“Everyone who practices sin also practices lawlessness; and sin is lawlessness. You know that He appeared in order to take away sins; and in Him there is no sin. No one who abides in Him sins; no one who sins has seen Him or knows Him. Little children, make sure no one deceives you; the one who practices righteousness is righteous, just as He is righteous; the one who practices sin is of the devil; for the devil has sinned from the beginning. The Son of God appeared for this purpose, to destroy the works of the devil.” (1 John 3:4-8 NASB’95)
The book of 1 John is not for sissies (the cowardly). It is not for those who want only messages which make them feel good, which are comfortable, and which are non-threatening, and non-intrusive, and non-confrontive. For it says it like it is in plain speaking with no “bells and whistles” attached. No flowery phrases, no jokes to ease the tension and to make everyone relaxed, either. Just plain and simple and direct as can be, because it has to be to get the reality of what it teaches to the people in a way that they cannot refute.
Many people who are of the “cheap grace gospel” mentality, who prefer a more diluted gospel message to the one taught by Jesus and by his New Testament apostles, will dismiss 1st, 2nd, & 3rd John altogether, for they do not agree with the gospel message which John was spreading, which they don’t want their adherents to believe in. For the popular gospel being taught in America today is that we can just make a profession of faith in Jesus Christ once, and now all our sins are forgiven and we are bound for heaven.
But what John taught here is the same gospel that Jesus taught, and that Paul taught, and that the other New Testament apostles taught, if truth be told, if we read what they taught in their appropriate context, and not out of context. What John taught and what James taught were not contradictory to what Paul taught, either, as many people would have you believe here in America. They all gave the same gospel message as what Jesus taught. And it wasn’t the “say you believe and now heaven is guaranteed you” message.
For Jesus said that if anyone would come after him, he must deny self, take up his cross daily (die daily to sin) and follow (obey) him. For, if we hold on to our lives of living in sin and for self, we will lose them for eternity. But if we deny self, put sin to death in our lives in daily practice, by the Spirit, and we walk (in conduct, in practice) in obedience to our Lord and to his commandments, then we have the hope of salvation from sin and eternal life with God. For it is the ones obeying God who have eternal life with God.
[Matt 7:13-14,21-23; Lu 9:23-26; Jn 10:27-30; Ac 26:18; Rom 2:6-8; Rom 6:1-23; Rom 8:1-14; Rom 12:1-2; 1 Co 6:9-10,19-20; 1 Co 10:1-22; 2 Co 5:10,15,21; Gal 5:16-24; Gal 6:7-8; Eph 2:8-10; Eph 4:17-32; Eph 5:3-6; Col 1:21-23; Col 3:1-17; Tit 2:11-14; Heb 3:1-19; Heb 4:1-13; Heb 10:23-31; Heb 12:1-2; 1 Pet 2:24; 1 Jn 1:5-10; 1 Jn 2:3-6,15-17; 1 Jn 3:4-10]
So, don’t dismiss what John taught here in the book of 1 John because it is uncomfortable or because it doesn’t fit with the theology that you were taught and that you believe. Study the Scriptures in their full context, book by book, and chapter by chapter, one after another, comparing Scripture with Scripture, and you will see that what John taught here as the gospel is the same as what Jesus taught and Paul and the other New Testament apostles taught consistently and repeatedly, and insistently, too.
So, if you have made a profession of faith in Jesus Christ, but then you kept on living just like you did before in deliberate and in habitual sin, without change of direction or thinking or behaviors, and so a walk of obedience to the Lord and to his commands is not your daily practice, either, then according to Jesus and to his New Testament apostles, you do not know God, you are not born of God, you are not in fellowship with God, and you do not have salvation from sin and eternal life with God in his heavenly kingdom.
It is the one who practices righteousness (of God, in the power of God) who is righteous in the sight of God, not those who just give lip service to the Lord. And those who practice sin are of the devil. And when this says that no one born of God practices sin, this is not saying that you can just give lip service to the Lord, and that constitutes being born of God, and so you are now somehow incapable of sinning. We are all still capable of sinning (1 John 2:1-2), but if sin is your practice, you will not inherit eternal life with God.
“No one who is born of God practices sin, because His seed abides in him; and he cannot sin, because he is born of God. By this the children of God and the children of the devil are obvious: anyone who does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor the one who does not love his brother.” (1 John 3:9-10 NASB’95)
For Our Nation
Bombs are bursting. Night is falling.
Jesus Christ is gently calling
You to follow Him in all ways.
Trust Him with your life today.
Make Him your Lord and your Savior.
Turn from your sin. Follow Jesus.
He will forgive you of your sin;
Cleanse your heart, made new within.
Men betraying: Our trust fraying.
On our knees to God we’re praying,
Seeking God to give us answers
That are only found in Him.
God is sovereign over all things.
Nothing from His mind escaping.
He has all things under His command,
And will work all for good.
Jesus Christ is gently calling
You to follow Him in all ways.
Men deceiving: We’re believing
In our Lord, and interceding
For our nation and its people
To obey their God today.
He is our hope for our future.
For our wounds He offers suture.
He is all we need for this life.
Trust Him with your life today.
An Original Work / September 11, 2012
Christ’s Free Servant, Sue J Love
Not a “Feel Good” Message
An Original Work / April 6, 2025
Christ’s Free Servant, Sue J Love
