3:16 — 1 John 3:16

A toothpaste commercial once asked, “How is your love life?” John asks the same question in 1 John 3 , but of Christians — people he repeatedly calls children of God, a title received only through relationship with Jesus, not by birth or nationality. John holds up four pictures of love. He starts with a perversion of it: Cain, who belonged to the evil one and murdered his righteous brother over an offering. The contrast exposes how hatred and anger, not just violence, betray a heart untouched by grace. The standard is Christ himself, who laid down his life for us ( 1 Peter 2:21–24 ). This is not salvation by works but its evidence: a life genuinely marked by Jesus loves with action and truth, not words alone, and rests its heart before a God greater than its own condemnation.