What are the works of the devil in 1 John 3:8?

The apostle is especially in earnest that the children of God should realize this. He says, in verse 7, "Let no man deceive you: he that doeth righteousness is righteous, even as He is righteous;" it is the mark by which those are distinguished as children of Him who is righteous; while, on the other hand, the practice of sin distinguishes those who are in identification with the devil (ver. 8). A creature who abode not in the truth (John 8:44) became the originator of sin in man. From the time that iniquity was found in him (Ezek. 28:15) the practice of sin has marked him, and he is the great leader in the practice. It is this practice that manifests the world as being in association with, as of him. Through him, the original author of sin, works of evil have been found among God's creatures, whether angels or men. The practice of sin everywhere is of his instituting; it is his work.

The apostle reminds us now that the Son of God was manifested for the purpose of undoing the works of the devil. Every trace of him who introduced sin among God's creatures is to be removed. By the power of the blood of the cross all things, whether earthly or heavenly, will be brought back into a state of perfect harmony with God, absolutely and permanently purged from the defilement of sin (Col. 1:20). Acting according to His own nature, the Son of God will remove sin from God's creation. Having already laid the basis for it in the work of the cross, He will entirely undo this scandal — the work of the devil.

It is evident that our apostle in these verses goes beyond the lusts and the vainglory of men without Christ, as traced in the chapter before. Christ is set before all the saints in His absolute sinlessness, and in His work of taking away our sins. So also the root of sin is thoroughly laid bare, the personal chief of sin being therefore brought forward with all directness, whose pride and rebellious independence of God is reproduced in those who are said to be "of the devil" (ver. 8). He that was manifested to take away the sins of those that are His was no less manifested to destroy the works of the devil, an undoing which goes far beyond man's sins and includes all malicious energy in dishonouring God and injuring man. We cannot overlook that here the Son of God is opposed personally to the evil one; as in 1 John 2 the love of the world stands in manifest antagonism to the love of the Father.

“For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil.” There is no agreement at any point between the works of the devil and the works of the Son of God. It is fully true that the devil must have the permission of God before he is allowed to practice his hateful and deceitful works upon man; but God in sovereign wisdom allows this in order to test and reveal man’s true condition, for it will eventually expose the actual hatred toward God that exists in the unbelieving heart, and on the other hand will serve to bring out more clearly the godly faith of one whose faith is truly in Christ. Indeed the manifestation of the Son of God in the world presents an Object of perfection and beauty to the eye of the believer that challenges and silences the evil activity of the devil. Moral power is there to defeat Satanic wiles. But His blessed voluntary sacrifice of Himself on Calvary is the full destruction of the power of the devil (compare Hebrews 2:14). For there sin (the only weapon in the hand of Satan) has been fully met and atoned for by the blessed Son of God. Can the believer therefore have the slightest sympathy with the works of the devil, which Christ came to destroy? Does sin have any place whatever in the new life given us by grace?

The difficulty therefore in the case of the sinner lies not in the fact of his fallen state, nor in the hopelessness of making the flesh better, nor in the powerlessness of nature to overcome the wicked one. It lies wholly in his unwillingness to look to the Son of God, Jesus Christ, for salvation from it all. When the serpent was lifted up by Moses in the wilderness, the difficulty was not with the fiery serpents, however numerous; nor was it in the deadly character of the poison instilled by their bite; but whether or not the bitten would look to the serpent which Moses by God's command had lifted up, and realise in the new life given the undoing of the work of the serpents. So here in 1 John 3:5, "the Son of God was manifested to take away our sins," and in 1 John 3:8, "to destroy" (lit. undo) "the works of the devil," the latter as truly as the former. We are not only to rejoice in full and everlasting forgiveness — for if He shall have taken away our sins, who shall bring them back? — but the works of the devil, and all his untiring energy of evil, are overcome, and in the believer undone. The prey is taken from the mighty, the lawful captive is delivered (Isa. 49:24), and "He owns himself the Saviour's prize, Mercy from first to last."

Now he gets much stronger, and looks at the source of the mischief. "He that doeth sin is of the devil." He had shown the source of the blessing; now he looks at the ultimate source of sin. It is not merely what Adam and Eve did but what the serpent infused into their hearts. What has the devil been about ever since but adding to the sin of the head fresh unrighteousness for each of the race? Here, it is said, "He that doeth sin is of the devil." He is the leader that man belongs to. He may boast of his ancestors, but there is another who was not literally his father; but fallen man has made Satan practically his god. So scripture calls him the god of this age, and the prince of the world. How true it is "He that doeth sin is of the devil"; not as flung out in man's haste, but nothing less than the truth of God. Not only is he a sinful man, but "he is of the devil." "For the devil sinneth from the beginning," that is, from the time that he was not content to be an angel of God but set up independently of God in his pride. From that moment was his beginning as the devil. This of course was after the time when he was created an angel.

