1 John 3:1-10

Verse 1

-See how much the Father loves us

-1 John 1:12 "But to all who believed him and accepted him, he gave the right to be children of God:"

-Jesus has called us Children, and according to John, it is not something we have earned but is given to us by God.

-Everything that is good can only come from the Father.

-In 1 John, John constantly compares and contrasts 1.) Light and Darkness (1:5)

2.) New Commandment and Old Commandment (2:7-8)

3.) Loving the Father and Loving the World (2:15-16)

4.) Christ and Antichrist (2:18,22)

5.) Children of God and children of the devil (3:1-10)

-Children of God; however, our contrast today is Children of the devil.

-People who belong to the world do not recognize them; because they do not belong to Him.

Verse 2

We are already God's" children. (This is not something we could work for or earn, it is a gift of God.)

We will become like Christ:

This begins the sanctification process. This process can only start with repentance.

Verse 3

The eager expectation of becoming like Christ.

As a result, we will WANT to become pure… Holy

Why? Because he is Holy

There is an active choice to be holy. It isn't easy, but it is Sanctification.

Are we eager to be holy?

Verse 4

This is a description of those who oppose God.

Paul uses the term lawlessness

We have to eliminate leveling sin

Again, John compares Communion vs. No communion

Verse 5 & 6

A call to Holiness

Because of Jesus'sisn't sinless nature, righteousness is possible.

Is. 53:6 "All of us, like sheep, have strayed away. We have left God to follow our own. Yet the Lord laid on him the sin of us all."

Comparison:

Living in sin vs. Living in Him

Living in Sin: -Keep on Sinning

Belong to the Devil

The result is destruction

This not possession

Living outside of God

Living in God: - Do what is right

It is evident they are righteous

THERE IS NO MIDDLE GROUND

"I am trying here to prevent anyone from saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: 'I'm ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don't accept His claim to be God.' That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic—on a level with the man who says he is a poached egg—or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse. You can shut Him up for a fool, you can spit at Him and kill Him as a demon, or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God. But let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about His being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to."

We are not living our life on the fence. How we live puts us in one camp or the other.

John has constantly made comparisons to show there is one or the other, never is it both.

Verse 10

We can tell where we are by the way we treat people

God's love is the driving force behind everything

Because I love God _______.