They are greatly loved by God
3
📚See what kind of love 📖 the Father 📖 has lavished on us, that we should be called the sons of God 📖. Therefore the world does not know us, because it did not know him 📖.They will be like Christ when He returns
2 📚Dearly loved ones, we are now the sons of God, and it does not yet appear what we will be 📖, but we know that when he appears 📖, we will be like him 📖, for we will see him as he is 📖.
They purify themselves
3 📚And everyone who has this hope in him purifies 📖 himself, just as he is pure.
3:3 Those who hope to become like Christ when He comes will want to be like Him now. The process of becoming like Him has already begun (2 Cor 3:18; Col 3:9-10), and real believers will cooperate with God in this work of purification. Compare Heb 12:14.⚜
They know that Christ is sinless and that He died for their sins
4 📚Whoever commits sin also breaks the Law, for sin is the breaking of the Law.
3:4 Sin is setting up one’s own will against God and against God’s revelation of right and wrong. It is to act as if there were no law of God, no principle of righteousness in the universe. It is to be taken up fully with one’s own selfish desires.⚜
5 📚And you know that he was revealed to take away our sins 📖, and in him is no sin 📖.
They are changed people and do not remain in sin
6 📚Whoever remains in him does not go on sinning 📖. Whoever goes on sinning has not seen him, and has not known him.
3:6 Everyone is either in sin or in Christ. Those in sin practice sin as a way of life. Those in Christ cannot do this. They have been born again (1 John 2:29). They are the children of the righteous God and therefore have a righteous nature (1 John 3:1). God’s Spirit lives in them (1 John 4:13). It is impossible for them to continue as they were before (Eph 2:1-3). Believers sometimes fall into sin (1 John 1:7; 5:16), but they do not, cannot knowingly continue to sin as a way of life (Prov 24:16). If they sin, their new nature revolts against sin and causes them to reject it and strive to get out of it. And Christ is praying that they will get out of it. And the Holy Spirit in them (Luke 22:31-32; John 17:17; Heb 7:25) convicts them and urges them to get out of it.
If people who profess to be Christians remain in sin and practice it as a way of life, this shows they were not Christ’s sheep, not born of God. Compare 2 Pet 2:22. The children of God are totally different from the children of the devil and this will be seen in their behavior.⚜
7 📚Little children, let no one deceive you 📖. He who practices righteousness is righteous, even as he is righteous 📖. 8 📚He who commits sin is of the devil 📖. For the devil has been sinning from the beginning 📖. For this purpose the Son of God was revealed, that he might destroy the works of the devil 📖. 9 📚Whoever is born of God does not go on sinning 📖, for his seed 📖 remains in him 📖 and he cannot go on sinning 📖, because he is born of God 📖. 10 📚In this the children of God are revealed, and the children of the devil: whoever does not practice righteousness 📖 is not of God, neither is he who does not love his brother 📖.
3:10 John is saying every person is either a child of God or a child of Satan (John 8:44; Matt 13:38), and we can tell what an individual is by what he does or does not do (Matt 7:15-20).⚜
The command to love one another
11 📚For this is the message that you heard from the beginning, that we should love one another, 12 📚and not be like Cain 📖, who was of that wicked one, and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his own deeds were evil, and his brother’s were righteous.
13 📚Do not be surprised, my brethren, if the world hates you.
3:13 John 15:18-21. Cain is one example of the people of the world hating the people of God.⚜
Loving is the evidence of the new birth
14 📚We know that we have passed from death to life 📖, because we love the brethren. He who does not love his brother remains in death 📖. 15 📚Whoever goes on hating his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer 📖 has eternal life dwelling in him.
3:15 Hate is like murder because if it could it would destroy the person it hates. God looks at the state of the heart as well as the acts of a person. Compare Matt 5:27-30.⚜
Love is proved by deeds, not by words
16 📚By this we know 📖 the love of God: because he laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. 17 📚But whoever has this world’s good things, and sees his brother in need and shuts up his heart toward him, how can the love of God be in him? 18 📚My little children, let us not love in word or in tongue, but in deed and in truth.
3:17-18 Compare Jam 2:14-17. Without deeds faith is dead. We can say the same about love. Love that does not practice good deeds is not love at all. So-called love that does not help others is a false, deceptive and useless thing. When Christ comes to judge the nations the basis of His judgment will be what people have and have not done, not the fine words they may have uttered, or the fine emotions they may think they have felt. See Matt 25:31-46 (vs 41-46 are especially meaningful in the light of John’s words here). Of course those who have real love do not help others with a view of getting some benefit for themselves (such help is only disguised selfishness). They help those in need simply because they need help. Note and references on giving at 2 Cor 9:15.⚜
Love gives great confidence toward God
19 📚And by this we know that we are of the truth, and shall assure our hearts before him.
3:19 Verse 14. If we know we love fellow believers because we have proved our love in helping them, this gives us knowledge that we are rightly related to God’s truth. And we have rest in God’s presence. Perhaps one reason some Christians lack assurance of salvation lies in this: They have not proved their love in action, in kind and helpful deeds.⚜
20 📚For if our heart condemns us 📖, God is greater than our heart, and knows 📖 all things.
21 📚Dearly loved ones, if our heart does not condemn us 📖, then we have confidence 📖 toward God. 22 📚And whatever we ask we receive from him, because we keep his commands, and do those things that are pleasing in his sight 📖.
23 📚And this is his command, that we should believe on the name 📖 of his Son Jesus Christ, and love one another, as he commanded us. 24 📚And he who keeps his commands remains in him, and he in him. And by this we know 📖 that he remains in us, by the Spirit 📖 which he has given to us 📖.