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1 John 3 Commentary
By Rev. Valerie D. Conley(Read time approximately 6 minutes)Obeidence and Love Verse 1. Everything John speaks of in this chapter centers around whether we are obeying God’s command to love. John reminds us of God’s love for us, which has made us His children in Jesus Christ. The world does not know the Spirit that Christians walk from because the world did not accept Christ’s Spirit. Since they did not accept His Spirit, and we are in Him, the world will not accept the same Spirit found within us – in that way, it does not know believers.Christians are to be known for our love. We are to love God and fellow believers and then move outward to loving even our enemies. As it is in our earthly families, God’s principle is that love begins at home. Love starts with the family. Verse 2, 3. We are made into the likeness of Jesus if we allow the Holy Spirit to purify us. Purification is the same as sanctification or holiness, and it means to have our hearts and minds cleansed from sin. The more we allow the Holy Spirit to purify us, the more we come into the likeness of Jesus. On the day that we meet Jesus, we are to be like Him, and through receiving a heavenly body, we will be like Him. However, John’s message challenges us not to wait until that day of glorification, but to accept our role in being perfected in Jesus’s image today. Verse 4-9. John’s teaching on sin is clear – Children of God do not sin! Sin is lawlessness meaning it is rebellion against God’s commandments. If we are truly abiding in Christ and letting the Holy Spirit purify us, we are becoming more obedient to God’s commandments and less rebellious through our flesh. Suppose we continue to live in our sin-nature and are habitually committing and confessing the same sins. In that case, we are lawless in that area, meaning we are not submitting to the authority of God – the Holy Spirit over us.Verse 10-15. Obeying God shows we have Christ’s righteousness in us and are submitting to the Holy Spirit. Practicing sin exposes our confession of Christ as our Lord to be a lie. There is a difference between unintentional acts of sins committed here and there and a habitual lifestyle of sinning, and John is speaking to the latter. Being a Christian means being Christ-like. We are Christ-like because we walk in the same Spirit that He walked in. To walk in the Holy Spirit is to walk in Christ’s righteousness. Jesus defeated the works (power) of Satan over us. We cannot walk in righteousness and sin as both will identify who is in authority over us: in righteousness, it is Jesus; in sin, it is the devil.God’s commandments reveal His righteousness. God commands us to love Him, and to walk in His Spirit, and to love other believers, as well as our enemies. Our love walk is the earthly evidence of our abiding in Christ. If we do not love the brethren (fellow believers), then we do not have the love of God in our hearts. There is no way we can belong to Jesus and not have God’s love in our hearts. The Father gives believers the Holy Spirit, who brings God’s love into our hearts. Therefore, when we fail to love each other (believers), we fail to love God, and we show ourselves as neither having God’s love in us nor a genuine connection to Jesus.Verse 16-20. In our love for each other, John again reminds us that believers are like Jesus. Jesus laid down His life for us, and we are to give of our lives for each other. When we see a fellow Christian in need, we are to willingly and joyfully assist them as best we can. We are not to judge whether they are deserving of help because we know that Jesus did not consider that about us when He died for our sins. We follow His example of selfless giving and, by doing so, show that He does abide within us, and we are abiding in Him. God’s love is not a feeling but rather a choice to go above and beyond for others because God has gone above and beyond for us individually. Verses 21-22. In living this life of righteousness faithfully and consistently, our conscience will be clean. We will know that our conscience is clean because we will have confidence toward God. Confidence allows us to approach His throne with the certainty of our answered prayers because we live as He commands. Our obedience does not buy God’s blessings or ear, but a sinful lifestyle will block access and delay answers. Whereas, living as God commands us to live guarantees us peace in our relationship with Him and confidence in our approach to Him.Verses 23-24. John ends this chapter by telling us the Father’s will is for people to believe in His Son and love one another. It is through our obedience that we can have confidence that Jesus abides in us and us in Him, and this confidence is the giving of the Holy Spirit who purifies us in obedience and love.Reread 1 John 3 and see ifyou hear it in a different way.
