ACC ~ 1 John 3 v8

ONE WHO COMMITS SIN. ORIGEN: Insofar as we commit sins, we have not yet put off the generation of the devil, even if we are thought to believe in Jesus. Everyone who is not of the devil does not commit sin. COMMENTARY ON JOHN 20.103-4.

THE DEVIL HAS SINNED FROM THE BEGINNING. DIDYMUS THE BLIND: Since the devil was first and foremost sent into the world in order to lead people astray, that is where his name comes from. Thus anyone who sins can be called a devil. Sin is not inherent in the human race, since if it were it could not have been eradicated by a sinless human being. But this is exactly what happened when the Son of God appeared in human flesh, and so sin must be regarded as accidental to human nature, not as intrinsic to human nature. COMMENTARY ON 1 JOHN.

FIRST TO SIN. CHRYSOSTOM: Because the devil was the first to be locked into sin, everyone who now sins acts according to his bidding. For the devil rules in the sinner by a mass of evil thoughts, as in the case of Judas. Someone might say that the devil is present in sinners even before they sin because they have made room for him. The answer to this is that committing sin and making room for the devil amount to one and the same thing—sin. CATENA.

AS OFTEN AS WE SIN. ANDREAS: As often as we sin, we are born of the devil. But we are of God once again, as often as we pursue virtue. CATENA.

WE WERE NOT CREATED DEMONIC. BEDE: We do not resemble the devil because of the way we were created, as the Manichaeans blasphemously assert, but because we have followed him into his sinful ways. … John describes the devil’s sinfulness in the present tense, because he is just the same now as he was in the beginning, when he first fell into sin. This verse also implies that the devil was created before anything else. There is no reason to doubt that the angels were made before any of the other creatures or that the one who was the highest among them became proud and rebelled against his Maker. It was by pride that he sinned from the beginning and was transformed from being an archangel into being a devil. ON 1 JOHN.

1 Jn