10 Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor.

Having established that believers are characterized by righteousness and abstinence from a life of continual sin, John now adds that they are also persons who love one another as a normal and consistent habit of life.

Although the demand for obedience to love certainly applies to the world in general, this command to love is directed primarily to the community of faith. The present tense of agapōmen (“we should love”) calls for a continuous display of love in the family of God. Christian love is fundamental to being a child of God. Having established that believers are characterized by righteousness and abstinence from a life of continual sin, John now adds that they are also persons who love one another as a normal and consistent habit of life.

Cain is identified as being “of the evil one” (ek tou ponerou). Cain belonged to the evil one, to the devil, a thought that apparently is derived from Gen 4:7, where God warns Cain that “sin is crouching at your door.” The adjective ponerou (“evil”) indicates the active exercise of evil in one’s behavior. Cain demonstrated the defining actions of his spiritual father (cf. 3:10). As Marshall writes, Cain “drew his inspiration from the evil one, the devil, who is himself the archetypal murderer (John 8:44).”

Cain’s conduct revealed his diabolical character when he “murdered his brother.” John uses the word esphaksen (“to butcher, slay, murder”; lit., “to cut the throat”) to portray the brutal violence of the event.

The unexpected rhetorical question, “And why did he murder him?” serves to expose the motive behind Cain’s gruesome deed. The subsequent answer, “Because his own actions were evil and his brother’s were righteous,” contrasts the two deeds and character of the two brothers. The righteous acts of Abel provoked the jealousy of Cain, which digressed into hatred and eventually murder. As Stott affirms, “Jealousy—hatred—murder is a natural and terrible sequence.” The motivation behind Cain’s initial envy illustrates the conflicting nature between good and evil. In essence, Cain murdered his brother Abel because the wicked person hates righteousness. Burdick adds, “Godlessness is disturbed by the condemning presence of righteousness in its midst, and it would remove the cause of its discomfort if it could.”

Just as love is the defining characteristic of the child of God, so hatred is the natural response of the world toward righteousness.

This statement serves as a stern warning for anyone at anytime who finds an absence of love in his heart. For those in the community of faith, it should be an occasion for soul searching and careful examination “to see whether you are in the faith” (2 Cor 13:5).

“Hatred is the desire to get rid of someone, whether or not one has the nerve or the occasion to perform the act.” Love and hatred are moral opposites, but hatred and murder belong to the same sphere of “death” noted in v. 14. The driving force that motivates the hater to commit murder stems from Satan himself and is thus a distinguishing mark of his children.

a designed self-sacrifice on behalf of others

As Lewis observes: “It is easier to be enthusiastic about Humanity with a capital ‘H’ than it is to love individual men and women, especially those who are uninteresting, exasperating, depraved, or otherwise unattractive. Loving everybody in general may be an excuse for loving nobody in particular.”

“has no [pity]” (NIV), suggests a deliberate neglect in spite of what he has observed. The verb literally means “to close or lock a door.” Here it is employed figuratively to portray the erection of a barrier that encloses one’s sympathetic feelings and isolates them from the needs of another. Robertson says it is the slamming of the door in the face of another’s need.25

John’s challenge in this section is for his readers to be genuine in their love. One of the distinguishing marks of the child of God is love, a love that originates in God, displays itself in actions of self-sacrifice, and is evidence of eternal life.

This persuasion is to be undertaken ‘whenever our heart condemn us, that is, whenever their hearts object to legitimate calls upon their generosity when they are in fact in a position to respond.’ ”

In essence, John is arguing that we can persuade our hearts in his presence whenever our hearts condemn us.

Attempting now to bring all of this together, John identifies those things that may cause our conscience to condemn (kataginōskei) us. When we refuse to love in action and truth (v. 18), God, who is greater than our hearts in kindness and generosity, motivates us to resist the hardness of heart that would refuse to show compassion to those in need (v. 17). Further, the fact that “he knows everything” reminds us “that any meanness of heart … will not go unnoticed by an omnipotent God.

The phrase “before God” (pros ton theon, lit., “toward God”) portrays an intimate, relational, face-to-face encounter with the heavenly Father. At the same time, as Burdick reminds us, “it should be remembered that the confidence and boldness expressed by parrēsian contain nothing of impropriety or brashness. It gives no license to anyone to command God to act; it does not erase the distinction between God’s infinity and our humanity.” Our confidence rests in his mercy and love, which have been extended to us.

The immediate context suggests that the one asking is the one who is striving to “obey his commands and do what pleases him” (v. 22b). Likewise, 5:14–15 states that the prayer is to be offered “according to his will.” The guarantee of answered prayer is based on the proper standing of the petitioner, which in return gives him confidence to approach God freely and openly.

Both aitōmen (“we ask”) and lambanomen (“we receive”) are present tense verbs that describe a fact that is generally or always true. God always answers the requests of his children. The “from him” (ap’ autou) clearly refers to God the Father as the source of these answered prayers. It is “clear that these answers are not merely fortuitous circumstances but come from Him as His specific response.”

“Obedience is the indispensable condition, not the meritorious cause, of answered prayer.”

The two verbs that confirm this precondition, “we obey” [keep; teroumen] and “[we] do” [poioumen] are both progressive presents and mark a defining characteristic of those whose prayers are answered. It is the continual obeying of God’s commands and the striving to please him that precede our confidence before God in prayer. Such conduct provides “an objective, moral reason for the divine response; it does not simply depend upon the subjective ground of a worshiper’s clear conscience.”

“You cannot believe without loving nor love without believing.” The Christian life demands an essential union between faith and love.56