(1 John 3)<\/p>\n
We move now into the second half of the letter, which deals with sonship. The word \u201cfellowship\u201d is not found in this section at all. Instead, John emphasizes being \u201cborn of God\u201d (see 1 John 3:9; 1 John 4:7; 1 John 5:4). This passage ties in with John 3 and emphasizes the theme \u201cGod is love\u201d (1 John 4:8,16). In this chapter, John states that a true child of God will prove his spiritual birth by being obedient to God\u2019s Word. He gives five motives for obedience:<\/p>\n
I. God\u2019s Wonderful Love (1 John 3:1)<\/p>\n
\u201cBehold, what foreign-kind of love\u201d is literally what John writes. Paul had this idea in mind when he wrote Rom. 5:6-10. Love is the greatest motive in the world, and if we understand God\u2019s love, we will obey His Word. \u201cIf you love me, keep My commandments\u201d (John 14:15). Of course, the world has no understanding of this love, and the world hates us. But the world does not know Christ, so it cannot know Christ\u2019s own.<\/p>\n
II. Christ\u2019s Promised Return (1 John 3:2-3)<\/p>\n
What we are now is wonderful; but what we shall be is even more wonderful! \u201cWe shall be like Him.\u201d This means inheriting a glorified body like His body (Phil. 3:20-21) and sharing in His eternal glory (John 17:24). But the saint who really expects Christ to return will obey His Word and keep his life clean. We shall see Him \u201cas He is,\u201d but we must also \u201cwalk as He walked\u201d (see 1 John 2:6) and \u201cbe righteous even as He is\u201d (1 John 3:7). Saints are expected to purify themselves, that is, keep their hearts clean (2 Cor. 7:1).<\/p>\n
III. Christ\u2019s Death on the Cross (1 John 3:4-8)<\/p>\n
John gives several reasons why Christ was made manifest: (1) to reveal the Father and enable us to fellowship with Him, 1 John 1:2-3; (2) to take away our sins, 1 John 3:4-5; (3) to destroy (annul) the works of the devil, 1 John 3:8; and (4) to reveal God\u2019s love and bestow God\u2019s life, 1 John 4:9. The fact that sin resulted in Christ\u2019s suffering and death ought to be reason enough for the Christian to hate sin and flee from it. John defines sin as transgressing the law. The Christian who abides in Christ (this is the fellowship of chaps. 1-2) will not deliberately break God\u2019s law. Every Christian sins, perhaps without knowing it (Ps. 19:12); but no true Christian will deliberately and repeatedly defy God\u2019s Word and disobey Him. Verse 6 ought to read, \u201cWhosoever abides in Him does not habitually sin.\u201d Ephesians 2:1-3 makes it clear that the unsaved sin constantly because they live in the flesh and for the devil. But the Christian has a new nature within and is no longer Satan\u2019s slave.<\/p>\n
Wiersbe, W. W. (1997). Wiersbe’s expository outlines on the New Testament (771-772). Wheaton, Ill.: Victor Books.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
(1 John 3) We move now into the second half of the letter, which deals with sonship. The word \u201cfellowship\u201d is not found in this section at all. Instead, John emphasizes being \u201cborn of God\u201d (see 1 John 3:9; 1 John 4:7; 1 John 5:4). This passage ties in with John 3 and emphasizes the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"twitterCardType":"","cardImageID":0,"cardImage":"","cardTitle":"","cardDesc":"","cardImageAlt":"","cardPlayer":"","cardPlayerWidth":0,"cardPlayerHeight":0,"cardPlayerStream":"","cardPlayerCodec":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10353","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/purposedriven.ca\/wiki\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10353","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/purposedriven.ca\/wiki\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/purposedriven.ca\/wiki\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/purposedriven.ca\/wiki\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/purposedriven.ca\/wiki\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10353"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/purposedriven.ca\/wiki\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10353\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/purposedriven.ca\/wiki\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10353"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/purposedriven.ca\/wiki\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10353"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/purposedriven.ca\/wiki\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10353"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}