I John 3:10

In the Bible there are two positive aspects to godly righteousness. The one we have just looked at in its barest essentials is that righteousness is a state, or a condition, God declares us to be in simply because we are under the blood of Jesus Christ. This is a state not based on what we have done, but by what God does according to His grace.

This righteousness has its basis in obedience to God's instruction. This too is very important because this is a vital step in what produces godly character within us. It shows that we are following God, and thus a witness is made to the world because we are practicing righteousness. Therefore it is what separates us from the world. If you are practicing righteousness, it means you are then, at the very least, keeping the commands of God.

If you begin to keep the Sabbath, does that not separate you from the world? Absolutely. If you are keeping the Sabbath, does it not witness to the world? Absolutely. If you are keeping the Sabbath, you are then brought into fellowship with God and His people, and you become a part of His church. This is very vital. We have to have both of them.

The first aspect is the justification by the blood of Jesus Christ by which God declares us to be justified and righteous. The second aspect is the righteousness that accrues as a result of obedience to God, and by that the godly character is produced.

I John 3:10-18

I am sure that I could have used dozens of scriptures to illustrate this and to prove it, but it all boils down to this: It is the way we live that reveals who the children of God are.

Those three sections that I have read to you, "by this shall all men know that you are My disciples, if you love one another" (John 13:35). That illustrates something. The children of God are made known or manifested by the way they live. I John 3:10 makes that very clear.

We understand what righteousness is, and in this context righteousness is love. Loving your brother, to be more specific. To not do anything—I am taking [picking] this out of what John says here—is almost equated as a form of hatred. It is almost equated with murder.

John makes it very clear in verses 17 and 18 [I John 3:17-18] that fine words, or fine thoughts, or fine feelings can never take the place of something that is done.

I John 3:10

What we are seeing here is an amplification of what Jesus just said there in John 13, that we have to learn to love our brother and by this we will be known as His disciples. Love is not pleasant thoughts. Love is not sympathetic feelings. Love is not having warm regard for somebody. Those things may all be included within what love is, but love is an outgoing concern for the well-being that motivates a person to do something about it. "God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son." His concern motivated Him to do something. We have it stated that love is keeping the commands of God, keeping being an active verb here.

I John 3:10

There is something that John establishes very clearly in the whole book. There are so many verses along this line. I won't go into them, but the next time you read I John, please take note of it, and that is that the test of whether one is of the truth is always conduct.

Conduct is always the test. Sinful conduct is totally incompatible with the life that comes from God. The children of God are those who find salvation. That word salvation means "deliverance from sin by being conformed to Christ's nature through the vision God gives to us and the knowledge of Him as well."

I John 3:10-12

Now Cain had come to worship the true God, but God did not accept his worship because Cain was yielding to and being influenced by the spirit of Satan. And we know he is the prince of the power of the air who works in children of disobedience. And his heart was also filled with a hidden agenda. He came to worship God like he was righteous, but he was not. He was evil. He was being influenced by the wrong spirit. His hidden agenda here was bitterness and jealous envy for his brother Abel.

I John 3:10

We understand what righteousness is, and in this context righteousness is love. Loving your brother, to be more specific. To not do anything—I am taking [picking] this out of what John says here—is almost equated as a form of hatred. It is almost equated with murder.