Christ’s Love as the Rule
CLASS ISSUES
Study Scripture: 1 John 3: 1 – 10
Background Scriptures: 1 John 1 & 2
Lesson 11 August 10, 2024
Key Verse
Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God: therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew him not.
1 John 3:1
INTRODUCTION
How should we address conflict especially in the Church, or in the community? Advice on how to approach that would be very good. But we often fail to recognize that we have definitive advice from God on how to address conflict and how to prevent it spreading in the body of Christ. In this Study Scripture you will find the answer.
The answer lies in the recognition of who we are. It was shown in God treating Israel as His son, revealed in Exodus 4:22. This practice of God which reflects His attitude to men was shown in 2 Samuel 7:14, as God addresses David about his children.
This view is repeated in Romans 9:4-8 as the Apostle discusses the adoption of Israel, their election and the unbreakable covenant with them, along with the warning that “they are not all Israel who are of Israel”.
God’s children are the children of promise and these are clearly defined. Romans 9:8-16
The Apostle then proceeds in this Chapter to stress the will and the mercy of God in this matter of election as God describes how He operates His government. He reminds Gentiles of the covenant with Abraham and God’s promise:
“I will call them My people
who are not My people,
And her beloved, who was not
beloved. (Hosea 2:23)
And it shall come to pass in
the place where it was said
to them, (Hosea 1:10)
You are not My people
There they shall be called
sons of the living God”.
The Apostle John will therefore now speak with wonder at the incredible and unbelievable privilege God gave to Gentiles for they too are adopted into God’s family through the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. The heavenly Father loves them more than any earthly father can love his child.
Those who profess to be believers must understand the great love the Father lavished on them so that they are now called the children of God.
Obviously, they must now show the family resemblance.
The family resemblance has to do with this matter of sin and its nature and the Study will lead us into looking briefly at the different views as people interpret the Apostle’s demanding and blunt statements on this matter.
Some treat God as a hobby, and so their proclaimed faith in the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ make them not take too seriously the practise of their faith and the requirement of their faith that determine the decisions about their life and how they live their life.
They quite causally live to suit their desires to maintain their earthly status and feel it is important how the people of earth regard them. Obedience to the commandments of God which they profess takes second place.
For those who have difficulty in understanding who they are, the Apostle Paul states: Romans 8:14-17:
“For as many as are led by the Sprit of God, these are the sons of God.
For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, “Abba, Father”.
The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God,
And if children, then heirs—heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified together”.
And in Galatians 3:26 we are again told:
“For as many as are led by the Spirit of God,
They are the children of God”.
We must note carefully the meaning of words used in English which relate to this matter of adoption. One writer advises us on this matter:
“There are two English words which are closely connected, but whose meanings are widely different. There is the word paternity and the word fatherhood.
Paternity describes a relationship in which a father is responsible for the physical existence of a (child); but, as far as paternity goes, it can be, and it not infrequently happens, that the father has never even set eyes on the (child), and would not even recognize him (or her), if in latter years (they) met.
Fatherhood describes an intimate, loving, continuous relationship in which the father and (child) grow closer to each other every day.
In the sense of paternity all (people) are children of God; but in the sense of fatherhood (we) are only children of God, when God makes (that) gracious approach to (us), and when (we) respond”.
Our confidence is tied to our hope and our obligations as “children of God”. We cannot leave any of these connecting facts out of the picture of our lives.
Our Study Lesson in these 10 verses will lead logically to the Apostle’s firm stand on the inadmissibility of Sin.
Our Study will lead us to recognize what we often do not seem to recognise, namely our required standing of being righteous given the fact that God is righteous.
This basic matter of maintaining righteousness is stated in Verse 29 of Chapter 2 and this idea fits in the Apostle John’s train of thought in his letter. This is an instance where every translator of Scripture and scholar hold that the Chapter heading, which as we know was not in the original writings, can disrupt the flow of what the Apostle is saying.
