Take your Bibles and turn to 1 John 3. 1 John 3.
1 John 3 is very similar to 1 John 2. In 1 John 2, we saw John giving three tests for a true Christian - those tests were:
Well, in chapters 3-4 John is going to repeat the same tests. So this might seem a bit repetitive, but in these chapters John gives us a different emphasis. In the first two chapters, the emphasis was on fellowship with God. Our fellowship with God should result in us being obedient to God, loving the brethren and believing the right things about Christ. In chapters 3-4 it's going to be our status as God's children who are born of God that should result in us being obedient, loving the brethren, and believing the right things about Christ.
We are going to look at the first ten verses of chapter 3 tonight.
1 John 3:1-10
- Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God: therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew him not.
- Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is.
- And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure.
- Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the law: for sin is the transgression of the law.
- And ye know that he was manifested to take away our sins; and in him is no sin.
- Whosoever abideth in him sinneth not: whosoever sinneth hath not seen him, neither known him.
- Little children, let no man deceive you: he that doeth righteousness is righteous, even as he is righteous.
- He that committeth sin is of the devil; for the devil sinneth from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil.
- Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin; for his seed remaineth in him: and he cannot sin, because he is born of God.
- In this the children of God are manifest, and the children of the devil: whosoever doeth not righteousness is not of God, neither he that loveth not his brother.
The main idea in these verses is this:
We have been converted into sons of God, and true sons of God will not live in habitual sin.
Remember, this is a book that is supposed to help Christians know that they are true Christians. If you are truly saved, then you are born again, you are a child of God, and you should live like someone who is a child of God.
If you are living like a child of the devil, then you are going to have a hard time getting assurance of your salvation.
Let's break it down. In verse 1 we learn...
Look at that verse again:
1 John 3:1
- Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God: therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew him not.
The idea of this verse is wonder. It's like "I can't believe it! This is amazing! We get to be called the sons of God."
I was scrolling twitter this week and I happened to read something related to this that I want to read to you.
The Audacity of Calling God "Father"
If I call God "God" I speak truthfully.
If I call God "Lord" I speak submissively.
If I call God "King" | speak servilely.
But if I dare to call God "my Father," I speak with a brassy audacity, chutzpah, that is shockingly familiar and intimate. So it seems anyway.
You dare to call the Master of the Universe
"Father"?
You dare to call the One who controls heaven and hell "Father"?
You call the Omnipotent one "Father"?
Who do you think you are?
It is difficult to imagine a more audacious act than to stand before the Creator of the world and to name him "Father." And mean it. And not only to mean it, but to act and speak as a child acts and speaks before a loving and doting Dad.
It's shocking. It's exhilarating.
And it's beautiful beyond words.
Calling God "Father" is not some brassy boldness that we work ourselves into, nor it is gained by swallowing a bottle of liquid spiritual courage, as it were.
To call God "Father" is simply to live in the space which Jesus created. To move from residing far from God as his enemy; or on the other side of town from him as a stranger; or down the street as an acquaintance; or in an adjoining house as a servant; and to move into our own bedroom as a child in his family. To wake up in the morning and see our Father sipping a cup of coffee and saying, "Good morning, my child," as we respond, "Good morning, Father."
You see, when we live in this house, when we move into the room built by Jesus, we inhabit the home not merely of a Master or Lord or King, but the one who's given us his name and made us his own, now and forever.
"Our Father": two of the most amazing words ever uttered.
Isn't that beautiful? The idea of this verse is this "We get to call God Father! We get to be sons of God!" Behold it! Look at it! Marvel at it! What a thing! What a truth!
We are the sons of God, and we are.
But then John kind of sticks a little dig in there and says "therefore the world doesn't know you, because it didn't know Him."
Jesus, the original Son of God, came to the world and was rejected. We are the sons of God, and that is awesome, but it also means the world is going to reject us and our new nature much like it rejected Him.
So that is who we are - we are God's sons.
If verse 1 tells us who we are, then verse 2 tells us...
Look at verse 2:
1 John 3:2 2. Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is.
Here is a second awesome truth - not only are we the sons of God. But someday, Jesus is coming back and when we see Him, we are going to be like Him. We are going to become like Jesus.
The work of our sanctification is going to be complete - Jesus is going to finish it. We are going to be truly Christlike.
Now, that bit of knowledge is going to have one of two effects on you:
Either you are going to say "Yes! I get to be like Jesus! I get to be free of this sin! I get to live as I am intended to live!"
Or, you are going to say, if you truly understand it "Honestly, that sounds kind of boring."
I mean, do you understand what the end of game of this is? Do you understand what we are becoming? We are becoming like Christ and someday, no matter how far you get in this life, you are going to stand before Jesus and He is going to finish the job. You are going to be like Him!
I think what John might be getting at here is this: if you are truly saved, if you have been born again, if you have been converted - you are going to be excited to be like Jesus - that is your hope.
But if you are pretending - if you aren't really a Christian, if you are just going through the motions, then that isn't very interesting to you at all.
What we are is God's sons. What we are becoming is like Christ.
And that leads us to the third thing these verses talk about and that is...
Look at verse 3:
1 John 3:3 3. And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure.
If you are looking forward to seeing Jesus someday at His return and being finally Christlike - that is going to change the way you live. That is going to purify your life.
You are a son of God on your way to being like the Son of God - there are some things you just have no business doing, there are things you have no business watching, there are things you have no business saying. You are a son of God! You are a daughter of God!
And you ought to have some of the fear of God in you.
Now, listen, the fear of God doesn't mean that you are afraid of God. It doesn't mean you are afraid of what God is going to do to you. That condemnation has been taken care of by Christ. But it is a fear of love.
Let me put it this way: A young lady once went out with her friends and one of her friends said - let's go to this bar, all of our classmates are going to be there, it will be a good time.
And the girl said, "No, I can't do that. My dad doesn't want me at places like that. I wouldn't want to face my father after I did that."
And her friend said "Oh, you chicken, are you afraid of what your father is going to do to you?"
And the girl said "No. I'm not afraid of what my father is going to do to me if I go, I'm afraid of what I would do to my father if I went."
That is a fear based in love and that is a great description of how being God's child should change the way you life.
I have a great Heavenly Father, and I do not want to let Him down.
You see, there should be some purifying that happens in our life because we are children of God.
And the rest of this chapter expands on this. First it defines sin for us:
Look at verse 4:
1 John 3:4 4. Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the law: for sin is the transgression of the law.
Now, there are lots of definitions of sin. In Sunday School we are saying that sin is "anything we say do or think that God is not pleased with."
James 4:17 says "to him that knoweth to do good and doeth it not to him it is sin."
The word sin means "missing the mark." There are lots of definitions of sin - but here John gives us one "Sin is a transgression of the law." When God's word clearly says something, and we act against it, that is clearly a sin.
For instance, when God's word says "don't bear false witness" and you go and lie or share something that isn't true - that's a sin.
When God's word says "thou shalt not covet" and you daydream about what God has given to someone else, that is clearly a sin.
When God's word says "it's good for a man not to touch a woman" and you are living in fornication, that is clearly a sin.
We all understand this - right?
So look at verse 5:
1 John 3:5 5. And ye know that he was manifested to take away our sins; and in him is no sin.
Jesus came into this world, He came into flesh to deal with one problem - our sin. The problem Jesus came to deal with wasn't hell. Hell is righteous. God's judgement is righteous. Jesus came to deal with the reason for God's righteous judgement which is sin.
He lived a sinless life because we couldn't. He went to the cross and bore the penalty for our sin. He came to be a Savior from sin.
The very first mention of Jesus' name in the New Testament says:
Matthew 1:21 21. And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name JESUS: for he shall save his people from their sins.
Jesus came to deal with our sin, so...look at verse 6:
1 John 3:6 6. Whosoever abideth in him sinneth not: whosoever sinneth hath not seen him, neither known him.
Now - let's be very careful here. We know what this is not saying. It is not saying what it seems to be saying, that Christians never sin.
We know that for a few reasons:
First, because this book has already dealt with Christians sinning. Just look back at chapter 2:1
1 John 2:1
- My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous:
or look back at chapter 1 verse 8:
1 John 1:8 8. If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.
John isn't going to say that everyone sins in chapters 1 and 2 and then say that Christians don't sin in chapter 3.
The second reason we know this isn't what John is saying because of the evidence of the New Testament. A lot of the New Testament is written to get us, as Christians, to stop living in sin.
If true Christians didn't sin, then Paul didn't need to write 1 Corinthians, he just needed to send them a gospel tract. But obviously Christians do sin.
A third reason we know that John isn't saying that Christians never sin is because of the example of Christians in the Bible.
Almost every character in the Bible sins.
Christians sin. None of us are perfect here on this earth, we still need the grace of Jesus and John isn't saying otherwise.
So what is John saying here? (and he repeats it all the way to the first part of verse 10)
What John is saying is that true Christians, those who have been born of God, they don't continue in sin.
When I was in Bible college I took greek. I am no greek scholar. Understand this. But as a project, I had to translate this book and the thing I learned from that project - the one thing that stood out to me - is that when John says things like:
Whosoever abideth in him sinneth not
What is present in the original but hard to put in english is the idea of continuing action.
John isn't saying if you abide in Jesus you will never sin, if you know Jesus you will never sin. He is saying that if you abide in Jesus you aren't going to sin and keep sinning.
Sinning deliberately and habitually and continually isn't going to be something that you are ok with.
If you look at verses 7-8 John clarifies for us:
1 John 3:7-8 7. Little children, let no man deceive you: he that doeth righteousness is righteous, even as he is righteous. 8. He that committeth sin is of the devil; for the devil sinneth from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil.
It's not rocket surgery. Saved people are going to act like saved people. By their works you will know them.
If you act like the devil, you are probably the devil's kids. If you godly, you are probably God's kids.
You can look at my kids and know they are my kids. There are a hundred things they do that if you know me you would say "hey, that nose, that grin, she has to be one of Ryan's kids." Or when Molly or Noah start sharing some random fact you are like "yep, that's one of Ryan's kids."
Listen, can you look at your life and say "That's one of God's kids?" or do you look and see "that's one of the devil's kids?" Which do you resemble more?
That's the point John is trying to make. Look at verse 9-10 and we'll wrap this up.
1 John 3:9-10 9. Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin; for his seed remaineth in him: and he cannot sin, because he is born of God. 10. In this the children of God are manifest, and the children of the devil: whosoever doeth not righteousness is not of God, neither he that loveth not his brother.
Listen, when a lost person sins they are acting like a lost person - they are acting consistent with their nature and they are sinning against God the judge. When a Christian sins, he is acting in a way opposed to his nature and he is sinning against God His father.
We aren't saying that Christians never sin, we are saying that you should be able to look at the life of a believer (over time) and see whose child He is. What would people say about you?
So, let's review tonight: