The Meaning of 1 John 3:17 Explained

1 John 3:17

KJV: But whoso hath this world's good, and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him?

YLT: and whoever may have the goods of the world, and may view his brother having need, and may shut up his bowels from him -- how doth the love of God remain in him?

Darby: But whoso may have the world's substance, and see his brother having need, and shut up his bowels from him, how abides the love of God in him?

ASV: But whoso hath the world's goods, and beholdeth his brother in need, and shutteth up his compassion from him, how doth the love of God abide in him?

KJV Reverse Interlinear

But  whoso  hath  this world's  good,  and  seeth  his  brother  have  need,  and  shutteth up  his  bowels  [of compassion] from  him,  how  dwelleth  the love  of God  in  him? 

What does 1 John 3:17 Mean?

Verse Meaning

We may not have the opportunity to save a brother"s life by dying in his place. Nevertheless we can and should do the next best thing, namely, sustaining his life when he has needs. When I give to a brother in need what might keep me alive, I have followed the Lord Jesus" example of self-sacrificing love.

Context Summary

1 John 3:13-24 - Loving In Deed And In Truth
Love to the brethren is a sign that we have been born into the family. We may not like them all, yet we can love them. If we love, we live; and if we live in the deepest sense, we shall love; that is, we shall put others first, and our care for them will be tinged with the crimson of sacrifice. Love is not measured by the expressions of the lip or the emotion of the heart, but by the extent to which we will do or suffer.
The believer dares not affirm too much about himself, he is so unworthy and fickle; but God understands us and imputes to us what we would be. Mark in 1 John 3:22 the double condition of prevailing prayer. It is also clear from 1 John 3:23 that men can believe, if they will. God is prepared to impart to those who are wishful all that He commands. Augustine prayed thus: "Give what thou commandest, and command what thou wilt." [source]

Chapter Summary: 1 John 3

1  He declares the singular love of God toward us, in making us his sons;
3  who therefore ought obediently to keep his commandments;
11  as also to love one another as brothers

Greek Commentary for 1 John 3:17

Whoso hath [ος αν εχηι]
Indefinite relative clause with modal αν — an with ος — hos and the present active subjunctive of εχω — echō world‘s goods “The living or livelihood (not ζωη — zōē the principle of life, and see 1 John 2:16 for βιος — bios) of the world” (not in the sense of evil or wicked, but simply this mundane sphere). [source]
Beholdeth [τεωρει]
Present active subjunctive of τεωρεω — theōreō like εχει — echei just before.In need (χρειαν εχοντα — chreian echonta). “Having need” (present active predicate participle of εχω — echō agreeing with αδελπον — adelphon). See the vivid picture of a like case in James 2:15.Shutteth up First aorist (effective) active subjunctive of κλειω — kleiō to close like the door, changed on purpose from present tense to aorist (graphic slamming the door of his compassion, σπλαγχνα — splagchna common in lxx and N.T. for the nobler viscera, the seat of the emotions, as in Philemon 2:11; Colossians 3:12). Only here in John.How (πως — pōs). Rhetorical question like that in James 2:16 (what is the use?). It is practical, not speculative, that counts in the hour of need. [source]
In need [χρειαν εχοντα]
“Having need” (present active predicate participle of εχω — echō agreeing with αδελπον — adelphon). See the vivid picture of a like case in James 2:15. [source]
Shutteth up [κλεισηι]
First aorist (effective) active subjunctive of κλειω — kleiō to close like the door, changed on purpose from present tense to aorist (graphic slamming the door of his compassion, σπλαγχνα — splagchna common in lxx and N.T. for the nobler viscera, the seat of the emotions, as in Philemon 2:11; Colossians 3:12). Only here in John.How (πως — pōs). Rhetorical question like that in James 2:16 (what is the use?). It is practical, not speculative, that counts in the hour of need. [source]
How [πως]
Rhetorical question like that in James 2:16 (what is the use?). It is practical, not speculative, that counts in the hour of need. [source]
This world's good [τὸν βίον τοῦ κόσμου]
Rev., the worlds goods. Βίος meansthat by which life is sustained, resources, wealth. [source]
Seeth [θεωρῇ]
Deliberately contemplates. See on John 1:18. Rev., beholdeth. The only occurrence of the verb in John's Epistles. [source]
Have need [χρείαν ἔχοντα]
Lit., having need. Rev., in need. [source]
Bowels of compassion [τὰ σπλάγχνα]
See on pitiful, 1 Peter 3:8. Rev., much better, his compassion. The word only here in John. [source]

