Read Together
1 John 3:1–24
Teaching
It is important for us to revisit verse 29 from last week. Read. It is one thing to testify that we know Christ and are in Him; it is quite another to have a life that reveals that He is our righteousness. Remember, we started off our lesson last week reminding us of the two positions with the Father—Sonship and Fellowship. It is wonderful to know positionally that we are in Christ and that we are accepted in the Beloved, but it is altogether different to have a life on earth that reflects it. John is telling us that the way we recognize other believers is by their lives and not by their lips. Righteousness is a family characteristic of the Father and His children. God’s children take after their Father—they have His characteristics. The question is: Do we act like the Father and His Son?
Read verse 1 John 3: 1. John is saying that we do not expect to be sons of God, we are the sons of God. The child of God can say emphatically, “I am a child of God through faith in Jesus Christ.” We don’t hope to be, we don’t expect to be, but the thrilling fact is that every believer can rejoice and constantly thank Him that he is God’s child. Have you ever heard someone reply when you ask them if they are going to heaven: “I hope so?” John makes it perfectly clear that if we are a born-again child of God, we are going to exhibit a life that conforms to the Father. A child of God needs to know that they know that they know they are a child of God. John says, “Now we are the children of God—right now we are the children of God. The kind of love that John is talking about is a kind of love that we are not accustomed to. God loves us—His love for us is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit. His Spirit is love! He loved us so much that He gave His Son for us—dying a sacrificial death to cover our sins. The song from the 70’s that we used to hear was “What the World Needs Now Is Love Sweet Love.” The greatest motivating force in the world is God’s love. Love is the greatest drive in the human family. A man falls in love with a woman, a woman falls in love with a man and they love their children. True love—God’s kind of love requires sacrifice. The true child of God is going to prove his spiritual birth by being obedient to God’s Word. God’s wonderful love for us should motivate us to live for God. The world does not understand true love until they are connected to God. The kind of love that we as God’s children can be understood in three tenses: 1. I have been saved. The Lord Jesus said “Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth My word, and believeth on Him that sent me has everlasting life and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life. (Jn. 5: 24) The moment we trust Christ we receive everlasting life, and we will never be any more saved than we are the moment we trust Him. We are born again, born into the family of God by the blood of Jesus Christ. God has bestowed His love upon His children, and they respond to that love by obedience unto Him and by living a life that is well pleasing to Him. 2. I am being saved. Paul said “…work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasures.” (Phil. 2: 12-13) Peter said, “But grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ…” (2 Pet. 3: 18) John is saying “if we are the children of God, we are going to be obedient unto Him, we are going to grow, we are going to develop, and we are going to go on in the Christian faith.” Therefore, we can say that we are being saved from the power of the flesh. 3. I will be saved. When the Lord Jesus comes again for His own, we will experience the final stage of our salvation. Sin no longer will have power over us, and we will be with the Lord forever.
Read verse 2. The world doesn’t understand us because it didn’t understand Jesus. It takes a spiritual insight, and that comes through the anointing which we have talked about—He has given us His Spirit. His Spirit is the one who can make this real to us as He confirms it in our heart. Becoming like Jesus is a transformational process—a metamorphosis—of God growing His character in us as we yield to His ways. Paul wrote that believers in Jesus “are being transformed into His image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord.” (2 Cor. 3: 18) John marvels at how hard this is for us to understand—much less achieve. We have to be willing to be willing to cooperate with His Spirit so that we will become more and more like Jesus! But we know that when He appears, we will be like Him! He sees in us what He will make out of us. Aren’t we thankful that God does not give up on us and keeps on keeping on to draw us to Him and change us. We are going to see the glorified Christ one day. Wea are not going to be equal to Him, but we are going to be like Him in our own personalities, our own individualities, our own selves. Each of us is unique and He wants us to be all that we were created to be for Him. The most important thing that we will experience when we are with the Lord is His LOVE!
Read verse 3. If we believe that Jesus is coming and that someday we are going to be like Him, that will cause us to live a pure life down here. We shouldn’t assume we’re doing God’s work simply because others say we are. We must prayerfully check our work—our lives with what God reveals in the Bible. How can we know we’re serving Him with a pure life? Psalm 119:9 says, “By living according to your word.” The God who commands us to “always give ourselves fully to the work of the Lord” has told us what the work is in His holy book. (1 Cor. 15: 58) Let’s listen to Him and guard His name at all times. Our hope and expectation are rooted in the person and promises of Jesus Christ. It is a firm assurance of future blessings that are unseen but certain—grounded in God’s faithfulness, the resurrection of Jesus, and the indwelling Holy Spirit. (Romans 5: 5, 8: 24-25; I Peter 1:3) Our hope in Christ brings joy, peace, and strength that transforms our life and gives us purpose no matter what. Paul wrote, “We are saved by hope in Romans 8: 24—not because it’s visible, but because it’s certain.
