1 John 3:23

Jesus taught the apostles to trust in Him and to love each other. This is the distillation of His teaching. Specifically He taught them to trust in the efficacy of His name when they prayed to His Father (John 14:12-15; John 16:24). This is an added ground for confidence in prayer.

"There are frequent points of contact between this Epistle and the words of Jesus in John 13-17." [Note: Robertson, 6:228.]

Believing in this verse probably refers to believing for eternal salvation rather than to believing after we are Christians. The tense of the Greek verb (aorist) points to this as does the object of belief, namely, "the name of His Son Jesus Christ."

"To believe in the name of Jesus Christ is to accept Jesus Christ for what He really is." [Note: Barclay, p. 104.]

"The Christian who hates his brother acts utterly out of touch with God, exemplifies the murderous spirit of Cain, and is ’abiding’ in the sphere of death (1 John 3:10-15). By contrast, the loving Christian takes Christ’s own self-sacrificing love as the model by which he himself should love in actual deeds and in accord with the truth (1 John 3:16-18). If he does so, he can quiet a guilt-ridden heart, achieve a superb confidence before God in prayer, and expect answers to his prayers precisely because he is pleasing God (1 John 3:19-23)." [Note: Hodges, The Epistles . . ., p. 169.]