1 John 3
McGeeCHAPTER 3THEME: How the dear children may know each other and live together; the Father’s love for his children; the two natures of the believer in action
1 John 3:1
HOW THE DEAR CHILDREN MAY KNOW EACH OTHER AND LIVE TOGETHERThe last verse of chapter 2 belongs here with the first three verses of chapter 3. 1Jn_2:29 reads: “If ye know that he is righteous, ye know that every one that doeth righteousness is born of him.” It is one thing to testify that we know Christ and are in Him; it is quite another to have a life that reveals that He is our righteousness. It is wonderful to know positionally that we are in Christ and that we are accepted in the Beloved, but it is altogether different to have a life down here that is commensurate with that. John is telling us that the way we recognize other believers is by their lives and not by their lips. Righteousness is a family characteristic of the Father and His children. God’s children take after their Fatherthey have His characteristics. THE FATHER’S LOVE FOR HIS CHILDRENThis is a very wonderful statement that John makes here. Let me give you my very literal translation of this verse: “Behold ye, of what sort of love the Father hath bestowed upon (given to) us, that we should be named children of God, and we are: and because of this the world does not know (begin to understand) us, because it did not know (begin to understand) Him.” John is saying that we do not expect to be the sons of God, we are the sons of God. A better translation includes the words “and we are.” The child of God can say emphatically, “I am a child of God through faith in Jesus Christ.” We don’t hope to be, we don’t expect to be, but the thrilling fact is that every believer can exult and rejoice and constantly thank Him that he is God’s child. We are boasters not in ourselves, but we are boasting of the wonderful Shepherd that we have. John makes it perfectly clear that if you are a born again child of God, you are going to exhibit a life that conforms to the Father. A child of God need not be in the false position of saying as an old hymn says: ‘Tis a point I long to know, Oft it causes anxious thought, Do I love my Lord or no? Am I His, or am I not? Author unknown John says, “Now we are the children of God"right now we are the children of God. “Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God.” The kind of love that John is talking about is a strange kind of love, an unusual kind of love, a kind of love to which we are not accustomed. God loves us. What manner of love the Father has for us! The love of Godthat is, His love for usis shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit. John will go on to show that God has demonstrated His love by giving His Son to die for us. How many of us have someone who would die for us? How many folk would you be willing to die for? God loves you, and He has proven His loveHe gave His Son to die for you. The greatest motivating force in the world is God’s love. Love is the greatest drive in the human family. A man falls in love with a woman, a woman falls in love with a man, and some make such tremendous sacrifices for each other. When human love is genuine love, it is a beautiful thing, it is a noble thing, it is a wonderful thing, and it is a tremendous drive. But God’s love for His children far exceeds anything we can experience on the human plane. The true child of God is going to prove his spiritual birth by being obedient to God’s Word. God’s wonderful love for us should motivate us. It is that which is going to cause us to want to live for God. Behold, what an unusual kind, what a different kind of love the Father hath bestowed upon us that we should be called the children of God. John has emphasized that we are God’s children right now. This brings me to say that our salvation is in three tenses: I have been saved; I am being saved; and I shall be saved.
- I have been saved. The Lord Jesus said, “Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life” (Joh_5:24). The moment you trust Christ you receive everlasting life, and you will never be any more saved than you are the moment you trust Him. You are born again, born into the family of God. John is addressing “little children"these are God’s children. He says, “What manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us.” Why? Because we are His children. He has bestowed His love upon His children, and they respond to that love by obedience unto Him and by living a life that is well pleasing to Him.
- I am being saved. Paul said, “…work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure” (Php_2:12-13). Peter said, “But grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ …” (2Pe_3:18). John is talking to us along the same lines here. If we are the children of God, we are going to be obedient unto Him, we are going to grow, we are going to develop, and we are going to go on in the Christian faith. Therefore, we can say that we are being saved.
- I will be saved. When the Lord Jesus comes again for His own, we will experience the final stage of our salvation. Sin no longer will have power over us, and we will be with the Lord forever.
1 John 3:2
“Beloved, now are we the sons of God"not tomorrow, but right nowthat is the wonderful part of it. The world won’t understand us, that’s for sure, because it didn’t understand Him. It takes a spiritual insight, and that comes through the anointing which we have talked about that He has given to us. The Spirit of God is the one who can make this real to us, and only the Spirit of God can do that, my friend. Until He confirms it to your heart, of course, you must say, “I don’t know whether I am saved.” But the Spirit of God can confirm this to your heart. John says, “Beloved, now are we the sons of God.” But someone says to me, “McGee, I’m a little discouraged with you. I think you ought to be a little farther along.” I would agree with you on that. I wish I were a better man, and I wish I knew more about the Word of God. Yes, I’d be willing to go along with thatI ought to be farther along than I am. But don’t you be discouraged with me, and then I won’t be discouraged with you because of the fact that “it doth not yet appear what we shall be.” “But we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him.” This is a wonderful prospect! He sees in you and in me what He will make out of us. I’m thankful that God is not through with me. If I thought He was through with me now, I would be very much discouraged, but He is yet to perform a work. The story is told that when a great big piece of marble was brought in to him, Michelangelo walked around it, looking at it, and then said, “My, isn’t it beautiful!” One of his helpers who was standing there said, “Well, all I see is a great big piece of marblethat’s all.” Michelangelo exclaimed, “Oh, I forgot. You don’t see what I see. I see a statue of David there.” The helper looked again and replied, “Well, I don’t see it.” Michelangelo said, “That is because it is now in my own mind, but I am going to translate it into this piece of marble.” And that is what he did. God says, “It doth not yet appear what you shall be.” He sees what He is going to make out of us someday. We are discouraged when we look at each other as we are now, but God sees us as we shall be when He shall appear and we shall be like Him. What a glorious prospect this is for us! “We shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is.” We are going to see the glorified Christ. We are not going to be equal to Him, but we are going to be like Him in our own way. This does not mean that all of us are going to be little robots or simply little duplicatesit is not that at all. We will be like Him but with our own personalities, our own individualities, our own selves. He will never destroy the person of Vernon McGee. He’ll not destroy the person that you are, but He is going to bring you up to the full measure, the stature where you will be like Himnot identical to Him, but like Him. It is going to be wonderful in heaven that we will love everybodyI’m excited about that. But the most wonderful thing about heaven to me is that everybody is going to love me! That’s going to be quite a change, and I’m looking forward to it. “Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is.” This is another great incentive to Christian living. I do not think there is anything else quite like it.
