Practicing Righteousness: Part 2 - 1st John Lesson 15

1 John 2:29-3:10

 Let’s open our Bibles back to 1 John. We are in a section that starts in chapter 2, verse 29 and continues through chapter 3, verse 10. The theme of this section is the practice of righteousness. John’s emphasis is on the very obvious difference between those who are the children of God and those who are the children of Satan. As we read this passage let me remind you of the point we made last week as we sort of cherry picked some gems from this passage. John makes it very clear in these verses that your spiritual parentage will determine your life’s practices. Watch for this emphasis as we read these verses together. Read 1 John 2:29 – 3:10.

 John is emphatic and straightforward. He makes it clear. Children of God will practice righteousness. Children of the devil will practice sin. Our practices, or the way we live our lives, will reveal the truth concerning our spiritual parentage. John even makes it clear that there aren’t any exceptions. “Everyone who practices righteousness is born of Him (God).” (2:29) “No one who abides in Him sins…” (v. 6) “No one who is born of God practices sin.” (v. 9) Conversely, speaking of the children of the devil John says, “no one who sins has seen Him or knows Him.” (v. 6) “…the one who practices sin is of the devil…” (v. 8)

 We bear the marks of our spiritual parent just like we bear the mark of our physical parents. I told you last week that we would unpack this passage over the next couple weeks so that we can understand our spiritual DNA. DNA tests have become a popular thing people do to understand their family heritage. Our spiritual family heritage is infinitely more important than our biological family heritage.

 Today I want to walk through the verses of this section and look at the DNA of a child of God. This will not be a comprehensive look at our spiritual DNA. I think our biological DNA is composed of 23 pairs of chromosomes. I’m not sure about that number of pairs but I think that is what is suggested in the name of one of those testing companies. It is called “23 and me.” I’m sure we could come up with at least 23 biblical characteristics of a child of God, but John doesn’t go into that kind of detail in this section of Scripture. But he does cover some of the prominent characteristics of a child of God. These characteristics John describes will be evident in every true Christian.

 The first characteristic of God’s child is the practice of righteousness. Anyone who is born of God practices righteousness. This was the point we emphasized last week. We learned that the word “practice” describes a course of action or a way of life. “Righteousness” describes conformity to all that God prescribes and demands. God’s children will chose as a way of life that which conforms to a standard not of their own, but of God’s. 

 We noted last week that this does not mean the child of God will never sin. Throughout this section when John says something like he says in verse 6, “no one who abides in Him sins…” he isn’t saying that a child of God will never sin. This would be contradicting what he said back in the first part of chapter 2. “If we say we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us.” “If we say we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His truth is not in us.”

 If we are the true children of God, we will not habitually sin. We cannot habitually sin and habitually practice righteousness at the same time. You can’t do both at the same time. Your life is either characterized by a life lived in conformity to God’s standard or a life that habitually violates that standard and habitually sins. John makes it very clear that habitual sinfulness cannot characterize the child of God.

 In response to this someone might ask, “Well, if I have something that is a continual struggle for me, does that mean I am not a child of God?” The answer is “absolutely not.” Temptation is not the same thing as sin. It is not a sin to be tempted. We are all tempted in many ways. I have temptations that are very intense at times. It is not a sin to be tempted. The child of God has resources to help win the battle against temptation. We have the abiding Holy Spirit to strengthen us and give us direction. We have the word of God, and His help to understand it. We have the promises that there has no temptation overtaken us that is unique. They are all common to mankind. God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but will with the temptation make a way of escape that you may be able to bear it. (1 Cor. 10:13)

 These things are true concerning any temptation, whether it is the temptation to lust for someone of the opposite sex, or someone of the same sex. It is true whether it concerns the sin of anger, or worry, or fear, or selfishness, or overeating, or drinking to excess, or… we could go on and on.

 John gives us another characteristic of the true child of God. The true child of God marvels at the love that motivated God to adopt us as His child. Look at chapter 3, verse 1. “See how great a love the Father has bestowed on us, that we would be called the children of God; and such we are.” John is expressing great wonder and amazement at the vastness of the love of God. Remember Paul’s prayer in Ephesians 3:18 that believers “may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up with all the fullness of God.”

 It is an incomprehensible love that God has bestowed upon us. Words don’t seem adequate to describe the wonder, the marvel, and the awe we feel about the kind of love that would motivate Holy God to send His only Son from the glory of heaven to come and dwell among sinful men and then design the plan that would cause those sinful men to reject and condemn the Holy Son of God to death. And that His death would be the payment for the sins of those who did this. That kind of love makes no sense from a human perspective. It leaves us baffled. It leaves us beyond amazed. This was obviously what motivated the hymn we sing entitled, “Amazing Love.” How can it be that God should die for me?”

 And this love is “bestowed” on us. “Didomi” means to grant, give, impart. It describes something given of one’s own accord and with good will. God did not love us because we asked Him to. God loved us of His own accord and with good will. He did this that we might be called the children of God. “Called” is “kaleo” and in this context it means “to be given a name.” James 2:23 says that Abraham was called the friend of God.

 John will bring us back to this same thought again. In 1 John 4:9-10 we read, “By this the love of God was manifested in us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world so that we might live through Him. In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.” John goes on to say that this love of God to us is our motivation for loving one another. If God would love us as undeserving sinners, how can we refuse to love one another? In fact, in verse 19 of the same chapter John says, “We love, because He first loved us.” He has shown us what real love looks like.

 This is who we are. We are the undeserving beloved of God who have received our adoption as the children of God and we are now called His children. We who are the children of God should never loose sight of the marvel of His love. How much does He love me? Sit down and try to write out an adequate answer to that question. Then answer this one – Why would He love someone like me? There is no explanation. He does not love me because I am any better than anyone else. He does not love me because I am special in any way. He loves me in spite of what is true of me. How great is His love!

 A third characteristic is true of God’s children. God’s children have a desire to be like Jesus rather than like the world. Our spiritual birth gives us a new spiritual DNA. We are changed. We become different. We are no longer like the world. We no longer belong to the world or will be at home in the world. We are not understood by the world because we become different. We turn our backs on the world. John says it like this in verse 1, “For this reason the world does not know us, because it did not know Him.”

 John obviously remembered the words of Jesus when he wrote this. In John 15:18-19 Jesus said, “If the world hates you, you know that it has hated Me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, because of this the world hates you.”

 In case you haven’t noticed, this world is not moving toward God’s standards of righteousness. This world is not embracing God’s truth. This world is not seeking the light of the world. This world is moving rapidly, purposefully, and intentionally away from God’s standard. It is turning its back on God’s truth. It is withdrawing from the Light of God. This makes perfect sense. This world lies in the power of the evil one. Satan is the god of this world. He is the ruler of the principalities and powers of the air. He is the prince of darkness. The children of God are the Light of the world and we will not be tolerated by those who love darkness.

 We are aliens and strangers in this world. This world is not our home. We look for a heavenly city wherein righteousness dwells. This is why we are not to be squeezed into the world’s mold. We are not to be conformed to this world, Paul told the Romans. When we are squeezed into the world’s mold the distinction between the people of God and the people of the world gets blurred. John tells us in verse 10 that the difference should be obvious. “By this the children of God and the children of the devil are obvious.”

 Since we are not of this world, and we do not want to look and act like the world, we will want to be more and more like Jesus. Look at verse 2. “Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we will be. We know that when He appears, we will be like Him, because we will see Him as He is.” 

 Beloved, now we are the children of God. Now we are the children of God by virtue of the great love with which He loved us and adopted us as His children. We are His children now. It has not appeared as yet what we will be. The key word here is “appeared.” It is “phaneroo” (fan-er-aw-ow) in the Greek. It means to make apparent, to make known, to show openly.

 It is yet to be seen exactly how completely we will be transformed and conformed to the image of Jesus. When He appears we will see Him just as He is and we will be made like Him. I don’t know about you but I am looking so forward to that moment.

 But this does not mean that we don’t already know what He is like. We already know how He loves, and we are called to love like He loves. We already know what His obedience to His Father looked like and we are called to obey like He obeyed. We already know what His humility looked like and we are called to walk in the same humility.

 This leads us to the next characteristic of God’s children. God’s children are committed to walking in the purity in which Jesus walked. Verse 3 says, “And everyone who has this hope fixed on Him purifies himself, just as He is pure.” Here again is this comprehensive, inclusive declaration. “Everyone…” There doesn’t seem to be room for exceptions. John doesn’t seem to leave room for anyone who does not purify himself to call himself a child of God.

