The Christian and the Devil (1 John 3:7-10)

In this section, which runs from 2:29–3:10, John gives to his Christian readers several incentives for living a righteous life, including the prospect of appearing at the judgement seat of Christ (avoid being ashamed) and the responsibilities connected to membership of God’s family (live like the Elder Brother). These can be described as positive incentives. In addition, however, he also provides other incentives, and these can be classified as warnings about powerful enemies, identified here as sin and Satan.

In this sermon we will focus on the devil as the powerful enemy of God’s people. As in all battles and wars, it is essential for Christian soldiers to know their enemy and his tactics and aims. John begins his comments on the devil by stating that there is a clear-cut distinction between those who follow God’s way and those who follow the devil’s way. The mark of the followers of God is righteous living and the mark of the devil’s followers is sinful living. Both groups imitate their particular master: Christians imitate Jesus and others imitate the devil.

The consistent practice of the enemy (v. 8a)

In verse 8, John says that the devil has been sinning from the beginning. To which period of time is the apostle referring by the phrase ‘in the beginning’? I would say that the period he has in mind is the beginning of human history as recorded in the first three chapters of Genesis. In order to understand this statement we need to ask some questions.

Question 1: where did the devil come from? The Bible’s answer to this question is that he was originally a created angel, serving God as other angels, but who chose to rebel against God and in the rebellion led other angels to join him in his sinful campaign.

Question 2: when did the devil fall into sin? One suggested answer to this question is that the devil sinned before God made the universe. But if he did, where did he go when God cast him out of heaven? The universe did not exist until God made it at the beginning, as recorded in Genesis 1. When God came to the close of the creation week, he said that the entire creation, including everything within it, was very good. It is difficult to understand such a comment if the devil and other fallen angels had already rebelled when God made that pronouncement. This state of affairs has led some commentators to suggest that the devil’s rebellion occurred after the creation of man, and his initial action after being cast out of God’s presence was to attack or wage war on Adam and Eve.

Such an interpretation fits in with John’s comment that the devil has been sinning ‘from the beginning’. In addition we should note the summary description of the devil’s activities given by the Saviour when he said in John 8:44 that the devil was a murderer from the beginning – a murderer of men’s souls. Calvin’s comment summarises what John means: ‘But here John meant no other thing than that the Devil had been an apostate since the creation of the world, and that from that time he had never ceased to scatter his poison among men.’ 

Question 3: what is the devil’s aim? Putting it simply, his aim is to get other creatures to rebel against God. We can see some of his tactics in the way that he approached Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. He aimed to get them to doubt God’s threatening about punishment for disobedience; he also aimed to get them to doubt God’s goodness by inferring that he was keeping something hidden from them. He questioned God’s Word and character. But he did not do so in an overt manner. Instead he planted seeds of doubt in the minds of Adam and Eve and also held out for them the prospects of satisfying discoveries if they ignored God’s stated limits of legitimate experience. Once the devil gets creatures to disobey God, they can be left to continue sinning by themselves as he continues to tantalise them with his suggestions and offers.

Satan has been sinning in many ways since he fell from God’s favour, and one area in which he endeavours to sin is in targeting the church of Christ, with the aim of getting its members to sin. For example, in the Book of Acts, he tempted Ananias and Sapphira to commit the sins of deceit and lying. Paul tells the Corinthians that he was aware of the devil’s devices, and instructed the Ephesians to put on the full armour of God in order to defeat the devil. Satan had infiltrated some of the seven churches of Asia in Revelation 2 and 3, and he had also attacked the churches to which John was writing. 

The astounding purpose of the Son of God (v. 8b)

What advice does John give to his readers as he reminds them of the enemy’s tactics? He tells them to focus on the work of the One who came into the world to destroy the works of the devil. John is reminding his readers of a very basic principle of the Christian life, perhaps the most important principle of the Christian life, which is that we should always ask, in any matter, what has Jesus done about it or what is he going to do about it?

What are the works of the devil? We could view them as isolated activities or as a combined whole – both are going to be rendered pointless by Jesus. It is obvious that John does not mean that Jesus obliterated the works of the devil because we know that he has succeeded with many of his temptations and strategies at any given time. So John means that Jesus will ultimately nullify the longterm intentions of the devil and will one day crush him completely and banish him permanently from the creation. The devil has been building an empire. Unlike human empires it has not petered out after a couple of centuries, but like human empires, one day in the future, his empire will be overthrown.

As with the enemy of sin, we need to see Jesus’ opposition to the works of the devil in a threefold way, and each of those ways is connected to his appearing among humans at the incarnation. In other words, Jesus dealt with the works of the devil at the cross, he is dealing with the works of the devil today, and he will yet complete his dealings with those works when he returns in the future.

At the cross, Jesus destroyed the works of the devil by providing a basis for sinners to be forgiven and liberated. One of the devil’s works was to turn the earth into a vast prison in which humans are chained for their crimes, and in which the devil functions as a jailor demanding their punishment. On the cross, Jesus dealt with those accusations and demands of the devil by paying the debt due by his people and, at a stroke, removed from the devil his ability to accuse them effectively. Instead, for all who trust in Jesus, his death opened wide the prison doors and they are set free. That work of the devil has been destroyed.

In the present, Jesus destroys the works of the devil in the lives of sinners when they become Christians and go through the lifelong process of sanctification. Prior to their conversion, the devil tempted them to sin, and each sin became uglier, and how worthless they seemed now in value when they came to Jesus for pardon. In the process of sanctification, Jesus removes the consequences of sin in their lives, delivers them from the effects of the devil’s influence on them, and so destroys his intentions of making them so ugly by sin that they would have to be punished. Today, Jesus is destroying the works of the devil.

In the future, Jesus will remove from the universe all evidence of the works of the devil. The varied activities and consequences of thousands of years of sin will be removed when Jesus announces, ‘Look, I am making all things new’ (Rev, 21:5). Today, the earth is like a wilderness full of wild beasts and weeds; in the future it will be Paradise restored, with nothing but beauty all around. On that day the redeemed multitudes will cry out in wonder, ‘The Son of God has destroyed the works of the devil!’

The inevitable conduct of the people of God (vv. 9-10)

Above we mentioned that the Son of God is currently destroying the works of the devil by the sanctification of sinners. Sanctification is inner renewal, and John refers to it in verse 9. Believing in Jesus is the initial evidence that a sinner has been born again by the work of the Spirit. But the Spirit continues to live within each believer and this indwelling has certain inevitable effects, and one effect is that saved sinners cease living sinful lives and become holy in life.   

The Holy Spirit is here called God’s seed who lives within each regenerated sinner. Since the Spirit as God is omnipotent, his purpose will be achieved; and since he is present to maintain and increase spiritual life, he will bring forth such life in those sinners. This reality should be of great comfort for believers because it means that Jesus is working in them through another divine person, the Holy Spirit. When they see the deep roots that some sins have in their inner lives they may become prone to despair, and rightly so if the removal of those sins depended on them. But in their great love, the persons of the Trinity are at work, changing their sinful people into holy men and women. These believers may not so much of the change because sometimes their assessment can be skewed by a current experience of difficulty. Yet others can often see the change: they observe Christlikeness, heavenly-mindedness, and Spirit-filled behaviour. As John writes in verse 10, ‘By this it is evident who are the children of God, and who are the children of the devil: whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is the one who does not love his brother.’

What should this teaching about the Christian and the devil say to us? First, it should remind us that we face a powerful, subtle foe, who we ignore at our peril.

Second, it reminds us of the necessity of looking to Christ. This is the constant message of the New Testament, not only for justification and glorification, but also for sanctification. In Colossians 3:5ff., Paul tells his readers to engage in sanctification. But he precedes his instructions with words that command his readers to focus on Jesus: ‘If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.’

Third, this teaching reminds Christians that the quality of their lives reveals whether or not the Holy Spirit, as Christ’s Agent, is working within them. They will not, as a rule, engage in sinful practices. This is not a claim to sinless perfection, but it is a reminder that spiritual renewal will take place in each of them. The fact of life is that we are either imitating Jesus or the devil.