Paragraph 3:19–20

Read 3:19–20 in both Berean Standard Bible and Good News Translation. Compare the two versions.

Paragraph Theme: If we love one another we will not be ashamed before God when we are praying to him.

3:19a

this: (Pronoun Reference) The word this refers back to what John has said in the previous verse about loving each other truly. To make this clear in translation it may be necessary to restate it here.

we will know: (Tense) As the Berean Standard Bible indicates in English, the tense in the Greek is future, probably because John is saying that we will know that we belong to the truth if we put 3:18 into practice.

3:19b

we belong to the truth: (Meaning) The basic meaning of truth in John’s writings is “everything which is in accordance with God’s character.” This is because God is the real standard of what is true and right. So when John says we belong to the truth, he means that we belong to God and we are living according to his will.

3:19c

in His presence: (Meaning) John is referring to when we are praying or when we think about God and remember that we are in his presence.

© 2000 by SIL International®

Made available under the terms of a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License (CC BY-SA) creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0

All Scripture quotations in this publication, unless otherwise indicated, are from The Holy Bible, Berean Standard Bible. BSB is produced in cooperation with Bible Hub, Discovery Bible, OpenBible.com, and the Berean Bible Translation Committee.