1 John 3

Now, to say that we are born of Him, is to say that we are children of God. What a love is that which the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children! Therefore the world knows us not, because it knew Him not. The apostle returns here to His appearing, and its effect on us. We are children of God: this is our present sure position; we are born of God. That which we shall be, is not yet manifested; but we know that-associated with Jesus, in the same relationship with the Father, Himself being our life- we shall be like Him when He appears. For it is to this we are predestined, to see Him as He now is with the Father, from whom the Life came, which was manifested in Him and imparted to us.
Having, then, the hope of seeing Him as He is, I seek to be as like Him now as possible, since I already possess this life-He being in me, my life.
This is the measure of our practical purification. We take Christ, as He is in heaven, for its pattern; we purify ourselves according to His purity, knowing that we shall be perfectly like Him when He is manifested. Before marking the contrast between the principles of the divine life and of the enemy, he sets before us the true measure of purity (he will give that of love, in a moment), for the children, inasmuch as they are partakers of His nature, and have the same relationship with God.
There are two remarks to be made here. First, the "hope in Him" is not in the believer; but a hope that has Christ for its object. Second, it is striking to see the way in which the apostle appears to confound God and Christ together in this epistle; and uses the word "Him" to signify Christ, when he has just been speaking of God; and vice versa. We may see thy principle of this at the end of chap. 5, "We are in Him that is true, that is to say, in His Son Jesus Christ, who is the true God, and the eternal life." In these few words, we have the key to the epistle: Christ is the Life. It is evidently the Son; but it is God Himself who is manifested, and the perfection of His nature; which is the source of life to us also, as that life was found in Christ as man. Thus I can speak of God, and say, "born of Him;" but it is in Jesus that God was manifested, and from Him that I derive life: so that "Life," "Jesus Christ," and "God" are substituted for each other. Thus, "He shall appear," chap. 2, ver. 28, is Christ; "He is righteous;" the righteous one "is born of Him." But in 3:1, it is "born of God," "children of God;" and "when He shall appear," it is Christ, and we purify ourselves "even as He is pure." There are many other examples.
It is said of the believer, "he purifies himself;" this shows that he is not pure, as Christ is. He needed not to purify Himself. Accordingly, it is not said, he is pure as Christ is pure; for, in that case, there would be no sin in us; but, he purifies himself according to the purity of Christ as He is, in heaven; having the same life as the life of Christ Himself.
Flaying set forth the positive aspect of Christian purity, he goes on to speak of it in other points of view, as one of the characteristic proofs of the life of God in the soul.
He who commits sin - not, transgresses the law, but - acts in despite of law. His conduct is without ‘the restraint, without the rule, of the law. He acts without curb; for sin is the acting without the curb of a law. But Christ was manifested that He might take away our sins, and in Him there is no sin; so that he who commits sin, acts against the object of the manifestation of Christ, and in opposition to the nature of which, if Christ is our life, we are partakers. Therefore, he who abides in Christ, does not practice sin. He who sins, has neither seen Him nor known Him. All depends, we see, on participation in the life and nature of Christ. Let us not, then, deceive ourselves. He who practices righteousness is righteous as He is righteous: for, by partaking in the life of Christ, one is before God according to the perfection of Him who is there the Head and Source of that life: but we are thus as Christ before God, because He Himself is really our life. Our actual life is not the measure of our acceptance; it is Christ who is so. But Christ is our life, if we are accepted according to His excellence; for it is as living of His life that we participate in this.
But the judgment is more than negative: he who practices sin is of the devil, has, morally, the same nature as the devil; for he sinneth from the beginning; it is his original character as the devil. Now, Christ was manifested that He might destroy the works of the devil; how, then, can one who shares the character of this enemy of souls be with Christ?
On the other hand, he who is born of God, does not practice sin; the reason is evident: he is made a partaker of the nature of God; he derives his life from Him. This principle of divine life is in him. The seed of God remains in him; he cannot sin, because he is born of God. This new nature has not in it the principles of sin, so as to commit it. How could it be that the divine nature should sin?
Having thus designated the two families, the family of God and that of the devil, the apostle adds the second mark, the absence of which is a proof that one is not of God. He had already spoken of righteousness,-he adds, the love of the brethren. For this is the message that they had received from Christ Himself, that they should love one another. In ver. 12, he shows the connection between the two things: that hatred of a brother is fed by the sense one has that his works are good, and one’s own evil. Moreover, we are not to wonder that the world hates us; for we know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren. If this love is an essential proof of being renewed, it is quite natural that it should not be found in the men of the world. But, this being the case, he who does not love his brother (solemn thought!) abides in death. In addition to this, he who does not love his brother is a murderer, and a murderer has not eternal life.
Further, as in the case of righteousness and of purity, we have Christ as the measure of this love. We know love by this, that He laid down His life for us. We ought to do the same. Now, if our brother has need, and we possess this world’s good, but do not provide for his necessity, is that the divine love which made Christ lay down His life for us? It is by this real and practical love that we know we are in the truth, and that our heart is confirmed and assured before God. For, if there is nothing on the conscience, we have confidence in His presence; but if our own heart condemn us, God knows yet more.
It is not here the means of being assured of our salvation, but of having confidence alone in the presence of God. We cannot have it with a bad conscience in the practical sense of the word, for God is always Light and always holy.
We also receive all that we ask for, when we walk thus in love before Him, doing that which is pleasing in His sight; for, thus walking in His presence with confidence, the heart and its desires respond to this blessed influence, being formed by the enjoyment of communion with Him in the light of His countenance. It is God who animates the heart; this life and this divine nature, of which the epistle speaks, being in full activity, and enlightened and moved by the divine presence in which it delights. Thus our requests are only for the accomplishment of desires that arise when this life, when our thoughts, are filled with the presence of God, and with the communications of His nature. And He lends His power to the fulfillment of these desires, of which He is the source, and which are formed in the heart by the revelation of Himself.
This is, indeed, the position of Christ Himself when here below: only that He was perfect in it (compare John 8:29; and 11:42).
And here it is the commandment of God which He desires us to obey: namely, to believe on the name of His Son Jesus, and to love one another, as He gave us commandment.
Now, he who keeps His commandments, dwells in Him; and He dwells also in this obedient man. It will be asked whether God or Christ is here meant. The apostle, as we have seen, confounds them together in his thought. That is to say, the Holy Ghost unites them in our minds. We are in Him who is true, i.e., in His Son Jesus Christ. It is Christ who, in life, is the presentation of God to men; and, to the believer, He is the communication of that life, so that God dwells in him, by the revelation, in its divine excellence and perfection, of the nature which the believer shares. And the Holy Ghost likewise dwells in him.
But what marvelous grace to have received a life, a nature, by which we are enabled to enjoy God Himself; as dwelling in us, and by which, since it is in Christ, we are, in fact, in the enjoyment of this communion, this infinite privilege, and have the consciousness of this relationship with God. He who has the Son, has life: but God then dwells in him as the portion, as well as the source of this life; and he who has the Son has the Father.
What marvelous links of vital and living enjoyment, through the communication of the divine nature of Him who is its source; and that, according to its perfection in Christ! Such is the Christian according to grace. Therefore, also, he is obedient, because this life in the man Christ (and it is thus that it becomes ours) was obedience itself: the true relationship of man to God.
Practical righteousness, then, is a proof that we are born of Him who, in His nature, is its source. In presence, also, of the world’s hatred, we know that we have passed from death unto life because we love the brethren. Thus, having a good conscience, we have confidence in God, and we receive from Him whatsoever we ask, walking in obedience and in a way that is pleasing to Him. Thus walking, we dwell in Him and He in us.