This verse summarizes what precedes. Its last words, in truth, serve moreover to make the transition to verse 19. What is said here about love may be compared with what is said in James 2.14-16 about faith.

Let us not love, or ‘we should not love’: the clause is a warning not to love in the wrong way. The verb has reciprocal force, that is, ‘love one another.’

In word or speech contrasts with the following “in deed and truth.” In some languages it is preferable to change the clause structure, as in ‘it is not word and speech that will express our love,’ ‘let not only what we say with our mouth show that we love (people),’ ‘we should not merely say that we love, and speak about it.’

Word and speech are synonymous and reinforce each other. To have the two in one phrase may be impossible or undesirable in the receptor language. Then one of them may be used together with an expression of emphasis; compare such renderings of the clause as ‘we must not love only with words,’ ‘let us not merely talk about love.’

The term rendered speech is in the Greek literally “tongue,” the instrument standing for the process. In some languages another instrument has to be used; for example, ‘lips,’ ‘mouth.’

But in deed and in truth is dependent on the preceding verb form but not on the negative particle. The phrase implies an exhortation to love in the right way. The verb may have to be repeated; for example, ‘let us love in deed and in truth,’ ‘let deeds and truth express our love (or show that we love one another)’

In this phrase the two nouns are not synonymous but complementary, the one qualifying the other. This is brought out in renderings like ‘but in what we really do’ or, with further shifts, ‘but that we truly love must be shown in what we do,’ ‘but let us really do so,’ and ‘it must be true love and show itself in action (or in what we do)’ (compare Good News Translation, New English Bible).

Truth means reality here, as opposed to mere appearance. It may, however, also have a more fully developed meaning, as discussed in the Introduction, page 2.

Quoted with permission from Haas, C., de Jonge, M. and Swellengrebel, J.L. A Handbook on The First Letter of John. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1972. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .