1 John 3

1 John 3

1 John 3:1 See what great [privileged] love the Father has lavished on us [in abundance], that we should be called children of God! And that is what we [really] are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him.

3:1 Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God! Therefore the world does not know us, because it did not know Him. NKJV

See or Behold

       John wants us to understand the importance of being children of God. He wants us to discern clearly and then to experience God’s love, because we are His children. We are invited to

“Taste and see that the Lord is good; blessed is the one who takes refuge in him” (Ps 34:8)

       As God’s children we will declare that God’s love is too wonderful to count. “O God, because of your great loyal love… may you hear my prayer and be favorably disposed to me” (Ps 69:13 NET).

       John wants us to realize the privilege of being children of God. Sometimes we use this expression, children of God, too casually. John wants us to take it very seriously.

See What Great Love the Father Has

  This opening expression is a question. John is asking his “Dear Children”, can anyone describe this kind of GREAT love God has for us? The Answer John is looking for is “NO”. Nobody can, nobody ever will. Not now, now ever.

The question of what manner of love can this be? Expresses the idea that there is no comparison to anywhere in the long history of our world—to God’s love. It is so great, its greatness has no equal, it is unparalleled in human experience. It implies great astonishment that such love would be given to us. 

  The love of God is so matchless in human experience that John cannot find comparison. It is beyond explanation. It is love that does not come from this world. God’s love is expressed in preparing us, by faith, by “forgiveness”, by redemption, by “cleansing” (1 John 1:9) turning our lives from “darkness” and “hate” (1 John 2:9), into love. 

  Then picking us up and carrying us to be in His presence, “And to present you faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy (Jude 24). That is a mutual joy, the joy from God, which is the fruit of His love, in having you in His presence and your joy while being with God’s overwhelming presence—facing into eternal life. As an adopted child of God, for “if we are [His] children, then we are heirs—heirs of God” (Rom 8:17). Now we can anticipate the wonder and exploration of being members of God’s family, as eternity opens before us with all power, honored by God.  

Behold What Manner of Love Comes from God

       John is asking his “Dear Children” (1 John 2:1), to spend some time looking, remembering how God has loved them. John wants them to see the scope and the extent of God’s love. For them “to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God” (Eph 3:18,19). Paul declared, “no human mind has conceived— the things God has prepared for those who love him, these are the things God has revealed to us by his Spirit” (1 Cor 2:9,10).

       Children of God can easily tell someone, that God loves them, without hesitation. So can we often know if someone does not love God. Talking to the religious leaders of the time of Jesus he told them, “I know you. I know that you do not have the love of God in your hearts” (John 5:42).

What Is the Greatest Thing About God’s Love?

       The greatest aspect of God’s love is that we can increasingly know something of this love, because in God love has no beginning or end. God does not love us just by words, from a distance. His love is given to us so that we can share in its knowledge; its experience, its joy which brings awareness of its presence in our lives. God does not want to keep his presence hidden from you.

       In families we can learn something about love. We could say, I know my grandparents love me, but they are thousands of miles away. And we don’t have the privilege to see them very often. Yes, God is also a long distance away, but his love reaches across that distance, in a personal way, to the boy or girl that seeks him. Wherever, whenever. He hears a whisper or even an unspoken prayer. God is very attentive and tenderhearted, for “the Lord is gracious and compassionate” (Ps 111:4).

·       God’s love is always “God with us” Matt 1:23.

·       God’s love is always “God is for us” Rom 8:31

·       God’s love is always “rich in mercy” Eph 2:4

·       God’s love always “forgave(s) us all our sins” Col 2:13

·       God’s love has “not appoint us to suffer wrath but to receive salvation” 1 Thess 5:9

·       God’s love is a place we can ask God to keep us safe “for in you I take refuge” (Ps 16:1)

·       God’s love is always ready to receive us so that we can “approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need” Heb 4:16

·       God’s love springs from His grace toward us, “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God” Eph 2:8

·       “God is love whoever lives in love, lives in God and God in them” 1 John 4:16

God’s Great Love, from Himself, is Lavished on Us

  God does not just love us from within Himself, in a static sense. He seeks to impart His love so as to create a response from within us. It is a gift of Himself in which we can know it and feel it. God loves because he chooses, from within Himself, to do so.

  This gift of love from the Father is implanted inside us from the presence of the Spirit, which brings a sense of God’s nearness into our lives in spiritual Influences that bring awareness of God’s real presence.

  We know God’s love for us is real, we know it’s true, it is the truth. Why?  Because we are “born of God” (1 John 4:7; 5:1) and in this condition we come to really love God and freely express it. It becomes natural for us to say to God, “I love you Lord” and feel it. To know of its tenacious and sanctifying influences.

  The idea that God lavishes on us His love toward us and for us, time after time, again and again. Human love is mostly conditional, if we treat others good, they in turn love us, sometimes. If we mistreat others on a regular basis, love may dissipate. Whereas God has done the opposite, He continues to love those that are unresponsive to Him. “God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners [living in wickedness], Christ died for us” (Rom 5:8). God did not say, “My son will die only for those who appreciate it, unresponsive sinners aren’t worth it.”

God’s Dearly Love Children, How Can This Be?

  In our culture we say that certain children of rich parents are born with a “silver spoon.” They have been born into a wealthy or privileged family. They have the family name of a very famous person, which gives them immediate credibility, with privileged access to other people of influence in the world. 

  But this is no comparison at all, to the privilege of being “born of God” (1 John 2:29; 3:9; 4:7; 5:1,4,18). “To all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God— children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God” (John 1:12,13). 

  God has given us “the right,” the power in our quiet voices to be heard, loud and clear, in the ears of God. This is a privilege to receive His attention, without being considered if we are worthy of God’s time. This “right” to come to God, is because God has first appointed us as His Children. Who has the right to have the cell phone number of the president of the USA? His sons and daughters. They don’t need permission to speak to Dad or Mother; they have a birthright, in the same last name, to do so with perfect freedom of acceptance, of our call for help.

  So do we, God has first declared we are his children so that our feeble prayers, our confession of sin, our need of wisdom and directions, our immediate cry for help—is not delayed. It is heard, as if you were speaking to God on FaceTime, at that moment.

  When we believe in Jesus, in his name, who was like God in everything” (Phil 2:6 NCV). We come to believe the fact that he has risen from the dead. When we believe this to be the absolute truth from inside us, our heart, we are “born of God” (1 John 5:1). Because no one can believe, unless God has opened our hearts to receive it, to know it, to hold it as dear and true.

  As we love others, with a love we have first received from God, God’s love for us becomes vibrant and alive. Love given is more love receive. “No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in and His love is made complete in us” (1 John 4:12).

How Can We Enter into This Great Love?

  How can we share in God’s Great Love? By loving others, as God has given us an example. “Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God… Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another” (1 John 4:7,11).

That is What We are—Now Loved by God

  This does not imply limitation, in that some are not yet accepted, while others wait in trial to see if they can qualify to be Children of God. God’s love is a dynamic force, reaching us in the present, in the time and location we live on earth. As if we were the only ones having his full attention.

“We should be called Children of God” (1 John 3:1 NIV)

“We really have become his children” Easy English Bible

“We are actually called God’s dear children” GOD’S WORD Translation

“Enabling us to be called the children of God” New Catholic Bible
“We should [ be permitted] be named, called, counted the children of God! Amplified Bible

“That is what we are called” (1 John 3:1 NIV)

“Called His children, as we truly are. “ English Bible

“We really are his children. “ Easy-To-Read

             “Called God's children—and so, in fact, we are.  Good News

             “He allows us to be called his children—think of it—and we really are! “ Living Bible

             “We would be called children of God; and such we are. “ NAS

             “That we should be called God’s children—and indeed we are!” NET

“We are His beloved children.” VOICE

God’s Action is First in Our Lives

  This is all due to the action of God, “which God promised to us before time began” (Titus 1:2). It is always “in the beginning…God” (Gen 1:1). Our adoption into God’s family did not come because of our choice, or our free will. No! It was because “He [God] chose us before the world was made so that we would be his holy people…Because of his love, God had already decided to make us his own children through Jesus Christ. That was what he wanted and what pleased him” (Eph 1:4,5).

  We should dismiss the idea, forever, that our “free will” is needed before God can lovingly call us His Children. Jesus taught us to pray. “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven” (Matt 6:9,10). This is a prayer for our will’s to be led, to be in submission, to the will of God, instead of our own ideas.

  God did not wait on us, before He chose us. He did not wait to measure our good deeds, our faith, before he could declare us His children. No, it all is due to His love, which could never be earned by our behavior. As Paul has written: “Because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved” (Eph 2:4,5).

Why Does God Love to Show His Love to Us?

   Because God enjoys bestowing His unique love on us. This impressive love is directed from God’s heart, Himself. It is not of this world. It is from the far distant cosmos where God dwells. It is from another dimension of time and space, which does not limit the outreach of His love to sanctuary in us.

What Could Cause God to Love us Like This—From Time and Distant Unimaginable?

       It is because “God is light, in him there is no darkness at all” 1 John 1:5.

       It is because God is “the true light” that does not hate 1 John 2:8,9.

       It is because God “is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins” 1 John 1:9.

       It is because God’s nature, His signature quality that is from “everlasting to everlasting” (Ps 90:2) which displays the bold banner that “God is love” 1 John 4:8.

  God has been love, God will be love, because “God is love” in His nature, in His character.

  God’s love has “blessed us with every spiritual blessing” from His “heavenly places” Eph 1:3

  God’s love projects His love into creation, by “choosing us” Eph 1:4

  God’s love is redemptive toward the fallen according to “the riches of God’s grace” Eph 1:7.

  God’s love is forward looking in love, He “predestined us for adoption” to Himself Eph 1:5

  God’s love plans out ways for His Love to be reproduced in us, “We love because he first loved us” (1 John 4:19).

  God’s love has “claimed” us as His “own possession” (Eph 1:11)

  God’s love gives us “grace and peace to you from God our Father” (Col 1:2)

  God’s love has “anointed us, set His seal of ownership on, and put His Spirit in our hearts, as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come” (2 Cor 1:21,22), eternal life.

  When we have been moved by God’s love for us, knowing it from our hearts, we are never the same. This implanted love from God Himself, must and will spread out of us toward others, in an abundance of good deeds.

It can’t be contained to oneself, God’s love is reactive in us, where it is natural for us to share what we know about God’s love with others. We can’t help ourselves; we love to talk about it. “Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God” (1 John 4:7).

This Great Love Entitles Us to be His Children

  Heritage and DNA is not our title to be God’s children. We are born estranged from God, for

“Your iniquities have separated you from your God” (Isa 59:2). Because “The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness” (Rom 1:18). We are guilty of this.

   God’s love for us, is our legal title. God’s love looks past our sins that deserve his judgment and his condemnation. His love does delay judgment, He sets aside justly deserved punishment, so that God can love the sinner, even when the sinner does not love God and is rebellious against Him. Even if the sinner hates God and teaches others to reject His claims.

·       God’s love prevails against all odds, against anything that could possibly oppose it. It stands supreme and i s the single means that brings about a sudden turn from our sins.

·       God’s love is the reason why we repent.

·       God is the reason why we can find forgiveness.

·       God is the reason why we can receive the title, so undeserved, as His children.

Believe it. It’s true.

What Does This Mean for Us?

   It means that now at this present time, by the primary action of God’s love, all that God has created, initiated, built up from the point of no beginning to the next point of no ending. Now your name is added to an account of all that belongs to God, “Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ” (Rom 8:17).

  As adopted Children of God, all of God’s vast estate becomes available when we enter “My Father’s House (John 14:1). “He who testifies to these things says, “Yes, I am coming soon.” Amen. Come, Lord Jesus” (Rev 22:20).

  What John is saying is, we know this for sure. God reinforces this in the present tense. It is now, not just when we all come from the grave, that we are now to regard ourselves the children of God.

How Can We Deny This Great Love?

  By selfishness and lack of interest in others in need of love. “Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love” (1 John 4:8).

  By love of the world, living for its approval, its honor and values, its music, sports, theater and endless possession of its treasures of clothes, cars, houses, and electronics. This to many “the god of this age” that “blinds their minds…so that they cannot see the light of the gospel” (2 Cor 4:3).

  Believers use the good things of the world—to do good without loving them above God and others in need. “Do not love the [things of] world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, love for the Father is not in them” (1 John 2:15). (For more on the meaning of loving the world see 1 John 2:15-27).

Reason Why the World Does Not Know Us

       Because they cannot recognize children of God. Externally, physically, God’s children on earth do not reflect their real status—heirs of God. They do not, outwardly, appear as someone dearly loved by the Creator God of the Cosmos. They may live in some of the poorest areas of the world, may drive older cars, maybe out of step with the world’s customs. Yet they are seen by God and His angels of His children.

“And I will be a father to you, and you shall be sons and daughters to Me,”

 Says the Lord Almighty.” 

2 Cor 6:18

“But to all who did receive Him [welcome them in their lives],

to those who believed in His name,

He gave the right [authorization] to become children of God”

John 1:12

“I will sing of the mercies of the Lord forever,

I will sing, I will sing,

I will sing of the mercies of the Lord forever,

With my mouth will I make known

Thy faithfulness, Thy faithfulness,

With my mouth will I make known

Thy faithfulness to all generations”

James Henry Fillmore 1849-1936.

1 John 3:2 Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like him [in love], for we shall see him as he is [as a Father who loves us].

3:2 Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.

Dear Friends

       Near the beginning of John’s letter he called them his “dear children” (1 John 2:1). Which was in reference to John’s influence who led them to have faith in Christ. By Sharing what his “eyes” and “hands” had seen and known as a friend, Jesus Christ.  

       Dear friends, was John’s way of acknowledging that their relationship is more than just teacher to student. He considers them his dear-close friends. John is following the example of Jesus who called his disciples friends, saying “I have called you friends” (John 15:15). Meaning that Jesus made himself available to his disciples a friendship that needed no reason, no introduction, to come to Him. They could call on him, almost at any time, as one would to an old friend, known from school days.  

Mature gospel teachers will look upon their students as their friends.

  Mature gospel leaders will share trust and responsibility with those in their fellowship. Jesus shared leadership with is disciples, permitting them to make their own decisions, while living in faith. Jesus speaking to Peter as a representative of all His Apostles declared, “I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven” (Matt 16:19).

Dear Friends—Now we Know That We Are the Children of God

       John is not doubtful, not questioning, as if it were nearly impossible. No, John writes with certainty, absolute conviction. As an apostle, one who knew Jesus on a daily personal first name bases, what he says carries weight far above any other teacher in the past centuries.

       John says, since we have come to know, to realize, God’s “lavished” love for us. We have also come to know that God has made us His Children. Love from God to us, brings a response from us that we love God, yes, we do. It carries a divinely given impression that we are very special to God, special friends, close friends. Close enough to use between each family names.

       One day “the mother of Zebedee’s sons came to Jesus with her sons and, kneeling down, asked a favor of him. “What is it you want?” he asked. She said, “Grant that one of these two sons of mine may sit at your right and the other at your left in your kingdom” (Matt 20:20-22). Notice the friendly response Jesus gave to this mother; “What can I do for you?”

Dear Friends—We Shall Be Like Him, for “God is Spirit” (John 4:24)

       Now, we know something for sure. We know because of the “great love” that “the Father has lavished on us” (1 John 3:1)—this love is given for a purpose. Someday we will be like “God”, who “is Spirit” (John 4:24), we will be like Him, as He is.  Like the “angels” who are “ministering spirits sent to serve those who will inherit salvation” (Heb 1:14). This will give God’s children an existence that is not chained to gravity. They will have space travel with no limitation.

Dear Friends—We Shall Be Like Him, for “God is Love” (1 John 4:16)

       The Law is the means that God use to convict us of sin, “for through the law comes the knowledge of sin” (Rom 3:21). John does not use the Law to make us complete, instead it was the love of God living in us. John says, “If we love one another, God lives in and His love is made complete in us” (1 John 4:12).

       John shows us a God of love, prepared to live in us. So that we can “live in love, live in God and God in us” (1 John 4:8,16) and “if we love one another, God [does] lives in us and his love is made complete in us” (1 John 4:12).

The Torah called Israel to obey its Laws, decrees and commandments. Now that the love of God has been revealed in His Son—we are privileged to have God’s love dwell in us through means of the Spirit for “the Spirit gives life”, unlike the Law which “was engraved in letters on stone” (2 Cor 3:6,7), not on the heart.

This is what makes us complete, “perfect love drives out fear” so when judgment day comes to earth, we have “no fear” (1 John 4:17,18). Since “God is love” and his “love lives in us”, we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like Him, for we shall see him as he is.

       This love has a purifying effect on us, unlike the Law in the Torah “we become conscious of our sin” (Rom 3:20) but does not give us power for change. God’s love is life changing, giving us “love, joy and peace” (Gal 5:22). For “whoever does not love, does not know God, because God is love” (1 John 4:8).

Not Yet Made Plain

       But what little we do understand, is like the illustration of a blind man feeling the thin tail of the Elephant, from that, estimating its size and weight. John knows there is much more than even he can understand about our resurrected, future heavenly state of being. Whatever our new estate, as children of God we will be. It will be more, much more than we can possibly imagine. But it is good to think about these things and let the Spirit impress on our minds, things that we can’t imagine, from our earth-bound estate. At this moment we see dimly, but when we see Him, it will be “face to face” (1 Cor 13:12), not by faith.

       What is interesting is that there are no different levels of heavenly children of God. The parable of the judgement of the separation between Sheep and Goats, those who helped the hungry and aided the sick, such small unselfish deeds, are given the full pledged entrance and perfect right to be children of God in heaven. Jesus said, “Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world” (Matt 25:34). We love the expression “come,” as if God’s hands and arms are waving us to come forward, when we are slightly hesitant to enter into such a glorious New Jerusalem City.

When Christ Appears on Earth—We Shall be Like Him

       This thought carries two ideas.

  First at the Second Coming Jesus promised, “I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am” (John 14:3).  A change takes place in us, our physical bodies become “imperishable” (1 Cor 15:43). With our new “spiritual bodies” (1 Cor 15:44) we will be able to look upon God and give and receive of His love. We will live in a different dimension of existence, where nothing will be impossible and everything will be possible.

