First John: 1 John 3:16a-The Believer Knows God’s Love Experientially By Means of Jesus Christ’s Sacrifice For Them Lesson # 126

1 John 3:16 We have come to know love by this: that Jesus laid down his life for us; thus we ought to lay down our lives for our fellow Christians. (ESV)

“We have come to know love by this” is composed of the following: (1) preposition en (ἐν), “by” (2) dative neuter singular form of the demonstrative pronoun houtos (οὗτος), “this” (3) first person plural perfect active indicative form of the verb ginōskō (γινώσκω), “we have come to know” (4) articular accusative feminine singular form of the noun agapē (ἀγάπη), “the love.”

The demonstrative pronoun houtos means “this” and is kataphoric meaning it is pointing to hoti clause which follows it: (1) hoti ekeinos hyper hēmōn tēn psychēn autou (ὅτι ἐκεῖνος ὑπὲρ ἡμῶν τὴν ψυχὴν αὐτοῦ), “that Jesus laid down his life for us.”

This word houtos is the object of the preposition en which is a marker of means indicating the means by which the action of the first person plural perfect active indicative form of the verb ginōskō, “we have come to know” is accomplished.

Therefore, this prepositional phrase indicates the means by which the recipients of First John and John had come to know the love of God.

The verb ginōskō is used in the perfect tense and means, “to know (the Lord Jesus) experientially.”

To experience means, “to personally encounter, observe or undergo something through a process, to have knowledge or practical wisdom gained from what one has observed, encountered or undergone,” and implies being affected by what one meets.

Thus, the verb means an “to know experientially” the love of God in the sense of John and the recipients of First John personally encountering this love as a result of accepting by faith Jesus laying down His life for them on the cross.

It also involves being affected by this encounter with the love of God by exercising the love of God when interacting with one’s fellow-believer.

The first person plural form refers to John and the recipients of this epistle and ultimately it refers to every believer throughout the world since Jesus laid down His life on the cross for every Christian.

The word is also used in a distributive sense emphasizing no exceptions.

The noun agapē means “divine-love” since it does not refer to the function of human love but rather the exercise of God’s attribute of love.

“That Jesus laid down his life for us” is composed of the following: (1) conjunction hoti (ὅτι), “that” (2) nominative masculine singular form of the demonstrative pronoun ekeinos (ἐκεῖνος), “He” (3) preposition huper (ὑπέρ), “for” (8) genitive first person plural form of the personal pronoun ego (ἐγώ), “us” (4) articular accusative feminine singular form of the noun psuchē (ψυχή), “life” (5) genitive third person masculine singular form of the intensive personal pronoun autos (αὐτός), “his” (6) third person singular aorist active indicative form of the verb tithemi (τίθημι), “laid down.”

The conjunction hoti is employed with the indicative mood of the verb tithemi, “laid down” in order to form an appositional clause which means that it is defining for the reader the means by which they know experientially the love of God.

This would indicate that this word is introducing a clause which defines for the recipients of First John the means by which they and John knew experientially the love of God.

The demonstrative pronoun ekeinos means “this one” referring of course to Jesus Christ since He and not the Father or the Spirit became a human being and experienced the wrath of God as a substitute for all of sinful humanity by suffering a spiritual and physical death on the cross.

The verb tithemi means “to lay down one’s life voluntarily” and speaks of Jesus voluntarily sacrificing His life on the cross in order to suffer God’s wrath as a substitute for each and every person who trusts in Him as their Savior.

Specifically, it speaks of Jesus act on the cross of voluntarily dying physically as well as spiritually meaning He was abandoned by the Father while on the cross.

The noun psuchē means “life” pertains to the condition of Jesus living in His human body as well as living in fellowship with the Father.

The genitive first person singular form of the personal pronoun ego refers of course to John and the recipients of First John and is used in a distributive sense emphasizing no exceptions emphasizing Jesus Christ sacrificed His life on the cross for the benefit of each and every church age believer.

This word ego is the object of the preposition huper which means “on behalf of, for the benefit of” since it functions syntactically not only as a marker of participants who are benefited by an event but also as a marker of substitution.

