3:11 {11} For this is the message that ye heard from the beginning, that we should love one another.
(11) The first reason taken from the authority of God who gives the commandment.
3:11 This is the message... that we should love one another. God's charge has always been that we should love each other. See Joh 13:34 15:12,17 Ro 13:8 1Th 4:9 1Pe 1:22 1Jo 3:23 4:7,11,12 2Jo 1:5.
3:11-15 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 ungodly 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 and sentiments with ourselves. The life of grace in the heart of a 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.
