The apostle John, in his first epistle, wrote: "We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brethren" (1 John 3:14 ASV). How can love for our brethren reveal anything regarding our relationship with God?
The connection that this verse sustains to the context in which it appears is very close and must not be disregarded if the meaning of the text is to be determined. Love of the brethren is that which distinguishes between the children of God and the children of the devil. "In this the children of God are manifest, and the children of the devil: whosoever doeth not righteousness is not of God, neither he that loveth not his brother" (v. 10). The obligation of Christians to love one another is definite and positive and has been taught to them from their earliest acquaintance with Christianity. "For this is the message which ye heard from the beginning, that we should love one another" (v. 11).
The feeling of hate that the world evidences toward the good is ever present and is, therefore, to be expected, however much it may be regretted. "Not as Cain was of the evil one, and slew his brother. And wherefore slew he him? Because his works were evil, and his brother's righteous. Marvel not, brethren, if the world hateth you" (vv. 12-13).
In spite of this, children of God have the blessed assurance of knowing they have passed "out of death into life" because "they love the brethren." They thus have more about which to rejoice than to regret in this fact, because they are in life while the world remains in death. "Death" is the status of the unregenerate; "life" is of the good. These terms, opposites in their reference to the condition of the good and the bad, often are used in this fashion in the Scriptures (Ephesians 2:1, 5; Colossians 2:13). Children of God "have passed" (migrated) from the spiritual death that formerly characterized them-- and that which yet characterizes the world--into the life that is obtained through union with Christ. "He that hath the Son hath the life; he that hath not the Son of God hath not the life" (1 John 5:12).
The pronoun "we" with which verse 14 begins is in the emphatic position in the sentence. Whatever the world may do or feel toward us, we (in contrast with those of it) know (have certain, definite knowledge) we have passed from a state of death into life because we love the brethren.
Care should be exercised in avoiding an obvious and common misinterpretation of this text. It was not the apostle's purpose to affirm, nor did he affirm, that love of the brethren is the (or even a) condition of salvation from past (or alien) sins. Brotherly love is declared here to be the condition, not of our salvation, but of the certainty of our knowledge of it. It affords the evidence by which we may know we have passed out of death into life. The test is human, not divine; it is one we are to apply to ourselves for the purpose designated. By such a test, the individual and (as John 13:34-35 shows) the world about him may determine the reality of his profession.
We know that we have passed out of death into life because...we have been baptized? Because... we meet on the first day of the week? Because...we give liberally of our means? However important these matters are, in their respective spheres, it remains that such does not constitute the test here set out. We know we have passed out of death into life because we love the brethren. "By this shall all men know that ye are My disciples" (John 13:35). Why? Because you say you are? Because there is outward conformity to the ceremonials of Christianity? Because you believe that you are? These are not the tests the Lord ordained. "By this shall all men know that ye are My disciples, if ye love one another."
This does not mean that love alone is the basis of our acceptance before God. What it does mean is that love is the base on which all other virtues rest. Where it exists, the others may be implied; yea, they must exist. He who loves His brother will not only discharge his whole duty to him, he will be led by the same considerations that prompt such love to love God and so comply with all the requirements such a relationship involves.
It is also important to note the apostle's statement: "He that loveth not abideth in death." In the absence of love, the state in which one dwells is death. As the presence of love signifies life, so its opposite, hate, indicates death. The reference is not to future death; it already exists and will reach its consummation in the next life. "He that believeth not on Him is not judged: he that believeth not hath been judged already, because he hath not believed on the name of the only begotten Son of God" (v. 18). The absence of love is not the cause of his death, but the sign of it by which it is evidenced to others. "He that loveth not" is, literally, "the-not-loving-man," and "abideth" suggests a state into which one has settled down permanently. The death is spiritual death--separation from God and all that is good.
(Gospel Advocate, December 3, 1987)