1 John 3:1-12
¹See how great a love the Father has bestowed on us, that we would be called children of God; and such we are. For this reason the world does not know us, because it did not know Him.
²Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we will be. We know that when He appears, we will be like Him, because we will see Him just as He is.
³And everyone who has this hope fixed on Him purifies himself, just as He is pure.
⁴Everyone who practices sin also practices lawlessness; and sin is lawlessness.
⁵You know that He appeared in order to take away sins; and in Him there is no sin.
⁶No one who abides in Him sins; no one who sins has seen Him or knows Him.
⁷Little children, make sure no one deceives you; the one who practices righteousness is righteous, just as He is righteous; ⁸the one who practices sin is of the devil; for the devil has sinned from the beginning. The Son of God appeared for this purpose, to destroy the works of the devil.
⁹No one who is born of God practices sin, because His seed abides in him; and he cannot sin, because he is born of God.
¹⁰By this the children of God and the children of the devil are obvious: anyone who does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor the one who does not love his brother.
¹¹For this is the message which you have heard from the beginning, that we should love one another; ¹²not as Cain, who was of the evil one and slew his brother. And for what reason did he slay him? Because his deeds were evil, and his brother’s were righteous.
Devotional
If you are born of God, God calls you his child.
That is a miracle of his love (1 John 3:1a).
That does also mean that those who do not follow Christ are no longer on the same wavelength as us (1 John 3:1b). After all, like Father, like children!
So we may now be children of God in Jesus. But that’s not our destination. We can expect even more. We will become like Christ and share in His glory (1 John 3:2).
Being like Jesus later, already has now already an effect on our lives we live today.
Sin is lawlessness, as the antichrist is lawless (2 Thessalonians 2:8a ). But Jesus takes away sin (John 1:29)
So not like in the Old Testament, where sin was covered by the sacrifices (Hebrews 10:1-4).
But sin is gone (1 John 3:3-5).
Sin is not a Christian’s way of life (1 John 3:6).
If that is the case, then people do not see and know Jesus. Inner life as God wants it and outwardly going your own way, they do not go together (James 4:4).
The devil, God’s adversary, cannot, and will not do anything but sin. And anyone whose life is marked by ignoring God has the devil for their father.
But Jesus came to make from children of the devil, children of God (1 John 3:7,8).
In verse 9, John again emphasizes that a Christians cannot feel at home in the climate of sin. For out of the pure God can come no unclean thing. That is as clear as dawn (1 John 3:10).
Sinful flesh and Spirit oppose each other (Galatians 5:16-18). Anyone who sins as a Christian, which is not normal, must sincerely confess his or her sins.
On that confession, God wants to grant forgiveness and cleansing (1 John 1:9). But isn’t it our disposition to live clean and holy before the Lord?
In 1 John 3:11 it is again about loving one another.
That is the direct opposite of what Cain did.
He was a child of the devil. He did what his father wanted, who has been a murderer from the beginning (John 8:44; 1 John 3:12).
No, if we know God as Father,
if we live out of his love,
then we only love (cf. Romans 5:5)
Question
- What shows your growth in the life with God?
Prayer suggestion
- Thank the Lord Jesus for the new life from Him in you.
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