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1 John 3:15 Updated American Standard Version (UASV)
¹⁵Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer; and you know that no murderer has eternal life remaining in him.

Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer, …. We must remember that biblically we are all mentally bent toward evil (Genesis 6:5; 8:21), and we have an unknowable treacherous heart, and Paul tells us that our natural desire is to do bad. That is, he has the spirit of a murderer; he has that which, if it were acted out, would lead him to commit murder, as it did Cain. The private malice, the secret grudge, the envy, which is cherished in the heart, is murderous in its tendency, and were it not for the outward restraints of human laws and the dread of punishment, it would often lead to the act of murder. The apostle does not say that he who hates his brother, though he does not, in fact, commit murder, is guilty to the same degree as if he had actually done it, but he evidently means to say that the spirit which would lead to murder is there and that God will hold him responsible for it. Nothing is wanting but the removal of outward restraints to lead to the commission of the open deed, and God judges men as he sees them to be in their hearts. What a fearful declaration, then, is this! How many real murderers there are on the earth besides those who are detected and punished, and besides those open violators of the laws of God and man who go at large! And who is there that should not feel humbled and penitent because of his own heart, and grateful for that sovereign mercy which has restrained him from open acts of guilt?—for who is there who has not at some period of his life, and perhaps often, indulged in feelings of hatred, and envy, and malice towards others, which, if acted out, would have led to the commission of the awful crime of taking human life? Any man may well shudder at remembering the secret sins of his own heart and at thinking of what he would have been but for the restraining grace of God. And how wonderful is that grace which, in the case of the true Christian, not only restrains and checks but which effectually subdues all these feelings and implants the principles of love in their place!