Read verse 4. John is addressing someone who habitually and continually lives in sin. God’s word reveals what sin is. Sin is basically and fundamentally that which is contrary to the will of God. In other words, a sinner is living according to the old sin nature. Paul says in Romans 8:5, “For they that are after the flesh (the old nature) do mind (obey) the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit. We cannot have fellowship with God and be a carnal Christian. Paul says, “for to be carnally minded is death…” Death is separation from God. John is making it clear that we are not to walk in our old ways as we did before we were born again. The child of God has now come to God and must seek His way. Paul in 1 Cor. 2:14 says, “But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.” The natural man is born into the natural world. But because he has not been born again through faith, he can’t appreciate or understand spiritual things; he is bound to the material world. Adrian Rogers says, “The natural man does what comes natural; the spiritual man does what comes supernaturally.”
Read verse 5. Only Jesus can take away sin. He came for that purpose. Two things are important for us to see here. In John’s gospel he wrote, “…Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.” (Jn. 1: 29) He bore the penalty of sin. “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” (Jn. 3: 16) Now here in John’s epistle he shows that Christ takes away the practice of sin in the life of the believer. He died a redemptive death to pay the penalty of our sin, but He also died that He might deliver us from the power of sin right here and now. In Him is no sin. He died a redemptive death—He was our sin offering. He was without sin; He was without spot or blemish as was the Levitical sin offering. Therefore, He is able to remove the guilt of sin and to provide the power to deliver us from the habit of sinning. He has given to us a new nature that we might live for Him today. The Christian is not a natural person who decides to do better; he is someone who has been radically, dramatically, and supernaturally changed. The spiritual things he once could not understand become apparent to Him.
Read vers 6. An old Bible teacher Dr. Henry Ironside says, “Christ, this absolutely sinless One, who in grace became sin for us that we might be reconciled to God, dwells by the Spirit in the believer, and our new nature is really His very life imparted to us.” If we are God’s child, that new nature will not go along with the old nature and commit sin. The believer who abides in Christ does not practice sin—he doesn’t live in it—doesn’t live a sinful life. God provides the power to deliver from the habit of sinning, and that is all that John is saying here. If we can be happy in sin, then we are not God’s child because God’s children have the nature of their Father. If we are living in sin, we will have no joy or peace. God can and will deliver us from sin in our life.
Read verse 7. This is the thing which reveals the child of God. To abide in Him does not mean just positionally—sonship. If we abide in Him fellowship and service, sin must be given up. Sin is anything that separates us from the Father—that can be a habit, an addiction, a distraction, and even a hobby that dominates our mind, will and emotions and keeps us away from fellowship with Him. This epistle deals with living, right where we are. We are going to have to call upon God for deliverance so that we can have real contact with Him.
Read verse 8. We need to remember that the Devil is the source of all sin. He is the one who is responsible for sin being brought into the world. He is the one who led our first parents into sin. And the reason that you and I have a sin nature today is because of the Devil. Remember that the Lord Jesus said to the religious rulers of His day, “Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do…” (Jn. 8:44) We will take after our father. If our father is the Devil, then we are going to act like Him. He started out sinning, and he has been at it ever since. He is in rebellion against God. Jesus’ purpose in coming to the world was to destroy the works of the devil—to dismantle it. John tells us that the Lord Jesus not only takes away our sin, but He also was manifested to take away our sins—plural. He was without sin—He had no sin nature. But he was a human being, and He died as our sin offering, paying the penalty for our sin. Jesus was manifested and died to make it possible for you and me to live the Christian life. The devil came to Jesus in the wilderness to tempt Him but He never wavered—He was obedient to the Father even unto death on the cross. The enemy’s works persist only where believers hesitate to stand in what Christ has already finished. Darkness traffics in bluff and intimidation, but it has no legal ground where the Son has been manifested, and His work believed. When believers walk in alignment with Jesus, deception dissolves, chains loosen, and strongholds fall—not by striving but by standing. Where darkness whispers, speak truth. Where fear resists, enforce peace. Where sin once ruled, declare freedom. We are to walk forward and let the works of the devil unravel wherever we stand, for what Jesus has dismantled, we are authorized to enforce.