Here again we see that "From the beginning," does not mean "In the beginning." This is said of the Word, the Son, in eternity before the creation, or as "In the beginning" of Gen. 1:1, pointing to God's action, not His being. "From the beginning," no matter how or where it occurs, is from the time that the person spoken of manifests himself. "From the beginning" of Christ was from the time when Christ manifested Himself. "From the beginning" of the devil was when he manifested not his angelic qualities but his pride against God first, and his malice afterward, the sure effect of pride in others also.

"To this end the Son of God was manifested, that he might undo the works of the devil." This does not seem to mean exactly the same thing as to take away our sins. It is not to be doubted that this great object also points to the self-same time; but we must remember that the death of Christ had far more in it than simply taking away our sins. This is everything to us; or at any rate everything of God's grace practically begins with His work to take away our sins. But He became the bondman of God, and so His champion against Satan, the ceaseless adversary of both God and man; and Christ was manifested not only to reconcile us to God by His death, but to undo everything that Satan had wrought in all his malignant history. And so He will. Satan has a great deal to do with wars, famines, earthquakes, pestilences, etc., as is to be learnt from the early part of Job and elsewhere. Meanwhile God overrules for good all these things that Satan does for evil. But there is mischief in him at all times, restless mischief to injure; as there is the unceasing love of God to do good to all that listen to Him, especially in what He reveals of the Lord Jesus. "Every one that is born of God doeth not sin." Righteousness is his life for practice, as it is for piety. The believer is characterised by the new nature that does not sin. Supposing a man had been a slave from the time that he was born, but that in the course of time some kindly Englishman interposed and delivered him from his captors. The man becomes a free man directly, by the law of this country, no small boon to the slave. When he thinks or talks of himself after that moment, does he still think of himself as a slave? Not at all: this is far from his thought. Such he was once; but now he is a free man. It may be objected that the old man still exists in the Christian; but the answer is that God set him free from it by Christ's death. So that there remains enough true in this illustration to justify its use here. Alas! what is spiritual is not so easy to understand and feel as the natural.

John puts things into black and white terms to demonstrate the practical nature of things. We rightly perceive the devil as an abhorrent character, but we too easily make light of sin. In practical terms, anyone committing sin is demonstrating exactly the features that characterise the devil! When a believer sins, is this the activity of the nature received from God by new birth? Clearly not! It is the outflow of the nature inherited from Adam. But it is also the replication of the characteristics of the devil. For the human race, Adam is the source of sin. But in a practical sense, the devil is the pattern of sin. Anyone sinning – believer or unbeliever – is following the devil's pattern. A knowledge of these things is intended to make sin even more abhorrent in our eyes.

On the other hand, he who practises lawlessness is not of God at all. He is of the devil since he is displaying the exact character of the source from whence he springs. From the beginning the devil sins. He was committed to lawlessness from the outset; and the Son of God has been manifested that He might destroy his works. What the devil has done, leading men into lawlessness, the Son of God came to undo.

(V. 8). In contrast with the one that does righteousness and is born of God, the one that “practises sin is of the devil” (N.Tn.). Alas! through carelessness the believer may fall into sin, but the one that lives in sin shows clearly that he has the same nature as the devil, who sins from the beginning of his history. The Son of God was manifested to undo the works of the devil in order that believers, with a new nature, might come under the sway of Christ, and, abiding in Him, act in righteousness, even as He is righteous.

“Children, let no man lead you astray: he that practiseth righteousness is righteous, even as He is righteous. He that practiseth sin is of the devil; for the devil sinneth from the beginning” (Numerical Bible). A man’s practice indicates his character. Let the children of God carefully consider this, and not be swayed by mere specious words. The practice of righteousness however is not the mere practise of humanitarian kindness and moral principles of which the world can approve. If it does not manifest true faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, it is not righteousness at all, for the claims of God’s righteousness are certainly paramount. His righteousness is seen in Christ, and a true believer will in his measure, display a definite resemblance in character to that of his Master. In complete contrast, the sinful practice of an unbeliever shows him to be “of the devil; for the devil sinneth from the beginning.” However refined and specious the character of his sin, however deceiving to some minds, it is yet sin, an offense against the blessed Person of the Lord Jesus.

On the other hand, there are instances where the same Greek word is rendered in different ways in our English translations. To consider one example, it says in Ephesians 2:14 that He has ‘broken down' the middle wall of partition. The same word is used in 1 John 3:8 where it says that He was manifested to ‘undo' or ‘destroy' the works of the devil. Christ has accomplished both: He has undone that which during the time of the law separated the Gentiles from God's people, forming both, Jews and Gentiles, into one new man, but He has also undone the works of the devil. A suitable concordance or computer programme, like e-sword, [4] will lead to other discoveries along this line.