Whoever is born of God doesn’t commit sin, because his seed remains in him, and he can’t sin, because he is born of God. In this the children of God are revealed, and the children of the devil. Whoever doesn’t do righteousness is not of God, neither is he who doesn’t love his brother. For this is the message which you heard from the beginning, that we should love one another;
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1 John 3:9-11 sits inside this longer paragraph.
Little children, let no one lead you astray. He who does righteousness is righteous, even as he is righteous. He who sins is of the devil, for the devil has been sinning from the beginning. To this end the Son of God was revealed: that he might destroy the works of the devil. Whoever is born of God doesn’t commit sin, because his seed remains in him, and he can’t sin, because he is born of God. In this the children of God are revealed, and the children of the devil. Whoever doesn’t do righteousness is not of God, neither is he who doesn’t love his brother. For this is the message which you heard from the beginning, that we should love one another; unlike Cain, who was of the evil one, and killed his brother. Why did he kill him? Because his deeds were evil, and his brother’s righteous.
Parallel Translations
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Whoever is born of God doesn’t commit sin, because his seed remains in him, and he can’t sin, because he is born of God.
In this the children of God are revealed, and the children of the devil. Whoever doesn’t do righteousness is not of God, neither is he who doesn’t love his brother.
For this is the message which you heard from the beginning, that we should love one another;
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Whosoever is borne of god sinneth not: for his seed remayneth in him and he cannot sinne because he is borne of god.
In this are the children of god knowen and the children of the devyll. Whosoever doeth not rightewesnes is not of God nether he that loveth not his brother.
For this is the tydinges that ye hearde from the begynninge that we shuld love one another:
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Whosoeuer is borne of God, sinneth not: for his seede remaineth in him, neither can hee sinne, because he is borne of God.
In this are the children of God knowen, and the children of the deuil: whosoeuer doeth not righteousnesse, is not of God, neither he that loueth not his brother.
For this is the message, that ye heard from the beginning, that we should loue one another,
Examined in Scripture Analysis
Contradictions (1)
Questions where the Bible appears to say two different things, with the passages on each side set together.
Cross-references (46)
- 1 John 5:18 (v9) We know that whoever is born of God doesn’t sin, but he who was born of God keeps himself, and the evil one doesn’t touch him.
- 1 Peter 1:23 (v9) having been born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, through the word of God, which lives and remains forever.
- John 1:13 (v9) who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.
- 1 John 5:1 (v9) Whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God. Whoever loves the Father also loves the child who is born of him.
- 1 John 2:29 (vv9–10) If you know that he is righteous, you know that everyone who practices righteousness has been born of him.
Show all 43 cross-references
- Matthew 7:18 (v9) A good tree can’t produce evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree produce good fruit.
- John 3:3 (v9) Jesus answered him, “Most certainly, I tell you, unless one is born anew, he can’t see God’s Kingdom.”
- John 15:12 (v11) “This is my commandment, that you love one another, even as I have loved you.
- Galatians 5:17 (v9) For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another, that you may not do the…
- 1 John 5:4 (v9) For whatever is born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world: your faith.
- 1 John 4:7 (vv9, 11) Beloved, let’s love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves has been born of God, and knows God.
- Romans 6:2 (v9) May it never be! We who died to sin, how could we live in it any longer?
- 2 John 1:5 (v11) Now I beg you, dear lady, not as though I wrote to you a new commandment, but that which we had from the beginning, that we love one…
- 1 John 4:8 (v10) He who doesn’t love doesn’t know God, for God is love.
- 3 John 1:11 (v10) Beloved, don’t imitate that which is evil, but that which is good. He who does good is of God. He who does evil hasn’t seen God.
- 1 John 4:21 (vv10–11) This commandment we have from him, that he who loves God should also love his brother.
- Matthew 13:38 (v10) the field is the world; and the good seed, these are the children of the Kingdom; and the darnel weeds are the children of the evil one.
- Luke 6:35 (v10) But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing back; and your reward will be great, and you will be children of the Most…
- John 8:44 (v10) You are of your father, the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning, and doesn’t stand…
- John 8:47 (v10) He who is of God hears the words of God. For this cause you don’t hear, because you are not of God.”
- John 13:34-35 (v11) A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also love one another. By this everyone will know…
- Acts 4:20 (v9) for we can’t help telling the things which we saw and heard.”
- 1 Peter 3:8 (v11) Finally, all of you be like-minded, compassionate, loving as brothers, tenderhearted, courteous,
- 1 John 3:7-8 (v10) Little children, let no one lead you astray. He who does righteousness is righteous, even as he is righteous. He who sins is of the devil,…
- Ephesians 5:2 (v11) Walk in love, even as Christ also loved us and gave himself up for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling fragrance.
- Ephesians 5:1 (v10) Be therefore imitators of God, as beloved children.
- 1 Thessalonians 4:9 (v11) But concerning brotherly love, you have no need that one write to you. For you yourselves are taught by God to love one another,
- Titus 1:2 (v9) in hope of eternal life, which God, who can’t lie, promised before time began;
- 1 Peter 4:8 (v11) And above all things be earnest in your love among yourselves, for love covers a multitude of sins.
- 1 John 4:3-4 (v10) and every spirit who doesn’t confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of God, and this is the spirit of the Antichrist, of…
- 1 John 4:6 (v10) We are of God. He who knows God listens to us. He who is not of God doesn’t listen to us. By this we know the spirit of truth, and the…
- Acts 13:10 (v10) and said, “You son of the devil, full of all deceit and all cunning, you enemy of all righteousness, will you not cease to pervert the…
- Romans 8:16-17 (v10) The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God; and if children, then heirs: heirs of God and joint heirs with…
- 1 John 1:5 (v11) This is the message which we have heard from him and announce to you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.
- 1 John 2:9-10 (v10) He who says he is in the light and hates his brother is in the darkness even until now. He who loves his brother remains in the light, and…
- 1 John 3:14-15 (v10) We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brothers. He who doesn’t love his brother remains in death. Whoever…
- 1 John 5:2 (v10) By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and keep his commandments.
- Job 19:28 (v9) If you say, ‘How we will persecute him!’ because the root of the matter is found in me,
- Galatians 6:2 (v11) Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.
- 1 Timothy 1:5 (v11) but the goal of this command is love, out of a pure heart and a good conscience and sincere faith,
- 1 Peter 1:22 (v11) Seeing you have purified your souls in your obedience to the truth through the Spirit in sincere brotherly affection, love one another from…
- 1 John 2:7-8 (v11) Brothers, I write no new commandment to you, but an old commandment which you had from the beginning. The old commandment is the word which…
- 1 John 5:19 (v10) We know that we are of God, and the whole world lies in the power of the evil one.
43 distinct cross-references across this passage (46 total citations).
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this passage (23 sources)
Historical commentary, presented as a primary source — not an endorsement.
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John Calvin 1540 · Public Domain On vv9–11 He says that they sin not who are born…
He says that they sin not who are born of God. Now, we must consider, whether God wholly regenerates us at once, or whether the remains of the old man continue in us until death. If regeneration is not as yet full and complete, it does not exempt us from the bondage of sin except in proportion to its own extent. It hence appears that it cannot be but that the children of God are not free from sins, and that they daily sin, that is, as far as they have still some remnants of their old nature. Nevertheless, what the Apostle contends for stands unalterable, that the design of regeneration is to destroy sin, and that all who are born of God lead a righteous and a holy life, because the Spirit of God restrains the lusting of sin.
The Apostle means the same thing by the seed of God; for God’s Spirit so forms the hearts of the godly for holy affections, that the flesh and its lusts do not prevail, but being subdued and put as it were under a yoke, they are checked and restrained. In short, the Apostle ascribes to the Spirit the sovereignty in the elect, who by his power represses sin and suffers it not to rule and reign.
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And he cannot sin Here the Apostle ascends higher, for he plainly declares that the hearts of the godly are so effectually governed by the Spirit of God, that through an inflexible disposition they follow his guidance. This is indeed far removed from the doctrine of the Papists. The Sorbons, it is true, confess that the will of man, unless assisted by God’s Spirit, cannot desire what is right; but they imagine such a motion of the Spirit as leaves to us the free choice of good and evil. Hence they draw forth merits, because we willingly obey the influence of the Spirit, which it is in our power to resist. In short, they desire the grace of the Spirit to be only this, that we are thereby enabled to choose right if we will. John speaks here far otherwise; for he not only shews that we cannot sin, but also that the power of the Spirit is so effectual, that it necessarily retains us in continual obedience to righteousness. Nor is this the only passage of Scripture which teaches us that the will is so formed that it cannot be otherwise than right. For God testifies that he gives a new heart to his children, and promises to do this, that they may walk in his commandments. Besides, John not only shews how efficaciously God works once in man, but plainly declares that the Spirit continues his grace in us to the last, so that inflexible perseverance is added to newness of life. Let us not, then, imagine with the Sophists that it is some neutral movement, which leaves men free either to follow or to reject; but let us know that our own hearts are so ruled by God’s Spirit, that they constantly cleave to righteousness.
Moreover; what the Sophists absurdly object, may be easily refuted: they say that thus the will is taken away from man; but they say so falsely: for the will is a natural power; but, as nature is corrupted, it has only depraved inclinations. It is hence necessary that the Spirit of God should renew it, in order that it may begin to be good. And, then, as men would immediately fall away from what is good, it is necessary that the same Spirit should carry on what he has begun, to the end.
As to merit, the answer is obvious, for it cannot be deemed strange that men merit nothing; and yet good works, which flow from the grace of the Spirit, do not cease to be so deemed, because they are voluntary. They have also a reward, for they are by grace ascribed to men as though they were their own.
But here a question arises, Whether the fear and love of God can be extinguished in any one who has been regenerated by the Spirit of God? for that this cannot be, seems to be the import of the Apostle’s words. They who think otherwise refer to the example of David, who for a time labored under such a beastly stupor, that not a spark of grace appeared in him. Moreover, in the fifty-first Psalm, he prays for the restoration of the Spirit. It hence follows that he was deprived of him. I, however, doubt not but that the seed, communicated when God regenerates his elect, as it is incorruptible, retains its virtue perpetually. I, indeed, grant that it may sometimes be stifled, as in the case of David; but still, when all religion seemed to be extinct in him, a live coal was hid under the ashes. Satan, indeed, labors to root out whatever is from God in the elect; but when the utmost is permitted to him, there ever remains a hidden root, which afterwards springs up. But John does not speak of one act, as they say, but of the continued course of life.
Some fanatics dream of something I know not what, that is, of an eternal seed in the elect, which they always bring from their mother’s womb; but for this purpose they very outrageously pervert the words of John; for he does not speak of eternal election, but begins with regeneration.
There are also those who are doubly frantic, who hold, under this pretense, that, everything is lawful to the faithful, that is, because John says that they cannot sin. They then maintain that we may follow indiscriminately whatever our inclinations may lead us to. Thus they take the liberty to commit adultery, to steal, and to murder, because there can be no sin where God’s Spirit reigns. But far otherwise is the meaning of the Apostle; for he denies that the faithful sin for this reason, because God has engraven his law on their hearts, according to what the Prophet says (Jeremiah 31:33.)
John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain On vv9–11 The holy Ghost is so called of the effect…
The holy Ghost is so called of the effect he worketh, because by his virtue and mighty working, as it were by seed, we are made new men.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv9–11 9 Whosoever is born of God doth not commit…
9 Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin; for his seed remaineth in him: and he cannot sin, because he is born of God.
Ver. 9. For his seed] The new nature, which causeth that sin cannot carry it away without some counter buffs. The Spirit quickens the word: as there is a spirit in the natural seed that maketh it prolific; so here.
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He cannot sin] i.e. Sinningly, so as to be transformed into sin’s image: cannot do wickedly with both hands earnestly, Mic 7:7-9. He sinneth not totally and finally, he cannot so fall as apostates; for the seed of God ever abideth in him. Bellarmine is forced to confess that this is the hardest place in all the Bible, urged for proof of perseverance in grace.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain On vv9–11 To be born of God, is, (in the words…
To be born of God, is, (in the words of a very learned annotator, Dr. Hammond), "to have received some special influence from God, and by the help and power of that, to be raised to a pious life. Agreeably, γεγεννημενος εκ του θεου, he that hath been born of God, is literally, he that hath had such a blessed change wrought in him, by the operation of God’s Spirit in his heart, as to be translated from the power of darkness into the kingdom of his own dear Son; transformed in the spirit of his mind, i.e. sincerely changed from all evil to all good; from an obedience to the flesh, &c., to an obedience to God. Only it is here to be noted, that the phrase is not so to be taken, as to denote only the act of this change; the first impression of this virtue on the patient, the single transient act of regeneration; or reformation; and that, as in the preter tense, now past, but rather a continued course, a permanent state: so as a regenerate man and a child of God are all one, and signify him that lives a pious and godly life, and continues to do so," &c. To the same purpose this author also speaks, note on Joh 1:13, and in his paraphrase on that verse: "Those which live according to the will of God, and neither the natural, nor carnal, nor bare moral principle." This change, introducing the consequent course, divers texts of Scripture explain, Joh 3:3,5,6; 2Co 5:17; Eph 2:10; 4:24; Jam 1:18, &c. Now of one thus born of God, it is said, he
doth not commit sin, as 1Jo 3:8, and for the reason here alleged.
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His seed; the principles of enlivened holy truth, as 1Pe 1:23; Jam 1:8.
And he cannot sin: which is not to be understood simply, as if he could not sin at all, which were to contradict what he had said before, 1Jo 1:8, and supposed, 1Jo 2:1; but he cannot commit sin, as 1Jo 3:8. And it is plain the apostle intends by these two expressions the same thing. He cannot sin, i.e. do an act of known, gross sin, deliberately, easily, remorselessly, maliciously, as Cain, 1Jo 3:12, out of a hatred of goodness: or, do not such acts customarily, or not so unto death, (as 1Jo 5:16) but that through the advantage of inlaid principles, or the remaining seed, by dependence upon the grace, Spirit, and covenant of God in Christ, he may timously recover.
