1 John 3 Studies

For those who may wish to ‘study’ this chapter, the following simple resources are provided for you. Each chapter is divided into a number of studies and each study or passage has a simple four-Part, verse-by-verse approach, to help you take in and think further about what you have read.

Passage: 1 John 3:1-3

1 See what great 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. 2 Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. 3 All who have this hope in him purify themselves, just as he is pure.

A. Find Out:

1. How has the Father’s love been lavished on us? v.1a
2. Why doesn’t the world know us? v.1b
3. What are we now? v.2a
4. What hope is ours? v.2b
5. What do we do and why? v.3

B. Think:

1. How does 3:1 flow on from chapter 2?
2. How does being God’s child have present and future implications?
3. Why are the world blind to us?

C. Comment:

     John has just commented about those who have been “born of him” and so it is natural for him to carry on and speak about us being children of God, for we have become children of God by being born again of him (see John 1:12,13).  Note that he is quite clear on that – that is what we are, children of God – now!  What we have at the moment isn’t all there is to it; we are going to go through life being changed to become more and more like Jesus (see 2 Cor 3:18), and when he returns we shall be transformed to be like him.  Modern Christians often get bogged down in what they are now, but the apostle’s understanding is that we will be something quite different as God’s purposes are worked out.  That is our hope!   So while we wait in that hope, our part in it is to seek to purify ourselves, so that we do what we can to be like Jesus, and then God will do what only He can do in the process.

     But, John implies, don’t expect the world to see this happening in you and rejoice over it.    No, they couldn’t see who Jesus was, so they won’t see who you are.  They are blinded to spiritual realities so don’t expect them to be thrilled about your life. Having said that, there will be times when the Lord’s presence will be so obvious that the world will sit up and take notice (see Acts 2:47, 5:13), yet for most of the time we will not be recognised by the world.  Rest in that!

D. Application:

1. Children of God?

•   We are children of God, being changed by Him.  Rejoice in that.

2. Ignored or Rejected.

•   God may be with us but the world may not recognise that!  Do all you can to be Christ-like, but don’t be surprised if you are ignored or rejected.

Passage: 1 John 3:4-6

4 Everyone who sins breaks the law; in fact, sin is lawlessness. 5 But you know that he appeared so that he might take away our sins. And in him is no sin. 6 No one who lives in him keeps on sinning. No one who continues to sin has either seen him or known him.

A. Find Out:

1. What is a sinner doing? v.4a
2. How is sin defined? v.4b
3. Why did Jesus appear? v.5a
4. What is Jesus’ state? v.5b
5. What does the person living “in him” do? v.6a
6. What is the state of the person who keeps sinning? v.6b

B. Think:

1. What does this passage say about people who continue to sin?
2. What does it say about Jesus?
3. What does it say about the Christian?

C. Comment:

     Note first how, contrasting the children of God who seek to be pure, John now exposes the sinner.   To sin is to break God’s law.   Ultimately all sin comes down to this, it is going against what God has decreed, the way of life the Creator has laid down. Whether it is direct, wilful disobedience or unintentional failure to comply, it is still failing to keep the divine decrees and for that we are guilty.

     The second thing to note is that Jesus, who was sinless, came to take our sins and our punishment on the Cross.   That is the ground of salvation, nothing else.

     The third thing to note is that once we believe in him and receive salvation we cease sinning, or at least we should cease sinning.    Yes, there may be times when we inadvertently fail, but generally sin should not hold sway in our lives (see Rom 6:2-7). The powerful presence of God in our lives is the means of overcoming the temptation to sin.   It’s not that we become sinless but that the power that forced us previously to sin on a regular basis, has been broken.   As we relate to and serve Jesus, as we respond to his Spirit, there is no room left to go on sinning (wilfully).   When we are aware of the Law (teaching of God) then we have the means to comply with it now.  It is Jesus in us.

D. Application:

1. Beware Lawlessness

•   Sin is lawlessness. We are not to be lawless, ignoring God’s laws.  Am I seeking to ensure my life complies in every way with God’s will?

2. Spirit Led.

•   As the Spirit leads us we obey the Law. (See Romans in this Series) Am I seeking to allow the Holy Spirit to lead me every day?  Am I sensitive to Him?

