1 John 3 — children of God, and love in deed, not just in word

Through 1 John, part 5 · 1 John 3

What kind of love (vv. 1–3)

"See what great love the Father has given us that we should be called God's children — and we are!"

Three things right at the top. God loves you. You are a child of God. And because you're a child of God, the world won't recognize you — "because it didn't know him." Our behavior is meant to look like Jesus, and Jesus wasn't recognized either.

"We are God's children now, and what we will be has not yet been revealed. We know that when he appears, we will be like him because we will see him as he is." We don't know everything about Jesus' glorified state. What we do know is that we'll be like Him. And "everyone who has this hope in him purifies himself just as he is pure." John borrows the language of ceremonial washing, but this purification is on the heart. Hope like that changes how you live now.

Sin is lawlessness (vv. 4–6)

"Everyone who commits sin practices lawlessness; and sin is lawlessness." To live in sin is to live in lawlessness against God — refusing to follow Him, going your own way instead. "You know that he was revealed so that he might take away sins, and there is no sin in him." Jesus is sinless, and the reason He came was to take our sin away.

"Everyone who remains in him does not sin; everyone who sins has not seen him or known him." Remember chapter 1: falling in the dirt versus rolling in it. A continuing life of habitual sin reveals a lack of Jesus altogether. Those who abide in Christ avoid sin. So the question isn't whether you ever stumble — it's which way your life is bent. Toward lawlessness, or toward seeking God and His way?

Whose child are you? (vv. 7–10)

"Little children, let no one deceive you! The one who does what is right is righteous, just as he is righteous." You can't live a life of wickedness and have Jesus in you, and the only way to live a truly righteous life is to have Christ in you. Have you ever met someone and thought, "They must be a Christian"? That's this.

"The one who commits sin is of the devil, for the devil has sinned from the beginning. The Son of God was revealed for this purpose: to destroy the devil's works." Jesus didn't come only to defeat the devil; He came to free people from the bondage of sin. "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." A child of God is not able to go on living in habitual lawlessness. It's against his very nature now. "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."

Cain and the world (vv. 11–15)

"This is the message you have heard from the beginning: we should love one another." That has always been the message. Then the counterexample: Cain, "who was of the evil one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his deeds were evil, and his brother's were righteous." Wickedness hates righteousness, because righteousness exposes it. Abel's goodness revealed Cain's evil, and Cain couldn't stand it.

"Do not be surprised, brothers and sisters, if the world hates you." Your righteousness will provoke wickedness to anger — "men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil" (John 3:19–20). But "we know that we have passed from death to life because we love our brothers and sisters." Salvation is as drastic as going from dead to alive, and love for other Christians is how you can tell. "Everyone who hates his brother or sister is a murderer" — hate is where murder starts — "and you know that no murderer has eternal life residing in him."

The most and the least (vv. 16–18)

"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."

Hate takes someone's life; love gives up your own. Cain took a life out of hatred; Jesus gave His out of love (Romans 5:8; John 15:13). Most of us will never be asked to die for another believer. But we're asked to live in a way that shows love toward them — "present your bodies a living sacrifice" (Romans 12:1). Verse 16 is the most we could do for each other. Verse 17 is the least.

"If anyone has this world's goods and sees a fellow believer in need but withholds compassion from him — how does God's love reside in him?" It's a question John expects you to answer, and once you start making excuses it becomes obvious the answer is "it can't." So: do you know people who have needs? If you don't, you need to get to know more people. And do you help them, or do you suppress compassion and do nothing? The Christian life was never just about not doing bad.

Then John drops it: "Little children, let us not love in word or speech, but in action and in truth." James said the same thing — telling a hungry brother "stay warm and be well fed" without giving him anything is worthless (James 2:15–16). Real love is sincere and it acts.

Confidence before God (vv. 19–22)

"This is how we will know that we belong to the truth and will reassure our hearts before him." One way you can know you're a child of God is that you love people and help them. Regeneration shows itself in love for other believers to the degree that we actually meet their needs. If we don't, our heart will condemn us — and "God is greater than our hearts, and he knows all things"; He knows what needs doing and that we aren't doing it. But when we do help, "we have confidence before God, and we receive whatever we ask from him because we keep his commands and do what is pleasing in his sight." As we abide in Him, the Spirit directs us in His will, and doing what He says pleases Him.

The command, and the Spirit (vv. 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." Come to saving faith. Love others. True faith shows up in right conduct.

"The one who keeps his commands remains in him, and he in him. And the way we know that he remains in us is from the Spirit he has given us." Abiding runs through everything John writes; Paul calls it walking in the Spirit. This relationship with Jesus produces righteous behavior. The biggest tell that you aren't spending time with Jesus is a life of sin — especially a life of despising other people. And the Spirit's presence is what gives us assurance: "The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God" (Romans 8:16).

John's test is simple and it's uncomfortable. You see a need, you're able to meet it, and you either do or you don't. Before you take that one, though, take the other one: are you a child of God at all? Not a churchgoer. Not a decent person. A child. That happens exactly one way. Jesus took the death you had coming, God raised Him up, and He gives His own name to everybody who believes on Him. Nobody works his way into a family. You get born into one.

Now the believer's assignment, and you won't have to hunt for it. There's a need you already know about. You've thought about it more than once, and you've prayed about it instead of moving on it. Do it this week — buy the groceries, make the call, write the check — and do it now, because by Thursday you'll have talked yourself out of it. Love in deed, not in word. Then let the Spirit do the assurance part. That's His work. It was never yours.

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Through 1 John: ← Part 4 · Part 5 · Part 6 →