Read with Me
1 John 3:7-10 (HCSB)
Little children, let no one deceive you! The one who does what is right is righteous, just as He is righteous. The one who commits sin is of the Devil, for the Devil has sinned from the beginning. The Son of God was revealed for this purpose: to destroy the Devil’s works. Everyone who has been born of God does not sin, because His seed remains in him; he is not able to sin, because he has been born of God. This is how God’s children—and the Devil’s children—are made evident.
Listen with Me
Again, John’s standards seem idealistic and unattainable to many Christians today. Many of us are far more prone to excuse the sins that we find ourselves committing than to seek deliverance from them. Part of this is because we have been steeped in the gnostic idea of dualism – that even though our souls have been saved, those souls are trapped in a fleshly body that is doomed to continue in sin until we are freed by death or by Jesus’ return.
But such thinking is alien to John’s teaching, to Jesus’ teaching, and indeed, to the whole tenor of the New Testament, which holds an much more optimistic view of salvation and its power to free people not only from the guilt of past sin, but from the power of present temptation as well.
The teaching of the New Testament is that the soul has power over the body, not the other way around. If someone acts in sinful ways and does not show agape love to his brothers and sisters in Christ, it is indicative of a bad heart, a sin-darkened spirit. But when someone turns to Jesus through repentance, belief and commitment to Him, when they are forgiven and redeemed, and when the Holy Spirit (termed “God’s seed” here) takes up residence in the core of their being, it results in complete transformation. Such a person’s whole worldview is transformed, as is the whole center of gravity of their life. And that results in a complete transformation of their behavior as well, showing itself through righteous actions and attitudes that take the place of sinful actions and attitudes, entirely supplanting them.
Such a person is no longer controlled by the wants and cravings of the physical body. They have God’s own power and presence in the very core of their being. How can they be victims of the flesh any longer? The simple answer is, they can’t, and they won’t.
Some point to Romans 7 to show that even Paul himself was in thrall to the flesh, forced to succumb to its sinful tendencies. But chapter 7 of Romans must be read in the whole context of chapters 5 through 8. And, as is clearly shown in Romans 7:24-8:4, Paul’s struggle against sin was conclusively won when he surrendered to Jesus and began to live his life according to the Spirit of life instead of according to the flesh.
John’s view is identical. Jesus appeared to destroy the work of the devil, including the dominance of the body over the spirit. Therefore, those who belong to Jesus, who have been transformed by the indwelling Holy Spirit (who is in everyone who has been saved according to Romans 8:9), they cannot go on sinning, but instead, they have God’s own presence in power to be able to live a genuinely holy life, in thought, in word, and in deed, every day.
Pray with Me
Father, it is so much easier to excuse our sins than it is to turn away from them and live in genuine holiness, even though that holiness is truly available to every one of Your children as a here-and-now reality. I think that the reason why so few of us live out that holiness is that we have been told that it is impossible, so we don’t even try. We buy the excuse and grow comfortable with our sins, believing that we are saved in spite of constantly practicing them, in spite of our lack of obedience, and our lack of love for our brothers and sisters in Christ. But John shows us how far from the mark that philosophy leaves us. Help us, Lord, to trust You, to allow You free rein in the very center of our lives, so that we truly live in victory over the world, the flesh, and the devil, every day. Amen.