I John, 3:7-10
Josiah Matthews · Feb 12, 2006
1 John, No. 19
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/48262343495484

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

Alright. These are the verses we're going to go over. And now we're going to have two screens, because today we actually have 7 and 8, 9 and 10. So let's read them. Little children, make sure no one deceives you. The one who practices righteousness is righteous, just as He is righteous. The one who practices sin is of the devil, for the devil has sinned from the beginning. The Son of God appeared for this purpose, to destroy the works of the devil. No one who is born of God practices sin, because his seed abides in him, and he cannot sin, because he is born of God. 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." So, lots of material to go over. A couple of times I thought about calling Roger and saying, man, I've got X amount of slides and I'm only on verse 8, how are we going to get through this?

But what happens is, I like to look at each word as I go through it and kind of study through the passage with you. But what happens is that by the time we get down to verse 10, there's only, I think, one new word out of the passage this morning. And even in verse 9, there's just a lot of repeat words. So actually, once we cover 7 and 8, verses 9 and 10 will go fairly quickly. But let's take a stab at verse 7. Make sure no one deceives you. The one who practices righteousness is righteous just as He is righteous.

And little children is technion. We've seen this several times already. And of course it's used metaphorically here, but it's only used metaphorically in the New Testament, little children. And vine, says that it's a term of affection by a teacher to his disciples under circumstances requiring a tender appeal. So he's really concerned about them and he's calling them his little children because he wants to give them some advice or help them. And also, it's only used in the Gospel of John. I'm sorry, in 1 John. Once in the Gospel of John and seven times in 1 John. Make sure no one deceives you. Now, this make sure deceives is plenao, and battles today.

Literally, it means to go astray, or to wander, or to roam about. And it's used this way in the New Testament. Matthew 18 says, What do you think? If any man has a hundred sheep, and one of them has gone astray, there's our word planado, does he not leave the ninety-nine on the mountains and go search for the one that is straying? Planado again. So, of course, it's used as sheep here. And this is an interesting photograph. This is a huge rock and cliff, and there is a sheep. Right on the edge.

Metaphorically, then, this is used to lead away from the truth or to deceive. And that's how it's used here. Make sure no one leads you away from the truth. Make sure no one deceives you. And it's used three times in our book. Present tense, right now, active voice, and imperative mood. So it's a command. And literally translated, it reads like this.

No one must deceive you. It's kind of weird, but the way the English translators smooth it out is this way. Make sure no one deceives you or let no one deceive you. But it's in the third person, so it's not... No one must deceive you. That's kind of how it literally comes across. Okay, no one is just an adjective here. Make sure no one deceives you.

You all, hummus, I had hummus last night, this is a little different. So, the one who practices righteousness, and this phrase, the one who practices, is a participle, it's the subject. Actually, it's one word here, the one who practices, the definite article in the word. Practice, Poiéot and Roger went over this last week, it's to do as a usual manner of behavior, to practice.

It's something that you just do and do and do and do. Sort of, it's your way of life. And that's how we were able to understand and interpret our verses last week. And that's key this week as well. So the one who practices righteousness, present tense, active voice, he's doing it himself. He's doing it right now, continuing. Poieto is used 12 times in 1 John. and is one of the key words of the book. Poieo is a very common verb in the New Testament.

Here's where it showed up a couple of weeks ago, and it relates to our verse this morning. If you know that He is righteous, you know that everyone also who practices righteousness is born of Him. So, in fact, it's very similar to what John's teaching in our verses this morning. And we'll see this again later.

Who practices righteousness, dikayasune, righteousness or doing what is right, is righteous. And is is, Amy, an essence verb, which in this context, because it's an essence verb, it's describing the nature of the one who practices righteousness. The one who practices righteousness is righteous. It's his very nature, which is, of course, why he practices righteousness.

And then Amy, you're going to see it a lot this morning, it's our chief word of 1 John, used 99 times, Present tense, of course, right noun continuing, he is this way. Righteous, dikaios, it's actually an adjective used here as a noun, or used alone, I should say. So he practices righteousness just as he is righteous.

