1 John 3:1–9

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. 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. ³ And everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself, just as He is pure. ⁴ Whoever commits sin also commits lawlessness, and sin is lawlessness. 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.

Commentary

Vs. 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.”

 In a moment of great thanksgiving and praise the Apostle John now exults in the Lord, in the love of God our Father who has bestowed His love on us, such love that can reconcile us sinners to Himself through His Son so that we should be called children of God! It’s an amazing act of grace on His part all to His great glory and praise that we are now apart of Him, of His redeemed and reconciled people through Christ’s Cross, which is foolishness to world, and an offense to the proud, who only want to try to redeem and reconcile themselves back to God by their own works and efforts. Therefore, the world does not know us, (that is they do not know us as His children, only He knows us as we truly are), because they did not know Him.

Vs. 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.”  

Here the Apostle John addresses as beloved, beloved by him (and all the Apostles) and beloved by the Lord Jesus Christ our God and Father in heaven! And yet though we are intimately known by God, and He has made and makes His love known to us, there is still a mystery which surrounds each and everyone one of us as to what we shall be in Christ’s Kingdom. Nonetheless whatever individual roles and duties and rewards we will have there, one thing is certain that when He is revealed, (in all of His heavenly glory), we shall be like Him, (like Him in character and nature, for then our fleshes sinful nature will have completely passed from us forever), and so on the day when He is revealed we shall see Him as He is, (and thus we shall see ourselves as we shall forever be), which John and James and Peter all got a glimpse of when He was transfigured before them on the Mount. It is then our glorious hope and desire to be made like Him! 

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

And so, this is what drives us to strive against sin in our lives, and to reject all of this worlds lies and inducements to sin, for we long for our heavenly body, and so we strive to purify our earthly bodies and lives down here in anticipation of being made pure like Him up there in heaven.

Vs. 4 “Whoever commits sin also commits lawlessness, and sin is lawlessness.”

Therefore, the Apostle John in wanting us all to purify ourselves now says that those who commit sin, commit lawlessness. For there are always those who look upon Gospel and the grace of God as a license to sin, and these sorts of people need to seriously reconsider what they are doing and believing (consider Mark 9:42-50). As well there are those who know the Law of God, the Ten Commandments, and yet they think themselves as not having violated any of these, at least not grossly, and so they grant themselves a license as to the sins that they do commit. Sins of slander and neglect and abuse of others, or sins of hatred, jealously, and outbursts of wrath, or sins of lust and greed and covetousness and whatever else the human mind and heart is capable of thinking and doing. Therefore, the Apostle John is warning us not to let sin have dominion over us, for all sin (whether great or small) is lawlessness.

Vs. 5 “And you know that He was manifested to take away our sins, and in Him there is no sin.”

Here the Apostle John reiterates the fact that the Lord Jesus Christ was manifested here on earth to take away our sins, and that in Him there is no sin, that is no sin was ever committed by Him, nor was any sin every dwelling in side of Him. This is important because Jesus Christ came to take away the sin of the world through His Death on the Cross. He came to make the Atonement and to pay the Highest price so that anyone and everyone who believes in Him can have everlasting life (John 3:16). Therefore, to receive such a gift of God as that and yet to continue to justify or pursue what God says is sin, is only a denial of who He is and what He has done.

Vs. 6 “Whoever abides in Him does not sin. Whoever sins has neither seen Him nor known Him.”

In wanting us to be discerning the Apostle John says that everyone who abides in Christ, does not sin, that is sin as manner of life, for His Nature by His Spirit within us leads us out of sin and into all righteousness. Which will be a struggle at times, (Heb.12:3-11), nonetheless our desire is not to sin, which is to be contrasted with those whose only desire is to return to their sins. As the Apostle John says, “Whoever sins has neither seen Him nor known Him.”

Vs. 7-8 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. 

Again, the Apostle John uses very strong and direct language to reiterate the fact that those who profess faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and do not practice righteousness are not of Christ. For just as Jesus Christ practices righteousness so do those who believe in and belong to Him. While the devil who has sinned from the beginning only continues to sin and thus so do his own also continue to sin, but not just in practice, but also in defense of it. Therefore, it was for this purpose that the Son of God was manifested that He might destroy the works of the devil. And this He has done by defeating him through His own Death on the Cross and Resurrection from the dead by which all the Atonement was made for our sins, and thus with His now being Ascended back to God the Father in heaven, Jesus Christ now brings us to life by His Spirit all who believe in Him, conveying us out of the kingdom of darkness and into His glorious Kingdom of light (Col. 1:13). Therefore, with such a high price paid for each and every one of our redemption, how can anyone who claims to believe in and belong to the Lord Jesus Christ now do or justify or endorse or try to normalize those things which God in His Word says is sin.

Vs. 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.

Here then the Apostle John makes it clear that there is a permanence about us who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ both in our behaviors towards sin, and in our beliefs about sin. All which is based on the fact that Jesus Christ’s seed remains in us.

Scripture Quotations 

New King James (1982):Thomas Nelson.