1 John 3:9

3:3-10 The sons of God know that their Lord is of purer eyes than to allow any thing unholy and impure to dwell with him. It is the hope of hypocrites, not of the sons of God, that makes allowance for gratifying impure desires and lusts. May we be followers of him as his dear children, thus show our sense of his unspeakable mercy, and express that obedient, grateful, humble mind which becomes us. Sin is the rejecting the Divine law. In him, that is, in Christ, was no sin. All the sinless weaknesses that were consequences of the fall, he took; that is, all those infirmities of mind or body which subject man to suffering, and expose him to temptation. But our moral infirmities, our proneness to sin, he had not. He that abides in Christ, continues not in the practice of sin. Renouncing sin is the great proof of spiritual union with, continuance in, and saving knowledge of the Lord Christ. Beware of self-deceit. He that doeth righteousness is righteous, and to be a follower of Christ, shows an interest by faith in his obedience and sufferings. But a man cannot act like the devil, and at the same time be a disciple of Christ Jesus. Let us not serve or indulge what the Son of God came to destroy. To be born of God is to be inwardly renewed by the power of the Spirit of God. Renewing grace is an abiding principle. Religion is not an art, a matter of dexterity and skill, but a new nature.

And the regenerate person cannot sin as he did before he was born of God, and as others do who are not born again. There is that light in his mind, which shows him the evil and malignity of sin. There is that bias upon his heart, which disposes him to loathe and hate sin. There is the spiritual principle that opposes sinful acts. And there is repentance for sin, if committed. It goes against him to sin with forethought. The children of God and the children of the devil have their distinct characters. The seed of the serpent are known by neglect of religion, and by their hating real Christians. He only is righteous before God, as a justified believer, who is taught and disposed to righteousness by the Holy Spirit. In this the children of God are manifest, and the children of the devil. May all professors of the gospel lay these truths to heart, and try themselves by them.

1 John 3:9 . The Reason of the Impossibility of a Child of God continuing in Sin. The germ of the divine life has been implanted in our souls, and it grows—a gradual process and subject to occasional retardations, yet sure, attaining at length to full fruition. The believer’s lapses into sin are like the mischances of the weather which hinder the seed’s growth. The growth of a living seed may be checked temporarily; if there be no growth, there is no life. This is the distinction between ἐάν τις ἁμάρτῃ and ὁ ἁμαρτάνων . Alexander in Speaker’s Comm. understands: “His seed,” i.e. , whosoever is born of God ( cf. Isaiah 53:10 ; Isaiah 66:22 ), “abideth in Him,” i.e. , in God. This is Pauline but not Johannine. “He cannot keep sinning,” as the seed cannot cease growing.

To be born of God, is, (in the words of a very learned annotator, Dr. Hammond), "to have received some special influence from God, and by the help and power of that, to be raised to a pious life. Agreeably, gegennhmenov ek tou yeou, he that hath been born of God, is literally, he that hath had such a blessed change wrought in him, by the operation of God’s Spirit in his heart, as to be translated from the power of darkness into the kingdom of his own dear Son; transformed in the spirit of his mind, i.e. sincerely changed from all evil to all good; from an obedience to the flesh, &c., to an obedience to God. Only it is here to be noted, that the phrase is not so to be taken, as to denote only the act of this change; the first impression of this virtue on the patient, the single transient act of regeneration; or reformation; and that, as in the preter tense, now past, but rather a continued course, a permanent state: so as a regenerate man and a child of God are all one, and signify him that lives a pious and godly life, and continues to do so," &c. To the same purpose this author also speaks, note on John 1:13 , and in his paraphrase on that verse: "Those which live according to the will of God, and neither the natural, nor carnal, nor bare moral principle." This change, introducing the consequent course, divers texts of Scripture explain, John 3:3,5,6 2 Corinthians 5:17 Ephesians 2:10 4:24 Jam 1:18 , &c.

Now of one thus born of God, it is said, he doth not commit sin, as 1Jo 3:8 , and for the reason here alleged. His seed; the principles of enlivened holy truth, as 1 Peter 1:23 Jam 1:8 . And he cannot sin: which is not to be understood simply, as if he could not sin at all, which were to contradict what he had said before, 1Jo 1:8 , and supposed, 1Jo 2:1 ; but he cannot commit sin, as 1Jo 3:8 . And it is plain the apostle intends by these two expressions the same thing. He cannot sin, i.e. do an act of known, gross sin, deliberately, easily, remorselessly, maliciously, as Cain, 1Jo 3:12 , out of a hatred of goodness: or, do not such acts customarily, or not so unto death, , { as 1Jo 5:16} but that through the advantage of inlaid principles, or the remaining seed, by dependence upon the grace, Spirit, and covenant of God in Christ, he may timously recover. Because he is born of God; i.e. inasmuch as it belongs to his temper and inclination, in respect of the holy new nature received in regeneration, to abhor from the grosser acts, much more from a course of sin; see Genesis 39:9 Acts 4:20 2 Corinthians 13:8 Galatians 5:17 : and to his state, as he is a child of God, to have that interest in the grace of Christ, that he may implore, trust, obtain, and improve it, to his being kept from such destructive sinning.

