Глава III

Children of God and children of the devil (1–10). Brotherly love for one's neighbor and hatred (11–18). Calming the heart in God (19–22). Faith and love (23–24). 1 John 3:1. See what love the Father has given us, that we should be called and be children of God. The world does not know us because it has not known Him. Having established (in 1 John 2:29) an organically close connection between righteousness and the grace-filled birth of Christians from God, the Apostle now further reveals the concept of grace-filled sonship with God in order to more clearly outline the mentioned connection not only as necessary by the very concept of birth from the Righteous One, but also as morally obligatory for those blessed. Always having before his eyes the great work of the redemption of mankind in Christ, the Apostle enthusiastically invites (v. 1) his readers to reverently immerse themselves in the spiritual contemplation of that inconceivable love of the Heavenly Father for people (cf. John 3:16), by virtue of which He, in the mystery of redemption in Christ, granted to all people to be and be called children of God. The Apostle proves the greatness of this divine gift, which obliges the Christians who possess it to constant improvement, by contradiction - by the fact that a world hostile to God and therefore ignorant of God does not know this high advantage of Christians - their sonship with God: so the love and grace of God regenerated them, establishing their life on completely new principles, that they became alien and incomprehensible to the world. “You know that He (Christ) has given you the right to be and be considered children of God. If those who belong to the world do not know this, that is, that you are children of God, do not be surprised at this; for they do not know the One who adopted you” (Blessed Theophilus). 1 John 3:2. Beloved! we are now children of God; but it has not yet been revealed what we will be. We only know that when it is revealed, we will be like Him, because we will see Him as He is. Even higher and more incomprehensible for the children of God themselves is the future bliss of believers: depicting the bliss of the righteous in the future world, the word of God presents it only in general terms (cf. 1 Pet. 1:4, 8; 2 Tim. 4:8, etc.), without touching on its very essence. It is only known that the condition of future bliss is our likeness to God (cf. Matthew 5:48) in righteousness, mercy, holiness and other perfections, and that the source of ineffable bliss for the righteous will be the sight of God, when they see God not dimly and guessingly, but as if face to face (1 Cor 13:12), - “the pure will see the Pure, the righteous - the Righteous, for like will adhere to like” (Theophilus). 1 John 3:3. And everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself just as He is pure. 1 John 3:4. Everyone who commits sin also commits iniquity; and sin is lawlessness. From the concept of the birth of believers from God (1 John 2:29), their high grace-filled sonship with God in the present (1 John 3:1) and ineffable bliss in the future (v. 2), for everyone who has Christian hope for a blessed eternity, it is a necessary duty to constantly cleanse themselves of all sinful inborns according to the example of the pure and sinless Christ, since only the pure in heart can see God (Matthew 5:8). The Apostle further (v. 4) reinforces this moral and practical conclusion from the teaching about the spiritual rebirth of Christians and their high dignity as children of God by denying the opposite thesis, probably expressed by antinomian heretics, about the admission of sin in Christians: The Apostle with all decisiveness proves the complete incompatibility of sin with the dignity of reborn Christians. The Apostle says something like this: “You adopted children, do righteousness and do not show yourselves idle from it. For just as in regard to sin it is not the sinner or the lawless who has committed or will commit sin, but the one who holds on to evil and does evil, so the righteous is not the one who does not act, but the one who does righteousness. Sin is even inappropriate in you, for Christ appeared to destroy sin, and just as He Himself was not involved in sin, so you, united with Him and confirmed by faith in Him, no longer have any place left to sin... You must also know that sin is a falling away from good, and lawlessness is a violation of the positive law” (Blessed Theophilus). The violator of God’s law is a criminal against him, and is no longer a child of God, but a fellow member and son of the devil. 1 John 3:5. And you know that He appeared to take away our sins, and that in Him there is no sin. 1 John 3:6. No one who abides in Him sins; everyone who sins has not seen Him or known Him. The Apostle now, referring to his own inner experience and the Christian knowledge of the readers, further reveals the incompatibility of sin with the state of the reborn in Christ, pointing out that the purpose of the very appearance of Christ was to bring a propitiatory sacrifice for the sins of all and to destroy the responsibility of eternal condemnation for them before God (cf. 1 John 2:2; see 1 Pet 2:21, 24), and the very communion of Christians with the Sinless Christ the Savior obliges them do not sin; Only sins of infirmity and weakness of human nature are permissible. “Everyone who sins has not seen Him or known Him” - “by seeing Him does not mean seeing with a simple touch of the eye or lightly reproducing in one’s imagination something known, but a reluctance to discuss and find out the matter in any way and join Him” (Theophilus). 1 John 3:7. Children! Let no one deceive you. He who does righteousness is righteous, just as He is righteous. 1 John 3:8. Whoever commits sin is of the devil, because the devil sinned first. For this reason the Son of God appeared, to destroy the works of the devil. 1 John 3:9. Whoever is born of God commits no sin, because His seed abides in him; and he cannot sin, because he is born of God. In view of possible or actual reinterpretations of the Gospel gospel and moral Christian teaching, the Apostle persistently explains - against any antinomian false teaching - the complete inconsistency of sin and sinfulness with the whole teaching, dogmatic or ethical, of Christianity (v. 7), with the essence of the redemptive work of Christ (v. 8) and with the basic nature God-filial relationship to the Triune God (v. 9). Just as human righteousness is a sign and consequence of the birth of a Christian man from God (v. 7, see 1 John 2:29), so conscious, persistent sinfulness is an indicator of a person’s relationship with the devil - the primary source of all evil and sin (v. 8, see John 8:44). According to the explanation of St. John Chrysostom, “every time we sin, we are born of the devil, and every time we commit virtue, we are born of God, because “His seed abides in us” (v. 9). “The seed is the name given to the Spirit, whom we receive through baptism, and who, abiding in us, makes our mind incapable of sin. But if anyone is not born of God, he does not receive the Holy Spirit.” So, the Spirit of God dwelling in a Christian, of course, with the participation of the good will of the Christian man, gradually, more and more, removes him from sins. 1 John 3:10. The children of God and the children of the devil are recognized this way: everyone who does not do righteousness is not from God, and neither does he who does not love his brother. 1 John 3:11. For this is the gospel which you have heard from the beginning, that we should love one another, 1 John 3:12. not like Cain, who was of the evil one and killed his brother. Why did he kill him? Because his deeds were evil, but his brother’s deeds were righteous. Strengthening the thought of Art. 8, the Apostle says that not only the one who deliberately sins is alien to God and related to the devil, but also the one who a) does not do righteousness, b) does not love his brother - this ends the Apostle’s description of the children of God and the children of the devil (v. 10). Further justifying the position that he who does not love his brother is not from God, the Apostle reminds Christians that the commandment about the love of Christians for each other has been known to readers from the very beginning of their Christian state (v. 11), of course, from the teaching of the Lord Himself (John 13:34–35, 15:12–13), announced to people by the apostles. And in order to further highlight the moral obligation of mutual love in a Christian society, the Apostle, using the historical example of Cain, shows (v. 12) what dire consequences the violation of the commandment of love leads to. “The apostle demonstrates by example how great a thing it is to hate a brother. Look, he says, Cain hated his brother and killed him, despite the fact that he was his own brother. Cain had the evil deeds of his father the devil, but Abel, doing righteousness, was a son in relation to God. Here the devil is opposed to God, and evil deeds are opposed to good ones. That is why Cain, the opposite of his brother, killed him (Blessed Theophilus). The expression “slaughtered”, έσφαξε, often meaning sacrificial slaughter (Rev 5:6, 9, 12, 6:4, 9, etc.), emphasizes the innocent and martyrdom of Abel. 1 John 3:13. Do not be surprised, my brothers, if the world hates you. 1 John 3:14. We know that we have passed from death to life because we love our brothers; He who does not love his brother remains in death. 1 John 3:15. Anyone who hates his brother is a murderer; and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him. Since the fratricide of Cain, the antagonism between the children of God and the children of the devil, between God and the world, has never ceased. The same enmity of evil against good exists at this time: Cain now personifies the hostile world, and Abel - true Christians, children of God, hated by the world (v. 13, see John 15:20, 16:2). Hatred, according to the Apostle, is a sign, even a synonym of death, but Christians, through their love for their neighbors, have experienced every spiritual resurrection or revival (cf. John 5:24), while hatred of a brother means not only the state of spiritual death of the person who hates (v. 14b), but also the fact that such a person spiritually, if not physically, commits fratricide, similar to Cain; is “a murderer” (v. 15), which is the name Christ applied to the devil (John 8:44); hatred, according to the Apostle, is equal to murder, just as Christ the Savior condemns one who is angry with his neighbor as a murderer (Matthew 5:21, 22). 1 John 3:16. We have come to know love in the fact that He laid down His life for us: and we must lay down our lives for our brothers. 1 John 3:17. And whoever has wealth in the world, but, seeing his brother in need, closes his heart from him - how does the love of God abide in him? 1 John 3:18. My children! Let us begin to love not in word or tongue, but in deed and truth. Just as hatred of one’s neighbor most distances a person from God and most of all makes him an associate and son of the devil, so it is through love for one’s neighbors that a Christian comes closest to Christ God, adopting a godly mood. It was Christ the Savior who, in His theanthropic deed, showed the highest love, laying down His soul or life for us (cf. John 10:11, 15, 18, 13:37, 38, 15:13, etc.); due to moral solidarity with Christ, obligatory for all Christians (cf. Phil 2:5), due to the fact that Christians have found true life only through Christ (above, 1 John 3:14), self-sacrificing love for others, following the example of the Lord, is obligatory for all Christians, ready to lay down their souls for their brothers (v. 16, see John 15:13). But to this fundamental greatness of the feat of selfless Christian love the Apostle now (v. 17) contrasts a completely different attitude towards one’s neighbor, taken from everyday relationships, such as: a) callous insensitivity to the most ordinary, urgent needs of neighbors, when a person, as it were, artificially dulls the sensitivity of his heart, making it insensitive to pity and compassion (v. 17), and b) hypocritical love, which does not go further than meaningless words of imaginary participation (v. 18). Wanting to show the incompatibility of such false love, such an attitude towards one’s neighbor with the ideal of true self-sacrificing love, the Apostle asks: “how does the love of God abide in that (a person of such an attitude)?” (v. 17). “Love inclined the Lord to lay down His life for us; Following His example, we must lay down our lives for our brothers. But as is rarely done, the Apostle, as if shaming the faithful, begins with small things, urging them to brotherly love. He seems to be saying this: what can we say about laying down our souls for our brothers, when we see that it is not those who are poor in means - I am not talking about these - who do not satisfy their brothers in the necessities of life - but those who own the wealth of the whole world? Therefore, let them be ashamed! For if they closed their hearts in this little thing and showed themselves unworthy of God’s love, what would they show when they needed something more - to die for their brother? Then and again he continues to denounce those who limit love to words and reveal it only in the tongue. Let us begin, he says, to love not in word or tongue, but in deed and truth” (Blessed Theophilus). Only sincere, active love carries a blessing in itself, as the Apostle further speaks about. 