knowledge of human misery can result in exoneration that the heart longs for rather than the condemnation that the soul conjures up and fears. “Blessed is he whose heart does not condemn him” (Sir. 14:2 RSV). With “an emphatic turning toward the readers” (Strecker 1996: 123), John reaffirms rapport with his third use of vocative ἀγαπητοί (agapētoi, beloved) in this epistle (cf. 2:7; 3:2; see exegesis of 2:7). Though the Gospels do not record Jesus using the