Whosoever is born (πᾶς ὁ γεγεννημένος) On the form of expression, see on 1 John 3:4. Rev., begotten. The perfect participle indicates a condition remaining from the first: he who hath been begotten and remains God's child. His seed The divine principle of life. Cannot See on 1 John 3:6. Conceived as a perfect ideal, life in God excludes the possibility of sin. Compare Romans 4 throughout.

1 John 3:9 . Ἁμαρτίαν οὐ ποιεῖ , doth not commit sin ) The sentiment is immediately increased in weight: and he cannot sin . To each proposition its own because is added: to the one, in respect to the seed, or the regenerate man; to the other, on the part of God Himself.— σπέρμα αὐτοῦ ἐν αὐτῷ μένει , his seed remaineth in him ) In him who is born of God, there remaineth the seed of God, that is, the word, with its peculiar efficacy, 1 Peter 1:23 ; Jam 1:18 ; although sin often endeavours, by a furious attack, to overthrow the regenerate. Or rather, it may be taken in this sense: the seed of God , that is, he who is born of God, abideth in God. Σπέρμα , born . Such persons are truly זרע אלהים , the seed of God, Malachi 2:15 .— οὐ δύναται , he cannot) The possibility of his sinning is not absolutely denied; but this is affirmed, that the new birth and sin cannot exist together. Thus, how can he, Acts 4:20 , compared with Revelation 2:2 ; Acts 4:20 . The matter is, as in the case of an abstemious man, who cannot drink wine, and in various kinds of antipathy (i.e. natural aversion). Gataker has made this elegant paraphrase: The regenerate man does not sin: he proposes to himself, as far as possible, a life free from sin; nor does he ever spontaneously give himself up to sin.

And if at any time, contrary to the purpose of his mind, he shall have offended, he neither rushes headlong into sin, nor does he continue in it; but having acknowledged his error, he immediately returns in haste to his former course as soon as, and as far as, he is able.—Posth., ch. 33; where he adds the similitude of the magnetic needle, which always points to the pole, is easily turned aside from this direction, but always reseeks the pole.— ἐκ τοῦ Θεοῦ γεγέννηται , is born of God) The former words, of God, have greater emphasis in the pronunciation; and this being observed, it is plain that the same thing is not proved by the same, the beginning of the verse being compared with the words here at the end of it.

Verses 9-12. - Sin is absolutely incompatible with being born of God, as is shown by the presence or absence of brotherly love. Verse 9. - Having stated that every one that doeth sin is of the devil, St. John now states the opposite truth, but from the other side; not "every one that doeth no sin is of God," which hardly needs to be stated; but every one that is begotten of God doeth no sin, which is startling. Who, then, can be begotten of God? But the statement is similar to that in verse 6, and is to be similarly understood. So far as any man sins, his regeneration is incomplete. If the new birth from God were perfect, sin would be morally impossible οὐ δύναται ἁμαρτεῖν . The new principle of life abides and grows in him, and, under perfect conditions, it entirely prevents the old unregenerate nature from rebelling. Note that St. John does not say οὐ δύναται ἁμαρτεῖν ," cannot commit a sin," but οὐ δύναται ἁμαρτάνειν , "cannot be a sinner." An act is different from a state of sin. This is an ideal to which every Christian is bound to aspire - inability to sin. But to some extent this ideal is a fact in the case of every true Christian. There are sins which to a good man are by God's grace quite impossible.

9. Whosoever is born of God—literally, "Everyone that is begotten of God." doth not commit sin—His higher nature, as one born or begotten of God, doth not sin. To be begotten of God and to sin, are states mutually excluding one another. In so far as one sins, he makes it doubtful whether he be born of God. his seed—the living word of God, made by the Holy Spirit the seed in us of a new life and the continual mean of sanctification. remaineth—abideth in him (compare Note, see on [2642]1Jo 3:6; Joh 5:38). This does not contradict 1Jo 1:8, 9; the regenerate show the utter incompatibility of sin with regeneration, by cleansing away every sin into which they may be betrayed by the old nature, at once in the blood of Christ. cannot sin, because he is born of God—"because it is of God that he is born" (so the Greek order, as compared with the order of the same words in the beginning of the verse); not "because he was born of God" (the Greek is perfect tense, which is present in meaning, not aorist); it is not said, Because a man was once for all born of God he never afterwards can sin; but, Because he is born of God, the seed abiding now in Him, he cannot sin; so long as it energetically abides, sin can have no place. Compare Ge 39:9, Joseph, "How CAN I do this great wickedness and sin against God?" The principle within me is at utter variance with it.