When Doing Confirms Being

I learned early on that I don’t like rules, at least most rules. I like rules that other people need to keep so they don’t hurt me or my loved ones. Those rules are great. It’s just that I don’t like rules for me.

I don’t like the speed limit on most roads. I don’t like paying taxes. I never liked homework, and I didn’t like it when our kids had too much homework. Maybe you have children and you set a rule that they must do their homework. So you create another rule to make sure that they follow the original rule: “No TV until you do your homework.” Then you see that they’re watching TV, and the conversation goes like this: “Have you done your homework?” “No.” “You know not to watch TV until you’ve done your homework.” “But it’s The Chosen!” “It doesn’t matter!” 

If I’m honest, it isn’t rules that I don’t like, it’s obeying that I don’t like. That’s where we pick up our study of John’s first letter. John is repeating three tests to his readers to help them evaluate a group of former members who are trying to deceive John’s readers into following their false teaching, and John wants to protect his people from the attacks of these “antichrists.”

He’s already mentioned the Obedience or Moral test in 1 John 2:3-6, and now he comes back around to it in 2:28-3:10.

1 John 2:28 is almost a repeat of v. 27, but there, John is talking about abiding in the Holy Spirit, allowing him to lead his readers into all truth, including the truth of Jesus as God the Son. In v. 28, John is still talking about abiding, but this time he’s telling us that we must abide in Christ. In other words, believers should actively pursue fellowship with Jesus. Our relationship with him is permanent, but we shouldn’t allow anything to hinder our fellowship with Jesus. So we talk to Jesus, serve others in his hame, read the Bible — and obey him. We’re to do that, in part, because one day Jesus will return. 

John had heard Jesus promise his return (Matthew 24:44), and he knows the fact that Jesus is coming back ought to motivate his people to live the way he calls us to live. We should look forward to his return with joy and confidence, not with fear or shame. 

When I was young, my dad would go on business trips, and he would give me lists of things he wanted done around the house by the time he got back. I didn’t want to be ashamed when he got home, so I did what he said. Then I was excited when he got back, and I was able to show him what I’d done!

Jesus calls us to holiness, and while we won’t be perfect, we should be motivated to live for him and to obey him, because we know he’ll return and see what we’ve done with what he’s given us. 

In verse 29, John says something interesting, “everyone who practices righteousness has been born of him.” Does John mean that everyone who does right is a Christian? 

Of course not. People who don’t know God can do good things, but that isn’t what John means when he talks about practicing righteousness. What he’s saying is that true righteousness is only possible by being born again. John isn’t talking about doing an occasional good deed. He’s talking about a lifestyle of trying to do the right thing, even when no one notices. Even when doing so brings pain.

It’s the new birth that makes the difference. This new birth is something that God does for believers at salvation. He changes us into new people. He gives us new life. We’re no longer sinners, we’re forgiven. And only those who have experienced this rebirth can truly be righteous before God.

Talking about the new birth causes John to get lost in a moment in praise for God’s love for us. 

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. (1 John 3:1)

This letter is full of zingers like this. John constantly makes brief little statements packed with wonder and incredible truth. Things that we could spend a week talking about. Have no fear, we won’t do that, but this passage has several of these little zingers, and this is one.

Being “born of him” means that we are adopted by God as his children. He didn’t have to do that. God could have just declared us “not guilty” and moved on. But he didn’t move on. When we were in open rebellion against him, he made us his children. He’s no longer our judge, he’s our Father. We’re no longer his enemies, we’re his children. 

And this adoption is forever. We can’t disobey our way out of this relationship. 

Now, in verse 2, John goes back to talking about Jesus’s return. 

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. (1 John 3:2)

We’re God’s children now, John says, but something about us will change when Jesus returns. John doesn’t know all that this change will be, but he does know this: when Jesus returns, we’ll be like him, and we’ll see him as he is. 

Already, we’re new people. Since the day of our salvation, God has been working in us to shape us into who he’s called us to be. This is the process of sanctification, which is simply God working in our lives to grow us to be more and more Christlike (2 Corinthians 3:18).

When Christ returns, we’ll finally reach the final status that sanctification has been leading to — our glorification.  At that point, we’ll reach moral perfection (Colossians 1:22). We’ll be able to know God completely (1 Corinthians 13:12). 

