1 John 3:16,17 - Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

Hereby perceive we the love of God The word God is not in the original: it seems to be omitted by the apostle just as the name of Jesus is omitted by Mary, when she says to the gardener Sir, if thou hast borne him hence, &c., John 20:15; in which place there is a very emphatical language, even in silence. It declares how totally her thoughts were possessed by the blessed and glorious subject. It expresses also the superlative dignity and amiableness of the person meant; as though he, and he alone, were, or deserved to be, both known and admired by all. Because he laid down his life Not merely for sinners, but for us in particular. From this truth believed, and salvation received by that faith, the love of Christ, and, in consequence thereof, the love of the brethren, take their rise, which may very justly be admitted as an evidence that our faith is no delusion. But whoso hath this world's good Worldly substance, far less valuable than life; and seeth his brother have need (The very sight of want knocks at the door of the spectator's heart;) and shutteth up Restraineth, whether asked or not; his bowels of compassion Excited, it may be, by the view of misery; how dwelleth the love of God in him? Certainly not at all, however he may talk of it, as the next verse supposes him to do. Thus the apostle having, in the preceding verse, observed, that we know the love of Christ by his laying down his life for us, and that the consideration of his love to us should induce us “so to love him as, at his call, to lay down our lives for the brethren; here tells us, that if, so far from laying down our lives for them, we refuse them, when in need, some part of our worldly goods to support their lives, the love of God can in no sense be said to be in us.”