1 John 3:8Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

The one who sins gives him place, having submitted to desire. After receiving him, he then commits sin in deed.

This is what it means to commit sin.

It is well said, "whoever commits," not "whoever has committed." In this respect, the repentant man is no longer of the devil.

Only the one who continues committing sin is of him.

So too, the slave of sin is the one who commits sin, not the one who once committed sin.

For "everyone who commits sin is a slave of sin" (Jn 8:34).

He could never escape the power of the Almighty, yet he did not wish, in pious subjection, to preserve what truly is. In proud arrogance he strove falsely to represent what was not.

In this sense, one should understand what the blessed Apostle John said: “The devil sinned from the beginning” (1 Jn 3:8). That is, from the moment he was created, he denied the truth.

Only a pious will devoted to God can possess that truth. Whoever is satisfied with this opinion does not yet share the mind of the well-known heretics, namely, the Manichees.

However, certain other harmful heresies also hold the opinion that the devil received his own, in some sense evil, nature from some principle opposed to God.

In their vanity they reach such madness that, although they honor the Gospel words cited above equally with us, they do not notice that the Lord did not say, “The devil was alien to the truth.”

He said, “He did not stand in the truth.” By this He wished to make clear that the devil fell away from the truth. Had he stood in it, he would have become a participant in it and remained blessed together with the holy Angels.

So also concerning the well-known words of John about the devil, “The devil sinned from the beginning,” they do not understand that if this were a natural act, it would in no way constitute sin.

In that case, what should be said concerning the prophetic testimonies? What of Isaiah, who presents the devil under the image of the prince of Babylon: “How you have fallen from heaven, O Day Star, son of the dawn!” (Is 14:12).

Or what of Ezekiel, who says: “You were in Eden, the garden of God; your garments were adorned with every precious stone” (Ezek 28:13)? From these words it is clear that he was once without sin.

For a little further on it is said to him more expressly: “You were perfect in your ways from the day of your creation” (Ezek 28:15).

If these words cannot have another, more exact meaning, then we must also understand “he did not stand in the truth” to mean that he did abide in the truth, but did not remain in it.

On this basis, the expression “The devil sinned from the beginning” should be understood as meaning that he sins not from the beginning when he was created, but from the beginning of sin, because sin took its beginning from his pride.

Likewise, what is written in the book of Job when it speaks of the devil, “This is the beginning of the creation of the Lord, made to be mocked by His angels” (Job 40:14), should be understood accordingly.

The psalm also seems to speak in agreement with this, where we read: “This dragon whom You formed to mock him” (Ps 103:26).

We must not understand this to mean that he was created from the beginning in such a way that the Angels would mock him. Rather, he fell under this punishment after sin.

Thus, according to his beginning, he is a creation of the Lord. For even among the last and lowest animals there is no nature that He did not create.

From Him come every measure, every form, and every order. Without these, one cannot point to or even imagine any thing, much less the angelic creature, which by the dignity of its nature surpasses all else created by God.

But while the others began to sing the glory of the Creator, he, having been created better, soon became proud of his greatness.

With his accomplices he rose up against his Creator.

Thus from the beginning he fell into the sin of pride and was changed from an archangel into the devil.

In the Vulgate the verb is in the present tense.

If someone says that certain such people interpret the Divine Scriptures, theologize, and preach Orthodox dogmas, let him know that the work of Christ does not consist in this.

John the Theologian does not say: for this reason the Son of God appeared, that certain men might theologize and confess Orthodoxy. He says: “that He might destroy the works of the devil.”

Concerning such people I say that one must first cleanse the vessel of every defilement, and only then put myrrh into it. Otherwise the myrrh itself will be defiled, and a stench will come from it instead of fragrance.

The Son of God and God the Word did not become man merely so that men might believe in the Holy Trinity, glorify Her, and theologize about Her. He became man in order to destroy the works of the devil.

Only the one in whom the works of the devil have been destroyed after receiving the faith of Christ may be entrusted with the mysteries of theology and Orthodox dogmas.

Those in whom such works have not been destroyed, and who are shown to be entangled in them to the dishonor and blasphemy of God, in fact still stand on the same level as the pagans.

Pagans are forbidden and prohibited even from entering the temple of the Lord and praying in it to God. How much more are they forbidden to read the Divine Scriptures and interpret them.

For it is written: “But to the sinner God said: Why do you declare My ordinances, and take My covenant in your mouth? You have hated instruction, and cast My words behind you” (Ps 49:16-17).

Whoever does not take God’s laws to heart hates the instruction and correction suggested by the words of the Lord. He stops his ears so as not to hear the word of God.

That word proclaims the coming judgment and recompense for sinners, the unquenchable fire of Gehenna and the other torments of Hades, and eternal condemnation. No one who has once fallen under it can escape it.

Whoever does not strive with all his strength always to keep God’s commandments before his eyes and observe them, but despises them, prefers what is contrary to them, and carries this out in deed, casts God’s words behind him.

I shall explain this by the following example. God clearly commands: “Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand” (Mt 4:17), and again: “Strive to enter through the narrow gate” (Lk 13:24).

But the one who hears this not only does not wish to repent or compel himself to go through the narrow gate, but spends all the days of his life in great negligence.

Every hour he adds other sins to his former sins. He gives his body repose and comfort more than is necessary, and even more than is fitting.

This is a sign of the broad and spacious way that leads to destruction, not of the narrow and sorrowful way that leads into eternal life.

Is it not evident that such a man casts behind him, that is, despises, the words of God, and does his own desires, or rather, the desires of the devil?

Saint David also portrays one who casts God’s words behind him in this way: “If you saw a thief, you ran with him, and with the adulterer you placed your portion.

Your mouth multiplied evil, and your tongue wove deceit. Sitting, you slandered your brother, and against your mother’s son you set a stumbling block.

These things you have done, and I kept silence. You supposed iniquity, that I would be like you. I will rebuke you, and set your sins before your face.

Understand these things, you who forget God, lest He seize you, and there be none to deliver” (Ps 49:18-22).

Do you see how such a man has forgotten God and deserves to receive a greater punishment than the godless, who do not know God at all?

For after knowing God, as the Apostle says, he does not glorify Him as God, but rather insults Him by doing the works of the devil.

Therefore he is an enemy of God, even though he appears to be a most faithful teacher of divine dogmas and Orthodox theology. Moreover, it is impossible for such a man to proclaim divine dogmas and theologize faithfully.

For how can a mind darkened by a defiled conscience think rightly and purely? Only the one who has been loosed from the works of the devil and always keeps God in remembrance can faithfully proclaim the mysteries of God.

He is no longer bound by the works of the devil. May we all be delivered from them and obtain the Kingdom of Heaven, in Christ Jesus our Lord, to whom be glory unto the ages. Amen.

When he himself fell away from God, he also drew man after himself. Since then he sins constantly and unceasingly, so that sin has become an inevitable element of his life.

Evil from the beginning is not properly man's work. Man has been deceived, or tempted, by evil.

The devil, on the contrary, does not borrow evil from anywhere, is not tempted by it, and is not inclined toward it by another.

He brings it forth from himself. In him himself is the beginning of every evil and every sin.

He is the original source of every evil and sin, and from then on he constantly bears evil and sin within himself.

This is the meaning of the expression, "the devil sins from the beginning." He sins constantly and unceasingly. This is the necessary element of his life.

For this reason the Son of God, the Lord Jesus Christ, appeared in the flesh and became man, that He might destroy the works of the devil.

The Lord destroyed these works of the devil by His life, His teaching, His deeds, His sufferings, and His redeeming death.

He delivered mankind from sin, the curse, and death.

By the works of the devil are meant precisely sins, as actions performed under the influence and action of the devil.

The destruction of such works by Christ, through the action of His redeeming death, is continually accomplished in the Church of Christ and in believers themselves.

The devil captivates men in sin as with a chain. Christ breaks this chain and frees from captivity those who believe in Him.

He also destroys the whole kingdom of the devil, bringing those who believe in Him into the Kingdom of Heaven.

The general meaning of the whole saying is this: whoever does righteousness has known the Righteous One and is righteous as He, that is, God, is righteous.

On the contrary, whoever commits sin is from the sinner, that is, from the devil, since he is a sinner from the beginning.

Therefore God, Who cares for His creation, and Who Himself is righteousness and holiness, was revealed, that is, appeared in the world, in order to destroy the works of the devil.

Since the devil is constantly occupied with sin, everyone who sins becomes the devil's partisan.

It is well said, "whoever commits," and not, "whoever has committed." In this respect, the repentant man is no longer of the devil.

Only the one who continues committing sin is of him.

So too, the slave of sin is the one who commits sin, not the one who has committed sin" (Theophylact).