   Paul says “in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality. When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality… And just as we have borne the image of the earthly man, so shall we bear the image of the heavenly man. (1 Cor 15:52,53,49). Which is love.

  The character of the redeemed, our bearing, our stature, our similar physical traits, will bear a likeness to our “King of Glory” (Ps 24:7,8). From “God our Father” (Rom 1:7), we all bear similar family traits, we are like our God and Father, making all the redeemed part of a larger family, like brothers and sisters. All with love for our Father and one another. An environment where there is no pride that oppress others,  for “the Lord detests all the proud of heart” (Prov 16:5). There will be not hate, even the very thought of unkindness to another will not be thought of.  

       Second, at the Second Coming of Jesus, John says, we will be like Him. This is the reason why John is writing this letter. In summery he says, “Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love” (John 4:8). And again, “If we love one another, God lives in us and His love is made complete in us…This is how love is made complete among us, so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment” (1 John 4:12,17).

  Those who are ready for Him when Christ appears, “in clouds with great power and glory” (Mk 13:26), they have already learned about love. They love to practice love, to give love, to share love, to offer love, to be generous with love and “to do good, to be rich in good deeds, and to be generous and willing to share” (1 Tim 6:18). To “practice hospitality” (Rom 12:13). As Paul told the Ephesian elders, “we must help the weak, remembering the words of the Lord Jesus Himself: ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive’” (Acts 20:35).

Jesus paid it all, All to Him I owe;

Sin had left a crimson stain, He washed it white as snow.

For nothing good have I, Where-by Thy grace to claim;

I’ll wash my garments white, In the blood of Calv’ry’s Lamb.

And when, before the throne, I stand in Him complete,

“Jesus died my soul to save,”

My lips shall still repeat. Jesus paid it all.

Author: Elvina M. Hall (1865)

May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless

at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ

1 Thee 5:23

1 John 3:3 All who have this hope in him purify themselves, just as he is pure. NIV

 3:3 And everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself [yourself], just as He is pure. NKJV

The Text

       This verse should be seen in connection with the proceeding verse. Which affirms that we are really, right now, “children of God.” In God’s eyes. In the reality of God knowing all things, even our future. Thus, while here on earth we are honored to strive to purify ourselves, made possible because we are God’s children. Thus we wish to be like God who “is light, in him there is no darkness at all” (1 John 1:5). No darkness, no hate coming from God. This is our future hope of entering into our Father’s presence and seeing him. We are only able to do this because we have been fathered by God, being “Born of God” (1 John 3:9), while still on earth.

  This gives understanding of what John declared earlier, “My dear children, I write this” these things, “that you will not sin” (1 John 2:1). To not sin, points to a process of progressively seeking and wanting and praying to be pure minded. To be “pure in heart” (Matt 5:8) and honest in all our affairs. To love others that do not love us, that do not care much about us.

  The word purify is in reference to looking at God and looking to be like Him, just as He is pure. As we look, study, and meditate on the life and commands of Jesus, as that of His Apostles. Later John simply says, “No one has ever seen God, but if we love one another, God lives in them, and His love is made complete in us” (1 John 3:12). This is the work of purifying ourselves that John spends the rest of the chapter explaining what this means.

This Hope

       The word hope always looks to the future, were we “see God as He is,” as in the last verse. The word trust is developed over time because of the faithfulness of God and love us. “Your love, Lord, reaches to the heavens, your faithfulness to the skies [heavens]” (Ps 36:5). The word faith most often looks to God, to the cross, to the promises, to Scriptures, to prayer for the present moment in time. Faith grows in strength as because we see God moving in our lives and come to trust Him, with greater faith. Faith uses hope, in viewing the promises of God as already fulfilled, in the future. Faith and hope and trust give us rest, “He makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside quiet waters, he refreshes my soul” (Ps 23).

       John knows his dear children have vibrant hope. With a clear vision they see Christ when “he appears” in full color hope. Thus he wants them to watch themselves, as Jesus said, “Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak” (Matt 26:41).

Purify Yourself—Double Minded

       James is blunter than John, saying “purify your hearts, you double-minded” (James 4:8). Which refers to those who wish to be followers of Jesus, but at the same time don’t want to be out of step with the customs of the day. They want two things at the same time: They want to be devoted to God while they want to follow the “desires of the flesh” (1 John 2:16).

Purify Yourself—Examine Yourself

       Paul advises the church that “Everyone ought to examine themselves before they eat of the bread and drink from the cup” (1 Cor 11:28). Since the communion cup is a symbol of the blood of Christ, where we receive forgiveness, where we are “justified freely by his grace” (Rom 3:24). Paul would have believers, before they take communion to examine their life.  Does their conscience remind them of a neglected duty, a dwindling interest in serious Scripture study, a known compromising sin, a failure to pray and an over devotion to sports that has taken them further from a pure heart. Our external worship is to flow from our internal purity.

       John wishes his dear friends to be faithful, be consistent, be diligent in self-examination to God in prayer, often with Scriptures open. Without this, daily confession and prayer for the Spirit to dwell in them, to listen to our attitudes and feelings of jealousy, pride or abuse of power and authority, it will be impossible to be pure.

Purify Yourself—Through the Word of Truth

       In the longest prayer of Jesus praying to His Father, for the believers that will follow him, he said, “Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth” (John 17:17). The truth is about who Jesus is, his message and why He came to into this world (See John 17:8). We are only able to see our sins, to see our need to confess and forsake specific sins—only because we are daily listening to Jesus and his Apostles. Or we will be blind to them.

       Our “hope of eternal life, which God, who does not lie, promised before the beginning of time (Titus 1:2), is closely related to devotion to Scriptures and their study. Not for a Ph.D., for honor and high place among others, but ourselves. For our needs. For our edification. For our heart. For growth in our spiritual strength. To satisfy our spiritual hunger. Then in turn to help many others, to better know God through our testimony of what we have come to know as the “word of truth” (2 Tim 2:15; James 1:8).

Purify Yourself—Through the Holy Spirit

       John has already written about the Ministry of the Spirit. In the second chapter we are “anointed by the Holy One.” This anointing is the same as the Holy Spirit which Jesus called “another Helper, that He may abide with you forever” (John 14:16 NKJV).

  This anointing is educational, for John affirms that “because they [John’s Dear Children] know the truth” and have received the anointing, “you do not need anyone to teach you.” Because “His anointing teaches you about all things.”

This anointing is also very emotional. When “He [God] lives in us” (1 John 3:24), we will be negative or grumpy. We will not be hard to get along with, snappy and irritable. But filled with more “joy” (1 John 1:4). John describes the effect of our anointing, “If we love one another, God lives in us…This is how we know that we live in him…He has given us of His Spirit” (1 John 4:12,13)

       It is not possible to be pure just as He is pure, without the Spirit. Paul says we are “sanctified by the Holy Spirit” (Rom 15:16), which is a work of purification in our lives. To the believers in Thessalonica he wrote, “We ought always to thank God for you, brothers and sisters loved by the Lord, because God chose you as first fruits to be saved through the sanctifying work of the Spirit and through belief in the truth” (2 Thess 2:13).

Peter says, “through the sanctifying work of the Spirit, to be obedient to Jesus Christ and sprinkled with his blood” (1 Pet 1:2). It is by the influence of the Spirit, that we are enabled to be obedient to what Jesus has given to us.

Purify Yourself—a Deeper Inside Cleansing

  It is through the work of the Spirit, speaking through the Word and our conscience, which holds to the authority of Scriptures. The Spirit will bring to our awareness issues that need our attention, our confession in prayer.  ONE by ONE. Listing just a few examples:

·       Lust of the flesh—sexual fantasies that is in itself adultery

·       Darkness of anger against others

·       Jealousy over what others have, and we don’t have.

·       Power and control that we have abused in domination of others.

·       Others we have offended by unkind words or neglect.

·       Failure to love others, reach out to them, as God has loved us first

·       The sin of rejoicing over the fall of others, we think they deserve.

·       Pride of life, feeling we are better than others and they should know it

·       Pride in ourselves, in our eyes, feeling we have more natural beauty than others

·       Pride in our wealth, or our homes, our boats, our vacations, all for ourselves.

·       Pride in our sharp tongue, which puts others in their place, that we feel is well deserved

·       Drawing attention to our goodness or generous deeds for praise, for they “have no reward from your Father in heaven” (Matt 6:1)

·       Wasted time in foolishness that could be better spent then hours watching media and movies

·       Abuse of power and position to favor some above others, unfairly

·       Abuse of position that centralizes power in just their hands

·       Plus many more than can be counted.

Purify Yourself—Even as He is Pure

       In the life of Christ His purity is seen in his ethical teaching such as the Sermon of the Mount and the lessons he taught when he ordained the Apostles in Luke 6.

       In the life of Christ His purity is seen in his compassion and self-giving service to others. 

       Most Christians today are devoted to a church or a congregation. This has many advantages because it keeps us engaged with other believers and holds us accountable to a standard. Hermits do not make good Christians.

  Yet, all must be careful they are NOT devoted to a church, to its unique teachings and its doctrinal demands, as if it was the Word of God. Our primary devotion is to be pure as Jesus has taught us what this means. Some congregations add or neglect the teachings of Jesus in favor of their approved doctrines.

  Paul was alarmed how fast the Galatians group gave up their faith as they listened to false teachers. He told them in strong language, “You foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you?... Are you so foolish? After beginning by means of the Spirit, are you now trying to finish by means of the flesh?” (Gal 3:1,3). They were persuaded that faith was not adequate, for forgiveness, without first obeying the Torah. Paul had to clearly repeat the truth to them again saying, “Clearly no one who relies on the law is justified before God, because ‘the righteous will live by faith’” (Gal 3:11).

  Here's the point not to be missed. The faith that leads us to be ready “when Christ appears” (1 John 3:2), must be focused on Christ as, “the way, and the truth and the life” (John 14:6).  

  Be cautious not to accept what a person of authority claims to be the truth. Check it carefully with Scriptures alone. Don’t trust your feelings as to what is right or wrong. It is easy, very easy to be misled. Jesus has warned us, be careful, because deception’s can be so good “to deceive, if possible, even the elect” (Matt 24:24).

   Almost all deceptions, substitute other things, some testing truth, a religious belief, for what Jesus and His apostles taught. Through the power of the claims of religious authority, social influence, church publications and books, which hold up their history as evidence of God’s presence with them. Jesus said, “Their worship is a farce, for they teach man-made ideas as commands from God” (Matt 15:9 NLT).

“May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through.

“But you were washed, you were sanctified,

you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ

and by the Spirit of our God” (1Cor 6:11)

1 John 3:4 Everyone who sins [anomia] breaks the law [anomian]; in fact, sin is lawlessness [anomia]. NIV

       3:4 Whoever commits sin also commits lawlessness, and sin is lawlessness. NKJV

3:4 Everyone who practices sin also practices lawlessness; indeed, sin is lawlessness. NET Bible

3:4 Everyone committing sin also commits lawlessness; and sin is lawlessness.  Berean Literal Bible

3:4 Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the law: for sin is the transgression of the law. KJV

Sin is Lawlessness

        The word “law” is added to the text, of the KJV and NIV. In this letter John never used the word “law” as defined as the laws of God in the Torah. John had a wider application than just Moral Law of the 10 Commandments. The context and flow of this passage, after the above instruction that we should “purify ourselves as Christ is pure”; is to not to practice any form of lawlessness in your home, your office, your free time or in your position which may allow you to violate ethical standards to advantage yourself. Such actions, however, we may wish to justify them, are sinful. 

  Lawlessness is doing what you want to do with no love. Instead of jealousy, hatred and selfishness. Lawless deeds are any words and actions that are rebellious against authority, against the right to life and property of another. 

As Paul has written “Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves” (Phil 2:3). The “vain conceit” Paul is talking about is seen in arrogance, pride, rivalry, contention, boasting and striving to get your own advantage over others. All these things, plus many more, are to be seen as various forms of lawlessness.

  The solution to these sins is to be “born of God and know God” because “love comes from God” and thus we will “love one another” (1 John 4:7). John will speak much more about love in the forth chapter.

The Text

       In the flow of the preceding sentences, John has told us about the love of God that has made us His children. This hope of being in God’s presence, places desires inside our hearts to pure in our actions, as He is pure. One way we can maintain purity, is not to be rebellions against the government and laws that make for peace.

Lawlessness as Civil Disobedience

  Paul did not give believers any allowance to pursue civil disobedience. He wrote to Rome, “whoever rebels against the authority is rebelling against what God has instituted, and those who do so will bring judgment on themselves” (Rom 13:2). Lawlessness is being in rebellion with the laws of the state and government that are in place for the safety of all. We should not be part of any form of civil disobedience, following the example of Jesus and the Apostles. To not be involved in marching down the street defiant against the police.

  Jesus has set the example for us. “God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and power, and how he went around doing good” (Acts 10:38). Paul writes to believers, “And as for you, brothers and sisters, never tire of doing what is good” (2 Thess 2:13).

  The focus on doing good is the opposite of lawlessness. “Those who have trusted in God may be careful to devote themselves to doing what is good” (Titus 3:8). Doing good is more expansive than just keeping the Ten Commandments of Exodus 20 and Deuteronomy 5. The Commandments are basic and fundamental, yet inadequate in terms of the many ways that love can do good to others. 

Jesus Taught Social Justice that was Peaceful and Non-Violent

  Those seeking to have a “pure heart, and of a good conscience” (1 Tim 1:5), will follow the example of Jesus, who never spoke disrespectable about Rome. Although they were evil. Although they were responsible for countless acts of violence, slavery of innocents, with little restraint for sexual abuse for the sake of pleasure. They were brutal, by force of arm, conquerors of the whole world, by the power of their military. They could sack whole cities, take it free citizens into slavery, for personal abuse and for profit, all under the authority and approval of Rome.

  If anyone had any reason to rise up and take part of civil crimes against a corrupt government, it was Jesus who was living under the abuse of Roman Power. The social justice Jesus taught in the Sermon on the Mount, does not permit any form of uprising resulting in violence against civil, governmental laws creating a spirit of lawlessness. He taught “But I tell you, do not resist an evil person” (Matt 5:39), in retaliation. And “I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you” (Matt 5:44). “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God” (Matt 5:9).

  At the trial of Jesus, Pilate asked Jesus if he were a king, Jesus answered, “My kingdom is not of this world. If it were, my servants would fight to prevent my arrest by the Jewish leaders. But now my kingdom is from another place” (John 18:36).

  He did not go to the Roman government demanding individuals have equal rights, opportunities, and treatment. In some governments that are friendly this can be a blessing to many and is an act of loving our neighbor. Martin Luther King Jr. is an example of non-violent protest to injustice. “Pursue peace with all people, and holiness, without which no one will see the Lord” (Heb 12:14 NKJV). Notice that peaceful living is part of living a holy life. .

  To those who demanding political action with critical and harsh language, to change the government should instead learn from the example of Jesus who taught the polar opposite of lawlessness saying, “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God” (Matt 5:9)

Whoever would love life and see good days

must keep their tongue from evil and their lips from deceitful speech.

They must turn from evil [lawlessness] and do good; they must seek peace and pursue it.

For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous and his ears are attentive to their prayer,

but the face of the Lord is against those who do evil.

1 Pet 3:10-12

Let us therefore make every effort

 to do what leads to peace and to mutual edification.

Rom 14:19

Whoever of you loves life and desires to see many good days,

keep your tongue from evil and your lips from telling lies.

Turn from evil and do good; seek peace and pursue it.

Ps 34:12-14

Revenge and Hate is Lawlessness

  Paul repeats Jesus commands: “Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse” (Rom 12:14). And “Make sure that nobody pays back wrong for wrong but always strive to do what is good for each other and for everyone else” (1 Thess 5:15).

Peter repeats Jesus commands: “Do not repay evil with evil or insult with insult. On the contrary, repay evil with blessing, because to this you were called so that you may inherit a blessing” (1 Pet 3:9).

Show Respect to Civil Laws

        Jesus gave us an example of paying taxes with the now famous statement: “Render therefore unto Caesar the things which be Caesar's, and unto God the things which be God's” (KJV). The Lawless will look to avoid paying taxes, whenever possible.

“Keeping a close watch on him, they sent spies, who pretended to be sincere. They hoped to catch Jesus in something he said, so that they might hand him over to the power and authority of the governor.  So the spies questioned him: “Teacher, we know that you speak and teach what is right, and that you do not show partiality but teach the way of God in accordance with the truth.  Is it right for us to pay taxes to Caesar or not?” He saw through their duplicity and said to them, “Show me a denarius. Whose image and inscription are on it?” “Caesar’s,” they replied. He said to them, “Then give back to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God what is God’s.”  They were unable to trap him in what he had said there in public. And astonished by his answer, they became silent. Lk 20:20-26).

Advice to Titus, Living within the Law of Doing Good

  Paul wrote, “Remind the people to be subject to rulers and authorities, to be obedient, to be ready to do whatever is good, to slander no one, to be peaceable and considerate and always to be gentle [humble] toward everyone” (Titus 3:1-3).

Gentleness means to be mild, reasonable, moderate and forbearing. Paul wrote, “Let your gentleness be clear to all. The Lord is near” (Phil 4:5).

       “Rulers and authorities” stand for, presidents, governors and police. Believers were to be “subject to them” meaning to be in compliance with taxes, highway speed laws, to respect police, firemen and other civil leaders that direct orderly society.

  A Christian should be ready to do good as far as he is able. Ready to aid lawful authority, in their public works undertaken for city or state. A true Christian ought to be known as a good citizen and a devoted patriot.

The lawless rebel that hates authority, their leaders, the police and its government. The lawless will hate another political party and will take to the streets in riots to get their point across. Overall, a believer will not rebel against their authority or encourage others to do so.

  A believer is not to hurt the reputation of civil authorities, such as mocking them in public speeches. They were to slander no one. “Whoever rebel against the authority is rebelling against what God has instituted, and those who do so will bring judgment on themselves” (Rom 13:2). “It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God” (Heb 10:31).

“But the wisdom that comes from heaven is first of all pure; then peace-loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial and sincere.”

James 3:17

Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven,

and whose sins are covered.”

Rom 4:7

1 John 3:5 But you know that He appeared [on earth] so that he might take away our sins. And in him [there] is no sin NIV

3:5 And you know that He was manifested to take away our sins, and in Him there is no sin. NKJV

First Consideration

       At the beginning of John’s letter he specially told us twice that no one can “claim to be without sin” neither can anyone claim to have “not sinned” (1 John 1:8,10). Thus we must never claim any form of perfectionism. It can only lead to pride and self-sufficiency, ending with a self-focused life rather than a Christ-centered life.

Yet in the very next breath John has told us that he was “writing” this “letter” for the purpose that we “will not sin.” Because we have and “advocate with the Father” and Christ has become the “atoning sacrifice for our sins” (1 John 2:1,2). As we look upon the cross of Christ, we are changed, renewed and born again, so that we want to “live a new life” (Rom 6:4), in Christ Jesus.

  The Apostle John included himself as a sinner in need of confession. “If anyone does sin—WE have an advocate…He is the atoning sacrifice for OUR sins, and not only OUR sins…” John did not exclude himself as a sinner in need of an advocate with the Father. John also includes himself saying “if WE claim to be without sin…WE claim WE have not sinned…” (1 John 1:8-10). John would be dismayed if anyone would conclude that he is teaching sinless living.

  Peter had the same attitude as John, they were sinners, when he saw Jesus filled two boats with fish. Even the fish obeyed his word and came into the net, gathering more fish than a month fishing. “When Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus’ knees, saying, ‘Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord!’” (Lk 5:8). All the disciples recognized that the very words of Jesus had creative power, with a holiness that was helpful to human need, about Him, which was impossible for any human to possess.

  Those who follow Christ, will always be humble and never view themselves as other than sinners, always in need of mercy. Always, wanting to “purify themselves just as He is pure” (1 John 5:3). Their focus is not on themselves, their focus is on Christ, “as He is pure.”

He Appeared

       But you know, this is the truth, John’s children knew this for sure. That the whole purpose of Jesus life, death and resurrection, was to take away our sins. He alone can do this, because He is the “Word of Life” (1 John 1:1) and has in His nature “eternal life” (1 John 1:2). Now this man “has appeared to us” (1 John 1:2), for in his life there was no sin. For the very “reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil’s work” (1 John 3:8). For the Devil was first guilty of any sin, then spreading it to earth.

  The only way possible for our sins to be taken away, or removed and forsaken. Is by looking at Jesus, the one that has appeared to the world, with no sin.

He Who Appeared, Transforms Us

  Paul writes, “Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And we all [everyone], who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord’s glory [Christ], are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit” (2 Cor 3:17,18).

  This transformation is the work of the Spirit of the Lord. It is not that we transform ourselves. The glory that transforms us is by the contemplation of “Jesus Christ our Lord” (Rom 1:4). Without looking at Him, we would never ever see our sins, see that their steps lead us to hell.

1—To Take Away Our Sins

  Jesus came so that we could know what sin is, by looking at his sinless life. As we “behold the man” (John 19:5 NKJV), Jesus Christ. “We know that this man really is the Savior of the world” (John 4:42). Thus we want to respond to the invitation “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest” (Matt 11:28), to be forgiven, to have your guilt removed; to your restlessness you are given peace. To “put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator… Christ is all and is in all” (Col 3:10,11).

  To be “born of the Spirit” (John 3:6), to put on the new self by being born again. This is what it means to live a sinless life. It means to every day, though throughout the day, we pray to have our sin forgiven, and not to be led into temptation. As the results we are given new desires to not continue in those sins.

Sin is a very wide and long word. Meaning many things. It includes our bad thoughts that are not expressed. Even a look of disgust, an impatient word, a thoughtless act, a neglect of someone in need, a failure to study and pray as we should, a selfish act, an intemperance in foods we eat or a of failure to speak of your love for God to a neighbor. Plus more things then we can name.

  Our sinlessness is in the eyes of God who is full of grace and mercy, “not counting people’s sins against” (2 Cor 5:19) us, this does not mean we have no sins. We do, but “Just as in Christ, God forgave you” (Eph 4:32).

Seeking the Will of God

   To be sinful, is to live without confession, without repentance, without caring what the will of God is for you. There are basic moral principles that we know what the will of God is, such as not to commit adultery, to steal and to bear false witness or lie. However in the many challenges of life, the choices we confronted with, knowing the proper timing for an event: we don’t know the will of God. Jesus gave us the Lord’s Prayer as a model “your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven” (Matt 6:10).

  It is wise to pray to know God’s will throughout our day. Sometimes we will need to wait for God to reveal it. When He does you will know what to do. Another thing to remember, don’t be demanding that God answer your prayer in the way you passionately pray for it. It is wiser to stop your demanding prayer and seek to know God’s will. It should not surprise us that most of the time we really don’t know how best to go ahead. Unless we pridefully think we are right and God a course would agree with us. In humility we should admit this truth: “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the Lord” (Isa 55:8).

  Our will, unless guided by the God, often leads to mistakes that are costly. To act without prayer to know God’s will, we can fall in the “trap of the devil, who has taken them [us] captive to do his will” (2 Tim 2:26). The thought of doing Satan’s will is frightening, for his will lead us into sin.

God’s Forgiveness is Dynamic

 Christ has appeared so that He might take away our sins. For God, forgiveness is teamed with the love of God for us.  This is dynamic. It becomes the greatest purifying element that is brought into our hearts. God’s grace of love influences everything. Our thoughts and outlooks on life, our families and our responsibility we have to carry. For we do not want to rely “on worldly wisdom but on God’s grace” (1 Cor 1:12).

  What a privilege to “approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need” (Heb 4:16).

2—To Take Away our Sins

  This means to free humanity from the love and desire to sin that will send every one of us “outside” the kingdom of God, “into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth” (Matt 22:13). Like “those who go down to the pit” (Ps 143:7).

  God is calling you, right now John is telling you that you can look to Jesus, and he will take away all your sins and the desire to hold on to your them as treasured pleasures. He will take them away forever when “He will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him” (Heb 9:28). And what a salvation that will be. There will be a huge wedding where you with “a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and before the Lamb. They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands. And they cried out in a loud voice: “Salvation belongs to our God, who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb” (Rev 7:9,10).

       This is the absolute truth. Are you ready to say, Yes Lord I believe.

Jesus stood up in front of large crowd of people looking and asked a question.

Woman, where are all the men that were accusing you?

There is no one here condemning you. “No one, sir,” she said.

“Then neither do I condemn you,” Jesus declared. “Go now and leave your life of sin.”

John 8:11

“For I will forgive their wickedness and

will remember their sins no more”

Heb 8:12

“I, yes I, am He who blots out your transgressions

for My own sake and remembers your sins no more.”

 Isa 43:25

Who is a God like you, who pardons sin and forgives the transgression

And delights to show mercy.

Micah 7:18

“You who answer prayer, to you all people will come.

When we were overwhelmed by sins,

you forgave our transgressions.”

Ps 65:2,3

1 John 3:6 No one who lives [abides] in him [Christ] keeps on sinning. No one who continues to sin has either seen him or known him. NIV

3:6 Whoever abides in Him does not sin. Whoever sins has neither seen Him nor known Him. NKJV

3:6 Everyone who resides in him does not sin; everyone who sins has neither seen him nor known him. NET Bible

3:6 Anyone abiding in Him does not sin; anyone sinning has not seen Him, nor has he known Him. Berean Literal Bible

3:6 Whoever remains in him does not sin. Whoever sins hasn't seen him, neither knows him. New Heart English Bible

The Text

       The English NIV has added to the Greek text several expressions. First “keeps on sinning” and second "continues to sin.” The Greek simply says, those who abide in Christ, do not sin and those who do not know Jesus, which is do not abide in Him, have not seen him, they continue to sin. Since John has already denied the possibility of perfection or boasting that one does not sin anymore (1 John 1:8,10), the NIV translators have poorly translated John’s stark and simple text. Which is better left just the way John said it.

The Text: A Contrast

  John’s words have created a sharp contrast, a clear distinction between two groups of people. So, we can ask ourselves which group are we in? John’s words are emphatic and certain. The contrast is the point John is making. The idea of this passage is to give us a distinction between two groups.

The Text: What it means

       John is referring to what we in the English language know as addictions. For example if a person had an addicting habit of swearing and cursing. If the person is abiding by faith in Christ, they will cease to curse and hate their former habit. They will thank God for the victory and find enjoyment in pure speech. Their “conversation [will] be always full of grace” (Col 4:6), for “if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed” (John 8:36). You will know that you are free and over time cannot imagine ever going backwards into their old habit of cursing.

       They cease their old habits of lust or their authoritarian ways because they are in Christ. In that relationship the old habits lose their control. But more, these formerly engrained habits are kicked out of their lives. Thus they do not sin, in that way anymore. But more, neither do they want to.

1st Group of Believers, Are Declared Right Before God

  Those abiding, living or residing in Christ—do not sin. Why? Because they “serve in the new way of the Spirit” (Rom 7:6) while they are abiding in Christ.

  Those abiding in Christ, “there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” (Rom 8:1). In Greek the word NO means “no one, none, not even one.”  There is NO, now NO condemnation, nor will there ever be for those in Christ Jesus.

  There is no reason or cause for the believer to be judged and condemned. There is no damnation hanging over their heads, while in Christ. It is not because they are sanctified or perfect people, who do not make any more mistakes. It is because they are “justified by faith” (Rom 3:28) while they are abiding In Christ Jesus. Jesus said, “Most assuredly, I say to you, he who hears My word and believes in Him who sent Me has everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment, but has passed from death into life” (John 5:24).

  Now nobody can accuse them because God has justified them: “Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies” (Rom 8:33).

1st Group of Believers: Live by Faith

  The above, is not a complete picture of abiding in Christ. For it is personal, it is daily, it is supported by much prayer, with Scriptures always close at hand. Believers, when they first come to Christ, have many things to learn and much room to grow. Yet God accepts them, just as they are. They could drink alcohol to excess, curse too often, self-centered since childhood or have entitled feelings and habits. As the Spirit of God points a specific sinful habit, by prayer, confession, repentance and faith—God gives victory, thus it can be said, anyone abiding in Him does not sin.

  Later in this letter John says, “For everyone that is born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith” (1 John 5:4). Overcoming the world is, its influences to do evil, does not hold control of the one who lives [abides, dwells] in Him” Christ Jesus by faith, thus it can be said, anyone abiding in Him does not sin.

God’s Spirit VS the Authority of Sin Over Our Lives

       John has already introduced us to the power of the Spirit in the “anointing from the Holy One” (1 John 2:20). At the end of this chapter John teaches us that we live “in Him [God] and He in” us, “and this is how we known that He [God] lives in us: We know it by the Spirit that He [God] gave us” (1 John 3:24). “The One [God’s Spirit] who is in you is greater [in power, in authority] then the one [evil one] that is in the world” (1 John 4:4).

  Listen to what Paul teaches us: “through Christ Jesus the law [authority] of the Spirit who gives life has set you free from the law [authority] of sin and death” (Rom 8:3). The Spirit defeats the all-powerful authority the sinful habits that have claimed us.

  But more the Spirit defeats death, because we are united to God, death will have no permanent hold on us. “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die; and whoever lives by believing in me will never die” (John 11:25,26).

  The expression “law of sin and death” stands for the strong corrupt power of sin inside the believer. That comes from our rebellious nature that dwells inside our heart and creates desires to sin, by birthright.

  The expression “Spirit who gives life” is a life-giving Spirit. It means that the Spirit brings into us a new power, new birth, a new direction in our lives.  When God’s Spirit comes into a believer, they find a new power within that brings the defeat of sin and liberation from the habits of sin. “If anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!” (2 Cor 5:17).

  They are given a new internal force of life that brings desires to possess love and goodness and holiness, the very opposite of wanting to sin.

2nd Group of Believers

  Those who do not know Christ, have not really seen him—are sinning, all the time. Why? Because they are not abiding in Christ, where they receive “the Spirit,” whereby they know how to “love” (1 John 3:23,24). “Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love” (1 John 4:8). “He who does not love his brother abides in death” (1 John 3:14) and “the wages of sin is death” (Rom 6:23).

  Those not abiding in Christ can’t admit a mistake. They hide it, they deny it or blame it on something else or someone else. This will lead to darkness with a strong possibility of being “blinded” by “darkness” (1 John 2:11), which is perfect darkness. This is the condition where they feel justified in their misdeeds, with nothing to confess to God or others, because they can’t see Him or know Him.

Those Who Abide in Christ: “Do(es) Not Sin”

  The word sin should be regarded as sin in a general sense. As the believer in Christ live their lives, in Him, daily they pray the Lord’s prayer. Saying, “Forgive us our debts” that we owe God because our sins were done against his will, “as we also have forgiven our debtors” those who have wronged us.

  Thus, at this point, forgiven and cleansed (1 John 1:9) given new desires not to repeat the sin they just confessed, they are not living in sin. They are “justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus” (Rom 3:24). And “Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ” (Rom 5:1).

  Forgiveness from God, is not given due our sinlessness. For if “Abraham was justified by works, he had something to boast about—but not before God.” (Rom 4:2). Works do not justify anyone. Works is anything that we do in obedience to God, is never a reason for justification.

Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the Law

but through faith in Christ Jesus,

even we have believed in Christ Jesus,

so that we may be justified by faith in Christ and

not by the works of the Law;

since by the works of the Law no flesh will be justified

Gal 3:16 NAS

       Following justification received at the cross, which bring to us, total forgiveness of all our sins solely due to the merits and blood of Christ. We are given the Holy Spirit. But more much more, the “love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us” (Rom 5:5). “Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love” (1 John 4:8).

Whoever Sins, Does Not Know God.

       Living in sin is not confessing sins, not recognizing sin as sin and excusing sin. It is justifying sin and ignoring sin as little or of no importance. Sinning is the direct result of not knowing Jesus Christ, who came to this earth “that he might take away sins” (1 John 3:5).

       When we are abiding in Christ, our focus will not be on the Hebrew Sanctuary, even the 10 Commandments or the Torah. Instead, our major emphasis will be on the life and teaching of Jesus and of his chosen apostles. As Jesus said to them, “you also” along with the Spirit “must testify, for you have been with me from the beginning” (John 15:27).

Abiding in Christ

       In the Gospel of John, chapters 14-16, John recounts the conversation of Jesus on the ministry of the Holy Spirit. Given to the disciples, hours before his trial in the Sanhedrin. One of many of the passages, is about the promised Holy Spirit, called the “Spirit of Truth”. Whose role is to reveal Jesus to us, who is the truth.

  Jesus said about the Spirit, “The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives [abides] with you and will be [live] in you” (John 14:17). John borrows this word “abide,” which Jesus used to describe the work of the Holy Spirit.

       The Greek word for “in” is a primary preposition denoting a fixed position in place, time or state, which is inside us. For example, it is recorded that “Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea” (Matt 2:1).

       The Spirit is to be in you, that is inside you. The Spirit’s operation is from not the outside, but from the inside of us. Because we can’t see the Spirit, we are privileged to sense His presence, which brings the presence of God the Father and His Son Jesus Christ.

To Abide in Christ,

  To “abide”, “live”, “reside” or “remain” in Christ through the means of the Spirit. Brings to us His continued present, with unbroken fellowship. Jesus expressed these abiding experiences in the parable of the Vine and Branches, saying, “Abide in Me, and I in you” (John 15:4 NKJV). Later John expresses this experience as being “Born of God” (1 John 3:9).

To Not Abide or Remain in Christ,

  It means to depart from the “narrow” “way” that “leads to life” (Matt 7:14). To stubbornly walk contrary to the will of God for their lives.

John  uses three English words “abide,” “remains,” “continues” or “lives in” us, they all teach the same concept: Through the ministry of the Spirit, we are placed in Christ Jesus and the Father also dwells in us, “and we will [Father & Son] come to them and make our home with them” (John 14:23)

1)    I write to you, young men, because you are strong, and the word of God lives in you, and you have overcome the evil one. (1:14)

2)    As for you, see that what you have heard from the beginning remains in you. If it does, you will also remain in the Son and in the Father. (2:24)

3)    “The anointing you received from him remains in you, and you do not need anyone to teach you… just as it has taught you, remain in him. (2:27)

4)    And now, dear children, continue in him, so that when he appears we may be confident and unashamed before him at his coming. (2:28)

5)    No one who is born of God will continue to sin, because God’s seed remains in them; they cannot go on sinning, because they have been born of God. (3:9)

6)    Anyone who hates a brother or sister is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life residing in him. (3:15)

7)    The one who keeps God’s commands lives in him, and he in them. And this is how we know that he lives in us: We know it by the Spirit he gave us. (3:24)

8)    No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us. (4:12)

9)    This is how we know that we live in him and he in us: He has given us of his Spirit. (3:13)

10) And so, we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them. (3:16)

11)  No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us. (4:12)

12)  No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us. (4:13)

13)  If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in them and they in God. (4:15)

14)  And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them. (4:16)

15)  Because of the truth, which lives in us and will be with us forever” (2 John 2:2)

16)  Anyone who runs ahead and does not continue in the teaching of Christ does not have God; whoever continues in the teaching has both the Father and the Son. (2 John 9)

17)  To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free” (John 8:31,32)

18)  Look, I come like a thief! Blessed is the one who stays awake and remains clothed, so as not to go naked and be shamefully exposed. (Rev 16:15)

1 John 3:7 Dear children, do not let anyone lead you astray. The one who does what is right [practices] is righteous, just as He [Christ] is righteous. NIV

3:7 Little children, let no one deceive you. He who practices righteousness is righteous, just as He is righteous. NKJV

3:7 Dear children, don’t let anyone deceive you about this: When people do what is right, it shows that they are righteous, even as Christ is righteous. NLT

General Way of Life is to be Tested

The Positive: Do what is right is like Christ (3:7). Because Jesus “appeared so that he might take away our sins” (1 John 3:5). And “we have overcome the evil one” (1 John 2:13,14).

The Negative: Do what is sinful is like the Devil (3:8)

The Text

       Some concepts John is sharing are not easy to grasp. Translators do the best they can, as they try to write an easy-to-understand text. The NIV has a tendency to smooth out the text from its Greek Words, for readability, in the process sometimes they lose some of its meanings.

       The NLT, a well-known paraphrased Bible says, when people do what is right. Meaning in the many situations’ life presents to us. By knowing the will of God, they chose to do the right thing. Not to do evil, not to do harm or not to hate. They what to live their life honorably, private, and public. They know “God is love” and “whoever lives in love, lives in God and God in them” (1 John 4:16). As Paul said, “be courageous; be strong, do everything in love” (1 Cor 16:14). This is the preparation to do what is right, what is the loving thing to do.