 The word “purify” is “hagnizo” in the Greek. It means to render pure in a moral sense, or to reform. It describes the process of consecration of oneself, of setting one’s self apart from sin. In the O.T. the priests went through a ritual cleansing in preparation for service. The washing they went through symbolized the inner cleansing of the heart which made them fit for service.

 The true child of God purifies himself. The true child of God, because he or she is the child of a holy God, wants to be pure, undefiled, spotless, unblemished, and fit for service. We will want to be pure just as He is pure. This means we will put away from us anything and everything we know is not appropriate for a child of God. In simple terms, the true child of God wants to look and act like a child of God. We look at Jesus as our perfect Example of what that looks like. Jesus only did the will of His Father. Jesus was not defiled even though He lived among sinners. Neither should we be.

 I think we have enough time for one more. God’s children have His seed abiding in them and they cannot sin because they are born of God. Look at verse 9. “No one who is born of God practices sin, because His seed abides in him; and he cannot sin, because he is born of God.” John is very clear. No one who is born of God practices sin. Again, this is speaking of habitual sin practiced as a lifestyle. No one who is born of God can go on in habitual sin. If a person claims to have been born again, and then walks away and practices a life of habitual sin, that person proves that they were never truly born again. John has already told us that their departure from us proves they were never really with us, or truly regenerated.

 It is that aspect of salvation that we call “regeneration” that John describes for us here. Regeneration means “again-born.” This is where we get the phrase “born again.” Jesus described the new birth in His conversation with Nicodemus in John 3. In the miracle of regeneration we are given a new nature. We are given God’s nature. John refers to this as God’s seed in this verse. When we are born again, or regenerated, God’s Spirit is given to us and God’s nature is imparted to us. 1 John 5:1 says, “Whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God…”

 Just like our physical birth results in physical life, spiritual birth results in spiritual life. Jesus said it like this. “That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.” (John 3:6) 1 Peter 1:23 tells us that we have been “born again not of seed which is perishable but imperishable, that is, through the living and enduring word of God.” The Spirit of God uses the living and enduring word of God to work the miracle of regeneration in the humble, broken sinner. Paul tells us that “faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ.” (Rom. 10:17)

 In the miracle of new birth, the Holy Spirit comes, bringing the very nature of God to dwell in the true child of God. Spiritual life is produced. We become God’s children and share in His divine nature. As a result of this new birth and His seed abiding within us, we cannot practice a lifestyle that violates His holy standard.

 The presence of God’s seed guarantees that the sin issues in our lives will be brought to our attention. When we sin as the children of God, His Holy Spirit within us goes to work convicting and calling us to repentance. If we refuse that conviction we will be chastised. God chastens those who are His. This is a promise. God will not allow His true children go on in sin indefinitely. He does what He needs to do to bring us back. He is patient, and gracious, and compassionate. In my own life there have been extended periods of disobedience. But the consequences were always there and God always brings His children back. He will not let us continue in the practice of sin indefinitely.

 Those who are born of God will bear the image of spiritual birth and spiritual life. We will give evidence of His seed abiding in us. We cannot habitually sin because we are born of Him.

 Those who are born of God practice righteousness. Those who are born of God marvel at the love of God by which we are adopted into the family of God. Those who are born of God earnestly desire to be like Jesus rather than the world. Those who are born of God are committed to a walk in purity, just as He is pure. Those who are born of God cannot live in habitual sin because His seed abides in them and He just won’t let that happen.

 We are all very different individuals. It is amazing how much diversity exists within the family of God. We have different lives. None of us looks or acts the same. None of us do things the same way. We are vastly different from one another. But as the children of God there is a great deal of sameness. We are the same in our love for God, our love for the word of God, our love for one another. We are the same in our desire to walk in a manner pleasing to God, practicing righteousness. We are the same in our awe and wonder at the amazing love of God that motivated Him to redeem us. We are the same in our desire to be like Jesus and not like the world. We are the same in our commitment to walk in purity. We all have the same seed of God abiding in us.

 There is a tremendous unity that has always existed in this church. For over 30 years there have been very few issues that have caused division. I believe the basis for this unity is the fact that we share the same spiritual DNA. This isn’t a church that is going to attract a lot of pretenders.

 My prayer is that if these characteristics are not true of you, that God will begin His work in you to work the miracle of regeneration. He still opens blind eyes. He still gives His Spirit and the gift of eternal life to humble, broken, repentant sinners who cry out to Him for mercy.

 Let’s pray.