1 John 3:23. And this is his commandment: the one commandment which, as it contains all others, is especially the unity of faith and love. In this Epistle the sum of faith is in the name of Jesus, and the sum of duty is love. It is the Father's will t hat we should believe on the name of his Son Jesus Christ: the name stands here for the whole person and work of Christ, not without reference to the confession that follows; and the peculiarity of the phrase here, ‘believe the name' with the dative, connotes strongly the ethical feeling of trust.

And love one another even as he, Christ, gave us commandment. Out of the Father's command to believe sprang the commandment of Jesus to love. ‘And' implies the energy of faith producing love; and ‘even as' is more than ‘according to His commandment,' signifying the kind of love that He exemplified and prescribed. This foundation of faith must be remembered throughout the Epistle.

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Old Testament