1 JOHN 3

EMBRACING SACRIFICIAL LOVE + REPENTANCE

John reflects on God’s loving nature and His adoption of believers into His family. When Jesus returns, God’s glory will be on full display and God’s people will be purified and unified with God. John warns against those who live continually in sin. God’s grace is not a license to sin, but a calling to respond with righteousness and love. Sin originates from the Enemy, who Jesus came to defeat.

Summarizing the message of Jesus, John calls followers to love one another. John references Cain, who murdered his brother Abel (Genesis 4). John uses Cain as an example of the opposite of what God’s people are instructed to do. Because Jesus laid down His life for sinners, we are called to respond with sacrificial love. Love cannot only be accomplished through words or thoughts, but through actions of love and selflessness. John says that those who are convicted by their sins are God’s people. Recognizing sin leads to repentance, which results in forgiveness from God.

1 John 3:24 - Whoever keeps his commandments abides in God, and God in him. And by this we know that he abides in us, by the Spirit whom he has given us.