Kathos means because. It's a conjunction, subordinating conjunction. This is important. It's a marker of cause or reason. often with the implication of some implied comparison. This is telling us why the one who practices righteousness is righteous. So why is he righteous? Why does he practice righteousness? Because he is righteous. So it's a marker of cause or reason. And he, a kenos, This is a demonstrative pronoun.

And it's used in both Koine Greek and Classical Greek to refer to notable persons, whether they're good or bad. And it's actually used that way in the Bible. It's used this way in the Bible of Jesus, both by his enemies and by the people that loved him, as that one. But they can use it either in a good way or a bad way. And I ask a really lame question. Who does Ekanos refer to? Of course, Jesus.

And it's used of him both negatively and positively in the New Testament. So just as he is righteous, any idea as to what Amy is here? What is his? It's Amy, sorry. Same, it's also present tense here, and here it's describing the character or the nature of Jesus Christ. He is, his nature, his essence is righteous. And this is the same adjective as in the former phrase, righteous. And of course here it's used as an attribute of God, righteousness being one of His attributes.

Psalms 11.7 says, the Lord is righteous, He loves righteous deeds.

We'll come back here right now. Let's summarize this, because we can now draw some conclusions and applications. Put it all together here. So, little children, make sure no one deceives you. The one who practices righteousness is righteous, just as he is righteous, or because he is righteous, as we saw.

So John's point in this passage, all four verses, is to keep his brethren in Christ from being led astray in practice and in doctrine. Now, so he said, make sure no one leads you astray. And he'll continue this protective warning throughout the remaining three verses. So in verse seven, John has made the distinction that if a person practices righteousness, then that one is righteous.

And further, John restates that this righteousness and this quality of being righteous, so the righteousness would be the fruit manifested in the Christian's life, right? And the quality or the state, I'm sorry, the quality of being righteous is referring to his position in Christ. He's righteous in Christ. they come from Christ. Both the fruit and his position come from Christ. And that's indirectly in this passage this morning.

Because John's saying, the one who practices righteousness is righteous. So he's producing righteousness because the person's righteous. But then John goes on to say, because he is righteous, referring to Christ. So the one, this believer is producing righteousness and is righteous. Because Jesus is righteous.

Just so you know what's really cool about this is that he's really, you know, we look out in the world and we see people who do good things, quote good things, but those good things have to have a source. And the only source that is righteous is God. So in a way he's excluding any quote good that you might see that does not have a source in God, has to have a source in God.

That's right. Otherwise you can't be righteous. That's right. So I mean he's really hammering that hard. So I thought that's really fun. That's right. That's right. And in fact, John taught the same thing in this verse, which is so similar. We looked at it a couple of weeks ago.

If you know that He is righteous, you know that everyone also who practices righteousness is born of Him. That's exactly what Roger just said. If there's any righteousness going on out there, and it's true righteousness, then it comes from Jesus Christ. So those who practice righteousness do not pose a threat to our walk. And again, John's warning them, so he's letting the believers know, first, if anybody practices righteousness, then he's righteous, because Jesus is righteous. And now he's going to get into the next group.

Verse 8, the one who practices sin is of the devil, for the devil has sinned from the beginning. Look at this whole verse. The one who practices, again, this whole phrase is the participle, the definite article with the participle. It's the same poieo verb. And it's also present tense, active voice, the one who right now is practicing. And of course, what is he practicing? He's practicing sin.

And this is Hamartia. And literally, Hamartia means failing to hit the mark or missing the mark. In the New Testament, hamartia is always used in an ethical sense, referring to either the sin nature, which is the source of sinful acts, or to the sinful acts themselves. So, in other words, hamartia is never used as a dartboard in the New Testament. It's always referring to sin. And it's also one of our key words. It's used a lot by John, 17 times. So, I have a question for you.

The one who practices sin, in this phrase, is sin, referring to the sin nature, or to sinful acts? What do you think? Okay, I'll go on. My answer is that it's referring to sinful acts. which are the result of dependence on the sin nature. I could be wrong, I didn't spend a lot of time on it, but I think that sins... What? Oh, come on. Sin, the fruits seems to be what's in view here. That's kind of what I thought too.

It seems like we're talking about practice, practice, practice. Conditional kind of stuff. And even in the first verse we looked at, it was the one who practices righteousness. And so we're looking at the fruits there, the righteousness that's manifested. So here it seems that he's also saying now you have the one who practices righteousness, but now you have one who practices sin. So it seems to me to be the sins.

And this is interesting too. Often, when you do have the definite article before Hamartia, it is referring to the sin nature, but not always. So, it's not, you just need to be careful. Context, context. Context, yeah. Context. Okay. Oh yeah, is of the devil, Amy. Again.

And this is saying that the one who is practicing sin is of his essence of the devil. Of, there's actually a preposition there, ek, out of, showing source, origin, or cause. The devil, ha-diabolos, and diabolos can be just used as one who slanders in the New Testament, not referring to Satan, or it can be referring to Satan. In fact, 34 times, diabolos is used as a title of Satan. Four times in 1 John, and actually all four are right here in these verses that we're looking at this morning. Of the devil.

And hopefully that picture doesn't spook you. I think it's great. If you watched The Passion of the Christ, this was the actor that played Satan there. It's actually a woman, but a really good actor. Okay, anyway, of the devil. And look at this whole phrase, of the devil. And several times it is in scripture. And it describes persons as being of the devil. And we'll see it again in verse 10 this morning. In verse 10, those who are practicing sin are described as the children of the devil. And here they're just of the devil. Same thing. A couple places where it shows up. Matthew 13. And I'm just going to skip down, but this is where Christ is explaining the parable of the tares of the field to his disciples.

He says, The one who sows the good seed is the son of man, and the field is the world. And as for the good seed, these are the sons of the kingdom. And the tares, or weeds, are the sons of the evil one. And the enemy who sowed them is the devil. And the harvest is the end of the age, and the reapers are angels. So just as the tares are gathered up and burned with fire, so it shall be at the end of the age. So here's the destiny of the children of the devil.

And then John 8, Jesus is talking to the unbelieving Jews and Pharisees, and they claim that Abraham is our father. And so Jesus says, well, if you are Abraham's children, do the deeds of Abraham. Similar message to this morning. Yeah, if you're really righteous, then you'll do righteousness. But as it is, Jesus says, you're seeking to kill me, a man who has told you the truth, which I heard from God, this Abraham did not do. You are doing the deeds of your father." And of course that offends them. And then we'll skip down. We'll come back to this passage actually later this morning. So let's skip down here. Jesus says then in verse 43, Why do you not understand what I am saying? It is because you cannot hear my word. You are of your father the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning.

Etcetera. Harsh, harsh words. And then Acts 13, this is Paul and he encounters Elemas who opposed him. And down in verse 10, Paul says, You are full of deceit and fraud, you son of the devil, you enemy of all righteousness. Will you not cease to make crooked the straight ways of the Lord? son of the devil. So, just describing someone who is of the devil, not a believer, but belonging to Satan. And now,

4. The devil has sinned.

And 4 here is Hati, because, sins, in view of the fact, it's another subordinating conjunction, and it is a marker of cause or reason, based on evident fact. So, why are those who are practicing sin of the devil? because the devil has sinned from the beginning. This is the reason why. And now we'll look at that. Why are those who are practicing sin of the devil? Hathi explains why.

For the devil, again, it's diabolos, the same word we just looked at, has sinned, hamartano, Present tense, active voice, indicative mood. This is interesting, because our translation makes it seem like it's past tense, but it's actually, the devil is sinning. A couple of notes here. Hamartano, the verb to sin, is only found 43 times in the New Testament, and over 25% of those are used by John. And in the entire New Testament, combined, John and Paul have the most to say about sinning.

So the devil is sinning from the beginning. From is a preposition signifying origin in this context. He's sinning from the beginning. That is the place from which anything is or comes. It's interesting, the NIV has translated it properly. It says that because the devil has been sinning from the beginning. they translate it differently is because they do have this prepositional phrase, from the beginning, so somehow they have to try to make that sound right. I have a question. What is the beginning? Oh, excellent question. Are we going to get there? Yeah, right now. No, you're right on time.

