The Christian And Sin Series

Sin and the Christian

1 John 3:1-9

When I worked for a huge family distribution business, several of us used to meet for lunch and play cards. We had to take an hour lunch and had nothing else to do. Of course, discussions normally ran all across the board, from sports, to politics, to religion, to families, money and a lot of silly stuff.

One day, a friend of mine name Russell was mad and frustrated about his job. He said, “We ought to go out there in the warehouse, fake an injury and sue this family so we don’t have to work the rest of our lives.”

I know he was kidding, or at least I assumed it. I responded with proper “one-up-manship”. “You might sue them and win, but I am holding out for adoption.”

I mean, what if you were adopted by the wealthiest man in the world? Bill Gates, Warren Buffet, and Mexican telecommunication magnate Carlos Slim are listed by Forbes as the three wealthiest persons on the planet, as best they can tell.

To be in one of these men’s will would be a dream for most people. But what about being an heir to the creator and owner of the universe? That is probably the overwhelming thought John had mid-letter in writing to these Christians of what is probably Western Turkey today. Being more than part of a will, since God will never die, we are promised something more living and real.

Joh 16:15 "All that the Father has is mine; therefore I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you."

A new definition of a living will: The living Father gives all to His Son, and His Son shares all with us!

John has already told us that we cannot live above sin; that we would sin. He has shared that we need to confess our sins for complete restoration and fellowship with God. He has said that the mark of a Christian is the desire and power to do righteousness, both of which are absent from someone not possessing the Spirit of Christ. He said, those who have this salvation will love God and demonstrate love to others. He told us how to expect temptation, either in what we want to satisfy our cravings, satisfy our pride or desire to own. He told us how to recognize error. He encouraged us to live like His children and let Him live through us.

Then the original languages begin with a word that is not easily translated into English.

1Jn 3:1 "See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him."

The NIV and ESV attempted to capture the wonder of the word without trying to weaken its meaning.

The King James begins with “Behold”. Not a word we used every day. “Eido” means to look upon with amazement, to capture the wonder of something.

We have to realize that John did not write in Chapters and Verses. He wrote in prose with paragraphs. When he said, 1Jn 2:29 “If you know that he is righteous, you may be sure that everyone who practices righteousness has been born of him.”

…I am sure that He humbly thought, “We, sinners by nature, by the gift of God have an opportunity to actually do something that is counted as valuable in Heaven to a Holy God.”

“Wow,” he thought. “Oh how much God must love us to do that for us!”

Some text omit the phrase, “and so we are”, believing that it was added in commentary by a scribe.

But if so, it means that scribe captured the idea and said, “Amen! Oh yes we are.” If you can grasp what John is saying, you too will say, “Wow, unbelievable! Praise His name He loved the unlovable.” This love of God, this moment of unrestricted praise is something the world cannot experience.

John then says, “They don’t get it, and they don’t like us.” The reason, “They don’t get God and they sure don’t like Him.”

1Jn 3:2 "Beloved, we are God's children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is."

One of the things the world notices is that we look still the same. Nothing physical shows the perfection that God completes in us on the inside. We cannot even notice the difference in a mirror.

But our physical perfection will occur at the rapture. We don’t fully understand what it will be like, but we know we will be like Him.