“The Lifestyle of the Children of God” 1 John 3:1-11

Love Made A Way

A Sermon Series on Atonement

“The Lifestyle of the Children of God”

1 John 3:1-11

 Introduction

A man purchased a white mouse to use as food for his pet snake. He dropped the unsuspecting mouse into the snake’s glass cage, where the snake was sleeping in a bed of sawdust. The tiny mouse had a serious problem on his hands. At any moment he could be swallowed alive. Obviously, the mouse needed to come up with a brilliant plan.

What did the terrified creature do? He quickly set up work covering the snake with sawdust chips until it was completely buried. With that, the mouse apparently thought he had solved his problem.

The solution, however, came from outside. The man took pity on the silly little mouse and removed him from the cage. No matter how hard we try to cover or deny our sinful nature, it’s fool’s work. Sin will eventually awake from sleep and shake off its cover. Were it not for the saving grace of the Master’s hand, sin would eat us alive.

The Destiny of Those Who Hope In Christ (vv. 1-3)

See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him. 2 Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is. 3 And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure.

(v. 1) “See what kind of love,” – “It is the way that God has loved us which shows us how great His love is for us,”[1] John begins this section by pointing out how wonderful the love of God is those who place their faith in Jesus, The expression of love that John highlights is that “we should be called children of God.” The Father loves us therefore He calls us His children. God has chosen “us” to be in God’s family – He has chosen to give us His love. In our being called the children of God, there is privileges, a title, and possessing His nature.

But it is not just that we are called “children of God,” John adds, “and so we are.” Not just in name but also in nature.[2] Who God is has become immersed into the child – His nature becomes our nature (as a biological parents passes on their nature to their children). But there is also the sense that when Jesus returns (parousia), how the believer will be changed is also wonderful.[3] God shows His love for His children in how He makes them like Him.

“Adoption is the legal act by which our Father places us into his family; regeneration is the spiritual birth by which we receive the nature of our Father.” – Spurgeon

But just because God loves you, doesn’t mean the world[4] will love you. (v. 1) John makes a similar argument in the gospel of John 15:18, “If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you.” When the world hates the Christian, it is hating that part of the Christian’s life that has been transformed and is being transformed into the image of Christ (that part of the believer’s life that they don’t understand). They do not belong to this world any longer. The more God changes the Christian’s life, the more the world (who is not like Him) no longer knows and understands them.

In Genesis 37 there is the account of how Joseph’s brothers felt toward him, (remember Joseph was his father’s favored son), Genesis 37:4 “But when his brothers saw that their father loved him more than all his brothers, they hated him and could not speak peacefully to him.” Genesis 37:8 “So they hated him even more for his dreams and for his words.” And by v. 18 “They saw him from afar, and before he came near to them they conspired against him to kill him.” The brothers hated Joseph because of his relationship to the father.

(v. 2) “and what we will be has not yet appeared;. . .” “the what suggests something unspeakable, contained in the likeness of God.”[5] Romans 8:29 “For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, . . .” In eternity we will be like Christ (not God, not the same in equality, or degree, but in similar nature). 2 Corinthians 3:18 “And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another.” “Although our present status as children of God is wonderful, our future state will be even more extraordinary.”[6] What we will become is veiled until his coming. There is a lot we don’t know . .  .

(v. 2) “but we know that when he appears we shall be like him,” We are being changed into the image of Christ, and in the future when he appears we will be like him, in that we have been changed. Philippians 3:20-21 says, “. . . we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, 21 who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body, . . .”

(v. 2) “because we shall see him as he is.” “That is, not seeing him as he was in the days of his earthly ministry, nor seeing him with the eyes of faith, but seeing him as he now is in heavenly glory – the sight of him, the author says, will be enough to make us pure like him.”[7] So it makes no sense to say that we are anticipating the return of Jesus (who has freed us from our sin), to remain in that sin when He could arrive at any moment. Sin signifies rebellion against God, but yet we wait for Jesus’ return?

 Everyone Who Hopes In Christ Has a Lifestyle of Being Purified of Sin.

(v. 3) “everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure.” Everyone who rests upon Him; The destiny of everyone who rests in/hopes in Christ is to be conformed to the image of God in Christ (this is how love is defined in this passage). The Holy Spirit works and convicts us of sin, He does His work, but we also play a part. We purify ourselves by repenting (turning from) sin, praying, fasting, and avoiding sinful things in our lives. We change our habits. But notice he says, “purifies himself as he (Jesus) is pure.” The standard of holiness is not another Christian, a mentor, no, the standard that we seek to follow is Jesus.

Our Incentive to Be Holy: His Immanent Return and Our Devotion to Him.