       John is writing a very strongly worded expression. The NKJV gives us a better translation. It is the one who practices doing right, over a prolonged period of time, is righteous. Here are some examples. The words in bold are the same Greek word for practice in 1 John 3:7.

1)    When Jesus drove out the priest who had created an active marketplace inside the temple, he said, “Do not make My Father’s house a house of merchandise!” (John 2:16 NKJV). The word “make” is the same Greek word for practice. This was their practice for many years.

2)    The Rabbi Nicodemus said to Jesus, “we know that you are a teacher who has come from God. For no one could perform the signs you are doing if God were not with him” (John 3:2).

3)    “I say to you, whoever commits sin is a slave of sin” (John 8:34).

  John is contrasting two leadership styles. One you can trust while the other you distrust for, they will lead you astray.

First Group:  The one who does what is righteous is like Christ (1 John 3:7)

Second Group: “The one that does want is sinful is of the devil” (1 John 3:8).

Not a Surprising Truth

  We should not be surprised at what John is teaching. It is the way all earnest believers, who love God with all their hearts, this is how they daily live their lives. They really do want to follow Jesus. They really do want “to love one another” (1 John 3:28), they want to practice the Golden Rule, they want more wisdom and understanding of Scriptures, they want to pray and love to pray. They want to honor God in all they do. In this sense they practice righteousness.

  Another thought John is pointing out, the individual actions we make in life, when they are right, true, honest, faithful, loyal to God and our own word of promise to others. They want to “maintain justice and righteousness” (2 Chron 9:8). While we do this, God regards us as righteous.

  For God does the same thing, except in every situation he is righteous. “The Lord is gracious and righteous; our God is full of compassion” (Ps 116:5). To be righteous as God is to it with grace, mercy, love and compassion to others. Sometimes doing what it is right is as simple as being kind as Jesus said: “You will be children of the Most High, because he is kind to the ungrateful and wicked. Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful” (Lk 6:35,36).

A Very Surprising Truth

       John’s easy answer is surprising to us. When we daily pray to do the will of God, even with our flaws and mistakes, when recognized we quickly confess. We are practicing our faith. Now John says that we are righteous, just as he is righteous. This expression is as strong as the Apostle Paul teaches in Romans about Justification by faith: “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus” (Rom 3:23,24). We think that John’s teaching on this is far bolder than Paul’s if that could be possible!

       As we daily put into practice the things we know, from Scriptures—God regards us, how could that be, that’s impossible—as righteous. Even though we know enough about ourselves and freely acknowledge our sinful tendences. When we see our frequent mistakes, we have confessed, we know this is not true at all. But to God, it is true.

  God regards us as righteous as He is, as we set out daily to do the right thing—always with love, mercy, compassion, justice, and truth. We don’t see this at all. We see ourselves as un-righteous and far from being anything like our Master Jesus Christ. But God does hold us in his sight as justified or righteous as “children of the highest” (Lk 6:23).

Don’t be Deceived

       John remembers Jesus words “Watch out that you are not deceived” (Lk 21:8). If anyone teaches, practices, in the name of God, any form of cruelty, hatred, sexual misconduct, injustice, “without love” (2 Tim 3:3) or disregards the poor while making themselves rich—they do not practice righteousness. Don’t be taken in by their claims to be godly men or women.

       They do “what is sinful,” they are from “the devil” (1 John 3:8). They follow the path of the devil that deceives the world. All who follow him will join him when he is “thrown into the lake of burning sulfur” when “They will be tormented day and night for ever and ever” (Rev 20:10). The expression “day and night” indicates the end and finality of the Devil and all his followers, who were deceived to think that practicing evil is good and right.

At The End Those Who Practice Righteousness Will Hear their Welcome Loud and Clear:

Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance,

the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world

Matt 25:34

“I looked, and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and before the Lamb. They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands. And they cried out in a loud voice:

“Salvation belongs to our God,

who sits on the throne,

and to the Lamb”

Rev 7:9-10

In the way of righteousness there is life;

along that path is immortality.

Prov 12:28

The wages of the righteous is life,

    but the earnings of the wicked are sin and death.

Prov 10:16

For the wages of sin is death,

but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Rom 6:23

The path of the righteous is like the first gleam of dawn,

shining brighter and brighter until midday.

Prov 4:18

1 John 3:8 The one who does [practices] what is sinful is of the devil, because the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil’s work. NIV

3:8 He who sins is of the devil, for the devil has [always] sinned from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil. NKJV

3:8 The one who practices sin is of the devil, because the devil has been sinning from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was revealed: to destroy the works of the devil. NET
3:8 Whoever makes a practice of sinning is of the devil, for the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil. ESV

The Text

       Sadly both the NIV and the NKJV fail to render an accurate account of the contrast that John is presenting from the earlier verse. The Greek reads simply; one who practices sin is of the Devil. Which is the opposite the one who “practices righteousness is righteous, just as He is righteous” (1 John 3:7).

• The one who practices sin is like the Devil.

  • The one who practices righteousness is like God.

The practice of righteousness (3:7)—That Honors God

Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with

(1) compassion, (2) kindness, (3) humility,

(4) gentleness and (5) patience. (7) Bear with each other and

forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone.

Forgive as the Lord forgave you [before they ask]

And over all these virtues

(8) put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.

9) Let the peace of Christ [will] rule in your hearts,

since as members of one body you were called to peace.

And (10) be thankful

Col 3:12-14

·       Compassion is deep feeling for someone’s difficulty or misfortune.  It is used by God toward us: “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion [mercies] and the God of all comfort” (2 Cor 1:3)

·       Kindness is seen in helpfulness and caring for others. It is used by God toward us: “In the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus” (Eph 2:7).

·       Humility is opposite is having a humble opinion of oneself, a deep sense of one's littleness.  It is an inside-out virtue produced by comparing ourselves to the Lord rather than to others

Practice of Righteousness (3:7)

The Fruits of the Spirit

(1) love, (2) joy, (3) peace

(4) patience (5) kindness (6) goodness,

(7) faithfulness, (8) gentleness, (9) self-control

Gal 5:22-25 NAS

  These nine fruits are a made available to us by the Spirit, as a gift by God’s grace to us.

These nine fruits are a picture of what it means “to do what is right” (1 John 3:7). It is what sanctification looks like, for we are “sanctified by the Holy Spirit” (Rom 15:16).

  These nine fruits are our outward witness in society as to our inward condition.

These nine fruits take time to grow into our lives. The Spirit makes us aware of our flaws so we can seek God for a change of heart, there will always be need further growth in the garden of our hearts.

The Practice of Sin from our Evil Natures—That is of the Devil

Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature:

(1) sexual immorality, (2) impurity, (3) lust,

(4) evil desires and (5) greed, which is idolatry.

Because of these, the wrath of God is coming.

You used to walk in these ways; in the life you once lived.

But now you must also rid yourselves of all such things as these:

(6) anger, (7) rage, (8) malice,

(9) slander, and (10) filthy language from your lips.

Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator.

Col 3:5-10

  These ten, plus one actions are works of the Devil. “The one who does” these practices does “what is sinful” such actions are “of the devil” (1 John 3:8). This is the reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil’s work.

Overcoming the Devil, the Evil One

       John writes this letter to the “young men” of his fellowship. He does not scold them but complement them. He assures them that they “are strong and the world of God lives [abides] in you, and your have overcome [conquered] the evil one” (1 John 2:14c).

       If our devotions are not based on Scripture, we will be weak as we face the devil. If our devotions are based on popular moves or books that quote a few selected Bible verses, our spiritual life will mostly colorless. Our advice, stay in the Words of God in Scripture.

       Paul the Apostles was not interested in telling us the miracles of his life, in a running biography. Instead, he declared, “I have become its servant [church] by the commission God gave me to present to you the word of God in its fullness” (Col 1:25).

Fifteen Plus Sinful Practices—All from the Devil, His Works

“All who have this hope in Him purity themselves,

just as He is pure” (1 John 3:3)

“The acts of the flesh are obvious:

(1)  sexual immorality, (2) impurity and (3) debauchery

(4) idolatry and (5) witchcraft; (6) hatred,

(7) discord, (8) jealousy, (9) fits of rage,

(10) selfish ambition, (11) dissensions, (12) factions and

(13) envy; (14) drunkenness, (15) orgies, and the like.

I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this

will not inherit the kingdom of God

Gal 5:19-21

Forgive: “Anyone who hates a brother or sister

is in darkness and walks in darkness” 

1 John 2:11

  To Forgive is best illustrated by Corrie Ten Boom. She tells of being sent to Ravens Brook Camp in WWII, where she lost her sister, telling her before she died from severe abuse, to have no hate. Corrie was released by mistake, the day before she was to be killed. After the war is over, she conducted meetings in Berlin on forgiveness. One time a man from the audience whom she recognized was one of the cruel guards, extended his hand asking her to forgive him. As she told it, it seemed impossible to do so, considering the recent memory of his personal hatred and abuse, but by the grace of God, she stretched out her hand in forgiveness.

  God is calling you, right now where you sit, don’t let a feeling of animosity and hatred rest in your heart for one more second. By faith confess it all to God. God wants you to hear the words, “Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world” (Matt 25:34). There you “will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father” (Matt 13:42). Be there or be nowhere.

Son of God Appeared, on Earth, to Destroy the Devil’s Evil Work

  Only as we come to know Jesus Christ, can we participate in God’s work in destroying the Devil’s evil deeds.  Now, soon there will be an end of the Devil’s work: “The devil, who deceived them, was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone where the beast and the false prophet are. And they will be tormented day and night forever and ever” (Rev 20:10)

1 John 3:9 No one who is born of God will continue to [practice] sin, because God’s seed remains [abides, in union with Him] in them; they cannot go on sinning [repeatedly practicing], because they have been born of God. 3:10 This is how we know who the children of God are and who the children of the devil are: Anyone who does not do what is right [does not do the right and good thing] is not God’s child, nor is anyone who does not love their brother and sister. NIV

3:9 Whoever has been born of God does not sin, for His seed remains in him; and he cannot sin, because he has been born of God. 3:10 In this the children of God and the children of the devil are manifest: Whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is he who does not love his brother. NKJV

3:9 Everyone who has been fathered by God does not practice sin, because God’s seed resides in him, and thus he is not able to sin, because he has been fathered by God. By this the children of God and the children of the devil are revealed: Everyone who does not practice righteousness—the one who does not love his fellow Christian—is not of God. NET Bible

3:9 No one born of God makes a practice of sinning, because God’s seed abides in him. He cannot keep on sinning, because he has been born of God. 3:10 By this the children of God and the children of the devil are revealed [contrasted]: whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is the one who does not love his brother. Mounce Reverse Interlinear New Testament

  John’s conclusion, in this passage, what he is saying, is that the children of God bear good fruit, doing what is righteous being just and fair with love and compassion, to others. Thus they do the right thing. They do not sin or practice sin but instead they “let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven” (Matt 6:16). They want “to do good, to be rich in good deeds, and to be generous and willing to share” (1 Tim 6:18).

       The same Greek word in not practice sin, is used as in bearing fruit. The fruit they bear is their daily practice or habit of doing good, bearing righteous fruit in their lives. These are children of God. If bad actions are their fruit, their developed character and habits, they are children of the Devil.

  The Greek word is used in Matthew 3:10 “every tree which does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.”  As John the Baptist said, “bear fruits worthy of repentance” (John 3:8 NKJV).

Summary of John’s Use of “Does not Sin” or does “Not Practice sin”

1st – In the first chapter, John clearly teaches us that no one can “claim to be without sin,” or they have “not sinned.” If anyone does say this, they are a liar and they make God a liar, who knows they are not sinless, no matter what they say about themselves (1 John 1:8,10).

2nd – In the second chapter, John gives us many reasons, why we will not sin. We recommend that you review those reasons.  Chiefly the reason why we don’t sin is because God forgives our sins. Thus daily we are without sin in the eyes of God. Since “God is light and there is no darkness at all” in Him (1 John 1:5). Therefore we cannot walk in darkness, since we are following Him who is “the light of all mankind” (John 1:4). To not walk in the light is anyone who “hates a brother or sister” for they are “still in the darkness” (1 John 2:9)

3rd – Forgiveness includes “cleansing from all unrighteousness (1 John 1:9). God places in our hearts a deep desire to not repeat the sin that we have confessed. We know this sin is inexcusable, we have felt its guilt. We know that we are forgiven. Thus we ask God, in the same prayer we asked for forgiveness, for active grace that comes alone from God, to change us, to free us from this sin which has brought guilt and burden to us.

This is done by the power of our “advocate” (1 John 2:1) so that we will not fall back into the sin we have confessed and because we have been given an increasing hatred for that sin. For “if the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed” (John 8:36), thus you will not sin, for that sin you are delivered from. You know it’s true, you feel your freedom and experience it.

       If a believer is repeating the prayer for forgiveness, as rosery or as a memory verse, with no passion, but more out of obligation. The confessed sin will remain a part of their lives.

From the Viewpoint of a Mature Believer

  John is writing from the viewpoint of mature believers. One who has experienced the change, “a new heart and a new spirit” (Ez 18:31; 36:26), “new life” (Acts 5:20), “new birth” (1 Pet 1:3), new motives, new desires “to do good works” (Eph 4:10), to bear “good fruit” (John 7:18), to “honor God” (3 John 1:6)  and to “love one another” (John 13:34). The sure results of abiding in Christ, we will be fruitful.

  To the person that has never experience the “new creation” (2 Cor 5:17) that comes as the results of faith in Christ and the ministry of the Spirit—all that John is saying will be utterly meaningless and even confusing to them.  

No One

  John is very emphatic. He uses a double negative denial, the utter impossibility of a person Born of God, will afterward continue to sin. John contrast sin with doing what is right in love verses not doing what is right.

Love is the way John describes doing what is right, a word he used 37 times in chapters 3-5.

The Text

       John is brief in his writing, coming to the point quickly. The words continue or practice sin are added by way of explaining the text. The NIV says “continue” and NKJV says, “does not sin.”

  In plain English it means that one Born of God does not do the work of sin, does not act in sin, cause sin or journey into sin with intent to secretly or boldly sin. John simply says that if we are Born of God, we will not sin on purpose, not choose to sin, not plan to sin against the God they love. They will not be in open rebellion and “lawlessness” (1 John 3:4) to the will of God. They may and they will at times slip into negative unloving words, but they won’t stay. They don’t like it at all. They pray for forgiveness and for more love to counter their words of criticism.

Not Abel to Sin (1 John 3:9)

“Everyone born of God does not sin; for his seed remains in him: and he cannot sin, for he has been born of God.” Smith’s Literal Translation

“Everyone who has been begotten of God, he does not sin, because His seed remains in him, and he is not able to sin, because he has been begotten of God.” Literal Standard Version

  To not able to sin, means that should the opportunity come to be lawless, to do bad to others, to be selfish, to hurt another with our words—we won’t want to do it. It is as if there is a large wall inside the human spirit that makes it difficult to move with purpose into “open rebellion” (Ez 21:24). To do so is painful inside the human spirit. Even thinking or dreaming even for a moment of moving into the direction of disobedience to God, what they know is wrong, is of the devil. It brings tears of sorrow that it was even considered for that moment in time. Because it is truly hateful for them. We would cut off our “right hand” (Matt 5:30) then reach out and touch the forbidden evil deed, that children of the devil urge us to do the same things they do.

Jesus Taught the Same Idea that John is Teaching Us

  John applied the principles of the Sermon on the Mount to the entire fellowship as way to know the difference between the children of God or the devil. John describes it as sin you do or not do. Jesus drew a picture of sin as good or bad fruit in our lives. Both are saying the same thing.

“Watch out for false prophets [children of the devil]. They come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves [rob you of the love of God]. By their fruit [words & actions] you will recognize them. Do people pick grapes from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? Likewise, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree [person] cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree [person] cannot bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Thus, by their fruit [words & actions] you will recognize them. (Matt 7:15-20).

Paul Describes Those That are Not Slaves To Sin

  Paul develops the same theme as John. He says, “What shall we say, then?” Since we have been justified by faith (Rom 3-5). “Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? By no means!” Because “You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness” (Rom 6:1-2, 18). Paul used the expression slaves, something well known in the Roman world. A slave is one who works of their master, does what the master wishes. So a believer works for Christ and looks to “find out what pleases the Lord” (Eph 5:10). The believer is not a slave to sin, to its demands of sin, to not practice what is right and just and good and noble. Just the opposite, they want to do what is right, just, good and noble, all the time. Yes, they do! No they don’t want to do wrong, even when betrayed into saying critical words, they are deeply heart and plead for forgiveness.

John: If We Are Born of God, We Cannot Sin

  To John if we are born of God, we cannot sin, cannot practice or continue in the sin we are convicted is wrong. If we were lying, we just can’t continue telling lies, we want to be honest and truthful. If we were involved in petty thief, rationalizing it away, we don’t want to steal, really don’t want to do this anymore. The same thing can be said for sexual fantasies, this practice bears such a load of guilt, in tears such a one will plead with God to deliver them from the slavery to sin (Rom 6:6).

  To Jesus this is characterized as being a good tree or a good person. They cannot bear bad fruit in their lives. They CANNOT do it, they want to love others, their brothers and sisters, those who have faith in God. They do not want to hurt anyone; they want to love all they can and more than before.  

       For example, you find your neighbors billfold on the sidewalk with over hundred dollars. Your car needs some repair that you can’t afford. As one born of God, you cannot, seal it. Even if you know you could use it, it is not something that you can do. Instead you return it immediately. This is the natural approach for one Born of God, because God’s seed remains in them.

John is Teaching us What Jesus Taught

       Jesus taught the idea of sin is enslaving and only He can set us free. “Very truly I tell you, everyone who sins is a slave to sin. Now a slave has no permanent place in the family, but a son belongs to it forever. So if the Son sets you free [from the slavery of sin], you will be free indeed” (John 8:34-36).

  We all know the drawing power of sin in our lives; we have served sin’s wishes at will, before we were Born of God. All humanity, at birth are born into slavery to sin. The pleasures of sin, the self-centeredness, selfish tendencies of sin are the source of all the trouble that plagues our world and society.

