3:11 from the beginning. The phrase “from the beginning” occurs nine times in the first three chapters of I John. That it refers to the “beginning” of Genesis 1:1 is indicated in I John 1:1-2: “That which was from the beginning…was with the Father, and was manifested unto us” (Compare John 1:1-2,14). This would mean that the command to “love one another” was a new commandment only in its pattern and measure (“as I have loved you,” John 13:34). Love has been at the center of God’s plan from the beginning.

3:12 Cain. John thus confirms the historicity of the record of Cain and Abel (Genesis 4). Note also Matthew 23:35; Hebrews 11:4; 12:24.

3:12 wicked one. Though a child of Adam and Eve, the very first family, Cain was called a child of the devil.