9. In what sense is it that the spirit-begotten Christian “cannot practice sin,” and why is this so?

⁹ John next distinguishes between God’s children and those of the Devil. (Read 1 John 3:9-12.) Everyone “born from God does not carry on sin,” or make it a practice. Jehovah’s “reproductive seed,” or holy spirit that gives one “a new birth” to a heavenly hope, remains in the individual unless he resists and thus ‘grieves’ the spirit, so that God withdraws it. (1 Peter 1:3, 4, 18, 19, 23; Ephesians 4:30) To remain one of God’s children, the spirit-begotten Christian “cannot practice sin.” As a “new creation” with the “new personality,” he strives against sin. He has “escaped from the corruption that is in the world through lust,” and it is not in his heart to be a habitual wrongdoer.​—2 Corinthians 5:16, 17; Colossians 3:5-11; 2 Peter 1:4.

11. (a) What is another way to identify those who are not God’s children? (b) Reflecting on Cain’s course should move us to do what?

¹¹ Furthermore, “neither does he [originate with God] who does not love his brother.” In fact, the “message” we have heard “from the beginning” of our lives as Jehovah’s Witnesses is that “we should have love for one another.” (John 13:34) So we are “not like Cain,” who showed that he “originated with the wicked one” by ‘slaughtering his brother’ in a violent manner characteristic of the manslayer Satan. (Genesis 4:2-10; John 8:44) Cain slaughtered Abel “because his own works were wicked, but those of his brother were righteous.” Surely, reflecting on Cain’s course should move us to guard against similar hatred of our spiritual brothers.