1 John 3:8

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.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

3:3-10 The sons of God know that their Lord is of purer eyes than to allow any thing unholy and impure to dwell with him. It is the hope of hypocrites, not of the sons of God, that makes allowance for gratifying impure desires and lusts. May we be followers of him as his dear children, thus show our sense of his unspeakable mercy, and express that obedient, grateful, humble mind which becomes us. Sin is the rejecting the Divine law. In him, that is, in Christ, was no sin. All the sinless weaknesses that were consequences of the fall, he took; that is, all those infirmities of mind or body which subject man to suffering, and expose him to temptation. But our moral infirmities, our proneness to sin, he had not. He that abides in Christ, continues not in the practice of sin. Renouncing sin is the great proof of spiritual union with, continuance in, and saving knowledge of the Lord Christ. Beware of self-deceit. He that doeth righteousness is righteous, and to be a follower of Christ, shows an interest by faith in his obedience and sufferings. But a man cannot act like the devil, and at the same time be a disciple of Christ Jesus. Let us not serve or indulge what the Son of God came to destroy. To be born of God is to be inwardly renewed by the power of the Spirit of God. Renewing grace is an abiding principle. Religion is not an art, a matter of dexterity and skill, but a new nature. And the regenerate person cannot sin as he did before he was born of God, and as others do who are not born again. There is that light in his mind, which shows him the evil and malignity of sin. There is that bias upon his heart, which disposes him to loathe and hate sin. There is the spiritual principle that opposes sinful acts. And there is repentance for sin, if committed. It goes against him to sin with forethought. The children of God and the children of the devil have their distinct characters. The seed of the serpent are known by neglect of religion, and by their hating real Christians. He only is righteous before God, as a justified believer, who is taught and disposed to righteousness by the Holy Spirit. In this the children of God are manifest, and the children of the devil. May all professors of the gospel lay these truths to heart, and try themselves by them.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

He that committeth sin - Habitually, willfully, characteristically.

Is of the devil - This cannot mean that no one who commits any sin, or who is not absolutely perfect, can be a Christian, for this would cut off the great mass, even according to the belief of those who hold that the Christian may be perfectly holy, from all claim to the Christian character. But what the apostle here says is true in two senses:

(1) That all who commit sin, even true believers, so far as they are imperfect, in this respect resemble Satan, and are under his influence, since sin, just so far as it exists at all, makes us resemble him.

(2) all who habitually and characteristically sin are of the devil." This latter was evidently the principal idea in the mind of the apostle. His object here is to show that those who sinned, in the sense in which it would seem some maintained that the children of God might sin, could have no real evidence of piety, but really belonged to Satan.

For the devil sinneth from the beginning - The beginning of the world; or from the first account we have of him. It does not mean that he sinned from the beginning of his existence, for he was made holy like the other angels. Notes, Jde 1:6. The meaning is, that he introduced sin into the universe, and that he has continued to practice it ever since. The word sinneth here implies continued and habitual sin. He did not commit one act of sin and then reform; but he has continued, and still continues, his course of sin. This may confirm what has been already said about the kind of sin that John refers to. He speaks of sinning habitually, continuously, willfully; and anyone who does this shows that he is under the influence of him whose characteristic it has been and is to sin.

For this purpose the Son of God was manifested - Became incarnate, and appeared among people, 1 John 3:5. Compare the notes at 1 Timothy 3:16.

That he might destroy the works of the devil - All his plans of wickedness, and his control over the hearts of people. Compare the Matthew 8:29 note; Mark 1:24 note; Hebrews 2:14 note. The argument here is, that as the Son of God came to destroy all the works of the devil, he cannot be his true follower who lives in sin.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

8. He that committeth sin is of the devil—in contrast to "He that doeth righteousness," 1Jo 3:7. He is a son of the devil (1Jo 3:10; Joh 8:44). John does not, however, say, "born of the devil." as he does "born of God," for "the devil begets none, nor does he create any; but whoever imitates the devil becomes a child of the devil by imitating him, not by proper birth" [Augustine, Ten Homilies on the First Epistle of John, Homily 4.10]. From the devil there is not generation, but corruption [Bengel].

