Online Resource Library
Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadHeinrich Meyer Commentary - 1 John 3:11 - 3:11
(Show All Books | Show All Chapters)
This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
1Jn_3:11. ὅτι confirms the thought expressed in the foregoing, that he who does not love his brother is not of God.
αὕτη ἐστὶν ἡ ἀγγελία ] αὕτη refers to the following ἵνα , with a retrospective allusion to ἀγαπῶν τ . ἀδ . αὑτοῦ . The word ἀγγελία = “message,” is here to be taken in the meaning of “commission,” “commandment.” With the reading ἐπαγγελία , comp. 1Jn_1:5. By the words ἥν … ἀπ ̓ ἀρχῆς , which do not refer to the Old Testament period (Grotius: etiam sub lege), or to “the beginning of history” (Ebrard), the commandment of brotherly love is characterized as the ἀγγελία which is necessarily connected with the preaching of the gospel; comp. chap. 1Jn_2:7.
ἵνα κ . τ . λ .] states, not the purpose for which the ἀγγελία is given, but the import of it, as frequently with words of wishing, commanding, etc.; comp. Buttm. p. 203 ff.[219] The ἈΓΑΠῶΜΕΝ ἈΛΛΉΛΟΥς shows that the apostle is in this section treating of the love of Christians towards one another; it is self-evident that the Christian has to fulfil the general commandment of love even to those who are not Christians. Yet John does not here enter on that, as it would be inappropriate, for he has here to do with the ethical antithesis between Christians as children of God and those who are opposed to them as children of the devil; it is only on the ground of this antithesis that it can be said: ΜῊ ἈΓΑΠᾶΤΕ ΤῸΝ ΚΌΣΜΟΝ , 1Jn_2:15.
[219] Braune would have the idea of purpose retained; but in his interpretation: “it is not merely the substance of a commandment that is treated of, but a commandment which is contained as a task in the gift of the message,” he quite overlooks the fact that if ἵνα = in order that (and only thus is the original idea of purpose retained), it cannot refer to αὕτη .