       Politics does not break our slavery to sin. Ethics cannot hold back the internal justification many give as their reason to sin. When others get in the way of their goals in life, they are expendable.

       John’s solution to the natural slavery to sin, is be Born of God. This means that we come under “God’s Spirit” (1 Cor 3:16), when God dwell with us, in us. We are never the same, as before.

John uses this is an expression eight times in this letter and once in the Gospel of John. Let’s summarize, other than a direct quote, the context of this expression Born of God .

In the beginning, Jesus was called the Word. He was with God and at same time he was God Himself. In him there is life for all humanity. This man-God came to our world, but it was dark and we did not recognize him.

Yet, many did believe in him, in his name as one who was God and was with God from the beginning. To everyone that did believe, who welcomed him, receive his teachings as light and truth. He, Jesus the Son of God, gave them the privilege and right to be called children of God.

Through His dwelling among us all on earth, by means of his grace and truth, we become Born of God. We become His children. As Jesus was planted in Mary’s womb by God the Father, so in a similar way, through belief in his words and life, God, through means of the Spirit, God is born in us.

This is that truth that Jesus taught as necessary for salvation, we are to be “born again and born of the Spirit” (John 3:1-8).

“Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God—children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God” (John 1:12,13)

Born of God

  This expression is in the passive voice; we are passive, and God is active. By God’s direct action, what God as done for humanity, not man, not even a smallest part is from man. We are in his hands.

  Because we are born of God—God works in the depth of our souls, God implants a “new life” (Rom 6:4). A spiritual creation, a new conception, a “new birth” (1 Pet 1:3). “God made you alive with Christ” (Col 2:13). This is not a small thing. It is the biggest thing that can happen to our lives. Nothing in our lives can come close to the New Birth. It is bigger than marriage, having children or promotion to a CEO position. It is the biggest event to ever happen in your life. It changes you from the inside out, from the deepest point of our souls, God sets you on a new course, a new life is begotten inside us. We become “alive to God in Christ Jesus” (Rom 6:11).

  As Children of God, we are given a new citizenship, a new passport—this is more than just a promise, it guarantees a place near God—in the resurrection, forever and ever.

Born of God—Not Instant Adulthood, but Learning and Growing

       Scriptures teach us the necessity of “growing in the knowledge of God” (Col 1:10). Consider just the Sermon of the Mount, the instruction given here is designed to be used all throughout life. It is not possible to read this Sermon once and comprehend, apply completely and perfectly, every concept for the rest of our lives. To be born of God, we become students in the School of Christ. We will have lessons to learn all our lives as well of many things to unlearn and forget.

       But, one thing is certain, the slavery to sin is broken. We don’t want to be followers of wickedness and evil. The idea of it is repulsive, for no other reason—but it is because of the influence of God’s Spirit moving in our lives as His children, that are “born of Him” (1 John 2:29).

In the following, we are given by the Lord’s Apostles encouragement to mature and grow in our faith. After being Born of God, we are to spiritually grow in knowledge, in assurance, in faith, in hope, in love and in prayer.

1)    “Therefore, dear friends, since you have been forewarned, be on your guard so that you may not be carried away by the error of the lawless and fall from your secure position [firm grasp of truth]. But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and forever! Amen” (2 Pet 3:17-18).

2)    “Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head, that is, Christ” (Eph 4:15). In other words, our conduct should be transparent, as opposed to hiding or suppressing truth through cunning and deceit.

3)    “This is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ—to the glory and praise of God” (Phil 1:9-11). The fruit of righteousness is to practice what is right.

4)    “Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation” (1 Pet 2:2). Crave Scriptures, hover over and over Scriptures.

5)    “So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live your lives in him, rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness” (Col 2:6-7).

6)    “It is good for our hearts to be strengthened by grace” (Heb 13:9)

7)    So the churches were strengthened in the faith and grew daily in numbers” (Acts 16:5).

8)    Therefore, rid yourselves of all malice and all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander of every kind. Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation, now that you have tasted that the Lord is good” (1 Pet 2:1-3).

9)    “Now I commit you to God and to the word of his grace, which can build you up and give you an inheritance among all those who are sanctified” (Act 20:32).

10) “Brothers and sisters, stop thinking like children. In regard to evil be infants, but in your thinking be adults” (1 Cor 14:20).

No One Born of God Will Continue to Sin

       Paul encouraged the Ephesian believers to “walk worthy” of God’s calling they had received from Him. They were to strive to be “completely humble and gentle” to be “patient, bearing with one another in love” (Eph 4:1-2). To continue in sin is to refuse to be patience with love for others that are troubled and weak.

       Again Paul encourages the Ephesians to “walk in the way of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us.” Thus they were “not have even a hint of sexual immorality” for such a person will not have “any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God” (Eph 5:1,5). Those Born of God, CANNOT practice sexual immorality. They don’t want to be immoral. They don’t want to let the “lust of the flesh” (1 John 2:16) carry them away into open sin. They instantly, call on God, as his child, to deliver them from the slavery of lust. To deliver them into true love that would not harm or violate a single person.

       Again Paul encourages the Ephesians to be “strong in the Lord” and “put on the full armor of God.” To “pray in the Spirit” to be “alert and always keep on praying.” And finally, “Grace to all who love our Lord Jesus Christ, with an undying love” (Eph 6).

       Paul encourages the Colossian believers that he is praying from them saying, “we continually ask God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all wisdom and understanding that the Spirit gives.” To “Put on the new self [Born Again], which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its [our] Creator” (Col 1:9; 3:10).

When Born of God—His Seed Remains in Us

       The Greek word of seed is sperma. Used in agriculture as seed that is sowed in the ground. There it continues to grow. God places something deep inside our hearts, a seed to produce fruit. As Jesus illustrated this: “What shall we say the kingdom of God is like, or what parable shall we use to describe it? It is like a mustard seed, which is the smallest of all seeds [sperma] on earth. Yet when planted, it grows and becomes the largest of all garden plants, with such big branches that the birds can perch in its shade” (Mk 4:30-32). But the fruit of this plant, will be God-like and Christ-like. Because “by their fruit you will recognize them” (Matt 7:16).

  This seed is not received from human training, not from university degrees in theology, not from reading many authors, not by transmission from one to another, not by any human hands of ordination. But only by divine intervention, unseen, but known by us. There is a time in our lives, when we come to Christ in faith, that the Father sends something of a divine nature, a small seed set to grow, to permeate our entire being. “For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works” (Eph 2:10).

  Jesus tells us the same thing: “I tell you the solemn truth, unless a person is born from above, [born again] he cannot see the kingdom of God” (John 3:3 NET). There is no other option available to leave this earth and become the offspring of God Himself. You, God is speaking to you.

Those Born of God are God’s Offspring

       When Paul was preaching at Athens, in his appeal to them he said, “For in him we live and move and have our being. As some of your own poets have said, ‘We are his offspring. Therefore since we are God’s offspring” (Acts 17:28,29). We are God’s family, his kindred, his descendants.

       Even Satan, the dragon of the earth, know who the offspring of God are. “Then the dragon was enraged at the woman and went off to wage war against the rest of her offspring—those who keep God’s commands and hold fast their testimony about Jesus” (Rev 12:17). The last out-loud command of God to our world was, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased. Listen to him!” (Matt 17:5).

       But the best picture, proving we are God’s offspring, his family was the new name that Jesus gave to God, that of Father. Not just father, but more, “our Father” (Matt 6:9). He is the “One God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all” (Eph 4:6).

The Father of All Believers as Well as Jesus Himself

       He is also called “God our father” (Rom 1:7) and He offers us special blessings “Grace and peace to you from God our Father” (Col 1:2). “May our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our Father, who loved us and by His grace gave us eternal encouragement and good hope” (2 Thess 2:16). Hope points to answered prayers that will come in the future, but more the “hope of eternal life, which God, who does not lie, promised before the beginning of time” (Titus 1:2).

We Are Made Alive, Regenerated

  This seed from God the Father, when invited in by our faith in Christ, is like an invasion of God into the human soul. This is carried out by the Spirit of God, “For those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God” (Rom 8:14).

  Through Spirit the Spirit of God, God sows the seed in our hearts. It germinates and the Spirit brings about growth, which is called regeneration. God places something inside our heart, a divine intervention, a New Birth, for the purpose of “bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God” (Col 1:10).

  Once were “followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit  who is now at work in those who are disobedient [practice sin]…But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which he love us, made us alive with Christ, even when we were dead in transgressions” (Eph 2:2-5).

Cannot sin, Not Able to Sin

  They cannot pursue sin as lifestyle or practice because they don’t want to. If they should, in a weak moment, do what is wrong to another—without delay they confess and repent. They hate the sin they yielded and wish to never do it again. In this sense they cannot sin, there is new power that keeps them focused on doing good, that refuses to freely do evil. To think about it is tearful.

The Battle Within Those Born of God

  Paul spent considerable time explaining the process where sin’s desires are defeated. He writes to the Galatian believers: So I say, walk [daily-live] by the Spirit, and you will not gratify [satisfy, carry out, give in to] the desires [impulses] of the flesh. For the flesh desires what is contrary [opposed] to the Spirit, and the Spirit [desires] what is contrary [hostile] to the flesh. They are in conflict [in opposition] with each other, so that you are not [able] to do whatever you want” (Gal 5:16-17)

  The Greek word for gratify means “to complete, to finish, to fulfill, to accomplish and carry it out fulfilling it,” the desires of the flesh. 

  Meaning we will never again find the same abandoned pleasures, as we did before, in yielding to the flesh. The Spirit puts the breaks on our tendences to be angry, vengeful, spiteful, dishonest and enjoy forbidden sexual pleasure while looking for opportunities to satisfy them again and again.

       The Spirit does not remove our sinful nature, we will always be tempted, always know who we really are, what evil we really are capable of doing. Instead the Spirit changes our hearts, so that we don’t want to be angry or hateful to others. We want to be caring and compassionate. When we fail, we know it at once, and confess our guilt to God. We seek God for more of the Spirit, for we know of ourselves we are helpless in the face of some temptations.

  We will often pray the Lord’s Prayer, “lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one” (Matt 6:13). Meaning that we ask God to guide our lives, our steps safely around or through the places where we would dishonor God’s name and not “grieve the holy Spirit of God” (Eph 4:30).

  We are praying for Divine Guidance “to preserve our lives and kept [keep] our feet from slipping” (Ps 66:9). For we know that the evil one has set temptations along our path, so that he can cause us to fall into sin, again and again. “Since you are my rock and my fortress, for the sake of your name lead and guide me” (Ps 31:3). When we are faced with trouble causing us to fear, we can like David say, “I would hurry to my place of shelter, far from the tempest and storm” (Ps 55:8).

 
1 John 3:11 For this is the message you heard from the beginning: We should love one another. 3:12 Do not be like Cain, who belonged to the evil one [Satan] and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his own actions were evil and his brother’s were righteous. 3:13 Do not be surprised, my brothers and sisters, if the world hates you [because of the world’s actions].

3:11 For this is the message that you heard from the beginning, that we should love one another, 3:12 not as Cain who was of the wicked one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his works were evil and his brothers righteous. 3:13 Do not marvel, my brethren, if the world hates you.

The Message

       The expression, the message Is synonymous with the gospel; when you “heard the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation” (Eph 1:7). “Faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word about Christ” (Rom 10:17).

·       “Many who heard the message believed; so, the number of men who believed grew to about five thousand” (Act 4:4).

·       “While Peter was still speaking these words, the Holy Spirit came on all who heard the message” (Acts 10:44).

This expression the message, John used two other times:

1)    This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all” (1 John 1:5).

With God there is love. There is no hatred, no murder, no revenge, and no evil. Today there is much confusion about God. Often, He is seen as the one that is guilty of causing disease, disaster, and war. When such is far from the truth.

2)    “Dear friends, I am not writing you a new command-(ment) but an old one, which you have had since the beginning. This old command is the message you have heard.” John further explains what this message is: it is to have no “hatred,” and to have “love of others” (1 John 2:7-11). This is most significant commandment in Scriptures, more than anything else, which decides our eternal destiny.

From the Beginning

       John uses this phrase to show to us that to love one another is as old as creation. The opening of the Bible, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth” (Gen 1:1). John ties love to the creation of earth. God created plants and animals in love, not out of duty or boredom. Creation of Adam and Eve was a symbol of God’s great love. Which was seen in the love between Adam for Eve.

       Jesus taught this about the love that Adam and Eve had for each other saying, “they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore, what God has joined together, let no one separate” (Matt 19:6). Love made them care for each other as they would for themselves. Only by love can we take the two and make them one. This is the purest form of love. When children are born in love, their love extends from themselves to their children.

       In the beginning it all started from God’s love. Humans were given the capability of carrying God’s love into their lives, between themselves and the created world around them.

When we celebrate the love of God, we should remember its origin was at creation. When “God blessed the seventh day and made it holy…and rested from all the work of creating that he had done” (Gen 2:3). God was satisfied in his work of love. The reminder to love was to be celebrated every 7th day.

  Jesus says, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment” (Matt 22:37,38). Jesus used the expression “first Commandment,” as was “first” taught in the Garden of Eden; therefore, it really is the very first command from God. It precedes all other commandments of God, and really is the greatest of all the Commands of God.

  Adam and Eve disobeyed the 1st commandment to love God foremost, because love can trust God. The first commandment reads, “you shall have no other gods before me” (Ex 20:3). Thus, out of love we do not want to serve any other so-called gods of this world, which tells us lies. Like the Serpent, the Devil, told Eve. “God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil” (Gen 3:5). To know evil is not to love. To love God is the first command from Eden and the first command of the ten commandments. It is a double first.

The Message to Love

  The Message John presents is a test for everyone to discern in their lives and words. Do they love one another? If not, they may know a lot of facts about Scriptures. Facts about prophecy or the trinity may give them some assurance, but if they do not know about the real message. Which is the Gospel, the source of love. They are like Cain, whose actions were evil.

Cain the Murderer

  After Adam and Eve lost their Eden home, the very first sin was, the sin of hate, the refusal to love. This was the first sin that the descendants of Cain followed, that resulted in the great disaster as warning to us. This condition of hate and division between each other, and rejection of love will be prominent at the time when Christ returns. Jesus predicted, “As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man” (Matt 24:37).

  Here is the shocking truth John is presenting. To be indifferent, to choose not to show love, express love, to give love, to be loving to others around you when the opportunity comes—we are murderers. Anyone that “does not love their brothers and sisters” are “children of the Devil” (1 John 3:10).

  Often it is a challenge to lovingly respect other believers in the gospel, which have different theological conclusions. When one considers they are right, they have the truth in a specific doctrine, it most often creates a wall of separation and alienation, giving a reason not to love the other.

  Although there was some conflict between Paul and the Corinthian church. Paul says to them, “I do not love you? God knows I do!” (2 Cor 11:11).

We must be aware there are “children of God” found in many other cultures, climates, lifestyles, customs with different religious practices—yet they love God and carry no hatred for others.

Can we love others, which may be Catholics, Pentecostals, Baptist, Mormons, Seventh-day Adventist, or Jehovah Witnesses? When we are personally convinced that they are theologically mistaken and deceived? No, for faith in God, religious opinions should not create a wall of separation that leads to any form of disdain and accusation.

  There is a difference between not agreeing with someone’s theology and hatred of them. Love overlooks many things that cannot be changed by us. As Jesus said, “But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you [oppose you], that you may be children of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous” (Matt 5:44,45). God knows the motives of their hearts, even of those who do wrong, our guesses are most often dead wrong.

  When meeting with another Christian believer who needs more time with Scriptures and less time with their church talking points that has led them into false ideas on faith. We must never distain them. Pray for ways to be kind, to be open minded to them, remembering what Jesus said about his disciples, “I have much more to say to you, more than you can now bear. (John 16:12).

Cain the Evil One

       The expression the evil one, John has twice, thus far in his letter, called it the Devil. (1 John 2:13,14; 5:19)). Jesus also called the Devil the “evil one” (Matt 6:13; 13:19,38; John 17:15)

  John is teaching us something very insightful, hate or the failure to love—has its origin in the Devil, called the evil one. Whereas in the beginning, at creation God taught Adam and Eve to love each other, which is righteous. God did not just teach this; he made it natural for them to love each other. Hate and murder came from the rejection of creation order to love one another.

The Evil One was Once a Heavenly Angel

  “The great dragon was hurled down—that ancient serpent called the devil, or Satan, who leads the whole world astray. He was hurled to the earth, and his angels with him” (Rev 12:9).

       Here is the grand point: The Devil became the evil one—because he did not love, as Cain is the example. The Devil’s failure to love made that once bright and good angel, a murder and that he is.

       Here is the next grand point: The central point of the gospel message…we should love one another. This is the same command of Jesus to “love one another” (John 13:34,35). This is what Jesus meant to be a commandment keeper.

  If a believer fails in this calling, they do not hear this message. By selfishness, revenge, unforgiveness, hatred and lies about others, they are acting like the Evil One. Thus, there will be no place for them in heaven. They cannot be sons and daughters of God. It is not possible. There must not, there cannot be a second fall, from the failure to love God, to trust God and to love one another.

A Prayer

  Lord, give us more love. More than we had yesterday. To love others, as we are able, like you do. Because there is no darkness of hate in you. We thank you for loving us, from a distant, before the creation of the Milky Way. “For he [God] chose us in him [Christ] before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love.”  We thank you for such a long-term love, which loved us first, “We love because He first loved us” (1 John 14:19).

Surprised If the World Hates You

       Because the world lies under the spell of the evil one. They deny the love God and His Son for us, with perfect hatred. The evil hates love. They hate a “God who is love” and his children that accept this message to love one another. The world is filled with hate. One country, an ethnic or religious group of people, hates another language or culture another. This is the very opposite of the “children of God” (1 John 3:1,2,10; 5:2,19).

God Has Created a Space Inside us For Love to be Fruitful

  God has wisely given room and opportunity for all to experience love. So, love will expose to them any dark side of animosity, resentment, jealousy, self-ambition, envy or revenge (see Gal 5:19-21).

  How? By placing in the heart of all men and women a natural. A God given, romantic love for their spouses, a love in harmony with nature, a mother’s love, a father’s love. God has implanted natural urges to love inside every human being. It is the basis of family, marriage, an orderly society. To not love is very unnatural.

