IV.
When you were reading this passage did you notice “… no one who sins has either seen him or known him.” And “Those who have been born of God do not sin…”

Should we take that to mean no true child of God sins?

Spend some time in this passage and consider how you might interpret who you read about sin.

V.
1 John 3:1-10 (NRSVue)

See what love the Father has given us, that we should be called children of God, and that is what we are. The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. Beloved, we are God’s children now; what we will be has not yet been revealed. What we do know is this: when he is revealed, we will be like him, for we will see him as he is. And all who have this hope in him purify themselves, just as he is pure.

Everyone who commits sin is guilty of lawlessness; sin is lawlessness. You know that he was revealed to take away sins, and in him there is no sin. No one who abides in him sins; no one who sins has either seen him or known him. Little children, let no one deceive you. Everyone who does what is right is righteous, just as he is righteous. Everyone who commits sin is of the devil, for the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The Son of God was revealed for this purpose: to destroy the works of the devil. Those who have been born of God do not sin because God’s seed abides in them; they cannot sin because they have been born of God. The children of God and the children of the devil are revealed in this way: all who do not do what is right are not from God, nor are those who do not love a brother or sister.

VI.
What comes to you as you read about how the Father loves his children and “sin is of the devil.”

Here’s a thought, go back to this passage and notice what you read about “… God’s seed abides in them.”

The Gospel of John makes much of abiding (see John 14:4-7, and John 14:17). Do you think that offers us a key to understanding what is written about sin in this passage?

charles
{ubi caritas et amor, Deus ibi est}