Matthew Henry Commentary 1 John 3

Little does the world know of the happiness of the real followers of Christ. Little does the world think that these poor, humble, despised ones are favorites of God and will dwell in heaven.

Let the followers of Christ be content with hardship here, since they are in a land of strangers, where their Lord was so badly treated before them. The sons of God must walk by faith and live by hope. They may rightly wait in faith, hope, and earnest desire for the revelation of the Lord Jesus.

The sons of God will be known, and be made manifest by likeness to their Head. They will be transformed into the same image by beholding Him.

The sons of God know that their Lord is of purer eyes than to allow anything unholy and impure to dwell with Him. It is the hope of hypocrites, not of the sons of God, that makes allowance for gratifying impure desires and lusts. May we be followers of Him as His dear children, thus show our sense of His unspeakable mercy, and express that obedient, grateful, humble mind which is fitting for us. Sin is rejecting the Divine law.

In Him, that is, in Christ, was no sin. All the sinless weaknesses that were consequences of the fall, He took; that is, all those infirmities of mind or body which subject humanity to suffering and expose them to temptation. But our moral infirmities, our proneness to sin, He did not have. He who abides in Christ does not continue in the practice of sin.

Renouncing sin is the great proof of spiritual union with, continuance in, and saving knowledge of the Lord Christ. Beware of self-deceit. He who does righteousness is righteous, and to be a follower of Christ shows an interest by faith in His obedience and sufferings. But a person cannot act like the devil and at the same time be a disciple of Christ Jesus. Let us not serve or indulge what the Son of God came to destroy.

To be born of God is to be inwardly renewed by the power of the Spirit of God. Renewing grace is an abiding principle. Religion is not an art, a matter of dexterity and skill, but a new nature. And the regenerate person cannot sin as he did before he was born of God, and as others do who are not born again.

There is that light in his mind, which shows him the evil and malignity of sin. There is that bias upon his heart, which disposes him to loathe and hate sin. There is the spiritual principle that opposes sinful acts. And there is repentance for sin, if committed. It goes against him to sin with forethought.

The children of God and the children of the devil have their distinct characters. The seed of the serpent are known by neglect of religion and by their hating real Christians. He is righteous before God, as a justified believer, only if he is taught and disposed to righteousness by the Holy Spirit. In this the children of God are manifest, and the children of the devil.

May all professors of the gospel lay these truths to heart and test themselves by them.

We should love the Lord Jesus, value his love, and therefore love all our brothers and sisters in Christ. This love is the special fruit of our faith and a certain sign of our being born again.

But no one who rightly knows the human heart can wonder at the contempt and enmity of ungodly people against the children of God. We know that we have passed from death to life; we may know it by the evidence of our faith in Christ, of which love for our brothers and sisters is one.

This love is not zeal for a party in the common faith, or affection for those who are of the same name and opinions as ourselves. The life of grace in the heart of a regenerate person is the beginning and first principle of a life of glory, of which those who hate their brother or sister in their hearts must be destitute.

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 by selfishness, will leave the selfish heart without comfort, and full of darkness and terror. How then can it be known that a person has a true sense of the love of Christ for perishing sinners, or that the love of God has been planted in their heart by the Holy Spirit, if the love of the world and its good things overcomes their feelings of compassion for a perishing brother or sister?

Every instance of this selfishness must weaken the evidences of a person's conversion; when habitual and allowed, it must decide against them.

If conscience condemns us in known sin, or the neglect of known duty, God does so too. Therefore, let conscience be well-informed, heard, and diligently attended to.

When believers had confidence before God, through the Spirit of adoption and by faith in the great High Priest, they could ask whatever they wished of their reconciled Father. They would receive it, if it was good for them. And just as goodwill to men was proclaimed from heaven, so goodwill to men, particularly to the brethren, must be in the hearts of those who go to God and heaven.

The one who thus follows Christ dwells in Him as his ark, refuge, and rest, and in the Father through Him. This union between Christ and the souls of believers is through the Spirit He has given them. A person may believe that God is gracious before they truly know it; yet when faith has taken hold of the promises, it puts reason to work.

This Spirit of God works a change; in all true Christians, He changes them from the power of Satan to the power of God. Consider, believer, how He changes your heart. Do you not long for peace with God? Would you not forgo all the world for it?

No profit, pleasure, or advancement shall hinder you from following Christ. This salvation is built upon Divine testimony, namely, the Spirit of God.