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Read 1 John 3:7-10
The Point: We are natural producers of sin. When we are in a relationship with God, we become producers of righteousness, goodness, and holiness. We are to maintain our relationship with God, grow closer to him, admire him, adore him, love Him and put him first in our lives—people who do this do not produce sin.
John is making it clear that someone who practices sin is not in a relationship with God and therefore not saved by God. “Whoever makes a practice of sinning is of the devil, for the devil has been sinning from the beginning.”
This is a huge statement! Is John really saying that those who practice sin are not saved but are in line with the devil? What does that mean for us sinners who have a sinful nature? What does this mean if we have an addiction to a habitual sin…does this mean we are not saved?
1. There are people who look like Christians but will produce sinful fruit knowing what they are doing with a nefarious motivation to take people from God.
We have to remember the context of this letter if you are to answer this properly: John is writing to the church in general who is dealing with a church split over false teaching. There is teaching of false doctrine of Jesus Christ and who He is. There is also false teaching around salvation, how salvation works and what righteousness in Christ looks like. If we have any idea of what is being said here we must first dive deep and define what the word “practice” means.
There are two specific words for “practice” and “to practice” in the Greek New Testament.
The First Word:
Πράσσω, prassó, properly, the active process in performing (accomplishing) a deed, and implying what is done as a regular practice – i.e. a routine or habit
The Second Word For Practice:
Ποιέω, poieó, to make, to be the authors of, the cause of, to make ready, to prepare, to produce, to bear fruit, shoot forth.
This second word for “practice” is the specific word John is using throughout 1 John 3:7-10. Again, we have to remember the context, John is writing to churches that are being split apart from false teachers teaching a gnostic gospel. They are demeaning Christ and causing disruption/ confusion. John is telling the children of God to look out for those who are producing bad fruit, look out for the authors of this false doctrine, be careful of those who make sin, who produce sin, who have sinful actions and practices as their fruit.
John is literally saying “Whoever prepares, makes, produces and bears the fruit of sinning is of the devil, for the devil has been sinning from the beginning.”
This scripture is not talking about general habitual sin as I said last week! I am sorry for implying this rather this scripture is talking about those who author sin, those who prepare sin, make sinful situations. John is talking about a nefarious attitude towards sin—those who revel in sin, those who produce sin are not in a relationship with God.
2. Jesus destroys sin. Jesus came down to free humanity from sin.
Vs. 8-9
“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.”
We have to look at this verse and realize that the work of Satan, the devil is sin. How do we know the enemy is involved in something? There is unrepentant and rampant sin being glorified, celebrated and practiced within that community—this is how we use our discernment to see if God is in something or if Satan is in something.
We also have to remember that the Son of God appeared; and the main reason for His appearance was to destroy the works of the devil, to destroy sin itself, we see this in action when Jesus died on the cross.
“For the love of Christ controls us, because we have concluded this: that one has died for all, therefore all have died; and He died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for Him who for their sake died and was raised.
--2nd Corinthians 5:14-15
“For our sake He mad Him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God.”
--2 Corinthians 5:21
When the perfect, sinless Christ died on the cross He wore the sins of the world onto Himself. He literally bore the sins of the world in that moment. That is when Jesus destroyed the works of Satan Himself, Jesus destroyed sin. How does Jesus destroy sin? He puts it onto Himself, onto that cross, He wears it, then forgives the one who repents of that sin.
3. Those who are in God’s family will not deliberately commit sin with an unrepentant heart. God will convict of our sin and we no longer WANT to keep on committing that sin.
In Vs. 1, John, makes it very clear that those who are in a relationship with Christ will not practice lawlessness, they will not practice sin, rather they will practice righteousness. John uses the same word for practice here, they will author righteousness, they will make righteousness, they will bear the fruit of righteousness.
John isn’t warning of “losing a relationship with God” rather he is saying that those who practice sin were never in a relationship with God to begin with—these false teachers, people that look like you in your church preaching / bearing bad fruit never knew Christ in the first place.
What John is saying here is:
Vs.9-10
“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 3:9-10
There is a difference between being a christian, being in God’s family and falling into temptation, falling into an addiction or falling into a habitual sin and a person who isn’t in God’s family and deliberately creates sin and sinful situations for those to fall into.
Remember, the main consequence of sin is a broken relationship with God, the creator of the universe. When Jesus came down (God Himself) He lived a sinless life, giving us a perfect example of how holiness looks, then dying on the cross an innocent God/Man, He came back to life three days later, when Jesus did all of this He provided the ultimate forginess for the sins of the world and He brought that relationship back to God—relationship with God is possible because of the birth, life, death and resurrection of Jesus.
Yet, when someone becomes a Christian, once they are saved from hell by God himself through their faith in Him, they are called to live a disciplined life for Christ. They are called to maintain a relationship with Christ—when a Christian maintains this relationship then they become more righteous. They also become repentant of the sin they commit in their life—they confess everything to God and will want to confess everything to God.
“’The Lord has sworn and will not change his mind,‘You are a priest forever.’”
This makes Jesus the guarantor of a better covenant.
The former priests were many in number, because they were prevented by death from continuing in office, but he holds his priesthood permanently, because he continues forever. Consequently, he is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them.”
--Hebrews 7:21-23
Jesus is our priest! He is the one we confess to! He is the one who forgives us, saves us, this is why I, as a pastor, point you to Jesus. This also means that when we are in a relationship with God we will want to please Him, The Holy Spirit will work in our lives and convict us when we commit sin, this will lead us to repentance and forgiveness.
My question for you is this: Are you maintaining your relationship with God? Are you walking with God. When Jesus is the cetnre of our lives then our lives begin to change.
That means changing our surroundings, not celebrating sin, not letting our church to change certain beliefs or doctrines to please people rather than wanting to please God. Paul is warning the church in Corinth of this as he writes a similar warning that John writes in 1 John 3:7-10
“Do not become unequally yoked with unbelievers. For what partnership has righteousness with lawlessness? Or what fellowship has light with darkness? Or what portion does a believer share with an unbeliever? What agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we are the temple of the living God;…”
Here is Paul’s answer to this issue in the church of Corinth who were letting in false worship of idosl and bending the church worship to what culture worshiped,
“Since we have these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves form every defilement of body and spirit, bringing holiness to completion in the fear of God.”
--2 Corinthians 6:14-16, 7:1
The Point: We are natural producers of sin. When we are in a relationship with God, we become producers of righteousness, goodness, and holiness. We are to maintain our relationship with God, grow closer to him, admire him, adore him, love Him and put him first in our lives—people who do this do not produce sin.
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