First John Three

A topical study of First John Three

There is no better way to celebrate Christmas than to honor Christ in our spirits. By that I mean our every thought and emotion. What we know, we know through the spirit which was sent to us by Christ from God. No book of the Bible better explains what we know through the spirit than First John. The third chapter of that book breaks down the issues of right and wrong in a manner that is easy to understand.

This is the case of what we know in spirit, not what we know in worldly facts and figures. The spirit is not measured by our hand, but it is measured to each of us according to the will of God. Now, before we go any further, let me explain what the Bible writers meant by spirit. You can look this up for yourselves. Whenever the Bible mentions the heart, it is a reference to the seat of our thoughts. In other words, the heart is the mind, therefore, the mind is the spirit. Similarly, it was believed that the emotions and passions were seated in the bowels.

The case that First John Three makes is a case about our thoughts and emotions – what we know, how we know it, and the exact location our minds and hearts anchor into the mind of God in Christ. Follow with me as John makes his case.



What we know about the sinner's mindset

John divides our spiritual knowledge into the two broad categories of right and wrong, good and bad, righteous and wicked, love and hatred. These extremes are opposing sides in an ongoing struggle. Love and good and righteousness are one and the same. Sin and hatred and lawlessness are one and the same.

We know for example that, “Whosoever commits sin transgresses also the law: for sin is the transgression of the law.” We are also told, “He that commits sin is of the devil; for the devil (has) sinned from the beginning.” Furthermore, the child of God knows his relationship with God by and through his relationship with the world: “Whosoever does not righteousness is not of God, whosoever sins hath not seen him, neither known him. Therefore, the world knoweth us not, because it knew him not.”



What we know about the absence of love

The sinner is explained, in spirit, as the opposite of God. God is love, the sinner is anything but. Just as God acts upon the principle of love, and the child of God acts upon the principle of love, the sinner acts upon the opposing principle: hatred. The result of the sinner's principle in action is always seen as independence, isolation, resistance, rebellion, defiance, rejection, and ultimately, as violence and destruction.

John explains the difference between love and hatred thus: “Whoso hath this world's good, and sees his brother have need, and shuts up his bowels of compassion from him, how dwells the love of God in him?” The Christian knows that all ties are not the ties of love; we are admonished to love our brothers, but “Not as Cain, who was of that wicked one, and slew his brother. And wherefore slew he him? Because his own works were evil, and his brother's righteous.” Christ plainly told us that if we hate our brothers with our thoughts, we have already committed murder. That is why the spirit, and John, instruct us with these words: “Whosoever hates his brother is a murderer: and ye know that no murderer hath eternal life abiding in him. He that loves not his brother abides in death.”



The difference between the children of God and the children of the devil

The world is filled with sinners. They are a hateful bunch. This is exactly how we know that we are different from the world. This is how we know just how saved we are – for we used to be them. Christ redeemed us from them, and now they hate us as much as the righteous son of God. This is how we know that we share the mind of Christ and the mind of God – it is what we mean when we say we are born of God.

John said, “Marvel not, my brethren if the world hates you.” We know it hated God first. Since it opposed God, it is only to be expected that it would also oppose his son. Is it any wonder it rejects those who are one with Christ? The children will be like their father. The enemy of God the Father will also fight his children. All that the enemy of God has perpetrated against God's children, the coming of Christ is meant to undo: “In this the children of God are manifest, and the children of the devil: For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil.”

We know that Christ wages a war against the enemy of God's children. It is a war of attrition. Christ deflates the ranks of sinners by removing us. Therefore we “Know that he was manifested to take away our sins and in him is no sin. Whosoever abides in him sins not.” We disown the enemy of God and adopt God as our new father. God plants his seed in our thinking. “Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin; for his seed remains in him: and he cannot sin, because he is born of God.”


What we know about truth and confidence

God replaces our hatred with love. It is no ruse on our part; it is the very thing we are. God planted love in our thinking, therefore, we are love. The enemy of God can express love as well as the child of God, but that is where it ends for them. We go a step further and actually walk the walk. We love in actual deed. We love in actual fact. We love God; we love our brothers. That is why John urges us to be sure.

“My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue; but in deed and in truth.” Christ is the truth. By that, I mean that Christ is the perfection of man by the planting of God's seed. Christ is one with God – he is the same. We are one with Christ – we are the same. It is through that spirit that we are consoled and made confident in our relationship: “Hereby we know that we are of the truth, and shall assure our hearts before him. For if our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and knows all things.”

Our new spiritual relationship comes with software to make it integrate seamlessly, and John wants the child of God to keep that in mind: “Beloved, if our heart condemns us not, then have we confidence toward God.” It can not be overstated that our new mind is both the desire of the father and the acquiescence of the child. It is because of that mental oneness, not only between God and you but also between you and I, that the spiritual wheel moves forward. John concludes,  “And whatsoever we ask, we receive of him, because we keep his commandments, and do those things that are pleasing in his sight.” In deed and in truth.



How we perceive God's love

There is a perception of the love that is God. It is a perception in which the child of God views his father and his brother as indistinguishable from self. It is a mental image in which the planted seed of God shines so brightly that love becomes the new self. That is why John said this: “Hereby perceive we the love of God because he laid down his life for us: and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.” Laying down one's life is not a result of the perception – it is the perception.

God is who we are; Christ is who we are; love is who we are. It is seen by the child of God that Christ is both the messenger and the message. For this reason, John said, “This is the message that ye heard from the beginning, that we should love one another.” It is a truth of the spirit; the upgrade is both personal and obvious: “We know that we have passed from death unto life because we love the brethren.” The message we have heard from the beginning is not something we have to guess at, nor is it a hidden thing that we must search high and low for it; the message is in black and white. It is there in The Bible for all of us to read. It is the command of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. John added, “And this is his commandment, That we should believe on the name of his Son Jesus Christ, and love one another, as he gave us commandment.”

It is a spiritual thing – a matter of the mind, for God planted his mind in Christ, who in turn, planted that same mind in you and I. Again, it can not be overstated that our new mind is both the desire of the father and the acquiescence of the child. John tells us this: “He that keeps his (Christ's) commandments dwells in him, and he in him. And hereby (or, it is because of this indwelling that) we know that he abides in us, by the Spirit (the mind) which he hath given us.”



What we know of our kinship with Christ

We know in our spirits and believe that Jesus Christ is the only begotten son of God. He is that because of the mind of God indwelling him. He has shared that mind with us, and because we share the mind of the son, God calls us his children. It is a spiritual love so finely tuned that we, like John, must stand in awe of it. As John said in praise, “Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God.”

It is a love planned from the very beginning, and as such, it is a divine instrument that unites the future (the Father's desire) with the present (the son's acquiescence). The future is seen in 'shall appear' and the present is seen in 'see him as he is'. Even without concrete and verifiable evidence, this is a real truth that both lives in us and brings life to us who were dead in our sins. The truth written in First John Three claims and exclaims  the honor we give to Christ in the celebration of his birth: “Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is.”

Furthermore, John shows us that our hopes and our works unite in one forward moving momentum, but more importantly that the mindset we all strive toward is the same mindset found in the timeless and perfected Christ: “Every man that hath this hope in him purifies himself, even as he (Christ) is pure.”



The most important message a Christian can hear

It must be noted that the most important message the faithful will ever receive is the messenger himself. “Little children, let no man deceive you: he that does righteousness is righteous, even as he (Christ) is righteous.” So, let our celebration of Christmas not only embrace and lift up our savior but acknowledge our own like-mindedness with the son of God.