Because he is born of God; i.e. inasmuch as it belongs to his temper and inclination, in respect of the holy new nature received in regeneration, to abhor from the grosser acts, much more from a course of sin; see Gen 39:9; Act 4:20; 2Co 13:8; Gal 5:17; and to his state, as he is a child of God, to have that interest in the grace of Christ, that he may implore, trust, obtain, and improve it, to his being kept from such destructive sinning. And it being evident, by his deep and thorough change, that he is born of God, and chosen to be an heir of eternal life, (as his children are heirs), he may and ought (not in a way of presumptuous negligence, but of vigilance and humble dependence) certainly to expect being so kept. Nor is it strange so much should be affirmed, upon so unspeakably better grounds, of the Christian state, when such boasts are to be read concerning some among the pagans, that one might as soon divert the sun from its course, as turn such a one from the course of righteousness. Though we may also suppose this form of speech might be intended by the apostle to be understood by the more superficial professors of Christianity, (who might be generally apt enough to look upon themselves as born of God, and his children), as parenetical, and more enforcingly hortatory, in pursuance of his former scope, to keep them off from the licentious courses of their seducers; q.d. It cannot be, that you, who avow yourselves born of God, should do like them. So we usually say, that cannot but be, or cannot be, which we apprehend more highly and clearly reasonable should be, or not be. Non potes avelli, & c. Such rhetoric the apostle uses with Agrippa, I know that thou believest, as if it were impossible he should not.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
William Burkitt 1703 · Public Domain On vv9–11 Observe here, 1. The character of a true Christian,…
Observe here, 1. The character of a true Christian, he is born of God; he has in the work of regeneration passed under a blessed change by the operation of the Holy Spirit, renewing his nature, and reforming his life; yet this denotes not a single transient act of regeneration, but rather a continued course and permanent state; one that is born of God is the same with him that leads a pious and godly life, and continues so to do.
Observe, 2. What is here asserted concerning him that is born of God, namely, that he doth not commit sin, and that he cannot sin.
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1. He doth not commit sin, he is no evil doer, no worker of iniquity, no habitual or customary sinner; he goes not on in any way or course of sin, as the wicked does, who makes a trade of it; yea, he doth not tolerate or allow himself in any single act of sin; not that he is absolutely free from all sin.
2. It is said, he cannot sin; but how? And why? How can he not sin? Has he not a natural power to sin? Has he not corruptions within, and temptations without, inclining and disposing him to sin, as well as other men? And has he not opportunity to sin; the same expectations of advantages by sin with other men? Yes, no doubt; but he has not a will bent for sin, or a heart and mind set upon sin, as the wicked have; nay, he has a heart and will opposite to sin, and set against all sin.
A gracious person then, though he hath not a natural impossibility, yet he has a moral impossibility to sin. He that is born of God hath a power to do that evil which he hath not a will to do; he hath always a natural power, and sometimes a civil power, as being in authority; but his blood and pedigree are so high, being born of God, that he disdains to meddle with, or to trade in so base a thing as sin is.
Note, That a child of God has a blessed impotency in the unregenerate part, that he cannot sin strongly, though as yet he has not that ability in the regenerate part, as not to sin at all.
Observe, 3. The reasons assigned why a regenerate person cannot sin as the wicked sin, because his seed remaineth in him, and because he is born of God; that is, he has an inward principle inclining and disposing him to hate and oppose all sin, to wit, the sanctifying grace of God; and he has that mortifying Spirit, which causes him daily more and more to die unto sin, amd enables him to mortify the deeds of the body.
Learn hence, That although sin remaineth in him that is born of God, yet he that is born of God doth not remain in sin, either as to a sinful state, or a sinful conversation; God’s word and Spirit, by which he was regenerate, still remain in him; and so far as he is under the ruling power and governing influences of them, he cannot sin, much less live in wilful sin.
William Burkitt's Expository Notes on the New Testament (1700–1703) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Henry 1710 · Public Domain On v11 The apostle, having intimated that one mark of the…
The apostle, having intimated that one mark of the devil's children is hatred of the brethren, takes occasion thence,
I. To recommend fraternal Christian love, and that from the excellence, or antiquity, or primariness of the injunction relating thereto: And this is the message (the errand or charge) which you heard from the beginning (this came among the principal parts of practical Christianity), that we should love one another, Jo1 3:11. We should love the Lord Jesus, and value his love, and consequently love all the objects of it, and thereupon all our brethren in Christ.
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II. To dissuade from what is contrary thereto, all ill-will towards the brethren, and that by the example of Cain. His envy and malignity should deter us from harbouring the like passion, and that upon these accounts: - 1. It showed that he was as the first-born of the serpent's seed; even he, the eldest son of the first man, was of the wicked one. He imitated and resembled the first wicked one, the devil. 2. His ill-will had no restraint; it proceeded so far as to contrive and accomplish murder, and that of a near relation, and that in the beginning of the world, when there were but few to replenish it. He slew his brother, Jo1 3:12. Sin, indulged, knows no bound. And, 3. It proceeded so far, and had in it so much of the devil, that he murdered his brother for religion's sake. He was vexed with the superiority of Abel's service, and envied him the favour and acceptance he had with God. And for these he martyred his brother. And wherefore slew he him? Because his own works were evil, and his brother's righteous, Jo1 3:12. Ill-will will teach us to hate and revenge what we should admire and imitate. And then,
III. To infer that it is no wonder that good men are so served now: Marvel not, my brethren, if the world hate you, Jo1 3:13. The serpentine nature still continues in the world. The great serpent himself reigns as the God of this world. Wonder not then that the serpentine world hates and hisses at you who belong to that seed of the woman that is to bruise the serpent's head.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain On vv9–11 Whosoever is born of God,.... In a figurative and…
Whosoever is born of God,.... In a figurative and spiritual sense; who are regenerated, or born from above; who are quickened by the grace of God, and have Christ formed in them; who are made partakers of the divine nature, and new creatures in Christ; which spiritual birth is not owing to men, to the power and will of men, but to the grace of God; and is sometimes ascribed to the Father, who of his own will and abundant mercy begets souls again to a lively hope, and saves them by the washing of regeneration; and sometimes to Christ, who quickens whom he will, whose grace is implanted, and image stamped in it, and by whose resurrection from the dead men are begotten again; and chiefly, to the Spirit of God, who is the author of regeneration, and of the whole of sanctification: and such as are born of him are alive through him, the spirit of life entering into them, and live to God and upon Christ, and breathe after divine and spiritual things, and have their senses to discern them; they see, hear, feel, taste, and savour them; and desire the sincere milk of the word, for their nourishment and growth; and have every grace implanted in them, as faith, hope, and love: and of every such an one it is said, he
doth not commit sin; does not make it his trade and business; it is not the constant course of his life; he does not live and walk in sin, or give up himself to it; he is not without the being of it in him, or free from acts of sin in his life and conversation, but he does not so commit it as to be the servant of it, a slave unto it, or to continue in it; and that for this reason:
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for his seed remaineth in him; not the word of God, or the Gospel, though that is a seed which is sown by the ministers of it, and blessed by God, and by which he regenerates his people; and which having a place in their hearts, becomes the ingrafted word, and there abides, nor can it be rooted out; where it powerfully teaches to avoid sin, is an antidote against it, and a preservative from it: nor the Holy Spirit of God, though he is the author of the new birth, and the principle of all grace; and where he once is, he always abides; and through the power of his grace believers prevail against sin, and mortify the deeds of the body, and live: but rather the grace of the Spirit, the internal principle of grace in the soul, the new nature, or new man formed in the soul, is meant; which seminally contains all grace in it, and which, like seed, springs up and gradually increases, and always abides; and is pure and incorruptible, and neither sins itself, nor encourages sin, but opposes, checks, and prevents it:
and he cannot sin; not that it is impossible for such a man to do acts of sin, or that it is possible for him to live without sin; for the words are not to be understood in the sense of those who plead for perfection in this life; for though the saints have perfection in Christ, yet not in themselves; they are not impeccable, they are not free from sin, neither from the being nor actings of it; sin is in them, lives in them, dwells in them, hinders all the good, and does all the mischief it can: or in such sense, as if the sins of believers were not sins; for though they are pardoned and expiated, and they are justified from them, yet they do not cease to be sins; they are equally contrary to the nature, will, and law of God, as well as the sins of others; and are oftentimes attended with more aggravated circumstances, and which God in a fatherly way takes notice of, and chastises for, and on the account of which he hides his face from them: nor does the phrase intend any particular single sin, which cannot be committed; though there are such, as sinning wilfully after receiving the knowledge of the truth, or denying Christ to be the Saviour of sinners, and a sacrifice for sin, and hatred of a Christian brother as such, and sinning the sin unto death, or the unpardonable sin; neither of which can be committed by a regenerate man: nor is the meaning only, though it is a sense that will very well bear, and agrees with the context, that such persons cannot sin as unregenerate men do; that is, live in a continued course of sinning, and with pleasure, and without reluctance, and so as to lie in it, as the whole world does: but rather the meaning is, he that is born of God, as he is born of God, or that which is born of God in him, the new man, or new creature, cannot sin; for that is pure and holy; there is nothing sinful in it, nor can anything that is sinful come out of it, or be done by it; it is the workmanship of the Holy Spirit of God; it is a good work, and well pleasing: in the sight of God, who is of purer eyes than to behold sin with delight; and an incorruptible seed, which neither corrupts nor is corrupted; and though it is as yet an imperfect work, it is not impure: the reason of the impeccability of the regenerate man, as such, is
because he is born of God: for that which is born of God in him, does, under the influence of the Spirit, power, and grace of God, preserve him from the temptations of Satan, the pollutions of the world, and the corruptions of his own heart; see Jo1 5:18; which the Vulgate Latin version there renders, "the generation of God", meaning regeneration, or that which is born of God, "preserveth him": this furnishes out a considerable argument for the perseverance of the saints.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain On vv9–10 Whosoever is born of God - By living faith,…
Whosoever is born of God - By living faith, whereby God is continually breathing spiritual life into his soul, and his soul is continually breathing out love and prayer to God, doth not commit sin. For the divine seed of loving faith abideth in him; and, so long as it doth, he cannot sin, because he is born of God - Is inwardly and universally changed.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On vv9–11 Verse 9. Whosoever is born of God] γεγεννημενος, Begotten…
Verse 9. Whosoever is born of God] γεγεννημενος, Begotten of God, doth not commit sin: "that is," say some, "as he used to do, he does not sin habitually as he formerly did." This is bringing the influence and privileges of the heavenly birth very low indeed. We have the most indubitable evidence that many of the heathen philosophers had acquired, by mental discipline and cultivation, an entire ascendency over all their wonted vicious habits. Perhaps my reader will recollect the story of the physiognomist, who, coming into the place where Socrates was delivering a lecture, his pupils, wishing to put the principles of the man's science to proof, desired him to examine the face of their master, and say what his moral character was. After a full contemplation of the philosopher's visage, he pronounced him "the most gluttonous, drunken, brutal, and libidinous old man that he had ever met." As the character of Socrates was the reverse of all this, his disciples began to insult the physiognomist. Socrates interfered, and said, "The principles of his science may he very correct, for such I was, but I have conquered it by my philosophy." O ye Christian divines! ye real or pretended Gospel ministers! will ye allow the influence of the grace of Christ a sway not even so extensive as that of the philosophy of a heathen who never heard of the true God?
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain On v11 1Jn 3:11-14. For, &c. — As if he had…
1Jn 3:11-14. For, &c. — As if he had said, I have just declared that the want of brotherly love is a proof that a man is not of God, and a little consideration may convince you of the truth of the assertion: for this is the message that ye heard of us — The apostles and ministers of Christ; from the beginning — Of our ministry among you; that we should love one another — A doctrine frequently inculcated by our Lord Jesus in person: not as Cain, (see the margin,) who was of the wicked one — Who showed he was a child of the devil, by killing his brother. And wherefore slew he him? — For any fault? No: but just the reverse; for his goodness. Because his own works were evil — In a very high degree; and his brother’s righteous — And he could not bear that his brother’s sacrifice was accepted of God while his own was rejected; a circumstance that, instead of humbling him and bringing him to repentance, as it ought to have done, only excited his envy and hatred, which at length settled into the most rancorous malice, and produced that horrible effect. Marvel not, &c. — As if he had said, Since there is a great deal of the same malignant temper remaining in the carnal part of mankind, and there are many who are, in that sense, though not by natural descent, of the seed of Cain, marvel not if the world hate you — Remembering they lie in the wicked one, and are under his influence. We know, &c. — That is, we ourselves could not love our brethren, unless we were passed from spiritual death to spiritual life — That is, unless we were born of God. He that loveth not his brother abideth in death — Namely, in spiritual death, and is obnoxious to eternal death. In other words, he is not born of God: and he that is not born of God cannot love his brother. See on chap. 1Jn 4:7. Reader, observe this: all mankind, being born in sin, are in a state of spiritual death, and in the way to eternal death, till they are born again; and none are born again who do not truly love both God and his people.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain On vv9–11 Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin…
Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin - This passage must either mean that they who are born of God, that is, who are true Christians, do not sin habitually and characteristically, or that everyone who is a true Christian is absolutely perfect, and never commits any sin. If it can be used as referring to the doctrine of absolute perfection at all, it proves, not that Christians may be perfect, or that a “portion” of them are, but that all are. But who can maintain this? Who can believe that John meant to affirm this? Nothing can be clearer than that the passage has not this meaning, and that John did not teach a doctrine so contrary to the current strain of the Scriptures, and to fact; and if he did not teach this, then in this whole passage he refers to those who are habitually and characteristically righteous.
For his seed remaineth in him - There is much obscurity in this expression, though the general sense is clear, which is, that there is something abiding in the heart of the true Christian which the apostle here calls “seed,” which will prevent his sinning. The word “his” in this phrase, “his seed,” may refer either to the individual himself - in the sense that this can now be properly called “his,” inasmuch as it is a part of himself, or a principle abiding in him; or it may refer to God - in the sense that what is here called “seed” is “his,” that is, he has implanted it, or it is a germ of divine origin. Robinson (Lex.) understands it in the latter sense, and so also do Macknight, Doddridge, Lucke, and others, and this is probably the true interpretation. The word “seed” (σπέρμα sperma) means properly seed sown, as of grain, plants, trees; then anything that resembles it, anything which germinates, or which springs up, or is produced.
