1 John 3:7Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

Having said this, he gives a firm command: "Let no one deceive you." The meaning is this: he who does righteousness has known the Righteous One and is righteous, as He, that is, God, is righteous.

Let no one deceive you, among those who say that sin is not lawlessness. For the devil sinned first. That is, from the beginning of his creation, because he never abode in the truth.

For this is how the matter stands: he who does justice has known the Just One and is himself already just, as the One whom he has known is just, that is, God. Correspondingly, the opposite is also true: he who commits sin is of the sinner. And the sinner is the devil.

This does not mean that our righteousness is worth anything before the face of God's holiness. As it is written: "There is none holy like the Lord" (1 Sam 2:2). But as a human face and its reflection in a mirror differ from each other, because the image in the mirror is only an imitation while the body is the reality, and yet there is some likeness between them, so also here the difference is essential. Yet we have something of the image of God, though not as the Son, who is equal to the Father, has it.

Now Saint John says directly that Christians must not listen to false teachers.

They must not believe them when they say that one can be saved without good works.

"Children, let no one deceive you. He who does righteousness is righteous, just as He," the Savior, "is righteous."

It is as though he said: children, do not be deceived by the thought that you can be saved only because you believe in Christ and are called Christians.

No, only the one who fulfills Christ's commandments is truly righteous and becomes like the perfect Righteous One, Jesus Christ.

Or again: only he is truly righteous and pleasing to God who fulfills God's commandments, as Jesus Christ fulfilled them.

Jesus Christ left us the most perfect example on the path to salvation. We must imitate this example.

As much as sinfulness removes man from God, so much does righteousness, or in other words living and active faith, bring him near to Him. But whoever thinks contrary to this, whoever does not honor the law and indulges impiety, has not known the way of God and is a deceiver and destroyer of human souls.

"He who does righteousness" (Jn 5:29). By righteousness is properly meant the justification of sinful man before the righteous judgment of God. Since this is attained through man's virtue, the Apostle, instead of saying "he who does good works," says "he who does righteousness," meaning one who strives to attain justification.

"Children" (1 Jn 2:1, 28), "let no one deceive you," or let no one lead you astray.

I foresee that false teachers will appear among you. To please you, they will open widely to you the door into the Kingdom of Heaven, which is narrow in essence.

They will deceive you with imaginary freedom.

I warn you, and with fatherly warmth I ask you: do not be deceived by their words.

Do not be deceived either by them or by your own flattering thought, if anyone has such a thought.

"He who does righteousness" (1 Jn 2:29) "is righteous."

Do not think that one can be saved only because he believes in Christ and considers himself His follower.

Works of virtue must be joined to faith. One must do righteousness and fulfill the law of Christ's commandments.

Having defined the foundation of life according to God, the Apostle turns to the thought of the opposite condition, the condition of sinfulness.

He shows that every sin is, to a greater or lesser degree, a conscious violation of the law and resistance to the work of salvation.

It was for this work that our sinless Savior came.

Therefore only one who does not know Jesus Christ and has no understanding of His work can sin.

A firm believer in Him cannot sin fully consciously and willingly, as the heretics sinned.

They asserted that Christians, as those freed from sin, were free to do everything. By this they seduced those who lacked a firm understanding of Christianity.