This section of 1 John is unified by the idea of the children of God: who they are and how one can identify them by their lives. It is a passage dominated by ethics, particularly an ethical concern for righteousness and sin. It compares two “families”: the children of God and the children of the devil. In the background, as always, are the Elder’s opponents, the secessionists, whom he strongly contrasts to his own “dear children.”

The unit is built on a structure of four antitheses, four pairs of opposing statements:

A.

1. Everyone who does what is right

(2:29b)

2. Everyone who sins

(3:4a)

B.

1. No one who lives in him

(3:6a)

2. No one who continues to sin

(3:6b)

C.

1. He who does what is right

(3:7b)

2. He who does what is sinful

(3:8a)

D.

1. No one who is born of God

(…