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Scott's Reference Library
1 John 3:1 through 1 John 3:7 (NIV)
1How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called
children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us
is that it did not know him. 2Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what
we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when he appears, we
shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. 3Everyone who has this hope in
him purifies himself, just as he is pure.
4Everyone who sins breaks the law; in fact, sin is lawlessness. 5But you know
that he appeared so that he might take away our sins. And in him is no sin. 6No
one who lives in him keeps on sinning. No one who continues to sin has either
seen him or known him.
7Dear children, do not let anyone lead you astray. He who does what is right is
righteous, just as he is righteous.
Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary on the Whole Bible
VERSES 1-2
Little does the world know of the happiness of the real followers of Christ.
Little does the world think that these poor, humble, despised ones, are
favourites of God, and will dwell in heaven. Let the followers of Christ be
content with hard fare here, since they are in a land of strangers, where their
Lord was so badly treated before them. The sons of God must walk by faith, and
live by hope. They may well wait in faith, hope, and earnest desire, for the
revelation of the Lord Jesus. The sons of God will be known, and be made
manifest by likeness to their Head. They shall be transformed into the same
image, by their view of him.
VERSES 3-10
The sons of God know that their Lord is of purer eyes than to allow any thing
unholy and impure to dwell with him. It is the hope of hypocrites, not of the
sons of God, that makes allowance for gratifying impure desires and lusts. May
we be followers of him as his dear children, thus show our sense of his
unspeakable mercy, and express that obedient, grateful, humble mind which
becomes us. Sin is the rejecting the Divine law. In him, that is, in Christ, was
no sin. All the sinless weaknesses that were consequences of the fall, he took;
that is, all those infirmities of mind or body which subject man to suffering,
and expose him to temptation. But our moral infirmities, our proneness to sin,
he had not. He that abides in Christ, continues not in the practice of sin.
Renouncing sin is the great proof of spiritual union with, continuance in, and
saving knowledge of the Lord Christ. Beware of self-deceit. He that doeth
righteousness is righteous, and to be a follower of Christ, shows an interest by
faith in his obedience and sufferings. But a man cannot act like the devil, and
at the same time be a disciple of Christ Jesus. Let us not serve or indulge what
the Son of God came to destroy. To be born of God is to be inwardly renewed by
the power of the Spirit of God. Renewing grace is an abiding principle. Religion
is not an art, a matter of dexterity and skill, but a new nature. And the
regenerate person cannot sin as he did before he was born of God, and as others
do who are not born again. There is that light in his mind, which shows him the
evil and malignity of sin. There is that bias upon his heart, which disposes him
to loathe and hate sin. There is the spiritual principle that opposes sinful
acts. And there is repentance for sin, if committed. It goes against him to sin
with forethought. The children of God and the children of the devil have their
distinct characters. The seed of the serpent are known by neglect of religion,
and by their hating real Christians. He only is righteous before God, as a
justified believer, who is taught and disposed to righteousness by the Holy
Spirit. In this the children of God are manifest, and the children of the devil.
May all professors of the gospel lay these truths to heart, and try themselves
by them.