1 John 3:3
If you believe that Jesus is coming and that someday you are going to be like Him, that will cause you to live a pure life down here. I know of nothing that is such a great incentive for holy living. We are not wonderful now, but we shall be wonderful someday. There is nothing that should encourage holy living like the study of Bible prophecy. Today we see a lot of careless, slipshod living, but also a great emphasis on prophecy. I hear people say, “Oh, I’m waiting for the Lord to come!” Brother, my question is not whether you are looking for the Lord to come, but how are you living down here? How you live down here determines whether or not you are really looking for the Lord to come. We are going to accomplish our goal someday. The New Jerusalem where we will live is going to be a place where He will wipe away all tears. There’ll be no sorrow, there’ll be no suffering. All of that is wonderful, but the most wonderful thing that strikes me in Revelation 21 is that He says, “…Behold, I make all things new …” (Rev_21:5, italics mine). That is what I like. I do not know about you, I can speak only for myself, but I very frankly make this confession: I have never really been the man that I’ve wanted to be.
I am at the age now where I guess a man begins to dream a little. And as I look back over my life, I realize I’ve never been the man that I have wanted to be, and I’ve never been the preacher I have wanted to be. I’ve never really preached the sermon that I wanted to preach. People have been kind to me and have said nice things, and I appreciate that, but I know in my own heart that I wish I could do better. I’ve never been the husband that I’ve wanted to be. Previously I mentioned an illness I had several years ago which necessitated a three-month rest. My wife and I sat out on our patio and did a great deal of reminiscing. As I reviewed my life, I thought, My, I wish I had been a better husband than I was. I should have been. And I’ve never been the father that I wanted to be. Some people think I’m a little too much for my grandsons. Well, I’m trying to make up for them what I left out for my own child. I’ve never really attained my goal. I thank God for the way He has led me. He’s been good to me in my life, and I rejoice in the fact that He’s given to me a Bible-teaching radio ministry. I never thought He’d do that, but He has. I have not attained my goal, but He says, “Behold, I make all things new.” He is saying, “Vernon McGee"and He is saying this to you, too"we are going to be able to start all over again. You are really going to live an eternal life, and you are going to attain your goal.” Won’t that be wonderful to grow in grace and the knowledge of Him, not only in this life, but for all eternity? What a prospect lies before us! John is telling us here of the wonderful love the Father has for His children. I have been saved, I am being saved, and I am going to be saved. It’s going to be wonderful someday. So you don’t be discouraged with me, and I won’t be discouraged with you.
1 John 3:4
THE TWO NATURES OF THE BELIEVER IN ACTIONAgain let me give you my very literal translation of this verse: “Everyone that doeth sin, doeth also lawlessness, and sin is lawlessness.” I have before me two very fine Greek commentaries, and they make it clear that the word translated “committeth” sin is literally “doeth” sin, meaning one who lives continually and habitually in sin. You know folk like that. I used to live that way, and the fellows working around me in the bank lived that way. Frankly, working in the bank was secondary. Our interest was in women, in liquor, and in having a good time. That was what we thought life was all about in those days, and that was what we called living.
We lived in it continually, and we talked about it continually. That is what John means here: “Whosoever committeth sin"whoever goes on committing sin, whoever simply lives in sin. “Transgresseth also the law.” God has made certain laws. God did say, “Thou shalt not commit adultery” (Exo_20:14), and He means that today also. All of this free, new way of looking at things is not a new way at all. It is as old as the hills. The fact of the matter is that it goes back to the jungle, it goes back to paganism. “For sin is the transgression of the law.” God has put up the Law so that we can know that we are sinners, so that we can know what He requires. That is the purpose of the Law. The Law was never given to save, it was given to reveal to man that he is a sinner. Sin is basically and fundamentally that which is contrary to the will of God. In other words, a sinner is one who is insubordinate to the will of God. A little girl was asked in Sunday school to give her definition of what sin is. She said, “I think it is anything that you like to do.” You know, she wasn’t far from the truth, because this old nature that you and I have is absolutely contrary to the will of God. Paul emphasizes that in Rom_8:5, “For they that are after the flesh [the old nature] do mind [obey] the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit.” How are you living? In the flesh or in the Spirit? Paul goes on to say, “For to be carnally minded is death …” Death is separation from God, and that is the thing which John is talking about. You cannot have fellowship with Him and be a carnal Christian. It is impossible to do that. I am afraid that there is too much talk today about, “Oh, how I love God, how I am serving Him, and How wonderful He is.” How pious some folk are! But, my friend, they are not in fellowship with Him because “…to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. Because the carnal mind is enmity against God [that is, disobedient to God]: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be” (Rom_8:6-7). Paul makes it clear that before the Law was given there was sin, but it wasn’t transgression. The statement here in 1 John, “Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the law,” does not give a complete definition and is not really a good translation. That is why in my translation I have put it like this: “Everyone that doeth sin, doeth also lawlessness.” Paul wrote earlier in Romans, “…for where no law is, there is no transgression” (Rom_4:15); but there is sin because he says, “Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned” (Rom_5:12). That is, we sinned in Adamhis sin was ours. “For until the law sin was in the world: but sin is not imputed when there is no law” (Rom_5:13). Man was still a sinner and was insubordinate to God; nevertheless, it was not transgression of the Lawbecause the Law hadn’t been given yet. We read further in Romans: “Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam’s transgression, who is the figure of him that was to come” (Rom_5:14). They sinnedwhy? Because they were sinners. In Isa_53:6 we have a true picture of every unsaved man: “All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.” Everyone has turned to his own way. Those three words tell our story: his own way. What’s your problem? What’s my problem? We want to have our way. The little baby in the crib is squealing at the top of his voicewhat’s the matter with the little fellow? He wants his own way! We are born with that nature, a nature which is in rebellion against God. This is the way the hymn “I Was a Wandering Sheep” by Horatius Bonar puts it: I was a wandering sheep, I did not love the fold, I did not love my Shepherd’s voice, I would not be controlled: I was a wayward child, I did not love my home, I did not love my Father’s voice, I loved afar to roam. But the child of God has now come to God, and he has been born again.
