Whoever keeps His commandments remains in God, and God in him. And by this we know that He remains in us: by the Spirit He has given us.
Parallel translations
- WEB He who keeps his commandments remains in him, and he in him. By this we know that he remains in us, by the Spirit which he gave us.
- KJV And he that keepeth his commandments dwelleth in him, and he in him. And hereby we know that he abideth in us, by the Spirit which he hath given us.
- NKJV Now he who keeps His commandments abides in Him, and He in him. And by this we know that He abides in us, by the Spirit whom He has given us.
- NASB The one who keeps His commandments remains in Him, and He in him. We know by this that He remains in us, by the Spirit whom He has given us.
- NLT Those who obey God’s commandments remain in fellowship with him, and he with them. And we know he lives in us because the Spirit he gave us lives in us.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Those who keep his commandments abide in God, and the Spirit he gave assures us of this mutual indwelling. The Spirit confirms our union with God.
Overview
Obedience marks the mutual abiding of God and the believer. The gift of the Holy Spirit is the inward witness that God remains in us. This introduces the role of the Spirit in assurance and discernment, leading into chapter 4's call to test the spirits by their confession of Christ.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 15
- 1 Cor 3:16Do you not know that you yourselves are God’s temple, and that God’s Spirit dwells in you?
- 1 Jn 4:15–16If anyone confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God.
- 1 Jn 4:12–13No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God remains in us, and His love is perfected in us.
- 2 Tim 1:14Guard the treasure entrusted to you, with the help of the Holy Spirit who dwells in us.
- 1 Cor 6:19Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own;
- 1 Jn 2:6Whoever claims to abide in Him must walk as Jesus walked.
- Rom 8:9–17You, however, are controlled not by the flesh, but by the Spirit, if the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ.
- John 14:21–23Whoever has My commandments and keeps them is the one who loves Me. The one who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and reveal Myself to him.”
- John 17:21that all of them may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I am in You. May they also be in Us, so that the world may believe that You sent Me.
- 1 Jn 4:7Beloved, let us love one another, because love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God.
- John 6:54–56Whoever eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day.
- 1 Jn 3:22and we will receive from Him whatever we ask, because we keep His commandments and do what is pleasing in His sight.
- John 15:7–10If you remain in Me and My words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.
- Gal 4:5–6to redeem those under the law, that we might receive our adoption as sons.
- 2 Cor 6:16What agreement can exist between the temple of God and idols? For we are the temple of the living God. As God has said: “I will dwell with them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they will be My people.”
Themes, concepts, people & topics
Resources, by level
Commentaries & study tools
Free animated overview and word-study videos for this book.
Sermons and teaching on this passage from across YouTube.
Clear, readable, conservative exposition — the best free place to start on any passage.
Matthew Henry, Barnes, Gill, the Pulpit Commentary, Ellicott, Cambridge, and more — stacked on one page for this exact verse.
The beloved Puritan exposition of this whole book — warm, devotional, and verse by verse (free, CCEL).
Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.
Christ at the center
Jesus is the Word of life made manifest, the propitiation for our sins, the Son in whom is eternal life — 'that you may know that you have eternal life.'
How 1 John 3:24 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Greek word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.