Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of 1 John 3:14
We know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren. He that loveth not [his] brother abideth in death.
14. Love means life and hate means death.
We know ] The pronoun is very emphatic: ‘the dark world which is full of devilish hate may think and do what it pleases about us; we know that we have left the atmosphere of death for one of life.’ This knowledge is part of our consciousness ( ) as Christians: comp. 1Jn 2:20-21; 1Jn 3:2; 1Jn 3:5. Cain hated and slew his brother: the world hates and would slay us. But for all that, it was Cain who passed from life into death, while his brother passed to eternal life, and through his sacrifice ‘he being dead yet speaketh’ (Heb 11:4). The same is the case between the world and Christians. Philo in a similar spirit points out that Cain really slew, not his brother, but himself.
have passed from death unto life ] Better, have passed over out of death into life, have left an abode in the one region for an abode in the other: another reminiscence of the Gospel (Joh 5:24). The Greek perfect here has the common meaning of permanent result of past action: ‘we have passed into a new home and abide there.’ The metaphor is perhaps taken from the passage of the Red Sea (Exo 15:16), or of the Jordan.
because we love the brethren ] This depends on ‘we know,’ not on ‘we have passed’: our love is the infallible sign that we have made the passage. The natural state of man is selfishness, which involves enmity to others, whose claims clash with those of self: to love others is proof that this natural state has been left. Life and love are two aspects of the same fact in the moral world, as life and growth in the physical: the one marks the state, the other the activity.
He that loveth not his brother ] Omit ‘his brother’, which, though correct as an interpretation, is no part of the true text. Wiclif and the Rhemish, following the Vulgate, omit the addition.
abideth in death ] Which implies that death is the original condition of all. The believer passes out of this by becoming a child of God and thereby of necessity loving God’s other children. He who does not love them shews that he is still in the old state of death.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
We know that we have passed from death unto life – From spiritual death (Notes, Eph 2:1) to spiritual life; that is, that we are true Christians.
Because we love the brethren – The sentiment here is, that it is an infallible evidence of true piety if we love the followers of Christ as such. See this sentiment illustrated in the notes at Joh 13:35. But how easy it would seem to be to apply such a test of piety as this! Who cannot judge accurately of his own feelings, and determine whether he loves a Christian because he bears the name and image of the Saviour – loves him the more just in proportion as he bears that image? Who cannot, if he chooses, look beyond the narrow bounds of his own sect, and determine whether he is pleased with the true Christian character wherever it may be found, and whether he would prefer to find his friends among those who bear the name and the image of the Son of God, than among the people of the world? The Saviour meant that his followers should be known by this badge of discipleship all over the world, Joh 13:34-35. John says, in carrying out the sentiment, that Christians, by this test, may know among themselves whether they have any true religion.
He that loveth not his brother abideth in death – He remains dead in sins; that is, he has never been converted. Compare the notes at 1Jo 3:6. As love to the Christian brotherhood is essential to true piety, it follows that he who has not that remains unconverted, or is in a state of spiritual death. He is by nature dead in sin, and unless he has evidence that he is brought out of that state, he remains or abides in it.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
1Jn 3:14
We know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren
Passing from death to life by love
I.
What we are to understand by death and life.
II. What we are to understand by the privilege of having passed from death to life.
1. This privilege implieth in it a change of covenant heads. The first Adam represented all his natural posterity. The second represented all given to Him by the Father.
2. This privilege implies a having passed from law death, to law life; or in other words, front a state of condemnation to a state of justification.
3. This privilege implies a having passed from spiritual death to spiritual life in regeneration; a having been released from the dominion and power of sin, to enjoy the happy reign and influence of grace. This change is not the product of nature, but wholly the work of God.
4. This privilege implies a coming or being taken into new relations–into a new covenant relation to God through Christ–taken into Gods family.
III. The fruit and evidence of this privilege, viz., love to the brethren.
1. Whom we are to understand by brethren.
(1) By brethren we are to understand generally every man and woman–all mankind. All are generally Gods offspring. All are sprung from one common root, Adam.
(2) But by brethren here we are specially to understand brethren in Christ, believers, those who belong to and have the image of Christ upon them. They are brethren by birth, by nature, by relation, and by love.
2. What love to the brethren is. In general it is a supernatural warmth, kindled in the hearts of believers to one another, begetting union of heart and soul, sympathy with, care for, and complacency and delight in and towards one another. Never before nor since was this more emphatically expressed than in the beautiful description in Act 4:32.
(1) The rule by which this love of the brethren is to be regulated and directed, is that of Gods Word. If our outward walk and conversation are to be regulated by it, sure no less is the exercise of the graces of the Spirit.
(2) This love of the brethren is not inconsistent with all that regard we owe to gospel truth and ordinances.
(3) Nor is this love to the brethren inconsistent with a proper regard to the maintenance of Church government and discipline–the reproofs, admonitions, and rebukes which the Lord in love has instituted, and appointed to be observed in His Church, and which He has promised to bless.
(4) Neither is this love to the brethren inconsistent with the discharge of all the duties of love they owe to one another–such as telling them of their faults, warning, admonishing, and testifying against their evils, as well as having compassion for, and exercising beneficence towards them.
3. Now this love of the brethren evidences an interest in the privilege of having passed from death to life. It is an immediate fruit of this privilege, and therefore a certain and infallible evidence of it.
(1) From its being an evidence of regeneration, in which the image of God is communicated–and love to the brethren is a prominent part of that image.
(2) From its being an undoubted evidence of justification. This supposeth and implieth access to God, by and through Jesus the Mediator; as well as access to a throne of grace.
(3) From its being an evidence of their having received the Spirit (Gal 5:22).
(4) From its being an evidence of their adoption (Rom 8:15).
(5) From its being an evidence of their union to Christ, and belonging to His mystical body; the members of which are all united to each other by bonds of the most endearing love and affection.
IV. The connection between the privilege and the fruit and evidence of it, viz., love to the brethren.
1. This connection is founded in the purpose and promise of God.
2. It is founded on the blood and righteousness of Christ.
3. In the intercession of Christ.
4. In the order of things.
V. The believers own knowledge of this, we know. John did not know this as an apostle, but as a believer; and this may be, and is known by believers.
1. From experience of what passeth in their own souls.
2. From its fruits. A tree is known by its fruits; and the fruits of this love are such as pity, sympathy, kindness, and compassion, forgiveness, benevolence, beneficence.
3. From the regard they pay to the authority and testimony of God in His Word–as in the text. This knowledge is not left to rest on the testimony of peoples own experience, but is based on the testimony of God in the Scriptures.
Improvement:
1. From this doctrine we may learn that, although love to the brethren has been called one of the lowest marks of grace, yet it is a real and decisive one, and is attended by the highest authority.
2. We may see that real Christians are united in the firmest bonds of mutual love and affection.
3. We may see how little of this love appears among professed Christians.
4. From this doctrine we may learn that sin has unhinged the moral frame–has introduced a breach between heaven and earth.
5. We may learn that Christ is the uniting bond of peace, reconciliation, love, and fellowship. (Alex. Dick.)
The world contrary to the Christian
Air and earth, fire and water, good and evil, light and darkness, are not more contrary the one to the other, than are the people of the world and the true members of the Church. Their views are contrary, the one class looking at the things of eternity merely in the light of time, the other looking at time in the light of eternity. Their tastes are contrary, the one being of the earth, earthy, the other spiritually minded. Their pursuits are contrary, the one walking according to the course of this world, the other walking with God. Their destiny shall be contrary these shall go away into everlasting punishment, and the righteous into life eternal.
I. We save passed from death unto life. Let it be carefully observed this is a change which is declared to have already taken place. We have passed. Whenever a sinner believes he is put in possession of everlasting life, that is, of the germ or beginning of it. The words are expressive, however, not merely of a change that is supposed to be past in point of time, but of one most blessed in its nature. What is so much shunned as death? And what is so prized and preserved as life?
1. Death is used in the Scriptures to express a state of condemnation, and life one of acceptance. In the one case there is a sentence of death, and in the other of acquittal.
2. Death is also used in the Scriptures to express a con dition of sinfulness or depravity, and life that of holiness. The sinner is pronounced to be dead; and is he not so? He has all the features of death upon him.
(1) There is insensibility. He is in sin, and ever committing it, but he does not seem to be conscious of it.
(2) There is inactivity. He possesses powers which he does not employ. On the other hand, it is the office of grace to make him alive to God, when it does effectually operate upon him this is the result. The sinner is made alive to God. You have seen the oak struck by the lightning of heaven. Its juices were dried up, and its branches withered away. You pronounced it dead. But the husbandman came: he lopped off the withered boughs. He manured its roots and watered its branches. The process of decay was arrested. Life was restored. It sent forth its foliage and bore its fruit as before. It was a resurrection. So it is with the sinner under the blight of sin, when he is visited by the grace of the Spirit. His decayed powers are animated with a new life. He puts forth the powers in active energy, which before were paralysed in spiritual death. He is passed from death unto life.
II. The evidence spoken of in the text, we know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren. Brotherly love is the proof of conversion here cited by the apostle.
1. There is the natural affection which binds us to those with whom we are allied according to the flesh. It is true there may be this love when there is no grace. In that case brotherly love is no proof of the great change of which we have spoken.
2. The evidence arising from the exercise of brotherly love towards the people of God is still more unequivocal. It may be sometimes difficult to distinguish between the natural and gracious affection in the case of those who are closely allied to us. But where we love the godly, simply because they are such, the proof is unequivocal. Its peculiarity is that, apart from other considerations, our love is attracted by their godliness.
3. Still, love is not to be confined to them. It is to be extended to all men. And as it is so we strengthen the evidence of our gracious state.
III. The assurance of our salvation, arising out of this evidence. We know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren. We may know it then. This is assumed. The term is the most expressive of certainty that could be used. It is not, we think or hope or desire, but we know. He ought to know it. It is not a privilege merely, but a duty. He ought to know it for the sake of his own holiness. He ought to know it for the honour of Christ. (J. Morgan, D. D.)
Love to the brethren a ground of assurance
I. The love of which the apostle speaks is peculiar in its origin. It is a very distinct thing from natural kindness and amiableness of disposition; from what we commonly call good nature. Nature cannot produce it. It is the special effect of the Spirits new creating power upon the soul.
