1 John 3:16-21

¹⁶ Hereby we have known love, because he has laid down his life for us; and we ought for the brethren to lay down [our] lives. ¹⁷ But whoso may have the world's substance, and see his brother having need, and shut up his bowels from him, how abides the love of God in him? ¹⁸ Children, let us not love with word, nor with tongue, but in deed and in truth. ¹⁹ And hereby we shall know that we are of the truth, and shall persuade our hearts before him—

²⁰ that if our heart condemn us, God is greater than our heart and knows all things. ²¹ Beloved, if our heart condemn us not, we have boldness towards God,

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Matthew Henry's Commentary on 1 John 3:16-21

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.