred from the non-existence of brotherly love, while here the non-existence of the love of God is inferred from the same premises. is our love to God and indicates the motion of eternal life to its fountain, as in 1Jn 2:5. This love to God does not abide, where it does not become operative and preserve its vitality in the active exhibition of brotherly love. Hence it is neither Gods love to us (Calov), nor the love prescribed by God (Socinus, Grotius), nor the love which answers to that of God and Christ (S. Schmidt).
Final exhortation, 1Jn 3:18.
1Jn 3:18. Little children, let us not love [German: that we do not love] in word, nor with the tongue, but in deed and in truth.The affecting address, , denotes at once the geniality and zeal of John; his earnestness is brought out in the rapid, hortatory, all-embracing expression: . The four substantives occur in pairs and as correlates. First: and to describe false love; then: and () . It is important to note that the first pair in the Dative indicates only the means by which love is or becomes operative, while the preposition which by the copula belongs also to denotes the element wherein it moves (Joh 4:24). The first pair simply denotes the outwardness of a love which only makes use of words and the tongue, while the contrast indicates that it is destitute of deed and truth, that it is of real activity and inward heartiness which are the characteristics of true love. The Apostle accordingly annexes to , the word, which possibly might announce or accompany the deed, the emphatic , the Article serving the purpose of rendering the expression more conspicuous (Lcke); the tongue, as the member appointed to utter the word (Huther); so that love is not simply the word which might flow from the heart and be the instrument of its application, but stops with the tongue, the means and sole instrument of the word which does not proceed from the heart. Therefore is contrasted with and with and frequently connected together, as in Luk 24:19; Act 7:22; sometimes and (1Co 4:19-20), or and (1Th 1:5) are placed in opposition. Bengel: Sermone otioso, lingua simulante. Lyra says excellently: Verbo, facto nihil; lingua fallaci; hic amor non solum, fictitius et nanus, sed etidm proditorius. denotes the hollow nothingness, the purely outward babble which without inward truth produces only a hypocritical show (Dsterdieck). Hence we need not supply to (Bede, Socinus, Sander and others); and Grotius is also wrong who chiastically [i e. crosswiseM.] opposes: and , , thus: Verbo amat qui prdicat a se diligi proximum, non autem vere diligit; lingua diligit qui egenti dat bona verba. Nor is Huther right, who takes and as epexegetical additions without introducing a difference to and respectively, as if the two words of each member expressed only one idea [He says, to express the idea mathematically, that : = : () .M. Compare 2Jn 1:1; 3Jn 1:1, and Jam 2:15-16.
DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL
1. All the doings ( 1Jn 3:10 b, and 1Jn 3:12) and all the dispositions ( 1Jn 3:10 b and 1Jn 3:14, 1Jn 3:15) of men points to a deeper ground, a fellowship with God or with Satan which is not discernible per se, neither to others nor to the respective persons themselves, but discernible by their disposition and doing.
2. The grossest transgression, e.g. the fratricide of Cain, is never alone, but exhibits itself as one of many, as one of a greater complex of manifold transgressions and plainly indicates, that matters must be bad in other respects, because otherwise this would not have happened (1Jn 3:12).
3. Like attracts like, unlike repels unlike: love and antipathy are reciprocal. The Christian need not be surprised that the world from which he has separated himself, has turned away and remains alienated from him, dislikes and hates him; it is just so with himself, with this difference, that the world hates to persecute and destroy, whereas the Christian strives to improve and to overcome.
4. Before it can be said: (1Jn 3:14), we are , . Consequently:
1. Before such a stepping forth has taken place and without it, no one is a child of God.
2. Such stepping forth is indispensable in the case of any and every one who desires to become a child of God.
3. It is possible to all who are called to become the children of God.
4. The children of God and the children of the world are perfectly alike in kind and nature before the difference connected with such transition sets in.
5. Consider that those who are not yet brethren, may and shall become brethren as well as thou.Indeed, it is not said here how it comes to pass, but it is plainly stated and may be seen at Joh 5:24, a passage to which the Apostle unmistakably refers here, and from which may be inferred what is said here and well expressed by Scholiast II.: , of course . But we must not by any means say with the Roman Catholics that although faith produces the beginning of our justification before God, yet the love to God and to our neighbour increases the same. This love is simply the sign and mark of recognition that our justification has taken place, that we are justified. Augustine accordingly says very correctly: Redeat unus quisque ad cor suum; si ibi invenerit caritatem fraternam, securus sitjam in dextera est.
5. The principle affirmed at 1Jn 3:16 as a duty () with reference to the example of Christ that we also should lay down our lives, is a general one. We must not regard it with the Roman Catholics as a counsel (consilium), but view and observe it with Evangelical Christians as a precept (prceptum). It applies not only to priests or saints, but to all Christians: Ministri verbi non debent fugere in periculo pestis (Luther); neither physicians in case of a pestilence, nor parents and brothers and sisters, nor the government in seasons of insurrection, nor soldiers in war, in the fight, before a battle, nor a mother when she has to nurse her child, nor a man when duty calls. This saying, moreover, must not be treated casuistically after the manner of Socinus, who thinks a Christian ought to die for a non-Christian if thereby his soul may be saved, or if the preservation of a brother is more necessary to the common weal than his own; or after that of Ammon (Sittenlehre 3, 24 sq.) be set aside, who thinks it right that in common danger of shipwreck, fire or self-defence, men are justified to kill others if they cannot save their own life in any other way. Dsterdieck rightly observes: Concrete directions respecting the practical application of the principle can only be given in the connection of a complete system of Ethics in which especially the duties of Christian self-preservation and the virtues of Christian prudence and simplicity as well as those of Christian self-denial and Christian courage must be exhibited not as limitations, but as sacred ordinances of the fully valid evangelical principle as described by St. John. As St. Paul says 1Co 3:22 : and at Php 1:21 calls: , so the giving up of ones own life in the calling and for the love of Christ is an (Rom 14:8). Cf. Mat 10:39; Mat 16:25.
6. The duty of beneficence is universal; it relates as much to the rich as to the poor; it is immaterial whether a man has much or little of the . The having much or little determines the giving with or without self-denial, with or without deprivation, consequently the giving with ease or with difficulty. But nothing is said here on that head or on the situation of the necessitous, his greater or lesser need, which may be very extraordinary; nor is any thing said of the worthiness or unworthiness of the necessitous. But the remark of Luther has a very important bearing on the care of our parochial poor; he says: Vult nos de nostro largiri; non de alieno aut communi, sicut stulti Anabaptist faciunt, qui tollunt proprietatem rerum, sine qua non possunt respublic consistere. Private charity, even personal charity, is here distinctly referred to. In this connection it must be supposed as ranged under the fifth commandment.Its opposite is Stoicism which includes also compassion among the passions to be left off: , , , .
7. We must not think lightly of the word and its instrument, the tongue. But as the mouth-work of hypocrisy is hateful to the Lord (Mat 6:5), so the mouth-work of brotherly love is equally hateful to John, since neither the word nor the tongue is in the service of the love of the heart and speaks or is spoken separate from the heart and contrary to the life in the heart. The friendly utterance of the mouth must and ought to be in the case of Christians the friendly utterance of the heart. Otherwise it is only a without the (2Ti 3:5). For the contrary see, Mat 12:34-35; Rom 10:8-10.
8. These concrete particulars of the laying down of our lives, of communicating the sustenance of life and of the love to our brother in deed and in truth plainly and pathetically indicate that regeneration and adoption by God, (1Jn 2:29) if it is a reality, penetrates, as the central life-power the whole periphery of life, so that we read not only of a but of , 2Pe 3:11 and even of the (1Ti 2:10). For the diversity of good works induced by the faith of the heart makes it evident to others that the Christian sonship is not a show, but power and truth; his conduct towards the brethren reveals his relation to God the Father and this relation produces such conduct.
[The Apostles declaration that every one that hateth his brother is a murderer or man-killer embodies the well known ethical principle that the moral quality of an action does not belong to the outward act, nor to the conception of it, nor to the resolution to carry it into effect, but to the intention. Hatred in St. Johns view, is murder committed in intention, and he that cherishes hatred towards his brother stands convicted of murder before God and at the bar of his own conscience.M.]
HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL
The twofold piety of a child of God; 1. Obedience to the Father; 2. Love of the brethren.Like the elder brother thou mightest stay with the Father and work in His field, be envious of and take offence at the friendly reception accorded to the younger son by the Father in the parable of the prodigal (Luke 16). Cain was the elder brother. This applies primarily to the servants of the Church but it applies also to many others. Cain did not hate Abel because of his herds, for he had his fair fields; or because of his parents love, for he was his mothers pride; or because of personal beauty or any outward, temporal good; but he hated him because of his piety, on account of the favour he found before God.Cain [ a lance a spear, a weapon.M.], called by Eve in feminine rashness her weapon, and in maternal vanity favoured and spoiled by her, made his offering of anything he found without any particular discrimination as to its quality, while Abel, disregarded and neglected, carefully selected the best of the best and presented it as an offering to his God.Thou art able to take the life of thy brothers body but in doing so thou forfeitest thy own immortal life; thou becomest a man-killer in respect of thy brothers body, but in respect of thyself, a suicide, even a suicide of thy soul; depriving thy brother of his bodily, earthly life, thou deprivest thyself of thy spiritual, eternal life.Three difficult questions: 1. Canst thou hate those whom God loves? 2. Darest thou shorten or waste the term of grace which God accords? 3. Wilt thou cast from thee the gift of God in thee, eternal life?Threefold exhibition of brotherly love: 1. Laying down ones life for the brethren at dutys call. 2. Communication of ones possessions to the needy brethren. 3. Friendly and sincere readiness to oblige and aid the brethren.Three things thou hast for the benefit of others: Body and life, goods and property, hand and heart.
Epistle to Diognetus [cap. 6]:As the soul is in the body, so are Christians in the world. The soul dwells in the body but is not of the body; so Christians also dwell in the world, but are not of the world. The invisible soul is, as it were, keeping guard in the visible body; this is the mark of Christians as long as they remain in the world: their piety is invisible. The flesh hates and wars against the soul, which (the soul) is, however, by no means wronged [=affecta injuria.M.] by it because it (the soul) forbids the indulgence of the lusts of the flesh; so the world hates the Christians, although they by no means wrong it but only resist the lusts of the world. The soul loves the flesh and the members which hate it; so also Christians love their enemies. [Cf. Mat 5:44.M.]
Basilius:Because the devils hatred cannot reach God, he seeks to hurt and destroy man, the image of God.
Augustine:The Christian lives, but, as it were, in winter; the root is alive but the boughs look dry; the living pith and marrow is within, and within are hidden the leaves and the fruitsbut they wait for summer.
Ambrose:Nemo dicat proprium, quod commune est; esurientium panis est, quem tu detines; nudorum indumentum est, quod tu recludis.
Luther:The world is a den of murderers, subject to the devil. Would we live on earth we ought to be satisfied with being guests therein and putting up at an inn whose host is a roguish host, whose house bears the sign and title over the door: Murder and lie. For Christ Himself did affix such a sign and title to his house right over the door by saying that He is a murderer and a liar. A murderer to destroy the body; a liar to seduce the soul.
Starke:Because God is Love and loves those who are born of Him, therefore love of the brethren is also the mark of the regenerate.Art thou tempted with the thought that thou art without the grace of God, without the adoption, without salvation: be of good courage! If thou really and heartily lovest the godly, yea even the wicked and thy foes, thou mayest be quite sure that all these blessings are thy own.Good Christian, whenever thou readest and hearest some portion of Divine truth, consider well the purpose of God in announcing it and shape thy course accordingly.Contrary dispositions are not uncommon among actual brothers; the one may be good, the other bad, the one may be saved, the other damned.The power of Satan over those children is so great that he changes even natural love into hatred.Mad features of the ungodly! they cannot bear that the works of others are goodwhy? What is it that envy will not do? They also do not like it because it puts them to shame and sometimes becomes the means of their punishment.Happy state of believers as contrasted with that of unbelievers! The former truly live, the latter are dead though their body is alive. We mourn for the deadhow much more ought we to mourn for the ungodly, for they are spiritually dead, before they die, and if they die, they fall into eternal death.God has not only connected the hand but also the mouth and the heart with the fifth commandment.Hatred is not a trifling sin of infirmity compatible with a mans continuing in a state of grace, but so great a sin as to entail the loss of eternal life, which is irrecoverably lost while hatred lasts. He that hates is a double murderer, he wants to hurt others and deprives himself of eternal life.To have had life does not render us blessed; but he is blessed with whom eternal life abides.It is one thing to have this worlds goods and another to covet them: the one is the blessing of God, the other covetousness.Poverty is no disgrace: a man may be poor and yet be the child of God, the brother of Christ and of good Christians.Doing good to the poor is not only incumbent upon the rich, possessed of great abundance, but to every one who has this worlds goods and is able to communicate; even as every one has to work, also for this purpose, that he may have something to give to the poor.Love is blind in not having respect to the person of the poor, whether it be known or unknown, strange or native; but it is not blind in taking cognizance of the need it is to relieve.Do not always wait for a poor brothers application, begging, supplication and appeal to thy love; many are ashamed to disclose their need; but if thou knowest thy brothers case, show pity unasked and joyfully.If unable to do anything else, thou canst love with the tongue by words of good counsel and consolation; but see that thy heart be with thy tongue.The greatness of a benefaction does not determine its worth before God, nor does its smallness lessen it; a great benefaction without sincere love is small, even nothing before God; but a small benefaction prompted by sincere and hearty love is great in Gods sight.
Neander: As Cain hated and slew Abel in consequence of the contrast between a godly and an ungodly disposition, so the world hates and slays the children of God in consequence of the same contrariety of disposition. Hence the world and the children of God are ever at war like love and selfishness. Hence Christians need not be surprised, if the world hates them. This is to them the stamp of the divine life, the possession of which renders them the opposite of the world.
Heubner. Being without love makes men like Cain, whose kind is not extinct. The mind of Cain is to destroy the hated children of God;
literary murder also belongs to this head. As to its secret, inmost tendency, all hatred aims at murder.The duplicity of mankind was prefigured in the case of Cain and Abel; this dichotomy runs through the whole Bible. Cain is the prototype of the evil and unloving, Abel the prototype of Christ.A Christian Nil admirari, Psalms 37. Hatred and enmity is that which disquiets, vexes, excites and disconcerts the natural man most. But the Christian is bidden not even to be surprised at it! He knows the world, is aware of what he has to expect of it, he is at peace with God, lives a life of introversion, is so well rooted and grounded in God, so abundantly satisfied with the grace of God, that the worlds hatred does not disturb him. God is his fortress: but he must not leave that fortress.Where the hatred of the world has not yet fully developed, there is most surely a want of decided Christianity.Love displays its most glorious beauty under the worlds hatred. The Christian loves while the world has no idea of the existence of his love.Formerly this world was extra-Christian, but now there is a world on the soil of the Christian Church. Is it offensive, hostile, presumptuous to speak of this difference? then it is the fault of the Bible, of Jesus Christ. We ought to hold up a mirror to all: you are either this or that. But it would be presumption to refer individuals to the class to which they belong, for this is the prerogative of God.Death is the state of insensibility and impotence with respect to whatever is good and godly, the conscience is blunted and without receptivity, the heart is dead without any emotion, or interest in religion. Life is activity, emotion, a sense for, an impulse to and ability for the holy, a work after the will of God, a state of holiness, of a walk well-pleasing to God. Brotherly love is mentioned as a criterion, as a test of life.Think of hatred as the root and beginning of murder. Often a bitter grief is to others more deadly and vitally injurious than a gross bodily injury.Distinguish between that which passes with men and that which passes with God.Never make room for secret anger: or life, the Holy Ghost will depart from thee.The unloving thinks more highly of lifeless, worthless metal than of the living man created in the image of God.What can you accomplish with the metal? Refresh the weary, comfort their hearts and dry their tears! Then you transmute stones into bread, earthly treasures into heavenly.The word is only the shadow of the deed and by no means an equivalent of love or gratitude. (Themistius).
Besser:Where hatred is, there is death: where love is, there is life; yea, love itself is the life.Thus Luther showed that he was willing to lay down his life for the brethren when in the year 1527 he stayed at Wittenberg with those who were stricken with the plague. So the ancient historian Eusebius narrates how a pestilence at Alexandria brought out the difference between the Christians and the pagans. So Hans Egede laid down his life when for the sake of the poor Greenlanders he exchanged his comfortable parish for hunger and cold, for unspeakable toil and sufferings; and the coast of Africa, also, lined with grave-hills with the seed of the negroes proclaims the love which is stronger than death. Would that it might be said of the Christians of our time what Tacitus said of the Christians, viz.: that they are as inflexible concerning their faith, as they are ready in the exhibition of mercy.How can he live on Gods compassionating love in whom no compassionating love does live?
On the Epistle for the second Sunday after Trinity, 1Jn 3:15-18.
Heubner, during the siege of Wittenberg, in 1813, preached on the hatred of the world to which Christians are exposed, and said, notwithstanding the presence of the French garrison, when he came to speak of deserved hatred: the hatred is deserved, which visits the tyrant who sacrifices thousands and the welfare of thousands to his lust of rule.
The Christian under the hatred of the world.
1. How dignified is his demeanour in bearing it a. with calmness, composure and patience (1Jn 3:13); b. with the consciousness of his innocence, his love, as known to God (1Jn 3:14); c. with the hope of being one day justified (1Jn 3:2); 2. how holily he uses it: a. as a warning against all the motions of hatred (1Jn 3:15); b. as a challenge to become more like Christ in love (1Jn 3:16); c. as an instrument to reconcile the world to himself by love (1Jn 3:17-18).
Motives of comfort for Christians under the worlds hatred. 1. (1Jn 3:13). They are unknown and misunderstood; 2. (1Jn 3:14); they become conscious of their life; 3. (1Jn 3:15); they are encouraged to fight against all unlovingness; 4. (1Jn 3:16); they resemble Christ; 5. (1Jn 3:17); become more and more assured of the love of God; 6. (1Jn 3:18); they hope to gain their enemies over.
The mind of the Christian and of the world opposed to each other in love and hatred. 1. To hate is natural to the world, to love to the Christian (1Jn 3:13-14); 2. Hatred destroys, love sacrifices the life (1Jn 3:15-16); 3. The world shuts up, the Christian opens the heart (1Jn 3:18).
Whither do we come if the spirit of love leaves us? 1. Answer: we come from the fellowship of the saints to the fellowship of the world (1Jn 3:13), from the life of God to spiritual death (1Jn 3:14), to vice and shame (1Jn 3:15), to forfeiting our salvation and the fruits of the death of Christ (1Jn 3:16).2. Application: learn the worth of true love (1Jn 3:16), fight against every motion of unlovingness (1Jn 3:17), practise love in deed and in truth (1Jn 3:18).
The strong warnings given to Christians against an unloving mind.Love appears most beautiful under the worlds hatred.Love, a sign of life.It is only by love that a Christian can know whether he is a child of God or regenerate. 1. The truth. 2. The laying to heart being reminded of this truth.
F. A. Wolf:The Apostolical refutation of the principal errors prevailing on the subject of Christian love: 1. The fate of love, 2. The reign of love, 3. The value of love, 4. The origin of love.
Caspari:Of the nature of true love: 1. Its consolation, 2. Its powers, 3. Its purity.
Kapff:How necessary true brotherly love Isaiah , 1. As a test of our spiritual life; 2. As a condition (?) of eternal life.The Law and the Testimony: Of Brotherly Love. I. Motives. 1. The contrast of Cain; 2. Marks of discipleship and regeneration; 3. The passing away and perdition of the hater. II. Marks. 1. Laying down ones life; 2. Communication of ones goods; 3. Love in deed.
The true life in love and certain death in hatred: 1. The ground, fruit and nature of the true life; 2. Certain death in hatred of the brethren, as to ground and nature.
Brotherly love. 1. Who are our brethren? 2. How do we love the brethren? 3. What moves us to such love?
How operative is the love which flows from the living knowledge of the sacrificing love of Christ! 1. It takes us from death to life; beloved of God in Christ, we love. 2. It alone is able to bear the hatred of the world without ceasing to love (Mat 5:39-42). 3. It is not only love in words and with the tongue, but in deed and in truth.
We know that we are born of God, for, 1. The world hates us; 2. We love the brethren; 3. We hate hatred, but not the hater; 4. We lay down our life for the brethren.
A heart-test of what spirit we are (Luk 9:55-56; Jer 8:6). 1. For the satisfaction of the righteous who in their love grieve over the worlds hatred; 2. For the terror of the ungodly who hate their neighbour without fear or anxiety; 3. for the awakening of the hypocrites who love their neighbour only in appearance.Questions of Confession.
[Ignatius:(ad Smyrm, 6.): Observe those who are heterodox with regard to the grace of Christ, how contrary they are to the mind of God. They have no regard for love,they do not care for the widow, or the orphan, or the hungry or the thirsty.M.].
[Wordsworth: (on 1Jn 3:16).And we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren; a remarkable saying on the duty of Christian martyrdom. It was probably suggested by the seductive tenets of the false teachers ( mentioned 1Jn 2:26; 1Jn 3:7), who courted popularity in times of persecution; by alleging that provided a man had knowledge of the doctrines of Christianity as delivered by them, and adopted their theories, it was not necessary for him to expose himself to any danger in the maintenance of the faith, much less to endure martyrdom and to lay down his life for the brethren: but that he might freely associate with the heathen in their worship, and eat things offered to idols. This was particularly the doctrine of the Simonians (Origen c. Cels. VI. p. 282; Euseb. II. 13), and of the Nicolaitans (Rev 2:15. Irenus I. 23) and of the Cerinthians (Philastr. hr. c. 36).Tertullian wrote his book called Scorpiace against these notions and he refers to this passage in proof of the duty of martyrdom, c. 12.M.].
