1 John 3:1-10

Observations:

v. 1, From speaking on the expectation from the reborn, John implores his readers to see the love of the Father that He gives His people, transforming them from alienated strangers to adopted children. He makes note that with this new identity, we are cut off from the world; if the world of sinners do not know the Father, they do not know His children.

v. 2, noting in 2:28 the eschatological perspective John beckons his audience to have, he makes another eschatological remark here, informing us that we will be like Him when we returns, because we will see Him as He is.

v.3, This hope of adoption in Christ purifies the hopeful

v. 4, John shifts gears or contrasts with v. 3 by tying sin and lawlessness together

What is the distinction between the two.

v. 5-6, next John says that in Christ there is no sin; He came to take away sin, therefore no one who abides in Him does not sin. Sinners do not know Him and have not seen Him

Important point after a mention of antichrists.

v. 7-8, John transitions to next point, warns his audience to guard themselves from deception; the professing believer who practices righteousness is righteous, whereas the one who practices sin is of the devil.

The devil has been sinning from the beginning and Christ has come to destroy the works of the devil

v. 9-10, Christians who have been made alive, who carries within the seed of God, will not make a living of sinning, for they cannot, because they belong to God.

This is the distinction between the children of God and the devil, and it is an obvious distinction:

God’s people will live how God has called His people and they will love their brother or sister in Christ.

Intro:

Recap on last week

The issue is that we do not need teachers or extrabiblical resources; we need teachers/extrabiblical resources that possess the Holy Spirit’s anointing.

Connection between abiding in God and practicing righteousness.

Established connection between His promises and our confidence

Read 1 John 3:1-10

Head- What does it mean?

(10-15 min.)

v. 1-3

v. 1, From speaking on the expectation from the reborn and the confidence that come from the reborn, John implores his readers to see the love of the Father that He gives His people, transforming them from alienated strangers to adopted children. He makes note that with this new identity, we are cut off from the world; if the world of sinners do not know the Father, they do not know His children.

The incompatibility of the world and the Christian way comes again and again in John’s writings (e.g. Jn. 15:18–16:4). The world’s failure to know Christ’s followers is not to be wondered at for it did not know him.

v. 2, noting in 2:28 the eschatological perspective John beckons his audience to have, he makes another eschatological remark here, informing us that we will be like Him when we returns, because we will see Him as He is.

v.3, This hope of identity transformation in Christ purifies the hopeful

This is the only place in John’s letter where the word hope occurs.

Summary:

From the confidence Christians should have, John notes the importance in understanding God’s love for His people, calling us His children. Our identity has been transformed to such a point that the world cannot recognize us as its own and we will further transform upon the return of Christ. This should give us hope. Our hope is upon firm substance, God. Not people. Not ideologies. Not circumstances. God.

v. 4-6

v. 4, John shifts gears or contrasts with v. 3 by tying sin and lawlessness together

Major repetition of “sin” in next few verses, when it was last used in 2:12

It is suspected that we have more context behind why John wrote this letter.

“But why did John have to emphasize this point, and what is the significance of it?

It seems most likely that the readers were being tempted to regard sin as a matter of indifference: to fall into sin was not a serious matter. At the beginning of the letter we saw that there were people in the church who claimed to be sinless, and that John had the task of showing them that they were not in fact free from sin, and that they needed to seek cleansing and forgiveness.

Perhaps these same people argued that even if they did commit sin, it was not a matter of any great moment. After all, as John himself taught, there was ready pardon for the person who confessed his sin. Paul had to face a similar problem with people who argued that Christians could sin with impunity and God would be gracious to them (Rom. 6:1). But both Paul and John were emphatic that this was not the case. To argue in this way reflected a false understanding of sin.”

What is the connection between sin and lawlessness?

The word “lawlessness” occurs only here in the Epistle, and the word “law” is completely absent. This makes it hard to see why John introduces the idea of lawbreaking as such at this point, and why its use would have counted as an argument with his readers.

It has been suggested that the Greek word used here has a different connotation. It is used in 2 Thessalonians 2:3, 7 to describe “the man of lawlessness” who will be opposed to Christ at his second coming. This and other references suggest that the word was associated with the final outbreak of evil against Christ and that it signifies rebellion against the will of God.

To commit sin is thus to place oneself on the side of the devil and the antichrist and to stand in opposition to Christ. If this view is correct, the idea of “law” contained in the Greek word, according to its etymology, has been obscured and the stress falls more on the idea of opposition to God which is inherent in disregarding his law.

The advantages of taking the word in this way are that it fits in with John’s earlier teaching on the presence of antichrists in the world, and that it associates this section of the letter closely with the immediately preceding section: one cannot hope for the appearing of Christ and at the same time persist in the sin which signifies rebellion against him. Sin is not a matter of isolated peccadillos: it is an expression of siding with God’s ultimate enemy—the devil

v. 5-6, next John says that in Christ there is no sin; He came to take away sin, therefore no one who abides in Him does not sin. Sinners do not know Him and have not seen Him

Important point after a mention of antichrists.

