1 John 3 - a challenging chapter

Have you been reading 1 John with me the past few weeks? I hope so! And I hope you’ll stick with it through this somewhat confusing central chapter.

If you haven’t read 1 John 3 recently, click the link and read it through before reading on. (I’ll wait…!)

Verse 1 includes one of those great statements of the Bible that we can hold onto in the toughest times. See what love the Father has given us, that we should be called children of God. Another statement about God’s love, here emphasising that God’s love draws us into a family and means that we become children of God. In case we miss it, John emphasises, and that is what we are!

Again ideas about love run through the chapter, and again it is very practical. Verse 18 exhorts us to love, not in word or speech, but in truth and action. Thinking about CCC I’m always encouraged when I see examples of love in action, when individuals help each other out, getting on with the business of loving one another.

The chapter ends with a reminder of Jesus’ command to love one another, and an encouragement that we should ‘abide’ in Jesus and he in us.

And then there’s verses 4-9 which appear to say that Christians do not sin, and that anyone who does is a child of the devil! This runs contrary to our experience, and also to what John has written earlier: If we say we have no sin we deceive ourselves (1.8). So, what to make of these verses in chapter 3?

It’s fair to say that we’re not the first to be confused by this, and different writers have looked for different ways to understand the whole of what John is saying (others have said that there is no way to reconcile the different things John says).

Some have said that chapter 3 refers to habitual sin (which the Christian does not do) while chapter 1 refers to one-off sins. Others have challenged this understanding, saying that the language used does not support such a distinction. 

One understanding that I have found helpful refers to the definition of sin as ‘lawlessness’ in these verses. This can be understood as rebellion against the things of God, as epitomised by the devil, also mentioned in these verses. John is therefore saying that it is not possible for someone who is abiding or remaining in Jesus to be in rebellion against God. The other way around, it is not possible to be in rebellion against God and claim to be abiding in Christ.

This seems to make sense. When we seek to follow Jesus, and receive and show the love of God, we will realistically slip up and sin, and forgiveness is always available when we confess this (ch.1). But those who choose to rebel against God cannot also be abiding with God – it’s just not possible!

What do you think? Perhaps you think that this doesn’t capture the meaning of all the words here in chapter 3. Perhaps you understand it a different way. I’d be interested to know!

The things of God are not always easy for us to understand, but we can be sure of the promises at the start and end of the chapter:

  • Because of the love the Father has given us we are children on God
  • As we follow the commands of Jesus, we know that he abides in us, by the Holy Spirit he has given us.

I pray that our knowledge and experience of loving and abiding will deepen more and more by the presence of the Holy Spirit with and in us.

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