1 John 3:5
Only the Lord Jesus can take away sin. He came for that purpose. Two things are important for us to see here. In John’s Gospel he wrote, “…Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world” (Joh_1:29). He bore the penalty of sin. “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life” (Joh_3:16). Christ died for the sin of the world. Now here in John’s epistle he shows that Christ takes away the practice of sin in the life of the believer. Christ is the “propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world” (1Jn_2:2). What is the difference? Well, He died a redemptive death to pay the penalty of our sin, but He also died that He might deliver us from the power of sin right here and now. “And in him is no sin.” The literal translation of this is: “in Him sin is not.” He died a redemptive deathHe was our sin offering. He was without sin; He was without spot or blemish as was the Levitical sin offering. Therefore He is able to remove the guilt of sin and to provide the power to deliver us from the habit of sinning. He has given to us a new nature that we might live for Him today.
1 John 3:6
“Whosoever abideth in him sinneth not"that is, that new nature of yours will not sin; it never sins. Dr. H. A. Ironside puts it this way: “[Christ], this absolutely sinless One, who in grace became sin for us that we might be reconciled to God, dwells by the Spirit in the believer, and our new nature is really His very life imparted to us.” If you are God’s child, that new nature will not go along with the old nature and commit sin. The believer who abides in Christ does not practice sinhe doesn’t live in it.
The sinner lives in it all the time, but the child of God has a new nature, and he cannot live a sinful life. This is pictured for us in the story of the Prodigal Son (see Luk_15:11-24). Only pigs live in pigpens; sons do not. Somebody will say, “But the son got into the pigpen.” He surely did, my friend, but he got out of the pigpen, toolet’s remember that. The child of God can get into it, but he will get out. Why?
Because he is a son of the Father, and he takes after his Father. His Father is righteous, and the son wants to live that kind of life. God provides the power to deliver from the habit of sinning, and that is all that John is saying here"Whosoever abideth in him sinneth not.” Now if you go off to the pigpen, that’s the old nature, and if you stay in that pigpen, you never were God’s child. If you can be happy in sin, my friend, then you are not God’s child because God’s children have the nature of their Father. Sometime ago I received a letter from a young man, which may help to illustrate my point here: I come to you with a very critical problem and hope that you will help me for I am desperate and have nothing left to try or anybody to turn to…. I know that I am a new born again Christian, although many times I had doubts. But I know that I have been saved. Brother, I don’t know what you are going to think when you find that I am a homosexual. Perhaps you’d think that I am living in false assurance of eternal life, but, believe me, this is not the case. I know I’m saved, but I lost the joy of my salvation for awhile. And I try to live a Christian life, and I never was so miserable…. This young man’s letter is actually encouraging because he says that he is a homosexual but that he is miserable in it. He has no joy; he has no peace. Of course, he doesn’t. I will not question whether or not he is a child of God, but I do want to say something to him and to the many others who are just like him: My friend, God can give you deliverance from it. You need to claim that from Him. Ask Him to bring you to the place of peace and joy in your life.
If you are God’s child, you will never be content in a sinful state. The people are wrong who maintain that homosexuality is merely another life-style. God calls it sin, and God says there is a deliverance. Now there may be an abnormality involved. I am confident that consulting a Christian psychologist would help, but make sure you go to a true Christian psychologist. The other crowd would probably push you farther into your problem, and you would never be delivered out of it.
God can and will deliver you because you are His child. That is what the Word of God says here, and if you believe it, God can deliver you.
1 John 3:7
“Little children"John is talking to those who are God’s children; he is not talking to the world. “Little children, let no man deceive you: he that doeth righteousness is righteous, even as he is righteous.” This is the thing which reveals the child of God. To abide in Him does not mean just positionally. It is true that you have a position in Christ that can never be disturbed, but there is also a practical consideration down here. If you abide in Him in fellowship and service, sin must be given up. I talked to a young man in Phoenix, Arizona, one time who said to me, “Dr. McGee, I’ve been listening to you on the radio. I think you can help me. I’m an alcoholic. I accepted Christ several years ago, and I can go for a long time without drinking, but then I will again find myself drunk. I hate myself.” This fine looking young fellow who was an executive began to weep as he talked.
He said, “I know eventually it will affect my job if I keep this thing up. I don’t want to drink, because I am a child of God. And don’t tell me I’m not because I have accepted Christ. I’ve driven fifty miles to get here this morning so that I might ask you this question: Is there deliverance for me?” I told him there was. If he has the nature of his Father, there is one thing that is sureGod will not let him be content and happy in his sin. That was an unhappy young man, the most unhappy young man I had seen in a long time.
