ACC ~ 1 John 3 v9

RECEIVING BAD SEED. ORIGEN: When we are persuaded by the devil to sin, we receive his seed. But when we go on to complete the work which he urged, then he has begotten us, for through sin we are born to him as children. SERMONS ON EXODUS 8.6.

BORN OF GOD. DIDYMUS THE BLIND: Heretics, who are deceived in everything by everything, like to object that any birth which is produced by the creator of this world is automatically sinful, whereas any birth which comes from the God of the New Testament is not so. They base this idea on the supposition that sinners and the righteous must have different creators, but this notion is based on a misunderstanding of the teaching of Scripture. The Bible does not say that whoever is born of God is sinless but that such a person will not sin as long as he walks according to the way of righteousness. If he turns aside from that he will sin, and indeed those who do sin have turned away from their Creator. The ability not to sin is guaranteed by the presence of God’s seed in us. This seed is either his power or the spirit of adoption, which cannot sin. COMMENTARY ON 1 JOHN.

LUST EXTINGUISHED IN THE NEXT LIFE. AUGUSTINE: If our circumstances are such that we make some progress in this life by the grace of the Savior, when lust declines and love increases, it is in the next life that we reach perfection, when lust is finally extinguished and love is made perfect. That saying, that whoever is born of God does not sin, is undoubtedly meant to apply to that pure love which alone does not sin. The love in us which is increasing and being perfected also belongs to the new birth from God, but as long as lust continues to exist in us it fights against the law of our mind. As a result, the one who is born of God and who does not obey his own lusts can say that it is no longer he who sins but the sin which dwells in him. LETTERS 177.

SIN IS UNDONE BY LOVE. AUGUSTINE: How can we avoid sin? By keeping the commandment of Christ. And what is that commandment? It is that we should love. Love, and sin is undone. TEN HOMILIES ON 1 JOHN 5.2.

RETAINING GRACE. SEVERUS OF ANTIOCH: John did not say this with respect to the existence of sin in our lives, as if our nature were covered with impassibility. Rather he means that insofar as someone who is born of God retains the grace of his new birth he cannot sin in the way he behaves. And the reason for this is that God’s seed dwells in him. What is this seed of God which dwells in believers? What else but the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, by which we have been born again? This presence never leaves us. CATENA.

TWO MEANINGS OF “BORN OF GOD.” MAXIMUS THE CONFESSOR: If someone who is born of God does not sin, how is it that we who have been born of water and the Spirit, and thus of God, do in fact commit sins? The answer is that the phrase “born of God” has two different meanings. According to the first of these, God has given the grace of sonship with all power to those who have been born again. According to the second, the God who has thus given birth is working in us to bring us to perfection. By faith we are born again in principle, but God still has to get to work on us in order to refashion us according to his likeness. CATENA.

THE SEED DWELLS IN BELIEVERS. ANDREAS: The divine seed is Christ, who dwells in believers and makes them become sons of God. Likewise, when it is said that in Abraham’s seed all the nations will be blessed, this too is a reference to Christ. John says that the Spirit is the seed which we receive through the blessing of our mind. For he dwells in us, making the mind of sin no longer welcome. CATENA.

HAVING GOD’S NATURE IN US. BEDE: This does not mean that there is no sin in us at all, since John has already said that that is not the case. Rather what he is saying here is that if we have God’s nature, that is, his Word, in us we shall not go against the law of love. ON 1 JOHN.

THE SEED OF GOD REMAINS. ISHO’DAD OF MERV: The person who has once denied Satan and confessed God, and who has been born again and discarded all the oldness of Adam, is not guilty of sin, because he is the seed of God. The teaching of God remains in him, for he calls this teaching “seed.” COMMENTARIES.

1 Jn