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It is applied in the New Testament to the word of God, or the gospel, as that which produces effects in the heart and life similar to what seed that is sown does. Compare Mat 13:26, Mat 13:37-38. Augustin, Clemens, (Alex.,) Grotius, Rosenmuller, Benson, and Bloomfield, suppose that this is the signification of the word here. The proper idea, according to this, is that the seed referred to is truth, which God has implanted or sown in the heart, from which it may be expected that the fruits of righteousness will grow. But that which abides in the heart of a Christian is not the naked word of God; the mere gospel, or mere truth; it is rather that word as made vital and efficacious by the influence of his Spirit; the germ of the divine life; the principles of true piety in the soul. Compare the words of Virgil: Igneus est illi vigor et coelestis origo semini. The exact idea here, as it seems to me, is not that the “seed” refers to “the word of God,” as Augustin and others suppose, or to “the Spirit of God,” but to the germ of piety which has been produced in the heart “by” the word and Spirit of God, and which may be regarded as having been implanted there by God himself, and which may be expected to produce holiness in the life. There is, probably, as Lucke supposes, an allusion in the word to the fact that we are begotten (Ὁ γεγεννημένος Ho gegennēmenos of God. The word “remaineth” - μένει menei, compare the notes at 1Jo 3:6 - is a favorite expression of John. The expression here used by John, thus explained, would seem to imply two things:
(1)That the germ or seed of religion implanted in the soul abides there as a constant, vital principle, so that he who is born of God cannot become habitually a sinner; and,
(2)That it will so continue to live there that he will not fall away and perish. The idea is clearly that the germ or principle of piety so permanently abides in the soul, that he who is renewed never can become again characteristically a sinner.
And he cannot sin - Not merely he will not, but he cannot; that is, in the sense referred to. This cannot mean that one who is renewed has not physical ability to do wrong, for every moral agent has; nor can it mean that no one who is a true Christian never does, in fact, do wrong in thought, word, or deed, for no one could seriously maintain that: but it must mean that there is somehow a certainty as absolute “as if” it were physically impossible, that those who are born of God will not be characteristically and habitually sinners; that they will not sin in such a sense as to lose all true religion and be numbered with transgressors; that they will not fall away and perish. Unless this passage teaches that no one who is renewed ever can sin in any sense; or that everyone who becomes a Christian is, and must be, absolutely and always perfect, no words could more clearly prove that true Christians will never fall from grace and perish. How can what the apostle here says be true, if a real Christian can fall away and become again a sinner?
Because he is born of God - Or begotten of God. God has given him, by the new birth, real, spiritual life, and that life can never become extinct.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain On v9 Doth not commit sin. That is, as long as…
Doth not commit sin. That is, as long as he keepeth in himself this seed of grace, and this divine generation, by which he is born of God. But then he may fall from this happy state by the abuse of his free-will, as appears from Romans xi. 20. 21. 22.; 1 Corinthians ix. 27. and x. 12.; Philippians ii. 12.; Apocalypse iii. 11. (Challoner) --- He cannot sin, because he is born of God. The meaning of this can be no more, than that he cannot sin as long as the seed of grace remaineth in him, and as long as he is the adoptive son of God. But it is evident he may fall from this happy condition, and from the grace of God, otherwise St. John would not so often in this epistle have exhorted them not to sin. (Witham)
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures 1864 · Public Domain On v11 4. Brotherly Love is the Sum-Total of the Divine…
4. Brotherly Love is the Sum-Total of the Divine Law
1Jn_3:10-18 (10b-18)
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10b Whosoever20 doeth not righteousness is not of God, neither21 he that loveth not his 11brother. For22 this is the message23 that ye heard from the beginning, that we should love one another. 12Not as Cain, who was of that wicked one,24 and slew his brother. And wherefore slew he him? Because his own25 works were evil, and26 his brother’s righteous. 13Marvel not, my brethren,27 if the world hate28 you. We know that we 14have passed from29 death unto life, because we love the brethren. He that loveth not 15his brother30 abideth in death. Whosoever31 hateth his brother is a murderer:32 and 16ye know that no murderer13 hath eternal life abiding in him. Hereby perceive33 we the love of God, because he laid down his life for us: and we ought to lay down34 our lives for the brethren. 17But whoso hath this world’s good,35 and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up his bowels of compassion36 from him,37 how dwelleth the38 18love of God in him? My39 little children, let us not love in word, neither in40 tongue; but in deed and in truth.
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
The transition. 1Jn_3:10 b.
1Jn_3:10 b. Every one that doeth not righteousness, is not of God.—Thus the Apostle compresses the one, positive, formally taken and described side of the preceding section and having thus fully, concisely and distinctly recapitulated, he now quickly adds the essential characteristic of that righteousness as the leading theme of what follows, viz.:
And he that loveth not his brother.—Calvin: “Hoc membrum vice expositonis additum est.” It is interesting to compare the progress of thought in this part with that in the first part: this section 1Jn_3:10-18 is related to 1Jn_2:29; 1Jn_3:1-10 like 1Jn_2:6-11 to 1Jn_1:5 and 1Jn_1:6 to 1Jn_2:5; 1Jn_2:6-7; 1Jn_2:11 : ἡ ἐντολὴ, ὁ λόγος, ἡ ἀγγελία brotherly love, and 1Jn_3:11 the ἀγγελία, 1Jn_2:7 : ἣν εἴχετε—1Jn_3:11 : ἣν ἠκούσατε ἀπ̓ ἀρχῆς as in 1Jn_3:11; the ὀφείλειν 1Jn_2:6; 1Jn_3:16; and both times after the example of Christ; respectively disclosing our relation to death and life here (1Jn_3:14-15) and to light and darkness there (1Jn_2:9-11). But this section draws more on life (Cain and Abel 1Jn_3:12, poverty and benevolence 1Jn_3:17-18) and reaches more into life.
Πᾶς ὁ ποιῶν δικαιοσύνην refers back to 1Jn_2:29; 1Jn_3:7, but the omission of the Article renders the idea more general and indicates the leading thought with the self-evident reference to God and Christ. Thus ἐκ τοῦ θεοῦ εἶναι denotes here both to be born of God and to be the child of God. Καὶ before ὁ μὴ ἀγαπῶν τὸν ἀδελφὸν αὐτοῦ is epexegetical, and explains δικαιοσύνη as ἀγάπη; hence it is neither=proinde (Episcopius) nor adds a new particular, something different (Rickli, Socinus, who defines ἀγάπη as Christian virtue excelling Jewish legality); nor is ἀγάπη a part or moment of δικαιοσύνη (Bengel, Spener, Neander, Gerlach), but its “substance and nature” (Huther,41 also Düsterdieck). Cf. Rom_13:8-10; Gal_5:14; Col_3:14; 1Ti_1:5; Joh_13:34 sq.; Joh_14:15; Joh_15:12; Joh_15:17. “Brotherly love is the sum-total of all right-doing” (Besser), love is the fulfilling of the law. Ἀλλήλους, in the Johannean passages like ἀδελφὸν αὐτοῦ here, denotes brotherly love, the love which Christians have for one another; so also in the corresponding sections 1Jn_2:9-11; 1Jn_4:20-21. Ἀδελφὸς is consequently not=πλησίον Luk_10:36 (Ebrard, who sees here a contradiction to Mat_5:44; 1Co_4:12, but without sufficient reason; Rickli and others).
The commandment of Christ, 1Jn_3:11.
1Jn_3:11. Because this is the message which ye have heard from the beginning, that we should love one another.—He that loves the brother must be (out) of God, and brotherly love is the deed of righteousness, because the commandment is from Him. Ἀγγελία is here=ἐντολὴ 1Jn_2:7. Bengel’s remark is only half true: “liberalissima appellatio, nunquam legem appellat;” ἐντολὴ occurs often, but νόμος never. But the message implies the commandment as indicated by ἵνα. The reading ἐπαγγελία, promise, cannot be sustained without a forced interpretation: it is the goodness, power and grace of God that we should love one another. The commandment of brotherly love has been given from the beginning, since the Gospel has been preached, since you have been Christians; it is and remains indissolubly united with the Gospel and Christianity; ἠκούσατε ἀπ̓ ἀρχῆς applies to the first and to all Christians. Ἵνα denotes the purpose, the work to be done and not only the substance or contents of the ἀγγελία (Huther), for the reference is not only to the substance of a commandment, but to a commandment specified by means of the message, which lies in the message given as a task, a work to be done.
The opposite in Cain. 1Jn_3:12-13.
1Jn_3:12. Not, as Cain was of the wicked one and slew his brother.—The sentence is imperfect like Joh_6:58, and is a breviloquentia, of frequent and diversified occurrence in the classics; cf. Winer, p. 646, who cites in a note a parallel sentence from Demosthenes (Mid. p. 415). The comparison is left incomplete, as in animated conversation when there is no room for misunderstanding; there is nothing to be supplied; the reader or hearer knows from the context what is meant. In the present case: Not, as Cain was of the wicked one and slew his brother, (shall it or may it be so with us). [See note 5 in Apparat. Crit.—M.]. Hence it is neither an independent exclamation (Sander); nor need we supply ὦμεν ἐκ τοῦ πονηροῦ (Grotius, Lücke), nor ὃς (Beza, Socinus), nor sitis or the like.—Ἐκ τοῦ πονηροῦ refers back to 1Jn_3:8 as contrasted with ἐκ τοῦ θεοῦ 1Jn_3:10 b. Hence the reference is to the wicked one. The sentence specifies the reason of that action, even as 1Jn_3:8. ποιεῖν τὴν ἁμαρτίαν and ὁ διάβολος ἁμαρτάνελ are correlates. [The wild notion of the Rabbis concerning the diabolical nature of Cain may be interesting to the student (Zohar in Genes, Gen_4:1): “Rabbi Eeazar dixit: Cum projecisset serpens ille immunditiem suam in Evam, eaque illam suscepisset, remque cum Adam habuisset, peperit duos filios, unum ex latere illo immundo et unum ex latere Adami; fuitque Cain similis imagine superiorum h. e. angelorum et Abel imagine inferiorum h. e. hominum, ac propterea diversæ fue-runt viæ istius ab illius viis. Equidem Cain fuit filius spiritus immundi, qui est serpens malus; Abel vero fuit filius Adami; et propterea quod venit de parte angeli mortis, ideo interfecit fratrem suum.”--M.]. The verb σφάζειν denotes cultro jugulum aperire ut sanguis effluat, then to kill, in sacrifice, as the martyrs were slain by the ungodly. Rev_5:6; Rev_6:4; Rev_6:9; Rev_18:24. Hence the word does not warrant the inference that the knife was the instrument of the murder (Piscator), but rather denotes that the death of Abel was martyrdom inflicted by an ungodly hand, or finely intimates that Cain, in his hatred, offered a sacrifice to his God, the devil. The next clause, at all events gives prominence to the diabolical character of Cain’s deed, the eager question “And wherefore slew he him?” being promptly answered thus: “Because his works were wicked, but his brother’s righteous. Τὰ ἕργα αὐτοῦ πονηρὰ ἧν answers to ἐκ τοῦ πονηροῦ ἦν, and denotes Cain’s whole manner of life” (Spener), of which the murder of his brother was one form of expression, his whole manner of life as well as this specific exhibition of it being identical as to cause and origin—namely the devil. For if the wicked one had not influenced Cain’s whole manner of life and if that had not been wholly wicked, he would not and could not have committed this specific act of fratricide. The term πονηρὸς, as distinguished from κακός is very significant. πονηρὸς, from πονεῖν or πόνος, denotes toil or hardship (and is opposed to χρηστός, good, honest, useful, friendly, serviceable) and then malignity, malignus; κακός, bad, malus, is the opposite of ἀγαθός, good and valuable. Rev_16:2; Sir_31:4; Mat_7:11; Mat_12:35; Mat_5:11; Luk_12:35; 3Jn_1:10. The inwardly evil nature is κακόν, that which is inimical, hurtful and displeasing to others is πονηρόν. Ὁ πονηρὸς is the most suitable term to describe the nature of Satan, the enemy of God, His kingdom and His people, as well as the works of the devil’s children. The additional clause τὰ δὲ τοῦ ἀδελφοῦ αὐτοῦ δίκαια the context requires us to refer to ἐκ τοῦ θεοῦ εἶναι, as pointing out that the piety and the walk of the children of God exactly answering to the law of God are loathsome to the anti-divine world. That devilishness continues still Joh_3:19; Joh_7:7; Joh_17:14. Hence the monition:
1Jn_3:13. Marvel not, brethren, if the world hateth you.—The same idea is already expressed in 1Jn_3:1 (διὰ τοῦτο) Cain is the type of the; κόσμος 1Jn_2:15-17). “Magis esset mirabile, si diligerent eos.” (Didymus). The address ἀδελφοὶ in this connection exerts a beneficial influence: John expresses his love of those whom the world hates and this expression contains a ground of their rejoicing and conveys to them the sweet consolation of the fellowship of love. The particle εἰ is and remains=if; if it had been the Apostle’s object to describe the hatred of the world as actually present, he might have used ὅτι; but he signifies by εἰ that the readers collectively or individuals at the time being, will not in the end have to endure hatred; but the Indicative μισεῖ denotes that the case will doubtless arise. So Mar_15:44 (Vulgate falsely: si jam odisset); Act_26:8; Winer, Grammar p. 307; Kühner, 2:480 sq. Hence Sander, who makes εἰ=ὅτι, S. Schmidt who makes it=etiamsi, and Ebrard who explains=if ever the case occurs, are in the wrong, for the reference is to a necessary condition. [“Εἰ denotes neither a doubt nor only a possibility, for it is not only possible but from the nature of the case necessary, that the world hates the children of God; only the form of the sentence is hypothetical, not the thought it expresses. Cf. Joh_15:18.” Huther.—M.].
Amplification of the Antitheses: Love and Life, Hatred and Death; 1Jn_3:14-15.
1Jn_3:14. We Know.—In ἡμεῖς John includes himself among those he had just called ἀδελφοὶ and expresses their confident assurance, the world and its hatred notwithstanding, which is and ought to be a source of strength and consolation. The object affirmed in the sequel shows that the reference is to the experience of believers, of the children of God, and not to the Apostles only, (Lyra) or that it is only the conclusion drawn on the ground of a good conscience, (Estius).
