1 John 3:18Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

It is not enough to apply effort. One must do this with generosity and an ungrieved disposition, and not only without grief, but with a bright and joyful soul.

Then he continues to rebuke those who limit love to words and show it only on the tongue. Let us love, he says, not in word or tongue, but in deed and in truth.

John says: “If anyone has the goods of this world and sees his brother hungry, and shuts up his compassion from him, how does the love of God abide in him?” (verse 17).

Here is where love begins. If you are not yet able to die for your brother, you can already give your brother from your goods even now.

Let love already shake your inward parts, so that you do this not from a desire to boast, but from the inward fullness of mercy, thinking of your brother in need.

For if you cannot give your surplus to your brother, can you lay down your soul for your brother?

In your bosom you have money that thieves can take from you. If thieves do not take it, then when you die you will part from it, even if it does not part from you during life. What will you do with it?

Provide for the one in need, and do not say, “He has no need,” lest good admonition later lead to poverty. Use whatever means the Lord has given you to help the poor, so that we may not be condemned for lack of love and lack of mercy.

You have a fine gift, as I have learned: to study successfully and speak powerfully. Yet the path of spiritual life is accomplished far more fruitfully through action than through eloquence. Therefore, if you care for imperishable rewards, regard skill in beautiful speech as of little importance, and strive to do what is good.

The world most often tries to make up for the lack of true love (see 1 Cor 13) with a love expressed only in words and carried on the tongue. It does not touch the heart and is not justified by deeds. Such love, however much people repeat it, is unworthy of a Christian. Therefore the man who limits himself to it is vain. He is “a clanging cymbal” or “sounding brass” (1 Cor 13:1). True love absolutely requires deed and truth.

“Let us not love in word or in tongue, but in deed and in truth.” From the very meaning of the love commanded by God, one can judge that there must be nothing feigned, hypocritical, or showy in it. This love must be pure, living, active, and true. Certainly one may speak of one’s love to a beloved person. Yet words of love must be accompanied by deeds of love. Whoever only speaks of love and does not do the works of love is a liar and deceiver. This is the kind of love against which the Apostle warns.

"My little children" (1 Jn 3:7; 1 Jn 2:1, 12, 18, 28), "let us love," and so forth. You now know what true love for one's neighbor consists in and how it is recognized. Namely, you must be ready to lay down your life for the brethren and to help them in need. Knowing this, let us love one another with pure love. It happens that people love, or show love, only in words. They say with the tongue alone that they love, but by deeds they show the opposite and act contrary to truth. This is feigned love. This is deception. The Lord does not command such love to His disciples. It happens that one person promises something to another, yet does not even think of fulfilling what he promised. This is love in words, empty and deceptive love.

The degree to which the love of the children of God for their neighbors must extend (1 Jn 3:16-18). It must extend to laying down their life for them. Just as "He," Christ, "laid down His life for us, and we also ought to lay down our lives for the brethren" (1 Jn 3:16-18). But since this is done rarely, blessed Theophylact observes, the Apostle, as if putting the faithful to shame, begins with a lesser exhortation to brotherly love. "But whoever has this world's goods and sees his brother in need, and shuts up his heart from him, how does the love of God abide in him?" (1 Jn 3:17). The Apostle speaks as if to say: why speak of laying down one's life for a brother, when we see that people do not satisfy their brothers in what is necessary for life (Theophylact)?

After indicating the general character of Christian love, the Apostle John shows certain kinds and manifestations of love, namely mercy toward the poor, from whom the rich often turn away both heart and eyes. Then the Apostle teaches everyone in general not to stop at love only in the heart, still less at words, but necessarily to pass on to the manifestation of love in actual deed. Only one who lives by active love, embracing his whole being, lives the true life and can stand before God's judgment with a peaceful conscience. "Where there is love," says Saint John Chrysostom, "there is neither envy nor slander.

Christ the Savior said, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets" (Mt 22:37-40). From this the Apostle drew the conclusions: "He who loves another has fulfilled the law," and "love is the fulfillment of the law" (Rom 13:8, 10). Another Apostle defined the character of law-fulfilling love when he said, "Let us not love in word or in tongue, but in deed and in truth" (1 Jn 3:18). From these chief foundations of the Christian law it clearly follows that, when someone does good out of love for God and neighbor, his good work, whatever it may consist in, always has fullness. Thus he always sows not sparingly, always with hope of a blessed harvest. Love will not allow one who has much to sow little.