3:1 The thought of being born of God arrests John with wonder, and he calls on his readers to take a look at the wonderful love that brought us into the family of God. Love could have saved us without making us children of God. But the manner of God's love is shown in that he brought us into His family as children. “Behold, what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God!”
Now as we walk about from day to day, the world does not recognize us as children of God. The people of the world do not understand us nor the way we behave. Indeed, the world did not understand the Lord Jesus when He was here on earth. “He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him. He came to His own, and His own did not receive Him.” Since we have the same characteristics as the Lord Jesus, we cannot expect the world to understand us, either.
3:2 However, understood or not, now we are children of God, and this is the guarantee of future glory. It has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we do know that when Christ is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. This does not mean that we will be physically like Jesus in heaven. The Lord Jesus will have His own definite appearance, and will bear the scars of Calvary throughout eternity. Each of us, we believe, will have his own distinct features and will be recognizable as such. The Bible does not teach that everyone will look alike in heaven. However, we will be morally like the Lord Jesus Christ. We will be free from the possibility of defilement, sin, sickness, sorrow, and death.
And how will this marvelous transformation be accomplished? The answer is that one look at Christ will bring it to pass. For we shall see Him as He is. Here in life, the process of becoming like Christ is going on, as we behold Him by faith in the word of God. But then the process will be absolutely complete when we see Him as He is: for to see Him is to be like Him.
3:3 Everyone who has this hope of seeing Christ and of being like Him, purifies himself, just as He is pure. It has long been recognized by Christians that the hope of the imminent return of Christ has a sanctifying influence in the life of the believer. He does not want to be doing anything that he would not want to be doing when Christ returns. Notice that it says “purifies himself, just as He (Christ) is pure.” It does not say “just as He (Christ) purifies Himself.” The Lord Jesus never had to purify Himself; He is pure. With us, it is a gradual process; with Him, it is a fact.
3:4 The opposite of purifying oneself is found in verse four: “Whoever commits sin also commits lawlessness, and sin is lawlessness.” The word commits is literally does (Greek, poieo). It is a matter of continual behavior, expressed by the present, continuous tense. It is possible to have sin even if there is no law. Sin was in the world between the time of Adam and Moses, but this was before God's law had been given. Thus it is not entirely accurate to say “that sin is a transgression of the law” (1611 KJV), but rather that sin is lawlessness. It is insubordination to God, wanting one's own way, and refusing to acknowledge the Lord as rightful Sovereign. In essence it is placing one's own will above the will of God. It is opposition to a Living Person who has the right to be obeyed.
3:5 A Christian cannot go on practicing sin, because that would be a complete denial of the purpose for which the Lord Jesus came into the world. He was manifested to take away our sins. To go on in sin, therefore, is to live in utter disregard of the reason for His Incarnation.
Again, a Christian cannot go on in sin because that would be a denial of the One whose name he bears. In Him there is no sin. This is one of the three key passages in the NT dealing with the sinless humanity of the Lord Jesus Christ. Peter tells us that “He did no sin.” Paul tells us that “He knew no sin.” Now John, the disciple who knew the Lord in an especially intimate way, adds his testimony, “In Him is no sin.”
3:6 Whoever abides in Him does not sin. Whoever sins has neither seen Him, nor known Him. This verse contrasts the true believer with one who has never been born again. It can definitely be said of the true believer that he does not go on sinning. John is not here speaking about isolated acts of sin, but rather continued, habitual, characteristic behavior. This verse does not imply that when a Christian commits an act of sin, he loses his salvation. Rather it says that when a person sins habitually, it is conclusive that he was never regenerated.
The question naturally arises, “When does sin become habitual? How often does a person have to commit it for it to become characteristic behavior?” John does not answer this. Rather he puts each believer on guard, and leaves the burden of proof on the Christian himself.
3:7 Now while the Gnostics made great pretensions as to their knowledge, they were very careless about their personal lives. Therefore, John adds, “Little children, let no one deceive you. He who practices righteousness is righteous, just as He is righteous.” There should be no confusion on this point—a man cannot have spiritual life and go on living in sin. On the other hand, a man can only practice righteousness through having the nature of Him who is righteous.
3:8 Some children are so like their parents that you couldn't lose them in a crowd. This is true of God's children and of the devil's children. He who sins is of the devil, for the devil has sinned from the beginning. Here again the thought is, “He who practices sin is of the devil.” The devil has been sinning (continuous, characteristic behavior) from the beginning, that is, from the first time that he did sin. All his children follow him in this broad way. It should be added here that men become children of God through the new birth, but there is no birth in connection with the children of the devil. A man becomes a child of the devil simply by imitating his behavior, but no one is begotten as a child of the devil.
In contrast, the coming of the Lord Jesus was in order to destroy (or annul) the works of the devil. The Lord could have destroyed the devil with a single word, but instead of that, He came down to this world to suffer, bleed, and die that He might annul the works of the devil. If it cost the Savior so much to put away sin, what should be the attitude of those who have trusted Him as Savior?
3:9 Verse nine repeats the impossibility of one who has been born of God going on in sin. Some Bible students think that this verse refers to the believer's new nature, and that while the old nature can and does sin, the new nature cannot sin. However, we believe that here again the apostle is contrasting the regenerate man with the unregenerate, and is speaking of constant or habitual behavior. The believer does not have the sin habit. He does not defiantly continue in sin.
The reason is that His seed remains in him. There is considerable disagreement among Bible students as to the meaning of this latter expression also. Some think that this seed refers to the new nature, others to the Holy Spirit, and still others to the word of God. All of these are true, and therefore are possible explanations. We take it that the seed refers to the new life which is imparted to the believer at the time of conversion. Here, then, is a statement that the divine life remains in the believer. He is eternally secure. Rather than being an excuse for the Christian to go out and sin, his eternal security is a guarantee he will not go on sinning. He cannot sin habitually because he has been born of God. This divine relationship precludes the possibility of continuance in sin as a lifestyle.
3:10a Here then is the fourth distinction of the children of God and the children of the devil. Those who do not practice righteousness are not of God. There is no in-between ground. There are none who are half-and-half. God's children are known by their righteous lives.
3:10b, 11 In this section we have a continuation of the second test of those who are in the family of God—the test of love. This is continued from 2:7-17. From the beginning of the Christian dispensation, it has been taught that love to one's brothers is a divine obligation. Love here is not used in the sense of friendliness or mere human affection, but it is divine love. It is loving others as Christ loved us. Actually, this cannot be done in one's own personal strength, but only as empowered by the Holy Spirit.
3:12 John goes back to the first recorded instance of a man who did not love his brother. Cain showed that he was of the wicked one by murdering his brother, Abel. The underlying reason for this is given in the words “his works were evil and his brother's righteous.”
3:13 It is a basic principle in human life that wickedness hates righteousness, and this explains why the world hates the believer. The righteous life of the Christian throws the wickedness of the unbeliever into sharp relief. The latter hates this exposure and instead of changing his wicked behavior, he seeks to destroy what shows it up so clearly. It would be just as unreasonable for a person to destroy a ruler or straightedge for showing how crooked is the line that he has drawn.
3:14 We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love the brethren. It is a remarkable fact that when a person is saved, he has an entirely different attitude toward Christians. This is one of the ways he receives assurance of salvation. A person who does not love a true child of God may profess to be a Christian, but the Scripture says he abides in death. He always was dead spiritually, and that is what he still is.
3:15 In the eyes of the world, hatred is not a very wicked thing, but God calls it murder. A moment's reflection will show that it is murder in embryo. The motive is there, although the act might not be committed. Thus, whoever hates his brother is a murderer. When John says that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him, he does not mean that a murderer cannot be saved. He simply means that a man who characteristically hates his fellows is a potential murderer and is not saved.
3:16 Our Lord Jesus gave us the ultimate example of love when He laid down His life for us. Christ is here contrasted with Cain. He gives us love in its highest expression. In one sense, love is invisible, but we can see the manifestation of love. In the cross of Calvary we see the love that is love indeed. John draws the lesson from this that we also ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. This means that our lives should be a continual giving-out on behalf of other believers, and that we should be ready to die for them also if necessary. Most of us will never be required to die on behalf of others, but every one of us can manifest brotherly love by sharing our material things with those in need. That is what is emphasized in verse 17.
3:17 If verse 16 suggests the most we can do for our brethren, verse 17 suggests the least. John distinctly says that a man is not a Christian who sees his brother in need and yet withholds from him what is necessary to satisfy that need. This does not justify indiscriminate giving to everyone, because it is possible to harm a man by giving him money with which to buy what would not be good for him. However, the verse does raise very disturbing questions concerning the accumulation of wealth by Christians.
3:18 We should not love in word or in tongue, but rather in deed and in truth. In other words, it should not be a matter of affectionate terms only, neither should it be an expression of what is not true. But it should be manifested in actual deeds of kindness and should be genuine instead of false.
3:19 By the exercise of this real and active love to our brethren, we shall know that we are of the truth, and this will assure our hearts as we come before Him in prayer.
3:20 For if our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and knows all things. The subject here is the attitude with which we come before God in prayer. This verse may be understood in two ways.
First of all, if our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart in the sense that He is greater in compassion. While we may have intense feelings of unworthiness, yet God knows that basically we love Him and we love His people. He knows that we are His in spite of all our failures and sins.
The other view is that if our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart in the matter of judgment. Whereas we only know our sins in a very limited way, God knows them fully and absolutely. He knows all that there is to blame in us, whereas we only know it in part. We lean to this latter viewpoint, although both are true and therefore possible.
3:21 Here is the attitude of one who has a clear conscience before God. It is not that this person has been living sinlessly, but rather that he has been quick to confess and forsake his sins. By doing this, he has confidence before God and boldness in prayer. Thus, 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. To keep His commandments is to abide in Him. It is to live in close, vital intimacy with the Savior. When we are thus in fellowship with Him, we make His will our own will. By the Holy Spirit, He fills us with the knowledge of His will. In such a condition, we would not ask for anything outside the will of God. When we ask according to His will, we receive from Him the things we ask for.
3:23 God's commandment is that we should believe on the name of His Son Jesus Christ, and love one another, as He gave us commandment. This seems to summarize all the commandments of the NT. It speaks of our duty to God and to our fellow Christians. Our first duty is to trust in the Lord Jesus Christ. Then because true faith is expressed in right conduct, we should love one another. This is an evidence of saving faith.
Notice in this and other verses that John uses the personal pronouns He and Him to refer to both God the Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ without stopping to explain which one is intended. He dares to do this because the Son is as truly God as the Father, and it is no presumption to speak of Them in the same breath.
3:24a The first part of verse 24 ends the section on love as a test of the children of God: Now he who keeps His commandments abides in Him, and He in him. To obey Him is to abide in Him, and those who abide in Him are assured of His abiding presence also.
3:24b And by this we know that He abides in us, by the Spirit whom He has given us. The subject of confidence is introduced by the statement that assurance of God's abiding in us comes by the Holy Spirit. All believers have the Holy Spirit. He is the one who guides them into all truth and enables them to discern error.
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