Book of 1 John Chapter 3 Vs. 23

Love One Another

Verses 23-24: These verses again repeat the three features of this epistle – believing, loving, and obeying – which are the major evidence of true salvation. The third benefit of love is the abiding presence and empowering of the Holy Spirit.

1 John 3:23 "And this is his commandment, That we should believe on the name of his Son Jesus Christ, and love one another, as he gave us commandment."

That we should...

Two salvation commandments:

1. Believe on the name of Jesus Christ (Mat. 1:21; Acts 2:38; 3:16; 4:12)

2. Love one another (1Jhn. 4:7-14; John 13:34)

John has already set forth the importance of true faith in Christ and true love for others. Now he combines the two.

Look, with me, in the following Scriptures, and see what believing will get you.

Rom. 10:9-10 "That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved." "For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation."

Everyone who is a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ has been given permission to use His name to pray to the Father. Notice this type of praying in the following verses.

John 14:12-13 "Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater [works] than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father." "And whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son."

John 14:14 "If ye shall ask any thing in my name, I will do [it]."

believe on the name (πιστεύσωμεν τῷ ὀνόματι)

The present participle, believing, indicates the present and continuous activity of faith. The word is used by John, sometimes with the dative case simply meaning to believe a person or thing; i.e., to believe that they are true or speak the truth. Thus, to believe the Scripture (John 2:22); believe me (John 4:21); believe Moses, his writings, my words (John 4:46). At other times with a preposition, εἰς, into, which is rendered believe in, or believe on. So here, John 6:29; 8:30; 1Jhn. 5:10. See the two contrasted in John 6:29, 6:30; 8:30, 8:31; 1Jhn. 5:10. To believe in, or on, is more than mere acceptance of a statement. It is so to accept a statement or a person as to rest upon them, to trust them practically; to draw upon and avail one's self of all that is offered to him in them. Hence to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ is not merely to believe the facts of His historic life or of His saving energy as facts, but to accept Him as Savior, Teacher, Sympathizer, Judge; to rest the soul upon Him for present and future salvation, and to accept and adopt His precepts and example as binding upon the life. See on Mat. 28:19. Expressing the sum of the qualities which mark the nature or character of a person. To believe in the name of Jesus Christ the Son of God, is to accept as true the revelation contained in that title. Compare John 20:31.

John 1:12; The human name, Jesus, shows that His blood is available for man. The divine name, His Son, shows that it is efficacious. I shall be rendering a service to students of John's Epistles by giving, in a condensed form, Canon Westcott's note, classifying the several names of our Lord and their uses in the Epistles.

The name in John, as in the Bible elsewhere, has two distinct, but closely connected meanings.

1. The Revelation of the Divine Being by a special title.

2. The whole sum of the manifold revelations gathered up so as to form one supreme revelation.

The latter sense is illustrated in 3Jhn. 1:7, where the name absolutely includes the essential elements of the Christian creed, the complete revelation of Christ's work in relation to God and man. Compare John 20:31; Acts 5:41.

In 1Jhn. 2:12, the term is more limited, referring to Christ as He lived on earth and gave Himself for the brethren. In 1Jhn. 3:23; 5:13, the exact sense is defined by what follows.

Actual Names Used.

(I.) His Son Jesus Christ. 1Jhn. 1:3; 3:23; 5:20. The divine antecedent is differently described in each case, and the difference colors the phrase. In 1Jhn. 1:2-3, the Father compare John 3. In 1Jhn. 3:23, God. In 1Jhn. 5:20, He that is true. Thus the sonship of Christ is regarded in relation to God as Father, as God, and as satisfying the divine ideal which man is able to form. The whole phrase, His Son Jesus Christ, includes the two elements of the confessions which John makes prominent.

1. Jesus is the Son of God (John 4:15; 5:5).

2. Jesus is the Christ (John 2:22; 5:1).

The constituents of the compressed phrase are all used separately by John.

(1.) Jesus. 1Jhn. 2:22; 5:1; 4:3 where the correct reading omits Christ. The thought is that of the Lord in His perfect historic humanity.

(2.) Christ. 2Jhn. 1:9. Pointing to the preparation made under the old covenant.

(3). Jesus Christ. 1Jhn. 2:1; 5:6; 2Jhn. 1:7. Combining the ideas of true humanity and messianic position.

In 1Jhn. 4:15, the reading is doubtful: Jesus or Jesus Christ.

On 1Jhn. 4:2.

(4.) The Son. 1Jhn. 2:22, 2:23, 2:24; 4:14; 5:12. The absolute relation of Son-ship to Fatherhood.

(5.) The Son of God. 1Jhn. 3:8; 5:10, 5:12, 5:13, 5:20. Compare His Son (1Jn. 4:10; 5:9), where the immediate antecedent is ὁ Θεός God; and 1Jhn. 5:18, He that was begotten of God. Combination of the ideas of Christ's divine dignity and divine sonship.

(6.) Jesus His God's Son. 1Jhn. 1:7. Two truths. The blood of Christ is available and efficacious.

(7). His God's Son, His only Son. 1Jhn. 4:9. The uniqueness of the gift is the manifestation of love.

The Son in various forms is eminently characteristic of the First and Second Epistles, in which it occurs more times than in all Paul's Epistles.

Κύριος Lord, is not found in the Epistles omit from 2Jhn. 1:3, but occurs in the Gospel, and often in Revelation.

The expression, the blood of Jesus His Son, is chosen with a profound insight. Though Ignatius uses the phrase blood of God yet the word blood is inappropriate to the Son conceived in His divine nature. The word Jesus brings out His human nature, in which He assumed a real body of flesh and blood, which blood was shed for us.1Jhn. 1:7.

The writer had declared that a confident and effective prayer life is founded on obedience to God’s commands (1Jhn. 3:22). Now those commands are summed up in a single command consisting of faith and love. The phrase believe in the name of His Son contains the epistle’s first direct reference to faith. The Greek here contains no word for in so the expression could be rendered believe the name of His Son. In this context it certainly includes the faith in Christ’s name which true Christian prayer involves (see John 14:12-15; 16:24).

1Jhn. 3:23 furnishes a kind of climax to the paragraph beginning in 1Jhn. 3:18. As a Christian actively engages in deeds of love (1Jhn. 3:18) and as he achieves boldness before God in prayer (1Jhn. 3:21), he is doing what God commands (cf. 1Jhn. 2:3; 3:24; 5:2-3): living a life of confidence in the name of Christ which is under-girded by love (1Jhn. 3:23; cf. 3:14; 4:7, 4:11, 4:21). Since faith and love, thus conceived, go together, this kind of life is seen as obedience to a single command. Amen.