1 John 3:11–24

3:11 John likes to remind his audience that what he is urging corresponds to the truth they have heard “from the beginning” (2:7, 24). John is not peddling in novelty, which may suggest that the false teachers are.

3:12 For a counterexample John reaches back to Cain in Genesis 4, perhaps reinforcing the fact that this love command goes back to the “beginning.” The opposite of love is hatred (mentioned explicitly in the next verse), which leads to murder. And what leads to such hatred-inspired murder? The evildoer hates the one who does righteousness. This connects John’s points concerning the practice of righteousness and the love we ought to have for one another.

3:13 Here John makes his application. The first murder (by Cain) was caused by hatred of righteousness by the wicked. Therefore, we should not be surprised when the world, which is opposed to God, hates us, who do righteous deeds because we are God’s children. The Bible states clearly that we should expect such opposition, and if we are shocked by it, our ignorance of the Bible is exposed (John 16:33; 2 Tim. 3:12; cf. Psalm 2).

3:14 Love for fellow believers is evidence of conversion, that one has been transformed from the realm of death to the realm of life. This is one way we can know the reality of our conversion. This also shows that such love is supernatural: it does not arise naturally in fallen hearts but requires the supernatural work of God. On the other hand, anyone who does not have such love remains in the realm of death.

3:15 Now John makes explicit the connection between hatred and murder. Echoing Jesus’ words (Matt. 5:21–22), John says that to hate a brother is to violate the command against murder. Hatred makes one a murderer, and it is well known, John says, that no murderer has eternal life.

The Evil One inspires hatred of God’s people, ranging from lack of care to actually destroying them (murder). This is because the Evil One was a murderer from the beginning (John 8:44). Thus Cain, the first murderer, is “of the evil one” (1 John 3:12), meaning he belonged to and was from the realm of the Devil. All of those who live in the realm of the Evil One, who abide in death, will hate God’s people.

John is not claiming that no murderer can be converted (indeed, the apostle Paul would be a counterexample!). Nor is he speaking of self-defense or accidental slaying.¹ Rather, he is declaring that no one who is converted can wantonly destroy innocent human life. It is striking that the word used here for “murderer” (anthrōpoktonos) occurs elsewhere in the NT only in John 8:44, where it refers to the Devil.

Regarding the connection between hatred and murder, I. Howard Marshall aptly states, “We may not like to put the point so frankly, but it is good that the real character of hatred should be so unambiguously displayed, so as to warn us against it. . . . Hatred is incompatible with spiritual life. Put otherwise, the person who hates another wants to deprive him of life; such a person clearly does not belong to the realm of life.”²

3:16 After offering this negative example, John returns to the exhortation to love. Jesus’ giving of himself, culminating at the cross, teaches us what love is and calls us to follow his example. Whereas hate leads to taking another’s life, love leads to laying down one’s own.

3:17 Laying down one’s life involves meeting the basic needs of others. The phrase “the world’s goods” uses the same word discussed in 2:16 (bios). The situation in view is clear—one believer has financial means and sees another believer in need. If a believer knows of such a fellow brother in need but closes his heart against him, such behavior calls into question this believer’s faith.

There is a deliberate switch here from plural (general) in verse 16 to singular (specific) in verse 17. As G. P. Lewis points out, “It is easier to be enthusiastic about Humanity with a capital ‘H’ than it is to love individual men and women, especially those who are uninteresting, exasperating, depraved, or otherwise unattractive. Loving everybody in general may be an excuse for loving nobody in particular.”³

3:18 John’s term of endearment (“little children”) draws specific attention to his concluding point, summarizing the last two verses. Real love, the love of God that John has been addressing, is not simply “word or talk.” It always results in deeds. God so loved the world that he gave (John 3:16).

Of course, this does not mean that loving words or talk are useless! John himself demonstrates loving talk in this letter. His point is that true love is not merely talk or sentiment. Love is not content only to speak but must act for the good of the one loved. That which only feels and speaks but does not act is not true love. Love without works is dead.

