Loving One Another
Verses 11–18 are unified by the theme of loving one another. Love among the members of the community was first raised in 1 John 2:10 (as love for one’s “brother” or sister) and was the link into this section of the letter in 3:10b. The background to this emphasis on love is the schism which has divided the community (1 John 2:19) and has set former community members against one another. The schismatics have shown a flagrant, Cain-like disregard for their fellow believers. The Elder is greatly concerned that there be sacrificial, practical love among the remaining Johannine Christians.
3:11 The word message (angelia) occurs only twice in the NT: here and in 1:5. It may signal a major division within 1 John after which love and faith are primary issues and before which light and truth were the principal concerns. Both sections have in mind the false teachers who have broken away from the fellowship and whose teaching actively threatens the Elder’s loyalists.
In 1:1 “the Word of life” was “from the beginning, which we have heard.” In 1:5 “God is light” was “the message we have heard.” In 2:7 the new yet old command (love; cf. John 13:34–35) was “the message (logos) you have heard,” “since the beginning”; 2:24 also referred to “what you have heard from the beginning,” the tradition of Jesus as the Christ (2:22). Here the message you heard from the beginning is the command that we should love one another; it is closest in thought to 2:7 and especially to 2 John 5–6, where the nearly identical expression occurs. All of these passages are, in the Elder’s mind, parts of the sacred tradition of the community, passed down to the present Johannine Christians from Jesus through the disciple whom Jesus loved (John 21:24). They have had this teaching from the beginning of their existence as a Christian fellowship.
All of the references to positive human love in the Gospel and letters of John are to love for God or Jesus (John 14:15, 21, 23–24; 1 John 4:10, 20–21; 5:2–3), or among disciples (13:34–35; 15:12, 17), or for members of the community (1 John 2:10; 3:10–11, 14, 18, 23; 4:7, 11–12, 19–20; 5:1–2; 2 John 5). There is no command to love one’s neighbor outside the community, or to love one’s enemies. Given the conflicts which plagued Johannine Christians from the start, externally with Judaism (reflected in the Gospel of John) and internally with the secessionists (Johannine epistles), ethical reflection was cast inward, and the overriding concern was ever community survival. If the “world hates you” (John 15:18–19; 1 John 3:13), persecutes you (15:20), puts you out of the synagogue, and kills you (16:2; cf. John 9:34), it is all the more important that the believers form a close bond of love and support among themselves.
3:12 The Elder next presents Cain as the opposite of what he has just stated. The NIV translation, Do not be like Cain, who belonged … and murdered, makes the best of an awkward Greek construction (lit., “Not like Cain was from … and killed”). There is no direct command (but an implied one, by negative comparison), and the relative pronoun, who, does not appear.
Cain, cited directly in the Bible only in Genesis 4, Hebrews 11:4, and Jude 11 (but cf. John 8:44), had become a figure of speculation in other contemporary Jewish circles. Philo wrote four treatises on Cain, and Josephus referred to him in Antiquities. A later Jewish legend says that Cain was the son of the devil by Eve (Brown, Epistles, p. 443). It is likely that the Elder was aware of some of this extrabiblical speculation.
The writer makes two assertions about Cain. He was “from the evil one” (lit., NIV, belonged to the evil one), just as Jesus’ opponents in the Fourth Gospel “belong to your father, the devil” who “was a murderer from the beginning” (John 8:44), and just as the Elder’s opponents are “the children of the devil” (1 John 3:10). Cain had his origins in the evil one and was on his side. Secondly, he murdered his brother. He engaged in a violent act which caused his brother’s death. All of the other uses of this verb for murder (sphazō) in the NT are in the book of Revelation, and all refer to brutal killing (of Jesus the Lamb, 5:6, 9, 12; 13:8; of the beast, 13:3; of the martyrs, 6:9, 18:24; and of people murdering each other, 6:4). The two brothers, representing evil and good, also represent the two sides in the community, the Cain-like secessionists and the faithful followers of the author. Do not be like Cain also means “Do not be like the false teachers. They are from the evil one; and they hate us and are trying to destroy us” (cf. 3:15).
The Elder next gives a reason (charin tinos, “on account of what?”) for Cain’s brutality: because his own actions were evil and his brother’s were righteous. The reader of Genesis 4 has few clues to the evil of Cain’s actions or to the righteousness of his brother’s prior to Abel’s murder. Cain “worked the soil” (4:2) and “brought some fruits of the soil as an offering to the Lord” (4:3). Abel “kept flocks” … and “brought fat portions from some of the firstborn of his flock” (4:2, 4). “The Lord looked with favor on Abel and his offering, but on Cain and his offering he did not look with favor” (4:4–5), for which judgment the text gives no reason. “Cain was … angry” and “downcast” (4:5). God implies in his speech to Cain that Cain had not done right and had sinned (4:7), after which Cain invited Abel to the field and murdered him (4:8). The author may have been relying here on the total symbol of Cain as an evil and violent man in Genesis and on extrabiblical speculation. It is part of his overall antithesis between righteousness and evil, the true Christians and the secessionists. Cain’s actions were evil because he was evil, in origin and in character, in contrast to “the children of God” (3:10).
3:13 The thought continues directly into the next verse, as the NIV has it. No new paragraph is called for, as in some versions. In the light of the example of the brothers, Cain and Abel, the readers, whom the author cites as my brothers, should not be surprised. (Perhaps they had been surprised, not expecting aggressive opposition from those who had seceded.) The same kind of animosity that Cain displayed toward his brother the world shows toward the Johannine Christians. The world hates you. Jesus had already warned the community about this (in identical words) in his discourse to his disciples in John 15:18. Just as those who practice evil “hate the light” (John 3:20), or as the world hates Jesus (7:7; 15:18, 23–25) and his Father (15:23–24), so the world, which includes not only the Elder’s opponents, the false teachers, but also their supporters and others who persecute the community (John 15:20; 16:2) and aid the secessionists (cf. 1 John 4:5), hate, oppose, and seek to destroy the readers and their faith. We had already heard about this hatred of brother for brother in 1 John 2:9 and 11, where it was proof that the opponents’ claim to be “in the light” was invalid.
3:14 All the we’s in this verse stand in direct antithesis to “the world” spoken of in v. 13. We know, but “the world does not know” (3:1). The world hates, but we love our brothers. The world remains in death, but we, in contrast, have passed from death to life. The community’s identity is strengthened by negative comparison with the status of the world.
We have passed from death to life is a precise quote from John 5:24, assuming as most NT scholars do, that the letters of John were written after the Gospel. We noted above that “if the world hates you” is also nearly a direct quote (slightly different word order) from John 15:18. The Elder is reminding his readers that the tradition they have received speaks to their current situation. It warns them and encourages them.
Johannine theology understands the passage from death to life as an accomplished fact, something that has already occurred, for those who believe in Jesus and love our brothers. Eternal life is a present possession; no fear of judgment or condemnation need exist (John 3:36; 5:24; 1 John 4:17–18; 5:11–12). “Passing from death to life is another way of phrasing what John 3:5 refers to as ‘entering the kingdom of God’ ” (Brown, Epistles, p. 445). This is the first occurrence of the death/life antithesis in these letters (cf. 3:15; 5:12, 16). It occurs much more frequently in the Gospel (e.g., 3:16, 36; 5:24–29; 10:17–18, 28; 11:21–25; 21:22–23). Verses 14a and b are set in sharp, dualistic contrast: on the one side are the terms anyone, not love, and death; on the other, we, love, and life.
Love for one another within the Christian community is seen by the Elder as a reason for knowing that we have already received eternal life and have overcome death. It is a sign that we belong to God’s eternal kingdom and that we have been literally “born from above” (John 3:3, 7) or “born of the Spirit” (John 3:5). The opposite is also true: Anyone who does not love remains in death. Active love for one another is the key to life. Without it, one’s claim to be a Christian is in jeopardy; it does not ring true. Without practical caring for other brothers and sisters within the community (cf. 3:17–18), one’s existence is still under the dominion of death; one has not been liberated into life. Love shows who is really alive.
