17 If anyone has material possessions and sees a brother or sister in need but has no pity on them, how can the love of God be in that person?

Other Translations of 1 John 3:17

King James Version

17 But whoso hath this world's good, and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him?

English Standard Version

17 But if anyone has the world's goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God's love abide in him?

The Message

17 If you see some brother or sister in need and have the means to do something about it but turn a cold shoulder and do nothing, what happens to God's love? It disappears. And you made it disappear.

New King James Version

17 But whoever has this world's goods, and sees his brother in need, and shuts up his heart from him, how does the love of God abide in him?

New Living Translation

17 If someone has enough money to live well and sees a brother or sister in need but shows no compassion-how can God's love be in that person?

Matthew Henry's Commentary on 1 John 3:17

Commentary on 1 John 3:16-21

(Read 1 John 3:16-21)

Here is the condescension, the miracle, the mystery of Divine love, that God would redeem the church with his own blood. Surely we should love those whom God has loved, and so loved. The Holy Spirit, grieved at selfishness, will leave the selfish heart without comfort, and full of darkness and terror. By what can it be known that a man has a true sense of the love of Christ for perishing sinners, or that the love of God has been planted in his heart by the Holy Spirit, if the love of the world and its good overcomes the feelings of compassion to a perishing brother? Every instance of this selfishness must weaken the evidences of a man's conversion; when habitual and allowed, it must decide against him. If conscience condemn us in known sin, or the neglect of known duty, God does so too. Let conscience therefore be well-informed, be heard, and diligently attended to.