1 John 3

See how great a love: we should be called—that is, should be—the children of God. Wesley: the world knows not what to make of us; we are a mystery to them.

The love bestowed is adoption, not a name only. So we are. The world’s ignorance of us tracks its ignorance of Him. Shared ground: this love is gift.

Calvin: not common honor when the Father adopted us. Love has been bestowed: from mere bounty. Adoption of all the godly is gratuitous and does not depend on any regard to works. Why are we sons? Because God began to love us freely when we deserved hatred.

The only cause of salvation is adoption, flowing from mere love. The world doesn’t know us because it knew Him not. See how great a love.

We are God’s children now; what we will be has not appeared. Wesley: even to ourselves it is ineffable; when the Son appears we will be like him, the glory of God penetrating our inmost substance; we will see him just as he is, without a veil, and that sight will transform us.

Likeness is promised as transformation by sight, not as a present claim to finished glory.

Calvin: our present condition is short of the glow of God’s children—dust, death, a hell within. Do not estimate what God has bestowed according to the present view. When He shall appear: our life is hid with Christ. We will be like him—not equal, head and members differ—but conformed to His glorious body. Seeing Him as He is is friend-seeing, not the terror of the wicked.

Faith looks to Christ’s coming. Certainty of faith, not opinion. Both traditions agree: now children; then like Him.

Everyone who thus hopes purifies himself, even as he is pure. Wesley: this hope in Him—in God.

Hope is not idle. The appearing trains present holiness. Grace that will finish likeness is already at work in those who hope, and they must walk in it.

Calvin: the desire for holiness should not grow cold because happiness has not appeared. That hope is sufficient; it excites us to follow purity, leading straight to Christ, a perfect pattern of purity.

What is hoped for is yet hid, and still it works.

Everyone who sins also commits lawlessness. Sin is lawlessness. Wesley: thereby transgresses the holy, just, and good law, and sets God’s authority at nought; this is implied in the very nature of sin.

Sin is not a light word. Practice of sin is contempt of the law, not a single stumble. John’s wording helps both camps hear a habitual sense.

Calvin: some extenuated vices—“there is a great difference between sin and iniquity.” He dissipates this: sin is transgression of the divine law. He does not make all sins equal. To sin here does not mean to offend in some instances; he calls that sin when men with their whole heart run into evil.

The faithful are not deemed guilty of iniquity in this sense, though not free from sin; sin does not reign in them. Common to both: practiced sin is lawlessness.

He appeared to take away our sins, and no sin is in him there is no sin. Wesley: He came for this very purpose—to destroy them all, root and branch, and leave none remaining. In Him is no sin, so He could not suffer on His own account, but to make us as Himself.

Taking away is grave destruction of sins, not a legal fiction only. The sinless Christ is both the means and the pattern. Remaining in sin would void the appearing.

Calvin: it is Christ’s office to take away sins; by faith we partake of His virtue. In John 1:29 He takes away as atonement; here He , actually takes away, because through Him the old man is crucified and the Spirit mortifies the flesh. They who cease not to sin render void the benefits. In Him is no sin: wherever Christ diffuses efficacious grace, no more room for sin.

This belongs to sanctification of the Spirit, not remission only in this verse. He appeared to take away sins.

Whoever remains in Him does not go on sinning; the one who keeps sinning has neither seen nor known Him. Wesley: abiding in communion by loving faith, sinneth not—while he so abideth. Whoever sinneth, the loving eye is not then fixed upon God; he does not then experimentally know Him, whatever he did in time past.

The new birth enables and must be walked in. Remaining in sin shows a breakable walk: while he abides he does not sin; when he sins he is not then seeing Him. The communion can be left. This is the holiness fork.

Calvin: whoever abides sinneth not; whoever sinneth hath not seen Him. Faith in Christ is vainly pretended without newness of life. Christ is never dormant where He reigns. As far as the kingdom of Christ prevails, sin is abolished. They are designated according to the prevailing principle: they consent not to sin, though they labor under infirmity; they do the evil they would not.

