Hello everyone,
You know, I use the term “children of God” a lot in these videos. I use it because it is a scriptural term that applies to everyone who is born from above. By putting faith in the name of Jesus Christ, we receive the authority to become adopted children of God. (John 1:12, 13) But that doesn’t mean that every person who claims to follow Christ is in fact a child of God. Dwelling within Christendom, there are two rival families, each descending from a different father. In one of the last Bible books ever written, the Apostle John tells us how to differentiate between members of each family group.
“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 [or sister].” (1 John 3:10 BSB)
Isn’t it fascinating that the children of the Devil co-exist with the children of God inside the Christian congregation. And here’s the thing: They don’t even realize that they are the devil’s children. Every Christian just assumes that he or she is a child of God. We all pray to God and we all call God our “Father.” Mind you, it gets a little confusing for many who see Jesus as God since God is our Father and Jesus is our brother, and don’t even get me started on how to slide the whole Holy Spirit is God into the mix. But doctrinal differences are not how John tells us we can distinguish the children of the devil from the children of God. He says that one spiritual family practices righteousness, while the other does not. One group of children loves fellow believers, but the other group hates them.
John doesn’t leave us to speculate on what it means to practice righteousness and love one’s brother or sister. He dives right in with a practical example:
“This is the message you have heard from the beginning: We should love one another. Do not be like Cain, who belonged to the evil one and murdered his brother. And why did Cain slay him? Because his own deeds were evil, while those of his brother were righteous. So do not be surprised, brothers, if the world hates you.” (1 John 3:11-13 BSB)
Cain’s deeds were evil? What evil deeds did Cain practice that led to him killing his younger brother? Both men worshipped the same God, Yehovah. Both men made some type of gift offering to God. But Yehovah “looked with favor on Abel and his offering, but He had no regard for Cain and his offering. So Cain became very angry, and his countenance fell. (Genesis 4:4b, 5)
So, the evil that Cain practiced doesn’t fit with how many define evil today. He simply worshipped God his way, and when shown by God that he wasn’t being blessed for his way of worship, he failed to change. He was filled with the spirit of Satan, which is what makes someone into a child of the devil. The Devil doesn’t want to do things God’s way. He hates anyone who obeys God and is blessed by God. Filled with that mentality, that spirit of rebellion, Cain refused to obey God and so developed a murderous hatred for his brother who had done nothing to provoke him. Cain was motivated by jealousy.
The apostle John uses this historic example to warn his readers that the same spirit that drove Cain to murder his brother continues to exist among people who claim to follow Christ. He goes on to say: “We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love our brothers. The one who does not love remains in death. Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that eternal life does not reside in a murderer.” (1 John 3:14, 15 BSB)
Within the Christian world today, there are so many who act like Cain. They worship God their way, and they are not blessed. When they see someone who worships God in an approved way, according to Scripture, they don’t change their way of worship, but instead, they hate their fellow believer.
How many Jehovah’s Witnesses have experienced this type of murderous hatred? They are shunned by family and friends, murdered socially, not because they are sinning, but because they are practicing righteousness by obeying God rather than men. (Acts 5:29)
This hatred in the manner of Cain is well structured in the Witness community. Codified, if you will. But the spirit behind it is that of the first one who decided to do things his way rather than God’s. The devil, acting now as an angel of light, has his “ministers of righteousness” executing his orders. (2 Corinthians 11:15)
Following the same pattern used to judge and condemn God’s son by the Sanhedrin court, these ministers of righteousness “invite” (quote/unquote) the accused to attend a private, closed-door session. He or she stands alone to face a committee of three or more elders (They don’t call them “Judicial Committees” anymore. Not since Norway cut their funding.)
Accusations are made, but the elders will not reason on Scripture with the accused. They only want to know if he or she will submit to the rule of the Governing Body. So, here you have a child of God before those who are now doing the will of Satan, though they probably don’t realize it. But the persecution goes on from there, because once they announce that the person has been removed from the congregation—they don’t say “disfellowshipped” anymore, again…Norway—the rumor mill kicks into high gear as the community of Jehovah’s Witnesses spreads the slander that serves to vilify the child of God wherever he or she goes.
Have you been there? Have you experienced this hatred yourself because you chose to worship God in spirit and truth?
But it doesn’t stop there. Don’t think for a minute that this is all the persecution you are going to face. No! Not if you are truly a child of God, like Abel was. It may at first be baffling to you that brothers and sisters who’ve experienced the same character assassination from Jehovah’s Witnesses that you’ve endured would now employ similar tactics. But remember, John reveals that the children of the devil are within the congregation.
The children of the Devil hate the children of God for the same reason that Cain hated and murdered his brother, Abel.
It doesn’t matter that you’ve done nothing to harm or provoke them. Your faith and the blessings from God that it brings is more than enough provocation for these children of the devil. It incites them to jealousy.
Should it sadden and distress you when you are enduring hateful slander from the mouths of people who claim to be your Christian brothers and sisters? No. It should much rather be a source of joy, for your Lord foretold this would happen when he said:
“God blesses you when people mock you and persecute you and lie about you and say all sorts of evil things against you because you are my followers. Be happy about it! Be very glad! For a great reward awaits you in heaven. And remember, the ancient prophets were persecuted in the same way.” (Matthew 5:11, 12 NLT)
Don’t read this and think that the people mocking, and persecuting, and lying about you are not also professing to be followers of Jesus. Who persecuted the ancient prophets? God’s own people, their fellow Israelites. These are the ones who persecuted and killed the prophets.