Remember the Chapter and Verses divisions were put in artificially to hopefully help us to understand what is being said but in fact it sometimes creates mistakes. Many think that a scholar and clergyman named Stephen Langton who lived A D 1150-1228 was the man responsible for creating Chapter divisions of equal length and to have unity of subject matter in them. But we know many Chapter divisions existed before him and he relied on those in the Latin Bible of Alcuin of York produced in A. D. 796-804
The Apostle is establishing in the previous two verse found in Chapter 2 that if you want to do right one must possess and experience the life of the only Righteous One, and that the righteous life of the Lord Jesus Christ must be lived in you in order for you to be righteous.
There can be no substitute, imitation, counterfeit ways for there is only one basis of righteousness.
Then the apostle will show the effects of Christ’s life in our purification, the removal of lawlessness, and the removal of our spirit of rejecting authority.
Christ’s life in us will deliver us from the works of the Devil known as Satan, with his lying, his lawlessness, his ways of destruction, and murder.
Our Study will introduce us to the identification of the source of all human heartache and misery, to the mystery of righteousness, the mystery of evil and its source, and will show you how to behave when the Spirit says NO.
Note the Apostle John, the only surviving Apostle, is speaking advice to his beloved children. He is writing so that his young ones in Christ will not sin as they did before but will remain in fellowship with God and the Lord Jesus Christ, abiding in truth, in the light, and in God.
Jesus has made this position and this relationship with God possible.
Note also God is light and believers walk in the light. Thus, divine life cannot be divorced from moral excellence.
Sadly, we see moral failure generally in all parts of the body. But this seems also to afflict people in authority who were apparently in good standing.
But let us not forget that in this Study the Apostle ties moral excellence to the Coming and the Presence of the Lord Jesus Christ.
This Coming is the most powerful stimulus to moral excellence of which I am aware.
It stimulates hope, one purifying himself or herself, reflecting the bestowed love of God at all times, even in a difficult world which makes this hard to do, and arouses the expectation of becoming like Him, seeing Him as He is.
THE TEXT
Verse 1. The current verse and upcoming verses clearly contain a most powerful address to believers, those who understand how their faith will be important to the message that is being given.
A non-believer will find such things foolish and a waste of time.
John says, “Behold” a word proclaiming a most powerful amazement. He says, look at it intently. What manner of behaviour or attitude is this? This is incredible! Why is it possible that God would do such an extraordinary, unheard of, thing? This is like a trumpet blast.
This is emphatic language, “what manner of love”.
This expression is the same when Jesus was awakened by the terrified disciples to quell the storm, and He rebuked the disciples. Jesus told them “Why are ye fearful, O ye of little faith”, and He arose and rebuked the winds and the waves and there was a great calm.
The disciples marvelled, “What manner of man is this, that even the winds and the sea obey him”.
The same expression is used to show astonishment and as the word implies generally admiration.
So, we know the massively powerful idea involved here when John states, Behold, what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us that we should be called the children of God”,
John asks believers to consider and prepare to take a deeper look at why God would demonstrate this type of love towards us, that being our adoption of us becoming the Children of God.
The Father adopts all the children of the Son.
The Son has called, and makes those who He has called His brethren, thereby He confers upon them the power and dignity of the sons of God.
Note that the word “sons” is from the Greek word meaning “to beget” and so says one scholar, the expression “children of God” suggests those that have been begotten. They’ve have had a birth experience. It means God has made an inward communication of His nature to these persons. You have the nature of God.
Peter says we are partakers of the divine nature.
You know therefore what it means when Jesus told Nicodemus, “You must be born again”.
This is the love God has for us.
It demonstrates the condescending love of the eternal Father to His children. Where once we were separated due to our corruption, disobedience, and ingratitude, now God has pulled us towards Him freeing us from sin and guilt in a way that a holy God is not ashamed to be called our Father, and to call us His sons.
Where it says bestowed, this shows that what God has done is more a one-sided giving, instead of a return for something earned. The greatness of “divine birth” calls for ouyr meditation.
God wants us to see the love He has demonstrated to us, demonstrated to Him and our brethren. He is not ashamed to show it to us. We should strive to not let things like feelings of pride or unbelief hold us back from fully experiencing what God has intended for us.
This love God has for us, as previously mentioned, leads to us being called the children of God. God has looked down at humanity that was lost to Him and has said that in His charitable compassion, and pity on our plight, that He will provide a plan and path to life and eternity with Him.
Who calls us the children of God?
The Father does (“I will be a Father to you, and you shall be My sons and daughters, says the LORD Almighty,” 2 Corinthians 6:18).
The Son does (He is not ashamed to call them brethren, Hebrews 2:11).
The Spirit does (The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, Romans 8:16).
The blessing that God has given to us is this. We have been saved. That should be enough, but God has said to Himself, that it wasn’t enough to be redeemed, but we must also be made part of the family of God.
We as Christians have to Holy Spirit living inside of us. With that said, as children of God, then it should show in our likeness to our Father and in our love for our “siblings”. As children of God we have received the love of Jesus in a life of fellowship and trust with Him.
It is the hope of our Father that we share with those who do not know the love of God expressed to all of us in the giving of Jesus for the sins of the world; that way they too may be exalted to the position of children of God as believers have come to understand it.
We now have to look at what has marked out the children of God. There is a family mark. This is given by faith in Jesus Christ. This distinguishes them. God’s children have both feet firmly planted in the Kingdom of God while those not the children of God have their feet firmly planted in the world. They are in that state because they do not know Christ.
The Apostle John tries to make it clear to us that the world does not know us, and this is because of our unique parentage from God. We are strangers to this world (or should be).
Yes, we are meant to live in this world for the time we are here, but we should not become attached to anything, as our home in with God.
Because the world does not know or want to know God, it will not know us, the children of God. Hence, we will not be treated with any kindness or love, that God has demonstrated to us.
However, Our duty still remains that we should show the love that God has for the world to them in hopes that some might change their ways.
Jesus had warned us in the Upper Room Discourse in John 15:18-19 not to expect the world to understand His children. He stated:
“If the world hated you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you.
If ye were of the world, the world would love his own:
Yet because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hates you”.
We must warn you however not to be scornful or feel superior. We must be tender in our attempts to win people to the Lord.
Verse 2. John says it should be clear to us where we stand with God and the world. With God, we are called the children of God, so we have an assurance of great things to come for us. We will spend an eternity with our Father, and we are joint heirs with Christ, the Son of God, and the Holy Spirit continues to reassure and teach us all we need to continue of the path to eternity.
The Apostle is clear that there is a line between the present and the future.
Though we should know where we stand with God today, tomorrow or in eternity that future is somewhat unknown in what being with God in eternity will be like. But we should know that there is no sin there. We shall be with a holy God. We shall be in glory.
John refers to our future state in our bodies to give us something concrete to look forward too. He says that when Jesus is revealed to us, either by His coming for us or our coming to Him, we shall be like Him. God has taken many steps so that we could be our best selves in Him.
The Bible speaks of God’s great plan for our lives like this: For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren (Romans 8:29). God’s ultimate goal in our lives is to make us like Jesus, and here, John speaks of the fulfillment of that purpose. [Guzik]
The Bible does not indicate that we shall cease to be who we are. Our distinct personality and character God has given us will be intact, but our character and nature will be perfected into the image of Jesus’ perfection.
We are built to worship. We are built to worship God.
However, here is another truth. God gives us what we want. If you want to live in sin, then so be it, but the destiny of such people is the Lake of Fire. If we want to be with God, choose God, choose Jesus, it will show in our lives now and in eternity.
Our journey is to grow into the image of Jesus, of God. That is our perfected state. Moses once asked if he could see God’s glory (Exo. 33: 18 – 23), but he could not see the face of God and live.
The disciples and others saw and lived at the time when Jesus was on Earth. But when Jesus comes again, there is a promise that we shall be like Him, we shall be able to see Him as He is.
Paul said of our present walk, For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I shall know just as I also am known (1 Corinthians 13:12). Today, when we look in a good mirror, the image is clear. But in the ancient world, mirrors were made out of polished metal, and the image was always unclear and somewhat distorted. We see Jesus now only in a dim, unclear way, but one day we will see Him with perfect clarity. [Guzik]
Paul advises in 2 Corinthians 3:9 that the ministry of death was glorious to the extent that though this glory was fading away, the people could not look at Moses’ countenance. If the ministry of condemnation had glory, the ministry of righteousness exceeded much more in glory. He would quote ideas in 1 Corinthians 3 from Isaiah 64 and from 65:17 and he stated:
“Eye has not seen, nor ear heard,
Nor have entered into the heart of man
The things which God has prepared for those who love him”
Philippians 3 tells us however tells us we will have a body like His glorious body. 2 Corinthians 5:1 tells us we have a building of God from God that is from heaven.
As children of God we are being transformed. This process of sanctification will end up when the conformation to Jesus will be complete and then we will be able to see reality as it really is. We are being changed into His likeness so that we will finally see Him as He is in His glory. We will then really understand much much better His communion with us, and be able to appreciate our fellowship with Him. Our eyes will be opened. As Jesus promised in Scripture, The pure in heart will see God. Remember that without holiness no man can see the Lord and so eventually we will enter somewhat into the experience of the Apostle John recorded in Revelation 1 where he fell down at seeing the glorified Christ.
We are on a journey, not just to get to heaven, but more importantly to be with God in eternity. There all the loved ones that passed on in the faith we shall see. Those men and women of God who passed before us centuries ago, we shall see them. What makes our journey to heaven, and heaven being what it is, is that it will be the unhindered, unrestricted, presence of our Lord, and we will be in a state where we can fully appreciate the experience.
Verse 3. The freedom from moral stain, or purity of heart, is something to be prized. We look forward to that guaranteed state of blessedness. To get to that state God will by the Holy Spirit sanctify us and change us completely so that His righteousness implanted in us will be clearly seen.
Remember then this future hope is a continuation of the hope we have today, for we know the veil will be removed from us in due course. The Spirit’s school of instruction will work to our great benefit for we shall see Him and be like Him.
So the encouragement is to remain under the tutelage of the Holy Spirit, do not grieve Him, and be changed. Moral cleanness is required from all impurities of the flesh. Mere words, as one writer states, will not cut it. The lost world will not be impressed with mere words.
Verse 4. John now turns his focus on the source of all human heartache and misery. /this had produced successive crises in the world. This problem is not simply a violation of the rules men have created in society.
Sin is not admissible. Its existence is a moral test of the believers’ possession of authentic Christianity, and note this has direct relevance to the Second Coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. Remember we have been told to abide in Him.
The basic source of trouble is sin. When one has a lawless attitude in the heart it will result in lawless acts. The law exists because it is inescapably there, and it cannot be escaped.
Sin shows itself in hatred, an emotion which violates the commandment of love. It shows itself in prejudice, haughtiness, pride, excusive clubs, selfish cliques, indifference to the needs of others, resentful people, parents and children, scheming and revenge taken on others, and all the cruelties you can imagine. One writer states, “At the root of it all is this principle of lawlessness; this acting as though there were no restraints, no rules, no laws in life; this rejection of reality”.
Lawlessness then means light has been extinguished. So as one writer states, “It is manifested in confusion, in uncertainty, in double-mindedness, in vacillation, in the freedom in which we change direction according to the expedient thing. It is evident in anxiety, in fears, tensions, in neuroses, in obsessions, and in this fantastic wave pof mental illness that is sweeping the world today. The root of it again lawlessness, the refusal to recognize reality”.
So, we see death proliferating with no concern for human existence, survival, happiness, violent death, murders, and maddening destruction.
The world does not want to accept this condemnation of sin and its lawlessness. They refuse to move to take away the lawless spirit. They try education but that has failed. They tried psychological treatment, thinking they can understand the human mind. They think spreading money around will solve the problem of man.
Man has even tried developing all kinds of religions to solve the problem of man. Nothing works.
Verse 5. The proper analysisof what is going on has been revealed long ago. The solution is found in the First Advent. This is the great FIRST Coming of Jesus Christ to the world. There was no sin n Him and He was able to remove sin. He was manifested to take away lawlessness.
But note Jesus does this by imparting life, bringing life, and awakening love. He brings life in the place of death, light where darkness was, and love where there was hatred.
Then follows the growth in the Christian life by the process of sanctification.
Verse 6. God’s approach to sin and lawlessness is very different from the approaches of men. He has done the only thing that could be done to correct the situation. It can only be corrected by the mystery of the Cross and the resurrection of Jesus Christ,for that was the only way to break the grip of lawlessness.
Therefore, when persons come to Jesus and abide in Him, men. women, and children become to live like God, god-like, though remaining a man, a woman, or a child. Attitudes, outlook, actions, and reactions become different. Remember that persons like Enoch, Abraham, Sarah, Deborah, Huldah, Moses and others looked to God and were changed.
God’s secret plan was revealed and stated in Colossians 1::25-25 and it is “Christ in you, bringing with him the hope of all the glorious things to come” J.B. Phillips.
You in Christ and joined in union with Him with the new birth, life, and love.
There is a mystery of righteousness which means a Christian does not sin. No one who abides in Christ sins, or lives lawlessly. In practice this means “then you need but set yourself to do what he says, expecting him to acts, and the minute you start doing it, the power to carry it through will be there, to make you able to do it and to make it a joy”.
So John says to sin is to have an attitude of rebellion against all law including the moral law of God. We sin and do not respond to the word of God because we are in unbelief, unwilling to submit to what the Holy spirit says.
Perfect obedience as Jesus demonstrated is to be the norm. The Apostle John says Abiders do not sin. The Spirit wants us to understand we are one with Christ, understanding law, righteousness, guilt, holiness as He understand it. When one understands holiness and desires it one knows they are in Him.
But those who do not abide in Him are said by John to have neither seen Him or known Him. Their nature is different.
Verse 7. In a very tender tone John appeals to his children. John knows believers can recite different creeds, attend church all their life work in giving. He knows persons will try and attempt to put on a pious face to look real. John therefore warns that we should not be fooled. Those who do not behave righteously, doing right, and we note right is based on love at all times, intend to deceive,
Those in union with Christ will behave as He does. He is righteous.
Note however we are not omniscient beings and so able to tell whether a person is a believer or not.
But our duty is to point them to the word of God and in our concern about them to pray for them.
This is very important for John is telling us that moral deception is possible. The Apostle wants us to pass the test of behaviour, practising righteousness as our Lord did.
Verse 8. Sin as a very serious thing. Sin is related to Satan. Jesus’ coming had a purpose and that was to deal with Satan and his works. He was the originator of sin and so he was the evil one. Sinners belong to him and therefore they have the same kind of life that he has. His and his followers’ ruling principle is sin, for there is a likeness between both.
The Devil always sins, and when he appears to be doing something good, it is because he is setting a trap to destroy you when he is able.
The works of the devil had to be destroyed and the Lord Jesus came and did just that.
John tells us the sin of the Devil is from the beginning, the time when he decided to go into rebellion. He was not created a fallen angel. God created him a being of beauty, glory, intelligence and responsibility, with free will. It was the activity of that free will, opposed to his Creator, that changed the angel God created into the devil… The Lord Jesus is himself the authority who tells us that the devil “abode not in the truth” John 8:44, i.e. literally, he did not continue to stand in the truth.