Read verse 9. A child of God is given a new nature, and that new nature does not intentionally sin as we will want to please the Father. The idea is not just one act of sin; the idea is that he does not live in sin. Sin is anything contrary to the will of God, but when sin comes into our lives, John has given us the answer in I John 1:9—we have an advocate with the Father who pleads our case before the Father when we confess our sin. John is speaking to truth born-again believers. When we received a new nature, we did not lose our old nature—that is the problem. Only the Spirit of God can deliver us. If we recognize that we are helpless and hopeless, if some sin binds us down, spoils our life, robs us of our joy, and we are miserable, God can deliver us! His seed—His Spirit is within us and will empower us to overcome sin.
Read verses 10-11. The Bible does not teach that God looks upon all people as His children. There are the children of God and the children of the Devil—there are two families in the world. As cute and sweet as they are, all babies are born as children of the devil bit covered by God’s grace until they reach the age of accountability and when they can either reject or choose to be born into the family of God by the blood of Jesus Christ. We are all born spiritually dead and separated from God. God wants none to perish but all to come to the knowledge of Him and be born again. John is showing that there are two things which manifest the child of God. God knows our hearts and knows whether or not we have really been born again and are His children. But our next door neighbor doesn’t know that. The only way for him to know is for the life of God to be manifested in us. It is not necessarily manifested by lip and language, but it is manifested by our living. In Galatians Paul tells the believers to learn to walk in the Spirit. We cannot do it ourselves. In Romans 7 Paul reveals two things: there is no good in the old nature, and there is no power in the new nature. We must have help. It does not matter who we are, we cannot live the Christian life by ourselves. It is only by the Spirit of God working in us that we can produce good fruit, and He want us to produce fruit. Again John reminds us of the true identification as a Christian is whether we love other Christians. This love is to be a concerned love, a love that acts, a love that does something beneficial.
Read verse 12. In Genesis 4: 3-10 we have the account of Cain and Abel. John is calling our attention to some important lessons. Read. It is apparent that God had made clear to Adam and Eve and to their children what kind of sacrifice was pleasing to Him. Since we see that Abel’s sacrifice was acceptable but Cain’s was not, we must conclude that God required a blood sacrifice. We see glimpses of this in Genesis 3: 21 where God killed animals (lambs?) and made a covering for them after they sinned that replaced their covering of fig leaves. Cain’s offering was therefore unacceptable to God and he became angry, indignant and dejected and depressed. These resulted from his disobedience to God and are manifestations of the Devil. It is apparent that he was led by his father the devil as he took vengeance out upon his brother and killed him—another manifestation of his father the devil who was a murderer from the beginning. God confronted him with his sin—What have you done? Cain lied to God as his father is a liar. God called him to judgment over his sin and said, “The voice of your brother’s blood is crying to Me from the ground.” We need to consider two scriptures that sheds light on the blood. In Leviticus 17:11 we read, “For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it for you on the altar to make atonement for your souls, for it is the blood that makes atonement by the life.” Then in Hebrews 9:22 we read, “Indeed, under the law almost everything is purified with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins.” John is making it clear to us—Cain was from the wicked one. Why was Abel’s actions righteous? Because God was pleased with the blood sacrifice he presented to him pointing to the blood of Christ that makes us a child of God! Another sin that was manifested by Cain was jealousy and envy. Envy characterized Cain. Someone has said, “The most destructive force in the world is jealousy and envy.” Envy can be defined as “discontent or uneasiness at the sight of another’s excellence or good fortune, accompanied with some degree of hatred and a desire to possess equal advantages. Envy is in the human heart. Envy and jealousy among believers in the church hurt the cause of Christ today probably more than anything else. It is that old secret sin that many believers cover up. We see it in the music programs, in teaching and even in preachers! May we do what we do for the Lord and not for ourselves or for the praise of people!
Read verse 13. John says, “Don’t act as if some strange or weird thing has happened to you if the world doesn’t accept you, because the world is not going to accept you.” John makes it very clear all the way through this epistle that he is merely passing along the teachings which the Lord Jesus Christ Himself gave. In John 15: 18-19 Jesus said, “If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you. If ye were of the world, the world would love his own; but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you.” Everyday we see the line drawn in the sand of the hatred toward truth and Christians specifically. Jesus was right—we are seeing it now.
