All have sinned and there is none righteous without God; therefore, anyone who practices righteousness has to be a product, or an offspring, of God, the only source of righteousness.
3:1 See what kind of love the Father has given us in letting us be called God's children. And that is what we are! For this reason the world does not recognize us, because it did not recognize him either.
It is an amazing privilege to be called God’s children. We were formerly opposed to Him, walked in rebellion against Him, but have turned around to walk with Him. Since our change of heart and direction, the world no longer identifies with us or considers us part of their family: we have a new Father and they do not acknowledge or obey Him either.
2 Dear friends, we are now God's children, but what we will be like has not been revealed yet. We know that when Christ is revealed we will be like him, because we will see him as he is.
Becoming His child, thus far, has been a hidden work on the inside of us. We are new in our spirits, walking in the light and love of Christ. We have eternal life now, on the inside, yet our mortal body is still waiting to be changed: to put on immortality. When He appears before our eyes at His coming, we will be changed: given a body like His glorious body. (See Philippians 3:21)
3 And everyone who has this hope based on him keeps himself pure, just as he is pure.
The second coming of Christ has been called the blessed hope of the church.
1 Thessalonians 4: 13-18 says that we should not be like those without Christ who have no hope of eternal life, because all who have died in Christ, will join us who remain alive and we shall be caught up together to meet the Lord in the air, to be with Him forever. Everyone who has this kind of hope will remain pure because He is coming for a bride that has made herself ready, without spot or wrinkle. (See Ephesians 5: 27)
4 Everyone who keeps living in sin also practices disobedience. In fact, sin is disobedience.
The children of God hope for everlasting life, but the children of the world (those who are formed and fashioned by the ways of the world) do not live with eternity in mind. Their motto is to eat, drink and be merry, for tomorrow we die. They go on living in sin because they have no concept of purity or being free from sin. They are not expecting Jesus to come looking for them, as a bridegroom for a bride, without the spots and wrinkles of disobedience.
5 You know that he was revealed to take away sins, and there is not any sin in him.
Jesus came into this world to take upon himself all our sins and to pay all our debt. He could only accomplish that because He had no sin debt of His own. Jesus is also known as the “Word” and we are washed and cleansed by the water of the Word. John 15: 3 Now you are clean through the word I have spoken unto you.
6 No one who remains in him goes on sinning. The one who goes on sinning hasn't seen him or known him.
Anyone who abides, or remains, in Christ will not bear bad fruit but the good fruit of righteousness. The fruit identifies the tree. Those who continue sinning have not been grafted into or are not abiding in the tree of righteousness, Jesus.
7 Little children, don't let anyone deceive you. The person who
practices righteousness is righteous, just as he is righteous.
Do not be deceived by those who claim to be righteous, based on their good works. Righteousness is not achieved through good deeds; it is a standing or a position we enter into. We are made righteous. God imparts righteousness to us as a gift as we enter into Christ and abide in Him. A righteous person no longer has a sin debt but has received God’s gift of forgiveness and salvation. A gift can not be earned by good deeds, just received.
8 The person who practices sin belongs to the evil one, because the devil has been sinning since the beginning. The reason that the Son of God was revealed was to destroy the works of the devil.
The devil is called the father of lies in John 8:44 and Jesus tells a group of Pharisees that they belong to their father, the devil. Everyone has inherited the curse of sin by being born into this sin cursed world. Satan is called the father of lies and sin because he was the one who first sowed the seed into the earth. Once sin got rooted into mankind it was passed on to us all.
Jesus, Son of God, and son of righteousness, was sent into this world to destroy what the Devil planted. Now we can have a new Father through receiving the cleansing of Jesus blood to wash away sin. It is the blood, and the cross, of Jesus that has power to destroy the works of the devil.
9 No one who has been born from God practices sin, because God's
seed abides in him. Indeed, he cannot go on sinning, because he has
been born from God.
All who have come into God’s family through the blood of Christ cannot go on
sinning as if nothing happened. God’s seed, “The Word”, remains in him and will
continue to do a cleansing and purifying work. God is a good Father who loves
and corrects his kids. Hebrews 12:6 for whom the Lord loves He
chastens, and He scourges every son whom He receives."
10 In this the children of God are revealed, and the children of the
Devil: everyone not practicing righteousness is not of God, also he
who does not love his brother.
Verse 10 seems to sum up what John has been saying in a nutshell.
God’s children are distinguished from the devil’s by their love one for another and their righteous standing, which produces good works. The father of lies has some offspring that try to appear as children of God. They have to strive at good works and fake their claim of God as their father, like the Pharisees who could not love the Son of God, yet claimed God as Father. No child of God can hate those who are born of Him.
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