First John: 1 John 3:14b-The Believer Who Does Not Divinely Love Their Fellow-Believer is Experiencing Spiritual Death Lesson # 123

1 John 3:14 We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brothers. Whoever does not love abides in death. (ESV)

“Whoever does not love abides in death” is composed of the following: (1) negative particle me (μή), “not” (2) articular nominative masculine singular present active participle form of the verb agapaō (ἀγαπάω), “whoever does love” (3) third person singular present active indicative form of the verb menō (μένω), “abides” (4) preposition en (ἐν), “in” (5) articular dative masculine singular form of the noun thanatos (θάνατος), “death.”

The verb agapaō means “to divinely love” referring to the practice of the love of God by the believer when interacting with their fellow-believer.

However, this time the verb’s meaning is negated by the negative particle me, which denies any idea of a believer practicing divine love in their life.

The present tense of the verb agapaō is a gnomic present which is used in a generic statement to describe something that is true “any time” rather than a universal statement that is true “all the time.”

Therefore, the gnomic present expresses the absolute spiritual principle that the one who at any time does not divinely love their fellow believer exists in the state of living in that which is death or loss of fellowship with God.

The verb menō means “to continue to exist” since the word pertains to continuing to exist in a particular state or condition.

Here it refers to the believer who does not practice divine love continuing to exist in that which constitutes death, i.e. loss of fellowship with God.

Once again, we have the noun thanatos which means “death” which describes a believer existing in the state of experiencing the loss of fellowship with God.

The present tense of this verb menō is a gnomic present used to make a statement of a general, timeless fact.

Here it is used to make an absolute statement regarding every believer who at any time does not practice the love of God when interacting with their fellow-believer.

The gnomic present indicates that the believer who at any time does not practice divine love “as an eternal spiritual truth” continues to exist in that which constitutes death.

1 John 3:14 Each and every one of us has confirmed that we have been transferred from death to life because each one of us are divinely loving our fellow-believer. The one who at any time does not practice divine love continues to exist in death. (My translation)

1 John 3:14 ends with the apostle John making a final assertion, namely that the believer who at any time does not exist in the state of practicing divine love continues as an eternal spiritual truth to exist in that which constitutes death.

This means that any time the believer does not practice the love of God when interacting with their fellow-believer is not experiencing fellowship with God which John describes as “death,” which we noted can be described as “temporal” spiritual death.

Therefore, the apostle John is teaching the recipients of First John that the believer who obeys the Lord’s command recorded in John 13:34 and 15:12 to follow His example and divinely love their fellow-believer is demonstrating that they are a child of God.

They are giving evidence to the world that they are children of God when they practice the love of God with their fellow-believer.

Consequently, he is reassuring the recipients of this epistle that they were in fact experiencing fellowship with God since they were practicing the love of God with each other.

He is also showing them how they can have assurance that they are children of God.

If we compare 1 John 3:12-13 with 1 John 3:14, we can see that John is presenting a very strong contrast between the believer who obeys the command to love one another with the unregenerate people of the world who are enslaved to the indwelling Adamic sin nature as well as Satan and his cosmic system.

The natural inclination of the people of the world is that they hate their fellow human being which reflects the nature of their father the devil.

In fact, the false teachers who were threatening the recipients of First John with their false doctrine and who John describes as “antichrists” were also unregenerate as well.

On the other hand, the believer who is experiencing eternal life is obeying the Lord’s command to follow His example and love their fellow-believer.

This obedience manifests that the believer is a child of God since this divine love is an attribute of the Trinity.

It is one of the attributes that compose the divine nature or essence.

Consequently, the believer who at any time does not divinely love their fellow-believer is giving no testimony that they are a child of God or a disciple of Jesus (cf. John 13:35).

They are thus not living in a manner which is consistent with their regenerate state as children of God.

Now, John is not teaching that the practice of love by the believer when interacting with their fellow-believer is the basis for their eternal relationship with the Trinity but rather that it should be the result of this relationship.

However, he is teaching that the practice of love is the basis for their fellowship with the Trinity.

We are making a distinction between the believer’s “fellowship” with God and their “eternal relationship” with God.

One must not blur the distinction between the believer’s eternal relationship with God and their fellowship with God though both are obviously related.

One also must not blur the distinction between one’s position in Christ and one’s experience.

When I say one must not blur the distinction between one’s eternal relationship with God and fellowship with God I mean that though they are related, they are different.

They are related because fellowship with God is experiencing one’s eternal relationship with God.

They are different in that sin does not cause one to lose one’s eternal relationship with God but it does cause one to lose fellowship with God.

Let me use an analogy.

I entered the Wenstrom family at physical birth and when I disobeyed my parents, I lost fellowship with them and was sent to my room.

They didn’t disown me but they refused to have fellowship with me until I did two things.

One I confessed I was wrong to them.

Then, I had to do what I was told.

The same is true in God’s family, if we sin, God will not have fellowship with us.

He doesn’t disown us when we sin.

He disciplines us because He loves us (Hebrews 12:4-11; Revelation 3:19).

We are still in His family.

When we confess our sins to our heavenly Father we are restored to fellowship with Him and when we obey Him we maintain that fellowship with Him.

When I say, we must not blur the distinction between one’s position in Christ and one’s experience, I mean that committing sin (mental, verbal, or overt) prevents us from experiencing our position in Christ as well as sanctification and yet it does not cause us to lose our position in Christ.

In fact, to experience fellowship with God is to experience one’s union and identification with Christ in His crucifixion, death, burial, resurrection and session at the right hand of the Father.

John’s teaching here in 1 John 3:14 echoes his teaching in 1 John 3:10.

1 John 3:10 By means of this, God’s children are manifested as well as the devil’s children: Any person who at any time does not practice that which constitutes true righteousness by no means possesses the characteristic originating from the one true God. Specifically, the one who at any time does not divinely love their fellow believer. (Author’s translation)

John is emphatically not teaching in 1 John 3:14 how the recipients can identify if they are a believer or not.

We must keep in mind that John is writing to those who were already saved as a result of being declared justified by the Father through faith in His Son Jesus Christ.

Therefore, he is not saying in 1 John 3:14 if you don’t practice the love of God when interacting with members of the body of Christ that you are not a “true” believer.

Rather, he is assuring them as to how they can confirm that they are experiencing fellowship with God, which he describes as knowing Him experientially (cf. 1 John 2:3-6) and experiencing eternal life.

Therefore, in 1 John 3:14 as with the rest of this epistle, the apostle John is teaching the recipients of First John how they can confirm that they are in fact experiencing fellowship with God and not how they can confirm if they are saved.

John’s overriding concern in this epistle is to ensure that the recipients of this letter who were believers continued to regularly experience fellowship with God and not to give them assurance of their eternal salvation and relationship with God, which he makes clear in the prologue of the epistle and specifically in 1 John 1:3.