I John - Chapter 3

I John - Chapter 3

Children of God

1.  Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God!  Therefore the world does not know us, because it did not know Him.  

The Apostle John is emphasizing the importance of God's love for us as believers in Christ by saying "behold."  In the Greek, the word "behold" means to see, look, emphasizing that this is really important.  So then, "everyone, this is really important.  Look and see the incredible quality of love that God our Father has given to us that we are so privileged to be called children of God."  

Throughout the first two chapters of 1 John, the apostle has been calling those under his care "children."  He has done that because he has watched over and protected those under his care - very much like a pastor watches over his congregational flock.  Pastors nurture, teach, care for, and take on the spiritual responsibility of protecting their flock as their children, protecting them from the forces of evil.  For the past two chapters, the apostle has been giving instruction on how to respond back to God as father and lead a righteous life as children of God. 

The apostle now turns his attention by pointing out how much greater our Father God is to us to say He calls us His children.  As His children, God watches over us to protect us not only spiritually, but in every area of our life.  He is our Abba (Greek for father) daddy who takes care of us.  What manner of love is that? 

The blindness of the world

The world however, has no idea what it means to have God as their Father and how to behave as a child of God.  That is because they do not know Him - and to know Him means to accept His Son Jesus as the Messiah - the Savior of the world - all that He is and all that He has done for us.  It is an intimate relationship.  For when we do, the power of the Holy Spirit of God comes to dwell within our hearts so that we can recognize Him as our Father.  Until that happens, most people of the world are blinded and only sees God as a judge over the world always looking to punish people for what they do.  Others will go so far as to even deny God's existence.  Either way, God is not their Abba Father.  Life is lived for self and God holds no place in their life.  

The Rapture of the Church

2.  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.

What an awesome promise God has given to us.  The day is approaching when we, as God's children, shall see God as He really is - meaning God is coming back for His children, through His Son Jesus, to bring us to heaven to be with Him forever.  When that happens we will become just like Him.  That day is the day of Christ's coming back in the clouds to receive all of God's children into heaven at the Rapture of the Church.  And the moment that happens we shall receive our glorified bodies just like Christ, as God's Son, received His glorified body.

• Phil 3:20  For our citizenship is in heaven, from which we also eagerly wait for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body that it may be conformed to His glorious body, according to the working by which He is able even to subdue all things to Himself.
  
  
• I Cor 15:51-54  Behold, I tell you a mystery:  We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed.   52. in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet.  For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.  53.  For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this moral must put on immortality.  54.  So when this corruptible has put on incorruption, and this mortal has put on immortality then all be brought to pass the saying that is written:  "death is swallowed up in victory."
  
  
• Col 3:4  When Christ, who is our life appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory.

In this we can rejoice.

Our Responsibility as Children of God

3.  And everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself, just as He is pure.

Our responsibility then as children of God, having hope in the Rapture of the Church to come - reaching for our heavenly home - is to live a life pleasing to our Father God while here on this earth.  Just as Jesus was pure before His Father God, so must we purify ourselves through the Word of God.  In 1 Peter 1:16 it is written, you must be holy as God is holy.  Pure living or holy living is exactly what the Apostle John has been talking about in the previous two chapters - righteous living.

4.  Whoever commits sin also commits lawlessness, and sin is lawlessness.

It is important that we understand sin from God's point of view.  You see, there is man's lawlessness and God's lawlessness.  The worldly view of looking at lawlessness is that something has to be against their particular law in order to be considered lawlessness.  Human laws, however, are made by man and not God, and laws differ in various societies upon the earth.  For instance, we in the United States live in a society where homosexuality and gender identity is not a sin, but an alternative lifestyle.  Laws of the land are written to protect that lifestyle.  God, on the other hand, calls this kind of behavior a sin - and sin is lawlessness.  There are countries in the world that look at Christianity as blaspheme against their country's religion, punishable by death, and many believers in Christ have been martyred for their faith in those countries.  Did they break the law?  In that country - yes, but in God's eyes, they did not.  Therefore, as believers in Christ, we must always look to God's Word to see what is lawlessness in the eyes of God, and our lives should reflect living according to what God says on His Word is lawful and right in His eyes.

The world only looks at outward behavior to determine what is lawful or lawless according to its belief system, except God always looks at the heart.  How we think or what we act upon is known to God because He lives within us as believers in Christ.  All of our efforts should then be to please our heavenly Father by living according to what He says in His Word what is right living, not wrong living.