The regenerate do not make a practice of sin. Seeing and knowing are faith. The walk is evidence of a new nature God gave, not a proof that union is on and off with every stumble.

Let no one lead you astray. He who does righteousness is righteous, even as he is righteous. Wesley: let none persuade you that any man is righteous but he that uniformly practises righteousness; he alone is righteous, after the example of his Lord.

Righteousness is not buried in the heart while hands and tongue run to iniquity. Uniform practice is the evidence. Deceivers offer a righteousness that will not walk.

Calvin: newness of life is testified by good works; likeness to Christ appears by fruits. Many would persuade themselves they have righteousness buried in the heart while iniquity occupies feet, hands, tongue, and eyes.

If you live in the Spirit, walk in the Spirit. Do not be deceived; practiced righteousness is the mark.

The one who sins habitually belongs to the devil, who has sinned from the beginning, and the Son of God appeared to destroy the devil’s works. Wesley: a child of the devil; the devil was the first sinner and has continued. The Son was manifested to destroy the works of the devil—all sin. And will He not perform this in all that trust in Him?

Christ’s appearing aims at all sin destroyed in those who trust. Remaining in practice of sin is remaining of the devil’s works, which the Son came to undo.

Calvin: to commit refers to outward works. No life of God where men act perversely; they are slaves of the devil. He sets forth how unlike they are to Christ. Not two adverse principles as Manicheans imagined; the devil is not wicked by nature, nor equal to God. The devil sinneth from the beginning: from the creation he has scattered his poison. Christ came to take away sins: those in whom sin reigns cannot be reckoned members of Christ.

Wherever Christ puts forth power, He puts the devil to flight. The appearing is against the devil’s works.

Whoever is born of God doesn’t commit sin, because his seed remains; he can’t sin, because he is born of God. Wesley: born by living faith, God continually breathing spiritual life, the soul breathing love and prayer; the divine seed of loving faith abides; so long as it doth, he cannot sin; inwardly and universally changed.

So long as the seed abides. The new birth is living and must be breathed in and out. A breakable walk: if the seed is not abiding, practice of sin is possible. 3:9 is not a lock that cannot be left; it is the nature of a present, living birth.

Calvin: not wholly free from all sin; those who from the heart strive to obey. Pelagians and Catharians wrongly imagined angelic purity; Anabaptists renewed the dotage. Regeneration is not at once complete, so it does not exempt from bondage of sin except in proportion to its extent. Children of God daily sin as far as remnants of old nature remain. Yet the design of regeneration is to destroy sin. Seed of God: the Spirit so forms hearts that flesh does not prevail. He cannot sin: the will is so formed it cannot be otherwise than right; the Spirit continues grace to the last. Not Papist “neutral movement” we may resist. David: a live coal hid under ashes; the seed retains virtue perpetually.

“Seed”—3:9 is evidence of a new nature God gave. The elect’s seed is incorruptible. Fanatics who take “cannot sin” as license are twice frantic. John speaks of the continued course of life, beginning with regeneration, not a pre-temporal eternal seed independent of new birth.

By this the children of God are revealed, and of the devil are evident: Whoever doesn’t do righteousness is not of God, neither the one who doesn’t love his brother. Wesley: here is the transition from the general proposition to one particular.

The two families show in practice and in brother-love. Not of God is a present verdict on an unrighteous, unloving walk—not a compliment paid to a hidden election.

Calvin: those in vain claim a place among the children of God who do not prove themselves by a pious life. Fruit and adoption always appear in the life. To do righteousness is to fear God from the heart and walk in His commandments as far as human weakness permits. Offenses are not imputed; righteousness is that imperfect obedience they render. All whom God calls He regenerates. Love of the brother is added as explanation: the whole of righteousness is often included in brotherly love as evidence of love to God.

Newness of life is perpetual evidence of adoption. Both readings: the children are manifest in practice and love. The fork stays in 3:6 and 3:9, not in the visibility of the fruit.