The Question Raised by 1 John 3:10

First John 3:10 says the children of God and the children of the devil are evident: whoever does not practice righteousness and love a brother or sister is not of God.

The verse is sometimes used to support a sharp, fixed division between two kinds of people. In a Calvinist framework, the elect are made God’s children by sovereign new birth, while the rest remain children of the devil and cannot turn to God without regeneration. John certainly describes two opposed identities. The question is what makes those identities “evident” in his argument.

How Reformed Theology Uses the Passage

Reformed interpreters read the passage through the lens of new birth. Those born of God practice righteousness because God’s seed abides in them. Conduct reveals the regenerative act God has performed. Children of the devil lack that new nature and continue in sin.

The text is not usually taken to mean believers achieve sinless perfection. Rather, settled direction and practice reveal parentage. The new birth produces perseverance in righteousness and love.

Reading the Passage in Context

First John responds to division, false claims, denial of Christ, and lack of love. The letter offers tests of genuine fellowship: right belief about Jesus, obedience, love, and continued attachment to the apostolic community.

In 3:4–10, John contrasts practicing sin with practicing righteousness. The language is pastoral and diagnostic. He wants readers to recognize claims that do not match conduct. Verse 10 itself explains how the two groups become visible: righteousness and love reveal identity.

The next verse moves immediately to Cain, whose hatred and murder expose the evil one’s pattern. John is not discussing which names were selected before creation. He is warning the church against loveless religion.

What the Passage Clearly Teaches

The passage teaches that spiritual identity has moral evidence. A profession of faith cannot be separated from righteousness and love. The devil’s influence appears in hatred; God’s life appears in Christlike love.

It also teaches that new birth is transformative. John does not reduce salvation to a legal label with no effect on conduct. God’s children increasingly resemble their Father.

Does It Prove the Reformed Claim?

The verse does not state that children of the devil are unable to respond to the gospel. Nor does it say their identity is eternally fixed before faith. It identifies people by present practice.

John elsewhere writes evangelistically so readers may believe and have life, and he calls people to confess, abide, and receive testimony. Those appeals do not fit an interpretation in which the labels themselves answer every question about how one moves from darkness to life.

A Calvinist may say conduct reveals an antecedent new birth and that only God can change parentage. A non-Calvinist can affirm that new birth produces change while holding that people become God’s children through faith in Christ. First John 3:10 does not settle the order.

The Strongest Reformed Reply

The strongest Reformed reply points to 1 John 3:9: the person born of God does not continue in sin because God’s seed abides in him. The causal direction runs from birth to conduct. God’s prior act then explains the difference.

That connection is important. It shows that righteousness is fruit, not the cause of new birth. It still does not tell us whether faith precedes or follows that birth. John’s purpose is assurance and discernment, not a complete chronology of conversion.

Beyond Tulip’s Assessment

First John 3:10 is a test of spiritual authenticity. It teaches that God’s children are known by righteousness and love, while the devil’s pattern is seen in sin and hatred. It does not prove an eternal individual decree or total inability.

The passage should challenge both empty profession and theological fatalism. Identity in God’s family is real, and so is the call to believe, abide, love, and walk as Christ walked.

Works Cited

  • The Holy Bible.
  • Canons of Dort, 1619.
  • Westminster Confession of Faith, 1647.
  • Allen, David L., and Steve W. Lemke, eds. Calvinism: A Biblical and Theological Critique. B&H Academic, 2022.
  • Flowers, Leighton C. The Potter’s Promise. Trinity Academic Press, 2017.
  • Geisler, Norman L. Chosen But Free. Bethany House, 2001.