1 John 3:14 Commentary

Updated: Sat, 12/14/2024 - 10:37 By admin

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INDEX FOR ALL VERSES ON 1 JOHN

FELLOWSHIP WITH GOD AND HIS CHILDREN
Click chart to enlarge
Charts from Jensen's Survey of the NT - used by permission
Another Overview Chart - 1 John - Charles Swindoll

BASIS OF FELLOWSHIP		BEHAVIOR OF FELLOWSHIP
Conditions of Fellowship	Cautions of Fellowship	Fellowship Characteristics	Fellowship Consequences
Meaning of Fellowship 1 Jn 1:1-2:27		Manifestations of Fellowship 1 Jn 2:28-5:21
Abiding in God's Light		Abiding in God's Love
Written in Ephesus
circa 90 AD
From Talk Thru the Bible

STUDY GUIDE
1 JOHN 3

What is this? On the photograph of the Observation Worksheet for this chapter you will find handwritten 5W/H questions (Who? What? Where? When? Why? How?) on each verse to help you either personally study or lead a discussion on this chapter. The questions are generally very simple and are stated in such a way as to stimulate you to observe the text to discern the answer. As a reminder, given the truth that your ultimate Teacher is the Holy Spirit, begin your time with God with prayer such as Psalm 119:12+ "Blessed are You, O LORD; Teach me Your statutes." (you can vary it with similar prayers - Ps 119:18, 26, 33, 64, 66, 68, 108, 124, 135, 171, etc) The questions are generally highlighted in yellow and the answers in green. Some questions have no answers and are left to your observations and the illuminating/teaching ministry of the Holy Spirit. Some qualifying thoughts - (1) Use "As is" - these are handwritten and will include mistakes I made, etc. (2) They may not be the best question for a given verse and my guess is that on some verses you will think of a far superior 5W/H question and/or many other questions.

Dr Howard Hendricks once gave an assignment to his seminary students to list as many observations as they could from Acts 1:8. He said "So far they’ve come up with more than 600 different ones! Imagine what fun you could have with 600 observations on this passage. Would you like to see Scripture with eyes like that?" (P. 63 Living by the Book - borrow) With practice you can! And needless to say, you will likely make many more observations and related questions than I recorded on the pages below and in fact I pray that the Spirit would indeed lead you to discover a veritable treasure chest of observations and questions! In Jesus' Name. Amen

Why am I doing this? Mortimer Adler among others helped me develop a questioning mindset as I read, seeking to read actively rather than passively. Over the years I have discovered that as I have practiced reading with a 5W/H questioning mindset, it has yielded more accurate interpretation and the good fruit of meditation. In other words, consciously interacting with the inspired Holy Word of God and the illuminating Holy Spirit has honed my ability to meditate on the Scripture, and my prayer is that this tool will have the same impact in your spiritual life. The benefits of meditation are literally priceless in regard to their value in this life and in the life to come (cf discipline yourself for godliness in 1Ti 4:8+.) For some of the benefits - see Joshua 1:8+ and Psalm 1:2-3+. It will take diligence and mental effort to develop an "inductive" (especially an "observational"), interrogative mindset as you read God's Word, but it bears repeating that the benefits in this life and the rewards in the next will make it more than worth the effort you invest! Dear Christian reader let me encourage you to strongly consider learning the skills of inductive Bible study and spending the rest of your life practicing them on the Scriptures and living them out in your daily walk with Christ.

Although Mortimer Adler's advice is from a secular perspective, his words are worth pondering...

Strictly, all reading is active. What we call passive is simply less active. Reading is better or worse according as it is more or less active. And one reader is better than another in proportion as he is capable of a greater range of activity in reading. (Adler's classic book How to Read a Book is free online)

John Piper adds that "Insight or understanding is the product of intensive, headache-producing meditation on two or three verses and how they fit together. This kind of reflection and rumination is provoked by asking questions of the text. And you cannot do it if you hurry. Therefore, we must resist the deceptive urge to carve notches in our bibliographic gun. Take two hours to ask ten questions of Galatians 2:20+ and you will gain one hundred times the insight you would have attained by reading thirty pages of the New Testament or any other book. Slow down. Query. Ponder. Chew.... (John Dewey rightly said) "People only truly think when they are confronted with a problem. Without some kind of dilemma to stimulate thought, behavior becomes habitual rather than thoughtful.”

“Asking questions is the key to understanding.”
--Jonathan Edwards

That said, below are the 5W/H questions for each verse in this chapter (click page to enlarge). This is not neatly typed but is handwritten and was used for leading a class discussion on this chapter, so you are welcome to use it in this "as is" condition...

1 John 3:14 We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brethren. He who does not love abides in death

Greek - hemeis oidamen (1PRAI) hoti metabebekamen (1PRAI) ek tou thanatou eis ten zoen hoti agapomen (1PPAI) tous adelphous o me agapon (PAP) menei (3SPAI) en to thanato .

NET - We know that we have crossed over from death to life because we love our fellow Christians. The one who does not love remains in death.

Wuest As for us, we know absolutely that we have passed over permanently out of the sphere of the death into the life, because we are habitually loving the brethren. The one who is not habitually loving is abiding in the sphere of the death.

We know: 1Jn 2:3 5:2,13,19,20 2Co 5:1
we have passed: Lu 15:24,32 John 5:24 Eph 2:1,5
because: 1Jn 2:10 3:23 4:7,8,12,21 5:2 Ps 16:3 Mt 25:40 John 13:35 15:12,17 Ga 5:22 Eph 1:15 Col 1:4 1Th 4:9 Heb 6:10,11 13:1 1Pe 1:22 1Pe 3:8 2 Pe 1:7
Does not love: 1Jn 2:9,11 1Jn 4:20 Pr 21:16
1 John 3 Resources - Multiple Sermons and Commentaries

Related Passages:

John 5:24+ Truly, truly, I say to you, he who hears My word, and believes Him who sent Me, has eternal life, and does not come into judgment, but has passed out (metabaino - perfect tense - indicates something experienced in the past has continuing and abiding results) of death into life.

EVIDENCE OF REGENERATION:
BROTHERLY LOVE

Eternal life is not restricted to the world to come but for those who by grace through faith have passed out of death into life, that abundant life is available NOW! Too many saints are living like "aint's"! This world is not our home and when we live like it is, we are the most miserable of creatures! Jesus came to rescue us from this darkness and to give us the light of life and give it abundantly (Jn 10:10). Have you passed from death into eternal life? You can know (and experience) eternal life now, for Jesus said "Truly, truly, I say to you, he who hears My word, and believes Him who sent Me, has (present tense - possesses now and forever) eternal life, and does not come into judgment, but has passed out (metabaino - perfect tense = speaks of the permanence of this passage!) of death into life." (Jn 5:24, cp Jn 3:36)

We know (eido/oida - perfect tense) that we have passed (metabaino) out (ex or ek) of death (thanatos) into life (zoe), because (hoti) we love (agapao - present tense - not perfection but direction) the brethren (adelphos) - We is stressed as it is in an emphatic position in the sentence (first word) - What does this mean? As A T Robertson says "(we) in contrast to the unregenerate world. This Christian consciousness (is) shared by writer and readers." The idea is "as for us" in contrast with the tragic state of the rest of the lost world. This truth ought to simulate great thanksgiving and a great desire to share the good news with the lost! John says we can know (eido/oida) beyond a shadow of a doubt that they we are truly born again. How? When we we love (agapao) the brethren (adelphos). Beloved, some brethren are not easy to love, but enabled by God's Spirit (Gal 5:22+), we can exhibit supernatural love to them. Supernatural love is clear evidence of a supernatural Source (the indwelling Spirit) and sure evidence of authentic salvation.

W E Vine observes that "there is great stress on the pronoun (we), which is intended to mark emphatically a contrast between believers and the world, suggesting that, whatever the condition of the world and however hostile its attitude, that which marks believers is that they know that they have been freed from that condition. The knowledge is intuitive, a matter of the consciousness of the fact, and not a case of progressive experience (the verb is oida or eido, not ginōskō). (Collected Writings)

Charles Haddon Spurgeon has the following wise words on John's words we know - I have heard it said, by those who would be thought philosophers, that in religion we must believe, but cannot know. I am not very clear about the distinction they draw between knowledge and faith, nor do I care to enquire because I assert that, in matters relating to religion, we do know! In the things of God, we both believe and know. If you will read this Epistle through and, with a pencil draw a line under the word, “know,” wherever it occurs, you will be astonished to see how John continually asserts about the great Truths of our faith, “We know, we know, we know, we know.” He does not admit that any one of these things is the subject of conjecture, but he asserts it to be a matter of positive knowledge. These philosophical gentlemen call themselves Agnostics—that is a word derived from the Greek and has the same meaning as the word, “ignoramus,” which comes from the Latin—and is the English equivalent for a “knownothing.” Well, if they like to be called ignoramuses, I have not the slightest objection to their keeping the title, but they should never presume to argue with Christian men! They put themselves out of court, directly, for we say, “We know.”… We know them, we are sure of them, for we have felt them, tasted them, handled them—and we know them as surely as we know the fact of our own existence. My text seems to me to speak of four things about which Believers in Christ are and ought to be positive and certain. I. First, WE KNOW THAT ONCE WE WERE DEAD IN TRESPASSES AND SINS. That is implied in the text—“We know that we have passed from death unto life.”… Secondly, we know another thing and a brighter thing—WE KNOW THAT WE HAVE UNDERGONE A VERY AMAZING CHANGE—“We know that we have passed from death unto life.”… Thirdly, we know something else. WE KNOW THAT WE LIVE—“We know that we have passed from death unto life.”… Now, fourthly, WE KNOW THAT WE LIVE BECAUSE WE LOVE… So, Brothers and Sisters, if we can say that we love God’s people, as God’s people, because they are God’s people, that is a mark that we have passed from death unto life! Do you love them for Christ’s sake? Do you say to yourself, “That is one of Christ’s people. That is one who bears Christ’s Cross. That is one of the children of God and, therefore, I love him and take delight in his company”? Then that is an evidence that you are not of the world. If you were, you would love the world, but, belonging to Christ, you love those who are Christ’s and you love them for Christ’s sake… God grant us all to have a share in this precious knowledge, for Christ’s sake! Amen and Amen. (Life Proved by Love) (See also his Sermon Notes on this Text)

No outward mark have we to know
Who thine, O Christ, may be,
Until a Christian love doth show
Who appertains to thee:
For knowledge may be reached unto,
And formal justice gained,
But till each other love we doe,
Both faith and workes are feigned.
— George Wither, 1588-1667

Bob Utley on know (eido/oida - perfect tense) - This is another common theme. God's children's confidence is related to (1) a change of mind and (2) a change of action, which are the root meanings of the term "repent" in Greek and Hebrew. (Commentary)

Our assurance of salvation is
based on facts, not feelings.

Earlier in this letter John described another marker of the assurance of salvation -

"And by this we know that we have come to know Him (perfect tense = past completed action with ongoing results or effects - we still know Him speaks of permanence), if we keep (tereo) His commandments (one of which is love one another - Jn 13:34)." (1John 2:3+).

Henry Morris on know (eido/oida - perfect tense) observes that "This is the first of at least thirty-eight occurrences of "know" (Greek ginosko or eido) in 1 John. One of the prominent themes in this epistle is the assurance we have in Christ. This first test of how we know our salvation is real is that we desire to keep His commandments just because they are His commandments, and we desire to please Him."

Eternal life is not earned by loving the brothers.
Rather, loving the brothers (e.g., the Christian family)
is evidence that one has made the transition from death to life

Matthew Henry asks "What knowledge of Christ can that be, which sees not that He is most worthy of our entire obedience? And a disobedient life shows there is neither religion nor honesty in the professor."

John again emphasized the fact that we can have assurance writing that "whoever keeps (present tense - as their general direction) His word, in him the love of God has truly been perfected. By this (By what?) we know (ginosko - from our experience) that we are in Him (to be in Christ is to be in covenant with Him, an immutable covenant that He will never break -- our salvation is eternally secure beloved!) (1 John 2:5)

Near the end of this letter John again emphasizes that we can be fully assured that we possess eternal life…

1 John 5:13 These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, in order that (term of purpose) you may know (eido = beyond a shadow of a doubt!) that you have (present tense - continually possess) eternal life.

