03 - Chapter 3 By Pastor Jeff Wickwire Notes

1st John Series

Chapter 3

Last time, we ended chapter 2 with John’s admonition to abide in Jesus and in the things we’ve learned about Him and from Him.

He begins chapter 3 with an incredible expression of thanksgiving and awe over what God has done for us in Christ Jesus:

3:1a “Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God!”

The word “manner” is from a Greek word meaning “from what country?” John is saying, The kind of love God has poured out on us can’t be found in any country in the world! It is “otherworldly” love.

The kind of love that made it possible for us to be called “children of God” is a love he can’t find words for. John is amazed. It is inexpressible love!

Then he explains why there is so often a disconnect between the Christian and the world:

3:1b “Therefore the world does not know us, because it did not know Him.”

The world did not receive Jesus, therefore it does not understand or receive us regarding our testimony of Him. If they didn’t receive the shining sun, they won’t receive a lesser candle!

Next, John turns his attention to what we are NOW and what we WILL BECOME one day:

3:2-3 “Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. 3 And everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself, just as He is pure.”

He first positively asserts who we are now. NOW we are children of God. And we can’t fully grasp what we shall be, but when He returns, we know that we shall be like Him.

Paul writes in Philippians 3:21 that we shall have a body “like unto His glorious body!” Jesus’s glorified body could move from place to place at will. It was not subject to natural laws. He appeared in rooms without walking through the door, yet ate fish with His disciples.

It will be a body without sickness, disease, pain, or aging. What a day that will be!

______________

John points out that:

3:3 “Everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself, just as He is pure.”

If your hope is in the return of Christ, it has a purifying effect on our lifestyle. We want to be ready!

Next, John returns to the subject of sin and the Christian:

3:4-6 “Whoever commits sin also commits lawlessness, and sin is lawlessness. 5 And you know that He was manifested to take away our sins, and in Him there is no sin. 6 Whoever abides in Him does not sin. Whoever sins has neither seen Him nor known Him.“

He insists that the true child of God will not live a life of unrepentant sin. He is NOT saying the Christian will never sin, but his lifestyle will be one that shows the evidence of having been born again.

Jesus Himself said, “A good tree produces good fruit, and a bad tree produces bad fruit. 18 A good tree can’t produce bad fruit, and a bad tree can’t produce good fruit...20 Yes, just as you can identify a tree by its fruit, so you can identify people by their actions....22 Many people will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not preach in Your Name? Did we not put out demons in Your Name? Did we not do many powerful works in Your Name?’ 23 Then I will say to them in plain words, ‘I never knew you. Go away from Me, you who do wrong!” (Matt. 7:17-18; 20; 22-23)

Notice, it’s not what they said, it’s how they lived. Jesus called them, “You who do wrong.”

And this is John’s point. Many people who consider themselves religious, or just good citizens or church folks will be shocked when Christ returns. Because though they had a “form of godliness,” as Paul describes in 2 Timothy 3:5, they have not experienced “the power thereof.”

He goes on to say:

3: 7-9 “Little children, let no one deceive you. He who practices righteousness is righteous, just as He is righteous. 8 He who sins is of the devil, for the devil has sinned from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil. 9 Whoever has been born of God does not (practice) sin, for His (Jesus’s) seed remains in him; and he cannot (practice) sin (guilt free), because he has been born of God.”

If Jesus saves you, your nature will be changed along with its likes and dislikes. You will want to please God. Paul wrote in Ephesians,

“For this light within you produces only what is good and right and true. 10 Carefully determine what pleases the Lord. 11 Take no part in the worthless deeds of evil and darkness; instead, expose them” (Eph. 5:9-11).

The true Christian will seek to walk in the light and shun the works of darkness!

___________

He next turns again to the topic of love:

3:10-11 “In this the children of God and the children of the devil are manifest: Whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is he who does not love his brother. 11 For this is the message that you heard from the beginning, that we should love one another,”

This is one of John’s mantras. Over and over again he connects truly loving God with also loving your brother. In chapter 2 he wrote, “He who says he is in the light, and hates his brother, is in darkness until now.” (Vs.9) “He who hates his brother is in darkness...” (vs.11)

He next points back to the beginning and the book of Genesis to focus on Cain as an example of a religious person devoid of love:

3:12 “not as Cain who was of the wicked one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his works were evil and his brother’s righteous.”

Cain committed the first murder and the first martyrdom when he killed his righteous brother, Abel. He killed him out of jealousy that God had accepted his sacrificial offering but not his own.

Cain birthed the world’s first false religion—the religion of good works, self effort, and human merit. But completely rejected the true religion established by God with Adam and Eve—that which taught that only shed blood could cover sin.

Thus, Cain hated his brother’s true life of faith, just like Christians are hated today for their faith in Jesus Christ, the one TRUE WAY. John says, The true child of God will not be Cain-like, but will be Christ-like!

