I John 3:1-13 No one who abides in Him sins

1 John 3:1-3 John starts this section describing the end result of our relationship to God as His children. We will be pure like Him. But not yet. Not that the world would understand because the world rejected Jesus even though He was purely God. To prepare ourselves for the hope of seeing Him, we purify ourselves. This is not a command. It is a description of the natural behavior of some who hopes to meet Jesus.

          I have often wondered why some people want to go to heaven. The promise of eternal life and endless joy is inextricably bound up with the omnipresence of a holy and loving God, whose character was displayed by Jesus. Some people hope to get to heaven, or believe they will get to heaven without coming to Jesus. It just doesn't connect. What John states here is not a deep theological conclusion, it is a simple observation. We may not be perfectly pure in this life, but heaven is closer on earth the closer we come to God's character, and to Him.

1 John 3:4-10 John uses the Greek word poieo, a prolonged form of an obsolete primitive, meaning doing or making in a continuing process. This is translated in the NASB as practicing. John contrasts those who practice sin to those who practice righteousness. Practice makes perfect. Practice is the major component of training for sports and athletics. And so Dallas Willard propounds that the key to successful Christian living is training, not trying. We train for righteousness or we train for sin. It's what we practice.

          John goes a bit farther than Dallas Willard. He states that no one who abides in Christ, who is born of God, sins. Sin, i.e. missing the mark, has two manifestations: not practicing righteousness; and not loving one's brother. Jesus came to earth to destroy the works of the devil, which is the practice of the one who is of the devil. John makes it clear that the person who sins in the two modes he identifies are children of the devil. Anyone who says that a believer can sin willfully and be forgiven is of the devil and trying to deceive. We sin often enough without intending to. The blood of Christ does not give us a free pass to sin intentionally, and practice doing it.

1 John 3:11-12 John cites the arch-example of Cain and Abel. What he is saying has been in the word of God since the earliest recorded scriptures.

1 John 3:13 The world system lies in the power of the evil one, so naturally it hates the children of God. (1 John 5:19)