II. It is peculiar, also, in its object. It is not the love of our fellow creatures generally, but the love of the brethren, in particular, on which St. John dwells so strongly as the evidence of a state of salvation. Not that the Christian by any means confines his benevolent regards to his fellow believers. But whilst he thus comprehends the whole human race in the circle of his affection, and prays for all, and is ready to benefit all, there is a still closer and more endearing bond of union by which he is attached to his fellow Christians. Their principles, taste, habits, and pursuits are congenial to his own.
III. Nor is the love of which we are speaking less distinct from that which sometimes assumes its name in its operation, than in its origin and object.
1. It is regular and consistent in its action. True charity is not an impulse, but a principle; not an act, but a habit; not a momentary or transient ebullition of feeling, but a fixed, steady, consistent motive of conduct, always ready to administer, as far as circumstances may allow, to the relief of ascertained distress, whether of soul or body.
2. It is self-denying. Its basis, like that of every other Christian grace, is humility. Pride, self-will, self-indulgence, are the bane of Christian society, and rend asunder the body of Christ. So true is it that if we would be Christs disciples we must deny ourselves.
3. It is active in its operation. It is an energetic principle. It is not the profession of kindness, but the reality. It is not by kind speeches and courteous expressions, but by beneficent actions chiefly, that we are to evidence the sincerity of our regard to others. (R. Davies.)
Brotherly love
There are many kinds of knowledge, but the most difficult is self-knowledge. It is remarkable that St. John much more frequently uses such expressions as these, We know that we are of God; We know that we are in Him; We know that we dwell in Him; We know that He abideth in us, than any other writer in the whole Bible. Let us look first at the thing which is to be known, and then at the sign by which we are to know it. A passing from death unto life. For this is Gods metaphor to express real conversion of heart. The idea conveyed in the words is of two states separated as by a gulf; and there is now, what one day there will not be, a transit from one over to the other. The one side is a land of death. There everything that is done is short and uncertain. It is a country of graves, and the joys of pleasure have no resurrection. On the opposite shore everything in it is essential light, because there is a new principle there; that principle is one which works forever and ever. The light grows brighter and brighter every day, whatever curse may pass over the bereaved earth. But this is not the only difference between the opposite states. The former, which we may call the original condition of every man, his native country lies far away, separate from the source of all true light, and in Gods language, is all chaos. There is no reality in it; while the other is brought under the very smile of Gods countenance. He moves and dwells there. Hence, it is peace, it is energy, it is fruit. Let us notice the contrast more clearly. Every man who inhabits the first state, is under actual condemnation of death. Every man who continues there is to die. But over every soul on the other side the word is gone forth, Deliver him from going down to the pit: I have found a ransom. Now of the manner in which the passage is effected from one shore to the other, it does not belong to my present subject to speak. Suffice it to say that the passage is a great historical fact. And the inquiry is, how may each of us best ascertain whether or not that transformation has taken place. We know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren. Some persons, however, will say that it is such an easy thing to love Christians. I wish I could believe, but I cannot, that I shall be safe to infer I am one of Gods Christians, because I admire and attach myself to the lovable and really pious character. Who are the brethren, and what is it to love them? The brethren are those who have the love of the Lord Jesus Christ in their hearts, even though there be much clinging to them that is unrefined, and unintellectual, and unpleasing–yea, even though there be much that is really very inconsistent in them. And this very comprehensiveness of a catholic spirit is a mark of a mind that has had to do with the largeness of an Almighty God. If you have passed from death unto life the friendships that you choose for yourselves, and the relationships that you form will be all made upon one principle–that you keep within the family of grace. Hence, it follows, that the conversation which you prefer is that which is the most spiritual; for how can you love the brethren, unless you really delight in their themes? So that the world of fashion, and the world of pleasure, and the world of commonplace, has become insipid, and there is only one atmosphere in which you love to breathe, and that is the atmosphere of Jesus Christ. (J. Vaughan, M. A.)
Christian love
Do you desire to know whether you may confidently, though humbly, cherish the good hope through grace that you are numbered among Christs people? Here is the way, We know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren. If that be right, then everything is right. It was the index that registered how everything else was; even as the pulse at the wrist can tell the skilled observer something as to how all the functions of material life are going on. More than this. Sometimes the index that registers a great thing is itself but a little thing. The tremendous pressure on the boiler of the locomotive is indicated by an ascending and descending drop of water in a little glass tube. The state of hundreds of solid miles of atmosphere is revealed to us by the movements of a slight pointer upon the dial of the barometer. But this testing pulse of the soul is not a little thing that indicates a great one; it is a great thing in itself. As love to God sums all our duty to God, so does love to our neighbour sum all our duty to man. Let us think whether St. John did not give this counsel so earnestly and so often because he knew that it was, and is, and always will be, a difficult thing to love the brethren. Yes, there are many feelings and tendencies in poor sinful human nature that must be held tightly in check, before Christian people will succeed in loving one another. Many human beings find it much easier to feel a general dislike to those with whom they come into anything like competition, than to feel anything like love towards them. Now let us think what it is that is really required of Christian people in these days, in this very artificial state of society, amid these separations of class from class, by this great gospel command, to love the brethren, love our neighbour as ourselves. Now, in interpreting such directions, we may take two things with us. One is, that Gods service is always a reasonable service; that there is never anything extravagant in what Christianity requires of us. Another is, that when God gives us a law, He always gives us one that is accordant with the nature and constitution of the souls He has given us. In the light of these things, we can see what is the love God requires us to bear to our fellow Christians and fellow creatures. St. John does not tell us that we are all to think exactly alike; nor to persuade ourselves that those things are of no consequence about which we cannot agree. That is not what is meant by gospel love towards all. No; it means, See a mans faults and failings, and bear with him. Hold your opinions strongly, yet agree to differ, without quarrelling. Be ready to help a poor overburdened creature to bear his burden; and a sympathetic word will go far here. Do not exaggerate the faults of your friends; rather try to see something good in them; and if you try hard, you may perhaps find a good deal. But besides that general kindliness, let us mark the little things in which Christians are found to fail in obedience to the law of love. You know it is very easy, and it sounds smart to dwell, in conversation, upon the faults and follies of the people you know; to exaggerate these, and dwell on them with weary iteration. Now, never have anything to do with that wretched ill set tattle. Do not join in it; do not listen to it. You know when the first Christians died the martyrs death, rather than offer sacrifice to idols, what was it they were called to do? Why, the whole thing was to take up a pinch of incense with their finger and thumb, and throw it into the fire on the altar of Jupiter or Minerva. But that little act signified that they apostatised from Christ, and so they died rather than do it. And even so, what an awful light is cast on little unkind sayings and doings, when we call to mind St. Johns solemn words, We know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren! Train yourselves to bring the whole force of your religion to bear upon this matter; the thing is vital. (A. K. H. Boyd, D. D.)
Love to the brethren a test of piety
I. The love to which St. John refers.
1. Love to Christians for the sake of their Christianity; or, love to the Church for the sake of Christ, the Head of the Church.
2. St. John does not speak of any partial affection we may entertain for individuals, or even classes of men, within the Church of Christ.
3. Nor is it enough that we love, however cordially, all Christians of our own Church or sect.
4. The love to the brethren, which is so sure a proof of our own safety, is not merely a universal love to the Church of Christ, but to the Church of Christ in its spiritual character.
II. How the love in question becomes the pledge of our own salvation.
1. It is, perhaps, the strongest of all proofs that we love God; and it affords a sort of demonstration that we do so, which, when considered, is conclusive to the weakest mind, or to the most hesitating faith.
2. It demands a constant sacrifice, and so constantly displays the strength of that Divine principle of faith which unites us to the Lord; for the love in question is not a mere sentiment of respect and admiration, but it is a bond of the closest union.
3. It exposes us to constant suffering for the sake of Christ; at least this was the case in the apostles days, and, in some degree, is so still, or else is the offence of the Cross ceased? (J. B. Marsden, M. A.)
Life proved by love
I. We know that we were dead.
1. We were without feeling when law and gospel were addressing us.
2. Without hunger and thirst after righteousness.
3. Without power of movement towards God in repentance.
4. Without the breath of prayer, or pulse of desire.
5. With signs of corruption; some of them most offensive.
II. We know that we have undergone a singular change.
1. The reverse of the natural change from life to death.
2. No more easy to describe than the death change would be.
3. This change varies in each case as to its outward phenomena, but it is essentially the same in all.
4. As a general rule its course is as follows–
(1) It commences with painful sensations.
(2) It leads to a sad discovery of our natural weakness.
(3) It is made manifest by personal faith in Jesus.
(4) It operates on the man by repentance and purification.
(5) It is continued by perseverance in sanctification.
(6) It is completed in joy, infinite, eternal.
5. The period of this change is an era to be looked back upon in time and through eternity with grateful praise.
III. We know that we live.
1. We know that we are not under condemnation.
2. We know that faith has given us new senses, grasping a new world, enjoying a realm of spiritual things.
3. We know that we have new hopes, fears, desires, delights, etc.
4. We know that we have been introduced into new surroundings and a new spiritual society: God, saints, angels, etc.
5. We know that we have new needs; such as heavenly breath, food, instruction, correction, etc.
6. We know that this life guarantees eternal bliss.
IV. We know that we live, because we love. We love the brethren.
1. For Christs sake.
2. For the truths sake.
3. For their own sake.
4. When the world hates them.
5. We love their company, their example, their exhortations.
6. We love them despite the drawbacks of infirmity, inferiority, etc. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Christian love
Dr. Raymond told us the other night about those geysers flowing with boiling water. The ice and snow come down from the mountain tops, and then they pour down through subterranean channels, and in some strange places, but where no man knows, they are heated, and come bubbling to the surface of the earth again. We know they are warmed, but we know not how. And we do not need to wait until we find out how, before we believe that they are warm. And so the hearts that are cold and sensual and proud and selfish, whenever they are brought in contact with the heart of God through the Lord Jesus Christ, are warmed. They come into con tact with Him and become different men. The nation is a different nation, the civilisation is a different civilisation, the type of character is a different type of character. Christian character is not Hindu character. It is not African character. It is distinctively Christian character; a character warm with love, because it has been warmed in the secret places of the Most High. (L. Abbott, D. D.)
Loving the pictures of God
If you love an absent person, you will love their picture. What is that the sailors wife keeps so closely wrapped in a napkin, laid up in her best drawer among sweet smelling flowers? She takes it out morning and evening, and gazes at it through her tears. It is the picture of her absent husband. She loves it because it is like him. It has many imperfections, but still it is like him. Believers are the pictures of God in this world. The Spirit of Christ dwells in them. They walk as He walked. True, they are full of imperfections; still they are true copies. If you love Him, you will love them; you will make them your bosom friends. (R. M. McCheyne.)
Christian love an evidence of Christian life
As it would be impossible for the insect in its chrysalis state to observe the laws which are made for its transformed state–for the worm to know the laws which make the summer fly seek the sunshine and live upon the flower–as it must be born again and enter upon a new existence before it can keep the laws of that new existence; so only the new creature can keep this new commandment. (C. Stanford, D. D.)
He that loveth not his brother abideth in death—
Brotherly love wanting
I. He that loveth not his brother abideth in death. The very form of this statement demands attention. It charges as a crime the want of a grace and not merely the perpetration of evil.
1. The complaint is, he that loveth not his brother. He is devoid of the natural affection which close affinity should create. As for counting anyone a brother because he is a child of God, although he has no earthly relationship to him, he neither apprehends the idea, nor is sensible of any obligation upon him, arising out of it.
2. His condition is supposed to be the most deplorable. Death is the term that is used to describe it. It is descriptive at once of his guilt and depravity, and his insensibility to both. Mark the emphasis of the phrase, abideth in death. Such a one was and continues to be dead.
II. Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer, and ye know that no murderer hath eternal life abiding in him. This statement is stronger than the former. That was negative, while this is positive. That consisted in withholding what was due, this in the infliction of evil. We are reminded in this comparative statement of the progress of sin. It is never stationary. The want of a grace will soon become the germ of a great sin. The man that loveth not his brother will soon learn to hate his brother. In finding out arguments to justify his neglect, he will not fail to dis cover reasons to inflame his hatred. The conclusion of the apostle respecting such a one is irresistible–Ye know that no murderer hath eternal life abiding in him. The two things are incompatible and cannot dwell together.
III. Hereby perceive we the love of God, because He laid down His life for us; and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. This is the strongest argument yet advanced. It is drawn from the conduct of God Himself, and from the obligation that rests on us to be followers of Him as dear children. (J. Morgan, D. D.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 14. We know that we have passed from death unto life] Death and life are represented here as two distinct territories, states, or kingdoms, to either of which the inhabitants of either may be removed. This is implied in the term , from , denoting change of place, and , I go. It is the same figure which St. Paul uses, Col 1:13: Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and translated us into the kingdom of the Son of his love. The believers to whom St. John writes had been once in the region and shadow of death, in the place where sin and death reigned, whose subjects they were; but they had left that kingdom of oppression, wretchedness, and wo, and had come over to the kingdom of life, whose king was the Prince and Author of life; where all was liberty, prosperity, and happiness; where life and love were universally prevalent, and death and hatred could not enter. We know, therefore, says the apostle, that we are passed over from the territory of death to the kingdom of life, because we love the brethren, which those who continue in the old kingdom-under the old covenant, can never do; for he that loveth not his brother abideth in death. He has never changed his original residence. He is still an unconverted, unrenewed sinner.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
The notion of brother must not be understood so narrowly, as only to signify such as we have particular inclination to, as being of our own party and opinion, or kindred, or who have obliged us by special kindness; for to confine our love within such limits, were no argument of our having
passed from death unto life, or more than is to be found with the worst of men, Mat 5:46,47. Nor must it be understood exclusively, of the regenerateonly; but must be taken, first, more generally, in the natural sense, for all mankind, in the same latitude as neighbour in that summary of the second table: Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself; originally intended not to Jews, as such, but men; and therefore excludes not our enemies, by our Saviours interpretation, Mat 5:43,44. Secondly, in a more special (viz. the spiritual) sense, for such as are our brethren by regeneration, so the children with us of the same Father; i.e. whereas the blessed God himself is the primum amabile, the first object of love, all others (persons or things) ought to be loved proportionably to what prints or characters of the Divine excellency we find impressed upon them. Human nature hath resemblances in it of his spiritual, intelligent, immortal nature; regeneracy, of his holiness. And so he loves his creatures himself, severing their malignity, (where that is to be found), that is of themselves, from what of real good there is in them, which is from him. When therefore a correspondent frame of love is impressed upon us, and inwrought into our temper, his image, who is love, is renewed in us, which, in this noble part of it, the devil had so eminently defaced in the world, possessing the souls of men with mutual animosities and enmities against one another, but especially such as should be found to have upon them any impress of the most excellent kind of goodness, i.e. of true piety and holiness. And by this renovation of his image in us, whereby we are enabled to love others for his sake, and proportionably to what characters of him are upon them, we appear to be his children, Mat 5:45, begotten of him into a state of life, out of that death which is upon the rest of the world, Eph 2:1, and wherein every one still abides that thus loves not his brother.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
14. Weemphatical; hatedthough we be by the world, we know what the world knows not.
knowas an assuredfact.
passedchanged ourstate. Col 1:13, “fromthe power of darkness . . . translated into the kingdom of His dearSon.”
from death untolifeliterally, “out of the death (which enthralsthe unregenerate) into the life (of the regenerate).” Apalpable coincidence of language and thought, the beloved discipleadopting his Lord’s words.
because we love thebrethrenthe ground, not of our passing over out of deathinto life, but of our knowing that we have so. Love,on our part, is the evidence of our justification andregeneration, not the cause of them. “Let each go to hisown heart; if he find there love to the brethren, let him feelassured that he has passed from death unto life. Let him not mindthat his glory is only hidden; when the Lord shall come, then shallhe appear in glory. For he has vital energy, but it is stillwintertime; the root has vigor, but the branches are as it were dry;within there is marrow which is vigorous, within are leaves, withinfruits, but they must wait for summer” [AUGUSTINE].
He that loveth notMostof the oldest manuscripts omit “his brother,” which makesthe statement more general.
abidethstill.
in death“in the(spiritual) death” (ending in eternal death) which is the stateof all by nature. His want of love evidences that no savingchange has passed over him.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
We know that we have passed from death to life,…. From a death in sin, a moral or spiritual death; which lies in a separation from God, Father, Son, and Spirit; in an alienation from the life of God; in a loss of the image of God, of righteousness, holiness, and knowledge, in which man was created; in a privation of all true sense of sin, and in a servitude to it, which is unto death, and is no other than death: and from a legal death, or death in a legal sense, under the sentence of which all men are, as considered in Adam; and which God’s elect are sensible of, when convinced by the Spirit of God, and are in their own apprehension as dead men. Now in regeneration, which is a quickening of sinners dead in sin, a resurrection of them from the dead, the people of God pass from this death of sin, and the law, to a life of sanctification, having principles of grace and life implanted in them; and to a life of justification, and of faith on Christ, as the Lord their righteousness; and to a life of communion with Christ; and to such a life as is to the glory of Christ; and to a right to eternal life. And this passing from the one to the other is not of themselves, it is not their own act; no man can quicken himself, or raise himself from the dead; in this men are passive: and so the words are rendered in the Vulgate Latin, Syriac, and Arabic versions, “we know that we are translated”; that is, by God the Father, who delivers from the power of darkness, and death, and translates into the kingdom of his dear Son, which is a state of light and life; or by Christ, who is the resurrection and the life, who is the author of the resurrection from the death of sin to a life of grace; or by the Spirit of life from Christ, by whom souls are quickened, and of whom they are born again: and this passage from death to life, or regeneration, is a thing that may be, and is known by the regenerate man; who, as he knows surely, that whereas he was blind he now sees, so that whereas he was dead in sin, he is now alive; and among other things it may be known by this,
because we love the brethren: this is not the cause of passing from death to life, but the effect of it, and so an evidence of it, or that by which it is known; brotherly love being what the saints are taught of God in regeneration, and is a fruit of the Spirit of God, and is what true faith works by, and is what shows itself as soon as anything in a regenerate man; nor can anyone love the saints, as such, as brethren in Christ, unless he is born again; a man may indeed love a saint, as a natural relative, as a good neighbour, and because he has done him some good offices, and because of some excellent qualities in him, as a man of learning, sense, candour, civility, c. though he has not the grace of God but to love him as a child of God, a member of Christ, and because he has his image stamped on him, no man can do this, unless he has received the grace of God; so that this is a certain evidence of it:
he that loveth not [his] brother, abideth in death; in the death of sin, in a state of nature and unregeneracy; under the sentence of condemnation and death; and he is liable to eternal death, which is the wages of sin, under the power of which such a manifestly is. This is said to deter from hatred, as also what follows.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
| Brotherly Love. | A. D. 80. |
14 We know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren. He that loveth not his brother 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 perceive we the love of God, because he laid down his life for us: and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. 17 But whoso hath this world’s good, and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him? 18 My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue; but in deed and in truth. 19 And hereby we know that we are of the truth, and shall assure our hearts before him.
The beloved apostle can scarcely touch upon the mention of sacred love, but he must enlarge upon the enforcement of it, as here he does by divers arguments and incentives thereto; as,
I. That it is a mark of our evangelical justification, of our transition into a state of life: We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love the brethren, v. 14. We are by nature children of wrath and heirs of death. By the gospel (the gospel-covenant or promise) our state towards another world is altered and changed. We pass from death to life, from the guilt of death to the right of life; and this transition is made upon our believing in the Lord Jesus: He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life, and he that believeth not hath the wrath of God abiding on him, John iii. 36. Now this happy change of state we may come to be assured of: We know that we have passed from death to life; we may know it by the evidences of our faith in Christ, of which this love to our brethren is one, which leads us to characterize this love that is such a mark of our justified state. It is not a zeal for a party in the common religion, or an affection for, or an affectation of, those who are of the same denomination and subordinate sentiments with ourselves. But this love,
1. Supposes a general love to mankind: the law of Christian love, in the Christian community, is founded on the catholic law, in the society of mankind, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. Mankind are to be loved principally on these two accounts:– (1.) As the excellent work of God, made by him, and made in wonderful resemblance of him. The reason that God assigns for the certain punishment of a murderer is a reason against our hatred of any of the brethren of mankind, and consequently a reason for our love to them: for in the image of God made he man, Gen. ix. 6. (2.) As being, in some measure, beloved in Christ. The whole race of mankind–the gens humana, should be considered as being, in distinction from fallen angels, a redeemed nation; as having a divine Redeemer designed, prepared, and given for them. So God loved the world, even this world, that he gave his only-begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on him should not perish, but have everlasting life, John iii. 16. A world so beloved of God should accordingly be loved by us. And this love will exert itself in earnest desires, and prayers, and attempts, for the conversion and salvation of the yet uncalled blinded world. My heart’s desire and prayer for Israel are that they may be saved. And then this love will include all due love to enemies themselves.
2. It includes a peculiar love to the Christian society, to the catholic church, and that for the sake of her head, as being his body, as being redeemed, justified, and sanctified in and by him; and this love particularly acts and operates towards those of the catholic church that we have opportunity of being personally acquainted with or credibly informed of. They are not so much loved for their own sakes as for the sake of God and Christ, who have loved them. And it is God and Christ, or, if you will, the love of God and grace of Christ, that are beloved and valued in them and towards them. And so this is the issue of faith in Christ, and is thereupon a note of our passage from death to life.
II. The hatred of our brethren is, on the contrary, a sign of our deadly state, of our continuance under the legal sentence of death: He that loveth not his brother (his brother in Christ) abideth in death, v. 14. He yet stands under the curse and condemnation of the law. This the apostle argues by a clear syllogism: “You know that no murderer hath eternal life abiding in him; but he who hates his brother is a murderer; and therefore you cannot but know that he who hates his brother hath not eternal life abiding in him,” v. 15. Or, he abideth in death, as it is expressed, v. 14, Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer; for hatred of the person is, so far as it prevails, a hatred of life and welfare, and naturally tends to desire the extinction of it. Cain hated, and then slew, his brother. Hatred will shut up the bowels of compassion from the poor brethren, and will thereby expose them to the sorrows of death. And it has appeared that hatred of the brethren has in all ages dressed them up in ill names, odious characters, and calumnies, and exposed them to persecution and the sword. No wonder, then, that he who has a considerable acquaintance with the heart of man, or is taught by him who fully knows it, who knows the natural tendency and issue of vile and violent passions, and knows withal the fulness of the divine law, declares him who hates his brother to be a murderer. Now he who by the frame and disposition of his heart is a murderer cannot have eternal life abiding in him; for he who is such must needs be carnally-minded, and to be carnally-minded is death, Rom. viii. 6. The apostle, by the expression of having eternal life abiding in us, may seem to mean the possession of an internal principle of endless life, according to that of the Saviour, Whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst, shall never be totally destitute thereof; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life, John iv. 14. And thereupon some may be apt to surmise that the passing from death to life (v. 14) does not signify the relative change made in our justification of life, but the real change made in the regeneration to life; and accordingly that the abiding in death mentioned v. 14 is continuance in spiritual death, as it is usually called, or abiding in the corrupt deadly temper of nature. But as these passages more naturally denote the state of the person, whether adjudged to life or death, so the relative transition from death to life may well be proved or disproved by the possession or non-possession of the inward principle of eternal life, since washing from the guilt of sin is inseparably united with washing from the filth and power of sin. But you are washed, but you are sanctified, but you are justified, in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God, 1 Cor. vi. 11.
III. The example of God and Christ should inflame our hearts with this holy love: Hereby perceive we the love of God, because he laid down his life for us; and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren, v. 16. The great God has given his Son to the death for us. But since this apostle has declared that the Word was God, and that he became flesh for us, I see not why we may not interpret this of God the Word. Here is the love of God himself, of him who in his own person is God, though not the Father, that he assumed a life, that he might lay it down for us! Here is the condescension, the miracle, the mystery of divine love, that God would redeem the church with his own blood! Surely we should love those whom God hath loved, and so loved; and we shall certainly do so if we have any love for God.
IV. The apostle, having proposed this flaming constraining example of love, and motive to it, proceeds to show us what should be the temper and effect of this our Christian love. And, 1. It must be, in the highest degree, so fervent as to make us willing to suffer even to death for the good of the church, for the safety and salvation of the dear brethren: And we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren (v. 16), either in our ministrations and services to them (yea, and if I be offered upon the service and sacrifice of your faith, I joy and rejoice with you all–I shall congratulate your felicity, Phil. ii. 17), or in exposing ourselves to hazards, when called thereto, for the safety and preservation of those that are more serviceable to the glory of God and the edification of the church than we can be. Who have for my life laid down their own necks; unto whom not only I give thanks, but also all the churches of the Gentiles, Rom. xvi. 4. How mortified should the Christian be to this life! How prepared to part with it! And how well assured of a better! 2. It must be, in the next degree, compassionate, liberal, and communicative to the necessities of the brethren: For whoso hath this world’s good, and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him? v. 17. It pleases God that some of the Christian brethren should be poor, for the exercise of the charity and love of those that are rich. And it pleases the same God to give to some of the Christian brethren this world’s good, that they may exercise their grace in communicating to the poor saints. And those who have this world’s good must love a good God more, and their good brethren more, and be ready to distribute it for their sakes. It appears here that this love to the brethren is founded upon love to God, in that it is here called so by the apostle: How dwelleth the love of God in him? This love to the brethren is love to God in them; and where there is none of this love to them there is no true love to God at all. 3. I was going to intimate the third and lowest degree in the next verse; but the apostle has prevented me, by intimating that this last charitable communicative love, in persons of ability, is the lowest that can consist with the love of God. But there may be other fruits of this love; and therefore the apostle desires that in all it should be unfeigned and operative, as circumstances will allow: My little children (my dear children in Christ), let us not love in word, neither in tongue, but in deed and in truth, v. 18. Compliments and flatteries become not Christians; but the sincere expressions of sacred affection, and the services or labours of love, do. Then,
V. This love will evince our sincerity in religion, and give us hope towards God: And hereby we know that we are of the truth, and shall assure our hearts before him, v. 19. It is a great happiness to be assured of our integrity in religion. Those that are so assured may have holy boldness or confidence towards God; they may appeal to him from the censures and condemnation of the world. The way to arrive at the knowledge of our own truth and uprightness in Christianity, and to secure our inward peace, is to abound in love and in the works of love towards the Christian brethren.
Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary
We know ( ). Emphatic expression of (we) in contrast to the unregenerate world, the Christian consciousness shared by writer and readers.
We have passed (). Perfect active indicative of , old compound to pass over from one place to another (Joh 7:3), to migrate, out of death into life. We have already done it while here on earth.
Because (). Proof of this transition, not the ground of it.
We love the brethren ( ). Just this phrase (plural) here alone, but see 2:9 for the singular.
He that loveth not ( ). “The not loving man,” general picture and picture of spiritual death.
Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament
We know. Emphatic; we as distinguished from the world.
Have passed [] . Lit., have passed over.
From death [ ] . Lit., out of the death. The article marks it as one of the two spheres in which men must be; death or life. The death, the life, present one of those sharp oppositions which are characteristic of the Epistle; as love, hatred; darkness, light; truth, a lie. O qanatov the death, occurs in John’s Epistles only here and in the next clause. In the Gospel, only 1Jo 5:24. Personified in Rev 1:18; Rev 6:8; Rev 9:6; Rev 20:13. Unto life [ ] . Rev., better, into. Compare enter into the life, Mt 28:8; Mt 19:17.
Because. The sign of having passed into life; not the ground.
We love the brethren [ , ] . The only occurrence of the phrase. Elsewhere, love one another, or love his brother. See on 2 9.
His brother. Omit.
Fuente: Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament
1) “We know that we have passed from death unto life.” To know that one has passed from (ek tou -out of) death (Greek eis) “into” life is a blessed assurance every regenerated person can have 1Jn 5:13; Joh 5:24; Joh 11:25-26.
2) “Because we love the brethren”. Love for the brethren is a fruit of the spirit, (new nature) Gal 5:22. It is an evidence of regeneration and that one has the Spiritual Gift mentioned 1Co 13:13; Joh 13:34-35.
3) “He that loveth not his brother”. Literally, “the one not loving”. If no true affection – no true love – is evident in the life of a professor the necessary inference is that he is, like Cain, unregenerate, lost, despising God.
4) “Abideth in death”. “Remains in the death realm or death area”. If genuine love (affection) is an evidence of Spiritual life, the necessary corollary is that the absence of love indicates one is lost, without God. (Rom 8:9; 1Jn 4:8)
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
14 We know. He commends love to us by a remarkable eulogy, because it is an evidence of a transition from death to life. It hence follows that if we love the brethren we are blessed, but that we are miserable if we hate them. There is no one who does not wish to be freed and delivered from death. Those then who by cherishing hatred willingly give themselves up to death, must be extremely stupid and senseless. But when the Apostle says, that it is known by love that we have passed into life, he does not mean that man is his own deliverer, as though he could by loving the brethren rescue himself from death, and procure life for himself; for he does not here treat of the cause of salvation, but as love is the special fruit of the Spirit, it is also a sure symbol of regeneration. Then the Apostle draws an argument from the sign, and not from the cause. For as no one sincerely loves his brethren, except he is regenerated by the Spirit of God, he hence rightly concludes that the Spirit of God, who is life, dwells in all who love the brethren. But it would be preposterous for any one to infer hence, that life is obtained by love, since love is in order of time posterior to it.
The argument would be more plausible, were it said that love makes us more certain of life: then confidence as to salvation would recumb on works. But the answer to this is obvious; for though faith is confirmed by all the graces of God as aids, yet it ceases not to have its foundation in the mercy of God only. As for instance, when we enjoy the light, we are certain that the sun shines; if the sun shines on the place in which we are, we have a clearer view of it; but yet when the visible rays do not come to us, we are satisfied that the sun diffuses its brightness for our benefit. So when faith is founded on Christ, some things may happen to assist it, still it rests on Christ’s grace alone.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
14. We know As one of the tests. The fraternal love, which Cain wanted and Abel possessed, is inherited by us; and thus we know we are on the side of life and not of death. Yet we belong with the good Abel not by natural descent; but, having been originally under death, we have passed therefrom unto life. So that our regeneration is also a resurrection.
Brethren This oft-repeated word is used in no narrow, bigoted, or partisan sense, but designates all who are, with us, the sons of God, and hence the universal Church of the truly justified. The central element of this brotherhood and sonship is a divine love; verily divine since God himself is love, and is that love within the heart. Hence a consciousness of that love for the sons is proof of love for the common Father, God, 1Jn 5:1; and reciprocally the consciousness of our love to God is proof that we truly love the brethren, the sons of God, 1Jn 5:2. And this is no mere shallow emotional love, it is realistic, and is embodied in keeping God’s commandments, 1Jn 5:2. Hence these brethren are the truly good, and actually holy in the world; and this love is no gross affection, but transcendent and divine. It is a love on earth anticipating the love which constitutes heaven above.
Loveth not As Cain did not. The loveless being, uninspired by any divine affection, has never made the transition to life, but abideth in death.
Death The opposite of eternal life in 1Jn 2:25, as also in verse following.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
1Jn 3:14 Comments – When he speaks of death, John is referring to physical death, which is separation from God. We can know that we have passed from spiritual death to spiritual life because we have the love of God abiding in us. In our natural birth, we partook of the nature and likeness of our parents. But when were born again from above, we immediately partook of the nature and likeness of God. We know that God is love.
1Jn 4:8, “He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love.”
Therefore, Kenneth Hagin gives the following translation of this verse, “We know we’ve passed from spiritual death and its consequences eternal separation from God to eternal life because we have this fruit called love.” [30]
[30] Kenneth Hagin, Love the Way to Victory (Tulsa, Oklahoma: Faith Library Publications, c1994, 1995), 46.
1Jn 3:18 “but in deed and in truth” – Comments – You can do good things, or deeds, for people. That is, they seem good to you, like taking children to see Santa Clause or buying them things they do not need. However, to love in truth means to do things for others which are scripturally sound.
Illustration – While browsing through a book store to buy children’s books as Christmas gifts, the Lord quickened two verses to me: Pro 22:6 and 1Ti 1:4. Therefore I knew that if was against God’s will to buy them anything but Bible literature. Amen
Pro 22:6, “Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.”
1Ti 1:4, “ Neither give heed to fables and endless genealogies , which minister questions, rather than godly edifying which is in faith: so do.”
1Jn 3:18 Comments – We love in word and tongue with our minds; we love in deed with our physical actions; we love in truth from the integrity of our heart. Thus, the Lord is telling us to love others from pure motives by our actions as well as our words.
We love man by helping others:
Jas 1:27, “Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.”
We love God by doing His Word. God’s Word is truth:
Joh 14:15, “If ye love me, keep my commandments.”
1Jn 3:19 Comments – When we are walking in love towards others (1Jn 3:18) we are living holy, obedient lives, and we have a confidence in our hearts to stand before a living God. Praise the Lord Jesus, and Righteous Father, forever and even, Amen, and Amen!!!
We need to be convinced in our hearts that we are of the truth, and we do this by walking in love.
1Jn 3:20 Comments The NIV and RSV read, “whenever our heart condemns us;” the NASB reads, “in whatever our heart condemns us.”
However, the child of God does not always walk in obedience towards God and love towards others. Thus, when we fail, our conscience, which is the voice of our spirit, tells us we have erred. Thank God, we are able simply come before God in confidence and acknowledge our weakness and ask for His mercy, thus, strengthening our faith in Him.
1Jn 3:21 Comments – We can also have this confidence on the Day of Judgment.
1Jn 4:17, “Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment : because as he is, so are we in this world.”
Illustration – Note as an illustration in Job 27:6, “My righteousness I hold fast, and will not let it go: my heart shall not reproach me so long as I live .”
1Jn 3:20-22 Comments The Conscience is the Voice of Man’s Spirit – The voice of our heart, or our spirit, is the conscience. Thus, 1Jn 3:20-22 tells us that when our conscience judges us in wrongdoing, we should realize that God is greater than our hearts and is able to search it out. He knows the inner secrets of the heart and there is nothing hid before His eyes. When our conscience is telling us that we are doing right, we feel confident in our relationship with God and we know that when we pray, God will hear our prayers and answer us.
Comments The Command to Be Fruitful and Multiply – Joh 15:16 tells us that we have been called to bear fruit for the kingdom of God. If we go back to the beginnings, before the Fall of man, we find this same commandment given to mankind. In Gen 1:28 God commanded man to be fruitful and to multiply. When we follow this plan for our lives, we begin to do those things that are pleasing in His sight and we place ourselves in a position to ask whatever we want and we will receive from Him (1Jn 3:22). Thus, the promise in Joh 15:16 that whatsoever we ask the Father in Jesus’ name will be given to us is only from fruit-bearers. It is not for the carnal-minded.
Joh 15:16, “Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain: that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it you.”
Gen 1:28, “And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.”
1Jn 3:22, “And whatsoever we ask, we receive of him, because we keep his commandments, and do those things that are pleasing in his sight.”
Fuente: Everett’s Study Notes on the Holy Scriptures
1Jn 3:14. We know that we have passed from death, &c. This is said even of the best men; which implies, by a strong consequence, that they are, as it were, born in the land and territories of death; or that the gospel finds them in such a condition, as to be liable to condemnation and destruction; to the execution of a capital sentence. Oblique expressions of this sort speak such truths as these, in a manner peculiarly convincing and affecting. Here is a third reason assigned for loving the Christian brethren; namely, that a cordial love of genuine complacency to all Christians was a sure mark or evidence, that they were quickened from the death of sin to a life of righteousness, and entitled to immortal life. See Joh 13:35. It is added, he that loveth not his brother, abideth in death. Though he had been baptized, and visibly taken into the church, yet he was not a true Christian; and therefore no more translated into the kingdom and favour of God’s dear Son, than a Heathen: but if he continued impenitently in that want of love to the brethren, he would be as much exposed to the second death, or the punishment of the future state, as the unbelieving and wicked world. This may be justly looked upon as a fourth reason for their loving the Christian brethren; namely, that without such love their Christianity was v
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
1Jn 3:14 . The contrast of love and hatred is at the same time one of life and death.
] forms the antithesis of . Though the world hate us and persecute us to death , as Cain killed his brother, we know, etc.
] comp. Gospel of Joh 5:24 ; the perfect shows that the subject is a present and not merely a future state; moreover, the apostle does not say that the Christian has received the title to eternal life (Grotius: juri ad rem saepe datur nomen rei ipsius), but that the believer has already passed from death into life, and therefore no longer is in a state of death, but in life. By is to be understood not merely the knowledge of God (Weiss), but holy life in truth and righteousness; by , not merely the want of the knowledge of God (Weiss), but unholy life in lying and sin. The natural man is fallen in lies and unrighteousness, and hence wretched : by the salvation of Christ he enters from this state into the other, the essence of which is happiness in truth and righteousness. [224] That the Christian, as such, is in a state of , he knows from the fact that he loves the brethren; brotherly love is the sign of the ; therefore the apostle continues: .
refers, as most commentators rightly interpret, to and not to (Baumgarten-Crusius, Kstlin); the relation between and is, namely, not this, that the latter is the originating cause of the former (Lyra: opera ex caritate facta sunt meritoria), but both are one in their cause, and are only distinguished in this way, that is the state , the action of the believer: out of the happy life, love grows, and love again produces happiness; therefore John says: ( sc. , see the critical notes) , by which the identity of not loving and of abiding in death is directly brought out. [225]
It is not without a purpose that the apostle contents himself here, where he has only to do with the simple antithesis to the preceding, with the negative idea: , with which the also corresponds; it is only in the following verse that the negation reaches the form of a positive antithesis.
expresses here also the firm, sure being (so also Myrberg); it is therefore used neither merely in reference to the past, nor merely in reference to the future.
[224] By this expression: . . ., the apostle describes Christians as having been, previously to their believing, , hence also not yet ; contrary to the assertion of Hilgenfeld, that the author of the Epistle shared the Gnostic view of the original metaphysical difference in men.
[225] Besser: “Where hatred is, there is death; where love is, there is life; nay, love itself is life.” Weiss erroneously maintains that here, “instead of the strict converse in the form of a progressive parallelism, just that is mentioned which is the result of the non-transition from death to life, namely, the abiding in death,” for John did not need to say actually that he who has not passed from death to life is in death.
Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary
DISCOURSE: 2447
LOVE OF THE BRETHREN
1Jn 3:14. We know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren.
LOVE is said to be the fulfilling of the law: and it certainly is also the great end of the Gospel. But love is of different kinds: there is a love of benevolence, a love of beneficence, and a love of complacency. The two former are due to all mankind: the latter is due to the saints alone; because they alone possess that character in which God delights, or in which it becomes us to feel delight. It is of this last kind of love that the Apostle speaks in my text, a love of the brethren: and of it he speaks in the highest terms imaginable. To illustrate his views of it, I will shew,
I.
What is that change which every true Christian has experienced
It is not a change of opinions merely, or a transition from one Church to another; but a change,
1.
In his state before God
[The unregenerate man is dead in trespasses and sins. Even by nature he is a child of wrath [Note: Eph 2:3.]; and, by practice, he has involved himself in the deepest guilt and condemnation But in conversion, a marvellous transition takes place: he passes from death unto life. By believing in Christ, he obtains a remission of all his sins; they are blotted out of the book of Gods remembrance; and there no longer remains any condemnation to him on account of them [Note: Rom 8:1.]. From being a child of Satan, and an heir of wrath, he is made a child of God, and an heir of glory ]
2.
In the entire habit of his soul
[During his unconverted state, he lived to self alone: he had no thought or desires beyond this present world: he was altogether alienated from the life of God, an atheist in the world [Note: Eph 2:12. the Greek.]. As the body, when separated from the soul, is dead, and performs not any one function of the animal life; so his soul, being separated from God, is dead, and never once performs any spiritual act whatever. But in his conversion, a similar change is wrought. His powers are quickened: his understanding, his will, his affections, are all called forth into act and exercise on spiritual subjects: so that old things pass away, and all things become new. This change is not unlike that of a river which, by an invisible agency, is turned so as to flow in a direction opposite to its natural course, even upward, towards its source and head. Being thus renewed in the spirit of his mind, he lives no longer to himself, but unto Him who died for him, and rose again ]
It will now be proper to inquire,
II.
How far the test, here proposed for the ascertaining of this change, may be depended on
Beyond a doubt, this change may be ascertained to the satisfaction both of ourselves and others
[It is not to be supposed that so great a change should be effected both in the state and habits of a man, and he himself be unconscious of it. It is a matter of the deepest interest with him; and he will never be satisfied, till he knows that he has attained this great object of his desires. There are many marks by which it may be discovered, even as a tree by its fruits. The test here proposed is amply sufficient for this end. The only danger is, of mistaking the test itself, and putting something else in the place of it.]
The love of the brethren, duly understood, will serve as an unerring test
[Two things must be borne in mind, as distinguishing the true test from all its counterfeits. The love of the brethren is a love to them purely for Christs sake, and a love displaying itself towards them in all its proper offices. It is not a love to them on account of their having embraced our sentiments, or their belonging to our party; nor will it shew itself merely in speaking well of them, and in espousing their cause: it is called forth by the single circumstance of their being the friends and servants of the Lord Jesus Christ: and it will shew itself in such a deportment towards them, as we would maintain towards the Lord Jesus Christ himself, if he were circumstanced as they are. The description given of love in the 13th chapter of the First Epistle to the Corinthians, is precisely that which the Christian will realize in his conduct towards Christians of every denomination: and then only is it a proper test of our conversion to God, when it so operates. But, supposing it to be of this kind, then may we know from it, without a shadow of doubt, that we have passed from death unto life: for such love can proceed from God alone: it springs from no root whatever but faith in Christ: and, consequently, its existence and operation in the soul proves us to be true believers, children of God, and heirs of glory.]
Address
1.
Those who are strangers to this peculiar regard
[If the existence of it in the soul prove that we have passed from death unto life, the non-existence of it may well lead you to fear that this change has never been wrought in you. Examine yourselves, therefore, and try your own selves. In truth, this test is of peculiar importance to you: for, if you will look within, you will find that, by nature, you are rather alienated from persons on account of their relation to Christ, than drawn to them: the want of congeniality of taste and sentiment sets you at a distance from them; and a consciousness of this may well lead you to conclude that you are yet dead before God. The Apostle tells us this, in the very words following my text; He that loveth not his brother, abideth in death. O consider this, ere it be too late: and seek that change, without which you must for ever perish!]
2.
Those who think themselves under its influence
[It must be confessed that persons are very prone to deceive themselves on this point; and to imagine that they love the brethren, when their regard is merely partial towards their own party, and when it is associated with many dispositions contrary to love. Remember then, I pray you, that your love, in order to be genuine, must be heavenly in its origin, holy in its exercise, and uniform in its operations See, I pray you, whether your love be of this kind, before you venture to build upon it such a confident persuasion as that mentioned in my text ]
3.
Those who are truly alive to God
[Shew, in your whole spirit and temper, what the effect of the Gospel is. It was said of the primitive Church, Behold how these Christians love one another! Let the same mark be visible in you, and the same confession be extorted from all your adversaries: bear in mind all the offices of love, that it beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things. You must not expect your brethren to be perfect: for you yourselves are not perfect: and therefore the allowances which you need from others, you must make for them: and you must take care, in thought, word, and deed, that nothing be done by you contrary to love. Be sure, therefore, that your love be without dissimulation; and that it shew itself not in word and in tongue, but in deed and in truth.]
Fuente: Charles Simeon’s Horae Homileticae (Old and New Testaments)
14 We know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren. He that loveth not his brother abideth in death.
Ver. 14. We know that we have passed ] Not we think, we hope, &c. If we would not have with the merchant an estate hanging upon ropes, fortunam rudentibus aptam, and depending upon uncertain winds, let us make sure work for our souls. This is a jewel that the cock on the dunghill meddles not with. Sensum electionis ad gloriam in hac vita nullum agnosco, saith Greevinchovius the Arminian, I know no such thing as assurance of heaven in this life. Papists allow us nothing beyond a conjectural confidence, unless by special revelation. Miserable comforters! They tell us that to taste though but with the tip of a rod (Jonathan-like) of this honey will hinder us in the chase of our lusts; but believe them not; for the joy of the Lord is our strength, Neh 8:10 .
Because we love the brethren ] This is to be seen in the natives of New England. The first appearance of grace in them is, their love and respect to those that are truly gracious.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
14, 15 .] See summary above on 1Jn 3:11 . The connexion with the foregoing is very close. We learnt from 1Jn 3:10 , that the love of the brethren is that which makes manifest the children of God and the children of the devil. And now again, having spoken of the hate of the world as a thing to be looked for, the Apostle brings up this sign as one tending to comfort the child of God, and shew him that, notwithstanding the world’s hate, he has more to rejoice at than to fear from the fact: he is in life, they in death. We ( , emphatic: we whom the world hates: we, as set over against the world) know (see above, 1Jn 3:2 al.: of certain knowledge) that we have passed over out of death into life (notice both times the articles after the prepositions, removing the nouns in this case out of the abstract, and giving them a concrete totality the death , which reigns over the unregenerate: the life , which is revealed in Christ), because ( gives the ground and cause, not of the , but of the ) we love the brethren (here distinctly, our Christian brethren: the term being that well-known one by which the body of Christians was represented.
It is curious to follow Dsterdieck in his recension of the R.-Cath. and Socinian interpretations of this verse, and to see how they both run into one in wresting it to their own doctrines. First, the former begin with . Lyra would confine it to the Apostles; they knew “certitudinaliter, de hoc per divinam revelationem certificati;” but “si ad alios refertur, tum hoc scire accipitur pro probabili conjectura.” Similarly Corn.-a-lap., Tirinus, and Estius (and I may add, Justiniani, even more strikingly; see below), denying that St. John speaks of the certainty of assurance grounded on faith by the heretics, but “de certitudine morali et conjecturali, concepta ex testimonio bon conscienti, innocentia vit et consolatione Spiritus Sancti.” (Justiniani’s words are, “Recte ait (Didymus) nos disciplinabiliter id scire, ut formidinem quidem excludat, nihil tamen prter probabilitatem ex scientia offerat.”) Estius predicates the knowledge indeed simply of Christians respecting all the “boni fideles,” “quorum e numero nos esse singuli confidimus.” On the other hand Socinus, remarking that the Scripture writers (and even our Lord Himself, for which he refers to the Beatitudes) often “hyperbolicis quibusdam amplificand rei causa loquutionibus utuntur,” says of the test here proposed, “nam qui tali animo est prditus, vix fieri potest quin alias etiam Christianas qualitates habeat, qu necessari sunt ad vitam ternam consequendam.” This remark brings us on common ground with the R.-Catholics, who would do violence to the express perfect tense to suit their purpose. So even Didymus, “quoniam qui diligit fratres secundum Deum, ad vitam ex morte transit :” (so Justiniani, making brotherly love the instrument of our , instead of the sign of its having taken place: “amor itaque ex caritate a morte nos ad vitam traducit :”) so Bed [57] , who having explained rightly below, “quod in anima mortui omnes in hanc lucem nascimur,” goes on to say, “in illa utique morte, si fratres perfecte amaret, exsurgere posset :” so Lyra, “opera ex caritate facta sunt meritoria;” so the Socinians, e. g. Schlichting (“docet quid maxime Deum impellat, ut nos ex morte transferre velit in vitam ternam”), adding, as we might expect, “dicit transivimus , per enallagen temporis pro transibimus :” so the rationalists, Grotius (“juri ad rem spe datur nomen rei ipsius”), and Carpzov. It is very remarkable, that the fine exegetical tact of Estius causes him on the one hand to deliver a clear and decided interpretation of the verse as it really is (“non hic significatur meritum aut omnino causa dict translationis, quasi prius sit, diligere fratres, posterius autem, et effectus illius, transferri de morte ad vitam, id est, justificari. Neque enim opera bona prcedunt justificandum, sed sequuntur justificatum, ut concinne B. Augustinus dicit, de fid. et op. c. 14 (21, vol. vi. p. 211). Sed causalitas hc referenda est ad cognitionem. Nam ex dilectione fraterna velut effectu et signo cognoscimus, nos de morte ad vitam translatos esse: et quantum de illa certi sumus, tantum et de isto”), while his doctrinal bias leads him, a few lines after, to strike out the whole of this sound exposition by saying, “Veruntamen etsi dilectio Dei et proximi justificationem nostram totam, cujus initium est a fide, nec mereatur, nec prcedat, sed sub ea comprehendatur tanquam pars ejus, impetrat tamen remissionis gratiam, juxta verbum Domini Luk 7 , Remittuntur ei peccata multa quoniam dilexit multum : sed et augend justificationis est causa, ut qui justus est , opera caritatis exercendo justificetur adhuc , Apoc. ultimo.” I have not considered it beside my purpose to spend even a long note on recounting the above interpretations. It may conduce to a right estimate of the doctrines of men and churches, and put younger Scripture students on their guard, to see the concurrent habits and tendencies of interpreters apparently so opposite. When Pilate and Herod are friends, we know what work is in hand. But as a conclusion, I will quote the clear and faithful exposition of a greater and better man: “Quid nos scimus? quia transivimus de morte ad vitam. Unde scimus? quia diligimus fratres. Nemo interroget hominem: redeat unusquisque ad cor suum: si ibi invenerit caritatem fraternam, securus sit quia transiit a morte ad vitam. Jam in dextera est: non attendat quia modo gloria ejus occulta est; cum venerit Dominus, tunc apparebit in gloria. Viget enim, sed adhuc in hyeme: viget radix, sed quasi aridi sunt rami: intus est medulla qu viget, intus sunt folia arborum, intus fructus: sed statem exspectant.” Aug [58] in 1 Joan. Tract. v. 10, vol. iii. p. 2017): he that loveth not (there is this time no qualifying object, as : the absence of love from the character is the sign spoken of. is right enough as a gloss, but the Apostle’s saying is more general), abideth in death ( : on the art., see above: in that realm of death, in which all men are by nature: see Bed [59] , quoted above. Here again, the absence of love is not the reason, why he remains in death; but the sign of his so remaining. The has not passed upon him. The words have no reference to future death any further than as he who is and abides in death, can but end in death: “notandum quod non ait qui non diligit, venturus est in mortem, quasi de pna perpetua loqueretur, qu restat peccatoribus in futurum: sed ‘qui non diligit,’ inquit, ‘ manet ’ in morte.” Bed [60] ).
[57] Bede, the Venerable , 731; Bedegr, a Greek MS. cited by Bede, nearly identical with Cod. “E,” mentioned in this edn only when it differs from E.
[58] Augustine, Bp. of Hippo , 395 430
[59] Bede, the Venerable , 731; Bedegr, a Greek MS. cited by Bede, nearly identical with Cod. “E,” mentioned in this edn only when it differs from E.
[60] Bede, the Venerable , 731; Bedegr, a Greek MS. cited by Bede, nearly identical with Cod. “E,” mentioned in this edn only when it differs from E.
Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament
1Jn 3:14 . emphatic: “Whatever the world may say, we know”. The test is not its hatred but our love. , “have migrated”. The word is used of transition from one place to another (Joh 7:3 ; Joh 13:1 ), of passing from one form of government to another (Plat. Rep. 550 D), of the transmigration of souls (Luc. Gall. 4).
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
passed. Greek. metabaino. Compare Joh 6:24 (same word).
from. App-104.
unto. App-104.
life. App-170.
his brother. The texts omit.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
14, 15.] See summary above on 1Jn 3:11. The connexion with the foregoing is very close. We learnt from 1Jn 3:10, that the love of the brethren is that which makes manifest the children of God and the children of the devil. And now again, having spoken of the hate of the world as a thing to be looked for, the Apostle brings up this sign as one tending to comfort the child of God, and shew him that, notwithstanding the worlds hate, he has more to rejoice at than to fear from the fact: he is in life, they in death. We (, emphatic: we whom the world hates: we, as set over against the world) know (see above, 1Jn 3:2 al.: of certain knowledge) that we have passed over out of death into life (notice both times the articles after the prepositions, removing the nouns in this case out of the abstract, and giving them a concrete totality-the death, which reigns over the unregenerate: the life, which is revealed in Christ), because ( gives the ground and cause, not of the , but of the ) we love the brethren (here distinctly, our Christian brethren: the term being that well-known one by which the body of Christians was represented.
It is curious to follow Dsterdieck in his recension of the R.-Cath. and Socinian interpretations of this verse, and to see how they both run into one in wresting it to their own doctrines. First, the former begin with . Lyra would confine it to the Apostles; they knew certitudinaliter, de hoc per divinam revelationem certificati; but si ad alios refertur, tum hoc scire accipitur pro probabili conjectura. Similarly Corn.-a-lap., Tirinus, and Estius (and I may add, Justiniani, even more strikingly; see below), denying that St. John speaks of the certainty of assurance grounded on faith by the heretics, but de certitudine morali et conjecturali, concepta ex testimonio bon conscienti, innocentia vit et consolatione Spiritus Sancti. (Justinianis words are, Recte ait (Didymus) nos disciplinabiliter id scire, ut formidinem quidem excludat, nihil tamen prter probabilitatem ex scientia offerat.) Estius predicates the knowledge indeed simply of Christians respecting all the boni fideles, quorum e numero nos esse singuli confidimus. On the other hand Socinus, remarking that the Scripture writers (and even our Lord Himself, for which he refers to the Beatitudes) often hyperbolicis quibusdam amplificand rei causa loquutionibus utuntur, says of the test here proposed, nam qui tali animo est prditus, vix fieri potest quin alias etiam Christianas qualitates habeat, qu necessari sunt ad vitam ternam consequendam. This remark brings us on common ground with the R.-Catholics, who would do violence to the express perfect tense to suit their purpose. So even Didymus, quoniam qui diligit fratres secundum Deum, ad vitam ex morte transit: (so Justiniani, making brotherly love the instrument of our , instead of the sign of its having taken place: amor itaque ex caritate a morte nos ad vitam traducit:) so Bed[57], who having explained rightly below, quod in anima mortui omnes in hanc lucem nascimur, goes on to say, in illa utique morte, si fratres perfecte amaret, exsurgere posset: so Lyra,-opera ex caritate facta sunt meritoria; so the Socinians, e. g. Schlichting (docet quid maxime Deum impellat, ut nos ex morte transferre velit in vitam ternam), adding, as we might expect, dicit transivimus, per enallagen temporis pro transibimus: so the rationalists, Grotius (juri ad rem spe datur nomen rei ipsius), and Carpzov. It is very remarkable, that the fine exegetical tact of Estius causes him on the one hand to deliver a clear and decided interpretation of the verse as it really is (non hic significatur meritum aut omnino causa dict translationis, quasi prius sit, diligere fratres, posterius autem, et effectus illius, transferri de morte ad vitam, id est, justificari. Neque enim opera bona prcedunt justificandum, sed sequuntur justificatum, ut concinne B. Augustinus dicit, de fid. et op. c. 14 (21, vol. vi. p. 211). Sed causalitas hc referenda est ad cognitionem. Nam ex dilectione fraterna velut effectu et signo cognoscimus, nos de morte ad vitam translatos esse: et quantum de illa certi sumus, tantum et de isto), while his doctrinal bias leads him, a few lines after, to strike out the whole of this sound exposition by saying, Veruntamen etsi dilectio Dei et proximi justificationem nostram totam, cujus initium est a fide, nec mereatur, nec prcedat, sed sub ea comprehendatur tanquam pars ejus, impetrat tamen remissionis gratiam, juxta verbum Domini Luke 7, Remittuntur ei peccata multa quoniam dilexit multum: sed et augend justificationis est causa, ut qui justus est, opera caritatis exercendo justificetur adhuc, Apoc. ultimo. I have not considered it beside my purpose to spend even a long note on recounting the above interpretations. It may conduce to a right estimate of the doctrines of men and churches, and put younger Scripture students on their guard, to see the concurrent habits and tendencies of interpreters apparently so opposite. When Pilate and Herod are friends, we know what work is in hand. But as a conclusion, I will quote the clear and faithful exposition of a greater and better man: Quid nos scimus? quia transivimus de morte ad vitam. Unde scimus? quia diligimus fratres. Nemo interroget hominem: redeat unusquisque ad cor suum: si ibi invenerit caritatem fraternam, securus sit quia transiit a morte ad vitam. Jam in dextera est: non attendat quia modo gloria ejus occulta est; cum venerit Dominus, tunc apparebit in gloria. Viget enim, sed adhuc in hyeme: viget radix, sed quasi aridi sunt rami: intus est medulla qu viget, intus sunt folia arborum, intus fructus: sed statem exspectant. Aug[58] in 1 Joan. Tract. v. 10, vol. iii. p. 2017): he that loveth not (there is this time no qualifying object, as : the absence of love from the character is the sign spoken of. is right enough as a gloss, but the Apostles saying is more general), abideth in death ( : on the art., see above: in that realm of death, in which all men are by nature: see Bed[59], quoted above. Here again, the absence of love is not the reason, why he remains in death; but the sign of his so remaining. The has not passed upon him. The words have no reference to future death any further than as he who is and abides in death, can but end in death: notandum quod non ait qui non diligit, venturus est in mortem, quasi de pna perpetua loqueretur, qu restat peccatoribus in futurum: sed qui non diligit, inquit, manet in morte. Bed[60]).
[57] Bede, the Venerable, 731; Bedegr, a Greek MS. cited by Bede, nearly identical with Cod. E, mentioned in this edn only when it differs from E.
[58] Augustine, Bp. of Hippo, 395-430
[59] Bede, the Venerable, 731; Bedegr, a Greek MS. cited by Bede, nearly identical with Cod. E, mentioned in this edn only when it differs from E.
[60] Bede, the Venerable, 731; Bedegr, a Greek MS. cited by Bede, nearly identical with Cod. E, mentioned in this edn only when it differs from E.
Fuente: The Greek Testament
1Jn 3:14. , we have passed) We had therefore been in death.- , from death) spiritual.- , into life) spiritual, and also eternal: in the following verse. The language again is reciprocal: we are in life, and life is in us; 1Jn 3:15.-, because) A judgment [a criterion drawn] from the effect.-, abides) is as yet.
Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament
We know: 1Jo 2:3, 1Jo 5:2, 1Jo 5:13, 1Jo 5:19, 1Jo 5:20, 2Co 5:1
we have: Luk 15:24, Luk 15:32, Joh 5:24, Eph 2:1, Eph 2:5
because: 1Jo 2:10, 1Jo 3:23, 1Jo 4:7, 1Jo 4:8, 1Jo 4:12, 1Jo 4:21, 1Jo 5:2, Psa 16:3, Mat 25:40, Joh 13:35, Joh 15:12, Joh 15:17, Gal 5:22, Eph 1:15, Col 1:4, 1Th 4:9, Heb 6:10, Heb 6:11, Heb 13:1, 1Pe 1:22, 1Pe 3:8, 2Pe 1:7
that loveth: 1Jo 2:9, 1Jo 2:11, 1Jo 4:20, Pro 21:16
Reciprocal: Gen 13:8 – brethren Psa 15:4 – but Psa 119:63 – a companion Psa 122:6 – they shall Psa 133:1 – how good Mat 5:22 – his brother Mat 25:42 – General Luk 7:5 – he loveth Joh 3:36 – that believeth on Joh 13:34 – A new Joh 18:37 – Every Act 6:3 – brethren Rom 5:13 – but sin Rom 16:8 – my Gal 5:6 – faith Phi 1:7 – I have you in my heart Col 1:13 – and Col 3:12 – mercies Tit 1:8 – a lover of good 1Jo 2:8 – which 1Jo 3:10 – neither 1Jo 3:19 – hereby 2Jo 1:5 – that we
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
LOVE TO CHRISTS BRETHREN
We know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren.
1Jn 3:14
In the Revised Version our text reads: We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brethren. Out of death into life.
I. Note first the mighty change described.Spiritual death is a terrible reality. And that is the state of all men by nature. Very often spiritual death is linked with the highest bodily and mental life. But the eye of the dead soul is closed, it only sees earthly things. Its ear is closed, Christ and His Apostles are only like other teachers or preachers. It lies in darkness, and walks in darkness and in the shadow of death, and stumbles on the dark mountains. If you once realise all this, then it will be clear to you that God alone can awaken the dead soul and bid it live and work and watch and pray. Other illustrations are given in Holy Scripture of the mighty change, without which none can enter into the Kingdom of God. But the illustration in the text is particularly striking and full of force. And it is to be noted our Lord uses it as well as St. John. Let me read Joh 5:24 in Revised Version, Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth My word, and believeth Him that sent Me, hath eternal life, and cometh not into judgement, but hath passed out of death into life. Christianity is not a matter of opinion, it is a matter of vital experience. When a man is regenerated he receives a new life.
II. The knowledge of this mighty change.We know I need not linger on this point, because in 1Jn 5:13 the Apostle says, These things have I written unto you, that ye may know that ye have eternal life, even unto you that believe on the Name of the Son of God (R.V.).
III. The ground of that knowledge.Because we love the brethren, i.e. those who truly believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. They are the household of faith, and in a very real sense the brethren of Christ (St. Mar 3:35; Mar 9:41). True believers form a brotherhood. They differ in the colour of their skin, in their nationality, in their language, and in a multitude of other ways, but they are all one in Christ Jesus.
Rev. F. Harper.
Illustration
There is a well-worn story of St. John at Ephesus. When too old to walk they carried him into the midst of the church. But all his sermon was onlyLittle children, love one another. St. John preached the shortest sermon on record in the annals of Christianity. But the story goes on: when some asked, Why are you always saying this? the Apostle is said to have replied, Because it is the commandment of the Lord, and sufficient, if it only be fulfilled in deed.
