By Anneka Mulleri
In 1 John 3:16-17, John uses psychē and bios, two Greek words that can mean “life.” John writes:
By this we know love, because He laid down His life (psychē) for us. And we also ought to lay down our lives (psychē) for the brethren. But whoever has this world’s goods (bios), and sees his brother in need, and shuts up his heart from him, how does the love of God abide in him?
Both psychē and bios are used in reference to sacrifices Christians are called to make for other believers. Understanding John’s usage of these words is important to properly interpreting Johannine passages where the words occur.
PSYCHĒ
In 1 John 3:16, John uses two forms of the root word psychē—the singular form in reference to Jesus and the plural form in reference to believers.ii The word is translated as “life” and “lives.” There is a physical aspect in view, given that Jesus laid down His life by physically dying for believers. Likewise, believers are called to be willing to make this sacrifice for fellowiii believers. Hodges says, “This is obviously the direct opposite of Cain who took (emphasis his) his brother’s life (cf. v 12). Cain and Christ, therefore, stand as Johannine polarities.iv John calls believers to be like Christ by giving up their physical lives for others, rather than taking another’s physical life as Cain did.
Words formed from the root psychē occur ten other times in John’s writings. Only one other occurrence is in John’s epistles. In his third epistle, John tells Gaius: “Beloved, I pray that you may prosper in all things and be in health, just as your soul (psychē) prospers” (v 2). Here he does not refer to Gaius’s physical life, but to his spiritual condition in his inner man.
Psychē is used nine times in the Gospel of John. Six of these refer to physically laying down one’s life for another. A unique translation—“to doubt”—is used when the Jews ask Jesus: “How long do You keep us in doubt (psychē)? If You are the Christ, tell us plainly” (John 10:24). Under the definition “keep us in suspense,” Brown comments, “The idea would then be that, although Jesus lays down his own life for those who follow him (10:11, 15), he also provokes judgment and thus takes away the life of those who reject him” (11:48).v In John 12:27, Jesus says that His soul (psychē)—that is, His inward self—“is troubled.”
In the book of Revelation, John uses the word psychē in 6:9 and 20:4 to talk about the souls of martyrs. Likewise, in Rev 18:14 John uses it in reference to the inward self of the merchant whose expectation of riches has been dashed. In the remainder of the verses in Revelation that include psychē, John uses it to describe physical life (Rev 8:9, 12:11, 16:3, 18:13).
John most commonly uses words from the root psychē to refer to one’s physical life, but he sometimes uses it to refer to one’s soul, the inward self. And there is one outlier where the word is translated “to doubt.”
BIOS
In 1 John 3:17, John discusses an aspect of sacrificing oneself for fellow believers. Here, he uses another Greek word—bion, from the root bios—that can mean “life,” typically in reference to “life in its earthly and/or material aspects.”vi In 1 John 3:17 bion is translated as “goods.” According to Hodges, “The connection of thought suggested by this is that sharing with other Christians the material things which sustain (emphasis his) life is, at heart, a way of laying down ‘our lives’ for them.”vii John closes this verse with a rhetorical question: “…how does the love of God abide in him?” (John 3:17). Giving one’s worldly goods to help sustain other believers is a mark of one who is abiding in God. This, of course, is not speaking of believers in general; as described throughout 1 John, the believer who is abiding is the overcoming believer who is walking in the light. John’s only other NT use of the root word bios is found in 1 John 2:16, where he talks about the things of the world, the last being “the pride of life” (biou), once again referring to the material world “in its outward features and manifestations.”viii
CONCLUSION
In 1 John 3:16-17, John calls believers to follow the example of Christ’s sacrificial love. He gives two ways to do this: laying down one’s physical life (psychē) and giving of one’s material life (bios). All believers are called to follow Christ’s example of giving up His life for others rather than the example of selfish Cain who took his brother Abel’s life (Genesis 4). Likewise, in order to show God’s love, believers are called to sacrifice their worldly goods to help sustain other believers. Understanding John’s usage of psychē and bios will help believers properly apply these commands to love their Christian brothers with their lives.
____________________
Anneka Muller is a pediatric nurse practitioner and homeschool mom of four. She and her husband, Greg, enjoy studying NT Greek and theology together in GES’s online seminary.
__________
i This paper is a slightly edited version of a paper that Anneka wrote for GES Seminary’s Fall 2024 Greek 103 class.
ii Editor’s note: That Jesus laid down his psychē, His life, for us, helps us understand His words in Matt 16:24-26. If we cling to our lives (psychē), then we lose our lives (psychē). The issue is not one’s eternal destiny, but his fullness of life now and in the life to come. This also helps us understand Jas 1:21 and 5:19-20.
iii Zane C. Hodges, The Epistles of John: Walking in the Light of God’s Love (Denton, TX: Grace Evangelical Society, 1999), 160.
iv Ibid.
v Raymond Brown, John I-XIII, p. 403, italics his.
vi Hodges, 161.
vii Ibid.
viii Hodges, 103.