3:19–20 “By this” refers back to the previous verses. Thus, as we love “in truth” (genuinely) we will have assurance (“we shall know”) that we are “of the truth,” which is another of John’s phrases referring to knowing God or being converted (like practicing or being in the truth; 1:6–8). Obedience leads to assurance. John is writing to a flock rocked by the departure of a number who claimed to have the truth, and he is repeatedly showing them how they can see that they are right for continuing in the apostolic pattern. “This” love, which he has been describing, is the right way.

However, there will also be times in which we will need to “reassure our heart” before God,⁴ presumably because we are painfully aware of the deficiency of even our best love. Thus, when our hearts condemn us, John tells us to look to God. We do examine our lives to see the obedience that results from faith, but in the end we look to God and not to ourselves. We repent of sin, seek to obey, and look to God, knowing that he is greater than our hearts and knows everything. He knows all our sin, and he knows his atoning work. In other words, despite a smiting conscience, we can remind ourselves that what God has forgiven stands forgiven forever. As Paul said, “If God is for us, who can be against us? . . . Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us” (Rom. 8:31–34).

3:21 Having addressed the remedy for a condemning heart, John now addresses his readers with another of his terms of endearment as he moves to the blessing of a cleared conscience. We can almost feel a sense of excitement as he makes this transition, reminding them that they are indeed “beloved.” When our hearts no longer condemn us because we rest in the work of Christ, we can approach God with confidence (similarly in Heb. 10:19–20, with the same word for “confidence”). This is precisely what Charles Wesley described when he wrote, in his hymn “Amazing Love,”

No condemnation now I dread;

Jesus, and all in Him, is mine;

Alive in Him, my living Head,

And clothed in righteousness divine,

Bold I approach the eternal throne,

And claim the crown, through Christ my own.

3:22 Along with the previous verse, this verse makes clear that the context of prayer is in view. The confidence of a conscience cleared by grace leads to effective prayer. We must be careful neither to abuse nor to minimize what John says. On the one hand, the promise of “whatever we ask” must not be construed as the basis for a prosperity theology, which tells us simply to “name it and claim it.” Despite the worldwide popularity of this idea, such beliefs miss the entire thrust of Scripture as well as the qualification here that we must obey God and do what pleases him. Prayers for mere self-gratification or self-exaltation do not please God.

Because of this abuse, however, some Christians fail to take seriously the promise that is indeed given (also in Matt. 7:7; Mark 11:24). As we obey and please God, asking for things that please him because they are in line with his commands, God will answer our prayers and do great things. This should encourage us to obey and pray.

3:23 Having mentioned obedience to commands, John specifies two such key commands. The first is to “believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ.” This is quite similar to Jesus’ statement in John 6:29. The title “his Son Jesus Christ” connotes the full confession of the person of Christ, which the false teachers deny (cf. 1 John 2:22–23). The second command is to “love one another,” as the sent Son commanded. Thus John repeats two key themes of the letter to this point: Effective prayer, then, is contingent on right belief in the person of Christ and genuine love for believers.⁵

3:24 Continuing the theme of keeping God’s commandments, John writes that such obedience shows that a person abides in God and that God abides in him. Abiding in God is another of John’s phrases denoting true Christianity. Earlier John connected abiding in God with obedience (2:6; 3:6) and with being confident at the return of Christ (2:28). God’s Word (2:14), anointing (2:27), seed (3:9), and love (3:17) are all said to “abide” in believers. This is the truth of which Jesus spoke in John 15 and refers to the interrelatedness of life between God and his children, with God as their source of life. “In John’s theology, abiding is the epitome of trust in Christ, like being ‘in Christ’ in Paul,” explains Yarbrough.⁶

“By this” refers back to keeping God’s commandments (1 John 3:24a). Obedience is how we know God abides in us. This is in keeping with what John has written elsewhere in this letter, as well as with the consistent NT witness that faith produces works. This assurance of God’s abiding in us comes also through the work of the Spirit. Paul also speaks of confidence that comes “through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us” (Rom. 5:5). Mention of the Spirit here sets up the new focus on his work in the next section.