(SECOND OUTLINE)
A TEST FOR SELF-EXAMINATION
We thank God that for a guide He has given us in our text one plain criterion. There are many other passages in the Bible which might be employed as tests. For instance, If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become newbut then this, and many other passages like it, seem only to shift the difficultythe eye of the mind is still too extensively cast in upon itself; and I can no more determine whether I am a new creature, and old things are passed away, and all things are become new, than I can determine whether I am a converted man. But the text has to do with an outward objecta relative duty of life. And, happily, it is easier for many persons to say whether they love the brethren, whom they can see, than God, whom they cannot see. For, in fact, here we are not so entirely in the province of faith; therefore it is easiertherefore we hold it most mercifully provided by God for the solving of the greatest problem ever presented to the mind of a manto say, We know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren.
I. Who are the brethren?The brethren are those who have the love of the Lord Jesus Christ in their hearts, even though there be much clinging to them that is unrefined, and unintellectual, and unpleasingyea, even though there be much that is really very inconsistent in them. And observe, it does not say, We know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love a brotheror because we love some of the brethrenbut all the brethrenall whom Christ ownswhatever their station in society, whatever their education, whatever their natural tastes, whatever their habits of thought and speech, whatever they be, if so be they are in Gods family. And this very comprehensiveness of a catholic spirit is a mark of a mind that has had to do with the largeness of an Almighty God.
II. Let us see what the text involves.I pray you deal faithfully with your own selves.
(a) If you have passed from death unto life, the friendships that you choose for yourselves and the relationships that you form will be all made upon one principlethat you keep within the family of grace. It is not now worldly considerations which determine your choice of friendsbut you are always fond of the image of Christ, wherever you see it. As far as you can, therefore, you are to love only in such circles as those in which He is loved and honoured; and you prize and cultivate in every circle in which you move those most to whom you believe that Christ is dearest.
(b) Hence it follows that the conversation which you prefer is that which is the most spiritual; for how can you love the brethren, unless you really delight in their themes? So that the world of fashion, and the world of pleasure, and the world of commonplace, has become insipid, and there is only one atmosphere in which you love to breathe, and that is the atmosphere of Jesus Christ. Suppose then that you find yourselves in some companythe company of the worldyou will not be afraid nor ashamed to confess as your friend, and to defend, and to commend, any child of God, whatever remarks may be passed upon him; and the faults and weaknesses of a child of God you will always deal tenderly with, and you will hide them, as we always do with those we love. The fellowships of the Churchthe gathering together of Gods peopleand especially the Holy Communionwill be the things you love: because it is communion, it will be pleasing and refreshing. In distant lands, too, the cause of God, the mission work, the extension of Christs kingdom, will be matters of intrinsic interest to your mindsfor the brethren unseen will be brethren that you love.
Rev. James Vaughan.
Illustration
Few who have visited Florence have failed to go to the old Dominican Convent of St. Marc, there to gaze upon what has been called one of the three great picture shows of the world, viz. the frescoes with which Fra Angelico has immortalised the walls of the cells of his former convent home. As one wanders on from fresco to fresco, from cloister to corridor, and from corridor to cell, one gazes upon Annunciations and Nativities, and Adorations of the Magi, and Transfigurations and Crucifixions, and Resurrections and Ascensions, all delineated by a man, the greatness and brilliancy of whose genius were exceeded only by the purity and holiness of his life; a man who is said never to have taken up his brush without previous prayer to God, and never to have painted the Crucifixion without bathing his cheeks with tears. All are wonderful, all are surprisingly beautiful; but it is admitted there is one more wonderful and more beautiful than all the rest; one into which the painter has thrown more heart and in which he has exhibited more pathos than perhaps in any other which he ever painted. Opening out of the cloister at one corner of the first courtyard there is a door which leads into what was once the foresteria of the convent, or the apartments in which pilgrims and strangers were received by the brothers. Over this Fra Angelico has depicted two of the confraternity welcoming a pilgrim to the shelter and hospitality of their home. The pilgrim is worn and weary; with his right hand he leans heavily on his pilgrims staff, and the left, which had evidently hung languidly by his side, has been raised by one of the brothers, who now holds it lovingly in his own. The other brother supports the right arm of the wayfarer, placing one hand firmly underneath the elbow, laying the other gently above it, whilst both welcome their guest with looks of inexpressible tenderness and sympathy. The pilgrim is to them nothing more than a poor wayworn brother. Had they suspected his real personality they would not have received him erect with outstretched hands, but on bended knee, and with the humblest adoration; for the conventional halo which surrounds the Strangers head in the fresco tells us that He Whom the brothers have received in the guise of a wayfarer is none other than their Lord and their God.
(THIRD OUTLINE)
FROM DEATH TO LIFE
Often do we see persons pass from life to death; it is the common lot. But never do we see any pass literally from death to life. Yet, spiritually, this is the necessary and indispensable process experienced by all those who know the power of the truth of Christ, the power of the Spirit of God. The message from heaven is, Why will ye die? The promise of God is eternal life.
I. The description given of a great spiritual change.
(a) The previous condition, out of which St. John claims that he and his brother Christians have emerged, is one of death. By this must be understood moral insensibility, inactivity, and repulsiveness.
(b) The new state, which is distinctly Christian, is described as life. This is a condition of spiritual sensitiveness, activity, service. He who lives thus is alive unto God.
(c) The process of transition is one of great interest. The power by which it is effected is the power of the Holy Spirit, the Lord and giver of life. Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot see the kingdom of God. The means by which it is effected is the Gospel of Jesus Christ, proclaimed, believed, and practically acted upon.
II. The evidence required to prove a great spiritual change.
(a) Hatred is an evidence of spiritual death. Sinners are separated from God, and therefore separated from one another, estranged, and at enmity among themselves. Scripture describes those sunk in spiritual death as hateful and hating one another.
(b) Love is a fruit of the Spirit, and evidence of newness of heart and of life. (i) Who are loved? The brethren. (ii) Why are they to be loved? As Gods children. (iii) How is the love to be shown? By the daily spirit and demeanour.
Fuente: Church Pulpit Commentary
1Jn 3:14. The absence of love for the brethren is proof of one’s being still out of the body of Christ. Those who actually enter the spiritual body will necessarily have a fellow feeling for the members. The act of entering the body is equivalent to passing from death unto life. John says we know in the sense that we have the direct evi-dence, namely, our mutual relation to each other in Christ. The last sentence of the verse is merely the reverse of the forepart. With this verse before us we may conclude that genuine evidence of brotherly love is not just the sentimental feeling, but it can be claimed only after a person has passed from death unto life. There will be more said on this subject when we come to chapter 5:2.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Observe here, 1. Our apostle’s description of a carnal unregenerate state; it is a state of spiritual death.
2. Of a Christian’s renewed state by the Spirit of Christ, it is a state of spiritual life; we are passed from death to life.
3. Here is the mark and token by which this translation from death to life may be known, namely, by love; for love being the great work of God’s renewing spirit on the soul, it is by the production of that, we come to the knowledge that we are changed from a Cainish corrupt state of death, into a state of holy life: Whatever grace men pretend unto, if they want this grace of love, they are yet dead in sin.
Observe, 4. The characteristical note of that love which will be an indubitable evidence of this our translation from death to life, it must be a love of the brethren; that is, of all Christians, as such; particularly it must be an extensive and universal love, that reaches all the children of God, all good men, of what judgment and opinion soever, otherwise it is the love of a party only, and a love for opinion sake, not for grace-sake, We give thanks since we heard of your love to all saints: Col 1:4 that is, to all of what nation and kingdom soever, of what estate and condition soever, of what judgment and opinion soever, though differing from you in some lesser things.
It must also be an holy love that will evidence our Christianity; though all men must be loved as men, yet the brethren must be loved for the likeness of God in them, we must love God’s holiness in holy persons: it is one thing to love the brethren, and another to love them as brethren, and because they are brethren; a gracious person may be loved only for carnal respects, and sinister ends; again, it must be active and operative, a costly and expensive love; that cheap love of some men, which will wish a poor Christian well, but will be at no pains, no cost, or expence, to help and succour him, because they love their money better than they do their brother, is the hypocrite’s love, not the saint’s. If a brother or a sister be naked, and we say unto him, Be thou clothed, &c. Jam 2:15 this is a cold sort of love, which will profit neither our brother nor ourselves.
From the whole learn, That the love of grace in another, is a good evidence of the life of grace in ourselves; unfeigned love to the children of God as such, is an undoubted evidence of our regeneration and adoption; We know that we are passed from, &c.
Fuente: Expository Notes with Practical Observations on the New Testament
1Jn 3:13-24. The hatred of the world is to be expected, but within the Christian brotherhood there must be love, manifesting itself in deeds of self-sacrifice in imitation of Christs love. If we possess this spirit we shall be able to silence inward misgivings as to our standing before God, because we obey Him in that we believe in Christ and love one another. Such obedience ensures His indwelling, attested by the gift of His Spirit.
1Jn 3:14. The teaching is the same as in 1Jn 2:9 f., except that the metaphor has been changed, and the souls lack of correspondence with its spiritual environment is described as death.
1Jn 3:15 a. An echo of Mat 5:21 f.
1Jn 3:16. In Christ and His Cross love at length found a perfect manifestation, and human conduct in consequence was given a new standard.
1Jn 3:19 b, 1Jn 3:20. A true parallelism would be obtained and difficulties in the original relieved if, in harmony with several minor MSS., because was omitted in 1Jn 3:20 b. The rendering would then be: We shall reassure our heart before Him, because, if our heart condemn us, God is greater than our heart. In any case the teaching is that God knows us and all the conditions of our life better than we ourselves do. Hence there will be occasions when God will not endorse the condemnation we pass upon ourselves. Heart is here almost equivalent to conscience.
1Jn 3:23. name is in this and kindred phrases almost equivalent to revealed nature, so that to believe in the name of Christ is to commit ourselves to Christ as He stands expressed in the Gospel.
1Jn 3:24. hereby: i.e. by the inward activity of His Spirit; the word refers to the close of the verse. The Holy Spirit has been given by Christ to His Church, and has been bestowed on each individual believer.
Fuente: Peake’s Commentary on the Bible
3:14 {14} We {o} know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren. He that loveth not [his] brother abideth in death.
(14) The second reason: Because charity is a testimony that we are translated from death to life: and therefore hatred towards the brethren is a testimony of death, and whoever nourishes it fosters death in his bosom.
(o) Love is a token that we are translated from death to life, for by the effects the cause is known.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
Love for other Christians shows the presence of new life in us and is a secondary ground for assurance (cf. 1Jn 5:13). "Death" and "life" are two vastly different spheres of existence. The contrast shows the great change that has taken place in the believer’s life. The one who does not love at all is the person who is abiding in death rather than in eternal life. John made the case extreme to make his point clear. His contrasts are death and life, hatred and love, darkness and light.