1 John 3:13. Do not marvel, my brethren, if the world hates you.
1 John 3:14. We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love the brethren; he who does not love his brother abides in death.
The Apostle confirms by example how great an evil it is to hate one's brother. Look, he says, Cain hated his brother and killed him, despite the fact that he was his own brother. Cain performed the evil deeds of his father the devil, while Abel, doing righteousness, was a son in relation to God. Here the devil is contrasted with God, and evil deeds with good ones. For this reason Cain, being the opposite of his brother, killed him. Such is the explanation according to the course of the discourse. But the Apostle John altered this order, having a special purpose. For after he had mentioned the devil and the fact that those who do evil become his children, it was natural for him to set forth as an example the one who at the beginning of the world hastened to become a son of the devil through evil deeds. Having said what was necessary about Cain and about the fate inherited by those who imitate him, he again turns to love.
1 John 3:15. Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer; and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him.
1 John 3:16. We have come to know love in this, that He laid down His life for us: and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.
1 John 3:17. But whoever has this world's goods, and sees his brother in need, and shuts up his heart from him – how does the love of God abide in him?
1 John 3:18. My little children! Let us not love in word or in tongue, but in deed and in truth.
Having finished about Cain and about evil deeds similar to his deed, he again turns to love, and says that love inclined the Lord to lay down His soul for us, and that following His example we too must lay down our souls for the brethren. But since this is done rarely and by few, the apostle, as if shaming the faithful, beginning from something small, urges them toward brotherly love. He speaks as if to say: why speak of laying down one's soul for a brother, when we see that they do not supply their brethren with the necessities of life, and moreover not those poor in the means of life — of these I do not speak — but those possessing the wealth of an entire world? Therefore let them be ashamed! For if they closed their heart in this small matter and showed themselves unworthy of the love of God, then what would they show when something greater were required — to die for a brother? Then he continues further to rebuke those who limit love to word and reveal it only on the tongue. "Let us," he says, "love not in word or in tongue, but in deed and in truth."
1 John 3:19. And by this we know that we are of the truth, and shall assure our hearts before Him;
By this, that we love our brother not in word, but in deed and in truth. How do we know? Thus, that he who says one thing but does another, who does not make his deeds agree with his word, is a liar, and not true.
1 John 3:20. For if our heart condemns us, how much more so does God, because God is greater than our heart and knows all things.
1 John 3:21. Beloved! If our heart does not condemn us, we have boldness toward God,
1 John 3:22. And whatever we ask, we receive from Him, because we keep His commandments and do what is pleasing before Him.
This means: through truth (and truth will be in us when our words correspond to our deeds) we shall reassure our conscience. For by the word "heart" he means conscience. How then shall we reassure it? By placing ourselves in such a position as to speak our words before God the Witness; for this is what the words "before Him" mean. If, he says, we do not do so, and our conscience or heart condemns us, then obviously we are sinning. And if during sin we cannot hide from our own conscience, which is limited, just as man is a limited being, then all the more we cannot hide from God, who is boundless and omnipresent. The meaning of this saying is as follows: children! let us not be liars before one another, loving only with the tongue, but let us prove our love by deed as well. Therefore we shall know that we are of the truth, that is, of God. And what we say, let us say as if before God; and who, even if he were more shameless than the demons, would allow himself to lie before God the Witness? But if we do not do so, and while we say that we love, our heart condemns us of lying, then we are sinning. How so? Because we think to hide from the omnipresent God. Therefore, beloved, let us dispose ourselves so as to be uncondemned before ourselves, let us walk in truth before one another, and then we shall receive boldness before God, and with this boldness we shall undoubtedly receive all that we ask of Him. Why? Because we keep His commandments. For when someone is asked, the obedience of the petitioners greatly inclines him to listen, provided they ask without doubting. And since we keep His commandments and do what is pleasing before Him, let us also hope that our prayers will not be in vain; because when two persons have a sincere mutual disposition toward each other, one usually acts immediately for the benefit of the other. And what commandment of His have we kept? The one that commands us to "love one another" (John 13:34).
1 John 3:23. And His commandment is this, that we believe in the name of His Son Jesus Christ.
The word "that" must be understood in the sense of cause, namely thus: "because" His commandment is to believe. Since we have the commandment to believe in the name of Jesus Christ, His Son, and to love one another, and we have done this, from this we also know that the grace of His Spirit, Whom He gave us, has been established in us. It must be known that the expression "to believe in the name" of our Lord is used in many places of Scripture. What then does "name" mean? Of course, nothing other than His will, glory, honor. For example, in the words "great is Your name in all the earth" (Ps. 8:2) it means glory and honor, and in the words "repent, and let each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ" (Acts 2:38) it means His will. And what is the will of the Lord Jesus? To baptize all nations "in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit" (Matt. 28:19).
1 John 3:23. And loved one another, as He commanded us.
1 John 3:24. And he who keeps His commandments abides in Him, and He in him. And that He abides in us, we know by the Spirit which He gave us.
The Lord commanded us to love one another with true affection. When? When He said: "as you wish people to treat you, so treat them also" (Luke 6:31). If we love for our neighbors to have true and guileless affection toward us, then we ourselves must have exactly the same affection toward them. And since this is the Lord's commandment, when we abide in Him, all the more He grants us Himself. For He cannot deny Himself, that is, one cannot suppose that He gives us His commandments in vain and will not fulfill them before all others Himself. And if so, then when we fulfill what He has commanded, without doubt He too will hear us in our petitions, and His gift will be firm in us. The whole thought is this: we must believe in the name of His Son Jesus Christ, and love one another truly, as He commanded. For he who keeps His commandments abides in Him, and He in him. And that He abides in us, we know by the spirit or gift which He gave us. And if it remains in us inviolate, then, beyond any contradiction, His bestowal will be irrevocable. And when is it inviolate? When we violate nothing of what He commanded us concerning love through our own negligence.