| Geneva Study Bible {14} We {o} know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren. He that loveth not his brother abideth in death. (14) The second reason: Because charity is a testimony that we are translated from death to life: and therefore hatred towards the brethren is a testimony of death, and whoever nourishes it fosters death in his bosom. (o) Love is a token that we are translated from death to life, for by the effects the cause is known. People's New Testament 3:14 We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love the brethren. If our hearts are filled with brotherly love this shows that we are God's children; and the opposite is also true. Wesley's Notes 3:14 We know - As if he had said, We ourselves could not love our brethren, unless we were passed from spiritual death to life, that is, born of God. He that loveth not his brother abideth in death - That is, is not born of God. And he that is not born of God, cannot love his brother. Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary 14. We-emphatical; hated though we be by the world, we know what the world knows not. know-as an assured fact. passed-changed our state. Col 1:13, "from the power of darkness . translated into the kingdom of His dear Son." from death unto life-literally, "out of the death (which enthrals the unregenerate) into the life (of the regenerate)." A palpable coincidence of language and thought, the beloved disciple adopting his Lord's words. because we love the brethren-the ground, not of our passing over out of death into life, but of our knowing that we have so. Love, on our part, is the evidence of our justification and regeneration, not the cause of them. "Let each go to his own heart; if he find there love to the brethren, let him feel assured that he has passed from death unto life. Let him not mind that his glory is only hidden; when the Lord shall come, then shall he appear in glory. For he has vital energy, but it is still wintertime; the root has vigor, but the branches are as it were dry; within there is marrow which is vigorous, within are leaves, within fruits, but they must wait for summer" [Augustine]. He that loveth not-Most of the oldest manuscripts omit "his brother," which makes the statement more general. abideth-still. in death-"in the (spiritual) death" (ending in eternal death) which is the state of all by nature. His want of love evidences that no saving change has passed over him. Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary 3:11-15 We should love the Lord Jesus, value his love, and therefore love all our brethren in Christ. This love is the special fruit of our faith, and a certain sign of our being born again. But none who rightly know the heart of man, can wonder at the contempt and enmity of ungodly people against the children of God. We know that we are passed from death to life: we may know it by the evidences of our faith in Christ, of which love to our brethren is one. It is not zeal for a party in the common religion, or affection for those who are of the same name and sentiments with ourselves. The life of grace in the heart of a regenerate person, is the beginning and first principle of a life of glory, whereof they must be destitute who hate their brother in their hearts. | 