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. ⁷ 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 sin, for His seed remains in him; and he cannot sin, because he has been born of God.

Jesus, the second person of the Godhead, left His Godhead divinity in heaven and came down to earth as a human man, born of a virgin, by the power of the Holy Spirit for one purpose:  He came to pay the penalty for the sins of mankind.  He was born sinless, lived a sinless life, but as He suffered and died upon the cross, taking on all  of the sins of the world as He died for the salvation of mankind.  Every sin that mankind had ever sinned or would ever sin, Jesus took that burden upon Himself as He suffered and died.  Therefore, whoever has personally received Christ is born of God from heaven.  Through one's belief and confession in Jesus, and all He has done, the Holy Spirit then comes to indwell that believer.  He is the spiritual man.  As a result, the person goes through a heart change and has been given a new nature (2 Cor 5:17).   Christ becomes the center of his or her life.  Their connection with the Godhead becomes a relationship - a love relationship.  That person then cannot "habitually" sin.  Actually, he or she is incapable of continuously sinning.  When sin, however, does occur, the relationship with God is at breach; however, the conviction of the Holy Spirit draws that person to become repentant to confess his or her sin before God to receive cleanliness and forgiveness.   When that person then comes repentantly before God confessing the sin committed, forgiveness and cleansing occurs (1 John 1:9). The love relationship is again restored.  If heartfelt repentant and confession doesn't happen, then the human heart becomes hardened by continuous sin to bring on carnal (fleshly) living.  Self, or ego is on the throne of that person's heart.  It is a dangerous place to be because sin begets sin and it is a dangerous downward slope to where one can possibly eventually lose his or her salvation if continued long enough.  There is no, or very little fellowship with Christ being developed to where eventually that Christian no longer wants to fellowship with the Lord.  Eventually, unbelief could set in to where that person no believes even in Jesus.  That's why carnal Christianity is so dangerous. 

¹⁰ 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.

The natural man - those without Christ does not know Him.  There is no relationship; thus, no fellowship, as well as no indwelling Holy Spirit to convict them of sin.  Self, or ego is the center of their life. They are the ones who continuously sin because that is their nature.  Having a loving, growing fellowship with Christ is totally foreign to them.  The best they can do is live religiously, looking like Christians, as some do, relying upon rules as guidance.  They go to church, may even do or say the right things, are kind and good, but their heart is not involved because the Holy Spirit does not indwell their hearts.  Sometimes it can be difficult to tell the difference between a carnal Christian and a fake Christian.  Eventually, these fake Christians will be exposed - at least with true Christians.  Their hearts will give them away.   You see, righteousness is far more than right living before men - it is right living before God.  Those who have a loving fellowing with the Lord will reveal their hearts over and over again.  Why?  Because Christ lives on the throne of their heart, and the true Christian's life is all about pleasing God.

Another way of telling a true Christian is that Christians want to hang out with other Christians.  They think alike, having the common interest of their relationship with the Lord.  The Lord is the center topic of their conversations.  They love to pray, worship and study scripture together as a common goal in the growing of their faith.  As such, Christian fellowship becomes like family.  When someone is in need, the others reach out to help.  They are there to encourage and help one another.  In other words, because Christ is on the throne of their life, they all practice the fruit of the Spirit with one another (Gal 5:22-23).  When unbelievers gather together, however, you often find bickering, jealousy, discord and other gratifying sinful behavior in their midst.  It can't be helped because self is on the throne (Gal 5:19-21).

 ¹¹ For this is the message that you heard from the beginning, that we should love one another, 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.

The example of Cain and Abel makes a perfect description of good and evil.  God knows the heart of all men.  He had seen Cain's heart even before God requested an offering from the two brothers.  Abel's heart was to please God in his offering, and Cain gave a substitute offering to God, of which God knew all along the wickedness within his heart.  When God showed his displeasure toward Cain's offering, the evil in him arose to where the hatred came out and he killed his own brother Abel.  While Abel lost his life, he is spending his eternal life with God in heaven.  Cain, on the other hand, may have lived a while longer, but his eternal punishment is in hell forever.

The Lord knows the heart of everyone.  Sadly, because of the original sin, sin has multiplied upon the earth, and it is very evil.  Everyone on the earth will one day have to face God for the actions of how each one has lived their life upon this earth.  If we did not repent, confessing our sins, living a life for Jesus, our reward, or more specifically known as punishment, will be to spend an eternity in hell.

