Context No. 2623 of 4322 · 1 John

1 John 3:7-12: in context

7Little children, let no one lead you astray. He who does righteousness is righteous, even as he is righteous. 8He who sins is of the devil, for the devil has been sinning from the beginning. To this end the Son of God was revealed: that he might destroy the works of the devil. 9Whoever is born of God doesn’t commit sin, because his seed remains in him, and he can’t sin, because he is born of God. 10In this the children of God are revealed, and the children of the devil. Whoever doesn’t do righteousness is not of God, neither is he who doesn’t love his brother. 11For this is the message which you heard from the beginning, that we should love one another— 12unlike Cain, who was of the evil one and killed his brother. Why did he kill him? Because his deeds were evil, and his brother’s righteous.

John draws a sharp line between the children of God and the children of the devil, and marks it by two things: doing right and loving one's brother. In the middle of it he states the purpose of Christ's coming in words easy to rush past: the Son of God was revealed for this reason, that he might destroy the works of the devil. And he points to Cain, who murdered his brother because his own deeds were evil and his brother's were righteous.

The Son of God appeared to destroy the works of the devil. Christ came not only to forgive sins but to dismantle them, to undo the very works evil has built into us. That is a larger salvation than mere pardon; it is demolition and rebuilding, the tearing down of what the enemy has constructed in a life. And the sign that his work is taking hold is love, the opposite of Cain, whose envy of a righteous brother curdled into murder. Cain hated goodness because it exposed his own evil. The child of God, being remade, learns instead to love. Christ is in the business of destroying the devil's works, and he means to do it in me.

Am I letting Christ destroy the works of the devil in me, not just pardon them, and does love rather than Cain's resentment of goodness mark my life?

Sources

1 John 3:8: To this end the Son of God was revealed: that he might destroy the works of the devil.
1 John 3:11: For this is the message which you heard from the beginning, that we should love one another.
1 John 3:12: unlike Cain, who was of the evil one and killed his brother. Why did he kill him? Because his deeds were evil, and his brother's righteous.