3:15 The themes of life and death, love and hate continue into v. 15. Hate for one’s brother, mentioned previously in 2:9–11, caused Cain’s jealous murder of his brother (3:12), and it shows that one belongs to the evil one (3:12), is like the world (3:13), and is still under the dominion of death (3:14). The only other NT use of the word murderer (anthrōpoktonos) is in John 8:44, where Jesus calls the devil “a murderer from the beginning.” Behind those who hate their brothers and sisters in the Christian community and who are still trying to lead them astray with lies and deception (1:6, 8, 10; 2:4, 21–22, 26; 3:7) is the devil, whose children the secessionist false teachers are (3:10). Jesus taught that beneath the action of murder lies the feeling of hatred (Matt. 5:21–22; cf. Deut. 19:11).
Just as love for one’s brothers and sisters leads to life (3:14), so hate leads to death, and not only the death of others through murder, but one’s own death as well, since you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him. This final statement makes a strong parallel with the previous verse:
14b: Anyone who does not love
abides (menei) in death.
15: Anyone who hates
(=murderer)
and no murderer
has eternal life abiding
(menousan) in him.
This is the only verse in the Johannine writings which directly speaks of eternal life remaining or abiding (menousan; the word is untranslated in the NIV) in the believer (cf. John 6:27). More commonly, the Christian “has eternal life” (John 3:15–16, 36; 5:24; 6:40, 47, 54; 1 John 5:12–13; cf. 10:10; 20:31,) but as 1 John 3:14 shows, this is not just an eschatological hope; it is a present possession which abides in those who believe in Jesus and love their brothers and sisters. The secessionists, rejecting both faith in Jesus (2:22–23; 4:2–3) and love for one’s brothers and sisters (2:9–11; 3:11–15) remain in death (3:14) and do not have eternal life in them. They are not Christians, and, in the author’s view, they never were (2:19).
3:16 Continuing the theme of love, the Elder offers an experiential and operational definition (lit., “By this we have come to know love”): Jesus Christ (the Greek text only has “he,” ekeinos) laid down his life for us. This is one of the most common elements in early Christian creeds (1 Cor. 15:3; Gal. 1:4; 2:20). Two aspects of the Greek text of this verse reinforce the idea of love. The Greek word order itself emphasizes for us; it is put first, just as Christ put us first in the gift of his life. The verb laid down (ethēken) stresses that Jesus gave up his own life willingly, thus showing the motivation of love. So in the Gospel of John, Jesus, “the good shepherd,” voluntarily “lays down his life for the sheep” (10:11, 15, 17–18). The death of Jesus is also the decisive evidence of God’s love (John 3:16; Rom. 5:8; 1 John 4:9–10).
Here, as in many other places in the NT, the conduct of Jesus is taken as the example or model for Christians to follow. (In 1 John 4:11, it is God’s love which provides the pattern.) This is true in general, but also with specific reference to his suffering and death (cf. 1 Pet. 2:21–23; Heb. 12:3–4; 13:12–13). In John 15:12, Jesus tells his disciples, “Love as I have loved you” (cf. 13:34), and in the next verse he says, “Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.” Jesus’ actions demonstrate the sacrificial element in authentic agapē love. Love is a personal commitment to give oneself to foster the highest good and well-being of others. Sometimes giving oneself for others means more than giving one’s time or money or energy; it may mean giving one’s very life.
3:17 As a concrete instance of this love and the lack of it among the secessionists, the Elder turns to material possessions and how they are handled. He envisions a situation in which someone has material possessions (lit., “the life of the world,” ton bion tou kosmou), sees (theōrē, “stares,” “gazes”) his brother lacking them, and yet refuses to help him. This may have been the very condition of the writer’s community, especially if those who withdrew were numerous and the community had been a network of interdependent house churches (as 2 and 3 John seem to suppose). In 2:16 the writer knows of people, likely the schismatics, who boast of “the world’s goods” (tou biou). They boast of what they have, and they do not share it with others (even their former brothers and sisters) who are in need (lit., “having need”). What is missing is the element of pity (lit., “closes his innards [heart] from him”). Not only do they not help the needy brother or sister, but they deliberately “shut off a feeling of compassion that the needy would instinctively arouse” (Brown, Epistles, p. 450).
The three previous clauses in v. 17 all lead to the question: how can the love of God be in him? Does the author mean love for God, love from God, or God’s kind of love? It is not easy to decide. First John 4:20 expresses the first alternative, but here the writer means God’s kind of love, divine love. Just as eternal life does not abide (menousan, untranslated in the NIV) in one who hates his brother (3:15), so it is unthinkable that God’s love abides (menei, untranslated in the NIV) in such a merciless person. The question implies a negative answer.
3:18 Verse 18 is a fitting conclusion to the teaching on love for one another in vv. 11–18. Influenced by the negative example in v. 17, the present tense command in this verse is also negative: “let us not be loving.” The command is followed by four nouns in two pairs: with words (the Greek is singular, “word,” logō) or tongue (tē glōssē), but with actions (again the Greek is singular, “action,” or “deed,” ergos) and in truth (alētheia). Genuine love must be practical, visible, and active. Just as God’s/Jesus’ love is made manifest in the giving of his life for us (3:16), and just as the secessionists’ lack of love is seen concretely in their failure to help their brothers and sisters in need (3:17), so authentic love is a matter not of words (“I/we love you”) but of practical actions.
The most difficult aspect of interpreting v. 18 concerns the relation of the second word in each pair to its partner. At first glance, they do not appear to be parallel. While word and tongue are roughly similar, actions and truth are not. In truth can mean “in reality,” as opposed to mere intention or even deceptive lies. But in the letters of John, in truth usually means “within the sphere of God’s truth,” i.e., God’s revelation of the way things really are in Christ, who is the truth (John 14:6); much as in Paul’s writings “in Christ” can represent “in the sphere of Christ,” where he is the all-determining reality. The writer means, then, something like “deeds of truth,” or “actions which come from the truth.” The words and tongue phrase could also be parallel, since words come from the tongue. The Elder means that his readers should love, not with mere spoken words, but with the kind of actions which knowing Christ (3:16) and having God’s love within them (3:17) produce.
Additional Notes
3:11 It is because of this teaching on love and other characteristics, reflected in the Gospel and letters of John, that the Johannine community has been termed, sociologically, a sect. See Johnson, Antitheses, pp. 260–302, and Rensberger, Johannine Faith, pp. 27–28, 124–26, 135–44.
3:14 On the antithesis of death/life in the Gospel and epistles of John, see Johnson, Antitheses, pp. 36, 74–76, 85, 108–11.
3:15 The pseudepigraphal document Testament of Gad 4:6f. is a close parallel to this verse. It includes the elements of life and death, love and hate, and God and Satan.
You know implies that this is what the readers had been taught as a part of common early Christian ethical tradition (cf. Matt. 15:19; Gal. 5:19–21; Rev. 21:8, 27).
3:16 The perfect tense of the Greek verb egnōkamen (NIV, we know) implies knowledge based on experience.
On Jesus as a pattern for Christian conduct, see, e.g., Matt. 11:29 (“learn from me”); Mark 10:42–45 (service); John 13:14–17 (foot-washing), 34 (love); Phil. 2:5 (“attitude”); 1 John 2:6 (“walk as Jesus did”); Dodd, Epistles, pp. 84–85; W. Michaelis, “mimeomai,” TDNT, vol. 4, pp. 659–74.
In contrast to Jesus’ action, Peter promised to lay down his life for Jesus (John 13:37), but Peter’s deeds did not match his words (John 13:38; 1 John 3:18).
On v. 16 the exegesis of Smalley, 1, 2, 3 John, pp. 192–95 is particularly helpful.
3:17 BAGD defines bios (NIV, material possessions) as “means of subsistence” (p. 142a).
Assuring Our Hearts
With truth as the link-word between this section and the previous one (the same stylistic technique may be observed in 2:17–18; 2:27–28; 3:10–11; 3:24–4:1; 4:6–7), the pastoral concern for assurance is foremost in vv. 19–24. The Johannine community has been split (1 John 2:19) by a group of secessionists with high-sounding spiritual claims (e.g., 1:6, 8, 10; 2:4, 6, 9; see the Introduction for discussion of them). They continue to press the remaining followers of the Elder to join them (2:26; 3:7; 2 John 10–11), and their version of the truth has caused confusion and insecurity among the Elder’s readers (2:21; 4:6; 2 John 1–4; 3 John 1–4, 8). Thus the need for assurance. It was the author’s use of the word “truth” in 3:18 which reminded him to strengthen the “hearts” (3:19–21) of his readers in the truth.
3:19–20 Verse 19 begins with the common expression “by this,” or “by this means” (en toutō; NIV, this … is how). It occurs twelve times in the letters of John at 2:3, 5c; 3:10, 16, 19, 24; 4:2, 9–10, 13, 17; 5:2. Sometimes the phrase refers to what follows, and sometimes it refers to what has just preceded it. Each instance can be decided only by careful study of the context of each passage. Here the reference is clearly back to vv. 16–18, in which the author has argued that authentic love is sacrificial and practical, as seen in the life of Jesus and in the lives of those who claim to follow him. This kind of love is how we know that we belong to the truth. His contention all along has been that the false teachers do not love their brothers and sisters (2:9–11; 3:11–18). But, the fact that his own followers do show love should further set our hearts at rest.
The grammar of vv. 19–20 is very difficult. Literally, they read, (19) “And by this we shall know that we are of the truth, and before him we shall assure [persuade?] our heart, (20) that [for?] if [when?] our heart condemns us, that [for?] God is greater than our heart and knows everything.” The NIV solves these ambiguities well in v. 19 by giving the expression “by this” a double result: by this (i.e., by the fact that we truly love one another), (1) we know that we belong to the truth, and (2) we set our hearts at rest. The two phrases are virtually identical in meaning, though the first emphasizes that we are on God’s side in the controversy (the truth as God has revealed it in Jesus; cf. 4:6), while the second focuses on the inner assurance this knowledge gives us.
“Heart” is singular (not plural as in the NIV), because it is the assurance of the whole community which is at stake, as if it had one heart (cf. 1 Cor. 1:10; Eph. 6:5; Col. 3:22). The phrase in his presence (lit., “before him”) refers to God, as v. 20 makes clear. The issue is: how can we, before God who knows and judges all things truly, have the confidence that we are on the right road? Assurance is not a matter of convincing ourselves or of thinking positively; it is knowing the truth before God, or with God as a witness!
In v. 20 the NIV resolves the grammatical problems by leaving the first hoti (“that/for”) untranslated, or by considering that the phrase hoti ean is better understood as ho ti ean, translated as whenever, though ean alone can mean this (BAGD, p. 211). The sentence means: whenever our hearts condemn (or convict) us (perhaps that we are unworthy to belong to the truth and that the opponents might be right after all—since they claim not to sin [1:8, 10]!), we can rest assured that we are God’s by remembering the evidence of the love we have shown for one another (vv. 16–18).
The NIV then begins a new sentence, though in Greek vv. 19–20 are all one unclear sentence. The second half of v. 20 is meant as a comfort, not as a threat, to the spiritual assurance of the readers. One can take comfort from the fact that, whatever our hearts say, accusing or perhaps excusing us (cf. Rom. 2:15), God knows us truly; he knows everything. And God is greater than our hearts; therefore, the Elder implies, listen to what God says about you (you are forgiven, 1:9; you know God, 2:4–6; you know and belong to the truth, 2:20–21; 3:19; you are the children of God, 3:1–2, 10; you are loved, 4:10–11), not to your accusing heart.
Thus, the author gives his readers two grounds for assurance in vv. 19–20: (1) they love one another “with actions” not “with words,” and (2) God’s true and complete knowledge of them.
3:21 This verse follows directly from the thought in vv. 19–20; no paragraph is needed as in the NIV. The circumstance the Elder now has in mind is one in which the assurance question, raised in vv. 19–20 (“how we set our hearts at rest … whenever our hearts condemn us”) is settled. Now our hearts (lit., “our heart”—again it is the community’s collective assurance that is in view more than the spiritual anxieties of private individuals) do not condemn us. And this is the way it should be, the way the Elder wants his community (his Dear friends; lit., “beloved ones,” agapētoi) to think and feel. He wants them to have confidence (parrēsia, “boldness”; cf. 2:28; 4:17; 5:14) before God (pros ton theon; cf. the parallel construction with the same meaning in v. 19, emprosthen autou, “before him,” or “in his presence”). They do “belong to the truth” (v. 19) and need not be spiritually threatened by the intimidating false teachers.
