I John 3, Children of God

The apostle John says that we are children of God and are very different from the world.

Commentator John Stott says this passage is a continuation from 2:28. The section I John 2:28-3:10 discuss the moral test: righteousness, obedience to God. It compares righteousness to knowledge.

1 John 3: 1-3 Children of God
How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him.

Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when he appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. Everyone who has this hope in him purifies himself, just as he is pure.

The opening Greek words translated here "How great" mean literally, "of what country!" A modern usage might be "Out of this world is the love ..."

How will we be like him? Physically? Will we have the same physical body he has? John does not know what we will be like, after this new appearance of Jesus, but is content to wait for this change.

1 John 3: 4-6 Children of God don't continue in sin
Everyone who sins breaks the law; in fact, sin is lawlessness. But you know that he appeared so that he might take away our sins. And in him is no sin. No one who lives in him keeps on sinning. No one who continues to sin has either seen him or known him.

How is sin defined? (Is this helpful?)  What appearance is being discussed here?
Do we continue in sin? What does that mean?

This chapter has an emphasis on "appearances" -- Jesus did appear; he will appear again; we will have a certain appearance....  Even the World has a certain appearance.

1 John 3: 7-10, We follow our true father
Dear children, do not let anyone lead you astray. He who does what is right is righteous, just as he is righteous. He who does what is sinful is of the devil, because the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil's work.

No one who is born of God will continue to sin, because God's seed remains in him; he cannot go on sinning, because he has been born of God. This is how we know who the children of God are and who the children of the devil are: Anyone who does not do what is right is not a child of God; nor is anyone who does not love his brother.

Why did Jesus first appear?

Verse 9, "No one who is born of God continues in sin..." is intended to be reassuring. Sin is against God's nature and therefore against the nature of the Christian.  One cannot "pretend" about sin -- one cannot commit sin with actions but say (as the gnostics did) that one's heart could remain pure.

1 John 3: 11-18 Our actions are tested by love
This is the message you heard from the beginning: We should love one another. Do not be like Cain, who belonged to the evil one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his own actions were evil and his brother's were righteous.

Do not be surprised, my brothers, if the world hates you. We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love our brothers. Anyone who does not love remains in death. Anyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life in him.

This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers. If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him?

Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth.

This passage covers the social test: love.

There are two models here: Cain and Jesus. (Similar to Adam and Jesus in Paul's letter to the Romans.)

1 John 3: 19-24 God in our hearts
This then is how we know that we belong to the truth, and how we set our hearts at rest in his presence whenever our hearts condemn us. For God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything.

Dear friends, if our hearts do not condemn us, we have confidence before God and receive from him anything we ask, because we obey his commands and do what pleases him.

And this is his command: to believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and to love one another as he commanded us. Those who obey his commands live in him, and he in them. And this is how we know that he lives in us: We know it by the Spirit he gave us.

How do our hears condemn us? Is the condemnation legitimate, accurate?
Do these paragraphs conflict?
What is the meaning of verses 19-20?

Answers to prayer are emphasized again here. What are the requirements?