1 John 3:18

3:18 Little children, let us not love with word or with tongue but in deed and truth. ¹ 

1 John 1:10

1:10 If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar and his word is not in us.

1 John 2:5

2:5 But whoever obeys his ²  word, truly in this person ³  the love of God has been perfected. By this we know that we are in him.

1 John 1:1

The Prologue to the Letter

1:1 This is what we proclaim to you: ⁴  what was from the beginning, ⁵  what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we have looked at and our hands have touched (concerning the word of life –

1 John 2:7

2:7 Dear friends, I am not writing a new commandment to you, but an old commandment which you have had from the beginning. ⁶  The old commandment is the word that you have already ⁷  heard.

1 John 2:14

2:14 I have written to you, children, that ⁸  you have known the Father. ⁹  I have written to you, fathers, that ¹⁰  you have known him who has been from the beginning. I have written to you, young people, that ¹¹  you are strong, and the word of God resides in you, and you have conquered the evil one.

[3:18]  ¹ sn The noun truth here has been interpreted in various ways: (1) There are a number of interpreters who understand the final noun in this series, truth (ἀληθείᾳ, alhqeia) in an adverbial sense (“truly” or “in sincerity”), describing the way in which believers are to love. If the two pairs of nouns are compared, however, it is hard to see how the second noun with tongue (γλώσσῃ, glwssh) in the first pair can have an adverbial sense. (2) It seems better to understand the first noun in each pair as produced by the second noun: Words are produced by the tongue, and the (righteous) deeds with which believers are to love one another are produced by the truth.

[2:5]  ² tn The referent of this pronoun is probably to be understood as God, since God is the nearest previous antecedent.

[2:5]  ³ tn Grk “in him.”

[1:1]  ³ tn The phrase “This is what we proclaim to you” is not in the Greek text, but has been supplied to clarify the English. The main verb which governs all of these relative clauses is ἀπαγγέλλομεν (apangellomen) in v. 3. This is important for the proper understanding of the relative clauses in v. 1, because the main verb ἀπαγγέλλομεν in v. 3 makes it clear that all of the relative clauses in vv. 1 and 3 are the objects of the author’s proclamation to the readers rather than the subjects. To indicate this the phrase “This is what we proclaim to you” has been supplied at the beginning of v. 1.

[1:1]  ⁴ tn Grk “That which was from the beginning, that which we have heard…”

[2:7]  ⁴ sn See John 13:34-35.

[2:7]  ⁵ tn “Already” is not is the Greek text, but is supplied for clarity.

[2:14]  ⁵ tn See the note on “that” in v. 12.

[2:14]  ⁶ sn The versification of vv. 13 and 14 (so also NAB, NRSV, NLT) follows that of the NA²⁷ and UBS⁴ editions of the Greek text. Some English translations, however, break the verses between the sentence addressed to children and the sentence addressed to fathers (KJV, NKJV, NASB, NIV). The same material has been translated in each case; the only difference is the versification of that material.

[2:14]  ⁷ tn See the note on “that” in v. 12.

[2:14]  ⁸ tn See the note on “that” in v. 12.