[Macknight: (1Jn 3:14-15):According to the Apostle in this place, the surest mark, by which we can know our actual state, is to consider whether we possess that characteristic disposition towards our brethren, which the Christian religion enjoins. The high encomiums, passed in this and the following verse on love to mankind, are not to be so understood, as if no virtue but benevolence were necessary to complete the Christian character. The virtues have all such a connection with each other, that they cannot subsist separately. And therefore, if one really loves his brethren, he will not only be charitable to the poor, but he will be just in his dealings, true to his promises, faithful in all the trusts committed unto him. In short, he will carefully abstain from injuring his neighbour in any respect, and will perform every duty he owes to him, from a sincere principle of piety towards God, whereby his whole conduct will be rendered uniformly virtuous.M.].
[Secker:If we do a person no harm, yet if we wish him harm, St. John has here determined the case, Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer. For indeed, hatred not only leads to murder, and too often, when indulged, produces it unexpectedly; but it is always, though perhaps for the most part in a lower degree, the very spirit of murder in the heart; and it is by our hearts that God will judge us.M.].
[Clarke: (on 1Jn 3:15).This text has been quoted to prove, that no murderer can be saved. This is not said in the text; and there have been many instances of persons who have been guilty of murder, having had deep and genuine repentance; and who, doubtless, found mercy from His hands who prayed for His murderers, Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do. It is, however, an awful text for the consideration of those who shed human blood on frivolous pretences; or in those wars which have their origin in the worst passions of the human heart.
(On 1Jn 3:17).Here is a test of this love: if we do not divide our bread with the hungry, we certainly would not lay down our life for him. Whatever love we may pretend to mankind, if we are not charitable and benevolent, we give the lie to our profession. If we have not bowels of compassion, we have not the love of God in us: if we shut up our bowels against the poor, we shut Christ out of our hearts and ourselves out of heaven.
(On 1Jn 3:18). There is a good saying in Yalcut Rubeni, p. 145, 4. on this point: If love consisted in word only, then love ceaseth as soon as the word is pronounced. Such was the love between Balak and Balaam. But, if love consists not in word, it cannot be dissolved; such was the love of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and the jest of the patriarchs which were before them.M.].
[Trower: (on 1Jn 3:17).What a picture is here brought before us, of a Christian possessed of this worlds good, and seeing his brother have need; yet turning away his eyes, and hardening his heart against the claims of charity, shutting up his bowels of compassion from him! How unlike Him who, though He was rich, yet for our sake became poor, that we through His poverty might be rich. May we learn more and more that whatever share we enjoy of this worlds good, is intrusted to us as stewards for God; and that all pretence of possessing Christian love is vain, unless we minister freely to the necessities of our brethren what we have so freely received. Hereby alone can we know that we are of the truth, and can assure our hearts before Him.M.].
[Stanhope:The good we would do, but cannot, shall be rewarded; and the evil, which we are disposed to do, though not actually done, shall be punished. Hence, if a man keep malice, though but in his heart, if he wish or rejoice at the misery or harm of his brother, this man is, in the eye of God, and of the Gospel dispensation, a murderer.If some sudden change befalls my neighbours fortunes, the diminution of his honour or estate, the blemishing his credit and reputation, and I feel a secret pleasure in such calamities, can it be charity that ties up my tongue from bitterness or slander, or my hands from invasion and cruelty? No, certainly.He that triumphs in mischief and doth not act it himself; he that is fond of and cherisheth a scandal, but forbears to raise or spread it; it is not religion, but some other consideration, by which even this man is restrained. But alas! how few are there, in comparison, who think themselves bound to stop here! How few who, while they hold their hands from action, make no scruple to give their tongues a liberty of speaking all words that may do hurt, and so contribute to the disgrace and grief of their injured and afflicted brother! and if they, with these sharp razors, wound and mangle a bleeding reputation, would not the same malice unsheath their sword and thrust it into his bowels, if their own safety, the fear of human laws, or some other prudential consideration, did not bind their hands, which leaves their tongues and thoughts at liberty? For, were religion, were the fear and love of God, their check, they would prevent the very beginnings of malice. This tells us that we must be compassionate and kind; that we must do to every man whatsover we would that he should do unto us; that but to meditate or delight in evil is a sin, and that no instance of goodness should be wanting which the circumstances of any brother render seasonable for him to receive, and ours have put in our power to give; that a design of making him uneasy is not one whit less murderous and guilty, because not prosecuted in tenderness to ones self, and not to be effected with impunity. Thus God interprets it, and by this rule He will proceed with us; for He declares Himself a trier of the heart, and that in our last great reckoning, every secret thing shall be brought into judgment.M.].
Footnotes:
[20][1Jn 3:10 b. = Every one that. So German.M.]
[21][=And. So German, and most foreign versions.M.]
[22][1Jn 3:11. =Because. So German.M.]
[23] A. B. G. K.; C. Sin. and a few, unimportant Codd.The context admits the sense promise only on the artificial interpretation that it is a gift and a happiness to love.