I told him, “Every time you fall down, brother, go back to your heavenly Father and tell Him what you did. Tell Him that you don’t want to disgrace Him again. The day will come when He will deliver you.” That has been the story of other men, and it is the story of any sinner who professes Christ and finds himself bound down by a habit. God can and will deliver him. I happen to be a fellow who knows something about that of which I am speaking here. When I was young, God in a very marvelous way intervened in my life. My mother’s side of my family were German, and I want to tell you, they were heavy drinkersthe whole outfit. My father was not an alcoholic, but he was also a heavy drinker. I grew up in that atmosphere, and I started out that way. I thank God for a deliverance from it when I was still just a boy. My friend, I know He can deliver you, and He will deliver you from your sin. This epistle deals with living, right where we are. You cannot simply take some little course and get the deliverance. You are going to have to call upon God for it and have real contact with Him.
1 John 3:8
“He that committeth sin is of the devil.” We need to recognize that the Devil is the source of all sin. He is the one who is responsible for sin being brought into the world. He is the one who led our first parents into sin. And the reason that you and I have a sinful nature today is because of the Devil. “He that committeth sin is of the devil.” Remember that the Lord Jesus said to the religious rulers of His day, “Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do …” (Joh_8:44). The interesting thing is that we will take after our father. If your father is the Devil, then you are going to act like him. If your father is our heavenly Father, then you have His nature, and you are going to act like Him. “For the devil sinneth from the beginning"that is, he started out sinning, and he has been at it ever since. He is in rebellion against God. “For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil.” Only Jesus Christ can deliver you, my friend. Go to Him. Don’t come to me because I cannot help, and no one else can either. But He can, He is the Great Physician, and I urge you to go to Him with your problem. The Lord Jesus Christ died for the sin of the world. John the Baptist said, “…Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world” (Joh_1:29). He took away the penalty of sin. Since you’ve trusted Christ, your sins are behind you, and you are saved in Him. Your sins will never again be brought up as far as your salvation is concerned because you have trusted Him. But John tells us here that the Lord Jesus not only takes away our sin, but He also was manifested to take away our sinsplural.
He was without sinHe had no sin nature. “For such an high priest became us, who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners …” (Heb_7:26). But He was a human being, and He died as our sin offering, paying the penalty for our sin. But John also says back in verse 1Jn_3:5 of this chapter that He was “manifested to take away our sins.” The word our is not in the better manuscripts; it is literally “manifested to take away sins"that is, to take away the sins of all believers. In other words, He died to make it possible for you and me to live the Christian life. This brings us right to the subject of this section from verse 1Jn_3:4 to verse 1Jn_3:24: every believer has two natures. This is what Paul talks about at length in Romans 7. He says there, “For the good that I would [the desire of this new nature that I have] I do not [that is, the old nature which has been in control so long takes over]: but the evil which I would not, that I do” (Rom_7:19). The new nature desires to do good, but the old nature drags its feet. The old nature will not serve God; it is in rebellion against God. Paul writes further, “Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.
So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God” (Rom_8:7-8). You cannot please God until you are born again. “But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you"there is no idea of a condition here, but rather Paul is saying, since “that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his” (Rom_8:9). Let me be very clear that we are talking about born-again believers. We are not talking about professing Christians; we are not talking about church members; we are not talking about those that have simply been baptized without ever having been saved; we are not talking about those that go through a ritual or belong to some system. We are talking about those that have been born again.
The Lord Jesus was manifested “that he might destroy the works of the devil,” to make it possible for you and me to live for God.
1 John 3:9
“Whosoever is born of God"this is the new birth we have been talking about. This is what the Lord Jesus spoke of when He said to a religious ruler, “Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again” (Joh_3:7). “Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin.” A child of God is given a new nature, and that new nature does not and will not commit sin. The reason that the prodigal son could not stay in the pigpen is that he was not a pig. He was a son of the Father, and he longed for the Father’s house. If you are a child of God, you will want to be in the Father’s house, and you will long for it. “Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin"unfortunately, this gives a wrong impression here. The idea is not just one act of sin; the idea is that he does not live in sin. John has said earlier in chapter 2, “If any man [any Christian man] sin, we have an advocate with the Father"the believer will sin. However, John makes it very clear that it is God’s will that we live without sin: “My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not” (1Jn_2:1). Sin is anything contrary to the will of God, but when sin comes into our lives, John says that we have an advocate with the Father, and “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1Jn_1:9). Again, John is talking to believers, and he is saying that believers will sin. Therefore, when John says, “Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin,” he is saying that that new nature will not continue to live in a pigpennever, under any circumstances will it do that. “For his seed remaineth in him.” If you are a child of God, you have a divine nature. “And he cannot sin.” Why? Because he “is born of God.” John is talking about something that is real and genuine. He is not talking about some little profession which you made when you went down to the front of a church and shed a few tears. The question is: Have you been born of God? I believe in the security of the believers, but I also believe in the insecurity of make-believers. It is well for us to take an inventory and to look at our lives. We must examine ourselves and see whether we are in the faith or not. Are you really a child of God? Do you long after the things of God? That is the important thing. Someone might say of this young man who is a homosexual, “He cannot be a child of God.” I say that he can be; but if he is a child of God, he is going to give up that sin. A prodigal son ought not to be in a pigpen, and he will not live there. He is going to get out. The day will come when he will say, “I will arise and go to my Father.” And his Father is not anywhere near that pigpenHe is as far from it as He possibly can be. Whosoever is born of God does not practice sin. He does not go on in sin. When we received a new nature, we did not lose our old naturethat is the problem. No wonder Paul cried out, “O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?” (Rom_7:24). Only the Spirit of God can deliver you, my friend. If you recognize that you are helpless and hopeless, if some sin binds you down, spoils your life, robs you of your joy, and you are miserable, then may I say to you that He can and He will deliver youif you want to be delivered. If you want to get rid of that sin, if you really want to serve Him, if you mean business with Him, He means business with you. “For his seed remaineth in him: and he cannot sin, because he is born of God.”
