¹⁵ Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life remaining in him. ¹⁶ We know love by this, that He laid down His life for us; and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers and sisters. ¹⁷ But whoever has worldly goods and sees his brother or sister in need, and closes his heart against him, how does the love of God remain in him? ¹⁸ Little children, let’s not love with word or with tongue, but in deed and truth. ¹⁹ We will know by this that we are of the truth, and will set our heart at ease before Him, ²⁰ because if our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and He knows all things. ²¹ Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, then we have confidence before God; ²² and whatever we ask, we receive from Him, because we keep His commandments and do the things that are pleasing in His sight (1Jn3:15-22).

The two points I want to bring out from this next section of John’s letter concern two issues that I at least in the past have misunderstood. A right understanding of these is required in order to grasp some of the concepts I have been outlining concerning God’s broader benign providence. They pertain to the nature of “eternal life” and the role of conscience.

Eternal life

When John quoted Jesus as saying “I give (My disciples) eternal life, and they will never perish” (Jn10:28), the Lord  was not being tautological. Eternal life (literally age-life) is potentially everlasting but it primarily pertains to a state of being in the present. I say “potentially everlasting” because it can be lost whilst in mortal flesh, as here in the case of the believer who has come to hate his fellow believer. John writes that such has become a murderer “and you know that no murderer has eternal life remaining in him” (v15).

So “eternal life” in the New Testament rarely if ever has direct reference to whether or not “one goes to Heaven when one dies”. As the word I have underlined in verse 15 should make clear, it pertains to a spiritual quality to be experienced now, for “this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent (Jn17:3). Speaking of Himself, Jesus declared, “Just as the living Father sent Me, and I live because of the Father, the one who eats Me, he also will live because of Me (Jn6:57). Going to heaven when He died was hardly an issue for Jesus yet even He “lived” because of the Father, likewise the Christian lives (i.e. possesses eternal life) by partaking of Christ. In the context of the aforementioned broader benign providence, this in turn indicates what Paul (in particular) meant by death, for example where he writes that mankind by nature is “dead in trespasses and sins” (Eph2:1). It is not referring to “damnation” but an absence of this spiritual quality, concerning which Christ also said, “I came so that they would have Life, and have it more abundantly (Jn10:10).

The spirituality of conscience

In terms of conscience and related principles of natural law, the second part of this passage also tends to be misconstrued, in particular concerning verse 20: “if our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and He knows all things”. Many commentators take this to provide reassurance to the believer, along the lines “Because God is greater and more merciful, He knows our true love for Him, despite our failures, whereas our conscience is infallible, so we shouldn’t worry too much”. Rather, John is saying “if our weak conscience condemns us in this matter (concerning our lack of love), how much more shall the all-knowing God find fault?” That should be evident from the verse that follows: “if our heart does not condemn us, then we have confidence before God”.

Our conscience may not be infallible, but it is what we are to obey. As I have earlier demonstrated from Paul’s teaching, conscience transcends all things, even biblical truth. I covered this in an earlier post but it is so crucial to a fuller understanding of faith, natural precepts and God’s equitable justice towards believers and non-believers alike that I have quoted from it at Annex A below.

Returning to John and his concluding statement that “if our heart does not condemn us, then we have confidence before God; and whatever we ask, we receive from Him, because we keep His commandments and do the things that are pleasing in His sight”. Again, “confidence towards God” is clearly conditional on our hearts/inner man/conscience not condemning us, otherwise John would be wasting his ink throughout this passage.

As the Annex below  amplifies, a working conscience is not restricted to the Christian but to most of humanity, bar the subjects of the previous post. The latter (children of the devil’s) inner promptings to be thoroughly selfish, to lie, cheat hate, and if necessary kill, derive from their adoptive father (cf. 1Jn3:12). Consequently their consciences having been rendered inoperative (1Tim4:2) or totally corrupted (Tit1:15). The “sheep” in Jesus’s definitive parable on final judgement had responded to the promptings of conscience, and shown compassion to their more needy fellows (aka “the Son of Man” – Mt25:40). Their actions were acceptable to God and provided them final entrance into His eternal Kingdom. [As Annex A explains, they were effectively justified by faith, in line with the rest of the bible’s teaching]. The Christian’s conscience should be still better informed in view of Holy Scripture and the teaching of the Church, such that we can live a life which is truly “pleasing in God’s sight” (v22).

Annex A – Extract from earlier post on FAITH AND CONSCIENCE

This pertains to Paul’s teaching on whether the Christian should eat food offered to idols in 1Cor8. In the opening verses, the apostle makes clear that it was ok to do so: “Now food will not bring us closer to God; we are neither the worse if we do not eat, nor the better if we do eat” (v8). But this followed his proviso in v7:  “However, not all people have this knowledge; but some, being accustomed to the idol until now, eat food as if it were sacrificed to an idol; and their consciences being weak is defiled. More shockingly (for some), Paul goes on to say that as a result of that believer’s failure to respond to his conscience on the matter he is brought to utter ruin  (v11). 

Yet what had this believer done wrong? He had eaten meat that he was permitted to eat, or more likely today, he had drunk alcohol that a Christian is perfectly at liberty to drink (in moderation). Yet he was brought to a state of ruin. Why? – BECAUSE HE HAD DEFIED HIS CONSCIENCE AND THEREBY DEFILED IT. And that pertains to what conscience is and to Whom it relates (cf. Jn 1:9 strictly KJV^NOTE#1; cf. Mt18:6^NOTE#2). In the same context in Rom14:23, Paul affirms “the one who doubts is condemned if he eats, because his eating is NOT FROM FAITH; and whatever is not from faith is sin.

RELIGIOUS FAITH AND COMMON “FAITH”

So, what is faith in that context? – it is not faith in God or Christ, this individual had that or he would not be worrying whether or not to consume the particular item. The issue was not God and what He forbids or allows but conscience, showing the latter to be indeed an object of faith. For, writes Paul, whatever is not from faith is sin, which taken with the illustration provided indicates that whatever conscience dictates is what one should do or not do. But given that the conscience is universal, that must apply to the non-Christian as much as the believer. Therefore, whoever seeks to act according to their conscience may be regarded as exercising a form of faith.

As 2^nd century Clement of Alexandria described it – “it is that COMMON FAITH which lies beneath as a foundation that is built upon and consummated in those who come to faith in Christ”^CIT#1. For it effectively pertains to faith in Christ – not as a cognisant personal Saviour but as the One who has provided light to the human spirit, manifested through the working of conscience. Some (indeed most) take heed to it, others such as psychopaths are devoid of conscience, along with a sense of compassion or any compulsion to tell the truth. This is what separates those who are of God from those like Cain who are ἐκ τοῦ πονηροῦ (1Jn3:12). Likewise, the Mt25 sheep’s distinction from the goats – their innate sense of compassion arising from conscience, causing them (however feebly and imperfectly) to perform acts of kindness to those in need, whom Christ equated to Himself (v40) . [This in turn shows how the Mt25 sheep were justified by faith, not works – but note religious faith was not an issue. It was that common faith, by which, as a fruit of Christ’s atonement, all true humanity can be justified].

NOTE #1 In terms of the translation, it is hardly likely that John writing in the late first century would be informing his readers that the Light (Christ) “is coming into the world” (some translations)

NOTE #2 re  Mt18:6  “The context (v2) makes it absolutely clear that Jesus is not on this occasion referring to His adult disciples that He also sometimes describes in such a way; nor was He anticipating those infants who would go on to “receive Jesus as their personal Saviour” or become baptized Catholics, for it was an inclusive observation concerning all young children who were placed into His loving embrace. Their belief in Jesus refers to what is innate to all very young lives – the internal witness of the light of Christ (the Word/Reason – Logos) through Whom their souls were created, guaranteed in their case not (yet) to have been obscured or distorted by the lusts of the flesh or impurities of the mind, which when combined with a growing awareness of transgressing God’s law defiles the conscience and extinguishes Life (Rom7:9)” [Quote from The Little Book of Providence chapter 3].

CITATION #1 Clement of Alexandria (A.D.153-217)  http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/02105.htm