Expositor's Bible Commentary Commentary 1 John 3:24

"And he that keepeth his commandments abideth in him, and he in him. And hereby we know that he abideth in us, by the Spirit which he gave us." — 1 John 3:24 (ASV)

In this summary verse the author states for the first time the mutual reciprocity involved in “living” in God. Obedience issues in the perfection of the “fellowship” between God and us. We “live” in him; he “lives” in us. We come to our “fellowship” with the Father through the “fellowship” the Son has with the Father (17:21–23). The Son also enters into fellowship with us ; and through him we have fellowship with the Father and with one another, just as the sign of our fellowship with the Father and with the Son is our love for them (cf. Jn 17:23-26).

The latter part of v.24 characteristically furnishes a transition to the next section. The evidence that we abide in him is our obedience to his commands. The evidence that he abides in us is the presence of his Spirit, whom he gave to us (cf. Romans 5:5; 8:14–16). This is the first mention of the Spirit in 1 John. The author presupposes knowledge about the Spirit in his readers and applies it to the problem at hand—distinguishing the true Spirit from false spirits (4:1–3) and receiving the Spirit’s witness (5:6–7). Referring to the Spirit as the one “he gave us” is not an appeal to their existential experience of the Spirit but to their knowledge of the Gospel as it had come to them from the eyewitnesses. The Father’s giving or the Son’s sending the Spirit to the disciples (Jn 14–16; 20:22) was a well-known event in the church (cf. Acts 1–2; Romans 8; Galatians 4:6).