John thus appears to be stating that the Christian is sinless. But this at once raises difficulties of two kinds.

The first is that elsewhere in this Epistle John allows for the possibility of sin by believers (1:8, 10; 2:1; 5:16), and also that much of what he says is in the form of exhortation to his readers not to sin but to practice righteousness (2:1, 15, 29; 3:12, 18; 5:21). Clearly John did not regard what he says here as being incompatible with the possibility, and indeed the fact, of sin in the lives of his readers.

The second fact is that what John allows for in his readers is confirmed by our own personal experience. Few Christians would claim to be sinless in practice or free from the fear of yielding to temptation. The vast majority of Christians would have to confess their own continuing sinfulness, and many Christian theologians would deny any theoretical possibility of sinlessness.

How, then, is the present passage to be explained?

Super Christians?

Willful and deliberate sin?

Habitual sin?

The ideal Christian?

What John is depicting here is the ideal character of the Christian. The simplest form of this view is that the verse depicts what ought to be the character of the Christian

Its strength is that it builds on the general understanding of God’s eschatological action found in early Christianity; at the same time it avoids limited definitions of the nature of sin.

Further, it fits in with the rest of John’s teaching. John summons believers to become what they are, in the same way as Paul urges the “saints” to live as saints. Sinlessness is not a negative virtue: it includes full observance of God’s positive commands. John speaks of Christians as those who do observe God’s commands, and yet he has to counsel them to keep those very commands. A person who does not love his brother is not a child of God (3:10); nevertheless, believers need to be exhorted to love their brothers (3:11; 4:7). “Become what you are,” is John’s message

Summary:

Sin is ultimately opposition to God; it is opposition to His mission, to His identity. Therefore, the Christian is the man or woman called to be what they are, perfect like their Creator. To sin is to oppose God.

v. 7-10

v. 7-8, John transitions to next point, warns his audience to guard themselves from deception; the professing believer who practices righteousness is righteous, whereas the one who practices sin is of the devil.

The devil has been sinning from the beginning and Christ has come to destroy the works of the devil

v. 9-10, Christians who have been made alive, who carries within the seed of God, will not make a living of sinning, for they cannot, because they belong to God.

This is the distinction between the children of God and the devil, and it is an obvious distinction:

God’s people will live how God has called His people and they will love their brother or sister in Christ.

Summary:

Christians cannot be neutral: they must belong to one side or the other. You cannot be of two agendas; you either serve God or Satan; either God is your Father or Satan is.

John is describing the ideal character of the Christian, ideal in the sense that this is the reality intended by God for him, even if he falls short of it while he still lives in this sinful world.

The person who is conscious of the new beginning that God has made in his life will seek to let that divine ideal become more and more of a reality. He knows that he cannot claim sinlessness—for he has already read the first chapter of this Epistle—but at the same time he can claim God’s power to enable him not to sin.

This is the tension in which the Christian lives, and John has portrayed it realistically. The believer, conscious of sin, need not, therefore, lose heart: this section is a promise of what God intends him to be, and he looks forward to the time when he shall be like Christ at his appearing.

To maintain the balance between warning believers of the seriousness of their falling into sin and consoling those who are overwhelmed by their sins is not easy; John’s attention moves from the one to the other, and we must allow both types of statement to have their full effect.

Heart- Do I buy it?

(20-30 min)

Is there anything in this passage that is challenging you?

How do we find hope in the strong contrasts John gives us in this text?

How do we live out God’s ideal for His people? How do we live out a sinless life?

The best counsel for a person who is faced by temptation to sin may well not be, “Don’t do it,” which directs the person’s mind toward the temptation itself, but rather, “Live in Christ,” which turns the person’s attention positively toward his Savior and diverts it from the temptation.

Hands- So What? How then should I live?

(10-15 min)

Walk with God: What does pursuing the ideal of God in your life look like personally in your walk with God?

Keep Christ first: What does pursuing the ideal of God in your life look like personally when we keep Christ first?

Keep sin out of your life: What does pursuing the ideal of God in your life look like personally when you are keeping sin out of your life?

Personally, it is praying and taking in God’s Word and encouragement first thing in the morning. It is recognizing the temptations as they come at its first whiff and guarding myself from their presence immediately. It is praying and fleeing when the temptation of the flesh becomes too strong to endure. It is waiting in humility and listening for the Holy Spirit’s counsel of conviction and truth. It is confessing my weaknesses daily and praying for God’s intervention constantly. It is fellowshipping with my brothers, studying with my sister. It is praying for my sister. It is doing what I downright know what I must do in my responsibilities as a Christian, Husband, Father, Student, and Missionary.