25 Sep 2012

I John 3:6-10

Posted by joncooper

I John 3:6: “Whosoever abideth in him sinneth not: whosoever sinneth hath not seen him, neither known him.
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.
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.”

This is a very interesting passage, and we need to be careful with it. First of all, we need to keep in mind what John said earlier in the book:

I John 1:8: “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.
9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
10 If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.”

These verses cannot be disregarded. We need to understand the context of what John has been talking about.

In chapter 1 John established that all men are sinners and must go to Jesus in order to obtain forgiveness for sins. John then goes on to explain the differences between those who are saved and those who are not. Genuine Christians do not behave the same way as unbelievers: there are distinct differences, and John talks about these in chapter 2.

One of the hallmarks of being a Christian is that they obey Jesus out of a sincere and heartfelt love for Him. As John said in chapter 2, those who do not do this do not know God:

I John 2:3: “And hereby we do know that we know him, if we keep his commandments.
4 He that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him.”

This is also very clear. In order to become saved we must ask Jesus for forgiveness, and when we do this God will change us. One of the changes is that we will keep His commandments.

So what are we to make of “Whosoever abideth in him sinneth not”? I think that John is building on what he has said before: people who are genuinely saved will obey Christ. This is not to say that they will never sin (which John talked about in chapter 1), but that they will spend their lives in the pursuit of holiness. After all, look at what he says in the very next verse: he that doeth righteousness is righteous. John is repeating what he has said before.

His point is this: people who continue to live in sin, living ungodly lives, are of the devil. When you become saved you start to change, and one of the results of this inward change is a heart that hates sin. People who are genuinely saved will act in righteous ways; they are not perfect, and they do fall, but that is how they live. People who live lives that are consistently unrighteous, unholy, selfish, and ungodly have no reason to believe that they are saved.

What John is doing is providing another way of knowing if you are actually saved. If you are living a self-centered life, if you love your sins, and if you have no desire to obey God, then you do not know Jesus. You have not been changed. Your conversion was phony. You may have had an “experience”, but it was not real. Real Christians pursue righteousness. If you do not have that longing for holiness then you do not know God. As John points out, if you are living in sin then you are following the devil, and you cannot follow the devil and follow God at the same time. If you pursue sin then you are pursuing the devil. Real believers cannot lead lives of sin.

John sums up his point in verse 10:

I John 3:10: “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.”

It all boils down to this: it is madness to think that a person who is living an entirely sinful life, full of evil, and who gets angry at the very thought of following God’s commands, is saved. Such people are “the children of the devil”. They do not know God. The children of God are different: they hate sin and strive to lead righteous lives. Why? Because the Spirit of God is inside them. They are not who they used to be.

John is not saying that your works save you. What he is saying is that the way you live your life reveals who you really are. If you lead a life of sin then you are of the devil. If you lead a life of holiness then you are of God. It is not any more complicated than that.

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