When we are joined to Christ,
His friends become our friends

Vine on because we love the brethren—this is the great test of divine relationship. To this statement much of the teaching in the preceding part of the Epistle has led up. Briefly the steps are as follows: True believers—

(a) walk in the light (1Jn 1:7),

(b) keep God’s commandments (1Jn 2:3),

(c) walk as Christ walked (1Jn 2:6),

(d) show that they are abiding in the light by loving one another (1Jn 2:10),

(e) no longer love the world and the things that are therein (1Jn 2:15),

(f) practice righteousness (1Jn 2:29),

(g) do not go on living in sin (1Jn 3:9),

(h) exercise love (1Jn 3:14). (Collected Writings)

David Guzik - A love for the people of God is a basic sign of being born again. If this love is not evident in our lives, our salvation can be questioned. If it is present, it gives us assurance… This speaks to our pursuit of fellowship. If we love the brethren, we will want to be with them - and even if we have been battered and bruised by unloving brethren, there will still be something in us drawing us back to fellowship with the brethren we love.

John MacArthur comments that "One sure mark of a transformed life is the desire to be with fellow Christians...That does not mean, or course, that Christians are to have no contact with unbelievers. But a professing Christian who prefers the company of the people of the world is probably still one of them.” (SEE Acts Commentary)

C H Spurgeon comments on how a believer know they have come to a place where they can have genuine assurance of their salvation - I have, heard it said, by those who would be thought philosophers, that in religion we must believe, but cannot know. I am not very clear about the distinction they draw between knowledge and faith, nor do I care to enquire; because I assert that, in matters relating to religion, we know; in the things of God, we both believe and know. (1 John 3 Exposition)

JOHN DESCRIBES
THE NEW BIRTH

Have passed (metabaino) out (ex or ek) of death (thanatos) into life (zoe) - What a beautiful description of our new birth! We "were dead in (our) trespasses and sins" (Eph 2:1+), but God "even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace [we] have been saved)" (Eph 2:5+) and in saving us He "delivered (Rescued = rhuomai) us from the domain (exousia = the right and the might = cp "of the evil one") of darkness, and transferred (methistemi) us to the kingdom of His beloved Son, in Whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins." (Col 1:13-14+) So here we see instead of passing from life to death as every man born eventually does, we go in the opposite direction. Can you see why "a natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God; for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them." Why can't the natural (unregenerate) man understand the truth that it is possible to pass out to death into life? "Because (these truths) are spiritually appraised (anakrino)." (1Cor 2:14+)

We have passed (have migrated) (metabaino from meta = signifies change of position or state + baino = to go or come) means literally to pass or go from one place to another as when Jesus "departed from there to teach and preach in their cities." (Mt 11:1) In 1Jn 3:14 and in Jn 5:24 metabaino is used figuratively to describe passage from death into life, John's way of describing the new birth. I am thankful that John used the perfect tense (also used in Jn 5:24+) which speaks of a past completed action (our "birth" day - "We have already done it while here on earth." - Robertson) with continuing results or effect. In short, once again John emphasizes the permanence of our new position in Christ and sure possession of eternal life! God wants us to KNOW where we are headed. If you know your future is secure, it allows you to focus on His kingdom work, especially the proclamation of the Gospel, that others might experience that same assurance.

Christians experience a permanent passage
from death to life at the time of regeneration.

Vine says the perfect tense of metabaino expresses "the permanent result of the past act, i.e., an abiding in the new state as those who have been delivered once and for all from the old." (Ed: Hallelujah!) (Collected Writings)

Out (ex or ek) of death (thanatos) into life (zoe) - Literally out of the death and into the life - "The article marks it as one of the two spheres in which men must be; death or life. The death, the life, present one of those sharp oppositions which are characteristic of the Epistle; as love, hatred; darkness, light; truth, a lie." (Vincent) Wuest adds that "We have here an ablative of separation, “separated from the death.”" That is very good news!

An assurance of salvation is the inner drive
that leads one to care for fellow believers
-- ESV Study Bible

Henry Mahan - Genuine love for the brethren is an evidence of redemption. It is not the cause but the sign, for no one sincerely loves his brethren unless he is regenerated by the Spirit of God. It is God’s spirit who sheds abroad God’s love in our hearts (Romans 5:5; Galatians 5:22). The love of the natural man is self-love (Luke 6:31-35). ‘He that loveth not’ continues in a state of spiritual death. (1 John 3 Commentary)

Love is the sure test of whether someone has experienced
the new birth or is still in the darkness of spiritual death
-- John MacArthur

John Piper - What does a lifestyle of love prove? In word, life-spiritual life, eternal life, the life of God Himself. Or to be more precise, a lifestyle of love gives strong and sure evidence that we have passed out of death into life. That's John's conviction about the nature of a Christian. A Christian is one in whom a resurrection has occurred, a spiritual resurrection in union with Christ "out of death into life." In 1John 2:10+ love was the sure evidence of a Christian's abiding in the light. Here in 1 Jn 3:14, love is the surest test of having life. The contrary is also true. "He who does not love abides in death," just as he is "in darkness" according to 1 Jn 2:9+, 1Jn 2:11+. In the vocabulary of John, love, light, and life belong together as do hatred, darkness, and death. John's argument for his last assertion in 1 Jn 3:14 ("He who does not love abides in death") comes in 1Jn 3:15 (click for continuation of Piper's argument). "Anyone who hates his brother is a murderer." (Discussion continued in 1Jn 3:15). (Love: A Matter of Life and Death)

W E Vine on out of death into life says "that which marks the condition of death is hatred; that which marks the condition of life is love. The change signified by the preposition ek, “out of,” is not one of place (Ed: as would be indicated by the preposition apo) but of state. To pass out of death into life is a matter of resurrection." (Collected Writings)

Paul describes the "divine migration" this way "Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death? Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, in order that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might (implied that we too were raised from the dead that we might) walk in newness (kainotes = a brand new quality) of life" (Ro 6:3-4+) and "when you were dead in your transgressions (Eph 2:1+) and the uncircumcision of your flesh (Eph 2:11+), He made you alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our transgressions." (Col 2:12+)

John Piper - Let us sum up, then, this section on the evidence of love. Lifestyles of love and hate (and I say lifestyles because all these verbs are in the present tense, and as you remember from last week, present tense verbs in Greek denote ongoing, continual activity) are very revealing. Specifically they reveal whether one abides in death or whether he has indeed passed out of death into life. People who persistently and consistently love other people in heartfelt ways that are practical and sacrificial—all those people and only those people—can have assurance that they indeed possess the eternal life of God himself. Brothers and sisters, loving one another is not a trivial thing; it is not optional. Loving one another is critically important, eternally important. It is a matter of life and death. (Love: A Matter of Life and Death)

We are not saved, by loving the brethren;
but when we are saved, we will love them.
--Robert Neighbour

David Legge - From the beginning of 1Jn 3:14 that you can know, and that puts the lie to those who say you can't really know and be sure of your salvation. That's what this epistle is all about, and here he is repeating it again: 'Hereby we can know that we have this eternal life'. That fact is not as difficult to discern as this love in the life of some people who call themselves Christians. You can know that you have eternal life, but it's hard to know as you observe the life of people who profess Christianity whether or not they really love their brothers and sisters. John comes in here speaking of this lack of brotherly love that proves an absence of eternal life, and he says: 'If you don't love your brothers', verse 14 the second part of it, 'you're still dead', for a love for brothers is a sure sign that you've passed from death unto life. But if you don't love your brethren, you're still dead (Eph 2:1)! his is serious stuff. John is saying that where there is no love there is no life… In this same epistle in 1Jn 2:11 he's already stated that not only are we dead, but we're in the dark: 'the one who hates his brother is in the darkness and walks in the darkness, and does not know where he is going because the darkness has blinded his eyes." A loveless man, John is saying, is a lightless man - he can't see his way. A loveless man is not only a lightless man, but he is a lifeless man - and ultimately the only conclusion you can come to is that a man without light and a man without love is a man who is lost! Now I know, and I agree to differ with some who see this portion of Scripture outlining primarily the two natures of the Christian; but I believe that the sentiments here are too strong, because John, time after time after time, is telling us that these people who have an absence of these characteristics are proving that they do not have the life of God in them - and your old nature can never have the life of God in it. My friend, what John is saying is that if you have a lack of love towards your brothers it proves an absence of eternal life. You're still dead. (1 John - Brotherly Love)

Sam Storms summarizes John's descriptions of regeneration or the new birth…

The term "begotten" or "re-born" or "born of" (gennao) is found 10x (1John 2:29; 1John 3:9(2); 1John 4:7; 1John 5:1 (2x); 1John 5:4; 1John 5:18 (2x). In 1John 3:14 he uses another term which is translated "passed out of" (metabaino).

When one examines these texts where the terminology of regeneration is used, one finds that John is concerned with describing the consequences or fruit of the new birth:

Question: "How may I know that regeneration has occurred? How may I know if someone has been born again?"

Answer: "That person will not practice sin (1John 3:9; 5:18). That person will practice righteousness (1John 2:29). That person will love the brethren (1John 4:7). That person will believe in Christ (1John 5:1). And that person will overcome the world (1John 5:4)."

John's point is simply that these activities are the evidence of the new birth and hence of salvation. Their absence is the evidence that regeneration has not taken place. He makes this point, not because he wants to demonstrate the cause/effect relationship between regeneration and faith, but because he wants to provide the church with tests by which to discern between true and spurious "believers". (Sam Storms- First John 5:1-21)

Because (hoti) we love (agapao - present tense - not perfection but direction) the brethren (adelphos) - Because - Always pause and ponder this term of explanation asking at least "What is the author explaining?" While the answer in many passages such as this one is straightforward, this discipline of pausing to ponder slows you down and allows the Spirit time to speak to your heart. Robertson adds that "because" here is "Proof of this transition, not the ground of it." We love (agapao) refers to divine love which is self-sacrificial in its essence, the love produced in the heart of the yielded saint by the Holy Spirit, the love defined by Paul in 1 Corinthians 13:4-7+, the love shown by God at Calvary. The brother here is ostensibly a Christian brother. The expression is equivalent to “a fellow-Christian.” (Wuest) Love in the present tense describes this quality of love as a believer's general attitude and practice (possible only by continually being filled and being enabled by the Holy Spirit!). Wuest adds that "Evidence of a saved condition is that the person is habitually loving Christians with a love that impels him to deny himself for the benefit of the fellow-Christian."

Sam Storms - John is again setting forth a test of life: a present, on-going practice points to a past reality. Love for the brethren now, in the present, is an indication or sign of regeneration then, in the past. Note: it should be stressed that active love is the sign of life, not its procuring cause. Our love for the brethren is evidence that we have been regenerated, that we have passed out of death and into life. It is by no means the condition for life. The person who does not love the brethren is exposed as yet abiding in death. Note: John does not say that if he does not love he will die, but that he does not love because he is already dead; death is his natural state. (First John 3:10b-24)

Spurgeon - Do you love them for Christ's sake? Do you say to yourself, 'That is one of Christ's people; that is one who bears Christ's cross; that is one of the children of God; therefore I love him, and take delight in his company'? Then, that is an evidence that you are not of the world. (1 John 3 Exposition)

The physical life and the spiritual life are not seen directly
but are apparent only from their evidence, their activity.

R C H Lenski - “The death,” “the life” are as definite as “the truth,” “the Word,” “the commandment,” “the righteousness,” etc.; they are not simply “death” and “life” in general. It is well to note that both the physical life and the spiritual life are not seen directly but are apparent only from their evidence, their activity. The plainest activity of the spiritual life is that of loving those who are one with us, are our spiritual brothers. We are not merely being friends with them (philein), but, understanding our spiritual relation to them, we act with a purpose that is according (agapen). (BORROW The Interpretation of the Epistles of St. Peter, St. John and St. Jude PAGE 476)

The real explanation is that we love the brethren because they are ‘of God.’
We see God in them, Christ in them; it is the expression of our love to God.

