1 John 3:15

3:15 Everyone who hates his fellow Christian ¹  is a murderer, ²  and you know that no murderer has eternal life residing ³  in him.

1 John 4:21

4:21 And the commandment we have from him is this: that ⁴  the one who loves God should love his fellow Christian ⁵  too.

1 John 4:20

4:20 If anyone says ⁶  “I love God” and yet ⁷  hates his fellow Christian, ⁸  he is a liar, because the one who does not love his fellow Christian ⁹  whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. ¹⁰ 

[3:15]  ¹ tn See note on the phrase “fellow Christian” in 2:9.

[3:15]  ² sn Everyone who hates his fellow Christian is a murderer. On one level it is easy to see how the author could say this; the person who hates his brother is one and the same with the person who murders his brother. Behind the usage here, however, is John 8:44, the only other occurrence of the Greek word translated murderer (ἀνθρωποκτόνος, anqrwpoktonos) in the NT, where the devil is described as a “murderer from the beginning.” John 8:44 refers to the devil’s role in bringing death to Adam and Eve, but even more to his involvement (not directly mentioned in the Genesis account, but elaborated in the intertestamental literature, especially the writings of Philo) in Cain’s murder of his brother Abel. This was the first incident of murder in human history and also the first outward demonstration of the full implications of sin’s entry into the world. Ultimately, then, the devil is behind murder, just as he was behind Cain’s murder of Abel. When the hater kills, he shows himself to be a child of the devil (cf. 1 John 3:10). Once again, conduct is the clue to paternity.

[3:15]  ³ tn The verb μένω (menw) in 3:15 refers to a spiritual reality (eternal life) which in this case does not reside in the person in question. To speak in terms of eternal life not “residing” in such an individual is not to imply that at some time in the past this person did possess eternal life and subsequently lost it, however. The previous verse (3:14) makes it clear that the individual under discussion here has “remained” in death (the realm of spiritual death) and so has never possessed eternal life to begin with, no matter what he may have claimed. Taken together with the use of μένω in 3:14, the use here implies that the opponents have “remained” in death all along, and have not ever been genuine believers. Thus “residing” rather than “remaining” is used as the translation for μένουσαν (menousan) here.

[4:21]  ⁴ tn The ἵνα (Jina) clause in 4:21 could be giving (1) the purpose or (2) the result of the commandment mentioned in the first half of the verse, but if it does, the author nowhere specifies what the commandment consists of. It makes better sense to understand this ἵνα clause as (3) epexegetical to the pronoun ταύτην (tauthn) at the beginning of 4:21 and thus explaining what the commandment consists of: “that the one who loves God should love his brother also.”

[4:21]  ⁵ tn See note on the phrase “fellow Christian” in 2:9.

[4:20]  ⁷ tn Grk “if anyone should say…”

[4:20]  ⁸ tn “Yet” is supplied to bring out the contrast.

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

[4:20]  ¹⁰ tn See note on the phrase “fellow Christian” in 2:9.

[4:20]  ¹¹ 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.