Practicing Righteousness or Sin is a Result of Paternity
3:1 Look at the kind of love the Father has given to us, that we are called God’s children. And we really are! Because of this the world does not know us. And it is no wonder, because it did not know Him.
3:2 Beloved, right now we are God’s children, and exactly what we will be has not yet been revealed. But we know that when ˹Christ˺ is revealed, we will be like Him, because we will see Him just as He is. 3:3 And everyone who has such hope fixed on ˹Christ˺, purifies himself, just as He is pure.
3:4 Everyone who practices sin is also rebelling against God. In fact, sin is rebellion against God. 3:5 And you know that ˹Christ˺ was revealed to take away sins, and in Him there is no sin. 3:6 Everyone who abides in ˹Christ˺ does not sin. Everyone who sins has neither seen Him nor known Him.
3:7 Little children, don’t let anyone deceive you. The one who practices righteousness is righteous just as ˹Christ˺ is righteous. 3:8 The one who practices sin is the Devil’s offspring, because the Devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God was revealed was to destroy the works of the Devil.
3:9 Everyone who has been born of God does not practice sin because ˹God’s˺ offspring abide in Him, and he is not able to sin because he has been born of God. 3:10 By this it is clear who God’s children are and who the Devil’s children are. Everyone who does not practice righteousness is not God’s offspring, to be specific, the one who does not love his fellow believer.
Translation by the author from the SBL Greek New Testament.
Summary of Verses 3:1-10
In this unit, John explains that practicing righteousness or practicing sin is a result of “paternity”. God’s children purify themselves (3:3). The Devil’s offspring practice sin (3:8). One can identify God’s children and the Devil’s children by their actions.
Click here for a full outline of First John.
Verse 3:7
Little children, don’t let anyone deceive you.
John probably still has the disruptors in mind as the ones who were trying to deceive the readers who had remained faithful to the truth. Even though the disruptors had separated, they still posed a danger because their attempts to deceive were ongoing (see verse 2:26).
The one who practices righteousness is righteous just as ˹Christ˺ is righteous.
As in verse 3:5, the word “Christ” here in my translation is a substitution for the far demonstrative pronoun ἐκεῖνος / ekeinos in the Greek text, which means “that one”. So a more word-for-word rendering of the phrase would be: “just as that one is righteous“. The pronoun is translated as “he” in most English translations. In First John, John uses this pronoun six times as a personal reference to Christ (2:6; 3:3; 3:5; 3:7; 3:16; 4:17), and always in the context of Christ as an example for Christians.
In this verse, Christ is presented as the example of righteous living. Those who believe in Him should practice righteousness or live righteously following His example. In simple terms, to live righteously is to do what is right in one’s thoughts, words, and actions.
Verse 3:8
The one who practices sin is the Devil’s offspring,
Verse 3:7 was about the “one who practices righteousness“. Here in verse 3:8 John continues with the “one who practices sin“.
Verses 3:1-10 focus on the truth that practicing righteousness or practicing sin is a result of paternity – people are either children of God or offspring of the Devil. There are no shades of gray. Everyone belongs to one side or the other and reflects the nature of their father. “The children are known by their moral likeness to the head of the family”. [BRUCE p. 91] What we do reveals whose family we belong to.
Greek Note: is the Devil’s offspring
The phrase “is the Devil’s offspring” is an interpretive translation of the Greek words ἐκ τοῦ διαβόλου ἐστίν / ek tou diabolou estin. A word-for-word rendering of this phrase is “is from the Devil” or “is of the Devil”. The Greek phrase expresses some sense of belonging to or originating from the Devil. In the context of this passage, it probably expresses the idea of parentage. It may also imply the nature of the one who practices sin by referring to his origin, the Devil. An amplified translation that captures the aspects of origin and nature would be: The one who practices sin comes from and acts like the Devil.
because the Devil has been sinning from the beginning.
The one who practices sin is just like the Devil because sin is the Devil’s character. His sin has persisted from the beginning.
“From the beginning” probably refers to the Devil’s fall from angelic status or to His involvement in the fall of mankind recorded in Genesis chapter 3. However, as Robert Yarbrough notes in his commentary, John “is probably making a statement dealing more with character than chronology. However long he has been at work, nothing but malice and woe attends his activity.” [YARBROUGH p. 188, footnote 30]
Greek Note: has been sinning
“Has been sinning” is the translation of the Greek verb ἁμαρτάνει / hamartanei. It is Present tense in Greek (Full Parsing: Present Active Indicative, 3rd Person Singular). It is what grammarians call a Durative Present – it expresses an action that began in the past and continues in the present. It expresses the past and present in one phrase. English translations typically translate Greek Durative Present verbs as English Present Perfect verbs which use the auxiliary words “have” or “has”.
The reason the Son of God was revealed was to destroy the works of the Devil.
There is enmity between God and the Devil and God actively and aggressively works to destroy the works of the Devil and to rescue people from his family.
“The Son of God was revealed” in the incarnation (see 1:1-3), which the disruptors did not accept (see 2:22). Then through Christ’s death and resurrection He provided the solution to human sin, a way to escape the Devil’s family, and He destroyed death. As John affirms a few verses later in 3:14:
“we know that we have passed out of death into life” (1 John 3:14)
Go back to Verses 3:4-6
Go forward to Verses 3:9-10
Your Personal Study
Read First John 3:9-10 below and answer the questions.
3:9 Everyone who has been born of God does not practice sin because ˹God’s˺ offspring abide in Him, and he is not able to sin because he has been born of God. 3:10 By this it is clear who God’s children are and who the Devil’s children are. Everyone who does not practice righteousness is not God’s offspring, to be specific, the one who does not love his fellow believer.
1. John uses the phrase “born of God” or “born of Him” to describe those who have received new spiritual life from God. He uses the phrase ten times in six verses as listed below. Each verse gives a characteristic of the person who is born of God. Look up each verse and write down the characteristic that is given.
2:29 –
3:9 (x2) –
4:7 –
5:1 (x3) –
5:4 –
5:18 (x2) –
2. What is the ultimate test that one is living righteously and is a child of God?
3. Are there fellow believers that you do not love?
First John Translation.
First John Translation with Outline and Notes.
Bibliography of source information used for this series of posts.
Title Slide Image Credit: First John in Codex Alexandrinus, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.
Unless otherwise noted, English translations of Bible verses are by the author from the Greek text and are not quotations from any copyrighted Bible version or translation.
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