First John: 1 John 3:15a-The Believer Who Hates Their Fellow-Believer is a Murderer Lesson # 124
First John • Sermon • Submitted • Presented • 1:06:04
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1 John 3:15 Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him. (ESV)
“Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer” is composed of the following: (1) nominative neuter singular form of the adjective pas (πᾶς), “everyone” (2) articular nominative masculine singular present active participle form of the verb miseō (μισέω), “who hates” (3) articular accusative masculine singular form of the noun adelphos (ἀδελφός), “brother” (4) genitive third person masculine singular form of the intensive personal pronoun autos (αὐτός), “his” (5) nominative masculine singular form of the adjective anthrōpoktonos (ἀνθρωποκτόνος), “a murderer” (6) third person singular present active indicative form of the verb eimi (εἰμί), “is.”
The adjective pas means “any one, any person” since the word pertains to totality with emphasis on its individual components.
Here the word is referring to a hypothetical believer in the Christian community who does at any time hate their fellow brother or sister in Christ.
As was the case in 1 John 2:9 and 11, the verb miseō here in 1 John 3:15 means “to hate” in both and active and passive sense.
The present tense of this verb miseō is a gnomic present which is used in a generic statement to describe something that is true any time rather than a universal statement that is true all the time.
It expresses the idea that anyone who at any time does hate their fellow-believer is a murderer.
The noun adelphos means “spiritual brothers and sisters” and refers to a hypothetical believer who is hated by another believer.
The word describes these Christians as related to each other and the Lord Jesus Christ through regeneration, thus, the word refers to a “fellow-believer, fellow-Christian, spiritual brother or sister.”
The articular construction of the noun adelphos is employed with the genitive third person masculine singular form of the intensive personal pronoun autos to denote possession expressing the relationship between these two believers.
The adjective anthrōpoktonos means “a murderer” since the word pertains to a person who murder another person and refers to a person who unlawfully and with premeditated malice kills another human being.
Here in 1 John 3:15, John ascribes this word to a believer who at any time does hate their fellow-believer.
The verb eimi means “to exist in the state or condition of being identical to” or “equivalent to” and functions as a copula placing the subject miseō and the predicate adelphos in predicate relation to each other and is serving to unite these two words.
Thus, these two words indicate that any believer who does at any time hate their fellow-believer “exists in the state of being identical to” a murderer.
The present of the verb is a gnomic present which is used here to make an absolute statement regarding a hypothetical believer who hates their fellow believer.
1 John 3:15 Anyone who does at any time hate his fellow-believer is a murderer. Consequently, each one of you possess the conviction that every murderer absolutely never experiences eternal life living in him. (My translation)
The apostle John solemnly expresses another eternal spiritual axiom or truth by asserting anyone who does at any time hate their fellow-believer is identical to a murderer.
This declaration is solemn because if the believer does not repent of this sin in order to be restored to fellowship with God and love them instead in order to maintain that fellowship, then they will not experience eternal life.
This would be equivalent to not experiencing fellowship with God since experiencing fellowship with God is equivalent to experience eternal life (cf. 1 John 2:24-25).
In 1 John 1:1-3, John states that his overriding purpose for First John is that the recipients of this letter continue to regularly experience fellowship with God.
Also, they will be disciplined by God if they don’t’ repent (Heb. 12:4-13; Rev. 3:19), which John does not mention in this context.
Furthermore, they would also be disciplined by the church for not repenting of this sin (cf. Matt. 18:15-17; 1 Cor. 5:1-13).
As was the case in 1 John 2:9 and 11, when John speaks of “hate” in 1 John 3:15, he is speaking of hate in the active as well as passive sense.
In the active literal sense, this word speaks of expressing unjustifiable hostility and antagonism towards one’s fellow believer, which expresses itself in malicious words and actions.
This verb miseō also means “to hate” in the passive sense where the believer expresses indifference towards their fellow believer.
John mentions this type of hatred in 1 John 3:17-18.
This passive expression of hate is manifested by coldness, by isolation, by exclusion, unconcern for your fellow believer.
Paul experienced this type of hate in 2 Timothy 1:15 where he informs Timothy that the majority of believers in the Christian community abandoned him upon his arrest by the Roman authorities.
Now, as we noted, 1 John 3:15 is not the first time in this epistle that the apostle John warns against believers hating each other since he mentions this subject twice, in 1 John 2:9 and 11.
Now, here in 1 John 3:15, the apostle John presents two more results or consequences of a believer hating their fellow-believer.
The first is that they are identical to a murderer and the second is that every murderer never experiences eternal life living in him.
If you recall, in 1 John 3:13, John encourages the recipients of First John that if the world of the world at any times does hate them, then they must continue to not be taken by surprise.
Therefore, if we compare this statement with John’s statements in 1 John 3:15, he is teaching the recipients of First John that they are acting like the people of the world who are children of the devil when they hate their fellow-believer.
Hate characterizes the children of the devil.
Love characterizes the children of God.
Thus, John’s statements in 1 John 3:15 are encouraging the recipients that they must always love their fellow-believer and never hate because hate characterizes the children of the devil and love characterizes the children of God.
In fact, they must always love their fellow-believer and never hate them because hate characterizes the devil and love characterizes God.
What does John mean when he asserts in 1 John 3:15 that the believer who hates their fellow-believer is a murderer?
Does this imply that a believer will actually murder their fellow-believer because they hate their fellow-believer?
Obviously, one is not a murderer and can’t be convicted of murder unless one actually does take another person’s life violently and unlawfully.
This is even according to the Mosaic Law.
Hating another person even according to God’s law does not constitute murder and demand the death penalty.
John is using the figure of hyperbole, which is the deliberate use of exaggeration for rhetorical and emotional effect.
It is overstatement for the sake of emphasis. It is a type of overstatement in order to increase the effect of what is being said.[1]
John uses this figure to basically to drive home the importance of the recipients of First John continuing to obey the command to love one another since it is absolutely essential that they do so in order to experience eternal life and thus fellowship with God.
It is absolutely essential if they want to manifest the fact that they are children of God.
By using this figure, he is actually following the Lord’s example in the Sermon on the Mount discourse (cf. Matt. 5:21-22, 28, 29).
Now, we must keep in mind, that if one does not repent of hating one’s believer by confessing this sin and obeying the command to love one another, it is possible that this hatred could lead to murder.
If Cain murdered his brother by blood, it is certainly possible for a believer to murder his fellow-believer who is not related by blood and is not a biological brother or sister.
Therefore, John is warning the recipients of First John here in 1 John 3:15 that all hatred can potentially lead to murder.
Again, if the believer does not repent of this sin by confessing it to God and then obeying the command to love one another, they might end up murdering their fellow-believer.
The mention of murder in 1 John 3:15 harkens the reader back to John’s statements in 1 John 3:11-12.
[1] Kaiser, W. C., Jr. (2007). “My Heart Is Stirred by a Noble Theme”: The Meaning of Poetry and Wisdom. In W. C. Kaiser Jr. & M. Silva (Eds.), Introduction to Biblical Hermeneutics: The Search for Meaning (p. 146). Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.