sinneth from the beginning—from the time that any began to sin [Alford]: from the time that he became what he is, the devil. He seems to have kept his first estate only a very short time after his creation [Bengel]. Since the fall of man [at the beginning of our world] the devil is (ever) sinning (this is the force of "sinneth"; he has sinned from the beginning, is the cause of all sins, and still goes on sinning; present). As the author of sin, and prince of this world, he has never ceased to seduce man to sin [Luecke].

destroy—break up and do away with; bruising and crushing the serpent's head.

works of the devil—sin, and all its awful consequences. John argues, Christians cannot do that which Christ came to destroy.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

He that committeth sin: the apostle’s notion of committing sin may be interpreted by his own phrase, 3Jo 1:11, o kakopoiwn, a doer of evil; and by that, used in both Testaments, a worker of iniquity; which is not every one that doth any one single act of sin; as his o poiwn dikaiosunhn, 1Jo 3:7, a doer of righteousness, and o agayopoiwn, 3Jo 1:11, a doer of good, is not every one that doth any one righteous or good action; any more than we call him a worker or maker of any thing, (as signifying a manual occupation), who only makes a single attempt, but him who hath acquired the habitual skill, and doth ordinarily employ himself accordingly. A worker or maker of sin, (as we may fitly render this o poiwn thn amartian), is an habitual or customary sinner; one that sinneth with deliberation, not by surprise, from a prevailing habit, that either continueth him in a course of actual known sin, or that withholds him from repenting sincerely, and turning to God from the sin which he hath committed; by which repentance he should not only refrain from further gross acts of sin, (which an impenitent person upon other inducements may do), but mortify and prevail against all sinful habits and inclinations. In the same sense he useth the expression of sinning, 1Jo 3:6,9. And such a sinner, he says,

is of the devil; as if he were born of him, were his child, really conformed to him, and having his sinning nature. As our Saviour tells the Jews, having applied to them the same phrase before of committing sin, John 8:34, that they were of their father the devil, John 8:44. As also this apostle, 3Jo 1:11, says: He that doeth good is of God, i.e. born of God, or his child; as we find he uses the expressions of being born of God, and being of God, promiscuously, and with indifference, 1Jo 3:9,10 5:18,19, the latter being elliptical in reference to the former. Whereas sin was therefore originally the devil’s work, he adds, (as a further engagement against it), that

the Son of God was manifested, ,{ as 1Jo 3:5} appeared in the flesh, showed himself in this world of ours, on purpose

to destroy, or (as the word signifies) that he might dissolve the frame of all such works.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

He that committeth sin is of the devil,.... Not everyone that sins, or commits acts of sin, then every man is of the devil, because no man lives without the commission of sin; but he who makes sin his constant business, and the employment of his life, whose life is a continued series of sinning, he is of the devil; not as to origin and substance, or by proper generation, as some have literally understood the words; but by imitation, being like him, and so of him their father, doing his lusts, living continually in sin, as he does, and so resemble him, as children do their parents; and hereby also appear to be under his government and influence, to be led captive by him at his will, and so to belong to him, and such as will have their part and portion with him in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone, so living and dying:

for the devil sinneth from the beginning; not of his creation, for he was made by God a pure and holy creature; but from the beginning of the world, or near it, at least from the beginning of man's creation; for he not only sinned by rebelling against God himself, and by drawing in the rest of the apostate angels into the rebellion with him, but by tempting man, as soon as created, to sin against God: what was his first and particular sin is not certain, whether pride or envy, or what; seems to be, his not abiding in the truth, or an opposition to the truth of the Gospel, respecting the incarnation of the Son of God, mentioned in the following clause; see John 8:44; however, he has been continually sinning ever since: he "sinneth"; he is always sinning, doing nothing else but sin; so that he that lives a vicious course of life is like him, and manifestly of him:

for this purpose the Son of God was manifested; in human nature, as in 1 John 3:5; whence it appears that he was the Son of God before his incarnation, and so not by it; he did not become so through it, nor was he denominated such on account of it; he was not made the Son of God by it, but was manifested in it what he was before; and for this end:

that he might destroy the works of the devil; and the devil himself, and all his dominion and power, and particularly his power over death, and death itself; and especially the sins of men, which are the works of the devil, which he puts them upon, influences them to do, and takes delight in; and which are destroyed by Christ, by his sacrifice and death, being taken, carried, removed away, finished, and made an end of by him; See Gill on 1 John 3:5.

