First John: 1 John 3:10c-The Practice of Divine Righteousness Constitutes the Practice of Divine Love Lesson # 115

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. (ESV)

Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom

Wednesday December 13, 2017

www.wenstrom.org

Lesson # 115

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. (ESV)

“Nor is the one who does not love his brother” is composed of the following: (1) conjunction kai (καί), “nor” (2) articular nominative masculine singular present active participle form of the verb agapaō (ἀγαπάω), “whoever loves” (3) negative particle me (μή), “not” (4) articular accusative masculine singular form of the noun adelphos (ἀδελφός), “brother” (5) genitive third person masculine singular form of the intensive personal pronoun autos (αὐτός), “his.”

The conjunction kai means “specifically” since the word is epexegetical which means that the clause which it introduces explains or defines specifically what John means by the previous clause which speaks of a believer not practicing divine righteousness.

The noun adelphos means “spiritual brothers and sister” and refers to a hypothetical believer who is divinely loved by another believer.

The word describes these Christians as related to each other and the Lord Jesus Christ through regeneration, thus, the word refers to a “fellow-believer, fellow-Christian, spiritual brother or sister.”

The articular construction of the noun adelphos is employed with the genitive third person masculine singular form of the intensive personal pronoun autos to denote possession expressing the relationship between believers.

The verb agapaō means “to divinely love” referring to the function of God’s love in the life of the believer since John is speaking of the love which is reproduced in the Christian by God the Holy Spirit when they obey the Lord’s command in to love one another.

In other words, this love is divine in quality and character because is resides in the character and nature of God and is reproduced in the Christian by the Spirit when they obey this command.

The verb’s meaning is negated by the negative particle me, which denies any idea of a believer practicing divine love in their life.

The present tense of the verb agapaō is a gnomic present which is used in a generic statement to describe something that is true “any time” rather than a universal statement that is true “all the time.”

Therefore, the gnomic present expresses the absolute spiritual principle that the one who at any time does not divinely love their fellow believer by no means exists in the state of possessing the characteristic of righteousness which originates from God’s character and nature.

By means of this, God’s children are manifested as well as the devil’s children: Any person who at any time does not practice that which constitutes true righteousness by no means possesses the characteristic originating from the one true God. Specifically, the one who at any time does not divinely love their fellow believer. (My translation)

The second statement which follows the prepositional phrase “by means of this” is epexegetical which means that it identifies specifically what John means by the first assertion regarding the believer’s failure to practice that which constitutes true righteousness.

This epexegetical clause asserts that the believer who at any time does not divinely love their fellow believer by no means possesses the characteristic of righteousness which originates from the one true God’s character and nature.

Therefore, this epexegetical clause is marking the correspondence between the practice of divine love and the practice of righteousness.

In other words, the believer who is practicing righteousness is practicing love since the practice of righteousness demands that a person fulfill their obligation to God to love Him with their entire being and strength and their obligation to their fellow human being to love them as themselves.

The practice of God’s righteousness refers to the believer fulfilling their obligations to both God and man.

The former required that they love God with their entire being and the latter required that they love their neighbor as themselves.

Their obligation to their fellow-believer is to love their fellow-believer as Christ loves them.

Plummer writes “Love is righteousness in relation to others.”[1]

“Divinely love” in is the verb agapaō which refers to the function of God’s love in the life of the believer since John is speaking of the love which is reproduced in the Christian by God the Holy Spirit when they obey the Lord’s command in to love one another.

In other words, this love is divine in quality and character because is resides in the character and nature of God and is reproduced in the Christian by the Spirit when they obey this command.

The mention of the practice of divine love forms a bridge to the sixth major section in First John, which appears in , which discusses the importance of obeying the Lord Jesus Christ’s Spirit inspired command recorded in to love one another as He loves.

In this verse, the apostle John is by no means teaching the recipients of this epistle how they can identify the person who has been declared justified by the Father through faith in His Son Jesus Christ and subsequently regenerated by the Spirit and thus His child.

In other words, he is not identifying the marks of a believer and a non-believer.

But rather, he is identifying for the recipients of First John, who were regenerated, how they demonstrate that they can confirm or be assured that they are children of God and how they can have confidence at the Bema Seat.

In this verse, he teaches in a negative sense that they can manifest that they are a child of God by practicing divine righteousness which constitutes practicing divine love toward others.

This interpretation is substantiated by John’s use of the noun adelphos in , which refers to a spiritual brother or sister in Christ or in other words, a fellow believer or fellow Christian.

The non-believer has no capacity whatsoever to practice divine righteousness nor divine love because they are not indwelt by the Spirit as believers are.

We also must remember that constitutes a single unit which identifies for the recipients of this epistle how they can have confidence at the Bema Seat Evaluation of the church and know for certain that they are a child of God.

He is identifying in a negative way how they can demonstrate that they are children of God.

Furthermore, in , John states that the overall purpose of this epistle was that the recipients of this epistle would continue to regularly experience fellowship with God, which is something the non-believer has no capacity to do whatsoever.

Now, the question arises, that if John is not contrasting the children of the devil with the children of God, then why does he mention these two totally antithetical groups of people together here in ?

The answer is that he is presenting a contrast with his statement in , which asserts that the one who at any time does practice that which constitutes sin does possess the characteristic of sinning which originated from the devil.

Therefore, if we compare with , we can see clearly that John is not contrasting the children of God with the children of the devil but rather he is contrasting the practice of sinning and the characteristic of sinning with the practice of righteousness and the characteristic of righteousness.

In other words, he is contrasting the believer being characterized by sinning with being characterized by the practice of righteousness.

The latter originates with God and the former with the devil.

Thus, John is persuading his readers to continue to make it their habit of practicing righteousness rather than sinning since they are children of God and not children of the devil.

indicates that they were making it their habit of practicing righteousness rather than sinning since they serve to confirm that they were regularly experiencing fellowship with God and thus these verses serve to commend them for doing so.

[1] Plummer Alfred Plummer, Commentary on the Epistles of St John, Cambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges (Cambridge University Press, 1894).