That we have passed over out of Death into Life.—The Prefect μεταβεβήκαμεν signifies an action of the past or the past of an action still continuing in the present, in the condition that has been effected: we are those who have passed over, Winer, Grammar, p. 288, 299. The Perfect must not be taken per enallagen, for the Future (Schlichting) or the Present (Didymus, Oecumenius), or the verb must not be construed =jus or spem habere ad vitam (Grotius, Carpzov). Cf. Joh_5:24 : ὁ πιστεύων—μετεβέβηκεν ἐκ τοῦ θανάτου εἰς τὴν ζωὴν. Of course ἐκ τοῦ θανάτου εἰς τὴν ζωὴν cannot be taken physically but spiritually, but it must be taken as a real fact; it is=γεγεννῆσθαι ἐκ τοῦ θεοῦ, 1Jn_2:29 : for ἡ ζωὴ is the real life, divine, eternal life (1Jn_1:1-2; 1Jn_2:17; 1Jn_2:25),=the φῶς and the ἀλήθεια (1Jn_1:5; 1Jn_2:21-22) of which the children of God are partakers; the θάνατος is the opposite of this life,=the σκοτία and the ψεῦδος, all of which belong to the ἐκ τοῦ διαβόλου. The Apostle, therefore, does not speak of a sentiment (Paulus) or caligo, infelicitas moralis (Semler), but of relations and conditions, of regeneration, of the new life of the reconciled child of God. This implies that those who have, not yet passed over, are still or will be ἐν τῷ θανάτῳ before this transition into life in Christ; hence there is not the faintest colour for the assertion of Hilgenfeld, that the Apostle did share the gnostic view of the original metaphysical difference of men.
Because we love the brethren.—From this conduct we may know that relation, from these acts of brotherly love that state of adoption by God. Hence the former is the first and this the second and it is false to consider brotherly love as the cause of regeneration or even as a part of justification in order to complete it, and as conditio gratiose a Deo requisita, as do the R. Catholics (Estius, Lyra) and the Pelagians (Episcopius). Brotherly love is only the condition of the certainty of the knowledge that we are justified and the children of God, and not the condition of this new life itself. [ζωή and ἀγάπη are really one and the same thing with this difference that ζωή is the state and ἀγάπη the activity of the believer; from this blissful, eternal life groweth love, and love in its turn worketh happiness and eternal life; hence the Apostle adds—(Huther)—M].
He that loveth not, abideth in death.—As usual (1Jn_1:8, sqq., 1Jn_2:22, sqq.), the negative is added in a concise, pregnant form. [See note 11 in Appar. Critic.—M]. The statement is quite general “he that loveth not,” without specifying the object, viz. the brother. The force of the Present μένει should be retained. To be in death is connected, as something permanent, with not loving. They are one in the other, yet not so that the not loving is the cause of the abiding in death, but, as is manifest from the context, so that we may know the abiding in death from the not loving. [The two are identical. Besser, “Where hatred is there is death, where love is there is life; yes, love is life itself.”—M.].
1Jn_3:15. Every one that hateth his brother is a man-killer.—Πᾶς denotes the universal application of this thought. Not loving is described as equal to hating one’s brother. [Not to love=to hate.—M.]; “pure indifference is impossible to the living spirit of man” (Huther). Luther rightly observes: Nova sententia coram mundo, quod non diligere sit occidere.” Bengel: “Omne odium est conatus contra vitam; at vita vitam non insectatur; qui odit fratrem, aut ilium autse ipsum vult occidere.” Lyra (odisse pejus quam non diligere.”), Schlichting (“Qui non amat, nec bene vult nec male; qui vero odit, male vult ”); and others are wrong. Not loving is only the state of quiescence exhibited in acts of hatred. According to our Lord’s exposition of the fifth commandment (Mat_5:21-26) he is an ἀνθρωποκτόνος that hateth his brother. “Nam quem odimus, vellemus periisse” (Calvin); hatred is not only a beginning or cause of murder, but a murder in heart, be it a wish, a thought or a purpose or only the passion which afflicts the brother’s life without thinking of his death. “Latro es, antequam inquines manum” (Seneca). Here is evidently a reference to Cain, 1Jn_5:12; the case of Cain shows plainly how hatred of one’s brother and homicide go together. The word ἀνθρωποκτόνος, only here and Joh_8:44, in this place applies to Cain who slew Abel, his brother, in the Gospel to Satan who destroyed, murdered Adam. Notwithstanding this difference, the two passages are connected with each other, the one shedding light on the other. Cf. Lange on Joh_8:44; Vol. IV. p. 244 sq.—The devil, having seduced Eve, and Adam through her to sin, to the transgression of the divine law of which death was the penalty fixed by God.—Sin causing mortality is itself a kind of dying, the fall or falling into death [German: The fall of sin, i.e. the fall, a fall of death.—M], and sin, born of lust, when it is finished, bringeth forth death (Jam_1:15); the first sin was a falling from the life created (out) of God into death threatened as a punishment. Thus Satan became the murderer of Adam and Eve in the strictest sense of the word (Wis_1:11-13; Wis_2:23-24). With the entrance of sin, moreover, there died in Eve the love of her husband whom she had seduced, and in Adam the love of his wife whom he accused to God and on whom he laid the guilt. There hatred and death are again together. In Cain also there was the hatred of his brother united with the murder of his brother, whereby he showed that he was ἐκ τοῦ διαβόλου. Cf. Stier, Reden Jesu, Vol. I 3:414 sqq.
And ye know that no man-killer hath eternal life abiding in him.—This concludes the thought: μὴ ἀγαπῶν τὸν ἀδελφὸν 1Jn_3:10 b led the Apostle to speak of μὴ ἀγαπῶν 1Jn_3:14, then of μισῶν τὸν ἀδελφὸν 1Jn_3:15 and in remembrance of Cain of ἀνθρωποκτόνος; he first said οὐκ ἔστιν ἐκ τοῦ θεοῦ 1Jn_3:10 b μένει ἐν θάνατῳ, but here οὐχ ἕχει ζωὴν αἰώνιον ἐν αὐτῷ μένουσαν. Before he said, he is in death, but now, in him is not eternal life, consequently death is in him. The Apostle denies that he “possesses permanently and fully” (Lücke) eternal life and thus denotes the “permanent state of death” (Düsterdieck) of him that hates and kills his brother. The Present ἄξει has respect to this present life; it is not habebit (a Lapide). Hence ζωὴ αἰώνιος not the future glory (a Lapide, Bede and others). Μένουσαν certainly intimates the existence of eternal life, of baptism, etc., out of or in the word of God by means of Christian instruction and the Christian family-discipline; for the Apostle speaks of and to Christians. But even such gifts of God are consumed by hatred abiding; hence he loses entirely the possession of eternal life, so that nothing thereof abideth in him; μένουσαν is therefore not an intensified to be (Huther), nor must the want of the Article be pressed as if the reference were only to powers of the future world (Ebrard). This the Apostle lays down as an undeniable fact of Christian experience and consciousness (οἴδατε); hence they know it not from the fifth commandment (S. Schmidt) or from the Old Testament with its death-penalty in the case of murderers, spiritually interpreted (Grotius, Lücke).
Description of brotherly love, 1Jn_3:16-18.
1Jn_3:16. Hereby have we known love that He laid down His life for us.—S. Schmidt: “Ne quis vel se ipsum decipiat, vel ab aliis decipiatur, exponendum etiam erit, quæe sit vera et Christiana caritas.” First after the example of Christ. On ἐν τούτῳ cf. on 1Jn_2:3; on ἐκεῖνος, 1Jn_3:3; 1Jn_3:7; 1Jn_2:6; ἐγνώκαμεν = cognitum habemus. Τὴν ἀγάπην should be taken in a general sense without any further qualification: love.—Bengel: “Amoris natura.” In Christ may be known love, the being and nature of love. Hence we must not supply τοῦ Χριστοῦ (Carpzov and others), or τοῦ θεοῦ (Grotius, Calov, Spener, al.); the Vulgate (amorem Dei) constrains the Romanists to do so. Ebrard’s explanation is rather forced: “we have known love as consisting in this,” as if we had ἐν τούτῳ οὖσαν, and this were described in the following ὅτι as the predicate and as if ἐγνώκαμεν had only an introductory and secondary sense. Both the form (the position of the words) and the thought (to give His life = love) render that exposition untenable. The point is that whereby love is known: τὴν ψυχὴν τιθέναι (Joh_15:13; cf. Joh_10:11; cf. Joh_10:15; cf. Joh_10:17-18; Joh_13:37-38)=vitam ponere (Cicero ad Fam. 9:24); this is the highest proof of love; for love imparts her very best, her most precious goods, παραδοῦναι the ψυχή or ἑαυτόν (Gal_2:20; Eph_5:2); this makes Christ the object of the Father’s love (Joh_10:17). The context required here ὑπὲρ ἡμῶν, for our protection; literally over us, who had fallen, were wounded, in danger, of perishing from our wounds or in the hands of enemies, fighting against the enemies, protecting us, becoming our substitute and assuming the fight for us: hence it is not exactly identical with ἀντὶ, and yet the two prepositions touch each other in thought “in indissoluble correlation” (Düsterdieck) cf. 1Jn_2:2.
And we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.—From the act of Christ’s love for us springs a duty towards our brethren, incumbent on us (ὀφείλομεν); the thought is similar to 1Jn_2:3; 1Jn_2:6. The example of Christ must not be without corresponding works on our part (1Jn_3:3; 1Jn_3:7). The essential union of believers to Christ must exhibit itself in the real moulding of their life after the pattern of Christ, in the use of the imparted gifts and the solution of the task assigned to us by the bestowal of that gift. Cf. Joh_13:34; Joh_15:12-13; Joh_21:18-19; Rom_16:3-4.
1Jn_3:17. But whoso has the world’s goods (sustenance of life).
By the adversative δὲ “John denotes the progress from the greater, which is justly insisted upon, to the less, the non-performance of which, therefore, appears as a correspondingly greater violation of the rule just laid down.” (Düsterdieck), Ὅς δ̓ ἂν makes the sentence quite general. The proverb quoted by Grotius: “βίος βίου δεόμενος οὐκ ἔστι βίος” gives the double sense of life, and the necessaries of life, or the means of sustaining life. Cf. Mar_12:44 (Luk_21:4); Luk_8:45; Luk_15:30. Col. 5:12. Beza: “res mundanæ,” “des biens de ce monde.” The Genitive τοῦ κόσμου simply points to the sphere to which the βίος belongs, and, according to 1Jn_2:17, denotes the profane and worthless character of these goods, as contrasted with the eternal love and the eternal life in Christ. Βίος τοῦ κόσμου is the antithesis of ζωὴ αἰώνοις; the Christian shares the latter with Christ, the former with the world. The reference is not to uncommon wealth, but rather to any kind of property (ἕχῃ, emphatically in anteposition), though it be in limited circumstances, a mere mite, or bread and potatoes. He that hath the means to give and
Seeth his brother have need.—θεωρεῖ pictorially describes the attitude and activity of the spectator; it is not a hasty look, but permanent looking on and into it (Mat_27:35; Mar_15:40; Mar_15:47; Mar_12:41; Luk_21:6; Luk_23:35; Joh_2:23; Joh_6:19; Joh_6:62; Joh_7:3; Joh_9:8; Joh_10:12; Joh_14:17; Joh_16:10; Joh_16:16); he has it before him like a picture which he contemplates with calmness and attention, τὸν ἀδελφὸν αὐτοῦ χρείαν ἔχοντα. On the expression and the thought cf. Eph_4:28; Mar_2:25. Act_2:45; Act_4:35; Act_20:34; Act_28:10; Php_4:6. [He beholds the brother’s need with unmoved eye—M.].
And shutteth up his bowels [inwards] from Him.—After the analogy of the Hebrew רַחֲמִים, σπλάγχνα is =καρδία, Pro_12:10 and very often in the New Testament. Bengel: “Cum visceribus clauditur vel aperitur res familiaris. Aspectus miserorum corda spectatorum illico pulsat vel etiam aperit.” The heart ought to open itself in compassion and sympathy and move and open the hand to communicate; but it is under the aggravating circumstances of his having the means and beholding his brother’s need that he shutteth up his heart and turns away from him (ἀπ̓ αὐτοῦ). The same pregnancy of thought occurs at 1Jn_2:28. A similar use of κρύπτειν ἀπὸ may be seen at Luk_19:42; Joh_12:36 b. Hence we need neither supply ἀποστρεφόμενος (Carpzov), nor ἀπὸ̀=coram (Socinus). [This was the case of Dives. He saw Lazarus flung at his gate, Lazarus desiring to be fed with the crumbs which fell from the rich man’s table, but he desired in vain; Dives saw him lie in misery; the dogs had pity and sympathized with the poor man, but Dives, who fared sumptuously every day, looked with unpitying eye on his brother’s distress; he saw in him a beggar, not a brother. See Augustine, Serm. 178, c. 3, and Massillon’s beautiful Lent Sermon on this subject.—M.]—The negative is emphatically expressed with an implied paracletical inference in the interrogative sentence:
How abideth the love of God in him?—A similar construction may be seen 1Jn_4:20; Joh_3:12; Joh_5:47. The substance of the question answers to 1Jn_3:15 : οὐκ ἔχει ζωὴν αἰώνιον ἐν αὐτῷ μένουσαν, where eternal life not abiding and even not being in him is inferred from the non-existence of brotherly love, while here the non-existence of the love of God is inferred from the same premises. Ἀγάπη τοῦ θεοῦ is our love to God and indicates the motion of eternal life to its fountain, as in 1Jn_2:5. This love to God does not abide, where it does not become operative and preserve its vitality in the active exhibition of brotherly love. Hence it is neither God’s love to us (Calov), nor the love prescribed by God (Socinus, Grotius), nor the love which answers to that of God and Christ (S. Schmidt).
Final exhortation, 1Jn_3:18.
