SEV Biblia, Chapter 3:14
¶ Nosotros sabemos que somos pasados de muerte a vida, en que amamos a los Hermanos. El que no ama a su Hermano, permanece en muerte.
Clarke's Bible Commentary - 1 John 3:14
Verse 14. We know that we have passed from death unto life] Death and life are represented here as two distinct territories, states, or kingdoms, to either of which the inhabitants of either may be removed. This is implied in the term metabebhkamen, from meta, denoting change of place, and bainw, I go. It is the same figure which St. Paul uses, Col. i. 13: Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and translated us into the kingdom of the Son of his love. The believers to whom St. John writes had been once in the region and shadow of death, in the place where sin and death reigned, whose subjects they were; but they had left that kingdom of oppression, wretchedness, and wo, and had come over to the kingdom of life, whose king was the Prince and Author of life; where all was liberty, prosperity, and happiness; where life and love were universally prevalent, and death and hatred could not enter. We know, therefore, says the apostle, that we are passed over from the territory of death to the kingdom of life, because we love the brethren, which those who continue in the old kingdom-under the old covenant, can never do; for he that loveth not his brother abideth in death. He has never changed his original residence. He is still an unconverted, unrenewed sinner.
John Gill's Bible Commentary
Ver. 14. We know that we have passed from death to life , &c.] From a death in sin, a moral or spiritual death; which lies in a separation from God, Father, Son, and Spirit; in an alienation from the life of God; in a loss of the image of God, of righteousness, holiness, and knowledge, in which man was created; in a privation of all true sense of sin, and in a servitude to it, which is unto death, and is no other than death: and from a legal death, or death in a legal sense, under the sentence of which all men are, as considered in Adam; and which God's elect are sensible of, when convinced by the Spirit of God, and are in their own apprehension as dead men. Now in regeneration, which is a quickening of sinners dead in sin, a resurrection of them from the dead, the people of God pass from this death of sin, and the law, to a life of sanctification, having principles of grace and life implanted in them; and to a life of justification, and of faith on Christ, as the Lord their righteousness; and to a life of communion with Christ; and to such a life as is to the glory of Christ; and to a right to eternal life. And this passing from the one to the other is not of themselves, it is not their own act; no man can quicken himself, or raise himself from the dead; in this men are passive: and so the words are rendered in the Vulgate Latin, Syriac, and Arabic versions, “we know that we are translated”; that is, by God the Father, who delivers from the power of darkness, and death, and translates into the kingdom of his dear Son, which is a state of light and life; or by Christ, who is the resurrection and the life, who is the author of the resurrection from the death of sin to a life of grace; or by the Spirit of life from Christ, by whom souls are quickened, and of whom they are born again: and this passage from death to life, or regeneration, is a thing that may be, and is known by the regenerate man; who, as he knows surely, that whereas he was blind he now sees, so that whereas he was dead in sin, he is now alive; and among other things it may be known by this, because we love the brethren : this is not the cause of passing from death to life, but the effect of it, and so an evidence of it, or that by which it is known; brotherly love being what the saints are taught of God in regeneration, and is a fruit of the Spirit of God, and is what true faith works by, and is what shows itself as soon as anything in a regenerate man; nor can anyone love the saints, as such, as brethren in Christ, unless he is born again; a man may indeed love a saint, as a natural relative, as a good neighbour, and because he has done him some good offices, and because of some excellent qualities in him, as a man of learning, sense, candour, civility, &c. though he has not the grace of God; but to love him as a child of God, a member of Christ, and because he has his image stamped on him, no man can do this, unless he has received the grace of God; so that this is a certain evidence of it: he that loveth not [his] brother, abideth in death ; in the death of sin, in a state of nature and unregeneracy; under the sentence of condemnation and death; and he is liable to eternal death, which is the wages of sin, under the power of which such a manifestly is. This is said to deter from hatred, as also what follows.
Matthew Henry Commentary
Verses 11-15 - We should love the Lord Jesus, value his love, and therefore love all our brethren in Christ. This love is the special fruit of our faith and a certain sign of our being born again. But none who rightly know the heart of man, can wonder at the contempt and enmity of ungodl people against the children of God. We know that we are passed from death to life: we may know it by the evidences of our faith in Christ of which love to our brethren is one. It is not zeal for a party in the common religion, or affection for those who are of the same name an sentiments with ourselves. The life of grace in the heart of regenerate person, is the beginning and first principle of a life of glory, whereof they must be destitute who hate their brother in their hearts.
Greek Textus Receptus
ημεις 2249 οιδαμεν 1492 5758 οτι 3754 μεταβεβηκαμεν 3327 5758 εκ 1537 του 3588 θανατου 2288 εις 1519 την 3588 ζωην 2222 οτι 3754 αγαπωμεν 25 5719 τους 3588 αδελφους 80 ο 3588 μη 3361 αγαπων 25 5723 τον 3588 αδελφον 80 μενει 3306 5719 εν 1722 τω 3588 θανατω 2288
Vincent's NT Word Studies
14. We know. Emphatic; we as distinguished from the world.
Have passed (meatbebhkamen). Lit., have passed over.
From death (ek tou qanatou). Lit., out of the death. The article marks it as one of the two spheres in which men must be; death or life. The death, the life, present one of those sharp oppositions which are characteristic of the Epistle; as love, hatred; darkness, light; truth, a lie. O qanatov the death, occurs in John's Epistles only here and in the next clause. In the Gospel, only v. 24. Personified in Apoc. i. 18; vi. 8; ix. 6; xx. 13. Unto life (eiv thn zwhn). Rev., better, into. Compare enter into the life, Matt. xxviii. 8; xix. 17.
Because. The sign of having passed into life; not the ground.
We love the brethren (ajgapwmen tou,v ajdelfouv). The only occurrence of the phrase. Elsewhere, love one another, or love his brother. See on ii. 9.
His brother. Omit.