Read verse 14. How do we know that we have passed from death unto life? It is revealed in our love for our brothers and sisters in Christ! Corrie Ten Boom said, “When a Christian shuns fellowship with other Christians, the devil smiles.” There are those who do not seem to have any concern for the children of God, but you and I are to have concern for one another. Loving one another is proof of our salvation. Let’s remember that as we pray for one another, God brings healing to us.
Read verse 15. John carries us back to the teachings of Jesus who is our source and example. In Matthew 5: 21-24 Jesus said, “You have heard that it was said to the men of old, You shall not kill, and whoever kills shall be liable to and unable to escape the punishment imposed by the court. But I say to you that everyone who continues to be angry with his brother or harbors malice (enmity of heart) against him shall be liable to and unable to escape the punishment imposed by the Sanhedrin, and whoever says, You cursed fool! (You empty-headed idiot!) shall be liable to and unable to escape the hell (Gehenna) of fire. So if when you are offering your gift at the altar you there remember that your brother has any (grievance) against you, Leave your gift at the altar and go. First make peace with your brother, and then come back and present your gift.” This is much like we are taught concerning partaking of the Lord’s Supper with malice in our heart. John’s emphasis in this verse is the two natures of the believer. When you become a child of God, you do not get ride or our old nature. Rather, we have two natures—an old nature and a new nature. We have seen that the new nature is the only nature that can please God. Man in his natural state is unable to please God; the carnal mind is enmity against God. The carnal man is one who has been saved, yet he is defeated and dependent on others to decipher Scripture. He likes to stir up debates and provoke fights; he can’t get along with anyone. He is saved, but no one would ever know it. Unfortunately, the carnal Christian is a lot more common than we want to believe. In order for us to grow in truth and maturity, we must take an honest inventory of where we are, so that we may grow in Christ, and follow the road map of maturity. We must take time to prayerfully figure out where we are in our relationship with Christ. Do we have the markings of a natural man, a spiritual man, or a carnal man? We are to live by the Spirit, learn, and be liberated by Him.
Read verse 16. Again, John goes back to Jesus as our example—the way God loves. How does God love? “He laid down His life for us.” This is the standard that is put before us. How many of us would be willing to put our lives on the line for someone else? Today we do not see this spirit manifested as it should be. Until you and I have come up to that high level, we are not exhibiting the love that we should have for one another. John reveals what that looks like in verse 17.
Read verses 17-19. John is saying that love is not a sentiment; it is that which expresses itself in action. James also had a great deal to say about this in his epistle. There he wrote, “If a brother or sister be naked, and destitute of daily food. And one of you say unto them. Depart in peace, be ye warmed and filled; notwithstanding ye give them not those things which are needful to the body; what doth it profit?” (James 2: 15-16) Real love gets into action. We express our love of the brethren by what we do for them, not by what we say. Our tongue is very good at running way ahead of our feet, but true Christianity, the real deal is a matter of the heart and not of the head or the tongue. How many times have someone asks us to pray for them and we say, “I will pray for you” but in reality it never crosses our minds again. They will know we are Christians by our love—our genuine caring love! Self-sacrificing love is required of us, as believers. It is a matter of the heart. When the Spirit moves in our heart, our responses change. Our desires align with God’s. Our reactions soften. The new creation that John is teaching us about involves a heart formed by the Spirit—a heart that is attentive and yielded so that we can truly love as He loves. Christianity is a love relationship. This week I read an article in the Coosa paper from Sean of the South called “The Invisible Man” that is a true story about his encounter with a homeless Veteran. Share. How many invisible people do we encounter daily who need a touch from Jesus? God is calling us to use the blessings He has given us to bless others. If our lives manifest these things that John has talked about, we will have an assurance when we come before God in prayer and an assurance when we stand before Him one day.
Read verses 20-21. God knows our heart. He knows any unconfessed sin in our life, any area that is not surrendered. If our heart condemns us, God is greater than our hearts, and He knows us, and He is going to deal with us—we can depend on it! George Muller said, “The vigor of our spiritual life will be in exact proportion to the place held by the Bible in our life and thoughts.” Jesus told the Jews who believed in Him, “If you abide in My word, you are My disciples indeed. And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” (John 8: 31-32) Robert M. Horn said, “God’s Word is the instrument by which God’s Spirit transforms the Christian.” Let us wake up and say, “There’s nothing between my soul and the Savior. Lord, I am Your servant, I am Your slave, Jesus is with me. God the Father is above me. Holy Spirit of God, You’re within me. I surrender to You. Help me to carry Your love into every place I step. May my life be read without apology. Fill me with Your power that I can walk forward as a living epistle—seen, read, and known—until Jesus is revealed everywhere I go and hearts awaken to the living God!”
