1 João 3

1 João 3:17

Gill - neither the love with which God loves men; for if this was shed abroad in him, and had a place, and dwelt in him, and he was properly affected with it, it would warm his heart, and loosen his affections, and cause his bowels to move to his poor brother: nor the love with which God is loved; for if he does not love his brother whom he sees in distress, how should he love the invisible God? 1 John 4:20; nor that love which God requires of him, which is to love his neighbour as himself. Love (26)(agape) is supernatural, Spirit enabled, selfless, sacrificial love for others independent of how they treat us or respond. It is the love of God that flows out of Spirit filled saints to their brethren. If such love does not flow out to the brethren, it is most likely that they are not Spirit filled! David Smith on love for the brethren - Love must be practical. It is easy to “lay down one’s life”: martyrdom is heroic and exhilarating; the difficulty lies in doing the little things, facing day by day the petty sacrifices and self-denials which no one notices and no one applauds. (Are you as convicted as I am?) (Expositor's Greek Testament) Abide (3306)(meno) as noted above means to remain or stay. Meno in 1Jn 3:17 is in the present tense which speaks of the love of God continually abiding, which it does in all genuine believers. God's love in our hearts is not fickle (like ours often is), coming and going, depending on whether He thinks we deserve it (which of course we don't)! As support for interpreting this abiding love is in fact a believer's continual possession (and a mark of our authenticity), we see Paul's description of "the love of God (that) has been poured out (ekcheo) within our hearts through the Holy Spirit Who was given to us." (Ro 5:5+) The verb poured out is in the perfect tense which speaks of past completed action with ongoing effect (i.e., permanence of this possession of God love - i.e., God's love does not cease to abide in a believer's heart! Hallelujah!). Harris adds that "This is not to say that such a person cannot claim to be a Christian—note 1 John 2:4+: “The one who says ‘I have come to know God’ and yet does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in such a person.” Here again we are dealing with the major problem underlying the entire letter: the opponents are claiming to be in relationship with God, but are refusing to share with their fellow believers in need, and this (for the author) constitutes conclusive proof that the opponents’ profession to know God (or, as here, to have God’s love residing in them) must be false. As elsewhere in 1 John, conduct becomes the clue to paternity… The semantic force of the deliberative rhetorical question, “How can the love of God reside in him?”, therefore becomes a declarative statement about the spiritual condition of the opponents, meaning “The love of God cannot possibly reside in him.” (Exegetical Commentary on 1 John 3:11-24) As life does not dwell in the murderer (1Jn 3:15), so love does not dwell in the miser (1Jn 3:17). -- John Stott Glenn Barker sums up this verse - If we are in a position to see (theōreō) with our own eyes his need, as, for example, the good Samaritan did, and can offer help, then we cannot do otherwise than act. To withhold help from a brother in need, to shut off compassionate action, is to deny the presence of God’s love in one’s own heart. As Dodd says, “If such a minimal response to the law of charity, called for by such an everyday situation, is absent, then it is idle to pretend that we are within the family of God, the realm in which love is operative as the principle and the token of eternal life” (Johannine Epistles, p. 86). (See The Expositor's Bible Commentary - Abridged Edition) Hiebert - Jesus insists that the command to “love the Lord thy God” cannot be separated from the command to “love thy neighbor as thyself” (Matt. 22:35–40). He who professes to love God while refusing to express love toward his unfortunate brother through a compassionate sharing of his own means discredits his claim and subjects himself to the charge of hypocrisy. Adam