1Jn_3:18. Little children, let us not love [German: that we do not love] in word, nor with the tongue, but in deed and in truth.—The affecting address, τέκνια, denotes at once the geniality and zeal of John; his earnestness is brought out in the rapid, hortatory, all-embracing expression: μὴ ἀγαπῶμεν. The four substantives occur in pairs and as correlates. First: λόγῳ and τῇ γλώσσῃ to describe false love; then: ἐν τῷ ἔργῳ and (ἐν) ἀληθείᾳ. It is important to note that the first pair in the Dative indicates only the means by which love is or becomes operative, while the preposition ἐν which by the copula καὶ belongs also to ἀληθείᾳ denotes the element wherein it moves (Joh_4:24). The first pair simply denotes the outwardness of a love which only makes use of words and the tongue, while the contrast indicates that it is destitute of deed and truth, that it is of real activity and inward heartiness which are the characteristics of true love. The Apostle accordingly annexes to λόγος, the word, which possibly might announce or accompany the deed, the emphatic μηδὲ τῇ γλώσσῃ, the Article serving the purpose “of rendering the expression more conspicuous” (Lücke); the tongue, “as the member appointed to utter the word” (Huther); so that love is not simply the word which might flow from the heart and be the instrument of its application, but stops with the tongue, the means and sole instrument of the word which does not proceed from the heart. Therefore λόγῳ is contrasted with ἐν ἔργῳ and τῇ γλώσσῃ with ἐν ἀληθείᾳ—Ἔργον and λόγος frequently connected together, as in Luk_24:19; Act_7:22; sometimes λόγος and δύναμις (1Co_4:19-20), or λόγος and δύναμις καὶ πνεῦμα ἅγιον καὶ πληροφορία (1Th_1:5) are placed in opposition. Bengel: “Sermone otioso, lingua simulante.” Lyra says excellently: “Verbo, facto nihil; lingua fallaci; hic amor non solum, fictitius et nanus, sed etidm proditorius.” Τῇ γλώσσῃ denotes “the hollow nothingness,” “the purely outward babble which without inward truth produces only a hypocritical show” (Düsterdieck). Hence we need not supply μόνον to λόγῳ (Bede, Socinus, Sander and others); and Grotius is also wrong who chiastically [i e. crosswise—M.] opposes: λόγῳ and ἀληθεία, γλώσσῃ ἔργῳ, thus: “Verbo amat qui prædicat a se diligi proximum, non autem vere diligit; lingua diligit qui egenti dat bona verba.” Nor is Huther right, who takes τῇ γλώσσῃ and ἀληθείᾳ as epexegetical additions without introducing a difference to λόγῳ and ἕργῳ respectively, as if the two words of each member expressed only one idea [He says, to express the idea mathematically, that λόγῳ: γλώσσῃ=ἐν ἕργῳ: (ἐν) ἀληθείᾳ.—M. Compare ἀγαπᾷν ἐν ἀληθείᾳ 2Jn_1:1; 3Jn_1:1, and Jam_2:15-16.
DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL
1. All the doings (ποιεῖν τὴν δικαιοσύνην 1Jn_3:10 b, ἔργα δίκαια and ἔργα πονηρὰ 1Jn_3:12) and all the dispositions (ἀγαπῶν 1Jn_3:10 b and 1Jn_3:14, ὁ μισῶν 1Jn_3:15) of men points to a deeper ground, a fellowship with God or with Satan which is not discernible per se, neither to others nor to the respective persons themselves, but discernible by their disposition and doing.
2. The grossest transgression, e.g. the fratricide of Cain, is never alone, but exhibits itself as one of many, as one of a greater complex of manifold transgressions and plainly indicates, that matters must be bad in other respects, because otherwise this would not have happened (1Jn_3:12).
3. Like attracts like, unlike repels unlike: love and antipathy are reciprocal. The Christian need not be surprised that the world from which he has separated himself, has turned away and remains alienated from him, dislikes and hates him; it is just so with himself, with this difference, that the world hates to persecute and destroy, whereas the Christian strives to improve and to overcome.
4. Before it can be said: μεταβεβήκαμεν ἐκ τοῦ θανάτου (1Jn_3:14), we are ἐν τῷ θανάτῳ, ἐκ τοῦ πονηροῦ. Consequently:
1. Before such a stepping forth has taken place and without it, no one is a child of God.
2. Such stepping forth is indispensable in the case of any and every one who desires to become a child of God.
3. It is possible to all who are called to become the children of God.
4. The children of God and the children of the world are perfectly alike in kind and nature before the difference connected with such transition sets in.
5. Consider that those who are not yet brethren, may and shall become brethren as well as thou.—Indeed, it is not said here how it comes to pass, but it is plainly stated and may be seen at Joh_5:24, a passage to which the Apostle unmistakably refers here, and from which may be inferred what is said here and well expressed by Scholiast II.: τὸν λόγον αὐτοῦ δεξάμενοι, of course ἐν πίστει. But we must not by any means say with the Roman Catholics that although faith produces the beginning of our justification before God, yet the love to God and to our neighbour increases the same. This love is simply the sign and mark of recognition that our justification has taken place, that we are justified. Augustine accordingly says very correctly: “Redeat unus quisque ad cor suum; si ibi invenerit caritatem fraternam, securus sit—jam in dextera est.”
5. The principle affirmed at 1Jn_3:16 as a duty (ὁφείλομεν) with reference to the example of Christ that we also should lay down our lives, is a general one. We must not regard it with the Roman Catholics as a counsel (consilium), but view and observe it with Evangelical Christians as a precept (præceptum). It applies not only to priests or saints, but to all Christians: “Ministri verbi non debent fugere in periculo pestis” (Luther); neither physicians in case of a pestilence, nor parents and brothers and sisters, nor the government in seasons of insurrection, nor soldiers in war, in the fight, before a battle, nor a mother when she has to nurse her child, nor a man when duty calls. This saying, moreover, must not be treated casuistically after the manner of Socinus, who thinks a Christian ought to die for a non-Christian if thereby his soul may be saved, or if the preservation of a brother is more necessary to the common weal than his own; or after that of Ammon (Sittenlehre 3, 24 sq.) be set aside, who thinks it right that in common danger of shipwreck, fire or self-defence, men are justified to kill others if they cannot save their own life in any other way. Düsterdieck rightly observes: “Concrete directions respecting the practical application of the principle can only be given in the connection of a complete system of Ethics in which especially the duties of Christian self-preservation and the virtues of Christian prudence and simplicity as well as those of Christian self-denial and Christian courage must be exhibited not as limitations, but as sacred ordinances of the fully valid evangelical principle as described by St. John.” As St. Paul says 1Co_3:22 : πάντα ὑμῶν ἐστιν—εἴτε ζωὴ εἴτε θάνατος and at Php_1:21 calls: τὸ ἀποθανεῖν κέρδος, so the giving up of one’s own life in the calling and for the love of Christ is an άποθανεῖν τῷ κυρίῳ (Rom_14:8). Cf. Mat_10:39; Mat_16:25.—
6. The duty of beneficence is universal; it relates as much to the rich as to the poor; it is immaterial whether a man has much or little of the βίος τοῦ κόσμου. The having much or little determines the giving with or without self-denial, with or without deprivation, consequently the giving with ease or with difficulty. But nothing is said here on that head or on the situation of the necessitous, his greater or lesser need, which may be very extraordinary; nor is any thing said of the worthiness or unworthiness of the necessitous. But the remark of Luther has a very important bearing on the care of our parochial poor; he says: “Vult nos de nostro largiri; non de alieno aut communi, sicut stulti Anabaptistæ faciunt, qui tollunt proprietatem rerum, sine qua non possunt respublicæ consistere.” Private charity, even personal charity, is here distinctly referred to. In this connection it must be supposed as ranged under the fifth commandment.—Its opposite is Stoicism which includes also compassion among the passions to be left off: σοὶ μὴ ὀργὴν εἶναι, μὴ μῆνιν, μὴ φθόνον, μὴ ἔλεον.
7. We must not think lightly of the word and its instrument, the tongue. But as the mouth-work of hypocrisy is hateful to the Lord (Mat_6:5), so the mouth-work of brotherly love is equally hateful to John, since neither the word nor the tongue is in the service of the love of the heart and speaks or is spoken separate from the heart and contrary to the life in the heart. The friendly utterance of the mouth must and ought to be in the case of Christians the friendly utterance of the heart. Otherwise it is only a μόρφωσις τῆς εὐσεβείας without the δύναμις (2Ti_3:5). For the contrary see, Mat_12:34-35; Rom_10:8-10.
8. These concrete particulars of the laying down of our lives, of communicating the sustenance of life and of the love to our brother in deed and in truth plainly and pathetically indicate that regeneration and adoption by God, (1Jn_2:29) if it is a reality, penetrates, as the central life-power the whole periphery of life, so that we read not only of a εὐσέβεια but of εὐσέβειαι, 2Pe_3:11 and even of the θεοσέβεια δἰ ἔργων ἀγαθῶν (1Ti_2:10). For the diversity of good works induced by the faith of the heart makes it evident to others that the Christian sonship is not a show, but power and truth; his conduct towards the brethren reveals his relation to God the Father and this relation produces such conduct.
[The Apostle’s declaration that every one that hateth his brother is a murderer or man-killer embodies the well known ethical principle that the moral quality of an action does not belong to the outward act, nor to the conception of it, nor to the resolution to carry it into effect, but to the intention. Hatred in St. John’s view, is murder committed in intention, and he that cherishes hatred towards his brother stands convicted of murder before God and at the bar of his own conscience.—M.]
HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL
The twofold piety of a child of God; 1. Obedience to the Father; 2. Love of the brethren.—Like the elder brother thou mightest stay with the Father and work in His field, be envious of and take offence at the friendly reception accorded to the younger son by the Father in the parable of the prodigal (Luke 16). Cain was the elder brother. This applies primarily to the servants of the Church but it applies also to many others. Cain did not hate Abel because of his herds, for he had his fair fields; or because of his parent’s love, for he was his mother’s pride; or because of personal beauty or any outward, temporal good; but he hated him because of his piety, on account of the favour he found before God.—Cain [קיִן a lance a spear, a weapon.—M.], called by Eve in feminine rashness her weapon, and in maternal vanity favoured and spoiled by her, made his offering of anything he found without any particular discrimination as to its quality, while Abel, disregarded and neglected, carefully selected the best of the best and presented it as an offering to his God.—Thou art able to take the life of thy brother’s body but in doing so thou forfeitest thy own immortal life; thou becomest a man-killer in respect of thy brother’s body, but in respect of thyself, a suicide, even a suicide of thy soul; depriving thy brother of his bodily, earthly life, thou deprivest thyself of thy spiritual, eternal life.—Three difficult questions: 1. Canst thou hate those whom God loves? 2. Darest thou shorten or waste the term of grace which God accords? 3. Wilt thou cast from thee the gift of God in thee, eternal life?—Threefold exhibition of brotherly love: 1. Laying down one’s life for the brethren at duty’s call. 2. Communication of one’s possessions to the needy brethren. 3. Friendly and sincere readiness to oblige and aid the brethren.—Three things thou hast for the benefit of others: Body and life, goods and property, hand and heart.
Epistle to Diognetus [cap. 6]:—As the soul is in the body, so are Christians in the world. The soul dwells in the body but is not of the body; so Christians also dwell in the world, but are not of the world. The invisible soul is, as it were, keeping guard in the visible body; this is the mark of Christians as long as they remain in the world: their piety is invisible. The flesh hates and wars against the soul, which (the soul) is, however, by no means wronged [ἀδικομμένη=affecta injuria.—M.] by it because it (the soul) forbids the indulgence of the lusts of the flesh; so the world hates the Christians, although they by no means wrong it but only resist the lusts of the world. The soul loves the flesh and the members which hate it; so also Christians love their enemies. [Cf. Mat_5:44.—M.]
Basilius:—Because the devil’s hatred cannot reach God, he seeks to hurt and destroy man, the image of God.
Augustine:—The Christian lives, but, as it were, in winter; the root is alive but the boughs look dry; the living pith and marrow is within, and within are hidden the leaves and the fruits—but they wait for summer.
Ambrose:—“Nemo dicat proprium, quod commune est; esurientium panis est, quem tu detines; nudorum indumentum est, quod tu recludis.”
Luther:—The world is a den of murderers, subject to the devil. Would we live on earth we ought to be satisfied with being guests therein and putting up at an inn whose host is a roguish host, whose house bears the sign and title over the door: “Murder and lie.” For Christ Himself did affix such a sign and title to his house right over the door by saying that He is a murderer and a liar. A murderer to destroy the body; a liar to seduce the soul.
Starke:—Because God is Love and loves those who are born of Him, therefore love of the brethren is also the mark of the regenerate.—Art thou tempted with the thought that thou art without the grace of God, without the adoption, without salvation: be of good courage! If thou really and heartily lovest the godly, yea even the wicked and thy foes, thou mayest be quite sure that all these blessings are thy own.—Good Christian, whenever thou readest and hearest some portion of Divine truth, consider well the purpose of God in announcing it and shape thy course accordingly.—Contrary dispositions are not uncommon among actual brothers; the one may be good, the other bad, the one may be saved, the other damned.—The power of Satan over those children is so great that he changes even natural love into hatred.—Mad features of the ungodly! they cannot bear that the works of others are good—why? What is it that envy will not do? They also do not like it because it puts them to shame and sometimes becomes the means of their punishment.—Happy state of believers as contrasted with that of unbelievers! The former truly live, the latter are dead though their body is alive. We mourn for the dead—how much more ought we to mourn for the ungodly, for they are spiritually dead, before they die, and if they die, they fall into eternal death.—God has not only connected the hand but also the mouth and the heart with the fifth commandment.—Hatred is not a trifling sin of infirmity compatible with a man’s continuing in a state of grace, but so great a sin as to entail the loss of eternal life, which is irrecoverably lost while hatred lasts. He that hates is a double murderer, he wants to hurt others and deprives himself of eternal life.—To have had life does not render us blessed; but he is blessed with whom eternal life abides.—It is one thing to have this world’s goods and another to covet them: the one is the blessing of God, the other covetousness.—Poverty is no disgrace: a man may be poor and yet be the child of God, the brother of Christ and of good Christians.—Doing good to the poor is not only incumbent upon the rich, possessed of great abundance, but to every one who has this world’s goods and is able to communicate; even as every one has to work, also for this purpose, that he may have something to give to the poor.—Love is blind in not having respect to the person of the poor, whether it be known or unknown, strange or native; but it is not blind in taking cognizance of the need it is to relieve.—Do not always wait for a poor brother’s application, begging, supplication and appeal to thy love; many are ashamed to disclose their need; but if thou knowest thy brother’s case, show pity unasked and joyfully.—If unable to do anything else, thou canst love with the tongue by words of good counsel and consolation; but see that thy heart be with thy tongue.—The greatness of a benefaction does not determine its worth before God, nor does its smallness lessen it; a great benefaction without sincere love is small, even nothing before God; but a small benefaction prompted by sincere and hearty love is great in God’s sight.
Neander: As Cain hated and slew Abel in consequence of the contrast between a godly and an ungodly disposition, so the world hates and slays the children of God in consequence of the same contrariety of disposition. Hence the world and the children of God are ever at war like love and selfishness. Hence Christians need not be surprised, if the world hates them. This is to them the stamp of the divine life, the possession of which renders them the opposite of the world.
