Commentary on 1 John 3:7-10

Today’s reading is a continuation of yesterday’s, which reminded us that we must ‘break’ with sin if we are to “abide in the Son and in the Father”. The passage today enunciates a very important principle:

Everyone who does what is right is righteous…

Jesus had said something very similar when he said that a tree can be known by its fruit. A good tree bears good fruit and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit. But it is important for us to realise that it is not the acts which make us holy (righteous). On the contrary, our good acts are rather a sign that God is working effectively through us. Similarly, our reading says that:

Everyone who commits sin is of the devil…

The analogy of course is bad fruit = bad tree.

Earlier, the writer, speaking positively, had used expressions like: “of God”, “from Truth”, “child of God”, as an indication of how someone was living under the influence of God. Now, speaking negatively, he speaks of those who are: “of the devil”, “for the evil one”, to indicate those whose lives do not reflect the Spirit of Jesus.

Those who have been born of God do not sin because God’s seed abides in them…

God’s ‘seed’ here refers either to Jesus or to the Spirit. The image is of human reproduction. The ‘seed’ (Greek, sperma) of God’s life has been planted in the believing Christian and, because of that, the child grows in the likeness of the Father.

Once we become closely united to God and allow him to work in us, sin is excluded. God and sin are mutually exclusive. That is why Jesus could say of the sinful woman in the house of Simon the Pharisee that there was no sin in her, because she was so full of love (Luke 7:36-50). And, we might add, in the Gnostic anti-body context in which this letter is written, love expressed sexually is also included because it is a ‘holy’ thing, and God is there.

Of course, we know that in practice our union with God is never perfect, and we constantly fail in our love for him and for those around us. As well, what we often call ‘love’ can sometimes be self-centred, hurtful, or degrading. But, by and large, once we are fundamentally linked with God and with the Gospel of Jesus, that will show itself in all our relationships and behaviours. Once we have the right vision, our behaviour naturally follows. What we see, we do.

On the other hand:

…all who do not do what is right are not from God…

And the same goes for:

…those who do not love a brother or sister…

To be close to God and to love one’s brothers and sisters are two sides of one coin—we cannot have one without the other.