1 John 3
Evidence of Communion with God
In this section, John continued to describe the characteristics of a Christian in communion, or right relationship, with God and with other believers. He repeated his previous assertion that living in “fellowship” with God and others involves obedience to God’s commands, love for God’s children, and a confidence before God.
Many commentators believe that John was refuting the teaching of Gnostics or revisionists who were confusing believers with false ideas about the identity of Jesus, the on-going reality of sin, and the nature of the believer’s communion with God.
What Great Love
Belonging
Vs. 1 - See what great love the Father has given us that we should be called God’s children—and we are!
John began this section with a celebration of God’s love and of his audience’s favored position as God’s children. All throughout his sermon, John affectionately addressed these Christians as brothers and sisters and children of God.
Hope
Vs. 3 - “And everyone who has this hope in him purifies himself just as he is pure.”
God’s children know little about the nature of life in the world to come, but they know at least that in some way they will be like Christ. This is good reason for them to become as much like Christ as possible in their present lives. They should be pure in thought and behavior as he was. - Don Fleming
God’s Children And The Devil’s Children
This is a difficult section of John’s sermon as he seems to contradict his own teaching about the ongoing presence of sin in the life of a Christian. By this point in his sermon, John had clearly communicated that Christians would continue to experience temptation and sin, and that, when this occurs, we should confess our guilt to God Who is faithful to offer forgiveness through Jesus, our “atoning sacrifice” and “advocate” (1 John 1:8-10, 2:1-2).
But here, the apostle wrote that the person who sins is a child of the devil who has not seen or known God. The plain reading of the passage in English can be jarring and feel contradictory not only to John’s own teaching but also to the rest of scripture.
First of all, it’s important to remember that many commentators believe this entire sermon was written to correct Revisionists’ teaching, some of which may have included false ideas about the theology of the body and the seriousness of sin.
This passage is directed against the Gnostic false teachers. As we have seen they produced more than one reason to justify sin. They said that the body was evil and that, therefore, there was no harm in satiating its lusts, because what happened to it was of no importance. They said that the truly spiritual man was so armored with the Spirit that he could sin to his heart's content and take no harm from it. They even said that the true Gnostic was under obligation both to scale the heights and to plumb the depths so that he might be truly said to know all things. Behind John's answer there is a kind of analysis of sin. - William Barclay
There are multiple interpretations of this passage, but two are prevalent.
Verb Tense View - Present Tense for “Sin” in Greek
Abiding View - Description of practicing the presence of God
Everyone Who Remains in Him
Vs. 6 - Everyone who remains in him does not sin; everyone who sins has not seen him or known him.
Verb Tense View
According to the verb tense John uses, “does not sin” means “does not live a lifestyle of habitual sin.” John has already told us in 1 John 1:8 If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. In 1 John 1:8, the grammar indicates John is speaking about occasional acts of sin. The grammar of 1 John 3:6 indicates that John is speaking of a settled, continued lifestyle of sin. John is not teaching here the possibility of sinless perfection.
The NIV has the right idea when it translates these verbs with phrases such as keeps on sinning, continues to sin, and he cannot go on sinning. - David Guzik
The present tense in the Greek verb implied habit, continuity, unbroken sequence. - John Stott
Abiding View
If we were able to abide in Christ without interruption, we would never sin. The sinless nature of Christ controls the abiding Christian whereas the sinful human nature controls the non-abiding Christian. John was saying that, when a Christian abides in God, he will behave as his heavenly Father, and others will recognize that he is a child of God. - Thomas Constable
That is, sin is never the product of our abiding experience. It is never the act of the regenerate self per se. On the contrary, sin is the product of ignorance and blindness toward God. - Idem
Everyone Born of God
Vs. 9 - Everyone who has been born of God does not sin, because his seed remains in him; he is not able to sin, because he has been born of God.
Verb Tense View
“Does not sin” and “cannot sin" each has the same verb tense as does not sin in 1 John 3:6, meaning a continual practice of habitual sin. John tells us that when we are born again – born into the family of God – there is a real change in our relation to sin. - David Guzik
It is no use making excuses and apologies; if you are a lover of sin, you shall go where sinners go. If you, who live after this fashion, say that you have believed in the precious blood of Christ, I do not believe you, sir. If you had a true faith in that precious blood, you would hate sin. - Charles Spurgeon
Abiding View
In modern times a popular expedient for dealing with the difficulties perceived in 1 John 3:6; 1 John 3:9 is to appeal to the use of the Greek present tense. It is then asserted that this tense necessitates a translation like, ’Whoever has been born of God does not go on sinning,’ or, ’does not continually sin.’ The inference to be drawn from such renderings is that, though the Christian may sin somewhat (how much is never specified!), he may not sin regularly or persistently. But on all grounds, whether linguistic or exegetical, the approach is indefensible.
As has been pointed out by more than one competent Greek scholar, the appeal to the present tense invites intense suspicion. No other text can be cited where the Greek present tense, unaided by qualifying words, can carry this kind of significance. Indeed, when the Greek writer or speaker wished to indicate that an action was, or was not, continual, there were special words to express this.
In this view, prolonged continuation in sin does not occur if one is born again. But this raises more questions than it answers. Do not all Christians continue to sin until the day of their death? Furthermore do not all Christians sin daily? How can anyone claim not to be continuing to sin? Does the born again person come to some point at which he ceases to sin? This proposed translation solves nothing. - Zane C. Hodges
In this verse, John was looking only at the sinless nature of the indwelling Christ. John was saying that, when a Christian abides in God, he will behave as his heavenly Father, and others will recognize that he is a child of God. - Thomas Constable
If someone says, ’A priest cannot commit fornication,’ one cannot deny that as a man he can commit it; but priests, functioning as priests, do not do those things. The Bible uses language in a similar way, ’A good tree cannot produce bad fruit’ (Matthew 7:18). Of course a good tree can produce bad fruit, but not as a result of what it really is, a good tree. Also Jesus said, men ’cannot’ fast while the bridegroom is with them (Mark 2:19). They can fast, but to do so is incongruous and unnatural.
Similar notions are found in Pauline thought. Paul says, ’I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and delivered Himself up for me’ (Galatians 2:20). If a Christian sins, his sin cannot be expression of who he really is, because his true life is that of Christ in him [Romans 7:20-25].
When a Christian sins (and John believes he can and will, 1 John 2:1), in that act, he is behaving like a child of Satan. Who he really is is not being made evident. To use Paul’s phrase, he is walking like a ’mere man’ (1 Corinthians 3:3). - Joseph Dillow
Children of the Devil
Vs. 10 - This is how God’s children and the devil’s children become obvious. Whoever does not do what is right is not of God, especially the one who does not love his brother or sister.
Verb Tense View
The behavior of people shows whether they belong to Christ or the devil. They cannot belong to both, as the two are opposed to each other. If they are true Christians, they will have a divine power within them fighting the devil so that they might not sin. If they sin habitually, it shows that they are not Christians. - Don Fleming
Abiding View
There is no good reason to take this phrase as a reference to unsaved people generally. The term ‘children of the devil' is descriptive in nature. In light of 2 John 9, the Christian who has deviated from sound doctrine about the person and work of Jesus Christ and who vigorously opposes the truth could be so described. This is no more strange than the fact that Jesus addressed His own disciple Peter as “Satan” (Matt 16:23). The “child of the devil” is anyone who does the devil’s work by opposing the truth.
The NIV rendering here, ’Anyone who does not do what is right is not a child of God,’ is a classic example of theologically motivated translation run amuck. It not only paraphrases the text but misinterprets it at the same time! There is nothing in this text about not being a child of God. How could there be? One must be a child of God before one could hate his brother. An unsaved man has no Christian brother to hate. - Zane C. Hodges
The unloving Christian is "not of God" in the sense that God is not animating what he is doing. This believer is not on God’s side; he is doing the devil’s work rather than God’s. - Thomas Constable
Summary
The Verb Tense View holds that genuine Christians struggle with sin rather than surrendering to it. The Abiding View holds that all Christian surrender to sin at times, but the believer who is abiding or remaining in God is not sinning. And when he does sin, he does so because he is not practicing God’s presence.