[24][1Jn 3:12. . German: Not as Cain was of the wicked one.Lcke: Some supply after : , others and the like. But in the first case there arises an irony unsuitable in this connection; and in both cases a second supplement becomes necessary, to wit, of after , which, as. the omission of the relative pronoun is in classic as well as in N. T. Greek without example, could hardly be justified. Much simpler is it with Grotius to complete the sentence thus: , . Winer: Properly, there is nothing to be supplied ( or would not suit ), but, the comparison being negligently expressed, the reader easily adjusts the clauses for himself: that we love one another, not as Cain was of the wicked one, etc., shall it or may it be so with us. For further authorities see Lillie.M.]
[25][German: Because his works were wicked, but his brothers righteous. It is difficult to determine the right reading, whether it is , or (B.) Most probably .The correspondence between and should by all means be brought out.M.]
[26][=but, not and, as E. V.M.]
[27][1Jn 3:13. German: Marvel not, brethren, agreeing with Sin. G. K. Rec. al. in omitting .M.]
[28][. German, Wiclif. al. retain the Indicative mood.M.]
[29][1Jn 3:14. German: We have passed out of death into life.M.]
[30] without , A. B. Sin.; with it C. G, K., although less authentic, and rather inserted than omitted. [German: omits the words, and renders: He that loveth not abideth in death.M.
[31][1Jn 3:15. =Every one.M.]
[32][; German: man-murderer, but better to render, man-killer (Lillie following Rhemish vers. at Joh 8:44), which is free from the extenuating force suggested by the technical use of such words as homicide or man-slaughter.M.]
[33][1Jn 3:16. German: Hereby have we known.M.]
[34] A. B. C. Sin. al., decidedly preferable to G. K. al.
[35][1Jn 3:17. German: Life-sustenance. Goods might be used in that sense.M.]
[36][German: His inwards; but bowels without the supplement compassion should by all means be retained.M.]
[37] A. B. C. Sin.; the words are omitted only by several unimportant Codd.
[38][German: Abideth.M.]
[39] after occurs in Rec. after G. K., but is wanting in the best Codd.M.
[40]The Article before is wanting in Rec. Sin., but found in A. B. C. G. K. and most of the Codd. verss. and editions. [German: with the tongue.M.]; , omitted by K., is found in almost all the authoritative Codd., including Sin.
[41]Huther in a note [2d ed. p. 163] replies to the objection of Ebrard and Myrberg that this could only apply to our love of God and not to our love of the brethren, that in Johns opinion Christian love of the brethren is identical with the love of God, because the Christian loves his brother as one born of God. He suggests also that might be better denned as the essential exhibition of M.].
Fuente: A Commentary on the Holy Scriptures, Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical by Lange
11 For this is the message that ye heard from the beginning, that we should love one another.
Ver. 11. That we should love, &c. ] This beloved disciple was all for love. See Trapp on “ 1Jn 2:9 “ See Trapp on “ 1Jn 2:5 “
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
11 24 .] Of brotherly love , as the sum and essence of : as Christ’s command ( 1Jn 3:11 ): whereas in the world there is hate (12, 13): bound up with life, as hate with death (14, 15): finding its great pattern in Christ (16); to be testified not in word only but in deed (17, 18); as the ground of confidence toward God and the granting of our prayers to Him, being obedience to His will (19 22); which obedience consists in faith and love (23), and is testified to by the witness of His Spirit (24).
Before entering on 1Jn 3:11 , the latter half of 1Jn 3:10 must be considered, as belonging properly, in its sense, to this section, though in arrangement inseparable from the last. The , which binds on the additional particular in the last clause, serves, as in 1Jn 3:5 , to co-ordinate that clause with the foregoing: not in this case as excluded from the forementioned category, but as one particular, taken out from among the general category, and put into a co-ordinate position with it. And it is thus put, as being the most eminent, and most of the nature of a summary, and criterion, of the rest, of any of those graces which are necessarily involved in . Aug [55] beautifully says, “Dilectio sola discernit inter filios Dei et filios diaboli. Signent se omnes signo crucis Christi: respondeant omnes Amen: cantent omnes Halleluia: baptizentur omnes, intrent ecclesias, faciant parietes basilicarum: non discernuntur filii Dei a filiis diaboli nisi caritate.” And this love, thus constituted into “magnum indicium, magna discretio” (Aug [56] ), is necessarily the family love of brother for brother within the limits of those who are begotten of God. Universal love to man is a Christian grace but it is not that here spoken of: it neither answers the description of the given in 1Jn 3:11 , nor corresponds to the context here in general, the drift of which is that a test of our belonging to God’s family is our love towards His children who are our brethren in that family: cf. ch. 1Jn 5:1 ff. But, while there can be no doubt that this is the right understanding of the brotherly love here insisted on, we incur at once a formal difficulty in applying this meaning to the negative or exclusive side of the test. He who does not love his brother, has in strict fact no brother to love , for he is not a child of God at all. Hence we must understand, strictly speaking, in this case as importing his hypothetical brother: him, who would be, were he himself a true child of God, a brother, and if so, necessarily beloved. That this love does not exist in him, demonstrates him not to be of God’s family.
[55] Augustine, Bp. of Hippo , 395 430
[56] Augustine, Bp. of Hippo , 395 430
Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament
11 .] Because (proof that absence of love of the brethren excludes from God’s family) the message which ye heard from the beginning (the announcement which from the beginning of the preaching of the Gospel was made to you. is not here = , though that which is cited is a commandment: but it is an conveyed in words and by messengers, and thus become an ) is this (in all such sentences as this, the demonstrative pronoun which begins them is in reality the predicate, and often might in English be transposed to the end with advantage), that we love one another (on , see note, 1Jn 3:1 . It is impossible here, as there, to press the strong telic sense. The particle carries that combination of purpose and purport which we have so many times had occasion to notice: see e. g., note on 1Co 14:13 ).
Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament
1Jn 3:11 . ecbatic, expressing not the aim but simply the substance of the message. Cf. Joh 17:3 . See Moulton’s Gram. of N.T. Gk. , p. 206; Moulton’s Winer , p. 425.
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: 1Jn 3:11-12
11For this is the message which you have heard from the beginning, that we should love one another; 12not as Cain, who was of the evil one and slew his brother. And for what reason did he slay him? Because his deeds were evil, and his brother’s were righteous.
1Jn 3:11 “the message” This Greek term (aggelia, usually transliterated angelia) is used only in 1Jn 1:5; 1Jn 3:11. The first usage seems to be doctrinal, while the second is ethical. This is in keeping with John’s balance between these two aspects of Christianity (cf. 1Jn 1:8; 1Jn 1:10; 1Jn 2:20; 1Jn 2:24; 1Jn 3:14).
“you have heard from the beginning” This phrase is a literary device which relates to Jesus as both the living Word of God (cf. Joh 1:1) and revealing the Word of God (cf. 1Jn 1:1; 1Jn 2:7; 1Jn 2:13-14; 1Jn 2:24; 2Jn 1:5-6).
“we should love one another” This is evidence by which believers know they are truly redeemed (cf. 1Jn 3:10; 1Jn 3:14). It reflects Jesus’ words (cf. Joh 13:34-35; Joh 15:12; Joh 15:17; 1Jn 3:23; 1Jn 4:7-8; 1Jn 4:11-12; 1Jn 4:19-21).
1Jn 3:12 “Cain” The account of Cain’s life is recorded in Genesis 4. The exact reference is Gen 4:4 (cf. Heb 11:4), where the offerings of Cain and Abel are contrasted. Cain’s actions reveal the influence of the fall of mankind (cf. Gen 4:7; Gen 6:5; Gen 6:11-13 b). In both Jewish and Christian traditions (cf. Heb 11:4; Jud 1:11) Cain is an example of wicked rebellion.
“who was of the evil one” This grammatical construction could be masculine singular (the evil one, cf. 1Jn 3:10) or neuter singular (of evil). This same grammatical ambiguity is found in Mat 5:37; Mat 6:13; Mat 13:19; Mat 13:38; Joh 17:15; 2Th 3:3; 1Jn 2:13-14; 1Jn 3:12; and 1Jn 5:18-19. In several cases the context obviously refers to Satan (cf. Mat 5:37; Mat 13:38; Joh 17:15).
Fuente: You Can Understand the Bible: Study Guide Commentary Series by Bob Utley
message. Greek. angelia. Only here and 1Jn 1:5.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
11-24.] Of brotherly love, as the sum and essence of : as Christs command (1Jn 3:11): whereas in the world there is hate (12, 13): bound up with life, as hate with death (14, 15): finding its great pattern in Christ (16); to be testified not in word only but in deed (17, 18); as the ground of confidence toward God and the granting of our prayers to Him, being obedience to His will (19-22); which obedience consists in faith and love (23), and is testified to by the witness of His Spirit (24).
Before entering on 1Jn 3:11, the latter half of 1Jn 3:10 must be considered, as belonging properly, in its sense, to this section, though in arrangement inseparable from the last. The , which binds on the additional particular in the last clause, serves, as in 1Jn 3:5, to co-ordinate that clause with the foregoing: not in this case as excluded from the forementioned category, but as one particular, taken out from among the general category, and put into a co-ordinate position with it. And it is thus put, as being the most eminent, and most of the nature of a summary, and criterion, of the rest, of any of those graces which are necessarily involved in . Aug[55] beautifully says, Dilectio sola discernit inter filios Dei et filios diaboli. Signent se omnes signo crucis Christi: respondeant omnes Amen: cantent omnes Halleluia: baptizentur omnes, intrent ecclesias, faciant parietes basilicarum: non discernuntur filii Dei a filiis diaboli nisi caritate. And this love, thus constituted into magnum indicium, magna discretio (Aug[56]), is necessarily the family love of brother for brother within the limits of those who are begotten of God. Universal love to man is a Christian grace-but it is not that here spoken of: it neither answers the description of the given in 1Jn 3:11, nor corresponds to the context here in general, the drift of which is that a test of our belonging to Gods family is our love towards His children who are our brethren in that family: cf. ch. 1Jn 5:1 ff. But, while there can be no doubt that this is the right understanding of the brotherly love here insisted on, we incur at once a formal difficulty in applying this meaning to the negative or exclusive side of the test. He who does not love his brother, has in strict fact no brother to love, for he is not a child of God at all. Hence we must understand, strictly speaking, in this case as importing his hypothetical brother: him, who would be, were he himself a true child of God, a brother, and if so, necessarily beloved. That this love does not exist in him, demonstrates him not to be of Gods family.
[55] Augustine, Bp. of Hippo, 395-430
[56] Augustine, Bp. of Hippo, 395-430
Fuente: The Greek Testament
1Jn 3:11. , the announcement) An appellation most characteristic of Gospel liberty [as contrasted with, the bondage which the law gendereth]. He never applies this appellation to the law.
Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament
this: 1Jo 1:5, 1Jo 2:7, 1Jo 2:8
message: or, commandment, 1Ti 1:5,*Gr.
that we: 1Jo 4:7, 1Jo 4:21, Joh 13:34, Joh 13:35, Joh 15:12, Gal 6:2, Eph 5:2, 1Th 4:9, 1Pe 1:22, 1Pe 3:8, 1Pe 4:8, 2Jo 1:5
Reciprocal: 2Ch 11:4 – against Isa 59:15 – he that Mat 23:35 – the blood of righteous Act 7:26 – ye are 1Co 6:6 – brother 1Th 3:12 – love Heb 11:4 – faith 1Jo 3:23 – love
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
1Jn 3:11. From the beginning means from the start of man’s existence on the earth. The message is the teaching that we should love each other.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
The relation of regeneration to brotherly love.
