Sunday Devotional: 1 John 3:7-10

⁷ Little children, let no one lead you astray. The one doing righteousness is righteous, just as He is righteous. ⁸ The one doing sin is from the Devil, for the Devil has been sinning from the beginning. For this reason, the Son of God was revealed: In order to destroy the works of the Devil. ⁹ Everyone who has been born from God does not do sin, for His seed remains in him, and he is not able to sin since he has been born from God. ¹⁰ In this it is evident [who are] the children of God and the children of the Devil: Everyone who does not do righteousness is not from God, also the one who does not love his brother.

At the heart of the Christian gospel message is the fact that we are sinful people, condemned to suffer the just wrath of God for our sin. Every one of us. The just punishment for our sin is eternal condemnation, everlasting separation from God and all that He is–love, justice, mercy, goodness, and so on. Our only hope is the blood of Jesus, His Son, shed on our behalf. He paid the penalty for the sins of his people so they would not suffer God’s wrath, but rather receive His forgiveness for sin and be adopted as His children. This gift of salvation is just that: a gift. We did not earn it, we certainly don’t deserve it.

Sadly, it has become popular among some Christians to take this gift of grace and use it as a kind of “Get Out of Jail Free” card whenever they want to sin. In other words, they have this idea that because Christianity is all about grace, love, and peace, you can commit sin if you want and not have to worry about God’s judgment. Jesus has taken care of that. This is a horrendous abuse of God’s grace, and a flat-out denial of what John is saying here in 1 John 3.

In this passage, John makes two things very clear:

1. We are righteous before God because He made us righteous. We contributed nothing. God makes us alive in Christ. We are born of God because He puts his “seed” in us, to use John’s picture-language.
2. Our actions are an outgrowth of our convictions. If we are born of God we will “do righteousness,” which includes loving the brethren (i.e., fellow Christians, the church). If we continue in sin, we are not demonstrating any kind of “freedom in Christ.” Rather, we are demonstrating that we are not of God and are, in fact, children of the Devil.

At the beginning of the passage, John shows his pastoral care for his readers, his “little children.” He does not want them to be lead astray or deceived by false teaching. He says that the one who does righteousness is righteous. That is, the person whose life is characterized by a desire to be faithful to God and to honor His commandments is considered by God to be a righteous person. And this is not according to the person’s own conception of what righteousness is. Rather, the righteousness he strives for is the righteousness he sees in God Himself.

On the other hand, the person whose life is characterized by sin and a disregard for the things of God, no matter what he claims to be, is from the Devil, the original sinner. You might say you are a Christian, or claim to hear from God, or follow the Bible. However, if the clear orientation of your life is to honor yourself and your own desires with no regard for God, His commands, or His people, you are deceived. You are not born of God, because no-one born of God would act that way.

Indeed, these works of the Devil, the sin our selfish flesh so desperately wants to cling to, are the very works Jesus came to destroy. If your heart doesn’t care about sin, if you have no regard for pleasing God, loving His church, or being faithful to His Word, then you are cherishing the very things Jesus came to destroy.

If you cherish the very things Jesus came to destroy, how can you claim to be a follower of Jesus?

This doesn’t mean Christians don’t sin. When someone who is not born of God sins, they think nothing of it. Either they don’t care, or they brush it off as no big deal since Jesus died for that sin. However, if you are born of God, when you sin it grates against your soul. There is remorse and repentance. Even though you know Christ has paid for that sin, it hurts you to know that you have failed to be as faithful to God as you should.

To the Christian, the grace of God is not a “Get Out of Jail Free” card. It is a balm to the sin-sick soul. It is the assurance we need that, although we despair over the sin we commit, we have a Savior who gives us hope. God still loves us. That sin is covered. And we are daily being conformed to the image of Christ and made ready for eternity.