Heubner. Being without love makes men like Cain, whose kind is not extinct. The mind of Cain is to destroy the hated children of God;
literary murder also belongs to this head. As to its secret, inmost tendency, all hatred aims at murder.—The duplicity of mankind was prefigured in the case of Cain and Abel; this dichotomy runs through the whole Bible. Cain is the prototype of the evil and unloving, Abel the prototype of Christ.—A Christian Nil admirari, Psalms 37. Hatred and enmity is that which disquiets, vexes, excites and disconcerts the natural man most. But the Christian is bidden not even to be surprised at it! He knows the world, is aware of what he has to expect of it, he is at peace with God, lives a life of introversion, is so well rooted and grounded in God, so abundantly satisfied with the grace of God, that the world’s hatred does not disturb him. God is his fortress: but he must not leave that fortress.—Where the hatred of the world has not yet fully developed, there is most surely a want of decided Christianity.—Love displays its most glorious beauty under the world’s hatred. The Christian loves while the world has no idea of the existence of his love.—Formerly this world was extra-Christian, but now there is a world on the soil of the Christian Church. Is it offensive, hostile, presumptuous to speak of this difference? then it is the fault of the Bible, of Jesus Christ. We ought to hold up a mirror to all: you are either this or that. But it would be presumption to refer individuals to the class to which they belong, for this is the prerogative of God.—Death is the state of insensibility and impotence with respect to whatever is good and godly, the conscience is blunted and without receptivity, the heart is dead without any emotion, or interest in religion. Life is activity, emotion, a sense for, an impulse to and ability for the holy, a work after the will of God, a state of holiness, of a walk well-pleasing to God. Brotherly love is mentioned as a criterion, as a test of life.—Think of hatred as the root and beginning of murder. Often a bitter grief is to others more deadly and vitally injurious than a gross bodily injury.—Distinguish between that which passes with men and that which passes with God.—Never make room for secret anger: or life, the Holy Ghost will depart from thee.—The unloving thinks more highly of lifeless, worthless metal than of the living man created in the image of God.—What can you accomplish with the metal? Refresh the weary, comfort their hearts and dry their tears! Then you transmute stones into bread, earthly treasures into heavenly.—The word is only the shadow of the deed and by no means an equivalent of love or gratitude. (Themistius).
Besser:—Where hatred is, there is death: where love is, there is life; yea, love itself is the life.—Thus Luther showed that he was willing to lay down his life for the brethren when in the year 1527 he stayed at Wittenberg with those who were stricken with the plague. So the ancient historian Eusebius narrates how a pestilence at Alexandria brought out the difference between the Christians and the pagans. So Hans Egede laid down his life when for the sake of the poor Greenlanders he exchanged his comfortable parish for hunger and cold, for unspeakable toil and sufferings; and the coast of Africa, also, lined with grave-hills with the seed of the negroes proclaims the love which is stronger than death. Would that it might be said of the Christians of our time what Tacitus said of the Christians, viz.: that they are as inflexible concerning their faith, as they are ready in the exhibition of mercy.—How can he live on God’s compassionating love in whom no compassionating love does live?
On the Epistle for the second Sunday after Trinity, 1Jn_3:15-18.
Heubner, during the siege of Wittenberg, in 1813, preached on the hatred of the world to which Christians are exposed, and said, notwithstanding the presence of the French garrison, when he came to speak of deserved hatred: the hatred is deserved, which visits the tyrant who sacrifices thousands and the welfare of thousands to his lust of rule.
The Christian under the hatred of the world.
1. How dignified is his demeanour in bearing it a. with calmness, composure and patience (1Jn_3:13); b. with the consciousness of his innocence, his love, as known to God (1Jn_3:14); c. with the hope of being one day justified (1Jn_3:2); 2. how holily he uses it: a. as a warning against all the motions of hatred (1Jn_3:15); b. as a challenge to become more like Christ in love (1Jn_3:16); c. as an instrument to reconcile the world to himself by love (1Jn_3:17-18).
Motives of comfort for Christians under the world’s hatred. 1. (1Jn_3:13). They are unknown and misunderstood; 2. (1Jn_3:14); they become conscious of their life; 3. (1Jn_3:15); they are encouraged to fight against all unlovingness; 4. (1Jn_3:16); they resemble Christ; 5. (1Jn_3:17); become more and more assured of the love of God; 6. (1Jn_3:18); they hope to gain their enemies over.
The mind of the Christian and of the world opposed to each other in love and hatred. 1. To hate is natural to the world, to love to the Christian (1Jn_3:13-14); 2. Hatred destroys, love sacrifices the life (1Jn_3:15-16); 3. The world shuts up, the Christian opens the heart (1Jn_3:18).
Whither do we come if the spirit of love leaves us? 1. Answer: we come from the fellowship of the saints to the fellowship of the world (1Jn_3:13), from the life of God to spiritual death (1Jn_3:14), to vice and shame (1Jn_3:15), to forfeiting our salvation and the fruits of the death of Christ (1Jn_3:16).—2. Application: learn the worth of true love (1Jn_3:16), fight against every motion of unlovingness (1Jn_3:17), practise love in deed and in truth (1Jn_3:18).
The strong warnings given to Christians against an unloving mind.—Love appears most beautiful under the world’s hatred.—Love, a sign of life.—It is only by love that a Christian can know whether he is a child of God or regenerate. 1. The truth. 2. The laying to heart being reminded of this truth.
F. A. Wolf:—The Apostolical refutation of the principal errors prevailing on the subject of Christian love: 1. The fate of love, 2. The reign of love, 3. The value of love, 4. The origin of love.
Caspari:—Of the nature of true love: 1. Its consolation, 2. Its powers, 3. Its purity.
Kapff:—How necessary true brotherly love Isaiah , 1. As a test of our spiritual life; 2. As a condition (?) of eternal life.—The Law and the Testimony: Of Brotherly Love. I. Motives. 1. The contrast of Cain; 2. Marks of discipleship and regeneration; 3. The passing away and perdition of the hater. II. Marks. 1. Laying down one’s life; 2. Communication of one’s goods; 3. Love in deed.
The true life in love and certain death in hatred: 1. The ground, fruit and nature of the true life; 2. Certain death in hatred of the brethren, as to ground and nature.
Brotherly love. 1. Who are our brethren? 2. How do we love the brethren? 3. What moves us to such love?
How operative is the love which flows from the living knowledge of the sacrificing love of Christ! 1. It takes us from death to life; beloved of God in Christ, we love. 2. It alone is able to bear the hatred of the world without ceasing to love (Mat_5:39-42). 3. It is not only love in words and with the tongue, but in deed and in truth.
We know that we are born of God, for, 1. The world hates us; 2. We love the brethren; 3. We hate hatred, but not the hater; 4. We lay down our life for the brethren.
A heart-test of what spirit we are (Luk_9:55-56; Jer_8:6). 1. For the satisfaction of the righteous who in their love grieve over the world’s hatred; 2. For the terror of the ungodly who hate their neighbour without fear or anxiety; 3. for the awakening of the hypocrites who love their neighbour only in appearance.—Questions of Confession.
[Ignatius:—(ad Smyrm, 6.): “Observe those who are heterodox with regard to the grace of Christ, how contrary they are to the mind of God. They have no regard for love,—περὶ ἀγάπης οὐ μέλει αὐτοῖς—they do not care for the widow, or the orphan, or the hungry or the thirsty.”—M.].
[Wordsworth: (on 1Jn_3:16).—“And we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren;” a remarkable saying on the duty of Christian martyrdom. It was probably suggested by the seductive tenets of the false teachers (αἱ πλανῶντες mentioned 1Jn_2:26; 1Jn_3:7), who courted popularity in times of persecution; by alleging that provided a man had knowledge of the doctrines of Christianity as delivered by them, and adopted their theories, it was not necessary for him to expose himself to any danger in the maintenance of the faith, much less to endure martyrdom and to lay down his life for the brethren: but that he might freely associate with the heathen in their worship, and eat things offered to idols. This was particularly the doctrine of the Simonians (Origen c. Cels. VI. p. 282; Euseb. II. 13), and of the Nicolaitans (Rev_2:15. Irenæus I. 23) and of the Cerinthians (Philastr. hær. c. 36).—Tertullian wrote his book called Scorpiace against these notions and he refers to this passage in proof of the duty of martyrdom, c. 12.—M.].
[Macknight: (1Jn_3:14-15):—According to the Apostle in this place, the surest mark, by which we can know our actual state, is to consider whether we possess that characteristic disposition towards our brethren, which the Christian religion enjoins. The high encomiums, passed in this and the following verse on love to mankind, are not to be so understood, as if no virtue but benevolence were necessary to complete the Christian character. The virtues have all such a connection with each other, that they cannot subsist separately. And therefore, if one really loves his brethren, he will not only be charitable to the poor, but he will be just in his dealings, true to his promises, faithful in all the trusts committed unto him. In short, he will carefully abstain from injuring his neighbour in any respect, and will perform every duty he owes to him, from a sincere principle of piety towards God, whereby his whole conduct will be rendered uniformly virtuous.—M.].
[Secker:—If we do a person no harm, yet if we wish him harm, St. John has here determined the case, “Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer.” For indeed, hatred not only leads to murder, and too often, when indulged, produces it unexpectedly; but it is always, though perhaps for the most part in a lower degree, the very spirit of murder in the heart; and it is by our hearts that God will judge us.—M.].
[Clarke: (on 1Jn_3:15).—This text has been quoted to prove, that no murderer can be saved. This is not said in the text; and there have been many instances of persons who have been guilty of murder, having had deep and genuine repentance; and who, doubtless, found mercy from His hands who prayed for His murderers, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” It is, however, an awful text for the consideration of those who shed human blood on frivolous pretences; or in those wars which have their origin in the worst passions of the human heart.
(On 1Jn_3:17).—Here is a test of this love: if we do not divide our bread with the hungry, we certainly would not lay down our life for him. Whatever love we may pretend to mankind, if we are not charitable and benevolent, we give the lie to our profession. If we have not bowels of compassion, we have not the love of God in us: if we shut up our bowels against the poor, we shut Christ out of our hearts and ourselves out of heaven.
(On 1Jn_3:18). There is a good saying in Yalcut Rubeni, p. 145, 4. on this point: “If love consisted in word only, then love ceaseth as soon as the word is pronounced. Such was the love between Balak and Balaam. But, if love consists not in word, it cannot be dissolved; such was the love of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and the jest of the patriarchs which were before them.”—M.].
[Trower: (on 1Jn_3:17).—“What a picture is here brought before us, of a Christian possessed of this world’s good, and seeing his brother have need; yet turning away his eyes, and hardening his heart against the claims of charity, shutting up his bowels of compassion from him! How unlike Him who, though He was rich, yet for our sake became poor, that we through His poverty might be rich. May we learn more and more that whatever share we enjoy of “this world’s good,” is intrusted to us as stewards for God; and that all pretence of possessing Christian love is vain, unless we minister freely to the necessities of our brethren what we have so freely received. Hereby alone can we know that we are of the truth, and can assure our hearts before Him.”—M.].
[Stanhope:—The good we would do, but cannot, shall be rewarded; and the evil, which we are disposed to do, though not actually done, shall be punished. Hence, if a man keep malice, though but in his heart, if he wish or rejoice at the misery or harm of his brother, this man is, in the eye of God, and of the Gospel dispensation, a murderer.—If some sudden change befalls my neighbour’s fortunes, the diminution of his honour or estate, the blemishing his credit and reputation, and I feel a secret pleasure in such calamities, can it be charity that ties up my tongue from bitterness or slander, or my hands from invasion and cruelty? No, certainly.—He that triumphs in mischief and doth not act it himself; he that is fond of and cherisheth a scandal, but forbears to raise or spread it; it is not religion, but some other consideration, by which even this man is restrained. But alas! how few are there, in comparison, who think themselves bound to stop here! How few who, while they hold their hands from action, make no scruple to give their tongues a liberty of speaking “all words that may do hurt,” and so contribute to the disgrace and grief of their injured and afflicted brother! and if they, with these sharp razors, wound and mangle a bleeding reputation, would not the same malice unsheath their sword and thrust it into his bowels, if their own safety, the fear of human laws, or some other prudential consideration, did not bind their hands, which leaves their tongues and thoughts at liberty? For, were religion, were the fear and love of God, their check, they would prevent the very beginnings of malice. This tells us that we must be compassionate and kind; that we must do to every man whatsover we would that he should do unto us; that but to meditate or delight in evil is a sin, and that no instance of goodness should be wanting which the circumstances of any brother render seasonable for him to receive, and ours have put in our power to give; that a design of making him uneasy is not one whit less murderous and guilty, because not prosecuted in tenderness to one’s self, and not to be effected with impunity. Thus God interprets it, and by this rule He will proceed with us; for He declares Himself a trier of the heart, and that in our last great reckoning, “every secret thing shall be brought into judgment.”—M.].
Footnotes:
[20][1Jn_3:10 b. πᾶς ὁ=“ Every one that.” So German.—M.]
[21][καὶ=“And.” So German, and most foreign versions.—M.]
[22][1Jn_3:11. ὅτι=“Because.” So German.—M.]
[23] ἀγγελία A. B. G. K.; ἐπαγγελία C. Sin. and a few, unimportant Codd.—The context admits the sense “promise” only on the artificial interpretation that it is a gift and a happiness to love.
[24][1Jn_3:12. οὐ καθὼς Κάϊν ἐκ τοῦ πονηροῦ ἦν. German: “Not as Cain was of the wicked one.”—Lücke: “Some supply after οὐ: ἀγαπῶμεν, others ποιῶμεν and the like. But in the first case there arises an irony unsuitable in this connection; and in both cases a second supplement becomes necessary, to wit, of ὅς after Κάϊν, which, as. the omission of the relative pronoun is in classic as well as in N. T. Greek without example, could hardly be justified. Much simpler is it with Grotius to complete the sentence thus: οὐκ ὦμεν ἐκ τοῦ πονηροῦ, καθὼς Κάϊν ἐκ τοῦ πονηροῦ ἦν.” Winer: “Properly, there is nothing to be supplied (ὦμεν or ποιῶμεν would not suit οὐ), but, the comparison being negligently expressed, the reader easily adjusts the clauses for himself: that we love one another, not as Cain was of the wicked one, etc., shall it or may it be so with us.” For further authorities see Lillie.—M.]
[25][German: “Because his works were wicked, but his brother’s righteous.” It is difficult to determine the right reading, whether it is αὐτοῦ, αὑτοῦ or ἑαυτοῦ (B.) Most probably αὑτοῦ.—The correspondence between Κάϊν ἐκ τοῦ πονηροῦ ἦν and τὰ ἔργα αὐτοῦ πονηρὰ ἦν should by all means be brought out.—M.]
[26][δὲ=“but,” not “and,” as E. V.—M.]
