THE BORN-AGAIN BELIEVER AND SIN (1 John 3:4-10) PART 3

Because of the devilish origin of sin and the purpose of Messiah’s appearing, true Believers cannot live in sin (3:8-10).

Just as 3:4 makes the point that sin is serious because it is rebellion against Elohim, so 3:8 shows the serious nature of sin:

Sin is serious because it originates with the devil (3:8a).

John states, “The one who practices sin is of the devil.” Again, John divides all people into two camps: those who practice righteousness (3:7) and those who practice sin (3:8). There is no third camp for those who do not believe in Yahshua, but are decent, good people who never hurt anyone. You may protest, “Surely, my grandmother who was sweet towards everyone and who believed in the basic goodness of human nature, was not of the devil!”

The key to understanding John’s meaning lies in his next phrase, “for the devil sins [lit.] from the beginning.” This points us back to the original fall of Satan. YAHWEH Elohim created Satan and all the angels as good, but Satan sinned against YAHWEH and led a rebellion of other angels, who became demons. Most scholars believe that Isaiah 14:12-14, which on one level describes a taunt against the king of Babylon (14:4), is also a description of Satan’s fall:

How you have fallen from heaven, O star of the morning, son of the dawn! You have been cut down to the earth, you who have weakened the nations! But you said in your heart, “I will ascend to heaven; I will raise my throne above the stars of YAHWEH, and I will sit on the mount of the assembly in the recesses of the north. I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High.”

Notice that five times the devil said, “I will,” in opposition to YAHWEH Elohim. He was not content with where YAHWEH had created him. He wanted his own way. As we saw in verse 4, which is parallel to verse 8, the essence of sin is rebellion against YAHWEH Elohim. The sinner says, “I will! I want my way! I will not submit to the Most High Elohim.”

So, whenever a person acts in line with his own will, without submitting to YAHWEH’S will, he is committing the original sin of the devil. Whether it manifests itself as the humanly respectable, “I will be nice to others, so that people will think highly of me,” or as the reprehensible, “I will kill others to get what I want,” it all comes from the same source: the devil. Any action that originates in the human will that is not in submission to YAHWEH Elohim is devilish, even if outwardly it is a nice, humanitarian, seemingly “good” action.

Sin is totally opposed to the purpose of Messiah’s coming to destroy the works of the devil (3:8b).

This parallels 3:5, where John said that Messiah appeared to take away sins. Here the focus is on Yahshua Messiah’s coming to destroy Satan’s works. This refers mainly to the devil’s work of promoting sin in the human race. The word destroy is the Greek word, “to loose.” It’s as if we were bound by sin’s chains, but Yahshua Messiah freed us. He came to pay the penalty for sin that we justly deserved. By so doing, He broke Satan’s power to accuse us before YAHWEH Elohim (Rev. 12:10), and He broke sin’s power in the lives of believers (Rom. 6:10-13). Thus John is making the point that if we tolerate sin in our lives, we are siding with the devil and against Yahshua Messiah, who came to destroy the devil’s works.

If the first step to holiness is to recognize the sinfulness of sin, both in its essence as lawlessness and in its diabolical origin, the second step is to see its absolute incompatibility with Messiah in His sinless Person and saving work. The more clearly we grasp these facts, the more incongruous will sin appear and the more determined we shall be to be rid of it.

Then John draws a logical conclusion: