1See how great a love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God! For this cause the world doesn’t know us, because it didn’t know him. 2Beloved, now we are children of God. It is not yet revealed what we will be; but we know that when he is revealed, we will be like him, for we will see him just as he is. 3Everyone who has this hope set on him purifies himself, even as he is pure.
4Everyone who sins also commits lawlessness. Sin is lawlessness. 5You know that he was revealed to take away our sins, and no sin is in him. 6Whoever remains in him doesn’t sin. Whoever sins hasn’t seen him and doesn’t know him.
7Little children, let no one lead you astray. He who does righteousness is righteous, even as he is righteous. 8He who sins is of the devil, for the devil has been sinning from the beginning. To this end the Son of God was revealed: that he might destroy the works of the devil. 9Whoever is born of God doesn’t commit sin, because his seed remains in him, and he can’t sin, because he is born of God. 10In this the children of God are revealed, and the children of the devil. Whoever doesn’t do righteousness is not of God, neither is he who doesn’t love his brother. 11For this is the message which you heard from the beginning, that we should love one another— 12unlike Cain, who was of the evil one and killed his brother. Why did he kill him? Because his deeds were evil, and his brother’s righteous.
13Don’t be surprised, my brothers, if the world hates you. 14We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brothers. He who doesn’t love his brother remains in death. 15Whoever hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life remaining in him.
16By this we know love, because he laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. 17But whoever has the world’s goods and sees his brother in need, then closes his heart of compassion against him, how does God’s love remain in him?
18My little children, let’s not love in word only, or with the tongue only, but in deed and truth. 19And by this we know that we are of the truth and persuade our hearts before him, 20because if our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and knows all things. 21Beloved, if our hearts don’t condemn us, we have boldness toward God; 22so whatever we ask, we receive from him, because we keep his commandments and do the things that are pleasing in his sight. 23This is his commandment, that we should believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and love one another, even as he commanded. 24He who keeps his commandments remains in him, and he in him. By this we know that he remains in us, by the Spirit which he gave us.
John returns to his first term of endearment to continue his discussion of abiding. He begins with the imperative for them to keep abiding in Christ. This is the sense of the present-tense imperative he uses to address his readers. The purpose of abiding follows. By abiding, we are prepared to meet Jesus whenever He appears. This is communicated through the same term (ἐὰν) translated “if” earlier, but carrying the sense of “whenever it is that He should appear.” It makes clear that there is no guarantee that Jesus will appear in their or our lifetime, just that He is coming sooner or later. So, the idea John is communicating is that of preparedness and anticipation. We should be living each day conscious of the possibility that Jesus will come “today.”
The purpose of abiding, and thereby being prepared, is that we can know we will stand before Jesus confidently when the day of His appearing for us arrives. The confidence John speaks of here is not confidence that we will be ready, but confidence while we are standing in His presence. Those who are not prepared will experience shame of such a degree that they will “shrink back” from Jesus in humiliation. They will have been caught unprepared for Jesus’ return. This shame is not a loss of salvation, but the response of a saved person who is caught in sin before their sinless Lord. The reason for this shame is made clear in 3:2. Further, this looks at the Bema Seat judgment of Christ when each of us will give an account of our lives to Him. His judgment will be like fire, according to Paul in 1 Corinthians 3:10-15. All believers will survive it. The foundation of their salvation is Jesus. Not all believers will receive a reward from Jesus because nothing of value will have been done by them. They will be the ones shrinking back in shame as they see their works being “burned up” in Jesus’ “burning” judgment.
John includes himself with his readers by his change from the second-person plural command, “you abide in Him,” to the first-person plural, “we may have confidence.” The apostles had to abide in Christ as much as any other saint and would need that same confidence when each of them met Jesus in heaven at the ends of their lives on earth. Why should this concern every believer? That is answered by what John says next.