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Scott's Reference Library
1 John 3:16 through 1 John 3:24 (NIV)
16This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And
we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers. 17If anyone has material
possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the
love of God be in him? 18Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but
with actions and in truth. 19This then is how we know that we belong to the
truth, and how we set our hearts at rest in his presence 20whenever our hearts
condemn us. For God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything.
21Dear friends, if our hearts do not condemn us, we have confidence before God
22and receive from him anything we ask, because we obey his commands and do what
pleases him. 23And this is his command: to believe in the name of his Son, Jesus
Christ, and to love one another as he commanded us. 24Those who obey his
commands live in him, and he in them. And this is how we know that he lives in
us: We know it by the Spirit he gave us.
Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary on the Whole Bible
VERSES 16-21
Here is the condescension, the miracle, the mystery of Divine love, that God
would redeem the church with his own blood. Surely we should love those whom God
has loved, and so loved. The Holy Spirit, grieved at selfishness, will leave the
selfish heart without comfort, and full of darkness and terror. By what can it
be known that a man has a true sense of the love of Christ for perishing
sinners, or that the love of God has been planted in his heart by the Holy
Spirit, if the love of the world and its good overcomes the feelings of
compassion to a perishing brother? Every instance of this selfishness must
weaken the evidences of a man’s conversion; when habitual and allowed, it must
decide against him. If conscience condemn us in known sin, or the neglect of
known duty, God does so too. Let conscience therefore be well-informed, be
heard, and diligently attended to.
VERSES 22-24
When believers had confidence towards God, through the Spirit of adoption, and
by faith in the great High Priest, they might ask what they would of their
reconciled Father. They would receive it, if good for them. And as good-will to
men was proclaimed from heaven, so good-will to men, particularly to the
brethren, must be in the hearts of those who go to God and heaven. He who thus
follows Christ, dwells in Him as his ark, refuge, and rest, and in the Father
through him. This union between Christ and the souls of believers, is by the
Spirit he has given them. A man may believe that God is gracious before he knows
it; yet when faith has laid hold on the promises, it sets reason to work. This
Spirit of God works a change; in all true Christians it changes from the power
of Satan to the power of God. Consider, believer, how it changes thy heart. Dost
not thou long for peace with God? Wouldst thou not forego all the world for it?
No profit, pleasure, or preferment shall hinder thee from following Christ. This
salvation is built upon Divine testimony, even the Spirit of God.