There was a time when the devil was “in the truth”, but he was not the devil then.
Most scholars feel that we have a description of the fall of this angel in Isaiah 14, where a being whom Isaiah called the Day Star, or literally, from the Hebrew, Lucifer, is described.
Isaiah 14, Verse 12 states:
“How you are fallen from heaven,
O Day Star, son of Dawn!
How are you cut down to the ground,
You who laid the nations low!
You said in your heart,
“I will ascend to heaven;
above the stars of God.
I will set my throne on high;
I will sit on the mount of assembly
in the far north;
I will ascend above the heights of the clouds,
I will make myself like the Most high”. (Isaiah 14:12-14 RSV)
Five times the devil said, “I will”, “I will”, “I will”, “I will”, “I will”. Here was a glorious being who was not content with the glory he had.
In his own view he was not glorious enough and he determined to be more glorious. Free will became in the devil, “I will”, and that “I will”, five times repeated, regarded God as an obstacle to the devil’s plans and no longer a necessity in the devil’s life.
He set himself to become higher than God, to become “like the Most High”. Thus he set himself above all the law and will of God, and became a law unto himself.
That is what lawlessness is, acting as though you are a law unto yourself without regarding any other law, any other person, or any other authority.
But whenever we adopt the attitude. “I will do what I want, I am a law unto myself”, we have repeated the sin of the devil. That is lawlessness; that is the devil’s sin”.
Note specifically that the Apostle john is telling us that if in our limited area of experience, we want to commit sin, living like the devil, we will like him continue to live just as he began to live at the time when he fell.
From the time when you think you can be independent of God, do what you want to do, whether on the Sabbath Day or during the days of the week, you are opposing God and indulging in the nature of sin like the devil has been doing. One writer therefore warns:
“This is the sin of the devil and is the nature of sin wherever it appears in human life, whether in a Christian or non-Christian. He who commits sin is of the devil because he is permitting the devil to reproduce in him the devil’s character, for the devil continues to live in the lawless attitude into which he fell when he sinned from the beginning.
Now the works of the devil are the natural result of the sin of the devil. They are what inevitably follows. Sin is an attitude within the heart. It is an attitude of lawless disregard of the authority of God. But the works of the devil are the activities that result from that attitude. In Romans 8 the Apostle Paul uses a similar description, “the mind of the flesh” (Romans 8:7), which he says, “is hostile to God”., enmity against God.
That is an attitude within. That is the feeling, “I’ll run my own life. I don’t need any God to tell me what to do. I don’t need any God to support me or help me or tide me over difficulties. I can take care of my own affairs. I’ll run my own life”.
That is the mind of the flesh, and it is hostile to God. But, in Galatians 5, Paul speaks of “the works of the flesh (Gal. 5:19), immorality, impurity, enmity, strife, jealousy, selfishness, envy, carousing, drunkenness, and other things. These are the things that result from the mind of the flesh”.
Verses 9-10. You might be fooled into thinking like some that you have gone past the stage when you will not sin. This is called the stage of “sinless perfection”. They will quote this verse to say they cannot sin. This verse has given many differing interpretations and we will list as one writer does seven of them.
- Christians cannot commit even one single act of sin. They have been sanctified, passed through a crisis stage, the sin nature has been settled and taken away. They have been cleansed and are now on the other side irrespective of what 1 John 1: 8 states that people who feel this way are self-deceived.
- Sin should be reduced or applied as a term only to specific things such as murder. Adultery, cruelty, or gross acts of not loving. Roman Catholics have that approach, making distinctions between venial and mortal sins. Venial sins can be forgiven at certain acts of repentance or humility, but mortal sins are impossible to forgive. But really there is no double-standard for sins in the Scriptures. All sins are mortal sins and believers can commit them all. Divisions do not exist in Scripture.
- In this view some sins can be looked at as willful sins, and this view is that Christians cannot commit willful or deliberate sin even though Christians might become careless and drift into some sins, without knowingly, deliberately and openly violate the will of God. The range of sins by believers in all of Scripture, in the Old Testament as well as in the New Testament contradicts this view.
- In this view it is taught that sin in a believer is not regarded as such by God. So for example, if a unbeliever tells a lie, it is a sin but if a believer tells a lie, God regards that as a mistake, or maybe a sign of weakness, but not a sin. That is a rather presumptuous position for the Apostle tells us all lawlessness is sin for us, and we have no right or excuse to becoming a law unto ourselves. Sin is sin no matter who does it.
- Some believe John is describing an ideal and not a realistic situation. But as one writer points out, this position changes the meaning of the passage to make it say that a Christian should not sin, rather than he cannot. But John says plainly a Christian cannot sin because he is born of God.
- Many will say John is only contrasting the two natures in the believer. He or she has one nature received from Adam called the Adamic nature or the natural life which always sins and also has the other new nature from God and this new nature never sins. But note the Apostle is always speaking about the whole person and not two natures. There might be temptations and conflicting desires but a believer must make a decision, analysing conflicting desires, but then acting as a whole person, and not act as from one side of his or her being. One writer tells of an amusing incident when a burglar was arrested and brought before a judge. His defence was that it was not his whole body that was involved in the burglary but only his hand and arm. He admitted his arm and hand had taken something that did not belong to him but it would be unfair for the judge to punish his whole body by sending the whole of him to jail. The judge then displayed the wisdom of Solomon, sentencing his arm and hand to 30 days in jail, leaving it up to the rest of his body whether it chose to accompany them or not. Personal involvement means something when it comes to sin and only mercy can change that lawlessness.
- In this view it is held that the Apostle John means the Christian cannot persist in habitual, continual sin because he or she is born of God. For a Christian there must be a struggle, powerful grief, repentance and a forsaking of sin. Sin cannot be natural for it is contrary to the heart set to God.
There can be no practice of lawlessness or unrighteousness for those born of God, for the seed, the new nature of God is in him or her.
Romans 8 gives some comfort to these difficult for us to accept texts. We are told those called are kept, justified, and glorified. In the struggles the Spirit of God, the Holy Spirit stands across and blocks our path and prevents us from doing those things we wanted to do.
CONCLUSION
It is clear that there is a inability to persist in sin that exists in us because of the new life in Jesus Christ.
So, if a person claims to be a Christian but year after year persists in lawlessness and not turning away from sin, staying in that relationship that they know is sin, then the Apostles say you are not a Christian.
You cannot be born of God, and abide in Him, and then persist in habitual sin and live according to Satan, practising lawlessness. If the Spirit of God, God’s seed had been implanted in you, you will like David struggle like he did with over two years of sleepless nights over his sin of adultery. He wrote a Psalm which we can place in chronology showing his long time of pain and repentance.
Now you should be aware that God will sometimes put you in places where you do not want to go, and you will continually have to ask God, “Save Me”. God deals with each person individually and one has to call out for help and abide in God but not in sin, so that that person will be strengthened and mature.
There might be times of quiet desperation used by God to have you learn to trust Him, and depend on Him to work.
It is impossible to persist in sin. That is clear.
Christ came to take away the guilt and impurity of sin. He came to destroy the works of Satan so that they will be undone in you completely.
So do not think that specious emotional arguments, and frequent dreams and visions are sufficient evidence that God is working in you. Nothing can be done to remove or depreciate the need for obedience in the word, and the development of character and Christ-likeness.
There are many sects on the edges of /Christianity that will tell you that if you come to them you do not have to obey the word of Scripture. You only need to obey their word to be saved.
But the proof that you have received the grace of God in your heart will show itself in the transformation of your heart and the changes in your life.
So remember that to sin is to cease to abide.
So hold onto to Jesus, cleave to Him, drink of His Spirit, abide in Him, believe that what He says is also your view of all things.