1 John 2:28-3:24
2:28 And now, little children, abide in him, so that when he appears we may have confidence and not shrink from him in shame at his coming. 29 If you know that he is righteous, you may be sure that everyone who practices righteousness has been born of him.
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. 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. 3 And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure.
4 Everyone who makes a practice of sinning also practices lawlessness; sin is lawlessness. 5 You know that he appeared in order to take away sins, and in him there is no sin. 6 No one who abides in him keeps on sinning; no one who keeps on sinning has either seen him or known him. 7 Little children, let no one deceive you. Whoever practices righteousness is righteous, as he is righteous. 8 Whoever makes a practice of sinning is of the devil, for the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil. 9 No one born of God makes a practice of sinning, for God’s seed abides in him; and he cannot keep on sinning, because he has been born of God. 10 By this it is evident who are the children of God, and who are the children of the devil: whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is the one who does not love his brother.
11 For this is the message that you have heard from the beginning, that we should love one another. 12 We should not be like Cain, who was of the evil one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his own deeds were evil and his brother’s righteous. 13 Do not be surprised, brothers, that the world hates you. 14 We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brothers. Whoever does not love abides in death. 15 Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him.
16 By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. 17 But if anyone has the world’s goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God’s love abide in him? 18 Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth.
19 By this we shall know that we are of the truth and reassure our heart before him; 20 for whenever our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and he knows everything. 21 Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence before God; 22 and whatever we ask we receive from him, because we keep his commandments and do what pleases him. 23 And this is his commandment, that we believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ and love one another, just as he has commanded us. 24 Whoever keeps his commandments abides in God, and God in him. And by this we know that he abides in us, by the Spirit whom he has given us.
John is teaching a few points in this passage:
? Who we are
? How to live
? How to love
Let’s look at what John says about:
1. Who we are
And now little children. The apostle John wrote to adults, 2nd and 3rd generation of Christians in the church. Although biologically most of us are not little children, believers are called that way, because first: this is how God views us right now, as His little children, and second: the Lord Jesus said that, unless someone becomes like a little child he cannot enter into the kingdom of heaven. As God's children our hearts have become childlike through the new birth and we have learned to trust our heavenly Father for His provision and guidance in our daily lives.
Abide in Him - What does the word abide mean in this context? The word “abide” means: to remain, not to depart, to continue to be in the presence of the Lord.
How do we abide in Him? It means maintaining our fellowship with our Lord by walking in the Spirit, being in His presence and seeking His will, obeying the Lord Jesus, loving God and our fellow human beings especially our brothers and sisters in Christ and confessing and forsaking our sins.
Why is it important to abide in Him?
So that we can be fruitful followers of the Lord Jesus. So that we can be in constant communication with Him and be led by the Holy Spirit. So that we may have confidence when He shall appear. Confidence about being His children, confidence that we are loved and accepted, that we have a home in heaven, confidence that He hears our prayers. Confident that when we stand before Him we will hear: “Well done, good and faithful servant!.” It’s important to abide in Him so that our joy may be full. When our hearts are in the right place with God, then it will be an amazing moment of celebration. Why then are believers so insecure about their relationship with Jesus, about His love, about who we are in his eyes? The problem is that sometimes we do not abide. We feel it when we keep God at arm’s length. How are we ever going to handle all the instability that is in the world if we do not abide with the One who has all things in control? When the Lord returns, He will hold us accountable for how we lived our new life in Christ. Some will suffer shame as a result of not walking with God, not trusting that what He has for us is far greater than what this world holds. For all of us there probably will be some regrets and shame when we see the Lord.
Because we know that God is righteous, we recognize that anyone who practices righteousness is born of God. Children resemble their parents. That's why every true believer in Jesus, will express their heavenly Father’s investment in their life by living a life that honors Him, a life that is set apart more and more by the grace of God.
What kind of love has God given us?
This speaks about the qualitative aspect of God’s love: The Father gave His most beloved, His only begotten Son. He gave His all. How amazing is it that God made a way to be with Him in eternity. The Lord did not save us just to serve Him as servants disconnected and estranged from their Master. But by His grace, He also granted us to become His children who are given all the rights and inheritance as children of God. Not only can we call Him our Father but we can call Him our Abba (Hebrew), Dad (in English) or Papa (in German) as the Apostle Paul in Romans 8:15 tells us. Here we read:?? For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father – an expression of trust and intimacy (like what little children call their fathers). ????
