By this the children of God are distinguished from the children of the devil: Anyone who does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is anyone who does not love his brother.In this the children of God are revealed, and the children of the devil. Whoever doesn’t do righteousness is not of God, neither is he who doesn’t love his brother.In this the children of God are manifest, and the children of the devil: whosoever doeth not righteousness is not of God, neither he that loveth not his brother.In this the children of God are manifest, and the children of the devil: whosoever doeth not righteousness is not of God, neither he that loveth not his brother.
4 sermons cite this verse
… 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. You want to tell who the children of God are? Look at their lives. They're obeying him. We reflect him. That's what we talked about earlier. Remember, this is why we adopt. This is why we do foster care. Not because we're just altruistic people. We don't adopt because we just want nice Christmas card photos to send out that people will think are cute. That doesn't drive ministry to orphans. what drives ministry to orphans is gospel-driven tenacity that knows when there are difficulties in foster care and adoption, when there are challenges, when there is resistance, even from children who don't have a mom or a dad, but who have grown up in a context where they have learned to resist any effort at love toward them. Why, how do you press in? How do you press in in those circumstances? …
… And he cannot sin because he's been born of God. In this, the children of God and the children of the devil are manifest. Whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is he who does not love his brother. and so God we ask that as we now consider your word which is high we esteem it we honor it we tremble before God we're not going to flippantly oh well what do we think we want to acknowledge God what we've just read is your eternal word and so now in this moment God this precious gift of the present as we have the opportunity and the honor to think about your word to let it frame how we view the world. We pray that your Holy Spirit would do what only you can do, that you would bring us to life through your word. From grace to grace, from glory to glory, God, where there is weakness, would you bring strength? Where there is sorrow, would you bring hope and comfort? …
… The new has come. By this the children of God and the children of the devil are obvious. Anyone who does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor the one who does not love his brother. It's not that hard to distinguish people. What do you mean? You mean they never sinned? No, they don't practice unrighteousness. If you practice unrighteousness, you give evidence of being of the devil. If that's the pattern of your life, then you're not converted. Whatever you think you may have prayed or whatever emotional connection you thought you had with Jesus. The children of the devil and the children of the Lord are easy to distinguish. One practices sin, the other practices righteousness. In other words, the dominating pattern of the life is sin, or the dominating pattern of the life is righteousness. And it's not just that Christians are, for some external reason, better able to stay away from sin because they work harder at it. It is that they stay away from sin because they have been recreated in righteousness, holiness, and truth. …
Man, that's intense. You see what the Bible says? He says, if God's seed abides in you, you cannot keep sinning. See, just like when the Holy Spirit comes into you, you have this affection for Jesus. Like, inside of you, you don't need someone to talk you into prayer. Please, please, just pray for two minutes a day. Just try it. Just read the Bible for three minutes a day. Come on, just do it. You don't need that inside of you. You're screaming, Abba Father, I've got to have more of you. I've got to have more of you. This is the one thing I want is just to be with you. And in the same way, He says if the seed abides in you, you can't keep sinning. Like you don't have to, someone doesn't have to beg you, please, please, End that sexual relationship. Stop that pornography. Why? Because God's Spirit is already saying that to you. And he says it so clearly. Whoever makes a practice of sinning is of the devil. …