Daily Thoughts from 1 John: Life Changing Seed (3:4-10)

Daily Thoughts from 1 John: Life Changing Seed

Everyone who makes a practice of sinning also practices lawlessness; 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 keeps on sinning; no one who keeps on sinning has either seen him or known him. Little children, let no one deceive you. Whoever practices righteousness is righteous, as he is righteous. Whoever makes a practice of sinning is of the devil, for the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil. No one born of God makes a practice of sinning, for God’s seed abides in him, and he cannot keep on sinning because he has been born of God. By this it is evident who are the children of God, and who are the children of the devil: whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is the one who does not love his brother.  (1 John 3:4-10 ESV)

John makes three key points.

1) Jesus purpose for coming was to take away sins, both their guilt (by his death on the cross as a sacrifice in our place) and their power (by the indwelling of God’s seed, mediated, we may assume, by the Holy Spirit).  Consequently, no one who habitually sins is saved because that would be in contradiction of Jesus’ purpose and the effectiveness of his salvation.

2)  We can thus tell the difference between the children of God and the children of the devil.  Those who practice sin are following their father the devil who is a sinner from the beginning.  One key sin of theirs is failure to love believers.  Jesus came to defeat Satan’s work.  Don’t be deceived.

3)  God’s seed remains in believers and this makes it impossible for us to continue in sin.  A seed is something that grows and reproduces itself.  God’s life is growing and reproducing itself in us.  We will therefore acknowledge our sins and confess them, walking purposefully in the light of God’s truth to let it expose our darkness and be cleansed.

Today is my oldest son’s birthday.  He is amazing!  And he bears an uncanny resemblance to his granddaddy.  Same body build, same coloring (red hair), same demeanor, same interest in fixing things (he certainly did not get that from me or his mother).  His granddaddy’s character abides in my son and so he cannot but be other than like him.  And so it is with our Heavenly Father and His character in us.