1 John 3:18 - Coke's Commentary on the Holy Bible

Let us not love in word, &c.— All hypocritical pretences to love, where there is none in the heart, are very justly condemned and abhorred; but rough language, and an open profession of hatred or dislike, though sincere, are also abominable in the sightof God. St. John recommends sincerity, and does not prohibit our professing love to our fellow-christians, or speaking to them in kind and obliging words; but he does not forget to put us in mind, that much more is required of us. Some are for connecting this with 1 John 3:16 others with 1 John 3:17. It is most likely that St. John designed to connect it with both, and to intimate that kind words, and professions of love, are not all that are required of us; we must willingly lay down our lives, when the good of the Christian church so requires; and much more ought we cheerfullyto relieve our fellow-christians in indigent circumstances;for by such willing sufferings, and generous beneficent actions, we shall plainly manifest that we love not in word and in tongue only, but in deed and in truth.