The beginning. I'm actually going to ask that question. Hey, RK, is the beginning or origin, and in scripture, RK, can refer to the beginning of all things, which would be creation, or generally to the beginning of anything spoken of. So you can just use it in a general way. We began this morning at nine o'clock. That way. And then there are actually sort of another bank of definitions that can be translated principality, leader, a person who begins something, or the extremity of a thing. So it's an interesting word. RK is used nine times in 1 John. So, Doug's question.

In 1 John 3.8, the devil has sinned or is sinning from the beginning. Is that referring to creation or the beginning of something else? The thought became in my mind that you have creation but also with Isaiah in it we find out that Satan said I shall become a god and that's what I believe was before the creation and we know creation. OK, that's certainly what it might be worth. That's another study. You see where it comes from. I know. And that's what I'm saying.

There's a there's an issue here about the order. But when they talk about justice creation, can we create and say he created in that first six days or is he sometime prior to that? and all the angelic hosts with it. And that's a whole other thing we do all the time. And there are two camps. I'm just going to read it briefly.

People say, well, there was a creation before that. There's something that predates Genesis that we don't have record of. But I think it looks like, to me, that in Genesis, it refers to a creation that includes an angelic host, including Satan. That's mine.

But there's one component. It's a God-created man. And also, look carefully, it also talks about the angelic host, too. Yeah, and also the angelic host. What you're looking for, let me kind of go on here, because it's still going to relate to what Roger's looking up here. Actually, I found it.

Genesis 2.1, Augusta, heavens and the earth were complete. There's kind of like a recount, and all their hosts, plural, And if you try to trace that through, there's other references, 2-1, on all their hosts. If you trace that through, it looks like that could be referring to the entire angelic host, including Satan. So you see Satan being created. So it's going to influence how you render other passages, how you render the passage in Isaiah, the passage in Ezekiel. When Satan fell, when did that happen? When did that happen?

So you need to build a timeline. You know, yeah, I think stars sometimes refer to angels. Yes, that's right. You have to go through carefully. You know, I would also go through carefully and try to, you know, what was the order? What does this happen? Yeah. One of the side issue. Yeah. Well, what?

What I have is, I think it is referring to the beginning of all things, which I have a note here, which is approximately the time when Satan sinned. I'm referring to, I'm saying post-creation. because of this verse. Ezekiel 18.13 says that Satan was in Eden, the garden of God, every precious stone which you're covering, the ruby, the topaz, and it goes on to list and talk about the perfections of Satan before the fall. And then it says that sin was found in his heart and down he went. This seems pretty explicit, in Eden, the garden of God, and it describes his perfection. which would be post-creation, obviously before the Fall.

Some Bible students say that this was talking about a different Eden. Well, okay, I mean, seriously, you know, and they think that there was some other Eden, but I don't see how that really fits. There is one verse, I can't remember the reference, it talks about the angels witnessing creation, and I always thought it was referring to the whole creation, all of creation, but it's possible that they were created before man, and then that verse is talking about their witnessing the creation of man or something. It's something to look at, but it's also one of those things that Scripture doesn't directly come out and say so clearly, but it's worth looking at.

Well, I'm going to go from the beginning referring to creation, because that was the time, if I'm interpreting this verse correctly, Satan wasn't fallen yet in Eden, but then of course he would have fallen before he tempted Eve in Genesis 3. from the beginning.

And remember, sin, in the previous phrase, the devil has sinned from the beginning, is actually the present tense. So, I put together a clumsy expanded and explained translation here. And so, it could go something like this. The devil is sinning now and has been sinning from the time of creation, which is where and when he began sinning. And then in a moment, we'll look at the nature and purpose of Satan's sins that have been occurring from the beginning.

And only really as it relates to 1 John. And by the way, John 8, verse 44 tells us that the devil was a murderer from the beginning as well. He was sinning from the beginning, he was a murderer from the beginning. It's interesting, in 1 John, in just a couple of verses, we're going to see that the murder of Abel comes up by Cain. So, I'm not going to say for sure that that's referring to the first murder that occurred in the beginning.

