1Jn 3:4-22

Read: 1 John 3:1-24 (vv23-24 are covered in the next study)

1) vv4-10: What ESV translates as ‘practicing’ sin (or righteousness) means literally to do sin (or do righteousness). Why did John add that doing sin is no different than being lawless, v4?

  • Imagine if you speed in traffic, and police catches you and therefore charges you as a lawless rebel: How would you react?
  • Is this what the Bible says of us if we break even only one law? Why? cf Ja 2:10; Gal 3:10
    • Why does this offend our sense of justice that we find this too extreme?
    • Did John write this so that we make a greater effort to be good? Why not, v5?
  • vv5&8: How and in what sense did Jesus come to ‘take away sins’? cf e.g. Jn 17:17
  • v6: As a follower of Jesus, what is your reaction when you hear that ‘no one who abides in him continues sinning’? Do you go like: ‘Yes, since becoming Christian, I have never sinned again!’?
    • How else will believers react more likely (hopefully)?
    • If someone would say this, (why) would you worry for him/her? cf 1Jn 1:10
  • Then why did John write this? v7 *

2) vv11-18 speak of conflict and love. Why should Christians expect to experience both, and when? cf Lk 6:25; Jn 16:1-4

  • v13: Why could believers be surprised by conflicts? cf Ps 120:7
  • v14: Did John suggest that you can obtain eternal life by being more loving? cf Gal 2:16; Tit 3:5
    • What do relationships have to say about whether we have been truly saved?
  • vv17-18: How does Jesus ask his disciples to prove their love?
    • Can we give to charity and still ‘close our hearts’ to the poor? How? cf 1Cor 13:3

3) vv19-22 are about ‘condemnation by our heart’ (gr. kardia): What could that be?

  • John chose not to use the word for conscience (suneidesis)]. How can the heart ‘condemn’ (gr. kataginosko)?
    • Read Gal 2:11. How was Peter (Cephas) ‘condemned’ at the time when Paul confronted him in Antioch? Hint: By Paul, or rather by his own heart?
    • Read Ja 1:24-26, Mt 15:19-20 and 1Cor 4:4-5. Accordingly, how can the heart condemn anyone (even an apostle like Peter, or potentially even Paul himself (1Cor 4) when he had a perfectly good conscience?
  • So if believers stand condemned by some sin in their heart, then what?
    • ESV translates vv19-20: “By this we shall… reassure (gr. peitho, the root word of pistis = faith) our heart before him; for whenever our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart…”. => Does ESV say by what exactly we may reassure our heart? [No. Or worse, it makes the ’this’ refer to v18: A verse from which the guilty will find anything but reassurance.]
  • E.g. Luther instead translated: “By this we shall… reassure our heart before him; that whenever our heart condemns us, Got is greater…” => Is God’s omniscience mentioned by v20 as a threat, or as a comfort? cf 1Pet 4:8; Heb 6:10
    • Hint: How can it be a comfort, especially when you dread condemnation by sins of the heart that you still struggle with? Or for one who worries about the guilt of sins that he himself is still blind to see? [cf Heb 6:10 =>’He knows everything’: i.e. also the work and the love that you have shown for his name in serving the saints, as you still do => Being more loving cannot save anyone (only Jesus can). However, continuing in love will strengthen your assurance of it that you are saved by Him]
  • vv21-22: What benefits of a pure heart did John describe here?
    • …how will it influence your prayers? cf 1Pet 3:7
    • To enjoy these benefits, do you need a pure heart, or does it suffice to (subjectively) believe that your heart is pure?

4) Personal & application

  • What do (or should) you do if the heart and/or the conscience condemn you?
    • Do you think a clean conscience is (or is not) enough?
  • What specifically did this chapter suggest we must do in order to ‘do what pleases Him’?
    • Do you think this is too hard? Why, or why not?
    • What do you think gets in the way?
    • How can we help each other to overcome this?

*Gnostic teachers held that the material world was created evil, and that therefore the god of the Old Testament who created it was inferior to the true god who would never have created such a mess. Accordingly, the commandments of the God of Israel were deemed invalid. Instead, they advocated self-made religion and asceticism and severity to the body that are worthless to curb self-indulgence (Col 2:23). Against these false teachers, John wrote that genuine Christian faith is not about escaping from the material world that God created, but about how to live in it according to His will.