3:22 There is a second consequence to having an uncondemning heart (v. 21): we not only have “confidence before God,” but we get our prayers answered. A literal translation of v. 22a reads: “and whatever we ask we receive from him.” Answered prayer may also be seen as a result of “confidence before God,” because the latter enables the community to pray with faith. (Confident prayer is a concern of the Elder’s again in 5:14–15.) Having full assurance of our right standing with God, we can ask so as to receive. Asking and receiving are common prayer language in the Gospel of John (11:22; 14:13–14, 16; 15:7, 16; 16:23–24, 26; 17:9, 15, 20) and in the NT (cf. Matt. 7:7–11; 18:19–20; 21:22; Eph. 3:20; Jas. 1:5–8; 4:2–3).
The Elder also connects receiving from God what we ask for in prayer with obeying (tēroumen, “we are keeping”) his commands. We receive what we ask for because (a) we pray with uncondemning, confident hearts (vv. 21–22a), and (b) we are keeping his commands and are doing what pleases him (lit., “the pleasing things before him we are doing”; cf. John 8:29: Jesus always does what pleases God, and Eph. 5:10: “find out what pleases the Lord”). A similar thought is expressed in 2:3, where keeping God’s commands is the way to assured knowledge of God. (For other results of obedience, cf. John 8:51; 9:31; 14:21; 15:10.) Here it is the way to effective prayer. It is only as the community realizes its true identity before God as his children (vv. 19–21) and faithfully does what God wants (v. 22b) that its prayers bear fruit. Keeping God’s commands and doing what pleases him are synonymous. Precisely what commands the Elder has in mind is made very clear in v. 23.
3:23 While it may appear to be an overstatement, in the Gospel and letters of John, there are really only two commandments: believe in … Jesus Christ and love one another. In John 6:28–29, when the multitude asks Jesus, “What must we do to do the works God requires?” Jesus answers, “The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent.” In the Johannine letters, whenever God’s commands are mentioned, it is soon made clear that love is what the author has in mind (2:3–11; 5:1–3; 2 John 5–6). Love among disciples is the distinctive “new command” which Jesus gave to his followers (John 13:34–35). Similarly, Jesus reduced the demands of the Torah to love for God and others (Matt. 22:37–40). “Faith active in love is a Pauline expression which our author would readily have accepted” (Dodd, Epistles, p. 94). This verse summarizes the two principal concerns of the three Johannine letters.
His command in v. 23 is God’s command, since all of the pronouns in vv. 19–22 refer to God. Note the change from the plural “commands” in v. 22 to the singular in v. 23. For the Elder and the Johannine community as a whole, all Christian duty can be summed up in the twofold command: have faith in Jesus and love for one’s brothers and sisters.
This is the first use of the verb believe (pisteuō) in the letters of John. From now on it occurs frequently (4:1, 16; 5:1, 5, 10, 13), as the subject of the epistle shifts more to issues of faith (and love) in the last two chapters. The tense of believe is aorist, signifying an initial, decisive act of commitment to Jesus Christ, though there can be no doubt that the Elder also understands the necessity of ongoing, continuous faith (4:1; 5:1, 5, 10, 13). The object of faith in the Johannine writings is predominantly Jesus (cf. John 1:12; 2:11, 22–23; 3:15–16, 18, 36; 4:39; 6:29, 35; 7:31, 38; 8:30; 9:35; 10:42; 11:25–27, 48; 12:11, 42, 44, 46; 14:1, 12; 17:20; 20:31; 1 John 5:1, 5, 10, 13), though occasionally it is faith in the one who sent him (John 5:24; 12:44; 14:1; cf. 11:42; 17:8, 21).
In v. 23 this faith is in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ. The name means the person, character, and authority of the one trusted. The full name Jesus Christ and the title his Son are nearly creedal statements, similar to John 20:31 (cf. 2:22; 4:2, 15; 5:1, 5). Jesus as the Son of God is a favorite expression of Johannine Christology John 1:49; 3:18, 35; 5:20, 23, 25; 10:36; 11:4, 27; 14:13; 17:1; 19:7; 20:31; 1 John 1:3, 7; 2:23–24; 3:8, 23; 4:9–10, 14–15; 5:5, 9–13, 20; 2 John 3, 9). It signifies the Son’s divine origin and the continuing intimate union of the Father and Son whom he sent. The secessionist false teachers could not accept that the Christ, the Son of God, was the incarnate human, Jesus (2:22–23; 4:2–3; 2 John 7).