I'm not going to say that. That's a different book, a different study. Let's keep going. The Son of God appeared. This phrase we'll look at, Son, Huyas, God, Phaos, Both are key words of 1 John. And this is a title for Christ Jesus, the Son of God. It occurs eight times in 1 John. And then John uses it elsewhere. The Son of, you fill in the blank, this phrase can merely mean the offspring of. Osiris is the son of Josiah. But it also can mean on the order of, describing equality and identity of nature. And so that's of course how it's used here.

John 5.18, for this reason, therefore, the Jews were seeking all the more to kill him, because he was not only breaking the Sabbath, but also was calling God his own father, making himself equal with God. Sort of indirectly, the concept of our phrase.

And then in John 10, do you... Do you say of him whom the Father sanctified and sent into the world, you are blaspheming because I said I am the Son of God? If I do not do the works of my Father, do not believe me. But if I do them, though you do not believe me, believe the works, so that you may know and understand that the Father is in me and I am the Father."

So clearly he's stating that because he's the Son of God, he's equal with God, one with the Father. So the Son of God, referring to Christ, appeared, and this is phanerao, our word we've looked at the past several weeks here, to make manifest or visible or known what has been hidden or unknown. It's passive voice, so the Son of God was manifested, and it's aorist indicative, so it's just stating a fact that happened in the past.

Several weeks ago, we looked at the various comings of Christ, and I have this little timeline here. So there was the first coming, and then the second coming, and even Pharaoh is used of the rapture when Christ comes back for the saints. So, here is an easy question. Which appearance is verse 8 referring to? first coming, because, I mean, one reason is that 1 John was written somewhere in there, and it refers back, past tense, to when He came. Obviously, it is referring to His first coming.

And so, the Son of God was manifested for this purpose. Okay, so any ideas as to what this word will be? Hina. In order that, to the end that, for this purpose, used 19 times in 1 John. And Hina, with the subjunctive, answers the question why. So, why was the Son of God manifested? And I like how it's translated there. For this purpose.

To destroy. And if you've studied Greek, this is like the first Greek word they'll teach you is leuo. And it means to loose or to destroy. And I've always wondered, why does it mean both of those things? To loose and then to destroy. It doesn't seem like they go together. But maybe you haven't had a problem with that. But here's why it can be translated that way. Leuo means to loose one bound.

And then it also means to dissolve something coherent into parts, that is to destroy it. So you can either sort of generally lose something, like someone bound in chains, or you can like lose something so that it completely just breaks up and all comes apart and then basically you just destroyed it. So that's why they translate it destroyed or loose. Does that make sense? Okay. Luo is used only once in 1 John. So what did the Son of God appear to destroy? The works of the devil. Ta ergan is work.

Ergan has three different nuances or three different meanings. It can mean business, work, employment, anything one is occupied with. Or it can mean any product, anything manufactured by hand, art, industry, the mind. And then just generally, it can mean an act, a deed, or something done. Ergon.

The works of the devil. Ergon is only used three times in 1 John. And then this phrase, of the devil, we've seen this whole phrase before in the previous verse. So what are the works of the devil that the Son of God was manifested in order to destroy? And it's not really a fair question because there's a lot involved there, but what do you think?

Sin, death, separation from God. Okay. Sin, death, separation from God. All right. I wonder if it doesn't refer back to the way we define what sin is and we kind of saw that Satan you know, his lawless deeds, refers back to the previous verses. I mean, Satan's been doing a lot of things during man's existence, lots of things, and they're all sinful. Well, let me answer the question more elaborately, though.

We're given clues in the context from the word phanerao, which we're becoming familiar with. In 1 John 3, 5, and this is one that Roger covered last week, you know that he appeared in order to take away sins. And then today we have, the one who practices sin is of the devil, for the devil has sinned from the beginning. The Son of God appeared for this purpose, to destroy the works of the devil. And what you see is that they're very similar verses with a couple different phrases. You have Christ appearing, same Greek word, phanerao, phanerao.