Martyn Lloyd-Jones on we love the brethren - Our new nature is one of love; that is what we have been given by the Holy Spirit (Ro 5:5)—the fruit of the Spirit is love (Gal 5:22). So, having this new nature, there is the principle of life in us which was never there before. It is natural to love members of the family; the world has become unnatural in sin and does not do that, but this is natural, to love members of the family, to love those that are in it as we are. But the real explanation is that we love the brethren because they are ‘of God.’ We see God in them, Christ in them; it is the expression of our love to God. (Children of God)

Utley on we love the brethren - This (the verb "love") is a Present active indicative. Love is the major characteristic of the family of God (cf. Jn 13:34-35; 15:12,17; 2John 1:5; 1Cor 13:4-7; Gal. 5:22) because it is characteristic of God, Himself (cf. 1Jn 4:7-21). Love is not the basis of human relationship with God, but the result. Love is not the basis of salvation, but another evidence of it. (Commentary)

THE TRAGIC CONTRAST!

He who does not love (agapao) abides (meno present tense) in death (thanatos) - “The not loving man,” (is a) general picture and picture of spiritual death." (Robertson) The world, by hating believers, gives evidence of its true spiritual position (in Adam - Ro 5:12+). Abides in the present tense signifies that spiritual death is their continuing temporal and eventually (if they do not repent) their eternal destiny. This truth parallels Paul's description of these souls as spiritually "dead in (their) trespasses and sins." (Eph 2:1+) We do not need to watch the television show "The Walking Dead." All we need to do is go out in various venues in the world. Sadly, they are everywhere (and they need to hear the Gospel from us!). In short, the fact that they do not love (with a supernatural, self-less love, Spirit enabled love) is clear evidence that they have no supernatural Source abiding in them and thus their "sin remains (meno = abides)" (Jn 9:41b+)

Spiritual death involves the absence of spiritual love;
the presence of it marks spiritual life.

W E Vine - spiritual death involves the absence of spiritual love; the presence of it marks spiritual life. This closing statement of this verse makes clear that spiritual death is the condition of man by nature (Eph 2:1, 5+). It is the exercise of love in its broadest scope that is here referred to, love, that is to say, shown not merely to believers but to fellowmen. “Faith worketh by love” and “faith without works is dead.” He who professes faith and does not exercise love is after all in his old state of death. (Collected Writings)

Hawley -To have no love speaks of the spiritual condition of the unregenerate—that is, such people are spiritually dead. If a person does not have any love for other Christians, it shows that the person does not share the same life as the others—it reveals that the person has not migrated from death to life. (See The Gospel of John, 1-3 John - Page 353)

Does not love - Hatred for one's brother is reiterated by John in three other passages…

1 John 2:9 The one who says he is in the light and [yet] hates his brother is in the darkness until now.

1 John 2:11 But the one who hates his brother is in the darkness and walks in the darkness, and does not know where he is going because the darkness has blinded his eyes.

1 John 4:20 If someone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for (term of explanation) the one who does not love his brother whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen.

H A Ironside asks "Do we know that we have passed from death unto life because we are sound in the faith, because we are fundamentalists, because we are earnest Christian workers, or because we give liberally to missions or the Lord’s work? No. “We know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren.” We love them in the divine sense-with agape. Dear friend, if you don’t have that testimony you better begin to investigate the foundations of your Christian profession. “We know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren.” (1 John 3 Commentary)

Sam Storms - [Having briefly mentioned the hatred which will inevitably arise from the world towards the Christian, John now speaks of that love which should permeate the church. As to its role as a test of authentic Christianity, love for the brethren is an evidence of life, as its absence is a testimony of death (1Jn 3:14-15). Furthermore, the essence of such love is self-sacrifice as seen from the person and work of Jesus (1Jn 3:16-18).] 2. the presence of love for the brethren confirms and assures the genuine Christian as having passed out of death into life, whereas he in whom it is absent abides in death, and is manifested as a murderer and one in whom eternal life does not abide - 1Jn 3:14-15 (First John 3:10b-24)Utley on He who does not love abides in death - This (love) is a Present participle used as the subject with a present active indicative verb (abides). As believers continue to abide in love, unbelievers abide in hate. Hate, like love, is an evidence of one's spiritual orientation. Remember John's stark, dualistic categories; one abides in love or abides in death. No middle ground. (Commentary)

Charles Simeon on the vital importance of showing genuine love to Christian brethren - Two things must be borne in mind, as distinguishing the true test from all its counterfeits. The “love of the brethren” is a love to them purely for Christ’s sake, and a love displaying itself towards them in all its proper offices. It is not a love to them on account of their having embraced our sentiments, or their belonging to our party; nor will it shew itself merely in speaking well of them, and in espousing their cause: it is called forth by the single circumstance of their being the friends and servants of the Lord Jesus Christ: and it will show itself in such a deportment towards them, as we would maintain towards the Lord Jesus Christ Himself, if He were circumstanced as they are. The description given of love in the 13th chapter of the First Epistle to the Corinthians(1Cor 13:4-7-+), is precisely that which the Christian will realize in his conduct towards Christians of every denomination: and then only is it a proper test of our conversion to God, when it so operates. But, supposing it to be of this kind, then may we “know” from it, without a shadow of doubt, that “we have passed from death into life:” for such love can proceed from God alone: it springs from no root whatever but faith in Christ: and, consequently, its existence and operation in the soul proves us to be true believers, children of God, and heirs of glory. Those who are strangers to this peculiar regard—If the existence of it in the soul prove that we have passed from death unto life, the non-existence of it may well lead you to fear that this change has never been wrought in you. Examine yourselves, therefore, and try your own selves (2Cor 13:5+). In truth, this test is of peculiar importance to you: for, if you will look within, you will find that, by nature, you are rather alienated from persons on account of their relation to Christ, than drawn to them: the want of congeniality of taste and sentiment sets you at a distance from them; and a consciousness of this may well lead you to conclude that you are yet dead before God. The Apostle tells us this, in the very words following my text; “He that loves not his brother, abides in death.” O consider this, ere it be too late: and seek that change, without which you must for ever perish! (1 John 3:14 Love of the Brethren)

Illustration: It is said that when A. B. Earl was a young man he sought membership in a Baptist Church. In those days it was necessary that one should relate their experience before they were baptized. Young Earl told the church that he had no big experience; that he had heard no voices, and had seen no visions, but said he: "My brethren, I love God's people and I love the house of God." One old deacon is said to have arisen, and to have said: "Brethren, we cannot refuse this young man our fellowship, because the Bible says: 'We know we have passed from death unto life when we love the brethren.'"

Vance Havner - The new birth is mysterious (John 3:7-8); it is the work of the Holy Spirit using the Word (Tit. 3:5; Jas. 1:18; 1 Pet. 1:23). On our part, the means is faith (Gal. 3:26). The new birth is manifested in a new creation (2 Cor. 5:17); in love (1 John 3:14; 4:7); in victory over sin (1 John 3:9; 5:18); in righteous living (1 John 2:29); in overcoming the world (1 John 5:4).

Vance Havner - I KNOW"

A doctor friend of mine gave me a book composed of the statements of faith, or rather of the lack of faith, of many prominent writers. I read it awhile and was growing rather weary of it when the radio began to broadcast from somewhere those precious lines of that great hymn:

Change and decay in all around I see;
O Thou who changest not, abide with me.

I threw down the book and said, "Thank God, I don't have to read such guesswork."

1. "1 know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day" (2 Tim. 1:12).

2. "If any man will do his will, he shall know the doctrine" (John 7:17).

3. "Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free" (John 8:32).

4. "We know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren" (I John 3:14).

5. "We know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose" (Rom. 8:28).

6. "We know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens (2 Cor. 5:1).

Vance Havner - I Trust His Heart

Today at lunch a friend of mine told me that Spurgeon said that God is too good to be unkind, too wise to be mistaken, and when you cannot trace His hand, you can always trust His heart. I have been through much that I do not understand. God does not ask me to understand it but to accept it. He is saying, "What I do thou knowest not now; but thou shalt know hereafter" (John 13:7).

I cannot trace His hand but I can trust His heart. I know that God is love and back of all His doings is that love. It sent His Son into this world and reached its climax on Calvary. It is the hallmark of His disciples. "We know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren" (1 John 3:14). "By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another' (John 13:35). WE know and ALL MEN know that we are His because His love is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit. It is inward evidence and outward evidence. I know that whom the Lord loveth He chasteneth. His corrective discipline proves my sonship.

Back of all the misery and mystery of this world beats that heart of love. I cannot trace God's hand in news reports and the happenings in this modern madhouse. Satan is on the loose.

Careless seems the great Avenger;
history's pages but record
One death-grapple in the darkness
'twixt old systems and the Word;
Truth forever on the scaffold,
Wrong forever on the throne,—
Yet that scaffold sways the future,
and, behind the dim unknown,
Standeth God within the shadow,
keeping watch above his own.
JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL

Let me keep step with the heartbeat of God and that heartbeat is love. I believe that I have reached to some degree that rest I sought at the first of this year. There remains much land to be possessed and I do not count myself to have attained but I am on my way. I did not dream what lay ahead. I do not fathom nor can I explain my Father's dealings. But I find no rebellion in my soul and know that all of it is working together for good.

I cannot always trace His hand but I can trust His heart. And His heart directs His hand. If I trust the heart I need never question the hand They never contradict each other.

Melvin Tinker: 1 John 3:11–24

INTRODUCTION: Loving other Christians is basic to what it means to be a Christian. If you are a believer you will imitate your Father. God is love (1 John 4:16) and so we must love others. We can find our confidence in this passage.

1. The Opposite of Love Is Seen in Cain (1Jn 3:11–15).

2. The Measure of Love Is Seen in Christ (1Jn 3:16–18).

3. The Fruit of Love Is Confidence (1Jn 3:19–24).

CONCLUSION: If you are not trusting you will not love; if you are trusting then you will love. Faith in Christ is the root, loving Christians is the fruit, and if we are doing both authentically then we can rest assured we are His.

Adrian Rogers - 1 John 3:14

If God's love is in us, we are going to love what He loves. This includes loving His dear family. That's why it is foolish to say yes to Jesus and no to His church.
The church is a building. And Jesus Christ is its foundation. Who could say yes to the foundation and no to the building that rests upon it?
The church is His bride. Who could say yes to the groom and no to the bride?
The church is His body. Who could say yes to Christ—its head—and no to the body?

Jerry Bridges - DO WE LOVE EACH OTHER? 1 JOHN 4:7 Holiness Day by Day: Transformational Thoughts

The apostle John gave us yet another indicator of the Spirit’s work within us in 1 John 3:14: “We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brothers.” Do you love other believers? Do you enjoy gathering with them to worship God?

I once became baffled while seeking to help another believer struggling with assurance. Nothing I suggested seemed to work. Then one day he told me his struggle was over. He’d come across 1 John 3:14. As he thought about that verse, he said, “I do love other believers. I rejoice to be around them and fellowship with them. I must truly be a Christian.” The Holy Spirit had used that Scripture to give him assurance that he was indeed God’s child.

We should ask ourselves if our love for other believers is the kind described in 1 Corinthians 13:4–7. Are we patient, kind, gracious, slow to anger, and ready to forgive? None of us can completely measure up to this standard, but do you want to? Do you grieve over your failures in these areas? If so, you love your brothers.

Of course, this indicator (like others) can cut both ways. Paul wrote to the Corinthians, “Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith; test yourselves. Do you not realize that Christ Jesus is in you—unless, of course, you fail the test?” (2 Corinthians 13:5).

We should never be afraid to examine ourselves. But when doubts arise, the solution is not to try harder to prove to ourselves that we are believers. The solution is to flee to the cross and to the righteousness of Christ, which is our only hope.

Kay Arthur - A true Christian cannot help but love others. Love of others is evidence of a genuine faith. Because love is an attribute of God, and because a Christian is a person who is indwelt by God, then it is only logical that love would be a fruit that a child of God would bear!

Andrew Murray - THE DESPAIR OF SELF 1 JOHN 3:14

When the truth of God touches our hearts, we know we cannot overcome the hardness of heart and pride just by the force of our own reason. It is only through death to ourselves that we can pass into life. There is no real conversion from the life of sin until we realize that our whole nature must be parted with, but we discover that in ourselves we cannot do it.

