Hey Crito-birds;
May God have mercy on us, open our eyes to His truth, and help us to get past ourselves as we seek that truth.
So, the first question:
1 John 3:1-2, ESV
“See what kind of love the Father has given us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him. Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is.”
This seems to say that we are the children of God.
3: 6-10
“No one who abides in him keeps on sinning; no one who keeps on sinning has either seen him or known him. Little children, let no one deceive you. Whoever practices righteousness is righteous, as he is righteous. Whoever makes a practice of sinning is of the devil, for the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil. No one born of God makes a practice of sinning, for God’s seed abides in him, and he cannot keep on sinning because he has been born of God. By this it is evident who are the children of God, and who are the children of the devil; whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is the one who does not love his brother.”
But this is pretty clear that those who make a practice of sinning are not born of God, and we know that we sin.
4:7
“Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God.”
If we love each other, we’ve been born of God.
5:1
“Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God, and everyone who loves the Father loves whoever has been born of him. By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and obey his commandments. For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome.”
This says love is keeping his commandments. Not keeping his commandments is sin, thus not loving is sin because not loving is not keeping his commandments.
So: my question—are we or are we not born of God?
We know that we still sin, but is the act of sinning the same as the practice of sinning? And if we are not born of God because we sin, who is born of God? What about love? If we live our lives in the practice of love, but still sin, where does that leave us?
Good points Caitlin!
ReplyDeleteSomething that I didn't notice before in our discussion on Friday night and that you pointed out here is that how in 3:6-10 it says "practicing sin". Mabye the passage that we were stuck on where we interpreted it to say that those born of God stop sinning all together may actually mean they don't repeatedly sin. Maybe we slip up sometimes, but we do not make a habit of it. But then again it could mean we must cut off all sin, or even like Buhler said, "born of God" could be a different level of maturity for a Christian. But I think this topic is very interesting...and confusing.
I thought about that too, kerala, and maybe that's part of it. 1 John 1:7-10 says, "If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us."
ReplyDeleteSo he says in the beginning that we sin, and then says we are the children of God, and then says that the children of God don't sin? I think the words "practice of sinning" really might make a difference. Maybe he's talking about a life centered on sin as opposed to a life centered on God. I talked this over with my dad... the commentary in his NIV Bible said that John was writing to some Christians who claimed the name but didn't try to live moral lives--He wanted them to understand that their immoral conduct did not please God and did not come from the work of His Spirit in their lives. So, to some degree I agree with you. But at the same time, we are very self-centered, and we don't even realize how focused we are on self and sin.
It may be both--a life centered on God paired with a special level of Christian maturity.
(Side note: just so y'all know, i don't know the bias of whoever wrote my dad's Bible commentary, or where he/she got his/her information, which is mildly disturbing to me. i am slowly in the process of investigating this. i'm going to assume its accuracy for the present, seeing no reasons to do otherwise.)