Regardless of preferred interpretation, what is not debated is that John taught that, though Christians will sin, they should strive to avoid it. Perhaps false teachers had minimized and rationalized all kinds of destructive behaviors, but John reminded these believers that their spiritual condition was directly related to their response to God’s law of love.
We Should Love One Another
From The Beginning
Vs. 11 - For this is the message you have heard from the beginning: We should love one another
Over and over, John returned to scripture’s greatest commandment and reminded these Christians that the evidence of a right relationship with God was a loving relationship with others.
John 13:34-35 - I give you a new command: Love one another. Just as I have loved you, you are also to love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.
Not Like Cain
Vs. 12 - “...unlike Cain, who was of the evil one and murdered his brother.”
Cain was not motivated by love towards Abel but rather allowed jealousy and hatred to separate him from God and his family.
Like Jesus
Vs. 13 - Do not be surprised, brothers and sisters, if the world hates you.
Apparently John’s first readers could not understand why the world hated them, because he wrote, "Stop marveling." Christians are to the world what Abel was to Cain, so we should not be surprised if the world hates us. - Thomas Constable
Vs. 16 - This is how we have come to know love: He laid down his life for us. We should also lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters.
While Cain was motivated by jealousy and hatred, Jesus was moved by love and compassion to sacrifice for His people. Though he was hated, He did not waver from His mission of love.
Say vs Show
Vs. 18 - Dear children, let’s not merely say that we love each other; let us show the truth by our actions.
John concluded that Christian affection should lead to action, that good doctrine should produce good deeds. When Christians are in communion with God, they will care about one another’s needs.
The uncompassionate Christian is not walking as his Master walked and thus is not living the abiding life. - Zane C. Hodges
Reassure Our Hearts
Condemnation
Vs. 19-20 - This is how we will know that we belong to the truth and will reassure our hearts before him whenever our hearts condemn us; for God is greater than our hearts, and he knows all things.
This was the second time John addressed fear or lack of confidence “before” God (1 John 2:28). Because of false teaching, these Christians were apparently confused as to how they could be ready for Jesus’ return, “confident and unashamed” when He finally appeared.
But John taught these believers that it was their love for others that would demonstrate, despite inevitable doubts to the contrary, that they “belonged” to the truth. They needed to be reminded of their true calling to communion with God and others.
Confidence
Vs. 21-22 - Dear friends, if our hearts don’t condemn us, we have confidence before God and receive whatever we ask from him because we keep his commands and do what is pleasing in his sight
The Christian who hates his brother acts utterly out of touch with God, exemplifies the murderous spirit of Cain, and is ’abiding’ in the sphere of death. By contrast, the loving Christian takes Christ’s own self-sacrificing love as the model by which he himself should love in actual deeds and in accord with the truth. If he does so, he can quiet a guilt-ridden heart, achieve a superb confidence before God in prayer, and expect answers to his prayers precisely because he is pleasing God. - Zane. C. Hodges
Communion: Son and Spirit
Vs. 23-24 - Now this is his command: that we believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and love one another as he commanded us. The one who keeps his commands remains in him, and he in him.
Here again, John summarized his main purpose to describe how a Christian could live in communion with God and one another. The evidence of being in fellowship, or being in a right relationship, with God was the willingness to obey Him and to love His children.
Vs. 24 - And the way we know that he remains in us is from the Spirit he has given us.
The evidence that God "abides" in us is the manifestation of His Spirit in and through us. This is the first explicit reference to the Holy Spirit in 1 John. - Thomas Constable
Here, and again in the next chapter (1 John 4:13-15), the apostle emphasized the reception of both the Son and the Spirit as evidence of a Christian’s communion with God the Father. In other words, these Christians could have confidence in prayer and practice, even when they experienced doubt, as they received God’s love demonstrated through the gifts of the Son of God and the Spirit of God.