¹³ Do not marvel, my brethren, if the world hates you. ¹⁴ 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.

Evil hates good and good hates evil.  They are polar opposites.  The difference is good wants to conquer evil with love, but evil wants to conquer good with hate and destruction.  Sadly, the world hates Christianity because Christianity is based on love, and genuine love is not part of the world's system of destruction.  

Where then should a believer focus his love?  Here we have in scripture that our love should be centered on loving other Christians, because God's love can be fully displayed and reciprocated.  Does that mean we do not love unbelievers?  No, of course not!  We are to show love to everyone, but especially to the household of faith.  In our display of love to unbelievers, it should always be with the intention of bringing them to Christ, so they too can experience the genuine love of God.  Because darkness and light never mix, it is impossible to maintain a fellowship with unbelievers because the belief system, morals, and conduct are diametrically opposed to one another.

If, however, we find ourselves in a position of hating another believer, we need to search our heart and examine the reason why.  If we have hate in our heart for anyone, especially a brother or sister in Christ, God is telling us that we have murder in our heart.  Just like Cain killed Abel, who was his brother, we cannot have that kind of attitude toward others.  Hate is a weapon of destruction, and you will be the one who gets destroyed.  It can fester so deep to where you will chip away at your faith, and you could eventually lose your salvation.  Repentance for wrong thinking and wrong behavior should be a daily response to all sin our life.

I John 1:9  If we confess our sins, He is faithful to forgive us our sins
and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

¹⁶ 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?

The love that Jesus has for us goes beyond our comprehension.  To think that:

• Jesus left His divinity in heaven to come down to earth as a man
• Jesus lived His life as a human knowing He was the divine Godhead.
• Jesus lived an example of how mankind should live
• Jesus was betrayed by His own people
• Jesus was condemned to die by the Roman authorities
• Jesus bore the striking pains of 39 stripes of whippings
• Jesus suffered the pains of crucifixion upon the cross
• Jesus came to the point of death where He believed His Father God had forsaken Him
• Jesus died for the sins of mankind
• Jesus went to hell for the sins of the world - and three days later God rose Him from the dead

What about us?  Are we willing to give our life for other believers.  This ought to be the kind of love that God wants us to attain for Christians.  The least we should do is - if another believer is in need of anything, we are to meet that need.  If, however, we shut our heart to that person, can we honestly say the fruit of the Spirit is operating in our lives?

All of us fall short in both of these areas.  Our prayer life then needs to be one of yielding, asking God to let the fruit of the Spirit, that already dwells within us, flow out in our lives. 

¹⁸ My little children, let us not love in word or in tongue, but in deed and in truth. ¹⁹ And by this we know that we are of the truth, and shall assure our hearts before Him. ²⁰ For if our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and knows all things. ²¹ Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence toward God. ²² And whatever we ask we receive from Him, because we keep His commandments and do those things that are pleasing in His sight. 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.

The Apostle John calls those under his trust "little children."  While that was true, we are all, as believers in Christ, children under God.  Therefore, as children of God we need to love one another - not only with our mouth, but our actions.  For when we do, we know we are living in truth and our hearts are at peace.  If, however, our hearts are troubled, knowing we do not live according to God's ways, God already knows.  As such, we need to repent and turn in our ways.

If, however, we are at peace that we are following in the ways of the Lord, we can stand confidently before Him.  As such, we meet the condition that whatever we ask from Him, we receive (1 John 5:14-15).  We have kept His commandments and do the things that are pleasing in His eyes.  His first commandment, of course, was, and is to believe on the name of Jesus Christ and then to love one another.

The Spirit of Truth and the Spirit of Error

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.

What a joy it is to have Christ dwelling within our hearts through the power of the Holy Spirit.  There is a real "knowing" that He lives there.  We sense Him, we hear Him, and we see Him operating in our lives. 

I John 3:19
By this we shall know [without any doubt] that we are of the truth, and will assure our heart and quiet our conscience before Him  AMPL

As such, he is our teacher, guide, revealer of truth, empowerer, and healer.  Throughout the day He makes Himself known as we atune ourselves to His voice.  The more we obey, the more we want to commune with Him, and the more we commune with Him, the more we want to obey.  It is like a revolving circle.  One works with the other.  For that we can rejoice!