3:15 How are we to understand this?
3:15 How are we to understand this?
Here John equates hatred with murder. In the preceding study on V10-13 we saw that Cain's hatred of Abel's righteousness resulted in him murdering Abel (cp 1Jn 3:10-13).
Whoever harbours hatred toward a fellow-Christian is a potential murderer because in God's economy, love and hate, like light and darkness or life and death, necessarily replace, as well as necessarily exclude each other.
Whoever does not have the one, of necessity has the other in each case (cp Mt 5:21-22; 1Cor 13:2; 1Jn 2:9-11). Mt 5:21-22 teaches that our attitude toward our fellow-Christians is as significant to Jesus as what we do to them. In 1Jn 2:9-11 love is characterized by light, and hate, by darkness, which signifies hell and damnation.
This teaches that no one can say they love God and expect to spend eternity with Jesus, while at the same time they hate their fellow-Christians.
Anyone who does so is only deluding himself thinking that he is saved. It is only Christians' love for each other that proves their love for God and ensures their place in God's eternal kingdom (cp Jn 13:34-35; 1Jn 3:14; 4:7-8, 11-12, 18-21; 5:1-2). See also comments on 1 Jn 2:7.