Through this despair, we lose all our life to find a new one in God. Here faith, hope, and true seeking for God are born. But up to this point, faith and hope and turning to God in prayer have been practiced only by obligation and method. They are not living qualities of a new birth until we have stopped feeling any confidence in ourselves.

We must feel within the reach of divine love. We must feel that God created us to be a habitation of His own life and Holy Spirit. In dealing with us, love is God’s bait. It will put its hook into the heart and make us realize that nothing is so strong, so irresistible as divine love.

A Heart Like His

My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. JOHN 15:12

Among all of those who know that we are Christ’s disciples, there is one very important person, and that is yourself. If you have love toward Christ’s disciples, you will know that you are one of his disciples, for how does the beloved apostle John put it? “We know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren” (1 John 3:14 KJV). It will be one of the clearest evidences to your own heart that you are really a disciple of Jesus when you realize that for Christ’s sake, you love the redeemed family of God. By this test shall all men know that you are his disciples.

By this test shall your fellow Christians also know that you are Christ’s disciples. I do not know of anything that more commends a Christian to his fellow Christian than a true spirit of love. No sermon can be so eloquent to the world as a true manifestation of the love of Christ, and when God restores to his church genuine, hearty, and sincere Christian love—I trust we have not wholly lost it—but when he gives us much more of it, then shall the world be more impressed by the gospel than it is at present.

If ours is not a loving church, I have labored in vain and spent my strength for nought. If you love not one another, surely you do not love the Savior; but if you are knit together in love

Daily Light on the Daily Path - We know that we have passed out of death into life.

“Whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life.”—Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life.

It is God who establishes us with you in Christ, and has anointed us, and who has also put his seal on us and given us his Spirit in our hearts as a guarantee.—By this we shall know that we are of the truth and reassure our heart before him. . . . Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence before God.—We know that we are from God, and the whole world lies in the power of the evil one.

You were dead in the trespasses and sins. . . . [God] made us alive together with Christ.—He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son.

1 John 3:14; John 5:24; 1 John 5:12; 2 Cor. 1:21–22; 1 John 3:19, 21; 1 John 5:19; Eph. 2:1, 5; Col. 1:13

Chris Tiegreen - From Death to Life The One Year Heaven on Earth Devotional: 365 Daily ... - Page 140

If we love our brothers and sisters who are believers, it proves that we have passed from death to life. But a person who has no love is still dead. 1 John 3:14

IN WORD
This world is broken. You know that; you see evidence of it every day. You also know the explanation given in the early chapters of Genesis. One act of rebellion invited the rebellious spirit into the core of our souls, resulting in catastrophic consequences for the human race. And that rebellious spirit is self-centered by nature. It reverses the flow of the most powerful force in the universe to feed ourselves rather than others. It turns love inward.
That’s a deadly direction. Our own love was never meant to be spent on ourselves. It was meant to flow outward, to be fully received from God and fully spent on Him and each other. When we enter the Kingdom of life, that tragic reversal is reversed again; love is turned back to its proper direction. The King bathes us in His love, we receive it in gratitude, and then we are free to offer it back to Him and to everyone else. That’s how we experience life instead of death.
If that isn’t our experience, we are still living in the culture of another kingdom, no matter how many times we’ve prayed to receive Christ or declared our Kingdom loyalties. Love is evidence that we are truly living in a Kingdom environment, drinking in life rather than death. Without it, we are still walking in darkness and experiencing the fruit of rebellion. We are missing the benefits of the Kingdom.

IN DEED
Always check the direction of your love. Is it flowing outward? Is it truly turned toward God and others? It’s okay to admit that it isn’t; every human being has had to deal with vestiges of the Fall, even after coming into the Kingdom. But if your life feels more like death, then the direction of your love may be the reason. The Kingdom culture is overflowing with the love of the Father. Fully drink it in. Bask in it. Saturate yourself in it. Then let it spill over lavishly into the lives of others. You and they will begin to experience the fullness of life.

WE HAVE PASSED. - C H Spurgeon (Beside Still Waters) 1 John 3:14

Life is like a parade that passes before our eyes. It comes. Hear the people shouting. It is here. In a few minutes, people crowd the streets. Then it vanishes and is gone. Does life strike you as being just that?

I remember, ah I remember, so many in the parade. I have stood, as it were, at a window, even though I have also been in the procession. I recall the hearty men of my boyhood, whom I use to hear pray. They are now singing up yonder.

I remember a long parade of saints who have passed before me and have gone into glory. What a host of friends we have in the unseen world, who are “gone over to the majority.” As we grow older, they really are the majority, for our friends on earth are outnumbered by our friends in heaven.

Some of you will fondly remember loved ones who have passed away in the parade. But please remember that you also are in the parade. Though they seem to have passed before you, you have been passing along with them, and soon you will reach the vanishing point. We are all walking in the procession. We are all passing away to the land of substance and reality.

We expect good things to come. We are not inhabitants of this country; we are citizens of the New Jerusalem. We are only shipwrecked here for a while, exiled from home until the boat comes to ferry us across the stream to the land where our true possessions lie.

Life, light, love, and everything is He who has gone before. Jesus is our Forerunner to the place that He has prepared for them that love Him (John 14:2).

David Jeremiah - We know that we have passed from death to life.

Loving God, My Savior said, “He who hears My word and believes in Him who sent Me has everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment, but has passed from death into life.” I who have Your Son, Lord God, have life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life.
God, You establish me in Christ and anoint me; You also have sealed me and given me Your Spirit in my heart as a guarantee. By this I know that I am of the truth, and shall assure my heart before You, God. If my heart does not condemn me, I have confidence toward You. I know that I am of You, Lord God, and the whole world lies under the sway of the wicked one.
I am one Jesus made alive, who was dead in trespasses and sins. Lord God, You made me alive together with Christ. You have delivered me from the power of darkness and conveyed me into the kingdom of the Son of Your love.

I praise You, merciful God, for You have enabled me to pass from death to life, from separation from You to relationship with You.

1 JOHN 3:14; JOHN 5:24; 1 JOHN 5:12; 2 CORINTHIANS 1:21–22; 1 JOHN 3:19, 21; 1 JOHN 5:19; EPHESIANS 2:1, 5; COLOSSIANS 1:13

H A Ironside - 1 John 3:13, 14.

All who are bom of God partake of His nature. Hence, as He is love, so they are loving. Hatred is incompatible with the new life imparted to all who believe in the Lord Jesus. Nor is this love merely a matter of sentiment or of lip-service. It is a very real experience and marks out the believer as one who like his Master loves on in spite of the world’s attitude, whether of hate or of cold unconcern. God’s perfect love apprehended by faith frees the soul from fear and fills the heart with love toward others.

“Happy the heart where grace doth reign
Where love inspires the breast;
Love is the brightest of the train,
And perfects all the rest.

Knowledge, alas, ‘tis all in vain,
And all in vain our fear;
Our stubborn sins will fight and reign,
If love be absent there.

‘Tis love that makes our cheerful feet
In swift obedience move:
The devils know, and tremble too;
But Satan cannot love.
—Isaac Watts.

FELLOWSHIP

An American doctor traveling in Korea knew just enough of the language to get around. At a station stop an old Korean boarded the train and sat across from the doctor. He carried a large bundle in a white cloth. Soon the old Korean began to speak to the doctor, pouring out a torrent of words. The doctor replied with the only sentence he had memorized, “I do not understand Korean.” The old man persisted. A second time the doctor gave his stock answer. This was repeated a third time.

In the stream of Korean words the doctor thought he had detected a somewhat familiar word. Had the old man said something about Jesus?
His doubt vanished when the Korean pointed to the doctor and asked, “Yesu? Yesu?” With a smile the doctor nodded in agreement, “Yesu, Yesu.”

Smiling from ear to ear, the Korean opened his large bundle and proudly displayed his Korean Bible. Then he put his finger on a verse. The doctor couldn’t read it, of course, but carefully figuring out the approximate place in his own Bible, he read from 1 John 3:14: “We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brethren.” —Leslie B. Flynn

Henry Mahan - 1 John 3:14

If there is anything better than being loved, it is to love; for this is the mark of discipleship, the evidence of regeneration, and the bond of perfection. It is the nature of God, for God is love. It is the old, the new, the great commandment, and all the commandments in one word —love!

It is the first fruit of the Spirit; it is the foundation of all other graces. And of all that abides, it is the “greatest of these.” It casteth out fear, it covers a multitude of sins, and it brought Christ to earth to be our redeemer.

Love sees what no eye sees, hears what no ear hears, and understands that which only love can teach. It can’t be defined, only experienced. It can’t be destroyed as long as God lives. It can’t be developed; it is the gift of God.

It’s presence is evidence of God’s presence, and its absence is evidence of God’s absence; for “he that loveth not knoweth not God.” The apostle said, “Make love your aim” (1 Cor. 14:1).

Adrian Rogers - I remember hearing about a woman who went to the doctor. She’d been bitten by a rabid animal and said, “Yes, you do. You have rabies.” And, she got out a pen and a piece of paper and began to write. He said, “What are you doing—making out your will?” She said, “No, I’m making a list of people I’m going to bite.” There are people just like that—filled with hatred. God writes it down as murder. That’s another level of life.

F B Meyer Devotional - Practicing Christianity - 1 John 3:14

IT IS a great comfort to find that Love is not regarded by the Apostle as though it were merely an emotional or sentimental matter, for every reference points to action! The love of God was manifested in the laying down of His life, and we are to be willing to follow in His steps (1 John 3:16). The injunction is that we should love in our deeds. We are not to shut up our hearts in compassion, but to help our brother in need. If we begin with doing kind and loving actions, we shall end by feeling the same. Often when people come to me, saying that love has completely died out of their life towards some other person, I have bidden them go back again, and act with love, making the other one the centre and object of helpful ministry; the invariable result is the refreshing and rekindling of the hot geyser-springs of affection.

Do not wait to feel love, but begin at once to show it, because it is fight, and your duty, and as you step out in simple faith you will find that God will make this to abound towards that also abound in grace you may this good work. Love of such kind is self-giving and it is the gift of the Spirit of God. This exotic bloom cannot flourish on our wintry soil; the heart of man cannot furnish it. There may be a few wild growths, but they bear small comparison to its beautiful flower and fruit. Love is of God. It proceeds from His Nature, and is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit which is given unto us. "The fruit of the Spirit is love," and as we are united with Christ by faith, the love of God will be shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit, and we shall be able to love with God's love.

We know that we have been born from above as soon as we find ourselves willing to put the interests of another before our own, not because we have a natural affection or affinity for him, but because he and we belong to God. If there is hatred or dislike in our hearts towards any, let us beware! We must uproot it by generous action, or it will bring darkness into our own lives (1 John 2:9, 10, 11).

PRAYER - Enable us, O God of patience, to bear one another's burdens, and to forbear one another in love. Oh, teach and help us all to live in peace and to love in truth. Subdue all bitter resentments in our minds, and let the law of kindness be in our tongues. AMEN. - F. B. Meyer. Our Daily Walk.

JOHN PIPER SUMMARIZES JOHN'S
EVIDENCE OF THE NEW BIRTH

I think God wants the totality of this book to have its impact on us. It is dominated by the concern to give “tests of life” or effects and evidences of the new birth. He gives at least eleven evidences that we are born again. We could probably boil them all down to faith and love. But for now let’s let them stand the way he says them. Here they are:

1. Those who are born of God keep his commandments.

1 John 2:3-4+: “By this we know that we have come to know him, if we keep his commandments. Whoever says ‘I know him’ but does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him.”

1 John 3:24+: “Whoever keeps his commandments abides in God, and God in him.”

2. Those who are born of God walk as Christ walked.

1 John 2:5-6+: “By this we may know that we are in him: whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked.”

3. Those who are born of God don’t hate others but love them.

1 John 2:9+: “Whoever says he is in the light and hates his brother is still in darkness.”

1 John 3:14+: “We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brothers. Whoever does not love abides in death.”

1 John 4:7-8+: “Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love.”

1 John 4:20+: “If anyone says, ‘I love God,’ and hates his brother, he is a liar.”

4. Those who are born of God don’t love the world.

1 John 2:15+: “If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.”

5. Those who are born of God confess the Son and receive (have) him.

1 John 2:23+: “No one who denies the Son has the Father. Whoever confesses the Son has the Father also.”

1 John 4:15+: “Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God.”

1 John 5:12+: “Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life.”

6. Those who are born of God practice righteousness.

1 John 2:29+: “If you know that he is righteous, you may be sure that everyone who practices righteousness has been born of him.”

