For additional notes and resources check out Douglas’ website.
1 See what love the Father has given us, that we should be called children of God; and that is what we are. The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. 2 Beloved, we are God’s children now; what we will be has not yet been revealed. What we do know is this: when he is revealed, we will be like him, for we will see him as he is. 3 And all who have this hope in him purify themselves, just as he is pure.
- When we see the Lord (v.2), in the end, we will be like him.
- This transformation begins now, in this life (Rom 12:2; 2 Cor 3:18; Rom 8:29).
- This is God's "plan" for my life.
- Western Christianity's individualistic obsession with "God's plan for my life" is neither biblical nor is it part of historic Christianity.
- It is closely tied in with the "health & wealth" message embraced by hundreds of millions of evangelicals and charismatics.
- This transformation requires suffering (Rom 8:17; 1 Pet 4:1). We are in the crucible!
- God cares about character 1000x as much as he does career.
- For more, please listen to the podcast Decision Making and the Will of God.
- The hope of seeing God helps to keep us pure.
- We live in the anticipation of seeing him (v.3). He inspires us.
- Yet to meet him, we must be pure (Psalm 101:2; Habakkuk 1:13).
4 Everyone who commits sin is guilty of lawlessness; sin is lawlessness. 5 You know that he was revealed to take away sins, and in him there is no sin. 6 No one who abides in him sins; no one who sins has either seen him or known him. 7 Little children, let no one deceive you. Everyone who does what is right is righteous, just as he is righteous. 8 Everyone who commits sin is a child of the devil; for the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The Son of God was revealed for this purpose, to destroy the works of the devil. 9 Those who have been born of God do not sin, because God’s seed abides in them; they cannot sin, because they have been born of God. 10 The children of God and the children of the devil are revealed in this way: all who do not do what is right are not from God, nor are those who do not love their brothers and sisters.
- Verse 4 gives us a compact definition of sin: violation of God’s moral law.
- It is a personal affront to God, not an infraction of some arbitrary code.
- Taking morality into our own hands (as our generation has done), refusing to submit to the sovereignty of God, asserting our own autonomy, or right to “update” the Bible to suit our whims -- this is lawlessness. See also Matt 7:23.
- Law in verse 4 does not mean the same thing as the term in Romans and Galatians, where it refers to Torah.
- In verse 6, “continuing to sin” (present aspect in Greek—continuous action) means a lifestyle of unrepented sinfulness, as in Hebrews 10:26, not isolated acts of sin.
- The Gnostics sinned and sinned boldly. To them, sin was a technicality, or some imperfection, since they considered themselves to be perfect already.
- Jesus is sinless (John 8:46), so those who continue to sin have neither seen him (as he is) nor known him (Matt 7:23; 1 Cor 8:3).
- V.7 contains the phrase "does righteousness." Everyone who does righteousness is righteous. There is no authentic relationship with God if there is no seriousness about holiness -- about following Jesus' commandments!
- Satan will try to lead us astray (often through other people). Yet since God’s seed remains in us (v.9), we can't go on sinning (living a lifestyle of sin). (“Cannot” in the sense of our refusal, not our inability, since we always have free will.)
- This seed is the Word (Luke 8:11), which we must retain (Luke 8:15). “Once saved, always saved” is again shown to be a misguided notion!
11 For this is the message you have heard from the beginning, that we should love one another. 12 We must not be like Cain who was from the evil one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his own deeds were evil and his brother’s righteous. 13 Do not be astonished, brothers and sisters, that the world hates you. 14 We know that we have passed from death to life because we love one another. Whoever does not love abides in death. 15 All who hate a brother or sister are murderers, and you know that murderers do not have eternal life abiding in them. 16 We know love by this, that he laid down his life for us—and we ought to lay down our lives for one another. 17 How does God’s love abide in anyone who has the world’s goods and sees a brother or sister in need and yet refuses help?
- The false teachers resemble Cain (v.11).
- Like the false Christians of Romans 3 and 6, they claimed that sinning magnified God’s grace in forgiving sins.
- The term “antinomian” means that they maintained a lawless position with regard to sin and righteousness (anti + nomos = against + law)
- Further to verse 12, the Cainite Gnostics taught that Cain was the good guy (not Abel), that the Sodomites were spiritual persons who should never have been destroyed, and that Balaam was a righteous man.
- Why? Remember that the Gnostics typically abhorred the OT god.
- The enemies of the god of the OT were their friends. (The enemy of my enemy is my friend.)
- True love is sacrificial (v.14ff).
- 1 John 3:16 is John 3:16 at the human level, just as John 3:16 is 1 John 3:16 at the divine level.
- Cain didn't love Abel; rather than sacrificing in a godly manner, he “sacrificed” his own brother. Towards the end of the first century more and more false Christians betrayed their spiritual brothers and sisters to death.
- Turning in a Christian, especially a non-Roman citizen or a slave, would likely lead to the execution of that individual -- assuming he refused to worship Caesar as Lord. One mark of the false Christian is unwillingness to be persecuted, especially to be martyred.
- John suggests one more easy test for true and false Christianity: How do those who claim to be disciples sacrifice to meet the needs of those less fortunate? See James 2:14-26, and also Gal 6:10.
18 Little children, let us love, not in word or speech, but in truth and action. 19 And by this we will know that we are from the truth and will reassure our hearts before him 20 whenever our hearts condemn us; for God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything. 21 Beloved, if our hearts do not condemn us, we have boldness before God; 22 and we receive from him whatever we ask, because we obey his commandments and do what pleases him.
- “Setting our hearts at rest” (v.19) has been misunderstood. John isn't encouraging us to feel good about ourselves if we aren't walking in the light.
- Misinterpreting Col 3:15, some religious teachers insist anything that upsets you—anything that takes away “the peace of Christ” should be avoided. This is bogus.
- Those with hypersensitive consciences or more “accused” personalities may often find that “their hearts condemn them.” They need encouragement.
- When we've committed ourselves to loving others and are laying down our lives for them, God sees our hearts and does not condemn us.
- We may feel unworthy, but our actions show where we really stand before God.
- When we love “in truth and action” our hearts will be at rest before God because our consciences will be at peace!
- Attempts to feel good spiritually apart from obedience to God are misguided. Here are three simple tests, each inherent in the message of 1 John, which we can apply:
- Do I actively seek to alleviate the suffering of my fellow human beings?
- Am I fulfilling my commission to spread the Word?
- Do I expect others who are in Christ to walk in the light?
- And when our hearts are at rest, we receive what we pray for (v.22).
- This is not the mechanical theology called "Word-faith," which is based on a misunderstanding of Jesus' (hyperbole) in Mark 11:24.
- We are focused and spiritual in our prayers.
- See a similar thought in James 1:2-6.
23 And this is his commandment, that we should believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ and love one another, just as he has commanded us. 24 All who obey his commandments abide in him, and he abides in them. And by this we know that he abides in us, by the Spirit that he has given us.
- Finally, we know he abides in us by the Spirit he gave us (24).
- This is not because of some feeling we have, either because we can feel the Spirit or because the Spirit makes us feel good.
- Nor do we know by virtue of the fact that we were baptized (Acts 2:38).
- Rather, we know the Lord is living in us because of the effects of his Spirit in us.
- These are practical love and other elements in the fruit of the Spirit.
- To the extent that these effects are absent, Christ is not dwelling in us richly.
- The more we surrender to his Spirit, the more we will enjoy walking in the light—which is walking in his steps—and the more he will use us to spread the Word in this world.
Thought questions:
- Am I growing spiritually, actively purifying myself through the hope of seeing the Lord?
- When is the last time I helped a brother or sister in physical need?
- Is my heart at rest? Do I generally have confidence that my prayers make a difference?