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To Continue:

1 John 3:10-13

10. -- Whosoever doeth not righteousness is not of God, neither he that
loveth not his brother.

10. -- Quisquis non facit justitiam, non est ex Deo, et qui non diligit
fratrem suum.

11. For this is the message that ye heard from the beginning, that we
should love one another.

11. Quia haec est praedicatio quam audistis ab initio, ut mutuo nos
diligamus.

12. Not as Cain, who was of that wicked one, and slew his brother. And
wherefore slew he him? Because his own works were evil, and his
brother's righteous.

12. Non sicut Cain, qui ex maligno erat, occidit fratrem suum; et qua
de causa eum occidit? Quia opera ejus mala erant, fratris autem justa.

13. Marvel not, my brethren, if the world hate you.

13. Ne miremini, fratres mei, si vos mundus odit.


10 Whosoever doeth not righteousness. To do righteousness and to do
sin, are here set in opposition the one to the other. Then, to do
righteousness is no other thing than to fear God from the heart, and to
walk in his commandments as far as human weakness will permit; for
though righteousness in a strict sense is a perfect keeping of the law,
from which the faithful are always far off; yet as offenses and
fallings are not imputed to them by God, righteousness is that
imperfect obedience which they render to him. But John declares that
all who do not live righteously are not of God, because all those whom
God calls, he regenerates by his Spirit. Hence newness of life is a
perpetual evidence of divine adoption.

Neither he who loveth not his brother. He accommodates a general
doctrine to his own purpose. For hitherto he has been exhorting the
faithful to brotherly love; now, for the same end, he refers to true
righteousness. Hence this clause is added instead of an explanation.
But I have already stated the reason why the whole of righteousness is
included in brotherly love. The love of God holds, indeed, the first
place; but as on it depends love towards men, it is often, as a part
for the whole, comprehended under it, and also the latter under the
former. Then he declares that every one who is endued with benevolence
and humanity, is thus just, and is to be so deemed, because love is
rite fulfillment of the law. He confirms this declaration by saying
that the faithful had been so taught from the beginning; for by these
words he intimates that the statement which he made ought not to have
appeared new to them.

12 Not as Cain This is another confirmation, taken from what is
contrary; for in the reprobate and the children of the devil hatred
reigns, and it holds, as it were, the chief place in their life; and he
brings forward Cain as an instance. It served in the meantime to give
them consolation, as he at length concluded by saying, Marvel not, if
the world hate you.

This explanation ought to be carefully noticed, for men ever blunder as
to the way of living, because they make holiness to consist of
fictitious works, and while they torment themselves with trifles, they
think themselves doubly acceptable to God, as the monks, who proudly
call their mode of living a state of perfection; nor is there any other
worship of God under the Papacy but a mass of superstitions. But the
Apostle testifies that this righteousness alone is approved by God,
that is, if we love one another; and further, that the devil reigns
where hatred, dissimulation, envy, and enmity prevail. We ought,
however, at the same time, to bear in mind what I have already touched
upon, that brotherly love, as it proceeds from the love of God as an
effect from a cause, is not disjoined from it, but on the contrary is
commended by John on this account, because it is an evidence of our
love to God.

By saying that Cain was driven to slay his brother, because his works
were evil, he intimates what I have already stated, that when impiety
rules, hatred occupies the first place. He refers to Abel's righteous
works, that we may learn to endure patiently when the world hates us
gratuitously, without any just provocation.