ris3n's Apologetics Codex

Passage

1 John 3.17

Book: 1 John · ASV / WEB / KJV / YLT

Immediate context (±2 verses)

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ASV

15. 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.

17. But whoso hath the world's goods, and beholdeth his brother in need, and shutteth up his compassion from him, how doth the love of God abide in him?

  1. My Little children, let us not love in word, neither with the tongue; but in deed and truth. 19. Hereby shall we know that we are of the truth, and shall assure our heart before him: (1 John 3:15-19, ASV)
WEB

15. 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.

17. But whoever has the world’s goods, and sees his brother in need, and closes his heart of compassion against him, how does God’s love remain in him?

  1. My little children, let’s not love in word only, or with the tongue only, but in deed and truth. 19. And by this we know that we are of the truth, and persuade our hearts before him, (1 John 3:15-19, WEB)
KJV

15. 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.

17. But whoso hath this world's good, and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him?

  1. My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue; but in deed and in truth. 19. And hereby we know that we are of the truth, and shall assure our hearts before him. assure: Gr. persuade (1 John 3:15-19, KJV)
YLT

15. 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;

17. and whoever may have the goods of the world, and may view his brother having need, and may shut up his bowels from him, how doth the love of God remain in him?

  1. My little children, may we not love in word nor in tongue, but in word and in truth! 19. and in this we know that of the truth we are, and before Him we shall assure our hearts, (1 John 3:15-19, 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

"But whoever has the world's goods, and sees his brother in need and closes his heart against him, how does the love of God abide in him?"

The question is rhetorical and the answer is meant to sting. John has just defined love by the cross, "we know love by this, that He laid down His life for us" (verse 16), and then immediately scales it down from martyrdom to money. The rhetorical move is that the smaller test is the one most people fail.

"Closes his heart." Kleisē ta splanchna autou ap' autou, shuts his bowels against him. Splanchna names the inward parts as the seat of compassion, and the English idiom that survives closest is a hardened heart. The verb is active: this is a door being shut, not an absence of feeling.

"Sees." The condition includes knowledge. John's case requires that the person has goods, sees the need, and then closes; he is not describing failure to notice.

Verse 18 gives the conclusion. "Little children, let us not love with word or with tongue, but in deed and truth." The pair logos/glōssa against ergon/alētheia is the letter's standard test structure, and it matches James 2:15-16 almost exactly, which suggests a shared body of early Christian teaching on the point.

A caution about use. The verse is a test of the person quoting it as much as of anyone else, and it is addressed to a Christian community about its own members. Deployed as an accusation against outsiders, it does the opposite of what John intends.

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.

Quoted in

Arguments and defeaters:

Concepts:

Lexicon:

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.