  Alongside the love we have for family, for one another— “if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us” (1 John 4:12). God implants a new element, through the “new birth” or being “born of God” to love God more and more and to love others as well.

To love more fully, with no hate, but forgiveness as God has forgiven us, is the message of the gospel, the “everlasting gospel” (Rev 14:6 NKJV). What a wonderful gospel message.

The Absolute Truth

Dear friends:

 Let us love one another, for love comes from God.

Everyone [all] who loves has been born of God and [personally] knows God.

(1 John 4:7)

The Opposite of the Truth

Whoever does not love does not know God [at all],

because God is love.

(1 John 4:8)

 1 John 3:14, 15 [A] We know [assured] that we have passed [transitioned] from death to life, because we love each other. [B] Anyone who does not love remains in death. 3:15 [C] Anyone who hates a brother or sister is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life residing [dwelling] in him. NIV

3:14 We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love the brethren. He who does not love his brother abides in [arms of] death. 3:15 Whoever hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him. NKJV

3:14 We know that we have crossed over from death to life because we love our fellow Christians. The one who does not love remains in death.3:15 Everyone who hates his fellow Christian is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life residing in him. NET Bible

3:14 We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love other believers. The person who doesn’t grow in love remains in death. 3:15 Everyone who hates another believer is a murderer, and you know that a murderer doesn’t have eternal life. GOD’s WORD Translation

The Text

       The Greek word adelphos is brother, as in the NKJV, means coming from the same womb. The NIV translation should be understood as to love each other, that is brothers and sisters who also believe. 

John’s Perspective

       John believes the 8th commandment which says, “You shall not murder” (Ex 20:13), includes all forms of hate for another believer that may be poor, dirty, uneducated, troubled in life, or has no influential friends. They may have too many children, too messy a house, overweight or underweight, too loud when they speak and with too many tattoos.

  Excuses why we cannot love them, reasons why we cannot spend any time trying to be their friend but prefer those more like us. This attitude makes us a violator of the 8th commandment and could possibly be the single factor why we are not “counted worthy to… stand before the Son of Man” (Lk 21:36). Because only love to God and others can enable us to stand before our God who declared Himself to a be God of love. “God is love” (1 John 4:8,16).

Yes, I have loved you with an everlasting love;

Therefore, with lovingkindness I have drawn you

Jer 31:3

The Lord your God in your midst,

The Mighty One will save.

He will rejoice over you with gladness,

He will quiet you with His love,

He will rejoice over you with singing.

Zephaniah 3:17

Living With—Eternal Life or death

  Act I: The evidence we have, showing we have eternal life dwelling inside us, is because we love each other. If someone should tell you that the test showing that you are saved is if you speak in tongues, do not believe it. Why, because John does not even mention tongues in either his Gospel of John or his three letters. To John it was not a testing truth. Love is.

  If you feel that your love is too shallow, not deep enough for some other believers in your life. Take it all to prayer. Block out a longer period of time, for a long walk alone somewhere, best in nature. Tell the Lord all about your feelings, your fears, your weakness toward those who have disappointed you or opposed you. Ask Him for more love, for those who you really do not love at all.

  The kind of love John is talking about is not a best friend’s love. A bond between another person in which you have a lot of things in common. It is a Christian love, which does not hate, not wish them any kind of harm. A love that would do them good if you could. A love that would greet them, if you can, with a sincere wish for their health and prosperity. A love that would pray for them personally that God would bless them also with a knowledge of the love of God. A love that would invite them to your home for after church service dinner, even if their children are unruly and their clothes are dirty.

       Act II: Anyone who does not love remains in death. When we hate, death lives inside us. Walking and living in death is our present reality.

  The evidence we have, we are sentenced to death, judged by God as a murderer, is that we hate a brother or sister, such as one “walks around in darkness. They do not know where they are going, because the darkness [of hate] has blinded them” (1 John 2:11). Blinded by hate into perfect darkness, where darkness cannot see the light of love, cannot see a God of love.

  When any believer permits themselves to denounce, to disregard with indifference, to harbor hostility or animosity toward another believer in Christ—they pass into a state of death, the condition of being actually dead while still alive. They are living in death, even while they are still alive. For when they die will not have a “crown of life that the Lord has promised to those who love him” (James 1:12).

Hate is darkness—Twice Repeated by John

  John has already told us that “the message” he “heard from” Jesus is that “God is light and there is no darkness at all” (1 John 1:5). No follower of Jesus has any time to hate, even if we feel it is justified.

       John has already told us that if we “hate a brother or sister” we are “in the darkness” (1 John 2:9), that is living our daily lives in darkness. Those who live in hate, “lives for pleasure is dead even while she [they] live” (1 Tim 5:6). Darkness is justified, hatred and ill-will.

Ever Wonder Why Spiritual Indifference is so Widely Prevalent

  Is there wonder why there is so little spiritual life in many churches? In society, in government offices and even in those we trust.

  Is there any wonder that the high rate of divorce, resulting with bitterness, among Christians, brings darkness into their own lives and that of their church also. Ever wonder why there are so few revivals that are not driven by pulsating loud music? Ever wonder why so few are really interested in serious Bible Study, why the youth attendance has declined? Ever wonder why neighbors often dislike each other over cultural or language differences?

  We need to look no further than the absence of love for others has moved them into the condition of walking dead.

How do We Know We Have Eternal Life Dwelling in Us?

  Wrong Way of knowing: Belief in a church creed, church tradition, or church membership. We believe that because we have been baptized or because we keep His Commandments we will be given eternal life.

  Right way of Knowing: We love all other Christians, whoever they are, wherever they are. The love we have received from God, is a Love that pities another fallen or flawed believer. Rather than hate and despise them, because they are in the wrong. Or because they have done us wrong. We love then enough that we will not speak evil of them, behind their backs. We will not wish to have their honored position, so we promote darken ideas about their character as to promote ourselves.

Peter has some advice for believers who want to keep eternal life alive inside them:

  “Therefore, rid yourselves of all malice and all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander of every kind” (1 Pet 2:1).

Paul has some advice for believers who want to keep eternal life alive inside them:

  “Make sure that nobody pays back wrong for wrong but always strive to do what is good for each other and for everyone else” (1 Thess 5:15).

How to Lose Eternal Life that was Abiding in Us

  We may not know that the moment we chose to not continue loving or caring for another believer in Christ, at that moment the assurance and hope of eternal life was chased away from inside our souls. We altered our future; the day we chose to let the various forms of hate swell up inside us to rest there—with no confession as to our need for God to remove these unloving feeling.  Our hearts are to be a safe place to hide the flaws of another believer, rather than publicly expose them to criticism, unsettling their peace with God.

  Later in John’s letter he teaches us the science of prayer. John assures us that God will hear and will answer “whatever we ask.” One of the conditions is that “you may know [are assured] that you have eternal life.” This gives us “confidence [boldness, assurance] we have in approaching God” in prayer (1 John 5:13-15). Having love for one another is assurance that our prayers will be answered.

  It makes no difference if we still preach or teach the gospel. This does not alter that fact that we have become a murderer, facing the judgment of God as unworthy of eternal life. Any form of hatred is the fastest way to lose our salvation. Faster than anything else a person may do.

       We may worship on Sunday or Sabbath, this makes no difference. We may be generous with our tithes and offerings; this cannot change the tag we carry on us—as a murderer. A murderer is one who does not love, when we know we should.

With Hate There is the Shadow of Death Over Our Heads

  The hateful, live in eternal spiritual death, even as they live. Then in the resurrection, they will be “thrown outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth” (Matt 8:12)

  “The weeds are the people of the evil one [disciples of Satan] …The Son of Man will send out his angels, and they will weed out of his kingdom everything that causes sin and all who do evil. They will throw them into the blazing furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. Whoever has ears, let them hear” (Matt 13:38, 41-41).

With God’s Love Abiding in us We Receive the Pre-Judgment of Eternal Life

  What John learned from Jesus, was plain and simple. Love wins eternal life. Why because the kind of love John is speaking of is not found on earth. There are many examples of worthy and honorable love that we celebrate in song and story. But the love that John tells us gives us eternal a life is because it comes direct from God, into us. It is a divine love, not of human origin. Later in this letter John makes this fact clear: “Love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love” (1 John 4:7,8).

Murder and the 6th Commandments

  The 10 commandments say, “Thou shalt not kill” (Ex 20:13 KJV). The Hebrew word means put to death, to kill or to murder. It denotes the act of taking human life wrongfully deliberately or through reckless negligence.

  John says hate is murder in progress. Strange as it may be, the believer who hates their ex-spouse, who takes advantage of another without mercy, just because they can. God calls them a murderer, even though they have not taken anyone’s life.

Speak Evil of No One or We Will Become Like the Evil One

  Paul tells his co-workers to instruct believers: “to speak evil of no one, to be peaceable, gentle, showing all humility to all men” (Titus 3:2 NKJV)

  James, the brother of Jesus instructs the church in his General Letter: “Do not speak evil of one another, brethren. He who speaks evil of a brother and judges his brother, speaks evil of the law, and judges the law. But if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law but a judge” (James 4:11).

       Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount: “Do not judge, or you too will be judged. For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you” (Matt 7:1,2). Jesus wants us to guard the reputation of others, as if it were our own. If not, our judgment at the last day will be given to us personally by God, in the same measure as we put on others. We end up in the same location as the Devil, the Evil One.

  On the final judgment day God will assign “the devil, who deceived them [the world] was thrown into the lake of burning sulfur, where the beast [murderers] and the false prophet [liars] had been thrown. They will be tormented day and night for ever and ever.” (Rev 20:10).

“This is My commandment, that you love one another,

just as I have loved you. 

Greater love has no one than this,

that one lay down his life for his friends. 

[This what Jesus did for us, His friends]

John 15:12-13

Cast all your anxiety on him

because He cares for you.

1 Pet 5:7

Cast your cares on the Lord

and he will sustain you.

he will never let the righteous be shaken.

Ps 55:22

Trust in the Lord with all your heart

and lean not on your own understanding.

in all your ways submit to him,

and he will make your paths straight

Prov 3:5,6

1 John 3:16 This is how we know [perceive, understand] what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life [on the cross] for us [on our behalf]. And we ought to lay down our lives [self-sacrifice] for our brothers and sisters. 3:17 If anyone has material possessions and sees a brother or sister in need but has no pity [no heart, no compassion] on them, how can the love of God be in [dwell in, abide in] that person? [how can such a one continue to love God]. 3:18 Dear children [a call for action], let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth [genuine]. NIV

3:16 By this we know love, because He laid down His life for us. And we also ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. 3:17 But whoever has this world’s goods, and sees his brother in need, and shuts up his heart from him, how does the love of God abide in him? 3:18 My little children, let us not love in word or in tongue, but in deed and in truth NKJV

3:16 Christ died for us. That is how we know what love is. We also should be willing to die for our brothers. 3:17 Perhaps a man has plenty of food and things. He sees that his brother needs some. If he does not want to help his brother, does he love God? 3:18 My children, we must not only talk about loving people; we must show we love people by what we do for them. We must really love them. Worldwide English, New Testament

John’s Up-Close Perspective

  John came to know Jesus, from his personal perspective. From walking and talking in the presence of Jesus, in mornings and evenings. John came to see that Jesus had life in himself, that He could have resisted all ageing and death. John remembers Jesus saying, “No one takes it from Me [my life], but I lay it down of Myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again” (John 10:18 NKJV). Jesus was “in the form of God” (Phil 2:6), this was his natural inheritance.

  Yet, Jesus had ability to lay aside his human side which desires to avoid pain. To permit himself, when it could be avoided, to be whipped bloody to weakness and stumbling, openly mocked and laughed at, humiliated, and left alone in that no one cared to say a kind word. Treated as a common Roman criminal. Regarded as a Jewish sinner set to receive his just rewards for his crimes.

  But more. To be looked upon as a fake messiah, a false teacher with a failed ministry. With the mocking words that everyone was thinking, “He saved others; Himself He cannot save. If He is the King of Israel [true Messiah], let Him now come down from the cross, and we [then] will believe Him” (Matt 27:42). Alas, he is just another liar and false prophet, many would say. 

  His humanity did not wish to be stripped of his clothes with rudeness, hung up high, naked, for all to see. Displayed in the center of known criminals, as the chief of sinners. All alone he could have told his Father, “I can’t do this anymore.” He could have asked his rightful, biological Father to send “more than twelve legions of angels” (Matt 26:53) to deliver him. To prove that he was not what they are saying about him.

       But, out of love for us who are hopelessly addicted to sin, and as such are all destined to die eternally. He laid down his life, when it when against his internal life-giving powers that could easily raise the death and heal all sickness, in an instant. He did this, not out of obligation, not out of desperation, not out of fear, not out of disappointing his Father, ignoring the pain, the spiritual blindness and darkness that surrounding him, losing control of his bowels and his manhood publicly displayed. But out of love for us, He lost all self-determination. When he could do something about his own situation and, he didn’t.

I am the good shepherd.

the good shepherd lays down

His life for the sheep.

John 10:11

The big picture: Jesus had just as much desire to live, as the best of us. During his death, he realized that God was not with him, always as before, when he said, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Matt 27:46). He died in darkness as to the outcome of following the directions of his Father in taking up the cross. Saying, “with a loud voice” with the last of His superior strength, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit” (Lk 23:46). The outcome of his life was in the hands of God his Father, just as any other human being that dies. It is as if he would step into oblivion for an unknown period of time, in blind trust to his Father. Perhaps his death was not enough to provide eternal life that his Father had promised to all who would believe on him.

  Not long ago Jesus publicly proclaimed, “For as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son also to have life in himself” (John 5:26). When dying on the cross he was apparently rejected by God. Thus, in the eyes of all who put their trust in him—he appeared to be just another of a long line of deceivers and sinners. His claims were false and God was not his Father as he proclaimed it everyone. All the Jewish Leaders were right about this man; he was a false Messiah.

       So, John tells us that this was love on his part. Love not for himself, but love for many others that would find in his apparent rejection of God, their reconciliation to God. “For if, while we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life!” (Rom 5:10). Saved by his life that overcome death and was raised from the grave. Who taught us the way of the Lord and how to live our lives to honor God.

To Lay Down our Lives—What Does it Mean for Us?

       This represents any form of self-sacrifice. Caring for another, when inconvenient and troublesome. The sharing of your time, your personal talents such as mechanical or electrical to help another. When you could be doing another job, making money. To care for a young mother’s children, when she is exhausted from overwork.

From service in troubled mission fields to help others. When your faith results in prison or death. You are willing stand to lose everything you love in life, loving God more.

In the 2nd chapter of Thessalonian, Paul demonstrated how he laid down his life for his brothers and sisters, a moving witness to the spirit of the early Apostles.

“We are not trying to please people but God, who tests our hearts. You know we never used flattery, nor did we put on a mask to cover up greed—God is our witness. We were not looking for praise from people, not from you or anyone else, even though as apostles of Christ we could have asserted our authority. Instead, we were like young children among you. Just as a nursing mother cares for her children, so we cared for you. Because we loved you so much, we were delighted to share with you not only the gospel of God but our lives as well. Surely you remember, brothers and sisters, our toil and hardship; we worked night and day in order not to be a burden to anyone while we preached the gospel of God to you. You are witnesses, and so is God, of how holy, righteous and blameless we were among you who believed. For you know that we dealt with each of you as a father deals with his own children, encouraging, comforting and urging you to live lives worthy of God, who calls you into his kingdom and glory.” 1 Thess 2:4-12

What was the Father’s Responds to the Sacrifice of His Son?

  Because Jesus laide down is life, his Father gave him great honor. “When he [God] raised Christ from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every name that is invoked, not only in the present age but also in the one to come. And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way. (Eph 1:20-23)

Because of our Sacrifice, What Does God Give to Us?

  Because we have laid down our lives in love for God and the truth of the gospel. Jesus promised, “everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or fields for my sake will receive a hundred times as much and will inherit eternal life” (Matt 19:29).

What is 100 times more of eternal life? Well, we have to wait to see.

In the eighth Beatitude, Jesus promises a blessing for all who have undergone difficulties in doing good to others and in preaching the good news. “Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. “Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you" (Matt 5:11-12).

Ought to Lay Down our Lives for Our Brothers and Sisters

  The Greek word means we are indebted, we are responsible, and duty bound, to sacrifice our energy, our money, our influence, our youth, our family connections, our homes, our lands and property. For the of good others, following the example of Jesus. This is done in love, not for honor and acclaim of men.

  There is no way we can love at this level. Unless we are “filled with the Spirit” (Eph 5:18). Only the Spirit can override our selfish flesh and interject the supernatural, the fruits of the Spirit in our souls. The foremost the fruit of the Spirit is love—within us, that shines out of us.

  The promise of Jesus to the early disciples also is given to us “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you.” (Acts 1:8).

See your Brother in Need—Is a Call to Action

       We may have to take time to inquire as to the circumstances. To learn what is needed to help them. When the love of God in in us, abiding in us, dwelling in us—we will naturally wish to find ways to help, quietly without fanfare. Sometimes a hundred-dollar bill is just what is needed by them. God will direct you as you look for the best way to help and support them.

• Our lives—Takes in the whole life as we try to do good to others

• Our eyes—We see people around us, observant of their lives and their needs.

• Our ears—Hear what people are saying, where they are and what they are doing, so we can show care

• Our minds—Thinking about others, assessing their needs.

• Our hearts—Feels compassion. Weep and rejoice with tender affection.

• Our mouths—Words of encouragement and comfort and truth, correction, the gospel.

• Our Hands—Giving to others, sacrificially, of our time, resources.

• Ours cheeks—Turning our other cheek with forgiveness, patience with others.

• Our feet—Going to people and stepping into their lives, involved. Serve them, go the second mile. Love must rise above our feeling, as Jesus on the cross.

• Our shoulders—To bear the burdens of others, carry their heavy loads and uphold them 

How Does the Love of God abide in Us

  The evidence is by the person right next to us. When we have a desire to love more, to give more of ourselves, even when difficult, as Jesus did. It becomes easier when repeated. God will impart more love and more warmth, the more love we give.