Geneva Study Bible

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

(8) An argument taken by contrast: the devil is the author of sin, and therefore he is that serves sin is of the devil, or is ruled by the inspiration of the devil: and if he is the devil's son, then is he not God's son: for the devil and God are so contrary to one another that the Son of God was sent to destroy the works of the devil. Therefore on the other side, whoever resists sin, is the son of God, being born again of his Spirit as of new seed, in so much, that by necessity he is now delivered from the slavery of sin.

(i) Resembles the devil, as the child does the father, and is governed by his Spirit.

(k) He says not sinned but sins for he does nothing else but sin.

(l) From the very beginning of the world.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Meyer's NT Commentary

1 John 3:8. ὁ ποιῶν τὴν ἁμαρτίαν] forms the diametrical opposite of ὁ ποιῶν τὴν δικαιοσύνην, inasmuch as it signifies the man whose life is a service of sin, “who lives in sin as his element” (Sander). While the former belongs to Christ, and is a τέκνον Θεοῦ, the latter is ἐκ τοῦ διαβόλου; ἐκ does not signify here either merely connection (de Wette), or similarity (Paulus), or imitation (Semler), but, as the expression τέκνον τοῦ διαβόλου (1 John 3:10) shows, origin (so also Ebrard): the life that animates the sinner emanates from the devil; “not as if the devil created him, but that he introduced the evil into him” (Russmeyer). The apostle confirms the truth of this statement by the following words: ὅτι ἀπ ̓ ἀρχῆς ὁ διάβολος ἁμαρτάνει. The words ἀπ ̓ ἀρχῆς are put first, because the chief emphasis rests on them, inasmuch as those who commit sin are ἐκ τοῦ διαβόλου, not because he sins, but because it is he who sinneth ἀπʼ ἀρχῆς. From this expression it must not, with Frommann and Hilgenfeld, be inferred that John was considering the devil as an originally evil being,—in dualistic fashion (comp. Köstlin, p. 127, and Weiss, p. 132 ff.),—for John is not here speaking of the being, but of the action of the devil. In order not to accuse John of the Manichaean dualism, the attempt has been made to define ἀπʼ ἀρχῆς more particularly, either by referring it to the creation of the world (Calvin, S. G. Lange; also Hofmann, Schriftbew. 2d ed. I. 429: “since the beginning of the world,” or: “from the beginning of history, in the course of which the sin of men has begun”), or to res humanae (Semler), or to the time of the devil’s fall (Bengel: ex quo diabolus est diabolus); but all these supplements are purely arbitrary. Many modern commentators take the expression in reference to the sin of man, and find this idea expressed in it, that “the devil is related to all the sins of men as the first and seductive originator” (Nitzsch, Syst. der christlichen Lchre, 6th ed. p. 244 f.); thus Lücke, Düsterdieck, Ebrard, Weiss, Braune, and previously in this commentary; but this thought, while it no doubt lies in the preceding ἐκ τοῦ διαβόλου and in the following τέκνον τοῦ διαβόλου, and hence in the thesis to be established, does not lie in this confirmatory clause, apart from the fact that in ἀπʼ ἀρχῆς ἁμαρτάνει no reference is indicated to the sin of man. It is otherwise in John 8:44, where the more particular definition of the relation of the devil to men is supplied with ἀπʼ ἀρχῆς from the context (“since he has put himself in connection with men”); here, on the contrary, John does not say: “what the devil is to men, but what is his relationship to God” (Hofmann as above); but as he describes his relationship by ἀπʼ ἀρχῆς ἁμαρτάνει, as a sinning which has continued from the beginning, this can only mean that the devil’s first action was sin, and that he has remained and remains in that action. Likewise in the interpretation which Brückner gives of ἀπʼ ἀρχῆς: “i.e. so long as there is sin,” ἀπʼ ἀρχῆς does not receive its full force.[211]

The present ἉΜΑΡΤΆΝΕΙ describes the sinning of the devil as uninterruptedly continuous.

ΕἸς ΤΟῦΤΟ ἘΦΑΝΕΡΏΘΗ Κ.Τ.Λ.] As 1 John 3:6-7 refer to the second part of 1 John 3:5, these words refer to the first part of that verse; they not only express the antithesis between Christ and the devil, but they bring out the fact that the appearance of Christ has for its object the destruction of the ἜΡΓΑ ΤΟῦ ΔΙΑΒΌΛΟΥ, i.e. of the ἁμαρτίαι which are wrought by him (not “the reward of sin,” Calov, Spener; nor “the agency that seduces to sin,” de Wette). ΛΎΕΙΝ is used here as in John 2:19 (similarly 2 Peter 3:10-12), in the meaning of “to destroy;” less naturally some commentators (a Lapide, Lorinus, Spener, Besser, etc.) maintain the meaning “to undo,” sins being regarded as the snares of the devil.

[211] The idea that the devil, before he sinned, was for a time without sin, is nowhere expressed in Scripture; neither in John 8:44 nor in the deuterocanonical passages Judges 1:6 and 2 Peter 2:4 (see my comm. on these passages).—The view of Frommann, that John’s statements do not justify the representation of a personal existence of the devil, that “he is nothing further than the world-spirit that tempts man, considered in concrete personality,” is to be rejected as arbitrary.

Expositor's Greek Testament

1 John 3:8. ὁ ποι. τὴν ἁμ., an emphatic and interpretative variation of ὁ ἁμαρτάνων—“he that makes sin his business or practice”. ἐκ of parentage (cf. 1 John 3:9); “hoc est, ex patre diabolo” (Clem. Alex.). ἀπʼ ἀρχ., a vague phrase. In 1 John 1:1 “ere time began”; in 1 John 2:7, 1 John 3:11,“from the beginning of your Christian life”. Here “from the beginning of his diabolic career”; “a quo peccare cœpit incontrovertibiliter in peccando perseverans” (Clem. Alex.). λύσῃ, “loose,” metaphorically of “loosening a bond,” “relaxing an obligation” (Matthew 5:19; John 5:18), “pulling to pieces” (John 2:19).

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

8. He that committeth sin] Better, as in 1 John 3:4, in order to bring out the full antithesis, He that doeth sin. ‘To do sin’ is the exact opposite of ‘to do righteousness’: as before, both substantives have the article in the Greek: see on 1 John 3:4. And, as before, the present participle indicates the habitual doer of sin. Such an one has the devil as the source (ἐκ), not of his existence, but of the evil which rules his existence and is the main element in it. “The devil made no man, begat no man, created no man: but whoso imitates the devil, becomes a child of the devil, as if begotten of him. In what sense art thou a child of Abraham? Not that Abraham begat thee. In the same sense as that in which the Jews, the children of Abraham, by not imitating the faith of Abraham, are become children of the devil” (S. Augustine). It is one of the characteristics of these closing words of N. T. that they mark with singular precision the personality of Satan, and his relation to sin, sinners, and redemption from sin.

for the devil sinneth from the beginning] Or, because from the beginning the devil sinneth. ‘From the beginning’ stands first for emphasis. What does it mean? Various explanations have been suggested. (1) From the beginning of sin. The devil was the first to sin and has never ceased to sin. (2) From the beginning of the devil. This comes very near to asserting the Gnostic and Manichaean error of two co-eternal principles or Creators, one good and one evil. The very notion of sin involves departure from what is good. The good therefore must have existed first. To avoid this, (3) from the beginning of the devil as such, i.e. from the time of his becoming the devil, or (4) from the beginning of his activity; which is not very different from (3) if one believes that he is a fallen angel, or from (2) if one does not. (5) From the beginning of the world. (6) From the beginning of the human race. The first or last seems best. “The phrase ‘From the beginning’ intimates that there has been no period of the existence of human beings in which they have not been liable to the assaults of this Tempter; that accusations against God, reasons for doubting and distrusting Him, have been offered to one man after another, to one generation after another. This is just what the Scripture affirms; just the assumption which goes through the book from Genesis to the Apocalypse.” (Maurice.) Note the present tense: not he has sinned, but he is sinning; his whole existence is sin.

the Son of God] In special contrast to those habitual sinners who are morally the children of the devil.

that he might destroy] Literally, that he might unloose or dissolve or undo. All destruction is dissolution. The metaphor here has probably nothing to do with loosening bonds or snares. It is a favourite one with S. John; ‘Destroy this sanctuary’ (John 2:19). Comp. 1 John 5:18, John 7:23, John 10:35, where either notion, loosening or dissolving, is appropriate.

the works of the devil] The sins (1 John 3:5) which he causes men to commit. Christ came to undo the sins of men.

Bengel's Gnomen

1 John 3:8. Ἐκ τοῦ διαβόλου, of the devil) as a son: 1 John 3:10. The word born is not however here employed, nor seed, but works. For from the devil there is not generation, but corruption.—ἀπʼ ἀρχῆς, from the beginning) from the time when the devil is the devil. He seems to have kept his first estate but a very short time.—ἁμαρτάνει, sins) An abbreviated expression: that is, has sinned from the beginning, and is the cause of all sins, and still goes on sinning: he sins (with guilt becoming heavier from day to day), and induces others to sin: he is never satiated.[8] The because in 1 John 3:8 is in antithesis to the because in 1 John 3:9.—εἰς τοῦτο, for this purpose) The devil does not make an end of sinning: to destroy sin, is the work of the Son of God.—τὰ ἔργα, the works) which are most contorted [perverse], and to unravel which, was an occasion worthy of the Son of God.

[8] But this the great sinner shall be shut up, in the abyss, as in a prison; then, in fine, punishment shall be inflicted on him in the fire.—V. g.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 8. - The contrary position given to make the statement clear and emphatic. The devil ὁ διάβολος is the great accuser or slanderer, as in Job 1 and 2 (comp. John 13:2; Revelation 2:10; Revelation 12:9, 12; Revelation 20:2, 10). The devil sinneth from the beginning ἀπ ἀρχῆς. From the beginning of what? From the beginning of sin. The devil was the first sinner, and has never ceased to sin. Other answers are: from the beginning

(1) of the devil,

(2) of the creation,

(3) of human history.

Some of these are scarcely in harmony with Scripture; none, perhaps, fit the context so well as the explanation adopted. If the devil committed the first sin, and has sinned unceasingly ever since, then whoever sins is akin to him, is morally his offspring (John 8:44). There is the kingdom of God and the kingdom of the evil one, and man cannot find or make a third domain; if he is not in the one he is in the other. This verse, like John 8:44, seems to be conclusive as to the personal existence of the devil. Ακ τοῦ διαβόλου balances ἐκ τοῦ Θεοῦ: if the one is a mere personification of a tendency, why not the other? Both should be personal or neither. "It is not true that St. John speaks so confidently of a devil because he was a Jew and was filled with Hebrew opinions. For once that the devil is introduced in the Law, the Psalms, and the Prophets, he is spoken of twenty times in any Gospel or Epistle" (Maurice), and not least in the Gentile Luke. With the latter half of verse 8. comp, verse 5. Christ's act in removing our sins from us destroys the devil's works; for by the manifestation of the Light (John 1:5) the darkness is dispersed and destroyed. Our sins are the evil one's works: what is sin in us is his natural occupation. (For λύειν in the sense of unbinding or dissolving, and therefore destroying - a use specially frequent in St. John - comp. John 2:19; John 5:18; John 7:23; John 10:35.) The φανέρωσις includes the whole work of Christ on earth. 1 John 3:8

Vincent's Word Studies

The Devil

See on 1 John 2:13. Compare John 8:44. "The devil made no one, he begot no one, he created no one; but whosoever imitates the devil, is, as it were, a child of the devil, through imitating, not through being born of him" (Augustine).

Sinneth

The present tense indicates continuousness. He sinned in the beginning, and has never ceased to sin from the beginning, and still sinneth.

The Son of God

For the first time in the Epistle. Hitherto the title has been the Son, or His Son. See on 1 John 1:7.

Might destroy (λύσῃ)

Lit., dissolve, loosen. Compare Acts 27:41; Acts 13:43. "The works of the devil are represented as having a certain consistency and coherence. They show a kind of solid front. But Christ, by His coming, has revealed them in their complete unsubstantiality. He has 'undone' the seeming bonds by which they were held together" (Westcott).