Read verses 22-24. Love in action gives assurance in prayer. When our life is pleasing to God, we can expect Him to hear and answer our prayers. Remember the early church when persecution first broke out and the apostles were warned to stop preaching the name of Jesus. They went back and reported this to the other Christians, and the group went to God in prayer. They didn’t pray that the persecution would stop. They began their prayer by saying “Lord, thou art God.” (Acts 4: 24) This is actually what we should be praying now in light of all that is going on in our nation and world today. People are panicking over the possibility of WWIII and terror attacks in our nation. It seems that Christians are not sure that our heavenly Father is God, that He does run this universe, and that He is in control! God has echoed these words from many sources concerning the events that began this year, “A January of Justice shall lead to a ferocious February, setting up for a ROAR in March.” Over the weekend statements were made by President Trump and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announcing operations in Iran—named “Epic Fury” by the United States and “Roaring Lion” by Israel that reflect close coordination but also some differences. Both recalled the Iranian regime’s lethal legacy, vowed to present it from acquiring nuclear weapons, and called for its fall, though without committing to topple it directly. President Trump stated that his central goal is to defend the United States, and that the operation will be a massive and protracted campaign aimed at destroying Iran’s missiles and navy, preventing Tehran from ever obtaining a nuclear weapon, and neutralizing its regional terrorist proxies. He also called on the regime’s security and police agencies to surrender, and for the Iranian people to take power once the operation is over. Prophetic words by Amanda Grace. July 3, 2025: “And the Spirit of the Lord says this day, “Posture your hearts, MY people. Posture your hearts before Me,” says the Lord, “as I, the Lord, am mightily moving within the earth,” says the Lord about to bring the FEAR of the Lord into your nation and the nations of the earth,” says the Lord. My servant Daniel fasted and prayed and postured himself to receive the message from Gabriel, says the Lord, as the Prince of Persia and the Prince of Greece both arose to oppose in that time, yet they have postured in defiance before Me, says the Lord, and dug in their heels and stiffened their necks, says the Lord. And for such, the neck of Iran shall now be broken, says the Lord, and their oil, their commodities from within the earth shall now be pinched shut, says the Lord. For this is the time of the Esther 2 moment within nations, says the Lord, including Iran, says the Lord, including America, says the Lord, guards conspiring against their leaders, for evidence shall rise to the surface of such, says the Lord. December 20, 2025: “I, the Lord, the Alpha and Omega, sit on the highest throne. Come unto Me, petition Me in this hour, for I the Lord am hearkening unto the voice of My people who have been faithful, and their needs bring them before Me, says the Lord. State your case; the heart of the giver shall be blessed, says the Lord. Amongst the tumult, I the Lord shall pour incredible blessings upon My faithful ones, says the Lord, that they may overflow and prosper to do the work I have commissioned. Those who speak truth and are willing to say what others remain silent on to keep what they have built—those I shall greatly bless, says the Lord. Those verdicts and blessings shall come forth, starting at the end of what you call “December,” say the Lord. And it shall be a year of outpouring on My people who are willing to stand and speak the truth amongst the tumult, says the Lord. I, the Lord, hold the fullness thereof, I can bless and provide no matter what earthly systems attempt to oppress, says the Lord. “ask of Me now,” says the Lord, for I seek to bestow special gifts upon the faithful. For you are entering a year of great transition, great change; a repositioning of territory of voices, of physical land, says the Lord, that My will may go forth and the plans of the enemy be exposed, thwarted, dismantled; and sophisticated arguments to the highest ares of your nation may be refuted and dismantled, says the Lord. I am God. There is no other. James 4:7 is a key, says the Lord, for the coming years, a key that will unlock great doors even for the president—if he so employs this—along with the heads of departments in their daily walk. “Therefore, SUBMIT TO GOD, RESIST THE DEVIL, AND HE WILL FLEE FROM YOU.” (James 4:7) And flee he shall, says the Lord, for those who have not watered down the power and authority from on high but are actually operating in it with the biblical precision that brings forth results. The fervent, effectual prayers of a righteous man do indeed availeth much in an hour of confusion, tumult, turmoil, and darkness that attempts to blanket the people and nations. Fervent, effectual prayer shall tear that covering, says the Lord. Time to armor up and engage and understand My legal system, says the Lord, that far supersedes your earthly courts. Those rulings will come down in great measure. Thus says the Lord, in Jesus mighty name.” We have our marching orders!