Passage: 1 John 3:7-10

7 Dear children, do not let anyone lead you astray. The one who does what is right is righteous, just as he is righteous. 8 The one who does what is sinful is of the devil, because the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil’s work. 9 No one who is born of God will continue to sin, because God’s seed remains in them; they cannot go on sinning, because they have been born of God. 10 This is how we know who the children of God are and who the children of the devil are: anyone who does not do what is right is not God’s child, nor is anyone who does not love their brother and sister.

A. Find Out:

1. What warning does John now give? v.7a
2. Who is righteous, and why? v.7b
3. Who are “of the devil”, and why? v.8a,b
4. Why did Jesus appear? v.8c
5. What will a person born of God do, and why? v.9
6. How are we to distinguish between Christian & non-Christian? v.10

B. Think:

1. What two “children” are compared here?
2. How are they distinguished?
3. Read Mt 7:15-23

C. Comment:

     John continues to relentlessly pursue this subject that might be summarised as “by their fruit you will know them”!   He has just said that no one in Christ continues to sin. Now he gives them a warning:  don’t be lead astray, he says.   There were obviously those who had been teaching that you could still happily carry on sinning and still be a Christian.   No, says John, the righteous person does what is right because he is like Jesus (and wants to please Jesus).

   The person who does what is wrong is like the devil, because that is his nature.  A person’s behaviour reveals who their (spiritual) father is.  Bad behaviour means that person is directed by the devil.   Good behaviour means that person is directed by God. Who is a person submitting their life to?   Look to their behaviour and you will know!  It is that clear!

     Jesus came to destroy Satan’s works (v.8c), and those works are evil, self-centred deeds.   When a person is born again, the Holy Spirit comes to live within them (see 1 Cor 3:16 etc.).   He is the HOLY Spirit and therefore everything he leads us to do and say is Holy or righteous.   The person led of the Spirit cannot be doing wrong, but it is as we allow ourselves to be led by Satan that we sin.  As we succumb to his temptations, we sin.  The answer is simple!

D. Application:

1. My fruit?

•   By their fruit you know a person. Is the fruit of my life righteousness and goodness?

2. Submitted and Led.

•   Lay down your life to God alone. Let the Spirit lead you.

Passage: 1 John 3:11-15

11 For this is the message you heard from the beginning: we should love one another. 12 Do not be like Cain, who belonged to the evil one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his own actions were evil and his brother’s were righteous. 13 Do not be surprised, my brothers and sisters, if the world hates you. 14 We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love each other. Anyone who does not love remains in death. 15 Anyone who hates a brother or sister is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life residing in him.

A. Find Out:

1. What was the message heard from the beginning? v.11
2. What had Cain done? v.12a
3. Why had he done it? v.12b
4. Of what are we not to be surprised? v.13
5. How do we know we’ve passed from death to life? v.14
6. What is someone who hates his brother? v.15

B. Think:

1. What point is John making about inner feelings?
2. How does that work? (and did work in Cain’s case)
3. Read Gen 4:3-8 & Mt 5:21-26

C. Comment:

     Remember a letter is always a flow of thoughts, one following on from the other. John has just written about how a person’s actions reveal their parents or origins.  In other words what comes out on the outside is a reflection of what is on the inside.  Now John continues that and says that inward feelings lead to outward actions.

     He first reminds them that the command they have received is to love one another. He links this with a warning given by an example.   Cain was an unrighteous person and Abel was righteous.  Cain’s attitudes were thus unrighteous and when he was pulled up by God over it, he reacted badly.  In fact, his inner feelings spilled over, and he lashed out and killed his brother who showed him up.  Actions followed feelings. Outside expressed the inside.  In the same way that Cain hated Abel’s righteousness so, says John, the world round about will hate you, so don’t be surprised when it happens.

     Next John says that our love reveals what has happened to us.   Love is not natural, it is something given by God, and when we express selfless love it shows that God has transformed us.   A person who hates, says John, reflecting Jesus’ teaching, is as bad as a murderer (and can become a murderer), and such a person shows they have not eternal life.

