Biblion Bible Commentary
Read the introduction to 1 John · About this commentary
His Commandment
1 John 3:23-24
23 This is his commandment, that we should believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and love one another, even as he commanded. · WEB
After many references to the commandments, the letter states the commandment — singular — and it has two halves joined as one.
The letter has spoken of commandments repeatedly 1 John 2:3 1 John 3:22 without saying what they are. Verse 23 finally says, and the noun is singular: this is his commandment.
What follows is two things. That we believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ, and that we love one another. Belief and love, joined under one heading, with a single verb of commanding governing both.
The joining is the letter's whole argument in miniature. The people who left had separated these — a confession about Christ held apart from conduct toward fellow believers, or a claim to love God alongside hatred of a brother 1 John 4:20. The letter's answer is not to rank them but to refuse the separation: one commandment, and anyone keeping half of it is not keeping it.
It is also worth noticing that believing is put under the word commandment at all. Faith here is not merely a condition someone finds himself in; it is something required.
Verse 24 gives the result and then, for the first time in the letter, the means. Whoever keeps it remains in him, and he in them — mutual, and stated in both directions. And by this we know that he remains in us, by the Spirit whom he gave us. The tests so far have been things a person does. This one is a gift he has received, and it opens the chapter that follows 1 John 4:1.
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