“In this the children of God and the children of the devil are manifest: Whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is he who does not love his brother.”
the children of God and the children of the devil
We find only two classes of people in the world – the children of God and the children of the Devil. John distinguishes between God’s children and the children of the Devil. There is an obvious distinction between them.
All non-Christians are the children of the Devil. The unbeliever is under the absolute control of his sin capacity. He does not possess a divine capacity, so he cannot produce anything from God.
The one thing that the believer has that distinguishes him from non-Christians is his divine nature, the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit. The indwelling in itself is not enough; he must also allow the Holy Spirit to control or fill him. The Christian receives the indwelling of the Holy Spirit at the moment of salvation. God never commands him to be indwelt with the Spirit. However, God does command the believer to be filled with the Spirit (Eph 5:18).
The whole thrust of verse 10 is to show how to distinguish between absolutes. Christians can imitate the children of the Devil, or they can produce the character of Christ. The characteristics of the unbeliever are one thing, and the characteristics of God are another.
PRINCIPLE:
The Christian and the non-Christian have two different natures that produce two different results.
APPLICATION:
Earlier in the chapter, John said, “it does not appear what we shall be” (1 Jn 3:2), yet in this passage, he says that the children of God are “manifest.” It is already abundantly clear what a Christian in fellowship is. He stands in stark contrast to what the world stands for.
Not all children of the Devil sin crudely. Some of them sin in sophisticated ways. Not all of them are violent or openly immoral. Some of them are very religious and moral. The Devil’s ministers are “ministers of righteousness” (2 Co 11:14). They come with culture and high morality draped in religion. Jesus said to some of the most religious people of his day that they were of their father, the Devil (Jn 8:39-47). Jesus told a religious leader that he needed to be “born again” (Jn 3:3,7).
We do not mean by this to project the idea that “the children of God” are better than non-Christians. Our sin capacity is just as bad as any non-Christian’s sin capacity. We are far from perfect except for our judicial perfection in Christ.
A child of the Devil might pray regularly and attend church every Sunday. They can clean up the exterior of their lives so that they appear to be right. They have a form of righteousness but not the righteousness of God.
The Devil always sows his people among God’s people. That is why we have tares with wheat. It is important to distinguish between wheat and tares, true believers, and the fakers (Mt 13:36-39).
A believer down on fellow Christians does not love according to God’s standard of loving. He hates or despises his brother. He commits mental homicide. A person controlled by the Holy Spirit acts like the Spirit who produced a new nature in him.
Look at your life. If you hate someone, if you are bitter toward them, if you resent them, you are definitely 100% carnal. When our sin capacity controls us, we appear no different than the non-Christian. We may make respectable noises. We may look pious or spiritual, but we are out of fellowship. We might give generously and witness continuously, but we are out of fellowship. We are no different from the non-Christian except that we possess eternal life.
Grant any thoughts on this article? Can a true Christian have besetting sin? Habitual sins? Addictive behavior? Thanks
Can a true believer continue in sin?
This is another question that must be answered very carefully. The correct answer is both YES and NO.
YES, a true believer can continue in sin.
Consider Peter. He denied his Lord. Did he do it just once? No, he continued in this sin and did it a second time. Did he do it just twice? No, he continued in his denial of Christ and did it a third time. Peter continued in sin for a while, but, of course, later he was “converted” (changed his direction–Luke 22:32) and on the Day of Pentecost he boldly confessed Christ before thousands.
Consider David. He sinned grievously with Bathsheba and committed adultery and even made sure that her husband was killed in battle. How long was it before David took care of this sin? We are amazed to learn that the time between David’s sin and his confession of that sin was close to a year (compare 2 Samuel 11:27 with 12:15). He continued, apparently in an unrepentant state, for many months.
Consider yourself. Are there areas in your life where you have continued in sin and been in bondage to some besetting and reoccurring sin?
NO, a true believer will not continue in sin.
John teaches us this in 1 John 3:6-10 and 1 John 5:18. These verses teach that the true believer, the one born of God, “sinneth not” (does not keep on sinning) and does not “commit sin” (does not keep on practicing sin). There are at least three reasons why the true believer does not keep on practicing sin:
The conviction of God the Holy Spirit who makes the true child of God very uncomfortable in his sin (compare Eph. 4:30).
Confession of sin on the part of the believer (1 John 1:9). This breaks the pattern of sin.
The chastening hand of the Father (1 Cor.11:31-32; Heb. 12:5-11).
Also of vital importance is the intercessory work of the Son of God (Luke 22:32; John chapter 17; etc.) and the keeping power of God (1 Peter 1:5; Jude 1,24). To understand the practical outworking of these things, see Peter’s Three Denials.
Can a true believer live, at least for some time, as an unsaved person?
A believer walking in the flesh and fulfilling the lusts thereof is indistinguishable from an unsaved person who is walking after the flesh (which is the only way he can walk). “For ye are yet carnal: for whereas there is among you envying, and strife, and divisions, are ye not carnal, and walk as men?” (1 Cor. 3:3). Paul said that the carnal Corinthians were walking as mere ordinary men. What an insult! What a contradiction! How can a child of God walk like a child of Adam? How can a child of the light walk as a child of darkness? But it does happen far more than we would want to think. The Corinthian church was not the only church that has had major problems with carnality. Believers today commonly grieve and quench the Holy Spirit of God as well.
Even John MacArthur acknowledges the problem: “An unproductive Christian is of no more use to God than an unbeliever . . . A believer can be just as barren and fruitless as an unbeliever. A barren Christian is completely indistinguishable from an apostate, an evildoer, or a superficial, false Christian who is of no use to God” (Adding to Your Faith, pages 48-49). Certainly one who is surrendering to Christ’s Lordship could not be described in this way.
Can the degree of fruitfulness vary greatly among believers?
Yes. This is taught in Matthew 13:23–”But he that received seed into the good ground is he that heareth the word, and understandeth it; which also beareth fruit, and bringeth forth, some an hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty” (Matthew 13:23). There is a great difference between an hundredfold and thirtyfold. The True Vine desires “more fruit” (John 15:2) and “much fruit” (John 15:8) but some believers, because of their own failure to “abide in Him” (1 John 2:28), are much less fruitful than others. Those believers fully committed to the Lordship of Christ understand that abiding in Christ is essential.
Notice that Matthew 13:23 does not say, “. . . some an hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty and some zero.” Ryrie explains it this way, “Every Christian will bear spiritual fruit. Somewhere, sometime, somehow. Otherwise that person is not a believer. Every born-again individual will be fruitful. Not to be fruitful is to be faithless, without faith, and therefore without salvation . . . Every Christian will bear fruit; otherwise he or she is not a true believer” (So Great Salvation, pages 45-46). We must therefore avoid two extreme teachings: the first which says that a true believer can be totally fruitless (the “free grace” position) and the second which says that a true believer will necessarily and consistently bear much fruit (the Reformed, Lordship position).
In the next chapter we will see a number of Biblical examples of saved individuals who failed to submit to their Lord. These “Lordship failures” are truly remarkable!
Saved By Grace Alone
A Biblical Analysis of Lordship Salvation
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Doctrinal Studies
Scott, I think my studies on 1 John 3:9 answers these questions.