Paul’s Advice to the Brother or Sister Who Claims to be in Need

“Now, my brothers, we tell you to do this in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Have nothing to do with any lazy brother who is not living the way we taught you. You yourselves know how you should be like us. We were not lazy when we were with you. We did not eat anyone's food without paying for it. But we worked very hard day and night because we did not want to trouble any one of you. We have the right to be helped. But we wanted to show you what you should do in this matter. Even when we were with you, we told you this, `If any man will not work, do not let him eat.' We hear that some of you are lazy. You do not work, but you trouble other people.  We say to such lazy people, in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, `Do your work quietly. Earn your own food” (2 Thess 3:6-11) Worldwide English New Testament

1 John 3:19 This is how we know [are sure, with no doubt] that we belong to the truth [to Him] and how we set our hearts at rest [feel at ease, quiet] in his presence NIV

3:19 And by this we know that we are of the truth and shall assure our hearts before Him. NKJV

3:19 “By this we will know [without any doubt] that we are of the truth and will assure our heart and quiet our conscience before Him.  Amp Bible

3:19 Here is how we will know that we are from the truth and will set our hearts at rest in his presence. Complete Jewish Bible

3:19 By this we shall know that we are of the truth and set our heart at rest before Him. Tree of Life Version

3:19 for therby we knowe that we are of the veritie and can before him quiet oure hertes. Tyndale Bible 1526 (original spelling)

The Text

      The NIV along with some other translation, have rendered the Greek word peithó, which means, “to persuade, to convince, to trust, to have confidence” or to be at rest. This word, in this setting carries the idea of rest because we are in the presence of God and His Son.  

The Truth

  John used the expression truth in his gospel about 23 times and in the other three gospels only four time. In the three letters of John, he used truth about 19 times. To John the gospel account was the truth, in contrast with popular pagan temples.

  The clearest definition of what is truth is the bold claim of Jesus, “I am the way and the truth and the life” (John 14:6). These three claims are complete. There is not another more comprehensive, more certain, or more positive expression that could be given. Jesus is all the way, the path that lights our way with certainty. In every possible way, the absolute truth, which leads to eternal and everlasting life.

  The concept of truth starts and ends with a knowledge of Jesus for the purpose of abiding in our souls, hearts, and our very beings. The words and life of Jesus is not just a historical record, which can be read as a book. He brings rest to our hearts, daily and hourly.

  We know the truth about Jesus, his love, his ministry,and his direct relationship with God the Father before time begin. We know His “calling and election” (1 Pet 1:10) to us personally, “in his sight, in love” (Eph 1:4). This knowledge brings to our heart rest, assurance and quietness into our lives, our peaceful.

  With each person this knowledge can vary in depth of understanding, but one thing stands out, they know it is all true. They know not from being informed by a church, a school, our Bible course. They know it because it is “written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts” (2 Cor 3:3).

       Having known that God is true, his promises are certain, His love has reached your heart with verbal expressions that can’t be repressed. Having known this—now just rest in His presence and be at peace, be assured of His calling to you in His love. Remember “Whoever dwells in the shelter [dwelling place] of the Most High will rest in the shadow of the Almighty” (Ps 90:1).

I lift up my eyes to the mountains—where does my help come from?

My help comes from the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth.

He will not let your foot slip—he who watches over you will not slumber;

indeed, he who watches over Israel will neither slumber nor sleep.

Psalms 121

Yes, my soul, find rest in God; my hope comes from him.

Truly he is my rock and my salvation; he is my fortress, I will not be shaken.

Psalms 62

Set our Hearts at Rest in his Presence.

  If you hold to these truths, as John just as described. Not in perfection, as none of us can be perfect, except God. But with human hands that are known to be weak and let things slip. Having faith in these truths—we are at rest.

  The NIV translates the Greek expression as set our hearts at rest. While the NKJV translates the expression as that our hearts shall be assured. Meaning that our hearts tell us that we are resting in his presence.

  Take it, claim it, hold on to it. Review it all day long. Don’t let troublesome circumstance cause you to feel you have no right to be at rest in God and His Son Jesus Christ.

  Rest in God, now, today, tonight, tomorrow expect you can, and you will rest in God. In his presence, his smile, his love, his care for you and those you love. His faithfulness gives you assurance that He is with you and for you.

  Rest, in peace, with all your heart, close your eyes sleep there tonight, Wake up in the morning with no doubt or feeling that God has deserted you, forgotten you, left you alone or has separated  himself from you finding you unacceptable due to your sins, your forgetfulness, your faults, your doubts, or your troubles. Rest in his presence, feel that this  is a secure and safe place, even as the storms of life blow across your pathway. Rest in your mind, in your heart, with your soul, denying your feelings that may tell you the opposite.  Rest right inside the presence of God, by faith alone, in His Word alone. Hold out and upward your hands for God to fill them with His gift of love, assurance, and support for you. Do it now! Tell the Lord you want light in your life, not darkness.

“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.

Matt 11:28

Those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength.

They will soar on wings like eagles;

they will run and not grow weary,

they will walk and not be faint.

Isa 40:31

Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation,

 by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.

And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding,

will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

Phil 4:6-7

In repentance and rest is your salvation,

in quietness and trust is your strength.

Isa 30:15

This is How We Know We Truly Belong to God

  John used the expression this is how we know, eight times in his letter (2:5,18; 3:10,16,19,24; 5:2), an expression only used in John’s letter. Each usage of this expression brings to us assurance in our faith in God and His son. John does not teach that believers are left to wander around in blind trust. Just trusting a story that you are told is true. With no evidence it is true.

  Let’s review the last six times how John has used this expression We Know.

1st Time: We Know

“We know that we have come to know him if we keep his [Christ] commands…But if anyone obeys his word, love for God is truly made complete in them. This is how we know we are in him [Jesus Christ]” (2:3,5)

The Greek word for commands means “instructions, precepts, orders or injunctions”.

“For no one can lay any foundation other than what is being laid, which is Jesus Christ” (1 Cor 3:11). To know God our study time should be for the most part in the NT. Set aside all the books of devotion and stories. Pray over the words. Ask God to give you understanding. The gospel words are garden seeds, they will sprout  up in our lives bring love from the inside.

  It is God’s love for us, that makes us complete. We need “God’s love has been [to be] poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us” (Rom 5:5). For we can only live as Jesus did when we have love, more than just some knowledge. When His love finds a dominate place in our hearts that overshadows our inner resources. God’s words from his Son are like sunbeams into a darkened room.

In the morning we love God, at our first awaking thought and throughout the quiet times in the day, we often repeat that we love God. That we are thankful for God’s love of us. “For love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God” (1 John 4:7).

  Yes, it is only through God’s love that we can really know God and his Son. The nature of God’s love is designed to permeate and flow into all the areas of our life, our thoughts, and habits at work and at home.  In this we have experience “the riches of God’s grace” (Eph 1:7).

2nd Time: We Know: We Follow The Truth

“Dear children, this is the last hour; and as you have heard that the antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have come. This is how we know it is the last hour” (2:18)

  To John the Apostle, the sign we are near the coming of the Lord, there will be an increasing number of false teachers. They teach, they preach, something other then what Christ or his Apostles taught.

John, like the rest of us all, should expect the coming of the Lord at any time. What is amazing to us, is that false teachers of Scriptures had risen to an alarming number, even in John’s lifetime.

  Practically, this means that we should look over carefully at our own Christian fellowship, with prayer, comparing what they teach with Jesus and His Apostles.

  One of the reasons why there will be an increase in false gospel teachers before the coming of Christ, is that Christians at large are shallow in their Biblical understanding. There are much more distractions today, coming from the media, High Schools and colleges that are antagonistic to Christian values.

  Not long ago the public media reported an FBI raid on a large church that had held members captive in call centers to raise money for the church. The leader stated that he was an Apostle and could raise the dead among other boastful claims. His church was full of people who believed what he said and raised millions of dollars, for which most of it was spent on the leader’s extravagant lifestyle.

  If the thousands that attended his meetings and gave him millions of their dollars, knew their Bibles, they would run far away from this church. Apostles were those that lived at the time of Christ and were a witness to his public ministry. They did not enrich themselves while preaching the gospel.

3rd Time: We Know We Follow The Truth

  Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. (3:2)

  Now, we know something for sure. We know because of the “great love” that “the Father has lavished on us” (1 John 3:1)—this love is given for a purpose. Someday we will be like “God”, who “is Spirit” (John 4:24), we will be see Him, as He is.  Like the “angels” who are “ministering spirits sent to serve those who will inherit salvation” (Heb 1:14).

4th Time: We Know We Follow The Truth

  This is how we know who the children of God are and who the children of the devil are: Anyone who does not do what is right [toward God or others] is not God’s child, nor is anyone who does not love their brother and sister. (3:10).

       Let hope to adjust your outlook on life, to see and know what “things God has prepared for those who love him” (1 Cor 2:9)

Children of the Devil

       John is looking at the big picture view, the long view of human history. He is speaking of those who do not want to do what is right. Who don’t care about the needs of others. If they are a landlord of homes, without pity they would cancel a family who is short a small sum. It they could steal from their employers they would. They would hurt and shame others, as they wished.

   As committed followers of Jesus, we know that we don’t always do the right thing. Not all our deeds, feelings and thoughts, are perfect, righteous and unselfish. We struggle with our flaws, but want to, we endeavor, in our lives to do what is right in the eyes of God. We really do want to be fair with others, to be just, true, honest and self-controlled. To be loyal, to be faithful, to have a singleness of purpose to love and honor God. This is the direction of our lives. We would not carry out dark acts of hate, of evil toward another. Only over our dead bodies could evil make it’s run over us, without any prayer for deliverance from God. These are the children of God or as John says God’s child, they are "begotten of Him" (1 John 5:1 NKJV).

5th & 6th Time: We Know We Follow The Truth

  “We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love each other. Anyone who does not love remains in death.” (3:14) “This is how we know [perceive, understand] what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life [on the cross] for us [on our behalf]. And we ought to lay down our lives [self-sacrifice] for our brothers and sisters.”

  Walking in love, living your life in love, is any form of self-sacrifice to help another. Don’t let opportunities to visit the sick, care for the aged and lonely, and give food from your own home to help others.

  Lovers of God can’t have any form of distain for others, even for a moment. For even mild hatred is a viper that will poison the soul, the heart, the arms to help others and the heart to want to.

1 John 3:19 This is how we know [are sure, with no doubt] that we belong to the truth and how we set our hearts at rest [feel at ease, quiet] in his presence NIV  

1 John 3:20 If our hearts [conscience] condemn us, we know that God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything [about you].

3:21 Dear friends, if our hearts do not condemn us [because we are forgiven], we [therefore] have confidence before God [presence of God] 3:22 and receive from him [God] anything we ask, because we keep his [Christ] commands [words, instructions] and do what pleases him [because we want to].

3:20 For if our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and knows all things. 3:21 Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence toward God. 3:22 And whatever we ask we receive from Him, because we keep His commandments and do those things that are pleasing in His sight. NKJV

3:20 Beloved, if our hearts do not condemn us, we have boldness before God, and we receive from him whatever we ask, because we keep his commands and give him pleasure when he sees what we are doing.” New Testament for Everyone

19-20 There is a sure way for us to know that we belong to the truth. Even though our inner thoughts may condemn us with storms of guilt and constant reminders of our failures, we can know in our hearts that in His presence God Himself is greater than any accusation. He knows all things. 3:21 My loved ones, if our hearts cannot 

condemn us, then we can stand with confidence before God. 3:22 Whatever we may ask, we receive it from Him because we follow His commands and take the path that pleases Him. The Voice

The Text

       First John affirms that God is greater than our flaws, failures, mistakes and sins—which often plague us and cause us to shy away from his presence. Thus we never come to know with confidence the “peace of God” (Phil 4:7), because we are afraid that He will not receive sinners like us.

  Especially after we know that we have made a mistake. Perhaps we have been dishonest or have become emotionally upset with another. We feel so guilty that we just can’t come again and again for forgiveness. We know that we should have done better, but we failed. Such feelings are very common to all of us. So likewise we wish to hide from God or feel too unworthy to ask of God anything! 

       John gives us assurance that if our hearts and conscience do condemn us—God knows all about it anyway. So why stay away out of fear, for He will receive you, with forgiveness. 

       John gives us double assurance. When we have confessed our sins and  problems to God, then our conscience will not, cannot ever condemn. Because “He appeared so that he might take away our sins” (1 John 3:5), even our guilty conscience. Also, “If we confess our sins, He [God] is faithful and just to forgive our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9). God is faithful to his promise and will forgive, and when forgiven, we can have confidence again, in prayer. 

If Our Heart Condemns Us

  Conviction of sin is like pain to the body. Don’t hold it back from God, be open. Open your heart to God. This especially refers to believers, who struggle with their conscience sometimes just small things that they may have neglected to do or felt what they did was not adequate.

  God is not always in our feelings or emotions. Our feelings, our ups and downs, we all have in life, should not be seen as caused by God. He is greater than these human elements. We should not trust the feelings of our hearts or dwell on our mistakes, for long periods of time. Confess what you feel and how things in life make you feel—then leave them. Rest in his presence of your acceptance. Think about it! If God accepts you, what more could we do to make ourselves more acceptable. Nothing more.

God is Greater than Our Hearts

  God will not separate from us due to our sins and mistakes. He knowns then all anyway. God is still approachable. So quiet your conscience. Don’t let sin keep condemning you and accusing you of a fault or mistake. Let it go into the forgiving hands of Jesus, forever. Dismiss it, turn your mind from remembering it. Don’t bring it up again, today, tomorrow or ever again. Because God has already forgiven you.

He Knows All

  So leave the conflict, that has burned a hole in your heart, with God. If God already knows and has forgiven you as at your request, then he does not condemn you. How can God condemn something that he has forgiven. So you should stop condemning yourself. Instead believe that you are not condemned by God. Because He does not condemn those He has forgiven. This is fact that is true.

  As Jesus said to the woman accused of adultery, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?” “No one, sir,” she said. “Then neither do I condemn you” (John 8:10,11). The condemned, the guilty, are forgiven. Thus they are no longer condemned. Hold that!

Whatever We Ask

  Now we can have confidence, openness, boldness and courage to address God in prayer. To come before the throne of grace and bring our petitions and confession of sins.  With boldness before God in prayer for our daily needs. For God to want to know about our needs, even that of a six-year-old girl that prays to find her doll.

  For God to even care, let alone take up his time to hear our seemingly insignificant request, from all over the world, yet be attentive to each one as it they were the only one He has to tend to. It is beyond imagination. But believe it is true, For with God nothing will be [can be] impossible” (Lk 1:37 NKJV). “Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but not with God; all things are possible with God” (Mk 10:27).

  For Abraham believing that God could give him as son in his and Sarah’s old age, was “fully persuaded that God had power to do what he had promised” (Rom 4:21). And God did have the power. 

  So rest now, take God up on his offer for you to come and lay your request, even small ones. Tell God all the details, taking all the time you wish to explain it to God. Imagine your prayer request being placed in the Lord’s hands. See his acceptance of it. Now talk of answered prayers.

  For earnest need may call for short-term fasting, while feasting of the promises in Psalms.

Keep His Commands—Keeping Focused on Jesus

       When John was a disciple of Jesus, he learned to listen to him, to copy him in every way he could. He, along with his brother Andrew heard the call of Jesus, “Come, follow me,” (Matt 4:19). In following Jesus, they kept his commands, his words, and the things that he taught them. To them he was their Lord and master. As “Thomas said to him, “My Lord and my God!” (Acts 20:28). Thus we set our hearts to rest in his presence.

  The teachings of Jesus, his life are all the same. They cannot be separated. His words, his life and his commands are all united.  When John tells his Dear Children they are to keep his commands, he means that we are to stay focused on Him. To keep our attention on Him. This is what it means to keep his commands, for they come from his life. They are the same.

  John is teaching his Dear Children to keep their attention on Jesus. Don’t drift away from what he taught, to who He was. Once Jesus asked his disciples, ‘” Who do you say I am?’ Simon Peter answered [for all of them], ‘You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God’” (Matt 15:15,16). Such a declaration means that the disciples were committed, beyond question, to follow, to keep, to honor, to carry out in their lives what the Messiah wanted of them. No questions as to why they were asked to believe or do something, they wholeheartedly sought to comply with the manner of His life.

  This is a theme that John often brought to his Dear friends, the constant need of keeping their focus on Jesus. When John says that we should keep his commands, it means the same as keeping their attention directed to Jesus. To be his disciples, we would never think of doing the opposite of what their master taught, although they made mistakes. In their heart they wanted to please Him. They really did.

  To all who are teachers or preachers, we recommend that you teach from the New Testament and the Psalms, at least 75% of the time. Avoid topical studies, for often they can be presented out of context with the surrounding chapters. Furthermore they often are intended to convince, to sell, a doctrine of a church that claims to be better than others.

Avoid listening to sermons with very little Scripture. 

  Avoid excessive amounts of time on prophecies of Revelation that are speculative and could easily be interpreted in a dozen other ways. Use Matthew 24-25 as the foundation of prophecy. Use this letter of 1 John as keys to interpret the book of Revelation that he wrote. Whatever one does with prophecy, never ever must it lead to hate for other churches or individuals as the conclusion of the study. Because “Anyone who claims to be in the light but hates a brother or sister is still in darkness” (1 John 2:9). If hate is an interpretation of prophecy, it is wrong. Jesus has taught us to love our enemies.

The Sure Results After: Our Conscience and Hearts are at Peace with God

       We will look for and want to keep his teachings, his commands and do what pleases Him, in our lives. We will make them be our study and learn from them what is the will of God. Sin becomes more ugly, more evil, more undesirable, more distasteful to us. Jesus said, “The words I have spoken to you—they are full of the Spirit and life [eternal life]” (John 6:63). The Teaching of Jesus is the means that we receive the Holy Spirit, that “sanctifies” (Rom 15:16) us and are granted eternal life. “For those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God” (Rom 8:14).

God’s Two Commands:

God’s Two Commanments: 1 John 3:23 And this is His [God’s 1st] command: to believe [have faith] in the name of his [God’s] Son, Jesus Christ, and to love one another as He [God’s 2nd] commanded us [He gave this commandment to us].

