The one who does what is sinful is of the devil, because the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil’s work. (9) No one who is born of God will continue to sin, because God’s seed remains in them; they cannot go on sinning, because they have been born of God. (10) This is how we know who the children of God are and who the children of the devil are: Anyone who does not do what is right is not God’s child, nor is anyone who does not love their brother and sister. – 1 John 3:8-10

The quote above might feel a little Westboro Baptist in tone (“If you sin you’re of the devil!”), but take a second to remember we’re reading the words of “The Apostle of Love.” This is the same letter where he refers to his readers as “my dear little children.” Regardless of how we might perceive his tone in text, I believe the last thing John is trying to do is make his readers feel condemned and inadequate over sin.

On the contrary, this letter gives hope and excitement that living free from sin is actually possible (1 John 2:1). But this isn’t a post about 1 John as a whole, so we’ll deal with the rest of the letter another time. If you’re curious about 1 John 1:10 (which is inevitably brought up every time you mention freedom from sin), I’ve dealt with that in detail in my book, “How to Overcome Sin.”

“The one who does what is sinful is of the devil, because the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil’s work.”

An important thing to understand is that the Bible deals with sin as both a verb and a noun. On one hand there is sinful actions (verb), on the other hand there is the sinful condition that came upon humanity through Adam.

Think of it like rabies. There’s rabies the disease, but there is also the violent outbursts of paranoia and anger that result from having rabies. The behavior is merely a byproduct of the disease. In the same way, there are sinful actions, but there is also the influence of the sinful condition (which is what we call the sinful nature) that influences those sinful actions.

“Aha!” someone just screamed from the back, “You just proved we do have a sinful nature, because we still sin which means something is influencing us!” Hold your horses, fancy pants! We’ll deal with later on in this post. Often when the Bible talks about “sin,” it’s not specifically referring to bad behavior or disobeying the Ten Commandments, but instead it’s referring to the sinful nature (the sin disease) that’s affecting humanity and the rest of creation. For instance, when Paul says, “You are dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ,” he’s not saying it’s now impossible for you to sin (verb), he’s saying that you’re free from the disease, the influence of sin (noun). You died and were made new, and the sin disease (the sinful nature) you once had, died with your old self. (Remember Galatians 5:24, and Col. 2:11 from the Part 1?)

What does all of this have to do with 1 John 3:8? It will help you avoid feeling condemned over a statement that says, “If you do what is sinful, you’re of the devil!” John isn’t saying that if you tell a lie it automatically proves you were never saved and the devil lives in you instead of Jesus. He’s making a distinction between those who have the sin disease (they are uncontrollably influenced by the sinful nature), and those who don’t (they are empowered to say “no!” by the Spirit of grace that dwells within them).

The way you tell who is of the devil (who has the sinful nature) is that their behavior is influenced by the sinful nature–they cannot control themselves. They are literally “slaves to sin.”

What does “of the devil” mean?

“Of the devil” can sound pretty condemning, but all it means is thinking like the devil, who has been sinning uncontrollably since the beginning. This is interesting when you consider that the vast majority of Christians think they have a sinful nature. They are indirectly implying that they are “of the devil.” They think they will always sin uncontrollably until they die because they have a sinful nature. Who sins uncontrollably? The devil. Why? Because it’s his nature. He’s been sinning that way since the beginning. When John says a person is “of the devil,” he’s talking about their nature and (as a result) the way they behave. It’s the same way Jesus called the Pharisees “sons of the devil” and said, “Your father is the devil and you want to carry out his desires!” (John 8:44) He’s not saying that the devil literally begot these people (hopefully that’s obvious), but that they are “sons of the devil” in that they think and behave in accordance with the devil’s desires.

The Good news!

Had John stopped at, “If you sin you’re of the devil!” We’d have a lot of excuse to curl up in a ball and cry forever about how terrible and wicked we are for not holding the door for that old woman at the grocery store. But let’s look at the next sentence.

“The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil’s work.”

We’re still on the subject of sin here, so when John says the reason Jesus came was to destroy the devil’s work, he’s referring to sin, and all of the side-effects (sickness, death, evil desires, etc.).

Remember, it’s not just about sinful behavior (verb), but the sinful nature (noun) and all of the fruit sin has produced upon the earth for the whole creation (Rom. 8:19-21). For even if Jesus came to forgive the verb, it does us no good if we’re still condemned by the noun. He would be lying when He said we’re free, because we’re still under the influence of the thing that keeps causing us to misbehave in the first place. It would be like Him plucking the weeds off of our front lawn and saying, “You’re free from weeds!” No I’m not. You left the roots there so the weeds will be a problem again by next Monday.

Thankfully, Jesus was smarter than that. He didn’t judge us for the weeds on the surface (the sinful behavior), but went straight for the roots underneath.

Notice that in Jesus’ ministry He didn’t often do what so many ministries do today, focusing on sinful behavior. His best friends were liars, thieves, racists, prostitutes, and a tax collecting mafia man, yet He ate and drank with them, and didn’t lecture them about their life choices.

Sinful behavior is a big deal to us when we judge ourselves and others because we often live by sight, and we can see bad behavior. We condemn the homosexuals, adulterers, and others we think are acting bad because we can see their bad behavior. But Jesus didn’t often make a big deal out of the verb (the act of sin) because He saw what we didn’t see: the noun – the sinful nature that was causing the sinful behavior.

Sin (not people) is what Jesus came to destroy. His battle isn’t with people (flesh and blood), but with the dark powers and principalities that influence their thinking, and as a result their behavior. When John is talking about those who do right and those who don’t (those who are of God and of the devil), he’s talking about who has the holy nature of God (1 Peter 1:4), and who has the sinful nature of the devil – or in other words, distinguishing those who are influenced by each of those natures.

It’s similar to how Paul said in Romans 6, “We’re no longer slaves to sin, but slaves to righteousness.” Sin is no longer the controlling influence of our lives, righteousness is. In the same way that the one with the sinful nature can’t say no to sin, the one with the righteous nature can’t say no to good behavior. It’s not an effort, it’s a manifestation of being who you’ve become in him.

Is this saying you can never sin? Or that even if you murder somebody, it’s not sin because the one who is born of God cannot sin? No. He’s not talking about denial of the existence of sinful actions, or saying it’s impossible to sin. Instead he’s saying that the one who is born of God cannot continue to sin habitually like it’s his nature, because the one who is born of God has a new nature: God’s seed remains in him.

“If this is true, why do we still sin?”

Stay tuned for the next post and I’ll tell you, but you might not like the answer…