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1Jn_3:23. With this verse, which—as the statement of the substance of God’s commandments—is most closely connected with the preceding, begins a new leading section, indeed the last in the Epistle, inasmuch as in ἵνα πιστεύσωμεν τῷ ὀνόματι κ . τ . λ . a new element of the development of ideas appears, by which the sequel is not merely “prepared for” (Ebrard), but is dominated.
καί is not explicative, but simply copulative.
αὕτη refers to the following ἵνα , which here also does not merely state the purpose (Braune), but the substance.
ἡ ἐντολὴ αὐτοῦ ] The singular is used, because the manifold commandments in their inner nature form one unity: this is especially true of the two commandments of faith and love, here mentioned. From the fact that faith is described as an ἐντολή , it must not be inferred that it is not a work of God in man, but it certainly follows that neither can it be accomplished without the self-activity of man.
The phrase πιστεύειν τῷ ὀνόματι τοῦ υἱοῦ κ . τ . λ . only appears here; in chap. 1Jn_5:13 the preposition εἰς is used instead of the dative; so also in Joh_1:12; Joh_2:23; Joh_3:18, etc.; by the dative the ὄνομα of Christ is indicated as the object of devoted, believing trust;[249] “to believe on the name of Christ” is, however, identical with “to believe on Christ,” inasmuch as in the name the nature of Him who is spoken of is expressed; comp. Meyer on Joh_1:12. Grotius quite erroneously: propter Christum sive Christo auctore Deo credere.
While faith is the fundamental condition of the Christian life, brotherly love is the active proof of the living character of the faith; the two things cannot be separated from one another; hence it follows here: ΚΑῚ ἈΓΑΠῶΜΕΝ ἈΛΛΉΛΟΥς ,[250] which as the effect is distinguished from πιστεύειν as the cause; ΚΑΊ is therefore copulative and not epexegetical (as Frommann thinks, p. 591).
The subordinate clause: ΚΑΘῺς ἜΔΩΚΕΝ ἘΝΤΟΛῊΝ ἩΜῖΝ , is best referred to ἈΓΑΠῶΜΕΝ ἈΛΛΉΛΟΥς , inasmuch as it is not God (Estius, Bengel, Sander) but Christ that is to be regarded as the subject; by καθώς (“in proportion as”) the quality of love is indicated: it must correspond to the commandment of Christ; Myrberg: Non modo amandum est, sed etiam vere et recte amandum.
[249] Weiss has been at pains to show that πιστεύειν in John does not include the clement of trust; in this, however, he is wrong, because even where the element of conviction prevails in the use of the word, this must not be identified with the theoretical belief, which is a mere act of the understanding, but it includes as an essential element the immediate trust of the words or of the person to which the πιστεύειν refers; in the phrase: πιστεύειν τῷ ὀνόματι Ἰ . Χρ ., the ethical meaning of the verb is so much the more to be recognised, as the denial of it necessitates also a weakening of the idea ὄνομα .
[250] Frommann (p. 200) wrongly concludes from this passage and 1Jn_4:7; 1Jn_4:19, in which the obligation to love is expressed, that being born of God is conditioned by love, as the free act of man, “by which He keeps His independent personality and freedom towards God” (!), nay, even is produced by it (p. 205).