God’s Two Promises: 1 John 3:24 The one who keeps God’s [two] commands lives in him, and he in them. And this is how we know that he [God] lives in us: We know it by the Spirit he gave us. NIV

3:23 And this is His commandment: that we should believe on the name of His Son Jesus Christ and love one another, as He gave us commandment. 3:24 Now he who keeps His commandments abides in Him, and He in him. And by this we know that He abides in us, by the Spirit whom He has given us. NKJV

3:23 And this is His commandment: that we believe in the name of His Son Jesus Christ, and that we be loving one another, just as He gave us the commandment. 3:24 And the one keeping His commandments is abiding in Him, and He in him. And by this we know that He is abiding in us: from the Spirit Whom He gave to us. Disciples’ Literal New Testament

The Text

  The NKJV expression He gave us, which is in the Greek Text; is more descriptive of the action of God, than the NIV which did not include it.

  The Greek word entolé means “Commandment, command, order or instruction.” This Greek word is also used to describe the10 Commandments of Exodus 20 in Matthew 19:17-18. Now John presents to us the last two commandments of God.

God’s Two Commands, He has Given to Us

  First command: Have faith in Jesus

  Second Command: Love one another

God’s Two Promises, To Those Who Keep is Two Commands

       First promise: That God will live in us, and we will live in him.

       Second promise: He will give us the Holy Spirit, so we can know God lives in us.

God’s First, Most Important Commandment:

       This expression that we are to keep “His command” or “His commandments” is used five times by John in his three letters (2:3; 3:22; 5:2-3; 2 John 1:6). Later when John wrote Revelation, “This calls for patient endurance on the part of the people of God who keep his [God’s] commands and remain faithful to Jesus” (Rev 14:12). It is reasonable that John is pointing back to these two commandments that he had written about in his letters.

To Believe, Have Faith, in His Son

       This is a command from God Himself. He wants us to fix our eyes on Jesus. To follow him in discipleship. To study his words, his parables, his teachings. To listen to his Apostles he trained. To believe in the promises. To believe his promise of his return to earth and the resurrection.

Turn your eyes upon Jesus

Look full in His wonderful face

And the things of earth will grow strangely dim

In the light of His glory and grace

Helen Howarth Lemmel (1863-1961)

  “Anyone who runs ahead and does not continue in the teaching of Christ does not have God; whoever continues in the teaching has both the Father and the Son” (2 John 9). Running ahead of Jesus teachings is adding, making things up alone the way, to what Jesus taught, such religious leaders cannot be trusted. Any religious organization that adds doctrines to believe in that are not supported by Jesus and his apostle’s, cannot be trusted. God the Father has warned us.

Jesus Affirms God’s Command 

  “Whoever has my commands and keeps them is the one who loves me. The one who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love them and show myself to them…and we will come to them and make our home with them.” (John 14;21,23)

       Jesus explains to us what it means for us to live in God and He in us. We will be loved by God. We will be loved by the Risen Christ. Both of them will reveal themselves to us and make a home inside us, as a body temple.

       To those who do not come to know God, by faith in his Son, will suffer a terrible fate. “When the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven in blazing fire with his powerful angels. He will punish those who do not know God and do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus” (2 Thess 1:7,8).

Have Faith in the Name of Jesus

       To believe in the name, the authority, of His Son, Jesus Christ, is the command or the commandment of God the Father. “Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12). Not Moses, not Abraham or King David. The words, the life, the death, the resurrection, the promise of his return to earth being eternal life—are all wrapped up in the authority of Jesus the Son of God. Nowhere else is there salvation.

       Nobody that has ever lived can say, “The words I have spoken to you—they are full of the Spirit and life” (John 6:63). John summarizes the life and teachings of Jesus as simply calling it “the Word of life” (1 John 1:1), who alone can “forgive us of our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9). “As the Apostle Paul publicly declared, “Therefore, my friends, I want you to know that through Jesus the forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you” (Acts 13:38).

Eternal Life is From God, Revealed to Us by His Only Son

       In the longest private prayer of Jesus to his Father he said, “For you [the Father] granted him [the Son] authority over all people that he [the Son] might give eternal life to all those you [the Father] have given him [the Son]. Now this is eternal life: that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent” (John 17:2,3). God the Father gave to Jesus full authority to give eternal life to all who come to personally know the only true God, the Father. We can only know God the Father through His Son, who came to reveal Him.

       As you draw near to Christ, he brings you into His presence, with all the welcome and acceptance Christ his son has made possible.

To Know and Trust Jesus, is God’s Command to Us

  God the Father send him on a mission to make available, to give us the knowledge of how to receive, eternal life to us who believe. Jesus has provided the way to receive eternal life by “redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins” (Eph 1:7). The Father gives to us, shares with us, provides a future life without any troubles, disappointments and pain. A life inconceivable an unimaginable, except by faith alone in God’s Son.

God’s Last Audible Command to Earth

       The Father’s last command to the earth, to listen to and yield to the authority of His Son. As God has spoken out loud: “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased. Listen to him!” (Matt 17:5).

       Jesus echoes the Father’s last command on earth. He adds that his words and instructions is unlike any other prophet in the past or the future. His life and words perfectly reflect what God wishes for us to today to hear.

“Jesus cried out, “Whoever believes in me does not believe in me only, but in the one [God] who sent me. The one [the person] who looks at me is seeing the one [God] who sent me. I have come into the world as a light, so that no one who believes in me should stay in darkness. If anyone hears my words but does not keep them, I do not judge that person. For I did not come to judge the world, but to save the world. There is a judge for the one who rejects me and does not accept my words; the very words I have spoken will condemn them at the last day. For I did not speak on my own, but the Father who sent me commanded me to say all that I have spoken. I know that his command leads to eternal life. So whatever I say is just what the Father has told me to say.” (John 12:44-50).

Have Absolute Faith in Jesus, As You Do You Receive God’s Promises

  It is our privilege to have faith in the Son of God and God who commands to have this faith. John says, “This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith” (1 John 5:4). Whatever problems you are facing, whatever is discouraging you, causing you to doubt. Remember God commands, it carries power, success with answered prayers. For “everything that does not come from faith is sin” (Rom 14:23). Everything we set out to do, every challenge, every problem, the answer is strong faith and trust. Pray with hope that views the impossible as possible. This is the command of God, he says, trust in Him by faith. See the impossible, imagine God doing the impossible.

  “But as surely as God is faithful, our message to you is not “Yes” and “No.” For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, who was preached among you by us… in him it has always been “Yes” (2 Cor 1:18-19). When we come to God, he always will say yes, come to me, “If God is for us, who can be against us?” (Rom 8:31), but it must be in faith, faith alone.

The Father’s Second Command to Us: To love one another.

John repeats this command often

  Learning to love is not easy. We will fail often but we have a huge advantage in taking our need to love and our failures to love to Jesus Christ our “advocate with the Father” (1 John 2:1). “If our hearts” our conscience “condemn us,” because of our failure to love as we ought,  “we know that God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything” about you your failure to love. (1 John 3:20)

       The love John is talking about; he witnessed it in Jesus. It is benevolent love, tenderhearted, helpful when needed and a love that is free from anger and ill-will. It is love that seeks the best in another. A love that is quick to forgive and restore love again. It is only made possible by first realizing the love of God in own hearts. God’s love in us, is what spreads out to others. “We love because he first loved us” (1 John 4:19).

Jesus Commands us to Love Each Other

  In 1 John 3:23, we have already seen that God our Father has commanded us to love one another. This is he same command that Jesus gave to his disciples, including all who follow Jesus saying, “My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you” (John 15:12). This should also be regarded as the most important commandment Jesus has given to all his followers. All who claim to be commandment keepers, this commandment spoken by Jesus, comes  from His Father. This should be sacredly regarded as the foremost, the most important commandment to honor and speak about often.

  John records this command not only coming from the Father but from His son. “And he [Jesus] has given us this command: Anyone who love God must also love their brother and sister” (1 John 4:21).

John Commands Us to Love Each Other

  In John’s second letter addressed to: “The lady chosen by God and to her children, whom I love in the truth—and not I only, but also all who know the truth— because of the truth, which lives in us and will be with us forever” John gave to them his personal command: “And now, dear lady, I am not writing you a new command but one we have had from the beginning. I [John] ask that we love one another. And this is love: that we walk in obedience to his commands. As you have heard from the beginning, his command is that you walk in love” (1 John 5:6). The command from Jesus to love each other, should be our chief and most often repeated commandment. For it comes from three sources, God the Father, Jesus the Son of God and John the Apostle. If we miss this, it is possible that we could miss out on eternal life, because the one that “does not love does not know God” (1 John 4:8).

Paul Commands Us to Love Each Other

       To the congregation Paul wrote, “Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love” (Eph 4:2). To love each other means to bear with each other.

To bear with others means to tolerate, to hold up, and endure with the weakness the flaws of others. This means to make allowances, when you can, in keeping with the love that you have for God. Often, we will have to overlook the small or sometimes large offending mistakes of others. Some very offending remarks may be unjustly personally directed to you.  Sometimes we will have to bear with the limited spiritual understanding of others, bearing up with their mental or spiritual weaknesses, in prayer.

       People are not all easy to get along with, they are not all attractive and good-natured. Yet God bears with us humans He “demonstrates His own love for us in this: While we were still sinners” (Rom 5:8). There is room in our lives to improve and to “grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ” (2 Pet 3:18). There always will be.

  Paul repeats this teaching to the Colossians saying, “Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you” (Col 3:13). The word “grievance” means to blame, lodge a complaint and find fault. Sure they may be very guilty, just as we were very guilty before God when we were “once far away” God “brought us near” to Him, “by the blood of Christ” (2:13). Although at one time “we were separated from Christ” but despite our sick condition, God “made us alive with Christ” because of “His great love with which he loved us” (2:12,5,4). Likewise we are to repeat this process, in prayer applying the blood of Christ to those whom we need to bear up with, in a love similar in manner to God who send his Son.

       When we meet those who are hard to love, who don’t ever reach out to us in any love or concern, this calls for intercessory prayer. We can claim the love of God to awaken those that are worthy of blame, deserving condemnation. Just as Christ died in our behalf, we pray for them, in their behalf. 

Peter Commands us to Love One Another

  Peter writes, “Finally, all of you, be like-minded, be sympathetic, love one another, be compassionate and humble. Do not repay evil with evil or insult with insult. On the contrary, repay evil with blessing, because to this you were called so that you may inherit a blessing” (1 Pet 3:8,9)

Love For Each Other Was a Major Theme of John

       John teaches us that loving others is how we make God visible to others. “No one has ever seen God; but IF we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us” (1 John 4:12). The only possible way to see God, to know God, to realize His presence, to worship God—is through love for one another. 

1# “Anyone who loves their brother and sister lives [abides] in the light, and there is nothing in them to make them stumble [walks with light on their path]. But anyone who hates a brother or sister is in the darkness and walks around in the darkness. They do not know where they are going, because the darkness has blinded them” (1 John 2:10,11).

       The contrast is between light and darkness in relationship to other believers, brothers and sisters, in God. To live in darkness is to carry around a list of other believers you don’t like. You say negative things about them as if they were the truth. To live in the light is to think of the positive, as much as possible, showing all respect and kindness with Christian pure love that arises from your heart.

2# “For this is the message you heard from the beginning: We should love one another. Do not be like Cain, who belonged to the evil one [Satan] and murdered his brother” (1 John 3:11,12).

       The first message from an event that took place soon after the creation of our world, is that hate and murder go together. God wants all believers in his Son to see with vital clarity—hatred is murder. Hate comes from the Evil One.  Love is life.

  All who hate, dislike a believer in Christ due to their culture, their weight, their dress, their manners, their speech, their ignorance, their slowness, their lack of basic education, their boastfulness or pride—are like Cain, thus they come under the influence of the Evil One.

3# “We know that we have passed from death to life [eternal], because we love each other. Anyone who does not love remains in death” (1 John 3:14).

       John is saying that we all are in a natural state of living while we are dead. Living in a soon to come eternal and everlasting death of the wicked. Because they all practice various forms of hatred and ill-will for those we dislike. When we have faith in Christ and from Him receive the right to be children of God, who love one another. We pass from our living dead state into living eternal life state, when and if we do love each other. Church creeds and doctrines don’t save anyone, in and by themselves. Love for others, because God has loved us first—is a picture of a saved life.

4# “And now, dear lady, I am not writing you a new command but one we have had from the beginning. I ask that we love one another. And this is love: that we walk in obedience to his commands. As you have heard from the beginning, his command is that you walk in love” (2 John 5,6)

It is God that commands us to love each other, to do good to each other, and be kind, sympathetic, caring and watch out for each other. Because it is by God’s love to us, in us that enables us to love with sincerity

Love From God to Us, is the Source and Power to Love—The Holy Spirit

       “As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain [abide] in my love” (John 15:19). The Father’s love is revealed to us through the love of His Son. He has made His son visible, so we see what love is. When a child loves his mother and meets his father later in life. Because the mother loved the father, the child also loves their father.

       But this illustration is not adequate to express the way in which the Father’s love for us becomes known to us, not just as someone else’s father, but Our Father also. All believers know this personally, they pray to the Father they know as their Father, just as we have come to know Him as my Father also.

       How is this possible for many people that are separated on opposite sides of the world, with different languages and cultures, can love the same Father we all do? It is because the Father first loved them and they know it. They feel it, they realize it is true. They testify that they also love God and are not ashamed to say so.

It is because of the Holy Spirit that comes from God that enables them to make a home inside each believer. As Jesus said, “My Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them” (John 14:23). Because God and his Son abide in us, through His Spirit we are promised eternal life, “Because I live, you also will live” (John 14:19).

  Love for others that God loves, and faith in his Son, are burnt in the hearts of every believer around the world. “May our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our Father, who loved us and by his grace gave us eternal encouragement and good hope” (2 Thess 2:16).

Love One Another: Is Born of God in Them

       John mentions the need for believers to love each other about 20 times. This is the MOST neglected part of the gospel we preach and teach. Nearly all congregations teach faith in God and forgiveness of sins. But seldom does any congregation present love for each other as commanded of God, His Son, Apostles John, Paul and Peter.  John said, this is God’s command “to love one another as he [God] as commanded us.”

  Meaning if we want to have God dwell in us by His Spirit, we need to focus on love for each other. To allow disagreements, over any issue, which leads to feelings of ill-will or even dislike to the point of shunning them—is the sure way of creating a mostly dead congregation.

       This is a very serious warning, to neglect the practice of love, with no hate. Without the love of God in us, toward others—We stand a serious chance of being outside of the Holy City. 

  During the time of Paul and the Apostles of Peter and James, Paul wrote to the Thessalonian church “Now about your love for one another we do not need to write to you, for you yourselves have been taught by God to love each other” (1 Thess 4:9). What a privilege to part of a fellowship, where they learned how to love each other from God the Father.

Church Creeds and Points of Doctrine Often Do Not Place Love as Primary and First

  This is the single most transgressed command, most Christians and churches have neglected. They have made many codes of conduct, many different creeds of their faith but have not placed love top and center. We owe, we have an obligation to God and from God to love one another. God is known only through an atmosphere of love. We are commanded by God Himself, to love the believer in His son, because the same love from God shines on both of us.

  John often turned to this topic. As one who knows the Lord, it indicates the importance that Jesus gave us to love each other. It left a deep impression on John the Apostle, like nothing else Jesus said. This was how Jesus mentored his disciples—they felt his love, they knew his love to be sure, they were bonded to Jesus by love. In this love they willingly followed and committed themselves to obey his teachings. “Jesus said, ‘Simon son of John, do you love me?’ He answered, ‘Yes, Lord, you know that I love you’” (John 21:16).

  They taught it, preached it and lived it. So much that John could write, “See” for yourselves, “what great love the Father has lavished on us that we should be called children of God” (1 John 3:1). When God loves us, he adopts us as His personal children, all because he loves us. As children of God, we have access to His presence, His blessings, His love, His grace, His mercy, His favor and His own eternal life He shares with us.

  John in his book of Revelation reveals who are the last day believers saying, “here are those who keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus” (John 14:12). They keep the two commands of God to have complete faith in His Son and to listen to Him. Second, they love one another as He [God] as commanded us.

  Ask God to forgive you for all the animosity, the verbal slights you have given to others. All ill-will and dislike you have carried for those threatened us, irritated us or harmed us, physically or mentally.

  Sadly, some religious faiths teach their members that it is right to shun, contact or fellowship with a person that left their fellowship. Such teaching is diabolical.

  Since He “placed his banner of love over me” (SS 2:3 Jubilee Bible 2000), we should see the same banner of our Father’s love over another believer, wherever they are. This is the commandment of God. To violate this commandment is sin. For believers to divorce their spouses, because love failed, is sin. To hurt the reputation or honor of another believer who loves God also, is sin that should be confessed, forgiven and cleansed (1 John 1:9).

The Father’s Promises to Us

  This is precious and the heartbeat of all faith. Faith without the works of God living in us by His Spirit is fundamental and of importance beyond education and rare natural skill and talents. The ideas of God making his presence felt, experienced, known, realized as part of us that is living moving and inspiring us. To love. To love Him. To love His Son. To love His children. This is what it means to be “born of God” (John 3:9) or “born of the Spirit” (John 3:6).

       Everything that John has already said and everything that John is going to say should pivot around the Ministry of the Spirit, in us, with us, by us and born into us as natural and obvious.  

  Paul writes to young Timothy about his sacred responsibility, saying, “Guard the good deposit that was entrusted to you—guard it with the help of the Holy Spirit who lives in us” (2 Tim 1:14). Each of us is given “a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance” (Eph 1:13,14). Yet we can’t keep it safe, we would lose it with settled anger, unless we have “the help of the Holy Spirit who lives in us”.

Here is the point:

  If you have been falsely accused and it has created hard feelings that run deep inside your soul. You are naturally upset, feel justified in expressing outrage and anger for their mistreatment of you. What should you do? Spend some time in nature alone. Tell the Lord every detail about your feelings caused by someone that had mistreated you. Ask God for the Spirit to adjust what is needed inside you, to change your attitude. Some hurts and betrayals are so deep and hurtful that they are impossible for us to change—unless God sends the Spirit to do inside you, what you are unable to do yourself for you feel locked into hatred for abuse.  Expect a change, look for it—for it will come. Hate will lessen and disappear.

End of 1 John Chapter 3

honorscriptures@gmail.com 

To Contact our Team

Written by:  Brothers & Sisters in Scripture Fellowship

We do not use AI

We are serious about Scripture

 Let us know if you have been blessed by the Content

Or if you have further questions