Our bodies will be changed from these designed for this world, and we’ll be given new, glorified bodies designed for eternity (Philippians 3:21), bodies like Jesus had after his resurrection. 

All of these incredible truths well up in John’s heart as he calls his readers to holiness. In light of what’s going to happen one day, John says, start working today toward purity.

And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure. (1 John 3:3)

Christians who look forward with joy and excitement to Christ’s return will naturally strive for purity now. One evidence of maturity in a believer is that he or she strives for holiness (Hebrews 12:14). 

John seems to get lost in worship as he thinks about the new birth and the return of Jesus. All of this has a point — our holiness. Now he finally gets to the details of the Obedience test in 3:4.

Everyone who makes a practice of sinning also practices lawlessness; sin is lawlessness. (1 John 3:3)

Let’s follow John’s argument. First, he’s told us who we are — we are God’s children. Second,  he shows us what sin is. Sin is lawlessness in its very nature. It isn’t a mistake, it isn’t a personality problem, it’s active rebellion against God. Christians are children of God, and lawlessness is completely incompatible with being a child of God. Anyone who continues in habitual sin, who lives a life of rebellion with no regard for what God thinks about it, is not a follower of Christ. 

The false teachers have been saying sin does not affect their relationship with God. John is telling his readers that the false teachers are terribly wrong. 

You know that he appeared in order to take away sins, and in him there is no sin. No one who abides in him keeps on sinning; no one who keeps on sinning has either seen him or known him. (1 John 3:5-6)

John has told us who we are and what sin is, and now he reminds us who Jesus is and what he came to do. Jesus has no sin. He is fully God and fully man, but a man who never committed a single sin, not a sinful act or word or even thought. He was completely obedient. 

He came to take away sin. Jesus, who is sinless, came to give his life to free people from sin. So it only makes sense that his followers are not to live lives characterized by sin. Verse 6 describes the person whose life is one of habitual sin, who never confesses his sin, or who is never sorry for his sin. Christians are unable to live a life characterized by that kind of disobedience to God. 

Little children, let no one deceive you. Whoever practices righteousness is righteous, as he is righteous. (1 John 3:7)

Here John is warning his readers about these false teachers who are actively recruiting people to join them. Regardless of what these people say, the true children of God want to do what is right. They may not always do what’s right, but they are part of God’s family and, as such, have been declared not guilty by their Father.

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. (1 John 3:8)

Those whose lives are spent in willful sin against God are children of someone, too. Their spiritual father is none other than Satan, the devil. He is not an imaginary figure. He’s real and active and is the originator of sin. Jesus came to destroy all of what Satan has done. That’s why the believer is no longer a slave to sin.

But thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed, and, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness. (Romans 6:17-18)

Before knowing Christ, we were slaves to sin. We had to sin, we couldn’t help it. But that all changed at our new birth. We are brand new, and we no longer have to sin. 

The power of sin has been defeated at the cross. The presence of sin will be destroyed at the return of Jesus. 

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. (1 John 3:9)

John repeats that a true follower of Christ can’t live a life characterized by rebellion against his Father. That cannot be the lifestyle or habit of a believer. Christians sin, that’s true. And when a Christian sins, he or she can turn to the Father for forgiveness (1 John 1:9). But that person is unable to live a life of indulgence in sin because God’s “seed abides in him.” People disagree whether this “seed” is the Holy Spirit or the Bible, but probably John is talking about both. As believers, we have the Holy Spirit, and as we read and hear God’s Word he applies that Word and changes us from the inside out. 

When we as believers sin, the Holy Spirit convicts us of that sin. If you’re concerned that your sin has destroyed your relationship with God, keep in mind that the concern itself is proof of the Holy Spirit working in your heart. He’s there to keep us from living a life of sin. 

So John comes to the end of this section, and he boils down to his readers just who it is who are true followers of Christ. You are either a child of God or a child of the devil. There is no in-between. How do you know which is which? 

The true believer’s life is characterized by obedience. The proof is in the action. As someone once said, “Doing confirms being.” 

The child of God is incapable of living a life of continual, willful rebellion against God. The Christian will sin but will not be characterized by sin. Believers recognize sin and agree with God that it is a sin. We do our best to avoid sin and to be obedient to Christ. And when we fail, we turn to our Father for forgiveness.

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