7. Those who are born of God don’t make a practice of sinning.

1 John 3:6+: “No one who abides in him keeps on sinning; no one who keeps on sinning has either seen him or known him.”

1 John 3:9-10+: “No one born of God makes a practice of sinning, for God’s seed abides in him, and he cannot keep on sinning because he has been born of God. By this it is evident who are the children of God, and who are the children of the devil: whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is the one who does not love his brother.”

1 John 5:18+: “We know that everyone who has been born of God does not keep on sinning, but he who was born of God protects him, and the evil one does not touch him.”

8. Those who are born of God possess the Spirit of God.

1 John 3:24+: “By this we know that he abides in us, by the Spirit whom he has given us.”

1 John 4:13+: “By this we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit.”

9. Those who are born of God listen submissively to the apostolic Word.

1 John 4:6+: “We are from God. Whoever knows God listens to us; whoever is not from God does not listen to us. By this we know the Spirit of truth and the spirit of error.”

10. Those who are born of God believe that Jesus is the Christ.

1 John 5:1+: “Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God.”

11. Those who are born of God overcome the world.

1 John 5:4+: “Everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith.”

Two Wrong Conclusions - One of the effects of all those “tests of life” is to overwhelm us with the sense that John may be saying: “If you’re born again, you’re perfect. If you’re born again you don’t sin at all. There is no defeat in the Christian life. There is only victory.”

Another effect that these tests might have in our minds is to make us think we can loose our salvation. That is, we can be born again for a while and then begin to fail in these tests and die and lose the spiritual life that we were given in the new birth.

Two Key Clarifications - John is very aware that his words could be taken in these two wrong ways. So he is explicit as any writer in the New Testament that this is not the case: Christians are not sinless, and born-again people cannot lose their spiritual life and be lost.

He says in 1 John 1:8-10-+, “If we say we have no sin [present tense], we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins [present tense], he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.” So John is at pains to say that “walking in the light” (1Jn 1:7-+) does not mean walking flawlessly. It means that, when you stumble, the light of Christ causes you to see it and hate it and confess it and move forward with Christ.

And John is just as jealous to make sure we don’t infer from these “tests of life” that we can be born again and then later lose our life and be lost. 1John 2:19-+ is one of the clearest statements in the Bible that there is another way to understand what happens when a person abandons the church. It says, “They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us. But they went out, that it might become plain that they all are not of us.”

Notice three things John says to protect us from misunderstanding. 1) Those who seemed to be born again and forsook the faith never were born again—they never were of us. “They went out from us, but they were not of us.” In other words, the explanation is not that they lost their new birth. They never had it. 2) Those who are truly born again (“of us”) will persevere to the end in faith. 1Jn 5:19b-+: “For if they had been of us, they would have continued with us.” Endurance is not the cause of the new birth. The new birth is the cause of endurance, and endurance is the evidence of new birth. 3) God often makes plain who the false Christians are in the church by their eventual rejection of the truth and the people of God. Verse 19c: “But they went out, that it might become plain that they all are not of us.” It became plain. And it often becomes plain today. (Everyone Who Has Been Born of God Overcomes the World)

Here is a letter from Dr John Piper that is a critique of Zane Hodges' interpretation of 1 John. The letter was written in 1986 and entitled "Who Am I Talking About?" (Bold added for emphasis).

I have referred several times to a contemporary movement of evangelicalism that offers assurance of salvation to professing Christians who go on living in sin. Who am I talking about? Here is an example.

Zane Hodges, who teaches at Dallas Seminary, has written a book entitled The Gospel Under Siege (Redencion Viva, 1981).

His position is the very opposite of mine:

“An insistence on the necessity or inevitability of works fundamentally undermines assurance” (p.13). That is, “if good works are really . . . an essential fruit of salvation,” we cannot be sure of our eternal salvation (p. 9). Therefore, “works have nothing to do with determining a Christian's basic relationship to God.” “There is not even a single place in the Pauline letters where he expresses doubt that his audience is composed of true Christians.” (p. 95).

Apart from the fact that 2 Corinthians 13:5+ contradicts his last statement, 1 John remains an insuperable obstacle. His interpretation will not stand. Consider for yourselves what he says concerning 1 John 3:14+ (“We know that we have passed from death to life because we love the brothers.”). Here assurance of passing out of death into life is the product of loving our fellow Christians. How will he escape it?

He tries to escape it by saying that the verse has “no reference to conversion as such.” He says that there is a sphere of light and a sphere of darkness within the Christian life. “If anyone does not love his brother he is out of touch with God. He is not living as a true disciple of his Master” (p. 63). But he is still a child of God because eternal security has nothing to do with whether you are a loving person or not.

This will not stand scrutiny. The one other place where John uses the same Greek phrase (“We have passed from death to life”) is John 5:24, where he says, “Truly, truly I say to you that the one who hears my word and believes the one who sent me has eternal life and does not come into judgment but has passed from death into life.” Therefore it is grasping at a straw to say that “passing from death to life” in 1 John 3:14 refers to two states within Christian life. It plainly means: passing from lostness to eternal life.

I appeal to you, judge for yourselves, does John's assurance in 1 John 3:14 come from loving the brothers or not?

Bowing before the Word with you,

Pastor John

Related Resources:

Zane Hodges - Middletown Bible church
The Unusual Teachings of Zane Hodges - Middletown Bible church

The Easy English Bible commentary summarizes (in simple, straightforward language) what John is saying…

All those people who trust in the *Lord Jesus belong to him. They know that they have a new life. People of the *world may hate them. But they are safe with the *Lord. Death is in contrast to the new life. Death is the state of all who do not know the *Lord. We Christians know that we are no longer dead. We have come into a new life. Once we belonged to death but now we do not. The *Lord has transferred us from death to life. Now we belong to him. We know that this is true. Our love for each other shows that it is true. We know that we have life. We know this because we love other Christians. Such love shows that we are God’s children. We do not become Christians by our love. But love shows that we have become Christians. Those who do not love do not have this life. They remain in death. This is the opposite of life with God. Love is the evidence of life. But hate is the evidence of death. (1 John - Bible Commentary in Easy English)

Robert Morgan - Five ’til Eight - He cast a long shadow—a preacher for 67 years, a theological professor for 60 years, a seminary president for 13 years. John R. Sampey’s influence touched multiple generations. John was born in Alabama on his mother’s birthday, September 27, 1863. One of his earliest memories occurred short years later when, as a young child, he watched his mother being baptized. When she disappeared beneath the water, he cried out in alarm and never forgot the scene. His own conversion occurred as a teenager. As I lay on the trundle bed on the night of March 3, 1877, I could not go to sleep. We had just had family prayers, and Father was reading and Mother was knitting. My younger brother had fallen asleep beside me; but I was in distress over my sins. In my desperation I began to talk in a whisper: “Lord Jesus, I do not know what to do. I have prayed, but get no relief. I read the Bible, but my sins are a burden on my soul. … If I am lost, I will go down trusting You.” Then something happened. It seemed a great Presence filled the room and said to me almost in audible words: “My boy, I have been waiting for you to do what you have just done. You can count on Me to save you.” I looked up to the old family clock on the mantel, and it was five minutes to eight o’clock. Sampey didn’t announce his conversion until July when he stepped forward in church, saying he now loved God and God’s people as never before. The minister turned to the congregation and said: “Hereby we know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren.” That verse became Sampey’s theme verse, for it impressed on him the mark of a Christian. Its words guided him for years to come, contributing greatly to his patient spirit and his willingness to serve. It became personified in him, and none who knew him doubted that he had passed from death to life, for he did love the brethren. (BORROW From this Verse PAGE 19)

J. C. Philpot. Daily Portions. "We know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren." 1 John 3:14 - The Lord's people in their early days have a measure of heavenly love. Though perhaps they cannot say that Jesus is theirs; though they dare not declare they shall certainly go to heaven when they die; though they sometimes cannot even assert that the work of grace is really begun upon their souls; yet there is love manifested in them to God's word, God's people, God's servants, and God's truth. There is in them, in their weakest and tenderest days, a separation from the world, a casting-in of their lot among the people of God, a going-out in the tenderness of their heart and affection towards them. We see this in Ruth--though she was a poor heathen idolatress, no sooner was her heart touched by the finger of God, than she cleaved to Naomi.

Love to Christ can only spring from the teachings and operations of God upon the heart. Our "carnal mind is enmity against God"--nothing but implacable, irreconcilable enmity. But when the Lord is pleased to make himself, in some measure, known to the soul; when he is pleased, in some degree, to unveil his lovely face, and to give a discovery of his grace and glory--immediately divine love springs up. He is so lovely an Object! As the Bride says, He is "altogether lovely." His beauty is so surpassing, his grace so rich, his mercy so free--all that he is and has is so unspeakably glorious--that no sooner does he unveil his lovely face, than he wins over all the love of the heart, takes possession of the bosom, and draws every affection of the soul to center wholly and solely in himself. - J. C. Philpot. Daily Portions

See lengthy devotional by Octavius Winslow on 1 John 3:14 - 1 John 3:14 Christian Love, a Test of Christian Character

Badge of Discipleship - Vance Havner

"We know" and "they know," is the private and public badge of discipleship.
"We know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren..." (1 John 3:14).
"By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another." (John 13:35).

Some of us have lost our badge!

Love The Brothers - Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God. —1 John 4:7 - In his book Prayer: Finding the Heart’s True Home, Richard Foster tells of an old sage who asked his disciples, “How can we know when the darkness is leaving and the dawn is coming?” “When we can see a tree in the distance and know that it is an elm and not a juniper,” one student responded. “When we can see an animal and know it is a fox and not a wolf,” replied another.
“No,” said the teacher.
Puzzled, the students asked for the answer. The sage replied quietly, “We know the darkness is leaving and the dawn is coming when we can see another person and know that it is our brother or sister; otherwise no matter what time it is, it’s still dark.”
Do we take seriously John’s words, “We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love the brethren”? (1 Jn. 3:14). Or do we know of Christians whom we dislike intensely? Do we hold in contempt those who go to a different church and don’t agree with us on every issue? What about Christians of another race? Do we like them not only from a distance but also when they are up close and personal?
If love is the mark of a believer, do people recognize that we belong to Christ? By Haddon W. Robinson (Our Daily Bread, Copyright RBC Ministries, Grand Rapids, MI. — Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved)

Every kindness done to others
Is a kindness done to Thee;
Christlike love for all my brothers
May the world observe in me. —Brandt

People with a heart for God have a heart for people.

The Moment I Knew - I now send you, to open their eyes, in order to turn them from darkness to light. —Acts 26:17-18
The lights dimmed on the platform as Tom Whittaker began to sing the words of “Mary, Did You Know?” The steady, quiet strumming of his guitar beautifully complemented his calm, deep voice. His wife, Gloria, says that the first time she heard him sing that song, she realized she was in love with him.

Many people who know Jesus as Savior can point to a specific moment when they suddenly grasped the extent of God’s amazing love for them. At that instant, they got it. Ray Boltz describes it in song:

The moment it happened,
It was the moment I knew;
It was like walking in the darkness
When the light comes shining through.

Paul had such a moment on the Damascus Road. His first encounter with Jesus transformed him from a fierce persecutor of Christians to the first great missionary. Spurred on by this eye-opening experience, Paul’s newfound love for the Savior compelled him to share the gospel with everyone he met (Acts 26). Perhaps you know about Christ but have never trusted Him for salvation. John wrote, “We know that we have passed from death to life” (1 John 3:14). But that statement applies only to those who look to Jesus for forgiveness. Because of God’s love, you too can “receive forgiveness of sins” through Jesus Christ (Acts 26:18) and be “born again” (John 3:3). The moment is now. By Cindy Hess Kasper (Our Daily Bread, Copyright RBC Ministries, Grand Rapids, MI. — Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved)

It’s one thing to know there is a God; it’s quite another to know the God who is.

The Resurrection Open - 2009-us-open-logoIt had to be a mixture of thrill and relief on Monday for Lucas Glover when he holed his final putt, claiming the 2009 US Open. Glover struggled early in the final round but recovered down the stretch, and showed the kind of steely nerves that are necessary to win our national championship. It was a great story in the middle of a week filled with great stories. But for me, one of the most fascinating stories was that of David Duval. The 882nd ranked player in the world coming into the Open, Duval showed flashes of the brilliance that had helped him score a 59 in competition and climb the ladder to become the No. 1 ranked player in the world in the late 1990s. Then, he suddenly lost his game and it seemed he would never find his way back. When he did play in a tournament, he struggled badly—making it almost painful to watch. But his life, and his game, has come back together. In fact, his showing at the Open, along with good play from Lucas Glover and Ricky Barnes, was such a remarkable turnaround that NBC golf analyst Johnny Miller said that they should call this year’s event “The Resurrection Open.” It sure did seem that, at least for one magical weekend, David Duval’s golf game had come back to life from the dead—and his 2-under-par performance at the 2009 US Open proved it.

In a far more significant arena, the follower of Christ has been brought from death into life by the power of Christ’s cross and resurrection. But where is the proof of that spiritual resurrection in Christ? We can talk all we want and say what we will, but the proof of the resurrection is not in the talking—it is in the living. In 1 John 3:14, John writes, "We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brethren.” There, we get at least part of the answer about what stands as evidence of new life in Christ. One of the dominant characteristics of the person who has been “raised from the dead” is that they will love what Christ loves—most specifically, His people. It is not enough to simply talk a good game. Loving like Christ loves can show a watching world that the resurrection of Christ has changed our lives forever—and for right now. Bill Crowder, Sport Spectrum Chaplain

Vance Havner - WHAT IS A CHRISTIAN?

And the disciples were called Christians first at Antioch (Acts 11:26).

We have become so taken up with the things that accompany the Christian experience, the secondary matters, that the Christian himself can hardly be identified nowadays. The traveler has been lost in the baggage. One thinks of the housewife who answered the doorbell to be greeted by a stranger who abruptly asked, "Do you know Jesus Christ?" She was so taken aback that she could think of no answer and closed the door in his face. When she told her husband of it, he suggested, "But why didn't you tell him that you are president of the missionary society and teacher of the ladies' Bible class and active in all church work?" "But he didn't ask me about that," she replied; "he asked me 'Do you know Jesus Christ?"' So, in the midst of the things we do and belong to, it is well to open the door on ourselves once in a while and ask abruptly, "What about you? For all your religious zeal and church work, do you know Jesus Christ?"

A Christian is one who knows the Lord Jesus Christ as a personal Savior and is living by faith in Him and in fellowship with Him. But we may go into detail and, to use the time-honored method of alliteration, put it thus:

1. First, a Christian is saved.

"And the Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved" (Acts 2:47). It does not say "such as were sincere" or "such as were sanctimonious." The desire to build up an impressive church roll and send a pretentious letter to denominational headquarters has filled our churches with a strange assortment of saints and sinners, lost and saved.

2. In the second place, a Christian is not only saved but he should be sure that he is saved.

A born-again, blood-washed believer has no right to go through this world a human question-mark, up one day and down the next, never able to stand at any time or place with full assurance of salvation. For the Word sets forth as plainly as day the blessed certainty of knowing Whom we have believed (2 Tim. 1:12); of knowing that we have eternal life (I John 5:13); of knowing that He abides in us by the Spirit He has given us (I John 3:24); of knowing that we have passed from death unto life because we love the brethren (I John 3:14).

3. The next mark of a Bible Christian is that he is surrendered to God: "Yield yourselves unto God" (Rom. 6:13).

True victory begins with a surrender to the will of God. It has been pointed out that God required Abraham first to give up Ishmael, the worst thing in his life, born of the will of the flesh. He took Ishmael away, and he never came back. Then God asked for Isaac, the best thing in Abraham's life, born of faith. He gave Isaac back. So does God want the Ishmaels, the bad things in our lives, that He may take them away and they may never come back, and He wants the Isaacs, the best things, that He may sanctify them to His glory

4. A Bible Christian is not only surrendered but also separated.

"Come out from among them, and be ye separate" (2 Cor. 6:17). The early Christians were a peculiar people; now we are a popular people. The early Christians were despised and derided outcasts from high society. Not many wise, mighty, or noble had been called. The world's interests and enthusiasms meant nothing to them. Paul and Peter could not have been found in an amphitheater watching a gladiatorial contest in the hope that their young people might be attracted by their broadmindedness to come to church.

5. It is not enough to be separated from; we must be separated unto the Lord.

God wants ourselves, not merely the giving up of this evil or that. Peter forsook his boat and nets when first he followed the Lord, but it was three years later that he gave up Simon Peter.

6. The Bible Christian is Spirit-filled.

"Be filled with the Spirit" (Eph. 5:18). In the early church it was surprising to meet disciples who were not filled with the Spirit: today it is a surprise to meet one who is.

The early Christians at Pentecost were accused of being drunk on new wine (Acts 2:13). And in Eph. 5:18 we are told, "Be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit." . . . A man filled with wine creates a stir, and so does a Spirit-filled man follow in the steps of those early Christians who upset a world.

7. A Bible Christian is a singing Christian.

The same passage that tells us to be filled with the Spirit tells us to sing and make melody in our hearts to the Lord (Eph. 5:19). God's statutes should be our songs in the house of our pilgrimage (Ps. 119:54). The hallelujahs have gone from our churches. A popular prejudice against emotion has crowded our feelings out the back-door of our spiritual experiences. Emotions may be dangerous, but so is anything worth having. Man has intelligence, will, and emotions, and a genuine experience of grace will affect all three.

These are the marks of a real Bible Christian: Saved, Sure, Sound, Surrendered, Spirit-filled, Singing. How many of the marks do you bear? Dr. Pace, the Christian cartoonist, spells it well when he makes it read: C-H-R-I-S-T- and I-A-N stands for I Am Nothing. "To live is Christ!"

C H Spurgeon - My Sermon Notes -

1 John 3:14—“We know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren.”

The spiritual things which we speak of are matters of knowledge.
John, in almost every verse of this epistle, uses the words “we know.”
The philosophical distinction between believing and knowing is mere theory. “We know and have believed.”

I. WE KNOW THAT WE WERE DEAD.
1. We were without feeling when law and gospel were addressing us.
2. Without hunger and thirst after righteousness.
3. Without power of movement towards God in repentance.
4. Without the breath of prayer, or pulse of desire.
5. With signs of corruption; some of them most offensive.

II. WE KNOW THAT WE HAVE UNDERGONE A SINGULAR CHANGE.
1. The reverse of the natural change from life to death.
2. No more easy to describe than the death change would be.
3. This change varies in each case as to its outward phenomena, but it is essentially the same in all.
4. As a general rule its course is as follows—
It commences with painful sensations.
It leads to a sad discovery of our natural weakness.
It is made manifest by personal faith in Jesus.
It operates on the man by repentance and purification.
It is continued by perseverance in sanctification.
It is completed in joy, infinite, eternal.
5. The period of this change is an era to be looked back upon in time and through eternity with grateful praise.

III. WE KNOW THAT WE LIVE.
1. We know that we are not under condemnation.
2. We know that faith has given us new senses, grasping a new world, enjoying a realm of spiritual things.
3. We know that we have new hopes, fears, desires, delights, etc.
4. We know that we have been introduced into new surroundings and a new spiritual society: God, saints, angels, etc.
5. We know that we have new needs; such as heavenly breath, food, instruction, correction, etc.
6. We know that this life guarantees eternal bliss.

IV. WE KNOW THAT WE LIVE, BECAUSE WE LOVE. “We love the brethren.”
1. We love them for Christ’s sake.
2. We love them for the truth’s sake.
3. We love them for their own sake.
4. We love them when the world hates them.
5. We love their company, their example, their exhortations.
6. We love them despite the drawbacks of infirmity, inferiority, etc.

Let us prove our love by our generosity.
Thus shall we supply ourselves with growing evidences of grace.

LOVE-LINES

Just as in his gospel he rescues the word logos from antichristian uses, so in this Epistle he rescues the word “know,” and aims at making his “little children” Gnostics in the divine sense. Knowledge is excellent, but the path to it is not through intellectual speculation, however keen and subtle, but through faith in Jesus Christ and subjection to him, according to those most Johannine words in the Gospel of Matthew: “Neither knoweth any man the Father save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal him.”—Dr. Culross.

The Christian apologist never further misses the mark than when he refuses the testimony of the Agnostic to himself. When the Agnostic tells me he is blind and deaf, dumb, torpid, and dead to the spiritual world, I must believe him. Jesus tells me that. Paul tells me that. Science tells me that. He knows nothing of this outermost circle; and we are compelled to trust his sincerity as readily when he deplores it as if, being a man without an ear, he professed to know nothing of a musical world, or being without taste, of a world of art. The nescience of the Agnostic philosophy is the proof from experience that to be carnally minded is death.—Professor Henry Drummond.

The world always loves to believe that it is impossible to know that we are converted. If you ask them, they will say, “I am not sure; I cannot tell”; but the whole Bible declares we may receive, and know that we have received, the forgiveness of sins.—R. M. McCheyne.

In the writings of Paul, “Faith in the Lord Jesus, and love to all the saints,” constitute a well-understood and oft-recurring sequence. It is a straitening about that upper spring of faith that makes the streams of love fail in their channels.—W. Arnot.

Yes, brethren in Christ have all one common Father, one common likeness, one object of faith, love, and adoration; one blessed hope, one present employment; alike in trials, alike in prayer. They lean upon the same hand, appear daily before the same mercy-seat, feed at the same table. How much all these things link them together, not in profession only, but in heart! Hence this is a decisive test: “We know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren.”
D. Katterns.

In the early days of Christianity, when it triumphed over the old heathenism of the Roman world, it founded a new society bound together by this holy mutual love. The catacombs of Rome bear remarkable testimony to this gracious brotherhood. There were laid the bodies of members of the highest Roman aristocracy, some even of the family of the Cæsars, side by side with the remains of obscure slaves and labourers. And in the case of the earliest graves the inscriptions are without a single allusion to the position in society of him who was buried there: they did not trouble themselves whether he had been a consul or a slave, a tribune of the legion or a common soldier, a patrician or an artisan. It sufficed that they knew him to have been a believer in Christ, a man who feared God. They cared not to perpetuate in death the vain distinctions of the world; they had mastered the glorious teaching of the Lord, “One is your master, even Christ, and all ye are brethren.”—E. De Pressensé.

GREEK WORD STUDIES

Know (1492)(eido, oida - eido is used only in the perfect tense = oida) means in general to know by perception. Eido/oida is distinguished from ginosko (epiginosko, epignosis - the other major NT word group for knowing) because ginosko generally refers to knowledge obtained by experience or "experiential knowledge". On the other hand, eido/oida often refers more to an intuitive knowledge, although this distinction is not always clear cut. Eido/oida is not so much that which is known by experience as an intuitive insight that is drilled into one's heart. Eido/oida is a perception, a being aware of, an understanding, an intuitive knowledge which in the case of believers can only be given by the Holy Spirit. Literally eido/oida refers to perception by sight (perceive, see) as in Mt 2:2+ "Where is He who has been born King of the Jews? For we saw (eido) His star in the east, and have come to worship Him." In sum, for believers eido/oida suggests Spirit given fullness of knowledge, absolute knowledge (that which is without a doubt), rather than a progress in knowledge (cp ginosko)

Know (eido/oida) carries the idea of well assured knowledge and in context describes the divinely given intuitive knowledge which every one of John's readers received when they were born into the family as children of God and became partakers of His divine nature (2Pe 1:4+). Unsaved men cannot know divine truth intuitively unless they are born by the Spirit into God's family (1Co 2:14+). In short, the children of God know that this life is not all there is to eternal life, but that one day (soon) our Beloved Bridegroom, will appear in the sky, and call us home to be with Him forever. Hallelujah! In that day when He appears we will instantaneously transformed and conformed into His likeness (cp Php 3:20, 21+)

It is notable that the apostle John uses eido/oida 13 times in this short epistle (1 John 2:11, 20, 21, 29; 3:2, 5, 14, 15; 5:13, 15, 18, 19, 20) (for comparison, Paul uses eido/oida 16 times in the 16 chapter letter of Romans). Clearly John wants his readers to know that they know! (And beloved of God, he wants us today to have this same confidence and assurance! cp the principle in Ro 10:17+)

EIDO/OIDA IN FIRST JOHN - 1 Jn. 2:11; 1 Jn. 2:20; 1 Jn. 2:21; 1 Jn. 2:29; 1 Jn. 3:2; 1 Jn. 3:5; 1 Jn. 3:14; 1 Jn. 3:15; 1 Jn. 5:13; 1 Jn. 5:15; 1 Jn. 5:18; 1 Jn. 5:19; 1 Jn. 5:20

Death (2288)(thanatos) is a permanent cessation of all vital functions and thus is the end of life on earth (as we know it). Death speaks of separation. The separation of the soul from the body and the end of earthly life. Spiritual death is separation from the life of God forever by dying without being born again. The first use in the Septuagint is in a well known promise from God "you shall surely die (Lxx = thanatos apothnesko).” (Ge 2:17) followed by the second use in the deceptive lie by Satan “You surely shall not die (thanatos apothnesko)!" (Ge 3:4)

In 1Jn 2:11 associates this spiritual death with darkness explaining that "the one who hates his brother is in the darkness and walks in the darkness, and does not know where he is going because the darkness has blinded his eyes."

