Passage

1 John 3.14

Book: 1 John · ASV / WEB / KJV / YLT

Immediate context (±2 verses)

ASV

12. not as Cain was of the evil one, and slew his brother. And wherefore slew he him? Because his works were evil, and his brother's righteous. 13. Marvel not, brethren, if the world hateth you.

14. We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brethren. He that loveth not abideth in death.

Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer: and ye know that no murderer hath eternal life abiding in him. 16. Hereby know we love, because he laid down his life for us: and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. (1 John 3:12-16, ASV)

WEB

12. unlike Cain, who was of the evil one, and killed his brother. Why did he kill him? Because his deeds were evil, and his brother’s righteous. 13. Don’t be surprised, my brothers, if the world hates you.

14. We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brothers. He who doesn’t love his brother remains in death.

Whoever hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life remaining in him. 16. By this we know love, because he laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. (1 John 3:12-16, WEB)

KJV

12. Not as Cain, who was of that wicked one, and slew his brother. And wherefore slew he him? Because his own works were evil, and his brother's righteous. 13. Marvel not, my brethren, if the world hate you.

14. We know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren. He that loveth not his brother abideth in death.

Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer: and ye know that no murderer hath eternal life abiding in him. 16. Hereby perceive we the love of God, because he laid down his life for us: and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. (1 John 3:12-16, KJV)

YLT

12. not as Cain, of the evil one he was, and he did slay his brother, and wherefore did he slay him? because his works were evil, and those of his brother righteous. 13. Do not wonder, my brethren, if the world doth hate you;

14. we, we have known that we have passed out of the death to the life, because we love the brethren; he who is not loving the brother doth remain in the death.

Every one who is hating his brother, a man-killer he is, and ye have known that no man-killer hath life age-during in him remaining, 16. in this we have known the love, because he for us his life did lay down, and we ought for the brethren the lives to lay down; (1 John 3:12-16, YLT)

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Setting

Speaker: The letter is formally anonymous. Early and unanimous tradition assigns it to John the apostle (Irenaeus, Against Heresies 3.16.5 and 3.16.8, c. AD 180), and its vocabulary and style are closely shared with the Fourth Gospel.
Audience: Churches in Roman Asia, addressed after a secession: "they went out from us, but they were not really of us" (1 John 2:19). The departing teachers denied that Jesus is the Christ (2:22) and that He has come in the flesh (4:2).
Location: Traditionally Ephesus, the center of the Johannine circle in Asia Minor.
Time period: c. AD 85-95, late in the apostolic period. The stated purpose is assurance: "these things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know that you have eternal life" (1 John 5:13).

Theological reading

"We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brethren. He who does not love abides in death."

Assurance from evidence. Oidamen, we know, is one of the letter's characteristic verbs, and the whole document is written so that its readers "may know" they have eternal life (1 John 5:13). Here the ground of knowing is not an experience or a memory of a decision but a present love for fellow believers.

Love is the evidence, not the cause. The Greek hoti introduces the reason we know, not the reason we have passed from death to life. Reading it as the cause would make the letter teach salvation by love, which contradicts 1 John 4:10, not that we loved God but that He loved us. The distinction between the ground of a fact and the ground of knowing it is the whole hinge of the verse.

"Passed out of death into life." Metabebēkamen, perfect tense, a completed transition with abiding result. The identical phrase appears at John 5:24, "he who hears My word and believes Him who sent Me has eternal life, and does not come into judgment, but has passed out of death into life." John's letter and Gospel use the same vocabulary for the same claim.

The negative half. "He who does not love abides in death." John does not soften this, and it should not be softened in use, but neither should it be turned into an instrument for auditing other people. Every test in 1 John is written to give assurance to the anxious, addressed to a church that had just been told by departing teachers that they lacked something. See 1 John 3.19-21 for what John says to a heart that condemns itself.

Key words

Theologically-loaded Greek or Hebrew words in this verse may have entries in the lexicon. Curated to roughly 100 contested terms across the corpus, not every word; see Lexicon Roadmap.

G2288 - thanatos, thanatos, Strong's G2288
G0025 - agapao, agapao, Strong's G0025
G2222 - zoe, zoe, Strong's G2222
G1492 - oida, oida, Strong's G1492

Quoted in

Arguments and defeaters:

Lexicon:

Passages:

1 John 2.3-4

Why these four translations

ris3n chose ASV, WEB, KJV, and YLT for two reasons together. They are the most literal English translations available (formal-equivalence: word-for-word renderings that preserve the Hebrew and Greek grammar rather than smoothing it into modern dynamic-equivalence idiom). And they are in the public domain in the United States, which means fair-use quotation at any length requires no publisher license. Modern licensed translations (NASB95, ESV, NIV) restrict volume of quotation under their copyright terms, so they are not used at stub-level coverage here. NASB95 appears only on hand-curated rich passage hubs under Lockman Foundation's fair-use allowance.

The four:

ASV (American Standard Version, 1901). The basis of the modern critical-text English tradition.
WEB (World English Bible, contemporary). Public-domain revision in the ASV line, in current English.
KJV (King James Version, 1611). Reformation-era, Textus Receptus base.
YLT (Young's Literal Translation, Robert Young, 1862). Hyper-literal preservation of Hebrew and Greek grammar; useful for word-study work even where English reads stiff.

See Bibles for the full per-translation history, translators, textual basis, strengths, and weaknesses.