But what is the incentive to change; why should we put off old sinful behavior, and to put on new righteous actions? It is our “hope in him” – when the Bible uses the word hope, it is not the same as we use it today, as in “I hope it rains soon, my grass needs some water.” No, it is a certainty about something in the future. As in, “My hope in heaven is found in Christ.” This hope knows that one day we will see Him, “face-to-face.” “The Christian hope is incompatible with moral indifference.”[8]

Luke 12:35-38 is a parable Jesus told about how believers must be ready for Jesus’ return. The setting of the parable is where the master has left for a wedding, and will at some point return. But in that culture a wedding would last a week, so the servants must “Stay dressed for action and keep your lamps burning, 36 and be like men who are waiting for their master to come home from the wedding feast, so that they may open the door to him at once when he comes and knocks. 37 Blessed are those servants whom the master finds awake when he comes. Truly, I say to you, he will dress himself for service and have them recline at table, and he will come and serve them. 38 If he comes in the second watch, or in the third, and finds them awake, blessed are those servants!” Our incentive of a changed life is our love for Jesus – our relationship and devotion to Him.[9]

 The Evidence of Those Who Practice Lawlessness (vv. 4-10)

4 Everyone who makes a practice of sinning also practices lawlessness; sin is lawlessness. 5 You know that he appeared in order to take away sins, and in him there is no sin. 6 No one who abides in him keeps on sinning; no one who keeps on sinning has either seen him or known him.

(v. 4) “Everyone who makes a practice of sinning also practices lawlessness. . .” Notice that it does not say, “everyone who sins” but everyone who makes it a practice of sinning (an ongoing habitual practice, a lifestyle of sin). All Christians sin, but they do not make it a practice to sin. They are convicted of sin in their lives, by the Holy Spirit, and then they repent from that sin. They are in agreement with God that it is wrong, gross, destructive, and needs to leave the believer’s life. The lawless person is the one who has a lifestyle of sin, the one who “keeps on sinning.”

And when John says, “sin is lawlessness,” he does not mean sin is a violation of the Mosaic law, but rather that “sin constitutes opposition to and rebellion against God, like the opposition and rebellion of Satan.”[10] Your actions reveal what you hold to be true.

Sin; a willful disregard for God. A rebellious revolt against God’s will.

Being with the Devil.

(v. 5) “You know that he appeared in order to take away sins[11], . . .” Jesus was sent “by God to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins (2:2; 4:10), and it is his blood that cleanses us from all sin (1:7). To “take away sins” here is to be understood as making forgiveness available by offering himself as the atoning sacrifice for those sins. Thus, John can say in 1:9 that God, in light of Jesus’s death, is both faithful and just when he forgives our sins. Our sins “have been forgiven on account of his name” (2:12). The author can say to his readers that “you know” these things because they stand at the very heart of the gospel message that they have heard from the beginning.”[12]

Jesus appeared in order to take away sins.

 (v. 5) “. . . and in him there is no sin.” Because Jesus never sinned; he was without sin – and we are becoming like Him. Therefore, as children of God, who are being transformed into His image, we are becoming less sinful (but will never be sinless until eternity). “To tolerate sin, or to ignore sin in human conduct is to undermine the purpose of Christ’s work.”[13] You can’t be on mission with Jesus, while doing that which He is completely against.

 7 Little children, let no one deceive you. Whoever practices righteousness is righteous, as he is righteous. 8 Whoever makes a practice of sinning is of the devil, for the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil. 9 No one born of God makes a practice of sinning, for God’s seed abides in him; and he cannot keep on sinning, because he has been born of God.

There is the word “practices” again; so whoever keeps on doing righteous acts is righteous. But the one who keeps on doing, a habitual practice, sinful behavior is not saved, does not know God. It does not mean that Christians get it right, 100% of the time, but the majority of choices are righteous. It also doesn’t mean a lost person will get it wrong 100% of the time. But there is a saying, “like father, like son.”

When Jesus was talking with the Jewish spiritual leaders he said, John 8:44 “You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies.”

(v. 8) “Whoever makes a practice of sinning is of the devil, for the devil has been sinning from the beginning.” John is making an argument of influence – “Just as the Christian lives under the influence of God living in him, so do sinners live under the influence of the devil and allow themselves to be seduced by him.”[14] Christians do what God does, Non-Christians do what the devil does. Satan has always sinned and sought to persuade others to do as he does, “from the beginning.”

God created everything perfect, the devil brought sin into the world and corrupted it. God is in the process of restoring it back, the devil seeks to constantly undo what God has done. God has redeemed the Christian, the devil seeks to pull them off track and turn back into sin.

(v. 8) “The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil.” The works of the devil are the sins which we commit, which Paul called “works of darkness” (Romans 13:12; Eph 5:11). To “destroy” has the idea of loosen, to undo, to dissolve, to break.[15]

Jesus appeared to destroy the works of the devil.