Life (2222)(zoe) in context refers not to physical life but supernatural spiritual life which is in contrast to eternal death. This quality of life speaks of fullness of life which alone belongs to God the Giver of life and is available to His children now (Ro 6:4-+, Ep 4:18-+) as well as in eternity future (Mk 10:30, Titus 1:2-+ on Eternal Life). Wuest adds that zoe "is used of the absolute fulness of life, both essential and ethical, which belongs to God. It is used to designate the life which God gives to the believing sinner, a vital, animating, spiritual, ethical dynamic which transforms his inner being and as a result, his behavior."

ZOE IN FIRST JOHN - 1 Jn. 1:1; 1 Jn. 1:2; 1 Jn. 2:25; 1 Jn. 3:14; 1 Jn. 3:15; 1 Jn. 5:11; 1 Jn. 5:12; 1 Jn. 5:13; 1 Jn. 5:16; 1 Jn. 5:20

Love (verb) (25) agapao see related study of noun agape) means to love unconditionally and sacrificially as God Himself loves sinful men (John 3:16), the way He loves the Son (John 3:35, 15:9, 17:23, 24). Note that agapao is a verb and by its verbal nature calls for action. This quality of love is not an emotion but is an action initiated by a volitional choice.

Wuest writes that "Agapao speaks of a love which is awakened by a sense of value in an object which causes one to prize it. It springs from an apprehension of the preciousness of an object. It is a love of esteem and approbation. The quality of this love is determined by the character of the one who loves, and that of the object loved. (Eerdmans Publishing - used by permission)

AGAPAO IN FIRST JOHN - 1 Jn. 2:10; 1 Jn. 2:15; 1 Jn. 3:10; 1 Jn. 3:11; 1 Jn. 3:14; 1 Jn. 3:18; 1 Jn. 3:23; 1 Jn. 4:7; 1 Jn. 4:8; 1 Jn. 4:10; 1 Jn. 4:11; 1 Jn. 4:12; 1 Jn. 4:19; 1 Jn. 4:20; 1 Jn. 4:21; 1 Jn. 5:1; 1 Jn. 5:2; 2 Jn. 1:1; 2 Jn. 1:5; 3 Jn. 1:1

SEE 9 page article on AGAPAO in the NIDNTT, PAGE 538

Abides (3306)(meno) in simple terms means to remain in the same place or position over a period of time. It means to reside, stay, live, lodge, tarry or dwell. Menō describes something that remains where it is, continues in a fixed state, or endures.

MENO IN FIRST JOHN - 1 Jn. 2:6; 1 Jn. 2:10; 1 Jn. 2:14; 1 Jn. 2:17; 1 Jn. 2:19; 1 Jn. 2:24; 1 Jn. 2:27; 1 Jn. 2:28; 1 Jn. 3:6; 1 Jn. 3:9; 1 Jn. 3:14; 1 Jn. 3:15; 1 Jn. 3:17; 1 Jn. 3:24; 1 Jn. 4:12; 1 Jn. 4:13; 1 Jn. 4:15; 1 Jn. 4:16;

Meno can mean "to take up permanent residence" or "to make yourself at home." Meno is the root of the Greek noun mone which means mansion or habitation (Jn 14:2, 23).

More than one half of the uses of meno are by John in his Gospel and letters.

Here is a summary of some of the nuances of meno related specifically to dwelling or abiding in Christ - (1) to dwell in God (or Christ) means that we walk as Christ walked (1Jn 2:6, Php 2:5, Jn 13:15); (2) to dwell in Christ means that we don’t habitually live in sin (1Jn 3:6); (3) to dwell in Christ means that we continue in His Word (Jn 8:31, 1Jn 2:17); (4) to dwell in Christ means that we bear fruit (Jn 15:5, Heb 13:5, Col 1:10, Ro 6:22, Php 4:7, 1Co 16:5, Jn 4:36)

THOUGHT - This short list describing abiding in Christ begs the simple question - How is your daily abiding in Christ going beloved? Are you walking like He walked, in the power of the Spirit? Are you daily fighting off temptations to sin against God? Are you daily in His living Word and even more important is it truly in (being assimilated into your inner man - cf 2Co 3:18+), or is it in one ear in the morning and out the other by noon (cf Jas 1:22+)? Is the Spirit bearing fruit in your life, fruit that will endure throughout eternity (Jn 15:16)? Let me encourage you, by God's Spirit and Word, to redeem the short time you have left, doing all for the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ (Eph 5:16KJV+). Amen.

Passed (3327)(metabaino from meta = denotes change of place/condition + baino = to go or come) means to pass or go from one place or one state to another. To transfer from one place to another. Metabaino describes Jesus departing or leaving one place to go to another (Mt 11:1, 12:9, 15:29) In Jn 5:24 and 1Jn 3:14 metabaino is used figuratively to describe passage from death to life, a passage that occurs when one is born from above. John 13:1 speaks of Jesus departing from earth to heaven to the right had of the Father. Most of the NT uses of metabaino mean to leave or depart.

David Smith - Metabaino "is used of transition from one place to another (John 7:3, 13:1), of passing from one form of government to another (Plat. Rep. 550 D), of the transmigration of souls (Luc. Gall. 4)." (Expositor's Greek Testament)

Thoralf Gilbrant - In classical Greek metabaino primarily means “to go away,” “to remove,” or “to depart.” It describes the change when someone moves from one dwelling to another or makes a change in course or direction. In speaking and in writing, the word means “to pass on to another subject.” In logic it is the process of making a transition or an inference based on an analogy or resemblance. In drama it is the changing fortunes of the actors as the plot unfolds. (The Complete Biblical Library Old and New Testament )

TDNT - The usual meaning is “to change place,” but the term also denotes change of topic or state. It is mostly topographical in the NT but figurative in John, e.g., for the change from death to life

Liddell-Scott-Jones (summarized) - to pass over from one place to another, the stars had passed over the meridian: to go over to the other side 2. to pass from one point to another, change thy theme, changing their course, turning round, having passed to another life. In writing or speaking, pass from one subject to another, pass from one state to another, change - of changes of fortune in a drama. In the Epicurean logic, make a transition: hence, infer, esp. from analogy or resemblance.

Metabaino - NAS Usage: depart(1), departed(1), departing(2), leave(2), left(1), move(2), moving(1), passed(2).

Metabaino - 12x in 11v - There are no uses in the non-apocryphal Septuagint.

Matthew 8:34 And behold, the whole city came out to meet Jesus; and when they saw Him, they implored Him to leave their region.

Matthew 11:1 When Jesus had finished giving instructions to His twelve disciples, He departed from there to teach and preach in their cities.

Matthew 12:9 Departing from there, He went into their synagogue.

Matthew 15:29 Departing from there, Jesus went along by the Sea of Galilee, and having gone up on the mountain, He was sitting there.

Matthew 17:20 And He said to them, "Because of the littleness of your faith; for truly I say to you, if you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there,' and it will move; and nothing will be impossible to you.

Luke 10:7 "Stay in that house, eating and drinking what they give you; for the laborer is worthy of his wages. Do not keep moving from house to house.

John 5:24 "Truly, truly, I say to you, he who hears My word, and believes Him who sent Me, has eternal life, and does not come into judgment, but has passed out of death into life.

John 7:3 Therefore His brothers said to Him, "Leave here and go into Judea, so that Your disciples also may see Your works which You are doing.

John 13:1 Now before the Feast of the Passover, Jesus knowing that His hour had come that He would depart out of this world to the Father, having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them to the end.

Acts 18:7 Then he left there and went to the house of a man named Titius Justus, a worshiper of God, whose house was next to the synagogue.

1 John 3:14 We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brethren. He who does not love abides in death.

Death (2288)(thanatos) is a permanent cessation of all vital functions and thus is the end of life on earth (as we know it). The separation of the soul from the body and the end of earthly life. Spiritual death is separation from the life of God forever by dying without being born again. The first use in the Septuagint is in a well known promise from God "you shall surely die (Lxx = thanatos apothnesko).” (Ge 2:17) followed by the second use in the deceptive lie by Satan “You surely shall not die (thanatos apothnesko)!" (Ge 3:4) Death is natural to humanity as part of the created world. Death is a result of Adam’s sin (Ro 5:12). Death is universal - no one can escape it.

Death is a complex topic so the reader is encouraged to reader the following phrases (and the entire passage) to see various descriptions or associations with death to help get a sense for the meaning of this important Biblical word.

Put to death (punished referring to the OT practice) (Mt 10:21, 15:4, 7:10). Shall not taste death (Mt 16:28, Mk 9:1, Lk 9:27 referring to the 3 who would witness the transfiguration) condemn Him to death (Mt 20:18, Mk 10:33), My soul is deeply grieved, to the point of death (Mt 26:38, Mk 14:34), deserving of death (Mt 26:66, Mk 14:64); brother will deliver brother to death (Mk 13:12); shadow of death (Lk 1:79 - Thayer says "figuratively, a region enveloped in the darkness of ignorance and sin"); not see death before he had seen the Lord's Christ (Lk 2:26) ready to go both to prison and to death! (Lk 22:33); nothing deserving death has been done by Him (Lk 23:15) no grounds for the death penalty (Lk 23:22) sentence of death (Lk 24:20), passed out of (spiritual) death into (spiritual) life (Jn 5:24), if anyone keeps My word he shall never see (eternal, spiritual) death. (Jn 8:51, 52), "This sickness is not unto death (Jn 11:4), Jesus had spoken of his death (Jn 11:13), the kind of death by which He was to die (Jn 12:33, 18:32, 21:19), the agony of death (Acts 2:24), no proper ground for a death sentence (Acts 13:28), I persecuted this Way to the death (Acts 22:4), have committed anything worthy of death, (Acts 25:11, 25:25, 26:31, 28:18), those who practice such things are worthy of death (God's death penalty) (Ro 1:32), the death of His Son, (Ro 5:10), just as through one man sin entered into the world, and death (the result or penalty for the "Sin" virus that infected every man) through sin, and so death spread to all men, because all sinned (Ro 5:12), death reigned from Adam until Moses, (Ro 5:14), death (physical) reigned through the one (Adam), (Ro 5:17), sin reigned in death, (Ro 5:21), have been baptized into His death (mystical union with Christ) (Ro 6:3-5), death (personified) no longer is master over Him (Ro 6:9), either of sin resulting in death, or of obedience resulting in righteousness (Ro 6:16), the outcome of those things is death (Ro 6:21), the wages of sin is death, (Ro 6:23), bear fruit for death. (Ro 7:5), proved to result in death for me (Ro 7:10), Did that which is good, then, become death to me? (Ro 7:13), Who will set me free from the body of this death? (Ro 7:24), set you free from the law of sin and of death (Ro 8:2), the mind set on the flesh is death (Ro 8:6), I am convinced that neither death, nor life (Ro 8:38), or life or death (1Cor 3:22), you proclaim the Lord's death until He comes (1Cor 11:26), since by a man (Adam) came death, (1Cor 15:21), The last enemy that will be abolished is death (1Cor 15:26), "DEATH IS SWALLOWED UP in victory (1Cor 15:54), "O DEATH, WHERE IS YOUR VICTORY? O DEATH, WHERE IS YOUR STING? (1Cor 15:55), The sting of death is sin, (1Cor 15:56), we had the sentence of death within ourselves (2Cor 1:9), delivered us from so great a peril of death, (2Cor 1:10), to the one an aroma from death to death, (2Cor 2:16), the ministry of death, in letters engraved on stones (2Cor 3:7), being delivered over to death for Jesus' sake, (2Cor 4:11), death works in us, (2Cor 4:12), the sorrow of the world produces death (2Cor 7:10), danger of death (2Cor 11:23), whether by life or by death (Php 1:20), sick to the point of death, (Php 2:27), he came close to death for the work of Christ, (Php 2:30), being conformed to His death; (Php 3:10), now reconciled you in His fleshly body through death, (Col 1:22), Jesus, who abolished death (2Ti 1:10), because of the suffering of death crowned with glory and honor, (Heb 2:9), that through death He might render powerless him who had the power of death, (Heb 2:14), might deliver those who through fear of death, (Heb 2:15), to the One able to save Him from death, (Heb 5:7), they were prevented by death from continuing, (Heb 7:23), a death has taken place for the redemption of the transgressions (Heb 9:15), there must of necessity be the death of the one who made it, (Heb 9:16), so that he should not see death (Heb 11:5), it brings forth death (James 1:15), his way will save his soul from death, (James 5:20), we have passed out of death into life, (1Jn 3:14), If anyone sees his brother committing a sin not leading to death (1Jn 5:16), there is a sin not leading to death (1Jn 5:16), I have the keys of death and of Hades (Rev 1:18), Be faithful until death, and I will give you the crown of life (Rev 2:10), the second death (Rev 2:11), I will kill her children with pestilence (Rev 2:23, 6:8), in those days men will seek death and will not find it; and they will long to die and death flees from them (Rev 9:6), they did not love their life even to death (Rev 12:11), and his deadly wound (Rev 13:3), whose deadly wound was healed (Rev 13:12), pestilence and mourning and famine (Rev 18:8), second death (Rev 20:6, 14, 21:8), death and Hades (Rev 20:13), shall no longer be any death (Rev 21:4).