1 John 3:10
“In this the children of God are manifest, and the children of the devil.” I think we need a little more manifesting today because many of the children of God look like they belong to someone else, or at least they look as if they are orphans. There are two families in the world. The teaching of the universal Fatherhood of God and the universal brotherhood of man I consider to be a damnable heresy. The Bible doesn’t teach that God looks upon all people as His children. The Lord Jesus said to the religious rulers, “Ye are of your father the devil …” (Joh_8:44). Someone has said that the reason a Christian ought not to marry a non-Christian is that if you marry in the family of the Devil, you are going to have trouble with your father-in-law!
How true that is. There are the children of God and the children of the Devilthere are two families in the world. John is going to show that there are two things which manifest the child of God. Now God knows our hearts and knows whether or not we have really been born again and are His children. But our neighbor next door doesn’t know that. The only way for him to know is for the life of God to be manifested in us. It is not necessarily manifested by lip and language, but it is manifested by our living. I want to use a very homely illustration which I trust will demonstrate the fact that the believer has two natures. I live on a ranch here in California. Now before I go any further, I must tell you about a lady who asked her neighbor, “Did you know that Dr. McGee owns a ranch in California? I’m amazed that a poor preacher can own a ranch!” The neighbor laughed and said, “Why didn’t you listen to him carefully? He told you how big his ranch is.” So I will tell you that my “ranch” Isaiah 72 feet wide and 123 feet deep.
In the middle of that ranch is my home. But I do have a lot of fruit trees. I have three orange trees, a tangerine tree, a lemon tree, and a plum tree. I have an apricot tree, a fig tree, and quite a few guava bushes. So that is quite a ranch! I love fruit, and I enjoy getting out in my ranch and looking around.
Very seldom, when I am at home, does a day pass without my going all the way around my yard, looking at every tree. Also, I have four avocado trees which had grown wild out here in this dry land, but grafted into them are several very fine varieties of avocados. You can see where the bud isit is just about as high as my head on one particular tree. Below that graft, every now and then a branch will come out from the wild or the old nature of that old avocado, and I have to trim it off. Sometimes I am busy in our conference ministry, and I don’t get to tend to things like that. The limb will then come out below the bud, and it will bloom and bear fruit. But it’s the poorest fruit you can imagineit’s just no good at all. Above the bud, oh, it bears luscious fruit. My problem is to keep those limbs cut off below the bud so that it will not bear fruit down there. I want it to bear fruit up above where it had a new nature. This avocado tree can bear either kind of fruitit’s just up to me which I want. My friend, I’m just like that avocado tree. I have two natures. I can be mean and live on a pretty low plane. I have a nature that is that way. All of us have that old nature. We never get rid of it in this life, and we all come short of the glory of God. But above that, in my new nature, is where I can bear the fruit of love, joy, peace, longsuffering, etc. I feel good today, and I have the joy of the Lord in my heart, but tomorrow you may find me down in the dumps. Now I ought not to be there, but that is something that happens, and when it does, I’m living in the old nature. In Galatians Paul tells the believers to learn to walk in the Spirit. You cannot do it yourself. In Romans 7 Paul discovered two things: there is no good in the old nature, and there is no power in the new nature. You must have help. It does not matter who you are, you cannot live the Christian life yourself. It is only by the Spirit of God working in you that you can produce that good fruit, and He wants us to produce fruit. The Lord Jesus said, “I am the true [genuine] vine, and my Father is the husbandman. Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away: and every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit” (Joh_15:1-2). He wants us to produce fruit, but He also tells us that He will prune us. When I prune that avocado tree up above the graft, it bears better fruit. God prunes us to get good fruit. Sometimes down there in that old nature, we will also bear fruit. That is called the works of the flesh, and they are not very attractive, they are not anything to brag about. “In this the children of God are manifest, and the children of the devil.” You can tell them apart by their fruit. “Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them” (Mat_7:20), the Lord Jesus said. As the late Dr. James McGinley used to say, “I’m not to judge you, but I am a fruit inspector.” We ought to be able to find a little fruit on our fellow believers, and in 1Jn_3:10 John gives us two clear marks of identification of a true child of God. “Whosoever doeth not righteousness is not of God.” It does not matter who he is or what profession he makes, if a person is not trying to live for God, he is not a child of God. It does not matter how active you areyou may be a deacon in the church, you may be as busy as a termitebut John says that the important mark of identification is: “whosoever doeth not righteousness is not of God.” That is a strong statement, but John said it, and the Spirit of God said it through him. “Neither he that loveth not his brother.” Here is the second mark of identification. Do you love other Christians? If you are a child of God, you are going to love other Christians. The word love is going to occur again and again in this epistle. We need to get our understanding of it straight right here at the beginning. There are actually three Greek words that are translated by our one English word love. The first Greek word is eros, and it is never used in the New Testament. It refers to erotic love, having to do with sex. The Greeks talked a great deal about sex, and they had the god Eros and the goddess Aphrodite, the worship of whom involved sex.
Again may I say, the word eros is never used in the New Testament. The second word, phileo, means “friendship.” It means a love of the brethren; it is a brother sort of love. The third word, the highest word, is agapao. That is God’s love: “For God so loved the world …” (Joh_3:16, italics mine). Agapao is the word John uses here as he tells us that we are to love our brother. We hear a great deal of talk today about love, love, love, and many times it is articulated in the context of sex; but in the Bible, love has no relationship to that whatsoever. “Neither he that loveth not his brother” means that we are to have a concern for our Christian brother; we are to be helpful to him. It does not mean that you necessarily care for his ways, his conversation, or the things that interest him. It does not mean you have to run up and put your arms around him. It means that you are to be concerned for him. You cannot harbor hatred in your heart against another believer. We will see in the next chapter that this love is not something that is sloppy and slippery by any means.
It does not mean that you are to help, that is, to be taken in by every Tom, Dick, and Harry who comes along. We are warned to be very careful indeed and to keep our eyes open, but we are to have a love in our hearts for our brethren in the Lord. This love is to be a concerned love, a love that acts, a love that does something beneficial.
1 John 3:11
John often speaks in this epistle about “the beginning.” The beginning he is talking about is the incarnation of Christ. “For this is the message that ye heard from the beginning, that we should love one another.” John is merely reaffirming here what the Lord Jesus had taught: “By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another” (Joh_13:35). This love is to be the mark of Christ’s disciples. John says, “What I am telling you is not new. You have heard this from the beginning. The Lord Jesus taught it to us, and all the apostles have taught this. We have heard from the beginning that we should love one another.” Love of other believers is something that is woefully lacking today in many places.
1 John 3:12
“Not as Cain, who was of that wicked one, and slew his brother.” Cain and Abel were blood brothers and were very much alike in many ways. But Cain killed his brother. Why? “Wherefore slew he him? Because his own works were evil, and his brother’s righteous.” What was Cain’s problem? His problem was jealousy or envythat was Cain’s sin. Jealousy is perhaps not the best word to describe Cain’s problem. Jealousy has in it the note of suspicion; for example, a man may be jealous of his wife, meaning that he probably loves her but suspects that she may not be faithful to him. Therefore, I think the better word to use here would be envy. Envy and jealousy are given in the dictionary as synonyms, but there is a distinction between them without there really being a difference. Envy is the thing which characterized Cain. He was envious of his brother, and it led to murder. Envy is that which is in the human heart. As someone has said, “The most destructive force in the world is jealousy and envy.” Let me give you a definition of envy: “discontent or uneasiness at the sight of another’s excellence or good fortune, accompanied with some degree of hatred and a desire to possess equal advantages.” That exactly describes Cain. A definition of envious would be: “actuated or directed by or proceeding from envy; jealously pained by the excellence or good fortune of another.” This kind of distinction should be noted: a woman is not envious or jealous of a man’s courage, and it is also true that a man is not jealous of a woman’s beauty; rather, we are envious of that which we would desire to have. Envy and jealousy among believers in the church hurt the cause of Christ today probably more than anything else. It is that old secret sin that many believers cover up. How many soloists are jealous of another soloist? How many preachers are jealous of another preacher? A great deal of backbiting that goes on in the church has its root in one thing: jealousy. Boy, that is a mean one! And jealousy is the reason that Cain killed AbelGod had accepted his brother’s works and not his own.
1 John 3:13
John says, “Don’t act as if some strange or weird thing has happened to you if the world doesn’t accept you, because the world is not going to accept you.” John makes it very clear all the way through this epistle that he is merely passing along the teachings which the Lord Jesus Christ Himself gave. In Joh_15:18-19 the Lord Jesus said, “If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you. If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you.” This has always been a problem for many of us in the ministry. I have never really appreciated it when anyone would say, “When you were a pastor in such-and-such a place, you were a popular minister.” I’m not sure that I care for that because there is a certain crowd I would deeply regret to be popular with. If I ever was popular with them, I should not have been, and I don’t want to be popular with them because the Lord Jesus is not popular with that crowd. I watched a minister on television the other night as he had a marvelous opportunity to witness for Christ. But instead he played up to that unbelieving crowd, and he said some nice, flowery, complimentary things, and he was applauded for it. I wondered if there was not sorrow in heaven because he was in a crowd where Jesus was not popular but he was popular with them. The child of God needs to recognize that the world will hate him. There is an offense of the Cross, but we should guard against magnifying the offense by making ourselves objectionable and obnoxious. Many Christians do that, and they are rejected, not because they are Christians, but because they are simply obnoxiousthey would be obnoxious whether they were Christians or not. Let’s make sure that Christ’s rejection and our rejection are for the same reason.
1 John 3:14
“We know that we have passed from death unto life.” You can know whether you are a child of God or not. The idea that we cannot know is a big mistake because the Word of God says that we can know that we have passed from death unto life. How do we know it? “Because we love the brethren.” Do you have a love in your heart for the brethren? One of the greatest experiences that I have had in my ministry is to travel throughout this country, speaking at conferences in many places and meeting many wonderful believers. We have had several rather interesting experiences as we have gone on our way. I recall one time when I was in a city in the East, and I felt very much alone. My wife was not with me at the time, and I felt very, very lonesome. I had gone into a restaurant and had just given my order to the waitress when a man sitting at the next table got up and came over to me. He said, “Dr.
McGee, I didn’t expect to see you here!” I said, “Well, to whom do I have the pleasure of speaking?” He said, “I have never met you before. To tell the truth, I’ve never seen you before, but I listen to you on the radio. May I sit down?” So he sat down, and he and I had one of the most wonderful times of fellowship. How did we have it? Well, he was a child of God, and I am a child of God. He hadn’t even known that I was to be speaking in that area, but he came with his wife to the meetings after I told him about them.
We went out after the service for refreshments, and I probably ought to say that he picked up the tabwhich to me was a proof that he was a real brother! It is quite wonderful to be in the ministry today and to meet wonderful Christians all around the country. Another time I was on a golf course in Florida, and there was a couple ahead of us who were slowing us down. I even yelled at them one time because of it. Finally, when we came right up to where they were playing, the man looked up at me and said, “Dr. McGee, I didn’t know you were here playing golf. In fact, I didn’t even know you were in this part of the country. Were you the fellow who was trying to hurry us along?” When I admitted that I was, he said, “I’ll be very frank with you.
I’ve been to the doctor, and I’m not too well yet so I must play slowly.” So I had to apologize to the man for my being very rude and abrupt and trying to get him to hurry. Then we just had a wonderful time of fellowship. Our twosome joined his twosome, and we played along together. We got so involved talking that the foursome behind us yelled at us for not moving along! Again, that was someone I had never seen before, and yet I found him to be my brother, and we enjoyed fellowship together. This is what John is talking about.
Do you love the brethren? When you can meet around the person of Christ, when you can talk about Christ with other folk, you have a brother or sister, my friend. “He that loveth not his brother abideth in death.” There are those who do not seem to have any concern for the children of God, but you and I are to have a concern. I always look forward to our Bible conference tours because a lot of the folk will be people whom I have never met before. Yet we will have about two weeks of the most wonderful fellowship that you have ever heard of. Why? Because we love the brethren, and that’s a proof of our salvation, friend. There is no greater proof than that as far as your heart is concerned.
1 John 3:15
“Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer.” I didn’t say that; John said that, and again he is quoting the Lord Jesus. In Mat_5:21-22 we read, “Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not kill; and whosoever shall kill shall be in danger of the judgment: But I say unto you, That whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment: and whosoever shall say to his brother, Raca, shall be in danger of the council: but whosoever shall say, Thou fool, shall be in danger of hell fire.” May I say to you, these are strong words. The Lord Jesus said that if you have hatred in your heart toward your brother, it means that you are a murderer. Envy and jealousy lead to hatred, and hatred is murder. How many murderers are there around today? By this standard that God has put before us, there are more murderers out of jail than there are in jail. I am sure you realize that this passage does not teach that an actual murderer cannot be saved. Christ paid the penalty for all sinseven taking the life of another. However, when a man is saved, he will no longer live in hatred. May I remind you that John’s emphasis in this section is the two natures of the believer. When you become a child of God, you do not get rid of your old nature. Rather, you have two naturesan old nature and a new nature. We have seen that the new nature is the only nature that can please God. Man in his natural state is unable to please God; the carnal mind is enmity against God. Therefore, as believers, there are times when we feel like praying, and there are times when we do not feel like praying. There is a hymn (“Come Thou Fount” by Robert Robinson) that says: Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it Prone to leave the God I love. Someone read that and said that it didn’t express his feelings; so he changed the wording. You will find one version in some songbooks, the other version in other songbooks. The other wording is: Prone to worship, Lord, I feel it, Prone to serve the God I love. Which is true of a believer? Is he prone to wander, or is he prone to worship? I would say that both are true. I have a nature that I’ve discovered is prone to wander. I have another nature that’s prone to worship. God says, “If you are My child, then you will manifest My nature. You will manifest that new nature which I have given to you.”
1 John 3:16
“Hereby perceive we the love of God.” You will note that in your Bible of God is in italics which means that those words are not in the better manuscripts or not in the manuscripts at all. They were added for clarification, but I don’t think they are necessary. It literally says, “Hereby perceive we the love.” This is to be our examplethe way God loves. How does God love? “Because he laid down his life for us.” This is the standard that is put before us. “And we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.” Now I don’t know about you, but I have not come up to that level in my life. Do you know many people who would put their lives on the line for you? And how many of us would be willing to put our lives on the line for someone else? Today we do not see this spirit manifested as it should be. And yet I was greatly touched when I was ill with cancer the first time because several people wrote to me and said that they would be willing to take my cancerous disease to themselves. They wanted me to be able to finish making the tape recordings for our five-year “Thru the Bible” radio program.
I had never known anyone who would be willing to go that far. I recognized, of course, that those folk couldn’t do that for me. When one has a disease, that is a case where every man bears his own burden. Although they couldn’t take my disease, their willingness to do so was the thing that made such a tremendous impression upon my heart and life. This is the real proof that God loves us: He gave His Son to die for us. That is the standardHe is our exampleand John says therefore that we should be willing to lay down our lives for the brethren. Until you and I have come up to that high level, we are not exhibiting the love that we should have for the brethren. Now how does this love in action work itself out?
1 John 3:17
John is saying that love is not a sentiment; it is that which expresses itself in action. James also had a great deal to say about this in his epistle. There he wrote, “If a brother or sister be naked, and destitute of daily food, And one of you say unto them, Depart in peace, be ye warmed and filled; notwithstanding ye give them not those things which are needful to the body; what doth it profit?” (Jas_2:15-16). When a brother in need comes to some folk, they simply say, “I’ll pray for you, brother.” But the important thing is whether or not our love is manifested in what we are doing. One of the most tragic things in the world will be when many believers come into the presence of Christ, having had this world’s goods down here and not having used them for the cause of Christ. In a family situation you may talk about loving, but love is not made in the parlor or in the bedroom; love is made in the kitchen. A man may leave his home at five o’clock in the morning and explain it by saying, “I’m going to work. I have a wife and two children to feed.” You might say to him, “I wouldn’t worry about them. You are not going to make a fool of yourself by going out and killing yourself working for them, are you?” He will tell you, “I sure am. I love them, and they are mine.” If you went up into the kitchen of his home, you would likely find his wife up early in the morning, having burned her fingers taking the biscuits out of the hot oven. The poor girl is tired and weary in the evening when he gets home, and yet she continues to work and to care for the children. You say to her, “I wouldn’t be bothered if I were you,” but she says, “This man is my husband, and I love him.” Real love gets into action. We see it in a home where there is love between a man and a woman, but what about love among believers? It ought to get into action; it ought to start doing something one for another. Until it does, my friend, it is the worst kind of hypocrisy. You express your love of the brethren by what you do for them, not by what you say. Our tongue is very good at running way ahead of our feet, but true Christianity, the real article, is a matter of the heart and not of the head or the tongue. John tells us very definitely here that if we are children of God, we will manifest this love.