The world doesn't know us, because the world doesn't know God
If you know about movie stars because you've seen them on TV and read about them online, that doesn't mean you can come to their house whenever you want. But if you really know them you will know a lot about them as well, you will know their character, their likes and dislikes, their heart, you will recognize members of their family. If you really know God the Father, you will know His character, How He acts, you will know His heart and easily recognize those who have a family resemblance to the Father in heaven. Since the world doesn’t know God, they don't recognize His family. They live in two different worlds with two different value systems. The people of the world can’t fully understand the reason we live the way we do and the values we hold as it is so directly opposed to the way they live. But God knows who we are.
Now are we the sons of God!
John reminds us of who we are right now, that even at this present moment, we are already God’s children. And that has an implication for how we live in the present moment. Even though we still remain susceptible to sin and temptations we are still His children and we look forward with a certain expectation of what we will become. Vs but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is. This is an eschatological truth - eschatology is the part of theology concerned with the end times, with the final destination of the soul and of humankind - this is speaking of the suddenness of His appearance and the immediate change that will take place with us. (See. 1. Cor 15) The believer is born of God but is “not yet” what he or she will be until Christ returns. That is when the Lord Jesus appears we shall be like Him. The day we believed, the Lord set us apart for Himself, He started a work of changing us from within and will completely change us from within and without when He comes. We are looking forward to that day. Who He is what we long to be!
Now whoever has this hope purifies himself as He is pure.
If you were expecting a high-level guest to your home, what would you do? You would get the place ready, put things in order and clean things up. If you knew that when the Lord returns you would have to give an account of your life (meaning: What did we do with His grace? His mercy? How did we live our lives?), how would you change your priorities? How would that change your self-awareness of the way you live?
Brian will elaborate more on this point.
2. How to live
As we read through the book of 1 John we will see a lot of contrasts: Christ vs. antichrists, light vs. darkness, truth vs. falsehood, righteousness vs. sin, love of the Father vs. love of the world etc. While this is not a complete list, John’s letter presents the world in an uncomplicated way. God is life and the ultimate moral standard. Yet, John teaches that while it’s important to discern and address the differences between truth and error, it must always be done in a spirit of love.
In vv. 4-8, John was very concerned that Christians know how to recognize authentic and counterfeit faith; genuine believers from pseudo ones. Although genuine Christians have a sin nature (1 Jn 1:8) and commit sins and need to confess them (1 Jn 1:9, 2:1), a sinful lifestyle for a Christian isn’t the normal pattern for life. Jesus came to destroy the works of the devil. He…
Took away the penalty of sin,
Delivered us from the power of Satan, in order to
Deliver us from the practice of ungodliness.
No one who abides in Him keeps on sinning. Jesus came to take away sin so why would you now be trying to reinstate what Jesus came to remove? It doesn’t make sense for me to keep sinning. Why would we try to reconstruct what Jesus came to destroy?
John wanted the believers to discern the people around them and their environment because we all are affected by what we love and admire. For example, I have seen this in a positive way where husbands and wives begin to think alike, dress alike and even start looking alike as they get older. In the same way, when we spend time with Jesus, His life and love will affect and influence us. Psalm 34:5 says, “Those who look to the Lord are radiant.” Those who look to Lord begin to reflect the One they love.
On the other hand, I’ve also seen the influence on those who have chosen to be in unhealthy relationships or clicks. 1 Cor 15:33 says, “Bad company corrupts good character.” Proverbs tells us that when we walk with the wise, we become wise but when we associate with, what the amplified Bible describes as conceited, dull-witted people, we will get into trouble (Pro 13:20). And if you befriend angry people or associate with them long enough, you’ll learn to be like them (Prov 22:24-25).
That’s why we should choose our friends carefully, to hang out with people who are a positive influence on us, where iron is sharpening iron.
We know that John was confronting false teachers who were indifferent to sin and their example was negatively impacting the people in the church. There will be people in the church who tell you that sin doesn’t matter. They try to deceive God’s children into thinking that a person can be a Christian and still practice sin.
John was telling the believers not to be deceived by someone who claims they are a Christian, while their lifestyle and decisions don’t match up, their hearts become obvious by the way their lives are lived out. Like a child of God reflects his Father’s character and nature, so a child of the devil reflects his father’s nature (John 8:44). In vv. 9 & 10, John was saying that if you are born of God, born again, you can’t live a life characterized by sin. The Holy Spirit lives inside of us and brings things to light in our lives to set us free but if we live in habitual sin as a child of God our spirit will be continually grieved.
We could live in this miserable, grieved existence but it will create fear and anxiety because we will not be living with the assurance of God’s love. Indifference to sin would be like knowing there is a black widow spider or venomous snake hiding in your house but letting them make their home with you and your family. If you knowingly give a place in your life to what you know is sin and don’t care, never deal with it, it will eventually destroy your life. But this is not how you and I were meant to live as His Children, as we abide in Him, walk with Him, we are changed, not only in the way we live but in the way we love our brothers and sisters. This brings us to our last point:
3. How to love
V. 11 tells us, “This is the message that we have heard from the beginning” - this is what Jesus commanded us to do - to unselfishly love and seek the best for each other. John goes on to say in the next verses to love and not hate like Cain who envied His brother's relationship to God and then murdered him. He could have had that assurance with God but never came to Him for forgiveness. So don’t be surprised when the world hates you when you reveal that kind of relationship with God, when you speak the truth and stand for righteousness. Jesus willingly laid down His life for the whole world, for those who hated Him, while we were His enemies, because He loved us. When we begin to comprehend the depth and essence of this kind of love, this incredible quality of love the Father has given us, when His life is abiding in us, we can begin loving other believers with this love.
What does it mean to love like this? We will be able to overlook inevitable offenses. Will be able to forgive Christians who have hurt us or others and not hold anything over them. This kind of love isn’t natural, it isn’t merely theoretical using words of compassion but is expressed in action and truth. It is expressed through our time, strength, & money, to help people who are hurting or in need even when it’s inconvenient and not advantageous to us (v. 18).
By this we shall know that we are of the truth and reassure our heart before him; (1 Jn 3:19)
Only by living out your Christianity will you see the results of the truth you have been taught and the blessings that come out of it. You and I won’t know the true meaning of love until we learn to really love each other the way Jesus loves us and taught us to love. We will be tested in this area over and over again and will fail over and over again. John knew that in this process of growth our hearts would need to be reassured by God’s love and wrote,
for whenever our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and he knows everything. Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence before God; (1 Jn 3:20-21)
There will be times when we don’t do what we know we should and do what we know we shouldn’t. When that happens our hearts accuse us, condemn us, and leave us with a guilty conscience. What’s the first thing you do when you feel condemned and guilty? Hide? Live in denial? Work harder to make up for it somehow? Bury it in busyness?
We have a choice at that point - when I make the choice to come closer to Jesus, to ask for forgiveness when needed, to abide and listen to God who is greater than my vacillating heart, He will assure me of the totality of His forgiveness and my acceptance into His family because of Jesus’ perfect work of redemption. He promises to forgive me and will give me a clean conscience.
John is telling us that God is more for us than we are for ourselves. When I was growing up, I was in little league but wasn’t very good at baseball and I knew it. I wanted to quit many times, but my dad built me a batting machine and I got a lot better. Both my dad and my grandfather would come to every game and would always cheer me on even when I stunk. My grandfather was so into the game that several times when I was up to bat, he began to call the referee names and question his calls. The referee, on several occasions, had to stop the game and threatened to throw my grandfather out of the park. And whether our team won or lost, my dad would always take me out for an ice cream and talk about the positive things I and the team did during the game and would encourage me for the next time. He was more for me than I was for myself. Even when I said in my heart “I’m no good” - my dad's words and actions would tell me the complete opposite. He knew my shortcomings, but I knew he was always for me.
Do we believe no matter what that God is for us like the Bible tells us? Whether your mind or emotions agree with this truth, whenever you feel condemnation in your heart, don’t turn inward but outward and upward toward God. “Jesus Christ knows the worst about you. Nonetheless, He is the One who loves you most.”
Ask yourself this question: Did Jesus not know what He was getting himself into when He saved me? John is saying that having confidence in the Lord has nothing to do with how good or bad your day went. Your confidence is in Him who is for you, stays with you and remains in you no matter what the day may bring. By the Holy Spirit, whom God has given us as a gift of grace, we know that God abides in us, and we abide in God. The Spirit of God abides in our heart “testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children” (Rom 8:16). As a believer God is in my life, but when I abide in Him, when I spend time with Him, He gives me the desire to be like Jesus. He reassures me of who I am, empowers me to love God and others with the love that has been extended to me.
In v. 24, John is not referring to a life of perfection, but "direction." Is your life’s trajectory characterized more and more by a desire to be like Jesus? Abiding in Christ’s love and eternal life defines who we are, how we live, and how we love each other.
