The Test of Character, Part 3, 1 Jn 3:7-9

The Test of Character, part 2
Who is Your Spiritual Master—Christ or Satan?

1 John 3:7-9

Introductory Thoughts

· We are in a section which applies the test of character in a detailed fashion.
· The key to the entire passage is 3:10, which is the bottom line: “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…”
· This passage consists of a test to determine if you are a child of God or a child (spiritually) of the Devil.
· Harsh words, but they are simple Biblical Truth!

· We have seen that the practice of sin contradicts God’s Law, and by implication, the Lawgiver— “…Everyone who practices sin practices lawlessness, and sin is lawlessness …” (NASB)

· We have seen that the practice of sin contradicts The Savior and His Mission! “…You know that He appeared in order to take away (our) sins; and in Him there is no sin…”

· Now we are going to see that your lifestyle is evidence of your spiritual Master.

1. What is a Satanist? I am going to say some things that upset people, and may upset you!

a. A Satanist is not necessarily or only the gross rebel against God

(1) The overt, conscious Satanist—they are actually very few in number, but they are far from the only Satanists.
(2) The blatant sinner or hedonist, the atheist, the person with a perverted lifestyle—these are following the prince of the power of the air, but they are not the only ones.
Eph 2:1-3 "And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins, 2 in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience, 3 among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others."

b. Satanists also include:

(1) Nice people who never hurt a fly and seem so nice, but who depend on anything other than the blood of Christ for salvation
(2) People who profess a form of religion, but deny the power of it.
(3) People who profess the true faith, but whose lives deny it.
(4) Traditionalist religious leaders—John 8:44 ""You are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father you want to do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources, for he is a liar and the father of it."

c. The danger of deception—(we have seen this before)—this type of false teaching was going on in John’s time too—1 John 3:7 "Little children, let no one deceive you…"

(1) Little children…
(2) Let no one be leading you astray—(present tense) the danger is continuous, and the leading astray is continuous.
(3) What was the continuous leading astray about?

(a) It was doctrinal—lies about the Person of Christ (1 John 2:22-23, 4:1-6)
(b) It was practical—lies about the Christian’s walk

2. The evidence of Salvation—“…He who practices righteousness is righteous, just as He is righteous…”

a. “…The one practicing righteousness…”

(1) Participle, present active, nominative, singular. This is continuous action, personal, concentrating on each individual person who does the action
(2) Righteousness, correct living, living according to God’s way.
(a) From the context, this is not talking about justification, not talking about becoming right with God; justification before God, peace with God, is by faith alone—(Rom 3:28, 5:1)
(b) This is talking about righteous living
(3) So the one who practices righteousness…

b. “…Is righteous...”—this IS talking about being in a right standing with God.

(1) This word, äßêáéïò, means just or righteous. It occurs in this form in the New Testament 76 times.

(2) Now, the question is: how does one become righteous? Is this state the result of doing the right thing, of works? It is possible to read this verse to say that (thought that is not what is means).

(3) What can we learn from studying this word?

(a) Sometimes it refers to things or actions being righteous
(b) Sometimes it refers to God being righteous
(c) But when it refers to people, it almost always refers to a saved person.
(d) But again, how does one become righteous?

(i) First, none of us are righteous on our own—Rom 3:10 "As it is written: "There is none righteous, no, not one;"
(ii) The way of righteousness is the way that God has constructed—Rom 5:19 "For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so also by one Man's obedience many will be made righteous."

Rom 1:17 "For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, "The just shall live by faith.""

Gal 3:11 "But that no one is justified by the law in the sight of God is evident, for "the just shall live by faith.""

(iii) The following verse helps us understand—a truly righteous person will give evidence of that righteousness by his conduct, not that the conduct creates the righteousness. Heb 11:4 "By faith Abel offered to God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, through which he obtained witness that he was righteous, God testifying of his gifts; and through it he being dead still speaks."

(4) Also, since we know from other places that Salvation is by Grace Alone through Faith alone, we are not talking about a cause-and-effect relationship, with righteous living leading to a right standing with God.
(5) Bottom line, it is the righteous living which is evidence that a right standing with God already actually exists!

c. “…Just as that one is righteous…” Now this is profound.

(1) The just man or woman is righteous just as Christ Himself is righteous! How can that be? How can I be righteous just as He is?

(2) How is He righteous? He is righteous by nature! Rightness is what He IS by nature, and He is legally righteous, because He never sinned and always did what was right.

1 Pet 1:18-19 "knowing that you were not redeemed with corruptible things, like silver or gold, from your aimless conduct received by tradition from your fathers, 19 but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot."

Heb 4:15 "For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin."

Phil 2:5-6 "Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, 6 who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God,"

(3) When we are made righteous by faith in Him, we experience two things.

(a) First, when we are saved, we are declared legally righteous—Rom 3:21-31 We have HIS righteousness legally.

(b) But we also receive a new nature, a new man, created in Christ Jesus to be righteous in conduct. It now becomes the nature of the New Man, it now becomes our nature, to be righteous—Eph 4:21-24.

(c) The problem is, we have the old body, the flesh, which knows sin, which loves sin, and we must bring that body under submission by growing in the Grace of Christ

d. Bottom line—the one who belongs to Christ will live a life consistent with that reality.


3. Now, the negative statement—1 John 3:8 He who sins is of the devil, for the devil has sinned from the beginning.

a. “He who sins is of the devil…”

(1) Gk—“The one who is doing sin, out of the devil is…”
(2) This is a completely parallel statement to verse 7!

(a) “The one who is doing righteousness, righteous is…the one who is doing sin, of the devil is”
(b) Participle, present active, nominative, singular
(c) Continuous action, personal, concentrating on each person

(3) Just as with verse 7, the person described here is what they are by nature. They are not of the devil because they sin, they sin because they are of the devil—John 8:44, they sin because it is their nature to sin.
(4) This does NOT say that a believer will never commit a sin, it says that the practice of a believer’s life will not be a life of sin.

b. The devil has sinned from the beginning.

(1) From the beginning—the first statement, giving the emphasis
(2) The devil sins—present tense
(3) The theological significance of this phrase—

(a) We are righteous because our Lord is righteous
(b) We live a consistent lifestyle because of His righteousness
(c) The followers of Satan (most of whom do not know that they are his followers) show in their lives who their spiritual father is.

4. The Mission of Christ—1 John 3:8b "…For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil."

a. Language

(1) Was manifested—appeared—aorist
(2) That He might destroy—again, aorist!
(3) He appeared once to destroy the works of Satan, and that was an action at a point in time—Heb 9:26-28 "…now, once at the end of the ages, He has appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself. 27 And as it is appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgment, 28 so Christ was offered once to bear the sins of many. To those who eagerly wait for Him He will appear a second time, apart from sin, for salvation."

b. The works of the devil—all the evil and sin that has ever been done. Christ appeared to destroy all this.

c. Jesus came to earth to die for our sins—bottom line up front!


Mat 1:21 ""And she will bring forth a Son, and you shall call His name JESUS, for He will save His people from their sins.""

Mat 20:28 ""just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many.""

Luke 12:49 ""I came to send fire on the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled!"

Luke 19:10 ""for the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost.""

John 3:17 ""For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved."

John 10:10 ""…I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly."

John 12:47 ""And if anyone hears My words and does not believe, I do not judge him; for I did not come to judge the world but to save the world."

1 Tim 1:15 "This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief."

5. The Positive Character Test—1 John 3:9 "Whoever has been born of God does not sin, for His seed remains in him; and he cannot sin, because he has been born of God. "

a. Language Notes

(1) “Everyone, the one having been born of God…”

(a) Stress again on the individual
(b) The one having been born—participle, perfect tense—an accomplished fact
(c) The participle is also in the passive voice, which emphasizes that the source of the New Birth is not in the one born again, but it is outside.

(2) “Sin not does…” present tense—does not practice as a continuous habit.
(3) “Because His seed in him abides…”

(a) Seed—sperma—the holy seed of the Spirit, not related to human genetics

(b) “abides” is present tense as well.

(4) “Not able to sin…” present infinitive—again, not able to practice as a habit
(5) “Because of God he has been born…”

(a) “Of God…”—the stress is on God as the source of the new birth
(b) “Has been born…”—perfect tense, passive voice—an accomplished fact that has been done to a person, they did not do the action!

b. Exposition—

(1) This verse has been greatly misunderstood because of how the words sound in English, and has actually been used to promote perfectionism, which the book of 1 John itself condemns in the first chapter.

(2) Of course, what the verse teaches is that a person who has been born again will show evidence by NOT engaging in an habitually sinful lifestyle.

(3) The key point—“family resemblance.”