[27][1Jn_3:13. German: “Marvel not, brethren,” agreeing with Sin. G. K. Rec. al. in omitting μου.—M.]
[28][μισεῖ. German, Wiclif. al. retain the Indicative mood.—M.]
[29][1Jn_3:14. German: “We have passed out of death into life.”—M.]
[30]Ἀγαπῶν without τὸν ἀδελφὸν, A. B. Sin.; with it C. G, K., although less authentic, and rather inserted than omitted. [German: omits the words, and renders: “He that loveth not abideth in death.”—M.
[31][1Jn_3:15. πᾶς ὁ=Every one.—M.]
[32][ἀνθρωποκτόνος; German: “man-murderer,” but better to render, “man-killer” (Lillie following Rhemish vers. at Joh_8:44), which is free from the extenuating force suggested by the technical use of such words as “homicide” or “man-slaughter.”—M.]
[33][1Jn_3:16. German: “Hereby have we known.”—M.]
[34]θεῖναι A. B. C. Sin. al., decidedly preferable to τιθέναι G. K. al.
[35][1Jn_3:17. German: “Life-sustenance.” Goods might be used in that sense.—M.]
[36][German: “His inwards;” but “bowels” without the supplement “compassion” should by all means be retained.—M.]
[37]ἀπ̓ αὐτοῦ A. B. C. Sin.; the words are omitted only by several unimportant Codd.
[38][German: “Abideth.”—M.]
[39]μου after τεκνία occurs in Rec. after G. K., but is wanting in the best Codd.—M.
[40]The Article τῇ before γλώσση is wanting in Rec. Sin., but found in A. B. C. G. K. and most of the Codd. verss. and editions. [German: “with the tongue.”—M.]; ἐν, omitted by K., is found in almost all the authoritative Codd., including Sin.
[41]Huther in a note [2d ed. p. 163] replies to the objection of Ebrard and Myrberg that this could only apply to our love of God and not to our love of the brethren, that in John’s opinion Christian love of the brethren is identical with the love of God, because the Christian loves his brother as one born of God. He suggests also that ἀγάπη might be better denned as the “essential exhibition” of δικαιοσύνη—M.].
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures (Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical), ed. John Peter Lange, English translation edited by Philip Schaff (1864–1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain On vv9–11 Whosoever is born of God--literally, "Everyone that is begotten…
Whosoever is born of God--literally, "Everyone that is begotten of God."
doth not commit sin--His higher nature, as one born or begotten of God, doth not sin. To be begotten of God and to sin, are states mutually excluding one another. In so far as one sins, he makes it doubtful whether he be born of God.
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his seed--the living word of God, made by the Holy Spirit the seed in us of a new life and the continual mean of sanctification.
remaineth--abideth in him (compare Note, see on Jo1 3:6; Joh 5:38). This does not contradict Jo1 1:8-9; the regenerate show the utter incompatibility of sin with regeneration, by cleansing away every sin into which they may be betrayed by the old nature, at once in the blood of Christ.
cannot sin, because he is born of God--"because it is of God that he is born" (so the Greek order, as compared with the order of the same words in the beginning of the verse); not "because he was born of God" (the Greek is perfect tense, which is present in meaning, not aorist); it is not said, Because a man was once for all born of God he never afterwards can sin; but, Because he is born of God, the seed abiding now in Him, he cannot sin; so long as it energetically abides, sin can have no place. Compare Gen 39:9, Joseph, "How CAN I do this great wickedness and sin against God?" The principle within me is at utter variance with it. The regenerate life is incompatible with sin, and gives the believer a hatred for sin in every shape, and an unceasing desire to resist it. "The child of God in this conflict receives indeed wounds daily, but never throws away his arms or makes peace with his deadly foe" [LUTHER]. The exceptional sins into which the regenerate are surprised, are owing to the new life principle being for a time suffered to lie dormant, and to the sword of the Spirit not being drawn instantly. Sin is ever active, but no longer reigns. The normal direction of the believer's energies is against sin; the law of God after the inward man is the ruling principle of his true self though the old nature, not yet fully deadened, rebels and sins. Contrast Jo1 5:18 with Joh 8:34; compare Psa 18:22-23; Psa 32:2-3; Psa 119:113, Psa 119:176. The magnetic needle, the nature of which is always to point to the pole, is easily turned aside, but always reseeks the pole.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain On vv9–11 9. His (God’s) seed—The regenerate vital principle divinely implanted…
9. His (God’s) seed—The regenerate vital principle divinely implanted remaineth as a permanent though not irremovable element in him. This definition of the seed accords essentially with the various definitions given by most commentators. So Luther, “natura spiritualis,” spiritual birth-nature; De Wette, “the power of the divine life;” Braune, “the spirit of God.” Alford less happily refers it to “the divine word of truth.” While the fixed purpose of faith abides he cannot sin, or be a regular sinner, any more than ice can bear caloric, for the two things are incompatible. The falsely regenerate Nicolaitan can grossly and continuously sin, and retain his pseudo-regeneration; but the truly regenerate cannot practise sin, because he is genuinely born of God; and while so, sin-practice is for him an incompatibility, not a volitional impossibility. Those who press the terms of this text to prove the infallible perseverance of all regenerate persons must accept them in their full literality: and then they will prove, not only certainty of not apostatizing, but an incapability to even sin, an impeccability in the regenerate. Nor can the text prove the sinlessness of merely the entirely sanctified, or the class of “perfect Christians,” for the predicates are affirmed of all that are born of God.
If the words prove that a regenerate person cannot become a sinner, then Rom_8:7 proves that no carnally minded man can ever become subject to the law of God; for the same word for cannot is there used. See our note.
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Alford, Wordsworth, and others remark here again the import of the Greek perfect tense as having the force of a present; which, indeed, is well expressed in our English translation is born. The Greek aorist would be was born, and Alford remarks pointedly that in practice the force of the perfect in Christian life is sadly apt to degenerate from the is to the was; the former expressing present regenerate life, in which to practice sin is impossible; the latter the departed vitality, in which the impossible has become easy.
The verb sin, in Heb_10:26, clearly means to become a sinner, in opposition to being a Christian. In this chapter, (1Jn_3:8,) sinneth is in the continuous present, and means permanently practises sin. See note on 1Jn_5:18. But the true meaning is simply this: The Gnostic, in his false regeneration, can consistently live in the practice of sin; but a Christian cannot practice sin, for as a Christian he retains a regenerate principle incompatible with sin. He cannot practice sin and stay a Christian.
Wordsworth gives a pertinent passage from Ignatius, who was born before St. John’s death. “Let no one deceive you. They who are carnal cannot do the things that are spiritual; nor can they who are spiritual do the things that are carnal. Faith cannot do the works of unbelief, nor can unbelief do the works of faith. The works which ye do in the flesh are spiritual, because ye work all your work in Jesus Christ.”—IGNATIUS, Ep. ad Ephesians 8.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain On vv9–11 9. This is the opposite of 1Jn_3:8, as 1Jn_3:8…
9. This is the opposite of 1Jn_3:8, as 1Jn_3:8 of 1Jn_3:7; but, as usual, not the plain opposite, but something deduced from it, is stated.
Whosoever is born of God] Or, Every one that (see on 1Jn_3:6) is begotten of God. Note the perfect tense; ‘every one that has been made and that remains a child of God’. The expression is very frequent throughout the Epistle (1Jn_2:29, 1Jn_4:7, 1Jn_5:1; 1Jn_5:4; 1Jn_5:18) and the rendering should be uniform; all the more so, because the phrase is characteristic. The A. V. wavers between ‘born’ and ‘begotten’, even in the same verse (1Jn_5:1; 1Jn_5:18). The R. V. rightly prefers ‘begotten’ throughout: ‘born’ throughout is impossible, for in 1Jn_5:1 we have the active, ‘begat’. The expression ‘to be begotten of God’ is found only in S. John; once in the Gospel (Joh_1:13) and eight or nine times in the Epistle: comp. Joh_3:3; Joh_3:5-8.
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doth not commit sin] Better, as R. V., doeth no sin (see on 1Jn_3:4): the opposition between ‘doing sin’ and ‘doing righteousness’ must be carefully marked. This strong statement is exactly parallel to 1Jn_3:6 and is to be understood in a similar sense. It is literally true of the Divine nature imparted to the believer. That does not sin and cannot sin. A child of the God who is Light can have nothing to do with sin which is darkness: the two are morally incompatible.
for his seed remaineth in him] Better, as R. V., because his seed abideth in him: see on 1Jn_2:24. This may mean either (1) ‘His seed’, the new birth given by God, ‘abideth in him’; or (2) ‘his seed’, the new birth received by him, ‘abideth in him’; or (3) ‘His seed’, God’s child, ‘abideth in Him’. The first is probably right. The third is possible, but improbable: ‘seed’ is sometimes used for ‘child’ or ‘descendant’; but would not S. John have written ‘child’ as in 1Jn_3:1-2; 1Jn_3:10, 1Jn_5:2? To resort to the parable of the sower for an explanation, and to interpret ‘seed’ as ‘the word of God’ is scarcely legitimate. The whole analogy refers to human generation, not to the germination of plants; but comp. 1Pe_1:23. Joh_3:5-8 would lead us to interpret seed as meaning the Holy Spirit.
he cannot sin] It is a moral impossibility for a child of God to sin. It is because of the imperfection of our sonship that sin is possible, an imperfection to be remedied and gradually reduced by the blood of Jesus (1Jn_1:7) and self-purification (1Jn_3:3). ‘Cannot’ of what is morally impossible is frequent in S. John’s Gospel (Joh_5:30, Joh_6:44; Joh_6:65, Joh_7:7, Joh_8:43, Joh_12:39, Joh_14:17); comp. 1Jn_4:20.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain On v11 (4) BROTHERLY LOVE THE NECESSARY FLOWER OF THE DIVINE…
(4) BROTHERLY LOVE THE NECESSARY FLOWER OF THE DIVINE LOVE IN THE DIVINE BIRTH (1Jn_3:11-18).—In 1Jn_2:10 St. John showed the necessary connection between righteousness and love; there is no contradiction between the two: the one is necessary to the other. Justice will become sternness without love; love will be weakness without justice. The two thoughts are introduced and connected in both halves of the Epistles. (See 1Jn_2:3-11.) Here the duty of love is still more strongly insisted on, as the general subject is the love of God, as in the first half of the Epistle it was the light of God. We have (a) the command or message of Christ; then (b) the contrast of Cain; then (c) the similar conduct of the world (a thought which had occurred before, in 1Jn_2:1); then (d) the comfort of the connection between love and life, as contrasted with hatred and death; then (e) the identification of the hater with the murderer, and the impossibility of associating the idea of eternal life with the destroyer of temporal life; then (f) the example of God’s love in the death of the Son, urging us even to the same extremity of self-sacrifice; then, (g) as a minor premise, the thought thrust home, for a practical conclusion, that the smaller self-sacrifice of daily assistance to others is an, essential to the Christian life.
(4 a.) (11) For states the reason why brotherly love was added to righteousness at the end of the last paragraph: because it was the earliest and most prominent feature of Christianity presented to them.
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Love one another.—The injunction is perfectly general, without the restrictions of society; wherever Christian love is due, there it must immediately be paid. (Comp. 1Pe_1:22.)
(4 b.) (12) Not as Cain, who was of that . . .—Rather, Not as Cain was of that . . .; an abrupt conversational form. (Comp. Joh_6:58.) Cain is introduced as the prototype of envy, jealousy, and the inward hatred which the evil feel at the good.
(4 c.) (13) The conduct of the world to Christians is of a piece with this invariable characteristic of those who are in darkness, exemplified in Cain. (Comp. Joh_15:18-19; Joh_17:14; 2Ti_3:12.)
Marvel not is equivalent to “Be not dismayed; be of good courage.”
(4 d.) (14) This is a characteristic instance of St. John’s logic. From the terseness and pregnancy of his style, he does not give all the steps of an argument, but frequently turns it upside down, in order more speedily to bring out a forcible spiritual truth. But for this he would have written, “We love the brethren, because we have passed from death unto life; but he that abideth in death loveth not.” But wishing to put these ideas in the form of a direct encouragement, in face of a hating world, he puts the reason as the conclusion, and the conclusion as the reason. This unexpected turn rivets the attention far more than a rigid deduction. Another ground of assurance has been stated in 1Jn_2:2 : keeping the behests of Christ, of which (as we have seen) love is the most prominent. “The brothers” means all the members of the human family: the love of Christ which, in 1Jn_2:16, we are bidden to imitate, was for the whole world of sinners. (Comp. Mat_5:44; 1Co_4:12.)
Passed from death unto life.—This dates from the beginning of the new birth, the dawn of eternal life in the converted heart. And just as the perfect Christian love embraces all other Christian virtues, so not only does actual hatred, but the absence of love, indicate absolute spiritual deadness.
(4 e.) (15) Regarding the absence of love as of one class with the presence of hatred, St. John here puts more prominently forward the active member of the class than the quiescent. The statement is intended as an illustration of the fact that where no love is there can neither be eternal life. The full argument would be “Where love is not, there is hatred; where hatred is, there is murder; where murder is, there can be no eternal life.” (Comp. Mat_5:21-26.)
(4 f.) (16) Hereby perceive we the love of God.—Rather, Hereby know we the true love; meaning, of course, that perfection of love which is God Himself. Christ, the Word made flesh, is regarded as identical with this love, so only the pronoun is used. The highest proof of love is the sacrifice of that which is most precious: nothing could be more precious than the life of the Word made flesh. (Comp. Joh_10:11; Joh_10:15; Joh_10:17-18; Joh_13:37-38; Joh_15:13; Gal_2:20; Eph_5:2; Eph_5:25.)
For us.—Rather, on our behalf. (See Rom_5:8.)
And we ought.—The reason of this consequence is that we are to be like Christ in everything; as our being is orbed in His, so whatever was His spirit will be ours: even His unparallelled act of self-sacrifice must be reproduced in us, at however great a distance. For the good of our fellows we must be even ready to die. (Comp. Joh_13:34; Joh_15:12-13; Rom_9:3; Rom_16:3-4.)
(4 g.) But implies a progress from the greater duty to the less; if the less is neglected, far more completely is the command disobeyed.
Good.—Rather, sustenance, or “necessaries of life.”
World is not here used in a bad sense, but merely of such elements of existence as are not spiritual.
The word “see” is strong, and implies calm and attentive contemplation.
