Are you a Child of God, or of the Devil?
By Dr. Harley Howard- www.fotbc.org
1st John 3:4-18 

4 Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the law: for sin is the transgression of the law.
John continues the thought that he had already began in the previous chapters concerning the profession of one who claims sonship to the Father, vs. one who truly is a child of God. He has made it clear that the desire of the genuine believer, who alone is truly looking for the coming of the Lord, will be to life of purity which is a life that will not bring shame when the Lord comes. Look at verse 4 again. Whosoever is committing sin, as a habit of their lives, is one who shows contempt and violates the law of God, because sin, which is a violation of the divine law in thought or in act, is lawlessness.
A person who is born of God lives as a habit of their life in obedience to God and His word. It goes logically that a person living in sin is demonstrating that he, or she, has never been born into the family of God. There are two words that we need to examine briefly here in this verse. The words, sin and transgression. The word sin, means, "to miss the mark." or it is to wander from the law of God, violate God's law. God says that He sets the standard and everyone has fallen short of that standard. All have sinned and have fallen short of the glory of God. Transgression, on the other hand, means, contempt and violation of God's law, iniquity, wickedness. Both words are virtually interchangeably in this verse. 

5 And ye know that he was manifested to take away our sins; and in him is no sin. 

You have absolute knowledge that Christ came as a man for the purpose of taking away our sins, both for the point of being our propitiation for our sins as well as removing the power of sin over the lives of every believer. How could we or why would we want to tolerate sin when the very purpose of His coming was to do away with sins. 

6 Whosoever abideth in him sinneth not: whosoever sinneth hath not seen him, neither known him. 

(Read chapter 2:6, 28-29) Genuine salvation is seen as abiding in Christ. Abide in Him, describes a very close and intimate relationship. It is a walk of life that mirrors the life of Christ Himself. Abiding in Christ means that we go beyond a desire to want to be like Him, into behavior that imitates Him. The person who abides in Christ does not live as a habit of life in sin. John emphatically states here a truth that has been all but eliminated in the minds of most so-called believers today, the truth that no Christian can live in sin as a habit of life, ever. The church and many so-called Christian leaders have created fanciful doctrines that remove the punch right out of this verse and in the doing of it remove the needed conviction that many need to experience that their sinful behavior may reveal a unregenerate heart. To attempt to use scripture to justify sinful practices or to ignore the commandment of immediate repentance away from sin, reveals that this person is an unbeliever. John said not only that a person who is born again will not and cannot live in sin as a habit of life, but the person who is living in sin as a habit of life has NEVER become aquatinted with Christ nor has EVER known Christ. The perfect tense of both verbs, seen and known, indicate that unchanging truth. You and I and every Spirit filled believer has every right in this world to challenge any and every profession of faith in Christ from a person who claims to be a believer, if that person is living in sin as a habit of life. We have every right to place every professing believer under the authority of God's word if they are claiming to be believers and living opposite their profession. 

7 Little children, let no man deceive you: he that doeth righteousness is righteous, even as he is righteous. 

(This is exactly what John said in chapter 2:26,29 (read). 
People are going to attempt to lead you and I into error and away from this simple truth. The truth is, a person who lives righteously as a habit of his or her life is righteous, just as Christ is righteous, the one who redeemed the believer. Words alone are meaningless, actions are genuine proof. Many want to convince themselves of their supposed righteousness, which more times than less is either self—righteousness or religion. Both are damning as they offer no inward regeneration, nor are they God's means of saving a man or woman. Only the sacrifice of Christ, embraced, which produces a redeemed behavior, is acceptable with God. God's salvation always produces a child of His and His children live in His righteousness. 

8 He that committeth sin is of the devil; for the devil sinneth from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil. 

Now here is the other obvious truth that John wants his readers to understand. Instead of those living in sin as a habit of their life being children of God, John said that they are in truth, children of the devil! The bible is absolutely clear on this issue. If you are living in sin as a habit of your life, and this includes these fake momentary appearances of repentance that are peppered throughout your deception, you are a child of the devil, not a child of God. You and I live our lives according to the source of our power. If we are God's then we will have His life produced through us. If our father is the devil, his lust will be produced through us. It is as simple as that and any teaching that is contrary to this is from the devil with the intent to deceive you. Jesus said this of the devil in John 8:44 (read). 