Hence, John says:

3:13 “Do not marvel, my brethren, if the world hates you.” In the same way Cain hated righteous Abel, the world will hate and persecute God’s true people.

Then the Apostle continues with tough language regarding love and true salvation:

3:14-15 “We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love the brethren. He who does not love his brother abides in death. 15 Whoever hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him.”

These are very strong words. John is likely remembering how the twelve disciples sat at a table with Jesus, Who suddenly dropped a bomb by saying that one of them would betray Him. It was Judas. And because Judas clearly did not love the Lord, he turned Him over to be murdered.

Also, John remembered that Jesus had taught in the Sermon on the Mount that murder begins with hatred in the heart:

“You’re familiar with the command to the ancients, ‘Do not murder.’ I’m telling you that anyone who is so much as angry with a brother or sister is guilty of murder. Carelessly call a brother ‘idiot!’ and you just might find yourself hauled into court. Thoughtlessly yell ‘stupid!’ at a sister and you are on the brink of hellfire” (Matt. 5:21-22).

Jesus had also said, “By this shall all men know that you are My disciples, by how you love one another” (John 13:35).

___________

John next says that we should practice the same love Jesus had:

3:16-18 “By this we know love, because He laid down His life for us. And we also ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. 17 But whoever has this world’s goods, and sees his brother in need, and shuts up his heart from him, how does the love of God abide in him?”

As Jesus laid His life down for us, this should be our attitude as well. And John makes it practical. When we see a brother or sister in need and we have the wherewithal to help them, we should help them. This is love in action.

The Apostle James said exactly the same thing: “If you have a friend who is in need of food and clothing, 16 and you say to him, “Well, good-bye and God bless you; stay warm and eat hearty,” and then don’t give him clothes or food, what good does that do?” (2:15-16)

He says that real love will act:

3:18 “My little children, let us not love in word or in tongue, but in deed and in truth.”

Next, John will use the phrase “by this we know” for the third time in six verses. He has already said, “We know we have passed from death to life,” and, “By this we know love.” And now in verse 19, he will show us how we know we’re saved by a threefold heart-test:

3:19 “And by this we know that we are of the truth (saved), and shall assure our hearts before Him.”

The first test is a confirming heart. While our salvation is ultimately confirmed by the Word of God, our works testify to having genuinely been born again. So he says, “By this” that is, by loving the brethren with good works, we know we’re truly born again. Good works don’t save us, but good works confirm that we have been truly saved!

The second heart-test is a condemning heart.

3:20 “For if our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and knows all things.”

Someone who is truly born again will be sensitive to sin, and will feel guilt and conviction when they do wrong. Though this is unpleasant, it shows the evidence of true salvation. The lost are not concerned with sin or with offending God.

The Bible speaks of how they instead have a seared conscience:

1 Tim 4:1-2 “But the [Holy] Spirit explicitly and unmistakably declares that in later times some will turn away from the faith, paying attention instead to deceitful and seductive spirits and doctrines of demons,....whose consciences are seared as with a branding iron [leaving them incapable of ethical functioning],”

The conscience is the God-given moral compass within each of us. If the conscience is “seared”—literally “cauterized”—then it has been rendered insensitive. Such a conscience does not function properly; it’s as if “spiritual scar tissue” has dulled the sense of right and wrong.

But unlike the lost, the born again Christian has a heightened sensitivity and concern about sin.

____________

So there is the confirming heart, the condemning heart, and the third heart-test is the confident heart:

3:21 “Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence toward God.”

When our sin is washed away by the shed blood of Jesus at the moment of our salvation, a deep, settled knowing comes upon our heart. The weight of sin is lifted, joy replaces sorrow, and we have confidence to approach God!

Paul writes: “The Spirit you received does not make you slaves, so that you live in fear again; rather, the Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship. And by him we cry, “Abba, Father” (Ro. 8:15).

John says this newfound confidence produces a fruitful prayer life:

3:22 “And whatever we ask we receive from Him, because we keep His commandments and do those things that are pleasing in His sight.”

Notice the connection he makes between answered prayer and living right!

The true child of God will endeavor to walk in obedience to His Word, and to living a life that is pleasing to the Lord. We live for an audience of One. I don’t live to please the world, I live to please Him.

_____________

As we approach the close, John provides a snapshot of a genuine Christian life:

3:23 “And this is His commandment: that we should believe on the name of His Son Jesus Christ and love one another, as He gave us commandment.”

Believing on Him and loving the brethren!

Finally, he closes chapter 3 by using the phrase “By this we know” one more time to reveal whether or not we’re truly saved:

3:24 “Now he who keeps His commandments abides in Him, and He in him. And by this we know that He abides in us, by the Spirit whom He has given us.”

This is the one irrefutable test as to whether or not you’re saved—if His Spirit dwells in you!

Paul wrote emphatically, “But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him [and is not a child of God]” (Ro. 8:9).