Commentaries:
Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown
He that committeth sin is of the devil--in contrast to "He that doeth righteousness," 1 John 3:7. He is a son of the devil (1 John 3:10; John 8:44). John does not, however, say, "born of the devil." as he does "born of God," for "the devil begets none, nor does he create any; but whoever imitates the devil becomes a child of the devil by imitating him, not by proper birth" [AUGUSTINE, Ten Homilies on the First Epistle of John, Homily 4.10]. From the devil there is not generation, but corruption [BENGEL].
sinneth from the beginning--from the time that any began to sin [ALFORD]: from the time that he became what he is, the devil. He seems to have kept his first estate only a very short time after his creation [BENGEL]. Since the fall of man [at the beginning of our world] the devil is (ever) sinning (this is the force of "sinneth"; he has sinned from the beginning, is the cause of all sins, and still goes on sinning; present). As the author of sin, and prince of this world, he has never ceased to seduce man to sin [LUECKE].
destroy--break up and do away with; bruising and crushing the serpent's head.
works of the devil--sin, and all its awful consequences. John argues, Christians cannot do that which Christ came to destroy.
The same truth stated, with the addition that he who sins is, so far as he sins, "of the devil."
let no man deceive you--as Antinomians try to mislead men.
righteousness--Greek, "the righteousness," namely, of Christ or God.
he that doeth . . . is righteous--Not his doing makes him righteous, but his being righteous (justified by the righteousness of God in Christ, Romans 10:3-10) makes him to do righteousness: an inversion common in familiar language, logical in reality, though not in form, as in Luke 7:47; John 8:47. Works do not justify, but the justified man works. We infer from his doing righteousness that he is already righteous (that is, has the true and only principle of doing righteousness, namely, faith), and is therefore born of God (1 John 3:9); just as we might say, The tree that bears good fruit is a good tree, and has a living root; not that the fruit makes the tree and its root to be good, but it shows that they are so.
he--Christ.
Other commentary entries containing this verse:
Genesis 3:1
Isaiah 65:25
Ezekiel 3:20
Ezekiel 18:30-32
Matthew 13:39
Mark 9:26
John 8:34-35
John 8:44
John 16:11
Romans 8:13
Romans 16:20
1 Timothy 3:16
1 John 3:10
1 John 3:12
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