Friday, September 2, 2022

 

Friday, September 2, 2022


Psalms 5; 6

Zephaniah 2:4-15

1 John 3:1-10


Observance: Martyrs of New Guinea (d. 1942)


Is this the exultant city that lived secure, that said to itself, “I am, and there is no one else”? What a desolation it has become...


John once again presents us with a challenge of interpretation due to how his brain works. “Everyone who commits sin is a child of the devil” he proclaims, after assuring us that if we abide in Jesus then we do not sin. What is going on here?


Remember that John has made a central point and is now moving around it. He has already assured us of a hope that no one can take away: “See what love the Father has given us, that we should be called children of God; and that is what we are.” What John is describing here is not a binary system where there is a group of sinless, perfect people who are God's children, while the rest of us are doomed alongside the evil one.


John is instead describing the relationship an individual has with sin. The Greek word rendered here as “commit” describes an ongoing process, not a one-off incident. We can tell whether someone is a true Christian if their relationship with sin is uneasy. “If anyone sins, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.” A true Christian, having sinned, will run back to their heavenly Father who is ready to embrace them again. A false believer will be quite happy to wallow in their sins.


This section of the letter is here to warn us about false teaching. There is no such thing as sinless perfection this side of eternity. That is not to say, however, that sin is a small thing. Some people in John's time taught one of those two things. It still happens today. But we do not belong to this world, and so those false teachings (which sound quite reasonable to minds of this world) need not affect us. The Son of God was revealed for the purpose of destroying these works of the devil; meanwhile, we children of God are completely swept up in the amazing love the Father has given us.



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