Why did God not just remove the devil, so that his work of rebellion and sin would stop? Why allow Him to remain to cause chaos in His creation? For the same reason He was allowed in the Garden of Eden – Man has to choose to follow good or evil. So when Christ appeared, His work was to break the chains of sin that bound us. Eventually, Satan will be removed from the earth and his influence will end.

(v. 9) “God’s seed abides in him,” This reminds us of Jesus’ parable of the sower. A farmer walks out to scatter seed across his field. The Path: Some seeds fall on the hard footpath where birds eat them. Rocky Ground: Some seeds fall on thin soil over rock, sprout quickly, but wither in the hot sun because they lack deep roots. Among Thorns: Some seeds fall where thorns grow up and choke the young plants. Good Soil: Some seeds fall on fertile ground and produce a massive harvest, yielding thirty, sixty, or a hundred times what was sown. The Word of God has landed on the fertile heart of the believer, and is growing. (Matthew 13:1–23, Mark 4:1–20, and Luke 8:4–15.)

(v. 9) Again John is not saying that Christians never sin, but it is impossible for them to have habitual sins in their lives, “No one born of God makes a practice of sinning,” because the “The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil.” Because God is present in the life of the believer, sin cannot remain. (darkness and light cannot remain in the same space). Sin/darkness is going to diminish (and in eternity be gone completely).

And Jesus’s work of destroying the work of the Devil has freed them from their sin. So you cannot be righteous without practicing righteousness – not because doing righteous things makes one righteous, but you are doing what comes natural to your nature. “Apple trees produce apples.”

 10 By this it is evident who are the children of God, and who are the children of the devil: whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is the one who does not love his brother.

When the Bible discusses race, there are two races of people. Sons of God and Sons of the Devil. They are distinguished by two simple tests: those who practice righteousness or do not practice righteousness. The second test is those who love, and those who do not love. To illustrate all that he has talked about, John gives the examples of how you treat other people, one’s “brother.” God loves humanity so much that he gave his Son so that they could be free from sin – Those who love God, love what He loves (people).

11 For this is the message that you have heard from the beginning, that we should love one another.

We have heard that we should love our brothers since the beginning of the gospel, and as far back as the beginning of time with Cain and Abel (see v. 12). But here “brothers” refers to other Christians, other “children of God.” It is walking in love that we don’t want to do anything that will cause harm to God (grieve the Holy Spirit), others because of a sin a commit, or to myself. God loves us by getting rid of sin, we love others by not sinning against them.

We began with considering how great the Father’s love is for us; and then an expression of that love is that He inparts His nature to us. It makes complete sense then that the test of a relationship with God is how His supposed children express love to others. If the children have the same nature as their father then they will naturally love others.

If we go back to the Luke 12 parable of the master returning from the wedding feast, – the second half of the parable deals with the servants who were not ready for the master’s return, “. . . 45 But if that servant says to himself, ‘My master is delayed in coming,’ and begins to beat the male and female servants, and to eat and drink and get drunk, 46 the master of that servant will come on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour he does not know, and will cut him in pieces and put him with the unfaithful. 47 And that servant who knew his master’s will but did not get ready or act according to his will, will receive a severe beating. 48 But the one who did not know, and did what deserved a beating, will receive a light beating. Everyone to whom much was given, of him much will be required, and from him to whom they entrusted much, they will demand the more.”

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[1] Marianne Meye Thompson, The IVP New Testament Commentary Series, 1-3 John (Downers Grove, Illinois; Intervarsity Press, 1992) 87.

[2] Canon A. E. Brooke, The International Critical Commentary on the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments, The Johannine Epistles (Edinburgh, England, Morrison and Gibb Limited, 1971) 81.

[3] Brooks, 81.

[4] The “world” is defined as, those who are unbelieving in Christ. Worldly people.

[5] Archibald Thomas Robertson, Word Pictures In The New Testament, Volume VI (Nashville, Tennessee; Broadman Press, 1933) 220.

[6] Daniel Akin, The New American Commentary, 1, 2, 3 John (Nashville, Tennessee; Broadman & Holman Publishing, 2001) 135.

[7] Colin G. Kruse, The Pillar New Testament Commentary, The Letters of John (Grand Rapids, Michigan; William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2020) 126.

[8] Brooks, 83.

[9] David Allen, 1-3 John, Fellowship in God’s Family (Wheaton, Illinois; Crossway Publishing, 2013) 144.

[10] Kruse, 138.

[11] See John 1:29 “Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world.”

[12] Kruse, 129.

[13] Thompson, 94.

[14] Kruse, 132.

[15] Herschel H. Hobbs, The Epistles of John (Nashville, Tennessee; Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1983) 87.