And then you have, in order to, or for this purpose. to take away sins, and here it's to destroy the works of the devil, but as Roger said, sinning is in the context, so it seems to be that the works of the devil that we're talking about here in 8 are referring to sin, and then death, which is the payment for sin.

And if you think about it, Satan's been doing a lot of things since the beginning, and a lot of them have been to thwart the Messiah, the coming of the Messiah. He continually was hacking away at the Jewish people, trying to prevent the seed from coming, that would crush his head, but he failed. So it's possible that all of his works have been geared to preventing the Savior from coming. So it seems from the immediate context that the works of the devil refers to sin, which had its origin in Satan, and which was spread to mankind through the deception of Satan at the Fall. And does this agree with other portions of Scripture? and we could spend a lot of time here, and I'm just going to look at two verses.

Hebrews 9.26 says, Now once, at the consummation of the ages, Christ has been manifested to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself.

Phanarao again, sin, the subject, or the object there. And then Romans 6 tells us that, knowing this, our old self was crucified with him, our old man, all that we were in Adam, in order that our body of sin, which I interpret to be the totality of sin, might be rendered powerless so that we would no longer be slaves to sin. For he who has died is freed from sin." So now we have Christ's work on the cross. freeing the believer from the power of his indwelling sin nature. So sins and sin nature, and sort of in summation here, so by Christ's death on the cross, both His substitutionary work and our identification with Him there, the Christian has been freed from the penalty of sins, and the payment, like Brad alluded to, was eternal death, eternal separation from God, and the Christian has been freed from the power of his sin nature, which, if it's dependent upon, produces temporary death or separation from fellowship with God. So, let's summarize verse 8.

John continues to offer truth so that his brethren would not be deceived by the Gnostics. And remember, they were the ones who claimed to know God and who have arrived spiritually, but yet many of them didn't look at all at their conduct and they thought that they could somehow know God in their mind or theoretically and just do whatever they wanted, but they of course weren't saved. And that's sort of what John's trying to tell these guys.

John then explained that these ones who are practicing sin are of the devil. And why are the sinning ones of the devil? Because he originated sin, right? He was the first one that sinned. He sinned. God didn't create sin. Satan sinned. And he was the instigator and the deceiver of man's sin. Of course, man is responsible for his own sin, but Satan deceived Eve. Then John brings in Christ's work on the cross here, which destroyed Satan's sinful works and made available to mankind freedom from the penalty and power of sin.

And now we're only half done and we have 15 minutes. But like I said, we're going to see a lot of repeat here. Well, it doesn't look like we'll have time for verse 9, so let's just go right to verse 10. One is pas, an adjective here, no one who is born. Who is born, we saw this ganao a couple of weeks ago, means to be born. You might remember that.

And in John, this is from Vine, in John's writings, okay, let me just read the whole thing. It is used metaphorically in the writings of the Apostle John of the gracious act of God in conferring upon those who believe the nature and disposition of children, imparting to them spiritual life. So, born of God, that's what it means. It's a participle here, the one who is born. Perfect tense, we were born in the past, and it's passive voice, so God bore us, or begot us, as the King James says. Preposition showing source, origin, or cause.

God is the one who begot him. And in 1 John 5, we'll see it shows up actually three times here, talking about... I'll read it here. Whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God. And everyone who loves him, who begot, also loves him who is begotten of him. So, three times it'll show up here, later. No one who is born of God practices sin.

Keep going now. Practices sin. Practices the same, poio. So it's the one who practices as his usual manner of behavior. Sin is hamartia again. It's interesting. The reason I got confused there is because the New American Standard translates this, no one who is born of God practices sin, when literally The verse reads, everyone who is born of God is not practicing sin. It says the same thing, but they totally changed the way it comes across. And that's what he's saying. Everyone who is born of God, who is saved, is not practicing sin. Is sin normal behavior for the Christian? I'm not saying the Christian can't sin. Of course he can. his indwelling sin nature. But sinning isn't the normal practice for the believer.

