1 John 2:10

2:10 The one who loves his fellow Christian ¹  resides in the light, and there is no cause for stumbling in him. ² 

1 John 3:14

3:14 We know that ³  we have crossed over ⁴  from death to life ⁵  because ⁶  we love our fellow Christians. ⁷  The one who does not love remains in death. ⁸ 

1 John 3:17

3:17 But whoever has the world’s possessions ⁹  and sees his fellow Christian ¹⁰  in need and shuts off his compassion against him, how can the love of God ¹¹  reside ¹²  in such a person? ¹³ 

1 John 4:20

4:20 If anyone says ¹⁴  “I love God” and yet ¹⁵  hates his fellow Christian, ¹⁶  he is a liar, because the one who does not love his fellow Christian ¹⁷  whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. ¹⁸ 

John 15:23

15:23 The one who hates me hates my Father too.

James 1:18

1:18 By his sovereign plan he gave us birth ¹⁹  through the message of truth, that we would be a kind of firstfruits of all he created.

James 1:1

Salutation

1:1 From James, ²⁰  a slave ²¹  of God and the Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes dispersed abroad. ²²  Greetings!

James 1:3

1:3 because you know that the testing of your faith produces endurance.

James 1:22-23

1:22 But be sure you live out the message and do not merely listen to it and so deceive yourselves. 1:23 For if someone merely listens to the message and does not live it out, he is like someone ²³  who gazes at his own face ²⁴  in a mirror.

[2:10]  ¹ tn See note on the term “fellow Christian” in 2:9.

[2:10]  ² tn The third person pronoun αὐτῷ (autw) could refer either (1) to the person who loves his brother or (2) to the light itself which has no cause for stumbling “in it.” The following verse (2:11) views darkness as operative within a person, and the analogy with Ps 119:165, which says that the person who loves God’s law does not stumble, expresses a similar concept in relation to an individual. This evidence suggests that the person is the referent here.

[3:14]  ³ tn The first ὅτι (Joti) clause, following a verb of perception, introduces an indirect discourse clause giving the content of what the readers are assumed to know: that they have passed over from death to life, that is, that they possess eternal life. The author gives a similar reassurance to his readers in 5:13. Alternation between the verbs οἶδα (oida) and γινώσκω (ginwskw) in 1 John is probably a matter of stylistic variation (of which the writer is extremely fond) rather than indicative of a subtle difference in meaning.

[3:14]  ⁴ tn This verb essentially means “to transfer from one place to another, go/pass over,” according to BDAG 638 s.v. μεταβαίνω 1.

[3:14]  ⁵ sn Cf. John 5:24, where this phrase also occurs.

[3:14]  ⁶ tn The second ὅτι (Joti) clause in 3:14 is also related to οἴδαμεν (oidamen), but in this case the ὅτι is causal, giving the reason why the readers know that they have passed from death to life: because they love the brothers.

[3:14]  ⁷ tn See note on the phrase “fellow Christian” in 2:9.

[3:14]  ⁸ sn The one who does not love remains in death. Again, the author has the secessionist opponents in view. Their refusal to show love for the brothers demonstrates that they have not made the transition from (spiritual) death to (spiritual) life, but instead have remained in a state of (spiritual) death.

[3:17]  ⁹ tn Here βίος (bios) refers to one’s means of subsistence – material goods or property (BDAG 177 s.v. 2).

[3:17]  ¹⁰ tn See note on the phrase “fellow Christian” in 2:9.

[3:17]  ¹¹ tn Here a subjective genitive, indicating God’s love for us – the love which comes from God – appears more likely because of the parallelism with “eternal life” (ζωὴν αἰώνιον, zwhn aiwnion) in 3:15, which also comes from God.

[3:17]  ¹² sn Once again the verb μένω (menw) is used of a spiritual reality (in this case the love of God) which does or does not reside in a person. Although the author uses the indefinite relative whoever (Grk ὃς δ᾿ ἄν, Jos d’ an), it is clear that he has the opponents in view here. This is the only specific moral fault he ever charges the opponents with in the entire letter. It is also clear that the author sees it as impossible that such a person, who refuses to offer help in his brother’s time of need (and thus ‘hates’ his brother rather than ‘loving’ him, cf. 3:15) can have any of the love which comes from God residing in him. This person, from the author’s dualistic ‘either/or’ perspective, cannot be a believer. The semantic force of the deliberative rhetorical question, “How can the love of God reside in such a person?”, is therefore a declarative statement about the spiritual condition of the opponents: “The love of God cannot possibly reside in such a person.”

[3:17]  ¹³ sn How can the love of God reside in such a person? is a rhetorical question which clearly anticipates a negative answer: The love of God cannot reside in such a person.

[4:20]  ¹⁴ tn Grk “if anyone should say…”

[4:20]  ¹⁵ tn “Yet” is supplied to bring out the contrast.

[4:20]  ¹⁶ tn See note on the phrase “fellow Christian” in 2:9.

[4:20]  ¹⁷ tn See note on the phrase “fellow Christian” in 2:9.

[4:20]  ¹⁸ sn In 4:20 the author again describes the opponents, who claim to love God. Their failure to show love for their fellow Christians proves their claim to know God to be false: The one who does not love his fellow Christian whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen.

[1:18]  ¹⁹ tn Grk “Having willed, he gave us birth.”

[1:1]  ²⁰ tn Grk “James.” The word “From” is not in the Greek text, but has been supplied to indicate the sender of the letter.

[1:1]  ²¹ tn Traditionally, “servant” or “bondservant.” Though δοῦλος (doulos) is normally translated “servant,” the word does not bear the connotation of a free individual serving another. BDAG notes that “‘servant’ for ‘slave’ is largely confined to Biblical transl. and early American times…in normal usage at the present time the two words are carefully distinguished” (BDAG 260 s.v.). The most accurate translation is “bondservant” (sometimes found in the ASV for δοῦλος), in that it often indicates one who sells himself into slavery to another. But as this is archaic, few today understand its force.

[1:1]  ²² tn Grk “to the twelve tribes in the Diaspora.” The Greek term διασπορά (diaspora, “dispersion”) refers to Jews not living in Palestine but “dispersed” or scattered among the Gentiles.

[1:23]  ²³ tn The word for “man” or “individual” is ἀνήρ (anhr), which often means “male” or “man (as opposed to woman).” However, as BDAG 79 s.v. 2 says, here it is “equivalent to τὶς someone, a person.”

[1:23]  ²⁴ tn Grk “the face of his beginning [or origin].”