Top Level Notes for 1 John 3:7-10
Verse 7: John is making a big deal about not being led astray in this book.
- He wants his church to keep their noses in the word and to lean on the Truths they learned at the beginning.
- What I do does not make me righteous, but my being righteous (justified by the righteousness of God in Christ, Ro 10:3-10) makes me to do righteousness: the opposite in familiar language, logical in reality, though not in form, as in Lu 7:47; Joh 8:47.
- Works do not justify, but the justified man works. I infer from someone doing righteousness that they are already righteous (that is, has the true and only principle of doing righteousness, namely, faith), and is therefore born of God (1Jo 3:9); just as we might say, The tree that bears good fruit is a good tree, and has a living root; not that the fruit makes the tree and its root to be good, but it shows that they are so. 1 John 3:7 [Jamieson, Faucett, and Brown]
Verse 8: Likewise, the person who is of the devil is sinful – takes his character from the evil one.
- The reason Jesus came was to undo what devil has done.
Verse 9: Once we have given our lives over to Jesus and been born of God by receiving His free gift, will lose the desire to sin.
- We will be indwelt with the seed of the Divine Nature and we will hate sin.
- We are fallible and will miss the mark but through God’s grace alone can we be forgiven of that momentary lapse in judgement or control.
- What is true is that our aim forever more becomes the bullseye of God’s will and purpose in our life.
Verse 10: John is telling us that we can have a litmus test to see whether someone is a child of God or not.
- A person who is justified, does righteousness.
- A person who does not correct a wrong or easily goes against what is right is not of God.
- If a person hates their brother or sister is not child of God.