It shouldn't be. But glorifying the Lord is. It fits the nature that the Lord's given him, which is Christ's very life. We're running out of time here, but we're almost done. So why is the one born of God not practicing sin? Because his seed abides in him, hati again, explaining why, why does the one who is born of God not practice sin. His seed, sperma, translated nature, whatever gives, whatever possesses vital force or life-giving power. So his seed abides in him.

Jews only once in 1 John, and 2 Peter 1.4 teaches that we have become partakers of the divine nature, which is synonymous with the life of Christ. There is disagreement by Bible students over the interpretation of this seed.

A lot think it's referring to the Word of God, a lot think it's referring to the Holy Spirit, but it only shows up here and is used this way one time. I'm comfortable with the translation or interpretation that it's referring to the nature that the Lord's given us.

Of course, the Holy Spirit's involved there, because who lives out the life of Christ is the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit actually was in our previous context. Remember the anointing that you have received abides in you, that kind of thing. So the Holy Spirit's in the context.

I just wasn't comfortable to jump from seed, which means nature, to the Holy Spirit, so I just left it at nature. Abides, meno, to continue to be present. We've seen this before, so we'll kind of gloss over this. It's present active indicative though, his seed continually abides in him. And he cannot sin, dunamai, to be able to have power, present tense, indicative mood. Used only once in 1 John, dunamai, he cannot sin. And this is actually another verb, hamartano, it's used in the true infinitive form, to sin.

And we'll get to the end of this and put it all together. because he is born of God. And I'm just going to totally gloss over this because this is the same phrase we just had at the beginning, actually, of verse 9. The one who is born of God is not practicing sin. He puts it on at the end of the verse again. So let's summarize verse 9.

What is John saying? Is John saying that the Christian cannot sin? And my answer is no, because we know from his own writings in this book that the Christian sins. In verse 8, in fact, John told us in verse 8 that we are deceiving ourselves, and the truth is not in us if we say that we do not have the sin nature, which is the source of sins.

And then of course there's 1 John 1.9, if anyone sins we have an advocate with the Father, that kind of thing. Then outside of 1 John, there's much indication that Christians can sin.

Not that they should sin, but they do sin. They have the ability to sin. And one example is when Paul writes to the Corinthians, he calls them saints. They're obviously saved, but yet they're involved in gross immorality. And that's the reason Paul's confronting them. You guys are saints. You guys are Christians. Judge yourselves, because I'm coming. And I'll deal with you if you haven't by the time I got there.

Okay, so if John's not saying that the Christian can't sin, what is he saying? He is continuing his warning to his brethren to not be deceived by the false teachers and Gnostics who claim to be saved and know God, but who evidently were not saved and did not know God, and therefore would lead them astray, both doctrinally and in their practice. And you see that come up a lot in Paul's writings to Timothy. He's always warning him to be careful of doctrine that's being taught, and also conduct, because those two go together. Furthermore, John is saying that it is normal for the Christian to practice righteousness, and it's normal for the non-Christian to practice sin.

They go together. And now we have verse 10, and I didn't really do much with it because there's just several phrases that are repeated from the earlier verses. So let me just go down to the summary, which basically my summary was just reading the verse. It's very clear.

Agapone was a new participle, meaning the one who loves, the one who is loving his brother. Oh, and also, I'll get to avoid this. I'm interpreting brother here, the one who does not love his brother. I'm just going to tell you. I think that's talking about a physical brother.

And the reason is because the next verse talks about Cain slaying his brother, his physical brother. And also if you think about it, if we're talking about non-Christians here, they don't have a spiritual brother anyway. So it seems to me to fit the context We're talking about one who doesn't love his physical brother. And it comes up actually in 1 John a little later. He that loveth not his brother abides in death. Well, if he's abiding in death, then he doesn't have a spiritual brother. So, I don't know. We'll let Roger go through that later.

Alright, so basically let's end here with 10. John concludes his warning to not be deceived. And basically what he says in verse 10 is that the children of God and the children of the devil are obvious. Everyone who is not practicing righteousness is not of God. He's not saved. He's in the one camp. And that's it. Alright? So, let's pray and go upstairs. Dear Lord, thanks for letting us study and go over these four verses. Please continue to teach us as we go upstairs. In Jesus' name, Amen.