1 John 3:8

he that doeth sin is of the devil; for the devil sinneth from the beginning. To this end was the Son of God manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil.

The devil ... Any willful or continual commission of deeds which are contrary to the will of God reveals the sinner for what he is, a child of the devil. Significantly, John, like all of the holy apostles, accepted without question Jesus' teaching regarding the malignant ruler of this world's darkness. John's teaching here is clearly derived from Jesus' words in John 8:44, and is like Paul's denunciation of Elymas as, "Thou son of the devil." (Acts 13:10). It is a false view that explains away John's powerful words here as an "impression he received from the law of Moses," due to his Jewish background! As Plummer said, "For every single time the devil is mentioned in the Old Testament, he is spoken of twenty times in any gospel or epistle!"[17] Someone wrote a question to F. F. Bruce, asking, "How can a child of God be of the devil?" Bruce replied: "He cannot; that is the point John is making."[18] Of course, for a child of God who might commit a sin occasionally, John had already written of the provision that God has made for that contingency (1 John 2:1,2). Here again, "doeth sin" refers to deliberate choice and continuity in sin.

The devil sinneth from the beginning ... This does not mean from the beginning of time, nor from the beginning of Satan's existence, nor from the beginning of the Christian age, but "from the beginning of human sin"[19] in the garden of Eden. Jesus said of Satan, that "he was a murderer from the beginning" (John 8:44); and these texts shed a great deal of light on the purpose of the evil one. By Christ's denomination of him as a murderer," the purpose of Satan to accomplish the death of Adam and Eve is evident; and from John's mention of the devil's sinning from that same time shows that Satan's deception of Eve was a diabolical and sinful act. It was for that sin that God pronounced the curse upon Satan.

REGARDING THE ORIGIN OF SATAN

The Scriptures do not give a categorical answer to the question of Satan's origin; but Ezekiel 28:12-19 has the nearest approach to an answer. If, as usually thought, "King of Tyre" in that passage refers to Satan, who had been "in Eden," who was lifted up because of his beauty, who "was created," who was perfect in his ways "till iniquity was found" in him, whose heart "was lifted up" because of his beauty, who was "corrupted" because of his wisdom, etc., then the origin of Satan is revealed in that remarkable passage.

Certainly, it is wrong to think of Satan's sharing, in any manner, the control of the universe with God. That he was the leader of a band of rebellious angels would appear to be a proper deduction from Jesus' mention of "Satan and his angels" (Matthew 25:41), leading to the supposition that Satan himself was, at first, an angel of God who led some of his fellow-angels into rebellion. This is an awesome subject, and little more than a few suggestions may confidently be offered. That there is indeed a being of great magnitude of powers, an inveterate enemy of mankind, the prince of this world, the ruler of the world's darkness, a prince of evil, who has organized and directed the wickedness of mankind is a fact so plainly set forth in the New Testament that only an unbeliever may deny it. The Lord's Prayer is a constant testimonial to the existence of Satan: "Deliver us from the evil one!"

Like the rest of the New Testament authors, John had no doubt that behind the rebel wills of men there is a master-rebel, who sinned before they were in being, and who, as the enemy of all good, is called the devil, the slanderer, Satan, or the adversary.[20]

[17] A. Plummer, op. cit., p. 72.

[18] F. F. Bruce, Answers to Questions (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan Publishing House, 1972), p. 133.

[19] W. N. Sinclair, op. cit., p. 484.

[20] Charles Gore, The Epistles of John (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1920), pp. 144,145.