John Calvin Commentary 1 John 3

Behold, the second argument is from the dignity and excellence of our calling. For it was not common honor, he says, that the heavenly Father bestowed on us when he adopted us as his children. This being so great a favor, the desire for purity ought to be kindled in us, so as to be conformed to his image. Indeed, it cannot be otherwise than that anyone who acknowledges himself to be one of God’s children should purify himself.

And to make this exhortation more forceful, he amplifies the favor of God. For when he says that love has been bestowed, he means that it is from mere bounty and benevolence that God makes us his children. For from where does such dignity come to us, except from the love of God? Love, then, is declared here to be gratuitous. There is, indeed, an awkwardness in the language, but the Apostle preferred speaking this way rather than fail to express what was necessary to be known. In short, he means that the more abundantly God’s goodness has been manifested towards us, the greater are our obligations to him, according to the teaching of Paul, when he implored the Romans by the mercies of God to present themselves as pure sacrifices to him (Romans 12:1). We are at the same time taught, as I have said, that the adoption of all the godly is gratuitous and does not depend on any regard to works.

What the sophists say—that God foresees those who are worthy to be adopted—is plainly refuted by these words, for in this way the gift would not be gratuitous. It is especially important for us to understand this doctrine. For since the only cause of our salvation is adoption, and since the Apostle testifies that this flows from the mere love of God alone, there is nothing left to our worthiness or to the merits of works. For why are we sons? Simply because God began to love us freely when we deserved hatred rather than love. And as the Spirit is a pledge of our adoption, it therefore follows that if there is any good in us, it ought not to be set up in opposition to the grace of God but, on the contrary, should be ascribed to him.

When he says that we are called, or named, the expression is not without its meaning; for it is God who with his own mouth declares us to be sons, as he gave a name to Abraham according to what he was.

Therefore the world. It is a trial that severely assaults our faith: that we are not much regarded as God’s children, or that no mark of such great excellence appears in us, but rather, on the contrary, that almost the whole world treats us with ridicule and contempt. Hence, it can hardly be inferred from our present state that God is a Father to us, for the devil so contrives all things as to obscure this benefit.

He counters this cause of offense by saying that we are not yet acknowledged for who we are, because the world does not know God: a remarkable example of this very thing is found in Isaac and Jacob, for though both were chosen by God, yet Ishmael persecuted the former with laughter and taunts, and Esau, the latter with threats and the sword.

Therefore, however much we may be oppressed by the world, our salvation still remains safe and secure.

Now are we the sons of God. He comes now to what everyone knows and feels; for though the ungodly may not entice us to give up our hope, yet our present condition is very short of the glow of God’s children. For as to our body, we are dust and a shadow, and death is always before our eyes; we are also subject to a thousand miseries, and the soul is exposed to innumerable evils, so that we always find a hell within us.

It is all the more necessary that all our thoughts should be withdrawn from the present view of things, lest the miseries by which we are on every side surrounded and almost overwhelmed shake our faith in that felicity which still lies hidden. For the Apostle’s meaning is this: we act very foolishly when we estimate what God has bestowed on us according to the present state of things, but we ought with undoubting faith to hold to that which does not yet appear.

But we know that when he shall appear. The conditional particle ought to be rendered as an adverb of time, when. But the verb appear does not mean the same thing as when he used it before. The Apostle has just said, it does not yet appear what we shall be, because the fruit of our adoption is still hidden. For in heaven is our felicity, and we are now far away traveling on the earth. This fading life, constantly exposed to a hundred deaths, is far different from that eternal life which belongs to the children of God. Being enclosed as slaves in the prison of our flesh, we are far distant from the full sovereignty of heaven and earth.

But the verb now refers to Christ, when, he shall appear; for he teaches the same thing with Paul, in Colossians, where he says:

Your life is hid with Christ in God: when Christ, who is your life, shall appear, then shall you also appear with him in glory (Colossians 3:3, 4).

For our faith cannot stand except by looking to the coming of Christ. The reason why God defers the manifestation of our glory is this: Christ is not manifested in the power of His kingdom. This, then, is the only way of sustaining our faith, so that we may wait patiently for the life promised to us. As soon as anyone turns away in the least from Christ, he must necessarily fail.

The word to know shows the certainty of faith, in order to distinguish it from opinion. Neither simple nor universal knowledge is intended here, but that which everyone ought to have for himself, so that he may feel assured that he will be sometime like Christ. Although the manifestation of our glory is connected with the coming of Christ, yet our knowledge of this is well founded.

We shall be like him. He (the Apostle) does not mean that we shall be equal to Him, for there must be some difference between the head and the members. But we shall be like Him, because He will make our vile body conformable to His glorious body, as Paul also teaches us in Philippians 3:21. For the Apostle intended to show concisely that the final end of our adoption is that what has preceded in order in Christ shall at length be completed in us.

The reason that is added may, however, seem inappropriate. For if seeing Christ makes us like Him, we shall have this in common with the wicked, for they shall also see His glory. To this I reply, that this is to see Him as a friend, which will not be the case with the wicked, for they will dread His presence. Rather, they will shun God’s presence and be filled with terror; His glow will so dazzle their eyes that they will be stupefied and confounded. For we see that Adam, conscious of having done wrong, dreaded the presence of God. And God declared this by Moses, as a general truth concerning mankind:

No man shall see me and live (Exodus 33:20).

For how can it be otherwise than that God’s majesty, as a consuming fire, will consume us as though we were stubble, so great is the weakness of our flesh? But insofar as the image of God is renewed in us, we have eyes prepared to see God. And now, indeed, God begins to renew in us His own image, but in what a small measure! Unless we are stripped of all the corruption of the flesh, we shall not be able to behold God face to face.

And this is also expressed here, as he is. He does not, indeed, say that there is no seeing of God now; but as Paul says:

We see now through a glass, darkly (1 Corinthians 13:12).

But he elsewhere makes a difference between this way of living and the seeing of the eye. In short, God now presents Himself to be seen by us, not such as He is, but such as we can comprehend. Thus is fulfilled what is said by Moses, that we see only as it were His back (Exodus 33:23); for there is too much brightness in His face.

We must further observe that the manner the Apostle mentions is taken from the effect, not from the cause. For he does not teach us that we shall be like Him because we shall see Him; but he thus proves that we shall be partakers of the divine glory. For except our nature were spiritual and endowed with a heavenly and blessed immortality, it could never come so near to God. Yet the perfection of glory will not be so great in us that our seeing will enable us to comprehend all that God is, for the distance between us and Him will be even then very great.

But when the Apostle says that we shall see Him as He is, he intimates a new and an ineffable manner of seeing Him, which we do not enjoy now. For as long as we walk by faith, as Paul teaches us, we are absent from Him. And when He appeared to the fathers, it was not in His own essence but was ever seen under symbols. Hence the majesty of God, now hidden, will then only be seen in itself when the veil of this mortal and corruptible nature shall be removed.

Refined questions I pass by: for we see how Augustine tormented himself with these and yet never succeeded, both in his Epistles to Paulus and Fortunatus, and in the City of God (2:2), and in other places. What he says, however, is worthy of being observed: that the way in which we live avails more in this inquiry than the way in which we speak, and that we must beware lest by wrangling as to the manner in which God can be seen, we lose that peace and holiness without which no one shall see Him.

And every man that hath this hope He now draws this inference: the desire for holiness should not grow cold in us because our happiness has not yet appeared, for that hope is sufficient; and we know that what is hoped for is still hidden.

The meaning, then, is that though Christ is not now present before our eyes, yet if we hope in Him, it is inevitable that this hope will excite and stimulate us to follow purity, for it leads us directly to Christ, whom we know to be a perfect pattern of purity.

Whosoever committeth, or doeth, sin. The Apostle has already shown how ungrateful we must be to God if we make little account of the honor of adoption, by which He, of His own goodwill, graciously acts first for us, and if we do not, at least, show Him love in return. He, at the same time, introduced this admonition: that our love should not be diminished because the promised happiness is delayed. But now, as people are accustomed to indulge themselves more than they should in evil, he reproves this perverse indulgence, declaring that all those who sin are wicked and transgressors of the law. For it is probable that there were then those who downplayed their vices with this kind of flattery: “It is no wonder if we sin, because we are human; but there is a great difference between sin and iniquity.”

The Apostle now dispels this frivolous excuse when he defines sin as a transgression of the divine law, for his object was to produce hatred and horror of sin. The word sin seems light to some, but iniquity or transgression of the law cannot appear to be so easily forgiven. But the Apostle does not make sins equal by charging all who sin with iniquity; rather, he simply means to teach us that sin arises from a contempt of God, and that by sinning, the law is violated. Therefore, this doctrine of John has nothing in common with the delirious paradoxes of the Stoics.

Besides, to sin here does not mean to offend in some instances; nor is the word sin to be taken for every fault or wrong a person may commit; but he calls that sin when people with their whole heart run into evil, nor does he consider people to sin, except those who are given up to sin. For the faithful, who are still tempted by the lusts of the flesh, are not to be considered guilty of iniquity, though they are not pure or free from sin. But as sin does not reign in them, John says that they do not sin, as I will shortly explain more fully.

The meaning of the passage is that the perverse life of those who indulge themselves in the liberty of sinning is hateful to God, and He cannot tolerate it, because it is contrary to His Law. It does not therefore follow, nor can it therefore be inferred, that the faithful are iniquitous, because they desire to obey God, abhor their own vices in every instance, and also conform their own lives, as much as is in their power, according to the law. But when there is a deliberate purpose to sin, or a continued course in sin, then the law is transgressed.

And you know that he was manifested, or, has appeared. He shows by another argument how much sin and faith differ from one another; for it is the role of Christ to take away sins, and for this end he was sent by the Father, and it is by faith we partake of Christ’s power.

Then he who believes in Christ is necessarily cleansed from his sins. But it is said in John 1:29, that Christ takes away sins because he atoned for them by the sacrifice of his death, that they may not be imputed to us before God: John means in this place that Christ really, and, so to speak, actually takes away sins, because through him our old man is crucified, and his Spirit, by means of repentance, mortifies the flesh with all its lusts.

For the context does not allow us to explain this as referring to the remission of sins; for, as I have said, he reasons thus: “Those who do not cease to sin render void the benefits derived from Christ, since he came to destroy the reigning power of sin.” This belongs to the sanctification of the Spirit.

And in him is no sin. He does not speak of Christ personally, but of his whole body. Wherever Christ diffuses his efficacious grace, he denies that there is any more room for sin. He, therefore, immediately draws this inference: that those who remain in Christ do not sin. For if he dwells in us by faith, he performs his own work, that is, he cleanses us from sins.

It therefore appears what it is to sin. For Christ by his Spirit does not perfectly renew us at once, or in an instant, but he continues our renovation throughout life. It must then be that the faithful are exposed to sin as long as they live in the world; but as far as the kingdom of Christ prevails in them, sin is abolished. In the meantime, they are designated according to the prevailing principle; that is, they are said to be righteous and to live righteously, because they sincerely aspire to righteousness.

They are said not to sin, because they do not consent to sin, though they labor under the infirmity of the flesh; but, on the contrary, they struggle with groaning, so that they can truly testify with Paul that they do the evil they would not.

He says that the faithful abide in Christ, because we are by faith united to him, and made one with him.