Love for one another within the Johannine community has been a prominent theme in 1 John (2:10; 3:10–11, 14, 16–18), and it will continue to be (4:7–8, 11–12, 19–21; 5:2). It derives from God’s command (the first and last phrases v. 23 form an inclusio; cf. 2 John 4), given through Jesus (John 13:34; 15:10, 17), and, along with believing in Jesus, exhibiting love for one another distinguishes the faithful followers of the Elder from the secessionists.
3:24 The closing verse of chapter three completes the teaching on keeping God’s commands and returns to the main subject of this section of 1 John, assurance. The Elder makes the point that the obedient Christian has the indwelling presence of the Spirit of God as the assurance of knowing God.
Those who obey his commands, i.e., who believe in Jesus and love one another (v. 23), receive what they ask for in prayer (v. 22) and abide in God (v. 24, menei; NIV, “live in him”). The indwelling is mutual (the first time this has been expressed in 1 John; cf. 4:13, 15–16), for God also abides in them. This Johannine tradition (cf. 2:6; 4:15) is based on Jesus’ teaching in the Farewell Discourses of the Fourth Gospel on the coming of the Paraclete, the Holy Spirit. In John 14:16–17, the Father will give to Jesus’ disciples a “Counselor” (paraklētos), “the Spirit of truth” (cf. 1 John 4:6), who will live in them and be with them forever. Jesus and the Father will come and make their home in those who keep Jesus’ teaching (14:23). Jesus urges his followers to “remain (meinate) in me, and I will remain in you” (15:4). As in vv. 22–23, the commands are God’s commands, although it is quite possible that the author intends the reader to infer both God and Jesus. The interpreter faces the same problem in 2:3–4 and 2:26–29. Obedience results in ongoing, personal communion with God (the meaning of menō, “abide”; see the discussion of this important concept in 1 John 2:6).
This fellowship with God is mediated by the Spirit he gave us, and it is how we know that he lives in us. The secessionists were making claims about their relationship to God through the Spirit (4:1–3, 6). They claimed to be God’s inspired prophets. But the Elder maintains that only those who obey his commands (faith in Jesus and love for one another) receive the Spirit and live in communion with God. This the opponents do not do. The faithful Johannine Christians may rest assured that God lives in them and not in their opponents, because they have the Spirit, and the disobedient secessionists do not, despite their claims. The evidence for possessing the Spirit is in the confession of Jesus as the Christ, the Son of God (v. 23; John 20:31), and in the fruit of the Spirit (esp. love, vv. 16–18; cf. Gal. 5:22–23).
Additional Notes
3:19–20 There is a detailed study of these verses in Brown, Epistles, pp. 248–9.
3:23 Believing is very important in Johannine theology. It usually means a total personal commitment to Jesus or complete confidence in the object of one’s believing. The Gospel and letters of John strongly prefer the verb to the noun (107 times to one, 1 John 5:4), since faith is active and personal, not static and creedal. See Brown, Gospel, I–XII, pp. 512–15 and O. Michel, “Faith,” NIDNTT, vol. 1, 602–3. On the concept of “command” in 1 John, see U. C. von Wahlde, The Johannine Commandments: 1 John and the Struggle for the Johannine Tradition (New York: Paulist, 1990).
3:24 This is the first time the Spirit has been mentioned explicitly in 1 John, though “the anointing” in 2:20, 27 is an indirect reference.
And this is how we know: cf. “By this we know that we have come to know him” (1 John 2:3); “By this we know that we are in him” (2:5); “By this we have come to know love” (3:16); “By this we shall know that we are of the truth” (3:19); “By this we know that he lives in us” (3:24); “By this we know the Spirit of God” (4:2); “By this we know the Spirit of truth” (4:6); “By this we know that we abide in him” (4:13); and “By this we know that we love the children of God” (5:2). These nine expressions all begin with en toutō and contain a form of the verb ginōskō in the first person plural, a remarkable witness to the community’s need for assurance in the face of the secessionist threat.
