John writes to help us have confidence in who we are and what it means to be a child of God. He uses contrast to make it clear. Either you are a child of God or you are not. Either you are walking in righteousness or living in sin. This is how we know where we stand and how we can have confidence in Him. Before Christ, our lives move with the grain of the world. Sin feels natural and smooth. But when we become a Christian, the grain reverses. Now when we move back toward old patterns, it feels rough. There is friction. That friction is not shame. It is conviction. It is evidence that God has changed our desires from the inside out. This does not mean we will never sin again, but we will not keep on sinning as a pattern. There will be a tension. There will be a fight. We just cannot go in that direction anymore. God’s seed abides in us, and He is shaping us through the process of sanctification as we become more like Him. 

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