Reverse Greek Commentary Search for 1 John 3:17

Luke 21:34 Of this life [βιωτικαῖς]
The rendering is too general; though it might be difficult to give a better. Βίος , life, means life considered either as to its duration (1 Peter 4:3); the means of support (Mark 12:44; Luke 8:43; Luke 21:4; 1 John 3:17); or the manner of leading it (1 Timothy 2:2). The meaning here is pertaining to the support or luxury of life; and so in the only other passages where it occurs, 1 Corinthians 6:3, 1 Corinthians 6:4. The parallel is Matthew 6:31. Wyc., business of this life. [source]
John 1:9 The world [τὸν κόσμον]
As in John 1:3, the creation was designated in its several details by πάντα , all things, so here, creation is regarded in its totality, as an ordered whole. See on Acts 17:24; see on James 3:6. Four words are used in the New Testament for world: (1) γῇ , land, ground, territory, the earth, as distinguished from the heavens. The sense is purely physical. -DIVIDER-
-DIVIDER-
(2) οἰκουμένη , which is a participle, meaning inhabited, with γῆ , earth, understood, and signifies the earth as the abode of men; the whole inhabited world. See on Matthew 24:14; see on Luke 2:1. Also in a physical sense, though used once of “the world to come” (Hebrews 2:5). -DIVIDER-
-DIVIDER-
(3) αἰών , essentially time, as the condition under which all created things exist, and the measure of their existence: a period of existence; a lifetime; a generation; hence, a long space of time; an age, era, epoch, period of a dispensation. On this primary, physical sense there arises a secondary sense, viz., all that exists in the world under the conditions of time. From this again develops a more distinctly ethical sense, the course and current of this world's affairs (compare the expression, the times ), and this course as corrupted by sin; hence the evil world. So Galatians 1:4; 2 Corinthians 4:4. -DIVIDER-
-DIVIDER-
(4) κόσμος , which follows a similar line of development from the physical to the ethical sense; meaning (a) ornament, arrangement, order (1 Peter 3:3); (b) the sum-total of the material universe considered as a system (Matthew 13:35; John 17:5; Acts 17:24; Philemon 2:15). Compare Plato. “He who is incapable of communion is also incapable of friendship. And philosophers tell us, Callicles, that communion and friendship and orderliness and temperance and justice bind together heaven and earth and gods and men, and that this universe is therefore called Cosmos, or order, not disorder or misrule” (“Gorgias,” 508). (c) That universe as the abode of man (John 16:21; 1 John 3:17). (d) The sum-total of humanity in the world; the human race (John 1:29; John 4:42). (e) In the ethical sense, the sum-total of human life in the ordered world, considered apart from, alienated from, and hostile to God, and of the earthly things which seduce from God (John 7:7; John 15:18; John 17:9, John 17:14; 1 Corinthians 1:20, 1 Corinthians 1:21; 2 Corinthians 7:10; James 4:4). -DIVIDER-
-DIVIDER-
This word is characteristic of John, and pre-eminently in this last, ethical sense, in which it is rarely used by the Synoptists; while John nowhere uses αἰών of the moral order. In this latter sense the word is wholly strange to heathen literature, since the heathen world had no perception of the opposition between God and sinful man; between the divine order and the moral disorder introduced and maintained by sin. -DIVIDER-
-DIVIDER-
[source]

John 5:42 But I know you [αλλα εγνωκα υμας]
Perfect active indicative of γινωσκω — ginōskō “I have come to know and still know,” the knowledge of personal experience (John 2:24.). The love o‘ God Objective genitive, “the love toward God.” See Luke 11:42 for this phrase in the same sense (only other instance in the Gospels, but common in 1John (1 John 2:5; 1 John 3:17; 1 John 4:7, 1 John 4:9; 1 John 5:3) and in 2 Thessalonians 3:5; 2 Corinthians 13:14; Romans 5:5. The sense of God‘s love for man occurs in 1 John 3:1; 1 John 4:9, 1 John 4:10, 1 John 4:16; John 15:9. of Christ‘s love for man. These rabbis did not love God and hence did not love Christ. [source]
2 Timothy 2:4 In the affairs of this life [ταῖς τοῦ βίου πραγματίαις]
Better, affairs of life. Not as A.V. verse implies, in contrast with the affairs of the next life, but simply the ordinary occupations of life. In N.T., βίος means either means of subsistence, as Mark 12:44; Luke 8:43; 1 John 3:17; or course of life, as Luke 8:14. Βίος PoHim who hath chosen him to be a soldier ( τῷ στρατολογήσαντι )N.T.oolxx. Better, enrolled him as a soldier. [source]
1 John 5:4 That overcometh [ἡ νικήσασα]
The aorist tense, overcame. On the cumulative form of expression, the victory, that which overcame, see on 1 John 4:9. The aorist is to be held here to its strict sense. The victory over the world was, potentially, won when we believed in Jesus as the Christ, the Son of God. We overcome the world by being brought into union with Christ. On becoming as He is (1 John 3:17) we become partakers of His victory (John 16:33). “Greater is He that is in you than He that is in the world” (1 John 4:4). [source]
1 John 2:9 His brother [τὸν ἀδελφόν]
His fellow-Christian. The singular, brother, is characteristic of this Epistle. See 1 John 2:10, 1 John 2:11; 1 John 3:10, 1 John 3:15, 1 John 3:17; 1 John 4:20, 1 John 4:21; 1 John 5:16. Christians are called in the New Testament, Christians (Acts 11:26; Acts 26:28; 1 Peter 4:16), mainly by those outside of the Christian circle. Disciples, applied to all followers of Christ (John 2:11; John 6:61) and strictly to the twelve (John 13:5sqq.). In Acts 19:1, to those who had received only John's baptism. Not found in John's Epistles nor in Revelation. Brethren. The first title given to the body of believers after the Ascension (Acts 1:15, where the true reading is ἀδελφῶν brethrenfor μαθητῶν disciples). See Acts 9:30; Acts 10:23; Acts 11:29; 1 Thessalonians 4:10; 1 Thessalonians 5:26; 1 John 3:14; 3 John 1:5, 3 John 1:10; John 21:23. Peter has ἡ ἀδελφότης thebrotherhood (1 Peter 2:17; 1 Peter 5:9). The believers. Under three forms: The believers ( οἱ πιστοί ; Acts 10:45; 1 Timothy 4:12); they that believe ( οἱ πιστεύοντες ; 1 Peter 2:7; 1 Thessalonians 1:7; Ephesians 1:19); they that believed ( οἱ πιστεύσαντες ; Acts 2:44; Acts 4:32; Hebrews 4:3). The saints ( οἱ ἅγιοι ); characteristic of Paul and Revelation. Four times in the Acts (Acts 9:13, Acts 9:32, Acts 9:41; Acts 26:10), and once in Jude (Judges 1:3). Also Hebrews 6:10; Hebrews 13:24. In Paul, 1 Corinthians 6:1; 1 Corinthians 14:33; Ephesians 1:1, Ephesians 1:15, etc. In Revelation 5:8; Revelation 8:3, Revelation 8:4; Revelation 11:18, etc.|Until now ( ἕως ἄρτι )|Though the light has been increasing, and though he may claim that he has been in the light from the first. The phrase occurs in John 2:10; John 5:17; John 16:24; and is used by Paul, 1 Corinthians 4:13; 1 Corinthians 8:7; 1 Corinthians 15:6.| [source]
1 John 2:5 Is the love of God perfected [ἡ ἀγάπη τοῦ Θεοῦ τετελείωται]
Rev., rendering the perfect tense more closely, hath the love of God been perfected. The change in the form of this antithetic clause is striking. He who claims to know God, yet lives in disobedience, is a liar. We should expect as an offset to this: He that keepeth His commandments is of the truth; or, the truth is in him. Instead we have, “In him has the love of God been perfected.” In other words, the obedient child of God is characterized, not by any representative trait or quality of his own personality, but merely as the subject of the work of divine love: as the sphere in which that love accomplishes its perfect work. The phrase ἡ ἀγάπη τοῦ Θεοῦ the love of God, may mean either the love which God shows, or the love of which God is the object, or the love which is characteristic of God whether manifested by Himself or by His obedient child through His Spirit. John's usage is not decisive like Paul's, according to which the love of God habitually means the love which proceeds from and is manifested by God. The exact phrase, the love of God or the love of the Father, is found in 1 John 3:16; 1 John 4:9, in the undoubted sense of the love of God to men. The same sense is intended in 1 John 3:1, 1 John 3:9, 1 John 3:16, though differently expressed. The sense is doubtful in 1 John 2:5; 1 John 3:17; 1 John 4:12. Men's love to God is clearly meant in 1 John 2:15; 1 John 5:3. The phrase occurs only twice in the Gospels (Luke 6:42; John 5:42), and in both cases the sense is doubtful. Some, as Ebrard, combine the two, and explain the love of God as the mutual relation of love between God and men. It is not possible to settle the point decisively, but I incline to the view that the fundamental idea of the love of God as expounded by John is the love which God has made known and which answers to His nature. In favor of this is the general usage of ἀγάπη lovein the New Testament, with the subjective genitive. The object is more commonly expressed by εἰς towardsor to. See 1 Thessalonians 3:12; Colossians 1:4; 1 Peter 4:8. Still stronger is John's treatment of the subject in ch. 4. Here we have, 1 John 4:9, the manifestation of the love of God in us ( ἐν ἡμῖν ) By our life in Christ and our love to God we are a manifestation of God's love. Directly following this is a definition of the essential nature of love. “In this is love; i.e., herein consists love: not that we have loved God, but that He loved us ” (1 John 4:10). Our mutual love is a proof that God dwells in us. God dwelling in us, His love is perfected in us (1 John 4:12). The latter clause, it would seem, must be explained according to 1 John 4:10. Then (1 John 4:16), “We have known and believed the love that God hath in us ” (see on John 16:22, on the phrase have love ). “God is love;” that is His nature, and He imparts this nature to be the sphere in which His children dwell. “He that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God.” Finally, our love is engendered by His love to us. “We love Him because He first loved us” (1 John 4:19). -DIVIDER-
-DIVIDER-
In harmony with this is John 15:9. “As the Father loved me, I also loved you. Continue ye in my love.” My love must be explained by I loved you. This is the same idea of divine love as the sphere or element of renewed being; and this idea is placed, as in the passage we are considering, in direct connection with the keeping of the divine commandments. “If ye keep my commandments ye shall abide in my love.”-DIVIDER-
This interpretation does not exclude man's love to God. On the contrary, it includes it. The love which God has, is revealed as the love of God in the love of His children towards Him, no less than in His manifestations of love to them. The idea of divine love is thus complex. Love, in its very essence, is reciprocal. Its perfect ideal requires two parties. It is not enough to tell us, as a bare, abstract truth, that God is love. The truth must be rounded and filled out for us by the appreciable exertion of divine love upon an object, and by the response of the object. The love of God is perfected or completed by the perfect establishment of the relation of love between God and man. When man loves perfectly, his love is the love of God shed abroad in his heart. His love owes both its origin and its nature to the love of God. -DIVIDER-
-DIVIDER-
The word verily ( ἀληθῶς ) is never used by John as a mere formula of affirmation, but has the meaning of a qualitative adverb, expressing not merely the actual existence of a thing, but its existence in a manner most absolutely corresponding to ἀλήθεια truthCompare John 1:48; John 8:31. Hath been perfected. John is presenting the ideal of life in God. “This is the love of God that we keep His commandments.” Therefore whosoever keepeth God's word, His message in its entirety, realizes the perfect relation of love. [source]

What do the individual words in 1 John 3:17 mean?

Whoever now - might have the goods of the world and might see brother of him need having might close up the heart from him how the love - of God abides in him
ὃς δ’ ἂν ἔχῃ τὸν βίον τοῦ κόσμου καὶ θεωρῇ ἀδελφὸν αὐτοῦ χρείαν ἔχοντα κλείσῃ τὰ σπλάγχνα ἀπ’ αὐτοῦ πῶς ἀγάπη τοῦ Θεοῦ μένει ἐν αὐτῷ

ὃς  Whoever 
Parse: Personal / Relative Pronoun, Nominative Masculine Singular
Root: ὅς 
Sense: who, which, what, that.
δ’  now 
Parse: Conjunction
Root: δέ  
Sense: but, moreover, and, etc.
ἂν  - 
Parse: Particle
Root: ἄν  
Sense: has no exact English equivalent, see definitions under AV.
ἔχῃ  might  have 
Parse: Verb, Present Subjunctive Active, 3rd Person Singular
Root: ἔχω  
Sense: to have, i.e. to hold.
βίον  goods 
Parse: Noun, Accusative Masculine Singular
Root: βίος  
Sense: life.
τοῦ  of  the 
Parse: Article, Genitive Masculine Singular
Root:  
Sense: this, that, these, etc.
κόσμου  world 
Parse: Noun, Genitive Masculine Singular
Root: κόσμος  
Sense: an apt and harmonious arrangement or constitution, order, government.
θεωρῇ  might  see 
Parse: Verb, Present Subjunctive Active, 3rd Person Singular
Root: θεωρέω  
Sense: to be a spectator, look at, behold.
ἀδελφὸν  brother 
Parse: Noun, Accusative Masculine Singular
Root: ἀδελφός  
Sense: a brother, whether born of the same two parents or only of the same father or mother.
αὐτοῦ  of  him 
Parse: Personal / Possessive Pronoun, Genitive Masculine 3rd Person Singular
Root: αὐτός  
Sense: himself, herself, themselves, itself.
χρείαν  need 
Parse: Noun, Accusative Feminine Singular
Root: χρεία  
Sense: necessity, need.
κλείσῃ  might  close  up 
Parse: Verb, Aorist Subjunctive Active, 3rd Person Singular
Root: κλείω  
Sense: to shut, shut up.
σπλάγχνα  heart 
Parse: Noun, Accusative Neuter Plural
Root: σπλάγχνον  
Sense: bowels, intestines, (the heart, lungs, liver, etc.).
πῶς  how 
Parse: Adverb
Root: πῶς  
Sense: how, in what way.
ἀγάπη  love 
Parse: Noun, Nominative Feminine Singular
Root: ἀγάπη  
Sense: brotherly love, affection, good will, love, benevolence.
τοῦ  - 
Parse: Article, Genitive Masculine Singular
Root:  
Sense: this, that, these, etc.
Θεοῦ  of  God 
Parse: Noun, Genitive Masculine Singular
Root: θεός  
Sense: a god or goddess, a general name of deities or divinities.
μένει  abides 
Parse: Verb, Present Indicative Active, 3rd Person Singular
Root: μένω  
Sense: to remain, abide.