1 John 3:18
Self-sacrificing love is required of us as believers. It may not be necessary to give our lives, but certainly it is necessary to give of our substance. Christianity is a love relationship.
1 John 3:19
If our lives manifest these things that John has talked about, we will have an assurance when we come before God in prayer. John has made it very clear that it is possible to be ashamed at the appearing of Christ. A great many folk talk about the coming of Christ, but they don’t seem to be doing anything. When you and I come into His presence, it is going to be a very awesome experience because He is going to demand some fruit. What have you been doing? He said, “If ye love me, keep my commandments” (Joh_14:15). One of His commandments is to get the Word of God out, to take it to the ends of the earth. Are you involved in that in any way? Are you involved in anything that reveals that you are a child of God? When I was a boy living out in the country, how wonderfully love was expressed among those people. Whenever anybody got sick, the neighbors would come in and help. I know that there are all kinds of new methods of doing things, but frankly, I’d sure like to get back to that day when the neighbors did come in to help and to take an interest. Today we expect some bureau of the government to take care of an individual and to take him to the hospital which we think is the best place for him. A great many Christians are not getting involved in the very thing that the Lord is interested in, but, my friend, we are going to have to give an account before Him someday. “My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue; but in deed and in truth. And hereby we know that we are of the truth, and shall assure our hearts before him.” If you are a child of God and are using your substancewhether you are rich or poorto get the Word of God out, God gives you an assurance in your heart that you are in His will and that you are doing the thing He wants done. Then you have an assurance when you go before Him in prayer, and you will have an assurance when you stand before Him someday. Paul had this assurance when he said, “Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness …” (2Ti_4:8)Paul knew that; he had that assurance.
1 John 3:20
The child of God can have an assurance, but suppose we are not doing what we should be doing? Does that mean that we have lost our salvation or that we did not have it to begin with? John says, “For if our heart condemn us, God is greater than our heart, and knoweth all things.” We don’t lose our salvation. If our hearts condemn us, God is greater than our hearts, greater than our lack of assurance. He is going to hear our prayer. Isn’t He a wonderful God?
When we fail Him, He won’t fail us. You may not have any assurance when you go before Him. A great many Christians come to Him really empty-handed: “I have done nothing for You, Lord. I have done nothing at all, and yet I am coming to You in prayer.” God is greater than your heart; He will hear your prayer. He is going to deal with you. He will hear and answer according to His will. “For if our heart condemn us, God is greater than our heart, and knoweth all things.” You can depend on Him.
Even if you don’t have assurance, friend, just keep going to Him. That young man who was struggling with alcoholism said to me, “I’ve prayed about this,” and I said, “Pray some more.” He said, “Well, I just don’t feel like I have any assurance at all. I’ve failed Him so.” I told him, “God knows your heart. The way you’re talking to me, I believe you’re sincere, and I believe you mean business. I know that God is going to give you deliverance from this. Of course you don’t have any assurance because you’ve failed Him. But He is greater than your heart, and He knows you, and He knows you are sincere. He is going to deal with youyou can depend on it.”
1 John 3:21
If our heart does not condemn us, it gives us a confidence, an assurance in prayer. There was a certain minister who meant a great deal to me when I was a young preacher. I always loved to hear him pray because he prayed with assurance. He did not pray to God willy-nilly, shilly-shally, mollycoddlehe went to God with great assurance. I always wanted to be on that man’s prayer list. I had a feeling that whenever he began to pray, whatever the Lord was doing, He would say, “Wait a minute.
I’m going to listen to My child down there. He’s praying, and he knows what he is talking about.” I wanted to be on that man’s prayer list. I even prayed that he would put me on his prayer list, but I didn’t ask him to because I felt that it wouldn’t be as effective as if he volunteered it. He knew I was pastor of a church and had a great opportunity, and one day he said to me, “Vernon, I’m praying for you.” Oh boy, that was a great day! May I say to you, it is wonderful to have assurance when we pray. “If our heart condemn us not, then have we confidence toward God.”
1 John 3:22
Love in action gives assurance in prayer. When your life is pleasing to God, you can expect Him to hear and answer your prayer. That is something that is desperately needed today. Remember the early church when persecution first broke out and the apostles were warned to stop preaching the name of Jesus. They went back and reported this to the other Christians, and the group went to God in prayer. They didn’t pray that the persecution would stopthey didn’t pray anything like that.
They began their prayer by saying, “Lord, thou art God” (see Act_4:24). This is the thing which seems to be absent in most churches today. Folk are not sure that our heavenly Father is God, that He does run this universe, and that He is in charge. John says, “Whatsoever we ask, we receive of him, because we keep his commandments, and do those things that are pleasing in his sight.”
1 John 3:23
In other words, John says, “Don’t say you believe on Him and then not love one another.” With one breath you praise the Lord and say you trust the Lord Jesus, but then you say how much you dislike So-and-so. John is not talking about a love in which you just go up and put your arms around someone; he’s not talking about a love that you just talk about. His love is not in your lip or your language but in your life. It will be expressed in genuine concern for the individual. You will not be gossiping about him. You will not be hurting him in any way. But you will be concerned about him. This is so desperately needed today. This is the Christian life in a nutshell: “That we should believe on the name of his Son Jesus Christ, and love one another, as he gave us commandment.”
1 John 3:24
The Holy Spirit verifies these things to our hearts if we have not grieved Him. We grieve the Holy Spirit when we do not do His will. Jesus said, “If ye love me, keep my commandments” (Joh_14:15). If we do not do that, we grieve the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is given to every believer, as Paul makes clear in Rom_8:9, “But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if [lit., since] so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his.” The mark that you are a child of God is that you are indwelt by the Spirit of God, and it is the Holy Spirit who will verify these things and make them real to your heart.