Context for 1 John 2:28-3:10
Children have a special place of privilege with their parents. Only children can interrupt, annoy, and prevail upon their parents with only scolding. Only children have the right to ask for things from their parents that would be rude for the rest of us to ask.
The language of parents and children is important to our understanding of faith, because it helps explain how God interacts with us and how we interact with Him in a way that our sinful human brain can understand.
John already told us in 1 John 1:8 that we are deceiving ourselves if we say we have no sin. Yet, just a few verses later, here he is telling us that if we sin, we are not of God. How can that be?
It can be because what John is telling us to do is not give in to the devil, the world, and our own sinfulness. We are tempted everyday in a barrage of sinfulness that tries in every way to wrest our attention away from God’s grace. Most of the time, we do not even realize we are being tempted because temptation is so prevalent.
But, when we received faith, we became warriors against sin. After spreading the Gospel, our single most important task is to resist the devil, the world, and our own sinfulness with all of our might and breath. If we concentrate ourselves on these tasks, there is no room left for sin.
Does that then mean we are perfect? Hardly. Just like warriors of the world, we will be nicked and cut by our battle, that is we will sometimes fail and sin anyway. That is where grace comes into play, the fact that Jesus died for our sins once and for all.
So, battle on, faithful warrior of grace, and be sure that your Savior will carry you along the way.
DLH