The Son of God, Jesus Christ, was manifest to break the power of satan over the life of those who come to know Christ. When God saved a man or woman, He also sets that man or woman free from the bondage of satan and of sin. That is why it is a sin of the most horrific part, to give people the impression that you are a believer and that your Savior, as you claim that he is, is weaker than satan. That satan has such power over you that you cannot be free from you sins, which in actuality, you love and don't want to give them up. When you say that you are unable to be free from sinful practices and that the devil has such a firm hold on you, you are a liar, and you are calling God a liar who said that you have been made free from the bondage of sin and the devil, and you are also giving glory to satan and causing many others to reject Christ, rather than come to Him in true repentance and faith. Instead of evangelizing men and women to saving faith in Christ, by your lifestyle, you are evangelizing people to the devil! 

9 Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin; for his seed remaineth in him: and he cannot sin, because he is born of God. 

How many times does John have to say this plain truth? But someone will always say, "well no one’s perfect." To which I answer, John is not speaking about perfection in this epistle. He's speaking about behavior. He has already told his readers and us today that one of the purposes of writing the epistle is that we sin not. And if anyone commits an act of sin, as opposed to a lifestyle of it, that we as believers have one who is on our side and our propitiation for our sins. We have Christ, whose blood keeps on cleansing us from sin. Sin is the exception and not the rule of the believer's life. John is speaking of daily behavior, of how one responds to God's commands as the habit of life, of how one responds to the truth, of whether they obey it and Him, or not. The lifestyle reveals everything and John is right in stating these two clear opposites of behavior so as to tell us who is a child of God and a child of the devil. John said that whosoever has been born of God, does not live in sin as a habit of life and is not living in sin as a habit of life, because God's seed of divine energy of the Holy Spirit is operating within the soul of the one who is regenerated, and he cannot live in sin, he is no longer capable or able to live in sin because he has been born again. A born again person no longer has the capacity, ability, nor power to live in it because he belongs to God. That new life that is implanted in the life of the believer, remains in him and because of that, the believer cannot go on living in the same sinful practices of the former life. Remember, the person who is born again is a NEW creation. The former things are GONE, the new has come. 

So how do we respond to those who are in sin, who claim to be believers? Is it possible that the masses of people today who claim allegiance to Christ, yet who are in unbroken patterns of sin, are truly His? What saith the scriptures, that is the answer. 
We have produced in the church world today a third class of so-called saints, called the carnal believer, where we can lump together all of the so-called believers who use the bible and other so-called Christian leaders, as sources to justify ungodliness. We run to passages that we interpret as passages that somehow or another justify our wickedness and delay our need for immediate repentance. Yet, these same scriptures contain verses, such as these in John's epistle, that these same deceived people REFUSE to look at them, receive them and obey them. But don't worry because their favorite bible bud will condone their sinful behavior by fanciful scripture twisting, or just deny it altogether, or place them into the category of Christian psychological sicknesses or Christian mental diseases, or some rot like that, instead of the truth. 

10 In this the children of God are manifest, and the children of the devil: whosoever doeth not righteousness is not of God, neither he that loveth not his brother. 

Want simple truth? How's this for simple truth? You can know right now whether you are a child of God or of the devil. Don't lie and say no one can know. If you believe that no one can know then you have just revealed that you are a child of the devil because God's word is absolutely clear on this issue. John said, by this the children of God and of the devil are manifest, i.e. to be plainly recognized or known. John said that no matter what people are saying, this is the way you can know who is a child of God and a child of the devil. The first of 2 test is the test of righteousness or the test of right living or Godly living. 

Acts 10:34-35 
34 Then Peter opened [his] mouth, and said, Of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons: 
35 But in every nation he that feareth him, and worketh righteousness, is accepted with him. 
Ephesians 5:8-9 
8 For ye were sometimes darkness, but now [are ye] light in the Lord: walk as children of light: 
9 (For the fruit of the Spirit [is] in all goodness and righteousness and truth;) 
Philippians 1:9-11 
9 And this I pray, that your love may abound yet more and more in knowledge and [in] all judgment; 
10 That ye may approve things that are excellent; that ye may be sincere and without offence till the day of Christ; 
11 Being filled with the fruits of righteousness, which are by Jesus Christ, unto the glory and praise of God. 

2nd Timothy 3:16-17 
16 All scripture [is] given by inspiration of God, and [is] profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: 
17 That the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works. 

Believers are living righteously because we have been declared righteous by salvation in Christ. The relationship that exist between the believer and the Father and Son, produces right living. Salvation is a supernatural transaction from God which makes the recipient a new creation. 
The second test that determines whether one is a child of God or a child of the devil is whether one displays supernatural love toward another believer or not. 

10 In this the children of God are manifest, and the children of the devil: whosoever doeth not righteousness is not of God, neither he that loveth not his brother. 

A brother is a fellow believer, united to another by the bond of affection. The affection is God's love that is a part of the evidence of one having been born again. If a person is truly a Christian, the Love of God is in us and it will be demonstrated among one another. If God's love is NOT there, it cannot be faked of duplicated since it is not human or earthly. We are going to see that the love of God that is displayed among believers is one of the greatest evidences of genuine salvation that can be demonstrated. Without God's love in any individual, that person is not a Christian at all.

11 For this is the message that ye heard from the beginning, that we should love one another. 

Because this is the commandment that we have heard from the beginning, that we should love one another. This was commanded by Jesus Himself in John 13:34-35. 

John 13:34-35 
34 A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another. 
35 By this shall all [men] know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another. 

John had already addressed this issue of love in chapter 2 of his epistle as evidence that a person is a believer, and that the empty claim of being in fellowship with the Father and the Son and being in the light, without God's love, means that the person is in darkness and is in fact, lying. (2:7-11 read) John is not stating anything that is new here. He's just reaffirming the truth that was very familiar to his readers already. 

12 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. 

John had already made it clear that those who do not have God's love displayed are of the devil and he states his case by going into the book of Genesis with the story of Cain and Abel. Abel was a righteous man who also was obedient to God as he demonstrated his righteousness by bringing the appropriate sacrifice that God required. His righteous works revealed his righteousness with God. This was one of the very principles that John has states throughout this epistle. Cain was the opposite. He was not only not of God, but he was a child of the devil, and what was it that demonstrated that fact? Unrighteousness towards God and hatred towards his righteous brother. He brought a meaningless and evil sacrifice to God, which naturally was rejected by God, and hated his brother so much that he slit his throat. This reference again is a very important side note to the validity of the book of Genesis. 

13 Marvel not, my brethren, if the world hate you. 

Don't wonder at or marvel when the world hates you. This word hatred has with it the thought of being pursued with hatred, of being detestable to others BECAUSE you are a believer. Jesus said the very same thing in John's gospel account many times. Only foolish believers are surprised when people persecute them. Only foolish believers who do NOT believe God's word are amazed when they are persecuted and despised by the heathens. This entire ridiculous notion of believers attempting to be popular in this God hating, Christ rejecting world, has no biblical precedent to it and in fact is disobedience to God's word. 

14 We know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren. He that loveth not [his] brother abideth in death. 

We believers know, we understand, that we believers, have passed over from one place to another, from spiritual death to spiritual and eternal life, BECAUSE or SINCE, we love the brethren. The one who does not love his brother remains in a state of spiritual death. It's that simple and no one need be confused about it at all. If you love believers, and that would be demonstrated by action, then you can know that you are a child of God. Now when I talk about a demonstration by action I do NOT mean some single act of kindness or what might be perceived by others or yourself as love when it may be in fact a deception or an attempt to imitate others. Remember, Cain DID bring an offering even though he and his works were evil! A demonstration of love is when love is the normal part of your behavior towards all believers, not some sporadic deed done out of guilt or of some self inflicted, face saving obligation. Those who do not love believers are children of the devil, plain and simple! 

15 Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer: and ye know that no murderer hath eternal life abiding in him. 

Whoever actively hates a Christian is a murderer. Here are some things that are very interesting to note here. First, John has already identified Cain as a child of the devil and the proof of that was the fact that he murdered his brother. Then in this verse, John said that whoever hated a Christian is a murderer. Second, the only other use of this particular adjective is seen in John 8:44 and let's see who it describes:

Ye are of [your] father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it. 

John said that a person who does not love believers, hates them, and that his readers have always known that no one who is a murderer has eternal life dwelling in him. Now that we have talked about love being the evidence that a person is a child of God, and that the absence of it demonstrates that a person is a child of the devil, then obviously the question arises, "what kind of love is this and how will this love be demonstrated from me to others?" Well first of all, let's briefly look at some facts concerning the love of believers towards each other and these are facts that you absolutely need to know. 
The kind of love that is described here is experienced at the moment of salvation. 
Second, it is a love that is taught to you directly by God. 

1st Thessalonians 4:9-10
9 But as touching (concerning) brotherly love (the warm affection and friendship that is demonstrated between believing brothers and sisters who cherish one another) ye need not that I write unto you: for ye yourselves are taught of God to love (God's love) one another. (God's supreme love is demonstrated in acts of love and affection and friendship towards each other, as well as the greater act of self sacrifice to each other) 
10 And indeed ye do it toward all the brethren which are in all Macedonia: but we beseech you, (beg and urge and plead with you) brethren, that ye increase more and more; (that you would overflow with this love and continue to do so, to even a greater degree, willingly, sooner).

