Paragraph 3:16–18

Read 3:16–18 in both Berean Standard Bible and Good News Translation. Compare the two versions.

Paragraph Theme: John here emphasizes the theme of love, which he introduced in 3:11. He is showing that love involves helping each other.

3:16a

By this: (Pronoun Reference) The words By this refer to the words Jesus laid down His life for us in the second part of this sentence. John is saying that Jesus has showed us that loving someone means we should be willing to do anything for them; we should even be willing to die for them.

love: (Emphasis) It may be necessary to give emphasis to love here in order to show that in this and the next two verses, John is demonstrating what love really involves.

laid down His life: (Metaphor) The topic of this metaphor is that Christ was willing to treat life like a piece of clothing which a person might take off and lay aside. If there is no suitable metaphor to replace this in your language, you can just say that Christ willingly died for us.

3:16b

and we: (Alternative Interpretations) There are different interpretations of the relationship between this sentence and the previous one:

(1) John is probably saying that our duty to be willing to even die for our brothers is a second reason for his teaching in 3:18 that we should be loving our brothers in practical ways even now.

(2) Good News Translation and Living Bible translate 3:16b as a conclusion drawn from the fact that Jesus was willing to die for us.

we ought to lay down our lives: (Meaning) John is not saying that we should go and seek ways of being killed. He is reminding us that if we are ever able to save our brothers’ lives by our own death then we should not refuse to die.

© 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.

5:8a–c

the Spirit, the water, and the blood: (Meaning) The meanings of these terms are the same as in 5:6 and they should be translated in the same way here.

5:8d

are in agreement: (Meaning) John means that these three things all prove the same thing about Jesus, namely that he was the Son of God.

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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.

2:23 (Emphasis)

In this verse John is making it clear that our relationship to God depends on our believing in Jesus. He emphasizes this by stating it first negatively and then positively.

2:23a

have the Father: (Meaning) This is another way by which John refers to Christians’ close relationship and union with God the Father. See also the note on 2:5c “in Him.”

2:23b

confesses the Son: (Meaning) This is the opposite of “denies the Son.” It means “accepts, says openly that he believes in Jesus as the Son of God.”

© 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.

4:5a

They: (Pronoun Reference) It needs to be clear in translation that this refers to the false prophets.

of the world: (Meaning) The false prophets are not children of God; they belong to the evil world of everything that is opposed to God.

4:5b

speak from the world’s perspective: (Meaning) John means that the teaching of these people is based on human wisdom, not on God’s revelation.

4:5c

and the world listens to them: (Logical Relationship) This is a second result of the fact that the false prophets are “from the world.” (The first result is in 4:5b.)

the world: (Multiple Senses) Here world has a slightly different sense from that which it has in the beginning of this sentence. Here it means the same as in 4:4d, “the people of the world who do not know God.”

© 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.

5:19b

the whole world: (Multiple Senses) In this verse this phrase means all those people in the world who have not accepted God.

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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.

2:2a

the atoning sacrifice: (Meaning) This shows the basis on which Jesus is able to ask God to forgive us. It is because he himself bore all the punishment which God had ordered us to bear for our sins. He did this by his death, and in this way he took the place of the sacrificial animal which God had said in the Old Testament must be the payment for sin.

2:2b

the whole world: (Figure of Speech) Here this phrase means all the people in the world.

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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.

3:6 (Logical Relationship)

This verse is the conclusion which John draws from what he has said in 3:4–5. This connection may need to be made clear by a joining word such as “so/therefore” (Good News Translation, New English Bible, Living Bible).

3:6a

No one…keeps on sinning: (Emotive Impact) John is not just making a statement here. He is giving an indirect command to his readers, who he knows are in Christ, that they should not sin.

keeps on sinning: (Alternative Interpretations) There are different interpretations of the tense of the Greek verb used here:

(1) It probably means “should not be continually/habitually sinning.” (Berean Standard Bible, New International Version (2011 Revision), Good News Translation, Living Bible, Phillips’ New Testament in Modern English)

(2) Some think it means “should not commit any sin.” (The Jerusalem Bible, Revised Standard Version, King James Version)

in Him: (Collocation) As in 2:5, this is John’s way of talking about a close personal relationship and union with God. See the note on 2:5c.

3:6b

continues to sin: (Meaning) This means the same as “keeps on sinning” in 3:6a.

3:6c

seen: (Metaphor) This does not refer to literal “seeing,” since most Christians have never seen Christ with their eyes. It is a metaphor for understanding or recognizing Christ for who he is, the Son of God.

© 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.

4:18a

There is no fear: (Event Idea) Here John uses a noun, fear, to express the idea of being afraid. The rest of the verse makes it clear that he is talking about being afraid of God, so if the verb “fear” requires an object in your language, “God” can be made explicit here.

in love: (Event Idea) Again a noun, love, is used to express an event idea, “loving.” Here it probably means “when God loves someone/us.”

4:18b–c

perfect love drives out fear: (Metaphor) This clause repeats the meaning of the previous one, using the metaphor of someone expelling an enemy from a place. For a restatement of this clause without the metaphor see the Display.

4:18d

fear involves punishment: (Alternative Interpretations) There are two views of what this means:

(1) It probably means “the reason why people are afraid of God is that they know he will punish them on the day of judgement.” (The Jerusalem Bible, Living Bible)

(2) Some think it means “when someone is afraid of God he is causing himself to suffer just as if God was punishing him.” (New English Bible, Phillips’ New Testament in Modern English)

4:18e

who fears: (Lexical Problem) Again the implied object of this verb is God.

4:18f

been perfected in love: (Meaning) This means the same as “love has been perfected” in 4:17a and “love is perfected” in 4:12c. See the note on 4:12c.

© 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.