Therefore, huper with the genitive masculine plural form of the adjective ego not only marks each and every member of the church-past, present and future, as “benefited” by Jesus Christ’s sacrificing His life on the cross but also it denotes He died as their “substitute” as well.

John employs huper since it denotes not only that Christ’s sacrifice was “in place of” each member of the church but also it indicates that it was “for the benefit” of each and every member of the church.

Thus, huper denotes that Jesus Christ’s sacrifice was not only “for” each and every member of the church but also He died “in the place” of each and every member of the church.

1 John 3:16 By means of this, each one of us knows experientially that which constitutes divine-love, namely that, He Himself, the one and only, laid down His life on behalf of each and every one of us. Consequently, each and every one of us is obligated to lay down our lives for the benefit of our fellow-believer. (My translation)

Verse 16 contains a declarative statement followed by a result clause which presents the consequence or the result of the former, which asserts that Jesus laying down His life on behalf for each and every believer is the means by which the believer knows experientially that which constitutes love.

This act of love on the part of Jesus Christ stands in stark contrast to Cain’s example where he murdered his own brother (cf. 1 John 3:12).

This love does not refer to the function of human love but rather the exercise of God’s attribute of love.

This love was manifested in human history through the sacrifice of Jesus of Nazareth on the cross.

This love therefore refers to the vertical rather than the horizontal aspect of divine-love since it is used here of God’s love for the believer which serves as the basis for the exercise of this love towards one’s fellow-believer.

When John speaks of knowing this love experientially, he is referring to the believer personally encountering this love as a result of accepting by faith Jesus laying down His life for them on the cross.

It also involves being affected by this encounter with the love of God by exercising the love of God when interacting with one’s fellow-believer.

The appositional clause “He Himself, the one and only, laid down His life on behalf of each and every one of us” defines for the recipients of this epistle the means by which they know experientially the love of God.

It speaks of Jesus of Nazareth voluntarily sacrificing His life on the cross in order to suffer God’s wrath as a substitute for each and every person who trusts in Him as their Savior.

Specifically, it speaks of Jesus act on the cross of voluntarily dying physically as well as spiritually meaning He was abandoned by the Father while on the cross.

“His life” contains the figure of heterosis of number which means that the singular form of this word psuchē, “life” is put for the plural form of this word.

Thus, the word pertains to the condition of Jesus living in His human body as well as living in fellowship with the Father.

This word is referring to not only the physical or biological life of Jesus of Nazareth but also His spiritual life or in other words, His fellowship with God the Father.

Thus, the statement “He Himself, the one and only, laid down His life on behalf of each and every one of us” refers to Jesus of Nazareth not only sacrificing His biological life or life in His human body or human life but also His spiritual life since Matthew 27:45 reveals that the Father abandoned Jesus on the cross.

In 1 John 3:16, the prepositional phrase “on behalf of each and every one of us” refers of course to John and the recipients of First John and is used in a distributive sense emphasizing no exceptions emphasizing Jesus Christ sacrificed His life on the cross for the benefit of each and every church age believer.

Though Christ died as a substitute for all of sinful mankind the word is not referring to the entire human race here but rather only the church.

If John were referring to all of humanity including the church, he would have employed the holou tou kosmou (ὅλου τοῦ κόσμου), “the entire world” as he does in 1 John 2:2.

Furthermore, in the result clause, which follows, John addresses only believers by asserting that the believer is obligated to love their fellow-believer.

Therefore, this prepositional phrase not only marks each and every member of the church-past, present and future, as benefitting from Jesus Christ’s sacrificing His life on the cross but also it denotes He died as their substitute as well.

Therefore, this prepositional phrase teaches the substitutionary nature of Jesus Christ’s death on the cross, which is taught in other places in the New Testament (cf. Mark 10:45; 2 Cor. 5:21; Eph. 5:1-2; 1 Tim. 2:6; Titus 2:14).

This declarative statement in 1 John 3:16 teaches that the love of God is sacrificial in nature since Jesus sacrificed not only His life in the body for others on the cross but also sacrificed His fellowship with His Father as well.

In other words, the essence of the love of God is self-sacrificial for the benefit and interests of others.