1 John 3:19. And this is how we know that we are of the truth, and we calm our hearts before Him; 1 John 3:20. for if our heart condemns us, how much more does God, because God is greater than our heart and knows everything. Concluding his speech about the need for Christians to actively love their neighbors (1 John 3:17–18), the Apostle in this love indicates a sure sign that Christians are on the path of truth (just as Christ the Savior in love indicated the distinctive sign of His true disciples, John 13:35). “About this,” i.e., by what do we know? Because we love our brother not in word, but in deed and truth. What will we find out? That we are from the truth. How will we know? So, someone who says one thing and does another, who does not agree between the deeds and the word, is a liar and not true” (Blessed Theophilus). But, in addition to the obvious correspondence of the word about love with the work of love, the Apostle also points out the internal evidence of the moral consciousness or own conscience of Christians: “we rest our hearts before Him” (v. 19b). “This means: through truth (and we will be true when deeds correspond to our words) we will calm our conscience. For by the word “heart” he calls conscience. How can we calm it down? Having placed ourselves in such a position as to speak our words before God as a witness; for this is what the words mean: “before Him” (Blessed Theophilus). But if our moral behavior is not impeccable, in our opinion, according to the judgment of our conscience, then the greater the shortcomings will be found in us by the all-righteous judgment of God: “if our heart condemns us, then how much more will God; for God is greater than our hearts and knows everything” (v. 20). Blazh. Theophylact conveys the meaning of this difficult-to-understand verse in this way: “and if during sin we cannot hide from our conscience, which is limited, just as man is a limited being, then even more so we cannot hide from God, the limitless and omnipresent.” 1 John 3:21. Beloved! if our heart does not condemn us, then we have boldness towards God, 1 John 3:22. and whatever we ask, we receive from Him, because we keep His commandments and do what is pleasing in His sight. Speech Art. 21, in form reminiscent of the opposite expression 1 John 3:20, in thought represents the revelation of 1 John 3:19: with a calm conscience, a Christian receives not only peace of mind, but also some “boldness towards God,” that is, childlike trust, confidence in the gracious closeness to God, in His love for man, and in the fact that every lawful and worthy prayer of God will be heard ( 1 John 3:24). “If we are bold, we will certainly receive whatever we ask of Him. Why? Because we keep His commandments. For whoever is asked is very much inclined to listen by the obedience of the petitioners, as long as they ask without hesitation. And as we keep His commandments and do what is right in His sight, then let us hope that our prayers will not be in vain.” 1 John 3:23. And His commandment is that we believe in the name of His Son Jesus Christ and love one another, as He commanded us. 1 John 3:24. And whoever keeps His commandments abides in Him, and He in him. And we know that He abides in us by the spirit that He gave us. The Apostle hitherto especially insisted on fulfilling the commandment of brotherly love. But next to love for one’s neighbors and even before it, faith in God and in the Lord Jesus Christ is required as the foundation of Christian life. This is a reduction of the whole law and the Gospel, and the Apostle combines both basic requirements of Christianity into one “commandment”, εντολή (v. 23): the first half of this commandment is about faith in Christ, the second is about love for one another; faith is the basis of love, love is the fruit or action of faith; with true living faith love is given, like light and warmth with the sun. This is “faith working through love,” which Ap. also taught. Paul (Gal 5:6). This completely excludes both the denial of the unconditional necessity of faith in moral activity (anti-dogmatism) and the belittlement or suppression of moral activity in faith (immoralism). He who believes in Christ and loves his neighbors dwells in God and himself becomes the abode of the entire Holy Trinity (v. 24), according to the promise of the Savior Himself (John 14:16, 17:21, 23, 15:7). The guarantee, sign or evidence of God’s presence in us is the Holy Spirit sent down to the whole Church and sent down to individual members of it with His grace-filled gifts (cf. 1 John 2:20, 27, 4:10, 13; 2 Cor 1:22; Eph 1:13; 1 Cor 12.4, etc.). “The whole thought: you must believe in the name of His Son Jesus Christ and love one another truly, as he commanded. For he who keeps the commandment abides in Him, and He in him. And that He abides in us, we know this by the spirit or by the gift that He gave us” (Blessed Theophilus). From here the Apostle proceeds to distinguishing spiritual gifts, true ones from false and imaginary ones. You might be interested in: