This second condition for living as children of God reemphasizes the importance of obedience to God's law, specifically the command to love one another.
3:10 The absence or presence of sin in the believer's life gives evidence of his or her relationship to God and Satan. It shows under whose authority we are living. John divided the world into two classes: those whose parentage is either divine or diabolical.
"The key word here is manifest.' A sinning Christian concealshis true character when he sins and revealsit only through holiness. On the other hand, a child of Satan revealshis true character by sin."129
Christians can and do identify other Christians by their righteous behavior. This is not the same as saying every true Christian without exception will produce good works (cf. John 15:1-8). Christians who are abiding in God will produce good works, and others can identify them as Christians by their godly behavior. The sinless behavior produced and perceived is a manifestation of God's love (v. 1).
The absence of righteous behavior in a life indicates the absence of intimacy with God. Likewise the absence of love for one's brother Christian shows that the individual who does not love has little fellowship with God. Love is the most important particular manifestation of righteous behavior. John proceeded to discuss this trait more fully.
"The whole aim of the Gospel is the creation and strengthening of love.130
3:11 The message that John and his faithful followers had heard from the beginning was Jesus' command to His disciples to love one another as He had loved them (John 13:34-35; 15:12).
3:12 Cain's murder of Abel evidenced control by Satan rather than by God. Cain was jealous because of Abel's greater righteousness, and this motivated him to kill his brother (Gen. 4:2-7; cf. John 8:40, 42, 44). Often our pride tempts us to dislike those who are more righteous than we are because they make us feel guilty by comparison. This is the only Old Testament reference in John's epistles and the only proper name, except for names of God, in 1 John. Love and hatred are typical forms of righteousness and sin respectively.131
3:13 If we feel loving concern for one another, it should not surprise us if unrighteous people hate us for being more righteous than they are. Christians are to the world what Abel was to Cain, so we should not be surprised if the world hates us. Sometimes unbelievers who become angry with us, for example, are reacting more against God in us than they are reacting against us personally.
"Of central importance for victory when a Christian is subjected to the world's hatred is the recognition that hatred is the natural response of the sinful world toward righteousness."132
"The author does not say that the world always hates believers. It did not always hate Jesus. But whenever the community of faith acts so as to expose the greed, the avarice, the hatred, and the wickedness of the world, it must expect rejection; and if it should go so far as to interfere with its evil practices, as Jesus did in the temple, it may expect suffering and brutal death (cf. John 15:18-19, 25; 17:14)."133
3:14 Love for other Christians shows the presence of new life in us. "Death"and "life"are two vastly different spheres of existence. The contrast shows the great change that has taken place in the believer's life. The one who does not love at all is the person who is abiding in death rather than in eternal life. John made the case extreme to make his point clear. His contrasts are death and life, hatred and love, darkness and light.
3:15 "Every one"includes Christians. Murder is the ultimate outward expression of hatred (cf. Matt. 5:21-22). The key to the apparently inconsistent statement that concludes this verse is the words "abiding in him."John evidently meant that no Christian whose eternal life (i.e., Jesus Christ; 1:2) has control of him, who is walking in fellowship with God, will commit murder. Obviously some believers have committed murder, but they are non-abiding believers.
3:16 In contrast to the murderer Cain's act, we see love in Jesus Christ's laying down His life for us (cf. John 10:11). This is the opposite of taking another person's life as Cain did. Jesus Christ laid down His life once, and we ought to lay ours down habitually in self-sacrificing love, as the tenses of the Greek verbs suggest.
"Most people associate Christianity with the command to love, and so they think that they know all about Christianity when they have understood its teaching in terms of their own concept of love. John found it necessary to explain clearly to his readers what he meant by love . . . .
"Love means readiness to do anything for other people."134
3:17 We may not have the opportunity to save a brother's life by dying in his place. Nevertheless we can and should do the next best thing, namely, sustaining his life when he has needs.
3:18 The evidence of genuine love is not verbal professions but vital performances, deeds rather than words (cf. 1 Cor. 13:1; James 2:15-16).
"The major concern of this passage is to encourage obedient and active love from all those who claimed allegiance to the Johannine church."135
3:19-20 "By this"refers to what John said in verses 17-18. Tangible demonstrations of love for the brethren show the believer's true character. They should be a comfort to us when we feel guilty that we have not met many needs, a condition that prevails no matter how generous we may be. We can overcome feelings of false guilt by remembering that God knows our real motives. He does not judge on the basis of appearance as we often judge ourselves.
"This phrase ["before Him,"v. 19] could refer to standing in the presence of God on the day of judgment (4:17), an occasion which might well fill the heart of a man with foreboding. But the context here is one of prayer: dare we approach God with our requests if we feel guilty before him? On the whole, it seems more likely that this is what is in John's mind (cf. 1 Thess. 1:3; 3:9). We then have a smooth transition to verse 21.
"To be sure, the occasion can be generalized. What John says can be extended to any and every occasion when the believer is in doubt about his situation before God."136
"We shall then still our heart in whatsoever it may condemn us, because we are in fellowship with God, and that fact assures us of His sovereign mercy."137
3:21-22 True love for the brethren demonstrated in deeds of self-sacrifice enables the believer to face Jesus Christ unashamedly whenever He may appear (cf. 2:28). John stressed the importance of a clear conscience again (cf. 1:7; 2:2; Heb. 9:9, 14; 10:2, 22; 1 Tim. 1:19). Shamelessness can give us appropriate boldness to approach God's throne of grace in prayer even now (cf. John 8:28-29). We will receive our requests if such is the will of God. John did not state this condition here, but he mentioned it later (5:14-15).
"There is nothing mechanical or magical about prayer. For it to be effective, the will of the intercessor needs to be in line with the will of God; and such a conformity of wills is brought about only as the believer lives in Christ."138
"Obedience is the first condition for answered prayer, when that prayer is offered by a child of God. The second, related condition is willing service: the determination to do' always (poioumen, present) what pleases God."139
3:23 Jesus taught the apostles to trust in Him and to love each other. This is the distillation of His teaching. Specifically He taught them to trust in the efficacy of His name when they prayed to His Father (John 14:12-15; 16:24). This is an added ground for confidence in prayer.
Believing in this verse probably refers to believing for eternal salvation rather than to believing after we are Christians. The tense of the Greek verb (aorist) points to this as does the object of belief, namely, "the name of His Son Jesus Christ."
3:24 Obedience results in mutual abiding, God in man and man in God. God "abides"in every obedient believer, but He indwells every believer (cf. John 15:4-5, 7; Rom. 8:9). The evidence that God's Spirit "abides"in us is our manifestation of faith (4:1-6) and love (4:7-16; cf. v. 23). This is the first explicit reference to the Holy Spirit in 1 John.