A true child of God does not lie and mock and speak evil hatred to persecute his or her brother or sister. Indeed, Jesus said “God blesses those who work for peace, for they will be called the children of God.” (Matthew 5:9 NLT)
So, when people lie about us and slander us, should we just sit back and take it quietly, because they’re doing us a favor by identifying us as children of God and bringing upon us God’s blessing?
Well, we certainly don’t want to descend to their level and engage in a smear campaign of our own. But does that mean that in every instance, we should remain silent?
To answer that question, we go back to the main point John is making. The law that governs all we do is the law of love. But let’s be clear here. There is a very tight definition that John attaches to this particular application of the word love, which in Greek is agape.
He writes: “We know what real love is because Jesus gave up his life for us. So we also ought to give up our lives for our brothers and sisters.” (1 John 3:16 NLT)
Jesus put our lives above his own. He suffered horribly so that we could live. When he was arrested and tried in a sham of a trial, akin to the way JW judicial committees are conducted, he said nothing in his defense, just as Isaiah predicted he would:
“He was oppressed and afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth; he was led like a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before its shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth.” (Isaiah 53:7 NIV)
And yet, there were times when he did speak out against false accusations made against him. What changed? In those cases, his concern was not defending himself, but rather protecting his disciples so that they might not be misled. Likewise, when the apostle Paul defended himself against false accusations, it was not out of revenge nor even self-defense. After all, his salvation was secured. But he did care about how those slanderers might misled God’s people. So, on the rare occasion that he took someone to task for their lying slander against him, it was for the sake of others. This is what the love of Christ represents in us, the need to put ourselves on the line for the welfare of others.
Paul did not do this because he was seeking followers. Quite the opposite. He chastised the Corinthians for putting their trust in men.
“You are still worldly. For since there is jealousy and quarreling among you, are you not worldly? Are you not acting like mere humans? For when one says, “I follow Paul,” and another, “I follow Apollos,” are you not mere human beings?...So then, no more boasting about human leaders! All things are yours, whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or the present or the future—all are yours, and you are of Christ, and Christ is of God.” (1 Corinthians 3:3, 4, 21-23 NIV)
You’d think that after receiving this rebuke from Paul that the Corinthians would have learned their lesson, but it appears that some men swept in and began to mislead them yet again, such that in his second letter, Paul had to do a little damage control because these men were slandering him to empower themselves. Paul was forced to defend his apostleship, though he was loathe to do so. He writes:
“Whatever anyone else dares to boast about—I am speaking as a fool—I also dare to boast about. Are they Hebrews? So am I. Are they Israelites? So am I. Are they Abraham’s descendants? So am I. Are they servants of Christ? (I am out of my mind to talk like this.) I am more. I have worked much harder, been in prison more frequently, been flogged more severely, and been exposed to death again and again. (2 Corinthians 11:21b-23 NIV)
He goes on, but you can see he’s doing this under duress. “I am out of my mind to talk like this”, he says.
But he’s doing so because others are being taken in by these men whom he calls “superfine apostles”.
I can empathize with Paul’s situation, because in the years that we’ve been doing these videos and supporting online meetings in different languages, we’ve had our fair share of superfine apostles, both male and female, trying to get people to follow them rather than embrace the freedom of the Christ.
The pattern is always the same. The children of the devil attack anyone taking the lead in a group with lies and slanderous innuendo and depend on others to just believe what they hear without checking things out for themselves. They don’t want to be cross-examined because it would expose their lies, just as a Proverb states:
“The first to state his case seems right until another comes and cross-examines him.” (Proverbs 18:17 BSB)
Remember that the name Devil comes from a root word meaning “slanderer”. So, to distinguish between a child of God and a child of the devil, consider their methodology. Does it appear they are acting out of love, or self-interest? Are they seeking peace, or scandal? Do they provide hard evidence, or conjecture and opinion? Do their words reveal a prideful demeanor, or a humble one? Is their tone loving or hate-filled?
The Bible assures us that “everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution. But evil people and impostors will flourish. They will deceive others and will themselves be deceived.” (2 Timothy 3:12, 13 NLT)
How are the children of God to react when attacked by the children of the devil? Paul tells us:
“When reviled, we bless; when persecuted, we endure; when slandered, we entreat. We have become, and are still, like the scum of the world, the refuse of all things. I do not write these things to make you ashamed, but to admonish you as my beloved children.” (1 Corinthians 4:12b-14 ESV)
We know that these two groups, the children of God and the children of the devil, were foretold to be in opposition to one another at Genesis 3:15. The first conflict in that struggle was Cain’s murderous attack against Abel. This warring continues to our day.
In our next video, we’ll continue our analysis of the methods Satan uses to deceive us. He has no new tricks in his bag. They’re the same old tactics he’s always used. As Paul says, we will “not be outwitted by Satan [because] we are not ignorant of his designs.” (2 Corinthians 2:11 ESV)
As always, I thank you for your attention and support. We are all in this together. May the Lord Jesus bless the faith you show.