Now, back to that question, "what kind of love is this and how will this love be demonstrated by me to others?" John clearly answers the question so there is no misunderstanding. Go to the next verse. 

16 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. 

By this, we have become aquatinted or have known clearly God's love because Christ laid down His life for us and also, we owe a debt or are obligated to lay down our lives for fellow believers. We are to do this, not only because it is what Jesus said, but because it is what He DEMONSTRATED by example to be God's love.

John 15:12-14. 
12 This is my commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you. 
13 Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. 
14 Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you. 

Our love must be of such character or else it is not God's love. Many believers have suffered and died in behalf of other believers. We too should live in such a way as to be ready to die for one another, not in some atoning sense, but as the chief demonstration of God's love to one another, following the example that was given us in Christ. Anything short of that is simply not God's love. John defines the character of God's love. It is the sacrifice of His Son for sinful mankind. If God demonstrated His love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us, then how much the more should we demonstrate love among one another who are children of God? 

17 But whoso hath this world's good, and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up his bowels [of compassion] from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him? 
One obvious thought in this verse is the fact that if we as believers are willing to die for one another, if we are willing to make the ultimate sacrifice for one another as the greatest display of the love of God towards one another, then how much more should we be willing to do the lesser in providing for the temporal, material needs of other believers? If we are willing to do the greater, how much more then the lessor? John hits right at the heart of the problem of many professing believers and that is the issue of meeting material NEEDS. John said that whoever has in their possession the world's goods, meaning, the material possessions necessary to sustain life, as well as wealth, goods, and observes and sees that a brother has a need, I.E.: necessity, material and physical needs. You know the person has a need, it has become obvious to you that a need exist, and rather than help the brother or sister, you withhold compassion and pity to the point where you are inaccessible to the one with a need. You shut down your heart from that person, you distance yourself from him, hoping not to have to see that person, so as to be reminded by God of your lack of love and compassion, then John ask the obvious question, "how can God's love abide in that individual?" John states his case for the evidence of a child of God vs. a child of the devil and says without hesitation that believers are to love one another to whatever degree is needed to help one another. Now whether this particular verse be a hypothetical argument on the part of John to state his case for love, or whether it be the activity of an individual, the point is this; 

God's love does not abide in a person whom God has obviously blessed with the material means to help another in obvious need and he, or she refuses to do it. 

This of course means that God clearly gives some people wealth for the purpose of meeting needs. This is also clearly seen in both Old and New Testaments as it related to the treatment of God's people, by God’s people. 
Deuteronomy 15:7-11 
7 If there be among you a poor man of one of thy brethren within any of thy gates in thy land which the LORD thy God giveth thee, thou shalt not harden thine heart, nor shut thine hand from thy poor brother: 
8 But thou shalt open thine hand wide unto him, and shalt surely lend him sufficient for his need, [in that] which he wanteth. 
9 Beware that there be not a thought in thy wicked heart, saying, The seventh year, the year of release, is at hand; and thine eye be evil against thy poor brother, and thou givest him nought; and he cry unto the LORD against thee, and it be sin unto thee. 

10 Thou shalt surely give him, and thine heart shall not be grieved when thou givest unto him: because that for this thing the LORD thy God shall bless thee in all thy works, and in all that thou puttest thine hand unto. 

11 For the poor shall never cease out of the land: therefore I command thee, saying, Thou shalt open thine hand wide unto thy brother, to thy poor, and to thy needy, in thy land. 
Proverbs 19:17 
He that hath pity upon the poor lendeth unto the LORD; and that which he hath given will he pay him again. 
1st Timothy 6:17-19
17 Instruct those who are rich in this present world not to be conceited or to fix their hope on the uncertainty of riches, but on God, who richly supplies us with all things to enjoy.

18 Instruct them to do good, to be rich in good works, to be generous and ready to share,

19 storing up for themselves the treasure of a good foundation for the future, so that they may take hold of that which is life indeed. (NASB)
Hebrews 13:16 
But to do good and to communicate forget not: for with such sacrifices God is well pleased. 

Let's be careful that we do not experience what is written in Proverbs 28:9 
He that turneth away his ear from hearing the law, even his prayer [shall be] abomination. 
18 My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue; but in deed and in truth. 
The believer should love with sincerity and in practice instead of flowery words and empty promises.