1Jn 3:11. For this is the message which ye heard from the beginning, that we should love one another. There is deep emphasis on the word message, which seems here, as in the first utterance concerning the God of light, to introduce a fundamental truth; and it will be observed that this message is in what follows dwelt upon in its contrasts and deductions just as that early message was: it is like a second and a new great announcement. The commandment of chap. 1Jn 2:7 is as it were carried higher: it is the fundamental principle of religion from the beginning delivered in successive proclamations. That we should love must have its force: this has been the design of all.
1Jn 3:12. Not as Cain was of the evil one, and slew his brother. And wherefore slew he him! Because his works were evil, and his brothers righteous. The construction of the first clause should not be mended by any additional words. Cain and Abel were the first historical examples of the difference between regenerate love and unregenerate hate. But the opposite to love is alone here exhibited. The first reason that be slew his brother is that he was of the evil one; he was not of God. The second is the former in another form: as righteousness is the fruit and test of the new birth, Cains evil deeds may be said to have been the reason of his murderous violence. Thirdly, in this condensed sentence is included the thought that the righteousness of the children of God evokes for ever the hatred of the unrighteous. The devil is here the evil one, because of the evil works following; and it must be noted that St. John here gives his authoritative interpretation of the Old Testament both as to the devils relation to Cain and the reason of Cains hatred.
Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament
Our apostle comes now to enforce his exhortation unto brotherly love, by many weighty arguments:
1.He assures them, that this precept concerning brotherly love was given them by Christ and his apostles, from the beginning of the preaching of the gospel: This is the message ye heard of him from the beginning.
Note here, 1. That the word of God is a message sent from God unto us, a message for our information and instruction, a message for our guide and direction.
2. That the duty of brotherly love is an ancient message that God has sent and has continued to send us, from the beginning; God help us to learn this lesson, so anciently taught us, and so long pressed upon us by God himself! This is the message which ye heard from the beginning.
A second argument to exite brotherly love is drawn from the evil of hating our brother, which appears in the person and practice of Cain, whom our apostle describes.
1. By his pedigree, He was of that wicked one; that is, the devil, of his diabolical dispostion, of his envious and malicious inclination, and, as such, was not so much Adam’s son as the devil’s son.
2. By his practice, he slew his brother: He first hated him, and then slew him. His hatred was causeless and unjust, implacable and deadly, and ended in his brother’s death and his own destruction.
3. The reason is assigned why he slew him, Because his own works were evil, and his brother’s righteous; not for any harm he had done, or for any evil he had deserved, but because Cain was bad himself, and his works bad; to hate godliness, and to persecute the godly, is the very nature and disposition of a wicked man.
Observe, lastly, The inference drawn by the apostle from this example of Cain’s hating his holy and innocent brother; Marvel not, my brethren, says he, if the world hate you; intimating, that the world always did, and ever will hate God’s children; and that the children of God are not to marvel or wonder at it, but to prepare for it; it is no new thing, but what has been from the beginning: Though Cain be dead, the spirit of Cain is alive; the prosecutor goes about with Cain’s club in his hand, redded with blood; marvel not then if the world hate you.
Fuente: Expository Notes with Practical Observations on the New Testament
1Jn 3:11-14. For, &c. As if he had said, I have just declared that the want of brotherly love is a proof that a man is not of God, and a little consideration may convince you of the truth of the assertion: for this is the message that ye heard of us The apostles and ministers of Christ; from the beginning Of our ministry among you; that we should love one another A doctrine frequently inculcated by our Lord Jesus in person: not as Cain, (see the margin,) who was of the wicked one Who showed he was a child of the devil, by killing his brother. And wherefore slew he him? For any fault? No: but just the reverse; for his goodness. Because his own works were evil In a very high degree; and his brothers righteous And he could not bear that his brothers sacrifice was accepted of God while his own was rejected; a circumstance that, instead of humbling him and bringing him to repentance, as it ought to have done, only excited his envy and hatred, which at length settled into the most rancorous malice, and produced that horrible effect. Marvel not, &c. As if he had said, Since there is a great deal of the same malignant temper remaining in the carnal part of mankind, and there are many who are, in that sense, though not by natural descent, of the seed of Cain, marvel not if the world hate you Remembering they lie in the wicked one, and are under his influence. We know, &c. That is, we ourselves could not love our brethren, unless we were passed from spiritual death to spiritual life That is, unless we were born of God. He that loveth not his brother abideth in death Namely, in spiritual death, and is obnoxious to eternal death. In other words, he is not born of God: and he that is not born of God cannot love his brother. See on chap. 1Jn 4:7. Reader, observe this: all mankind, being born in sin, are in a state of spiritual death, and in the way to eternal death, till they are born again; and none are born again who do not truly love both God and his people.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
3:11 {11} For this is the message that ye heard from the beginning, that we should love one another.
(11) The first reason taken from the authority of God who gives the commandment.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
The message that John and his faithful followers had heard from the beginning was Jesus’ command to His disciples to love one another as He had loved them (Joh 13:34-35; Joh 15:12).
"When differences arise within a community, hard feelings can be the result." [Note: Yarbrough, p. 197.]