Friberg has a simple summary - (1) physically, as the separation of soul from body (physical) death (Jn 11.13); (2) as a legal technical term, of capital punishment (physical) death (Mt 26.66); (3) spiritually, as the separation of soul from God (spiritual) death (Jn 5.24; Jas 1.15), opposite zoe (life); (4) spiritually, as the separation of soul from spirit or from the possibility of knowing God, as the result of judgment (eternal) death (Ro 1.32); called second death in Rev 2.11; 20.6; (5) by metonymy deadly disease, pestilence (Rev 6.8)

Hawker - There is a threefold sense of death; natural, spiritual, and eternal. That which is natural, respects the separation of soul and body. (James 2:16.) Spiritual death means, the soul unquickened by the Holy Spirit.(Eph. 2:1) And eternal death implies the everlasting separation both of soul and body from God to all eternity. (Luke 12:5.)

BDAG summarized -

(1) the termination of physical life = death

(a) natural death Jn 11:4, 13; Heb 7:23

(b) of death as a penalty --

(i) as inflicted by secular courts = Mt 26:66; Mk 14:64

(ii). of the death of Christ generally: Ro 5:10; 6:3–5; 1Cor 11:26.

(iii). of natural death as divine punishment Ro 5:12ab; 21; 1Cor 15:21

(c) of the danger of death (2 Ch 32:11) Heb 5:7.

(d) of the manner of death Jn 12:33; 18:32; 21:19.

(e) death as personified Ro 5:14, 17; 6:9; 1Cor 15:26, Rev 1:18

(2) death viewed transcendently in contrast to a living relationship with God

(a) of spiritual death, to which one is subject unless one lives out of the power of God’s grace. Jn 5:24; 1Jn 3:14; Ro 7:10; 8:6.

(b) eternal death. Ro 1:32; 6:16, 21, 23; 7:5; 2Cor 7:10; 2 Ti 1:10; Heb 2:14; the second death Rev 2:11; 20:6, 14b; 21:8

(3) a particular manner of death, fatal illness, pestilence and the like, as established by context (Job 27:15; Jer 15:2: Rev 2:23

Vine - death, is used in Scripture of (a) the separation of the soul (the spiritual part of man) from the body (the material part), the latter ceasing to function and turning to dust, e.g., Jn 11:13; Heb. 2:15; 5:7; 7:23. (b) the separation of man from God; Adam died on the day he disobeyed God, Ge 2:17, and hence all mankind are born in the same spiritual condition, Ro 5:12, 14, 17, 21, from which, however, those who believe in Christ are delivered, John 5:24; 1John 3:14. Death is the opposite of life; it never denotes non–existence. As spiritual life is “conscious existence in communion with God,” so spiritual death is “conscious existence in separation from God.” “Death, in whichever of the above–mentioned senses it is used, is always, in Scripture, viewed as the penal consequence of sin, and since sinners alone are subject to death, Ro 5:12, it was as the Bearer of sin that the Lord Jesus submitted thereto on the Cross, 1Pet 2:24. And while the physical death of the Lord Jesus was of the essence of His sacrifice, it was not the whole. The darkness symbolized, and His cry expressed, the fact that He was left alone in the Universe, He was ‘forsaken;’ cp. Mt. 27:45, 46.” (Collected Writings)

TDNT - Classical meaning of thanatos - Death destroys life; the shadowy existence of the dead in Hades is no true life. The most that may be expected is the survival or transmigration of the soul. All must die, so that death casts a shadow on life and its meaning. Yet death brings release from the dubious boon of life. Thus suicide may be liberation. Yet no one wants to die, and there is no knowledge of what comes after it. Heroes live on immortally in their renown, for it is good to die for the pólis. Death is seen as a natural phenomenon. The psuche lives on as the vital force in the cosmos, but only as the birth of one is the death of another. This does not solve the riddle or remove the terror of individual death. Plato lifts the issue to another plane by giving precedence to the question of right and wrong. The point, then, is to die a good death. Indeed, death can be the fulfilment of life by rising above the mortal body. On this basis the hope arises that the soul will live on. Aristotle follows the same reasoning, except that for him it is the noús (mind) that survives in some obscure way.

Dictionary of Bible Themes- death, natural
How is physical death related to spiritual death?
What does the Bible say about death?
What is the second death?
Is there an angel of death?
American Tract Society Death
Bridgeway Bible Dictionary Death
Baker Evangelical Dictionary Sin Unto Death Second Death
Charles Buck Dictionary Fear of Death Death
CARM Theological Dictionary Death
Easton's Bible Dictionary Death Eternal Death
Spurgeon's Illustration Collection Death Death (2)
Holman Bible Dictionary Death Death of Christ Second Death
Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible Death
Hawker's Poor Man's Dictionary Death
Wilson's Bible Types Death
1911 Encyclopedia Britannica Death
International Standard Bible Encyclopedia Death Body of Death Second Death
Kitto Biblical Cyclopedia Death

Strong's summary - that separation (whether natural or violent) of the soul and the body by which the life on earth is ended, with the implied idea of future misery in hell (the power of death). Since the nether world, the abode of the dead, was conceived as being very dark, it is equivalent to the region of thickest darkness i.e. figuratively, a region enveloped in the darkness of ignorance and sin. (2) Metaphorically, the loss of that life which alone is worthy of the name - the misery of the soul arising from sin, which begins on earth but lasts and increases after the death of the body in hell (3) the miserable state of the wicked dead in hell (4) in the widest sense, death comprising all the miseries arising from sin, as well physical death as the loss of a life consecrated to God and blessed in him on earth, to be followed by wretchedness in hell

Thanatos - 120x in 106v - NAS Usage: danger of death(1), death(112), fatal(2), pestilence(3). Mt 4:16; 10:21; 15:4; 16:28; 20:18; 26:38, 66; Mark 7:10; 9:1; 10:33; 13:12; 14:34, 64; Lk 1:79; 2:26; 9:27; 22:33; 23:15, 22; 24:20; John 5:24; 8:51-52; 11:4, 13; 12:33; 18:32; 21:19; Acts 2:24; 13:28; 22:4; 23:29; 25:11, 25; 26:31; 28:18; Ro 1:32; 5:10, 12, 14, 17, 21; 6:3-5, 9, 16, 21, 23; 7:5, 10, 13, 24; 8:2, 6, 38; 1Cor 3:22; 11:26; 15:21, 26, 54-56; 2Cor 1:9-10; 2:16; 3:7; 4:11f; 7:10; 11:23; Phil 1:20; 2:8, 27, 30; 3:10; Col 1:22; 2Ti 1:10; Heb 2:9, 14-15; 5:7; 7:23; 9:15-16; 11:5; Jas 1:15; 5:20; 1 John 3:14; 5:16-17; Rev 1:18; 2:10f, 23; 6:8; 9:6; 12:11; 13:3, 12; 18:8; 20:6, 13-14; 21:4, 8

Septuagint - Ge 2:17; 3:4; 21:16; 26:11; Ex 5:3; 9:3, 15; 10:17; 19:12; 21:12, 15ff; 22:19f; 31:14f; Lev 20:2, 9-11, 15f, 27; 24:16f, 21; 26:25; 27:29; Num 12:12; 14:12; 15:35; 16:29; 26:10, 65; 35:16ff, 21, 31; Deut 19:6; 21:22; 22:26; 28:21; 30:15, 19; 31:14, 27; Josh 2:13f; Jdg 5:18; 13:7, 22; 15:13; 16:30; 21:5; Ruth 1:17; 1Sa 1:11; 5:6, 11; 14:39, 44; 15:32, 35; 20:3, 14, 31; 22:16; 2 Sam 1:23; 3:33; 12:5, 14; 14:14; 15:21; 18:33; 19:28; 20:3; 21:1; 22:5f; 24:13ff; 1 Kgs 2:26, 37, 42; 3:26f; 8:37; 2 Kgs 1:4, 6, 16; 2:21; 4:40; 8:10; 11:15; 15:5; 20:1; 1 Chr 21:12, 14; 2 Chr 6:28; 7:13; 20:9; 32:11, 24, 33; Ezra 7:26; Esther 4:8, 17; Job 3:5, 21, 23; 5:20; 7:15; 9:23; 12:22; 15:34; 17:14; 18:13; 24:17; 27:15; 28:3, 22; 30:23; 33:18, 22, 24, 30; 38:17; Ps 6:5; 7:13; 9:13; 13:3; 18:4f; 22:15; 23:4; 33:19; 34:21; 44:19; 49:14; 55:4, 15; 56:13; 68:20; 73:4; 78:50; 88:6; 89:48; 107:10, 14, 18; 116:3, 8, 15; 118:18; Prov 2:18; 5:5; 7:27; 8:36; 10:2; 11:19; 12:28; 14:27; 16:14; 18:6, 21; 21:6; 23:14; 24:8, 11; 25:10; Eccl 3:19; 7:1, 26; 8:8; Song 8:6; Isa 9:2, 8; 25:8; 28:15, 18; 38:1; 39:1; 53:8f, 12; Jer 8:3; 9:21; 13:16; 14:12, 15; 15:2; 16:4; 18:21, 23; 21:6ff; 24:10; 26:8, 11, 16; 34:17; 38:15; 43:11; 44:13; Lam 1:20; Ezek 3:18; 5:12, 17; 6:11f; 7:15; 12:16; 14:19, 21; 18:13, 23, 32; 28:8, 23; 31:14; 33:8, 11, 14, 27; 38:22; Da 2:9; 4:1; Hos 13:14; Amos 4:10; 5:8; Jonah 4:9; Hab 2:5; 3:13; Zech 5:3;

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FELLOWSHIP WITH GOD AND HIS CHILDREN Click chart to enlarge Charts from Jensen's Survey of the NT - used by permission Another Overview Chart - 1 John - Charles Swindoll

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FELLOWSHIP WITH GOD AND HIS CHILDREN
Click chart to enlarge
Charts from Jensen's Survey of the NT - used by permission
Another Overview Chart - 1 John - Charles Swindoll