1 John 3

Translation

And now, children, you must remain in him, in order that, if he should be revealed, then we will have boldness and not be ashamed from him in his arrival. If you know that he is just, then you understand that all who do justice have been born from him. Look at what kind of love the Father has given to us: that we have been called children of God, and we are! For this reason the world does not know us: because it did not know him. Beloved, we are children of God now, but it has not yet been revealed what we will be. We know that if he is revealed, then we will be like him, because we will see him just as he is. All who have this hope in him purify themselves, just as that one is pure. All who work sin also work lawlessness, and sin is lawlessness. We know that that one has been revealed in order to take away sin, and in him there is no sin. All who remain in him do not sin. All who sin have not seen him nor have they understood him.

Little children, no one must lead you astray. The one working justice is just, just as that one is just. The one working sin is from the Devil, because the Devil sins from the beginning. For this reason the son of God was revealed: in order to destroy the works of the Devil. All who have been born from God do not work sin, because his seed remains in him, and they are not able to sin, because they have been born from God. By this the children of God and the children of the Devil are visible: All who do not work justice are not from God, as well as those who do not love their brother. Because this is the message which you heard from the beginning, that we should love one another. Not as Cain, who was from the evil one, and slaughtered his brother. And for what reason did he slaughter him? Because his works were evil, but those of his brother were just.

Do not be amazed, brothers, if the world hates you. We know that we have passed from Death to Life because we love the brothers. Those who do not love remain in Death. Everyone hating their brother is a murderer, and we know that all murderers do not have life of the age abiding in them. By this we understand love: because that one, on our behalf, gave his life, and we are obligated, on behalf of the brothers, to give life. Moreover, if someone should have worldly possessions and see their brother having need and shuts their heart off from him, how does the love of God abide in him?

Children, we should not love by word nor by speech, but by works and truth. And by this we will understand that we are from the truth. Before him we will assure our hearts. If our hearts condemn us, God is greater than our hearts and he knows all. Beloved, if our hearts do not condemn, we have boldness before God and whatever we ask, we receive from him. Because we keep his commandments and do what is pleasing before him. And this is his command: that we should be faithful to the name of his son Jesus Christ and love one another, just as he gave the command to us. And the one keeping his command abides in him, and he in him. And by this we know that we remain in him, from the Spirit which he gave to us.

When He comes

His “Arrival” παρουσια

Christ will come again- the Creeds

Greco-Roman Parousia

Have boldness or be ashamed?

“Boldness” = freedom to speak, openness before God

Will his coming be a joyful day or a dreadful one?

1 Thess 4

The New Revised Standard Version The Coming of the Lord

For the Lord himself, with a cry of command, with the archangel’s call and with the sound of God’s trumpet, will descend from heaven, and the dead in Christ will rise first. 17 Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up in the clouds together with them to meet the Lord in the air; and so we will be with the Lord forever.

Joel 2

The New Revised Standard Version The Day of the Lord a Dark Day

Alas for you who desire the day of the LORD!

Why do you want the day of the LORD?

It is darkness, not light;

19 as if someone fled from a lion,

and was met by a bear;

or went into the house and rested a hand against the wall,

and was bitten by a snake.

20 Is not the day of the LORD darkness, not light,

and gloom with no brightness in it?

Two Kinds of Children

Those who have boldness are the Children of God

We have been called children, and are children. Even so, we are not what we will be, i.e. glorified

Charles Wesley All Praise to Our Redeeming Lord

The Epistles of John The Hope of God’s Children (2:28–3:3)

And if our fellowship below

In Jesus be so sweet,

What heights of rapture shall we know

When round His throne we meet.

1 Cor 2:9

The New Revised Standard Version The True Wisdom of God

But, as it is written,

“What no eye has seen, nor ear heard,

nor the human heart conceived,

what God has prepared for those who love him”—

John presents the ideal for Children of God: Our goal, what we strive for, and what we will be

In the meantime, we “purify ourselves” just as he is pure

Process of sanctification: washing away sin

Jesus came to take away sin

Not just “forgive”, but lit. to remove

We must be like him. Thus, just as Jesus was sinless, so we must be sinless

We must be Just just as he is Just

What is “Just” δικαιοσυνη

We must love one another, just as he loved us

In contrast, children of the Devil

Those of God do not sin, but those of the Devil do

Those of God are just, those of the devil lawless

Those of God have Life, those of the Devil are in death and in fact bring about more death

Those of God Love, those of the Devil hate

Tension in the Here but not Yet

All who have been born from God do not work sin, because his seed remains in him, and they are not able to sin, because they have been born from God.

Very stark lines drawn by John.

How can we say that we’re children of God if we sin?

The Epistles of John The Sinlessness of God’s Children (3:4–10)

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.

I, II & III John: A Commentary 1 John 3:4–10a—The Two Ways

So understood, the verse is neither an offer of false security—“you are born from God, therefore you do not sin”—nor a cruel rejection of their hopes—“you do sin, and cannot do otherwise, therefore you can never hope to be born from God.” By maintaining the third person singular form it paints for them in sharp contrasts a landscape with which they are already familiar, and in which they know themselves to be placed, and it leaves them to determine what it means to be there. Yet they can do so in the light of the experience of confession and forgiveness, which the letter began by affirming in the strongest possible terms.

1 John wants us to sit in the tension here. He has already assured us that we have an advocate before the Father, and that we are children of God. Now he wants us to wrestle with the seriousness of sin.

The Epistles of John Assurance and Obedience (3:19–24)

It would seem to follow that obeying God’s commands is not so much the condition of living in him, as rather the expression of our spiritual life; yet this expression may fail to appear, with the result that our spiritual life is in jeopardy, and therefore we can be commanded to obey God’s commands. Spiritual life and obedience are thus two sides of the one coin.

What Love is This?

So how, ultimately, do we know that we are children of God?

Again John returns to the judgement theme. Do our hearts condemn us, or do we have boldness before God?

We have boldness if we “keep his commandments and do what is pleasing before him”, namely “be faithful to the name of his son Jesus Christ and love one another.”

What kind of love?

Look at what kind of love the Father has given to us

By this we understand love: because that one, on our behalf, gave his life, and we are obligated, on behalf of the brothers, to give life. Moreover, if someone should have worldly possessions and see their brother having need and shuts their heart off from him, how does the love of God abide in him?

The Epistles of John Brotherly Love as the Mark of the Christian (3:11–18)

Readiness to lay down one’s life is a high ideal, to which we may enthusiastically consent: it is a fairly remote possibility, and, if it did arise, we could probably make the supreme effort that would be required. Meanwhile, however, we are content to live our present comfortable life until that supreme sacrifice is demanded. No, says John, the moment is here now.

The Epistles of John Brotherly Love as the Mark of the Christian (3:11–18)

The need of the world is not for heroic acts of martyrdom, but for heroic acts of material sacrifice. If I am a well-off Christian, while others are poor, I am not acting as a true Christian.

I, II & III John: A Commentary 1 John 3:10b–12—Justice and Love as the Marks of the Children of God

the example of Cain and his brother shows that the challenge of being “born from God” is not abstract or spiritual, but can be played out in the concrete experience of human life; conversely, the call to love one another is not simply a desire for communal harmony, and its failure is not to be merely regretted, for it is this which embodies the decisive alternatives of being of God or of the devil.