The word translated “bowels of compassion” is used in the LXX. (Pro_12:10) for “tender mercies.” It is used in the New Testament as we use “heart,” and has nothing to do with bowels. It should be translated “compassion.”
How abideth.—In 1Jn_2:15 it was eternal life; here St. John thinks of our love to God as one of the two chief signs and products of eternal life: eternal life bringing into activity its relation to its source.
(18) The words “My little children,” are, as usual, a mark of a sudden access of warmth, tenderness, and earnestness. “Word,” of course, is antithetical to “deed,” “tongue” to “truth.” The construction of the first pair (which is different from that of the second) implies merely the instruments of the love; that of the second implies its whole condition. St. John hints that there is some danger of this conventionality amongst his friends, and earnestly exhorts them to genuineness. He forbids all the traitorous babble of heartless insincerity, and urges that just, active, straightforward, all-embracing affection which was complete in Christ alone. (Comp. Rom_12:9; Eph_4:15; Jas_2:15-17; 1Pe_1:22; 2Jn_1:1; 3Jn_1:1.)
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain On vv9–11 Vers. 9-12. Sin is absolutely incompatible with being born…
Vers. 9-12. Sin is absolutely incompatible with being born of God, as is shown by the presence or absence of brotherly love.
Having stated that every one that doeth sin is of the devil, St. John now states the opposite truth, but from the other side; not "every one that doeth no sin is of God," which hardly needs to be stated; but every one that is begotten of God doeth no sin, which is startling. Who, then, can be begotten of God? But the statement is similar to that in verse 6, and is to be similarly understood. So far as any man sins, his regeneration is incomplete. If the new birth from God were perfect, sin would be morally impossible ouj dunatai aJmartein. The new principle of life abides and grows in him, and, under perfect conditions, it entirely prevents the old unregenerate nature from rebelling. Note that St. John does not say ouj dunatai aJmartein," cannot commit a sin," but ouj dunatai aJmartanein, "cannot be a sinner." An act is different from a state of sin. This is an ideal to which every Christian is bound to aspire inability to sin. But to some extent this ideal is a fact in the case of every true Christian. There are sins which to a good man are by God"s grace quite impossible. The meaning of sperma aujtou ejn aujtw menei is uncertain: either
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(1) "His seed abideth in Him," i.e., those who are born of God abide in God; or
(2) "his seed abideth in him," i.e., the new principle which he has received continues to operate in the man; or
(3) "His seed abideth in him," i.e., God"s quickening Gift continues to operate in the man. (For sperma aujtou, in the sense of "those born of God," (comp. Isa_53:10) But this is the least probable of the threeinterpretations; in this sense St. John would probably have written teknon. Note the tense of the concluding verb, gegennhtai, not ejgennhqh: his birth from God is a fact which still continues, not one that is past and gone.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain On vv9–10 Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin;…
1Jn_3:9
Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin; for his seed remaineth in him: and he cannot sin, because he is born of God
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The usurper deposed and the conqueror vanquished
I.
The important doctrine here asserted. Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin.
1. This doctrine is implied in all the precepts of the law of God, whether they relate to evils prohibited or to duties enjoined.
2. This doctrine is implied in all the injunctions of the New Testament, which are expressly enjoined on those who profess the religion of Christ.
3. This doctrine is implied in all those Scriptures which speak of holiness as the privilege of the people of God, and as indispensable to all men.
4. This doctrine is, if possible, still more plain from a consideration of what the Scriptures say concerning those who live in the practice of sin.
II. The argument by which this doctrine is established. For his seed remaineth in him, and he cannot sin: because he is born of God.
1. The practice of sin is contrary to the nature of the man who is born of God.
2. The practice of sin is contrary to the impulse of that Divine principle which is deposited in the heart of the man who is born of God.
From this subject we learn--
1. What is the nature of the true religion.
2. What is the unfailing conduct of all those who are truly religions.
3. What is the lamentable condition of all who live in the practice of sin. (W. Lupton.)
Sonship exclusive of sin
I. The change, or the work of grace in the sinner.
1. Born of God. (See Joh_1:12-13) As water cannot rise above its fountain, so can no change in man be better or greater than its cause. If it come from the flesh it must be like it, earthly and sinful. When it comes from the Spirit, then it must be like Him, spiritual, holy, and heavenly.
2. His seed remaineth in him. It is immaterial whether his seed be understood of God or of the believer. It is that seed which God has sown in his heart. It is Gods as the author of it. It is the believers as the subject of it. How is this figure calculated to supplement and illustrate the former one. First, the sinner is born of God by means of the truth. He is left no longer ignorant of sin, but is taught to know its vileness and evil consequences. He is no longer ignorant of himself, but has been enlightened to see the depravity of his heart. Second, it is in the same way the life of faith and holiness thus begun is maintained in him. The idea is specially noticed in the text, His seed remaineth in Him. It is in its own nature imperishable. The truth ever abides the same. The believer ever sees sin as he saw it at the first, vile and ruinous. He ever sees himself as he did at the beginning, exposed to ruin if he indulges it. He ever sees the Saviour as gracious and glorious as He appeared at the first. His claims do not diminish in his view, nor does he ever find reason to change his conclusions respecting this world and the next, time and eternity.
II. The effects that are declared to result from it. He doth not commit sin, and he cannot sin. As two figures were used to describe the change, so are there two assertions to declare the results. The one is the assertion of a fact, and the other is an argument to explain and confirm it.
1. The fact--He doth not commit sin. Let it be observed this is said of every converted man. Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin. He does not sin knowingly, wilfully, and habitually. We say of a man versed in literature, he is learned, although he is ignorant of many things. In like manner we speak of men, and say they are strong, although in some respects they may be weak. We judge of them by that which is prominent and paramount in them.
2. The second expression, explanatory and confirmatory of this fact, is still stronger, He cannot sin, because tie is born of God. To live in sin is contrary to the new nature of which he has been made a partaker. The nature cannot and does not sin. Had he no other nature he would never sin. And there are many reasons why he cannot.
(1) It is contrary to his views. He sees sin to be the greatest of all evils, and holiness to be the highest of all good.
(2) It is contrary to his tastes; he dislikes sin and he loves holiness.
(3) It is contrary to his most determined purposes. The language of David is not strange to him (Psa_17:3). It were unreasonable to suppose such a man could live in sin.
(4) It is contrary to his habits. He has served God and found His service to be liberty.
(5) It is contrary to his interests. He knows that godliness is profitable unto all things, having promise of the life that now is and of that which is to conic. He is not the fool to sin against his own soul. (J. Morgan, D. D.)
Sins of the regenerate
Various expositions are given of this.
1. He ought not to sire Cannot indeed is sometimes taken for ought not (Act_4:20). But this is not the meaning of cannot here, ought not; for an unrenewed man ought not to sin any more than a regenerate man. But the apostle attributes here something peculiar to the regenerate, addling the reason, because he is born of God.
2. He cannot sin so easily. He may sin easily in respect of the frailty of the flesh, but not so easily in regard of the abiding of the seed in him, which helps him to bewarere of sin. Grace being a Divine habit, hath the nature of a habit, which is to incline the person to acts proper to that habit, and facilitate those acts, as a man that hath the habit of an art or trade can with more ease work in it than any other.
3. He cannot sin, as he is regenerate. A gracious man, as a gracious man, cannot sin; for grace, being a good habit, is not capable of producing acts contrary to its nature. Sin in a regenerate man proceeds not from his grace, but from his corruption.
4. He cannot sin as long as he is regenerate, as long as the seed remains in him, as long as he follows the motions of the Spirit rod grace, which are able to overcome the motions of concupiscence, but he may give up the grace: as an impregnable tower cannot be taken as long as it is defended by those within, but they may fling away their arms and deliver it up.
Sin may be considered in two ways, viz., as to--
1. The act of sin. Thus a believer sins.
2. The habit of sin, or custom in it, when a man runs to sin freely, willingly, and is not displeased with it.
Thus a believer does not commit sin. Being Gods son, he cannot be sins servant; he cannot sin in such a manner and so absolutely as one of the devils children, one born of the devil. Doctrine: There is a mighty difference between the sinning of a regenerate and a natural man. A regenerate man doth not, neither can, commit sin in the same manner as an unregenerate man doth. The sense of this cannot I shall lay down in several propositions.
1. It is not meant exclusively of lesser sins, or sins of infirmity.
2. A regenerate man cannot live in the customary practice of any known sin, either of omission or commission.
(1) Not in a constant omission of known duties.
(2) Not in a customary commission of any known sin.
I shall confirm this by some reasons, because upon this proposition depend all the following.
1. Regeneration gives not a man a dispensation from the law of God.
2. It is not for the honour of God to suffer a custom and course of sin in a renewed man.
3. It is against the nature of the covenant. In the covenant we are to take God for our God, i.e., for our chief good and last end.
4. It is against the nature of our first repentance and conversion to God. True repentance is a breaking off iniquity by righteousness (Dan_4:27).
5. It is against the nature of habitual grace, which is the principle and form of our regeneration.
6. A regenerate man cannot have a fixed resolution to walk in such a way of sin, were the impediments to it removed.
7. A regenerate man cannot walk in a way doubtful to him, without inquiries whether it be a way of sin or a way of duty, and without admitting of reproofs and admonitions, according to his circumstances.
8. A regenerate man cannot have a settled, deliberate love to any one act of sin, though he may fall into it.
9. A regenerate man cannot commit any sin with a full consent and bent of will. (S. Charnock.)
The sins of the regenerate
The apostle having exhorted the saints to whom he writes in the former chapter to abide in Christ and to do righteousness (verses 28, 29), follows on this exhortation with several arguments that a true Christian is not only bound to do so, but that he indeed doth so.
1. From that hope which hath eternal happiness for its object (1Jn_3:2-3). Where this hope is truly founded it will inflame us with a desire after holiness.
2. From the contrariety of sin to the law of God. A Christian who is guided by this law will not transgress it.
3. From the end of Christs coming, which was to take away sin (1Jn_3:5).
4. From the communion they have with Christ; abiding in Him.
5. From the first author of sin, the devil; he that sins hath a communion with the devil (1Jn_3:8), as he that doth righteousness hath a communion with Christ.
6. From the new nature of a Christian, which hinders him from sin (1Jn_3:9). (Bp. Hackett.)
Cannot sin
He cannot sin any more than a good mother can kill her child. She might be able in a thousand ways to kill the child, but her heart would forbid it and make the impossibility absolute. (J. B. Figgis, M. A.)
Cannot sin
The ideas of Divine sonship and sin are mutually exclusive. As long as the relationship with God is real, sinful acts are but accidents; they do not touch the essence of the mans being. The impossibility of sinning in such a case lies in the moral nature of things. (Bp. Westcott.)
Cannot
Some of you are men in business. I go into your shop or warehouse, and I ask you the price of a certain article. You say it is so much. I offer you one half or two thirds of what you have said is the price. You say, I cannot take it. Now, why cannot you take what I offer you? It is not the want of freedom in your will to decide on accepting my proposal; nor is it the want of physical power in your arm to accept my offer. You have both the one and the other, and yet you repeat your former statement, I cannot take it; and you speak truly. You cannot take it, because it would be unjust, because it would tend to bring ruin on your business, and to reduce yourself and family to beggary. You cannot take it consistent with your safety and happiness. Just so he that is born of God cannot commit sin consistent with his well-being. It would be rebellion against God, and would bring injury, if not ruin, upon his soul. (J. Seymour.)
The failings of Christians
With true insight into the case, quaint Thomas Fuller alleges that the failings of Christians be rather in the branches and leaves than in the roots of their performances.
Sin natural to the regenerate nature
It would, says Thomas Manton, be monstrous for the eggs of one creature to bring forth a brood of another kind, for a crow or a kite to come from the egg of a hen. It is as unnatural a production for a new creature to sin. Each creature brings forth after its own kind. Out of a doves nest we expect only doves to fly. The heavenly life breeds birds of paradise, such as holy thoughts, desires, and acts; and it cannot bring forth such unclean birds as lust, and envy, and malice. The life of God infused in regeneration is as pure as the Lord by whom it was begotten, and can never be otherwise. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
B. W. Johnson 1891 · Public Domain On vv9–11 9. Whosoever is born of God doth not commit…
9. Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin. The thought is that he does not live a life of sin. The spirit born of God, the new creation, does not sin, and cannot sin and remain God's child, but sometimes the old nature revives and for a moment exerts its power. “It is no more I that do it but sin that dwelleth in me” (Rom. 7:20). See note at end of the Epistle. His seed remaineth in him. The principle of divine life, and hence he cannot live a sinful life. “That which is born of the Spirit is spirit.” This new nature cannot sin. If we sin, it is the old nature revived. Unless at once we repent and flee to him he will depart from us.
B. W. Johnson's The People's New Testament with Notes (1889–1891) — public domain. Electronic text from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL) ThML edition.
C. I. Scofield 1917 · Public Domain On v10 (See Scofield "1Jn 3:7").
righteousness
(See Scofield "1Jn 3:7").
The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv9, 11 Connecting Statement:
Connecting Statement:
For now John ends this section on the new birth and the new nature which cannot sin.
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Whoever has been born from God
This can be stated in active form. AT: "Whoever God has made his child" (See: Active or Passive)
God's seed
This speaks of the Holy Spirit, whom God gives to believers and who makes them able to resist sin and do what pleases God as if he were a physical seed that is planted in the earth and grows. This is sometimes referred to as the new nature. AT: "the Holy Spirit" (See: Metaphor)
he has been born of God
This can be stated in active form. AT: "God has given him new spiritual life" or "he is a child of God" (See: Active or Passive)
In this the children of God and children of the devil are revealed
This can be stated in active form. AT: "This is how we know the children of God and the children of the devil" (See: Active or Passive)
Whoever does not do what is righteous is not from God, neither is the one who does not love his brother
The words "from God" are understood in the second part of the sentence. This can also be stated in positive form. AT: "whoever does not do what is righteous is not from God; whoever does not love his brother is also not from God" or "those who do what is righteous are from God, and those who love their brothers are from God" (See: Double Negatives and Ellipsis)
his brother
Here "brother" means fellow Christians.
translationWords
born again
sin
seed
children
Satan
righteous
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv9, 11 3:9-10 To live righteously means to live in a…
3:9-10 To live righteously means to live in a right relationship with God. (This is in contrast to the false teachers, who held that life in the spirit could not be contaminated by any behavior in a physical body.) This does not mean that we live perfect lives (1:8), but that we keep ourselves in a good relationship with God (1:9).
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.