1 John 3:1Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

And again, if he does not first love Him with all his soul and all his heart, according to natural thoughts and according to the love for Him that exists in us, he will not be counted worthy to see Him.

For He Himself said: "He who loves Me will be loved by My Father." Then He says, "And I will love him and manifest Myself to him" (Jn 14:21).

From this it is clear that if a man does not love God with all his soul, and does not show this love by renouncing himself and the whole world, he will not be counted worthy to see Him mystically.

He will not see Him through the revelation of the Holy Spirit. He does not have Him as his head.

Instead he is a body dead and motionless toward spiritual works, deprived of the life of all, Christ.

He sent Him so that men, having received reconciliation with the Father and adoption to God through the Son, might be called and be children of God.

He sent Him so that, keeping the commandments of God, they might inherit eternal life.

In the Gospel, the Theologian says of Jesus Christ: "He came to His own, and His own did not receive Him.

But to those who received Him, who believed in His name, He gave power to become children of God" (Jn 1:11-12).

These "were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God" (Jn 1:13).

In another place he says: "These things are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in His name" (Jn 20:31).

"The world does not know us, because it did not know Him."

By the world, the Apostle means the Jews and Gentiles who do not believe in Christ.

Those also belong to the world who, though called Christians, either believe wrongly in Christ or do not live according to the spirit of Christ's teaching.

For this reason, like those who do not believe in Christ, they do not know the dignity of true Christians and become their enemies.

The Apostle added this to resolve perplexity and to comfort and strengthen Christians amid sorrowful trials.

How often people are perplexed when they see the sorrows and misfortunes of Christ's faithful followers.

How often, seeing the sorrows of pious men, they say or think to themselves: "Where is God's favor toward them?

How is it evident that they are near to God and children of God, when they are so offended, so humiliated, and persecuted?"

The Apostles, as the first followers of Christ, were the first to experience this contempt and humiliation from the world.

Therefore Saint John says in his own person: "The world does not know us, because it did not know Him."

It is as though he says: do not be troubled when you see or experience that the world hates, offends, and persecutes us.

It does this because it does not know God. It does not know the great gifts of God imparted to believers.

It does not know that we are children of God, whose dignity consists not in outward advantages, but in inward and spiritual perfections proper to those born of God.

The world judges by outward advantages. Whoever is rich, powerful, and glorious, the world honors and exalts.

But we, as children of God, are humble and meek. We have no worldly riches, seek no glory, and possess no outward force or authority.

Therefore the world so humiliates us.

“To us,” that is, to those who believe in Christ. We renounced the world for the sake of Christ and faith in Him. And behold, in exchange for this, we now have such a great benefit as the gift of the Father’s love.

“That we should be called and be children of God.” This is not by nature, but by the grace of adoption. Therefore we are children in a special and exclusive sense of inward moral nearness to God.

The expression is borrowed from relations among men, from the relation of a father to a son, compared with his relations to servants and hired workers; cf. the note on Jn 1:12.

Before receiving faith in Christ, men are children of wrath and enemies of God. Through faith in Christ they become not only servants of God in the high moral sense, but friends (Jn 15:14), and children of God.

They do not merely receive the name, but truly and actually become sons and friends of God.

This change, or transformation, from sons of wrath and enemies of God into sons of grace and friends of God is brought about by man’s faith in his redemption by Christ.

It is brought about by faith in reconciliation with God through His death on the Cross and through His blood. By this the adoption of believers by God is accomplished.

The world; cf. 1 Jn 2:15 and note. All people hostile to God and to the good therefore do not know us; cf. Jn 14:17 and note. For this reason the world hates and persecutes us (Jn 15:19 and note).

This is because it did not know Him. Here is the ground and cause of its blindness both toward us and toward God.

The apostle adds this as an application to the chief and fundamental thought. He does so to resolve perplexities, and to console and strengthen believers amid their sorrows and trials.

The connection of the discourse is this. We are children of God, and as such we possess all the rights and privileges of eternal blessed life. The world does not know or understand this, because it does not know God.

It hates both us and God. It does not know the great gifts of grace by which believers have been enriched and adorned. It does not know or understand that the dignity of the sons of God consists in inward spiritual perfections proper to the regenerate, not in external things.

The world judges according to who is powerful, rich, noble, and glorious. Such people it magnifies and exalts. But the children of God are humble and meek. They do not possess the riches of the world and do not seek the glory of the world.

Therefore the world neither knows nor understands them, and it despises them.

“You know that He, Christ, gave you the right to be and to be regarded as children of God. If those who belong to the world do not know this, that is, that you are children of God, do not marvel.

For they do not know you because they have not known Him who adopted you” (Theophylact). If the world knew God, it would also know and honor the children of God.

But since it does not know or honor God, neither does it know or truly honor His children.

This means that the world itself is godless, does not believe in Christ, and in its unbelief is impious and corrupt.

This is the first reason.

They, that is, those who belong to the world, do not know you either, children of Christ, says blessed Theophylact, because they have not known Him Who adopted you.

Our putting on the image of the heavenly (see 1 Cor 15:49) is a profound mystery.

No lesser mystery is our spiritual Christian life, which unfolds like the growth of seed in the depths of the earth.

Is it surprising that the world, lacking Christian knowledge, has no understanding of us (see Jn 14:17)?

Not understanding our unearthly life, it marvels at it and hates us (see Jn 15:18).

Thus our sonship to God completely separates us from the world.

Yet it is not yet the full determination of us as coheirs with Christ, since receiving the promised inheritance will depend on our preserving filial dignity.

From this it is clear how necessary it is for us to live holy lives (cf. Rom 8:23), and that our future depends greatly upon us.