D. Application:

1. Heart Condition Revealed.

•   Outward actions reveal inner heart condition. What state of heart do my actions reveal I have?

2. Led to Love.

•   The Spirit within enables us to truly love one another. Am I allowing the Holy Spirit to lead and enable me to love those around me who are unlovely?

Passage: 1 John 3:16-18

16 This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters. 17 If anyone has material possessions and sees a brother or sister in need but has no pity on them, how can the love of God be in that person? 18 Dear children, let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth.

A. Find Out:

1. How do we know what love is? v.16a
2. What are we to do in response? v.16b
3. What does John then question? v.17
4. How are we not to love? v.18a
5. How are we to love? v.18b

B. Think:

1. How has Jesus shown what love is & how are we to respond?
2. How is love to be seen practically?
3. What danger is warned about in these verses?

C. Comment:

     Still John continues with his theme, expressing it yet again in a different form.  He has just written about loving our brothers (v.14) and so now he explains what this love is that he has been referring to.   A number of times he has spoken about the new command to love, and even as he wrote in his Gospel (Jn 15:12), so he writes now, that we are to love in the same way Jesus loved.   How was that?   By laying down his life for us.   That was the ultimate expression of love, that Jesus, the glorious Son of God, left his life in heaven and came and lived on earth, and here he then gave up his earthly life to die on the Cross in our place.  This is really a twofold giving up of life for us.   Now we are to take that example and follow it by laying down our lives for one another.

      Now that has a very practical outworking.   When we see another Christian in need, we are to put down our own personal hopes and ambitions and help them.   That help is to be very practical.   If you have possessions and come across a brother or sister with nothing and in need, then we are to help them with our possessions (money perhaps). How easy it is to say, “The church ought to help the needy” and leave it to the leaders to arrange help.    But WE are the church and so if we come across a need let us seek to meet that need first.    Maybe it is too big and needs the whole church’s help, but maybe we can do something first.

D. Application:

1. Alert to Others?

•   Are we open to see the needs of people around us?

2. Alert to Others?

•   Are we open to help meet their needs where we have more?

Passage: 1 John 3:19-24

19 This is how we know that we belong to the truth and how we set our hearts at rest in his presence: 20 if our hearts condemn us, we know that God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything. 21 Dear friends, if our hearts do not condemn us, we have confidence before God 22 and receive from him anything we ask, because we keep his commands and do what pleases him. 23 And this is his command: to believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and to love one another as he commanded us. 24 The one who keeps God’s commands lives in him, and he in them. And this is how we know that he lives in us: we know it by the Spirit he gave us.

A. Find Out:

1. What does all this show us? v.19a
2. How does it help us? v.19b,20a
3. When do we have confidence before God? v.21
4. What first does it bring & what condition is on that? v.22
5. What 2 commands have been given? v.23
6. What ultimately is at the heart of this relationship? v.24

B. Think:

1. What 3 things are we to know? (also look back to v.16)
2. From what went before how do we know we are in the truth?
3. How do we know that he lives in us?

C. Comment:

     These verses are closely intertwined with what has gone before.   We know we belong to the truth and can have peace of mind when we are living as John has said, when we are living out our love for God in a practical sense.   Whenever our heart condemns us and tells us we are in the wrong, we simply come back to God (who has all the answers), submit our lives to Him and live out this life of love as He leads us.   In such a way we will come back into a place of communion and peace with him. When that happens and peace returns to our hearts, we know we can then ask confidently for the things that are on His heart, knowing He will give them.

     So, as we believe in Jesus, trusting in him daily, and love one another, just as He has commanded, we will know that we live in Him, in a close and intimate relationship. Also, he lives in us by His Spirit.   In all this there is a close relationship between love, truth and serving God. (obedience).   As we truly love in obedience to His word and the leading of His Spirit, we will be living in truth, without any deceit or falsehood in us, for love, truth and obedience are three of the primary characteristics of Jesus, and therefore as he lives in us these things will also be seen in us.

D. Application:

1. Expressions of Obedience?

•   Trust in Jesus and loving others are our expressions of obedience. Are they obviously there in me?

2. Spirit Enabled?

•   These we do with help from His Spirit within. Am I letting Him do that in me each day?