“Everyone who makes a practice of sinning also practices lawlessness; sin is lawlessness.”
(1 John 3:4)
The third chapter of this first letter of John to the church is characterized by antitheses:
- the sinfulness of the Christian versus the sinlessness of Christ (1 John 3:4-5),
- continuing in sin versus remaining in Jesus (1 John 3:6),
- behaving righteously versus behaving lawlessly (1 John 3:7-8),
- belonging to the devil versus belonging to God (1 John 3:8-9),
- being born of God versus being born of the devil (1 John 3:9-10).
John’s concern in this chapter is to demonstrate the stark contrast between how a child of God lives and how a child of the devil lives. A child of God lives according to God’s rules. The choice to continue in sin, therefore, is the choice to break God’s holy law and disregard what He commands of His children. All those who continue in sin and lawlessness,
i.e. those who choose to live outside the law of God, remove themselves from the blessings of Christ’s eternal presence. They identify themselves as children of the devil and those to whom Jesus says, “depart from Me, you workers of
lawlessness,” (Matt. 7:23).
But how do children of God live according to the law of God now? It’s a simple matter, according to John’s commentary on the Christian life –
don’t sin. John makes an obvious contrast between “everyone who practices sin” and what he said previously in 1 John 2:29, “everyone who practices righteousness.” Not only does the child of God live a life marked by righteousness (1 John 2:29) and purity (1 John 3:3), but he abstains from a life characterized by the practice of sin.
As John Flavel notes, “Sin is the transgression of the law. All transgression arises from the preceptive part of the law of God: he that transgresses the precepts of God sins.”
But before being
terrified about the meaning of this passage which seems to equate sinning with not being a Christian, we need to understand what John is teaching here. What he is not saying is that if we sin, we are not a child of God. The Greek text and its literary cases help us understand that John’s emphasis is an argument against false teachers and those who were opposed to the law of God, those who
habitually sin without any thought about
its consequences.
Those in the Christian church
who oppose the law of God are false teachers. In order to excuse their “lawlessness,” they mishandle Scripture by stating, “we are not under law but under grace.”
Jesus warned against such false teachers: “It would be better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and he be cast into the sea, than that he should offend one of these little ones,” (Luke 17:1-2). Rejecting God’s holy law and causing God’s “little ones” to stumble is a capital offense in God’s eyes.
In the same vein of thought, in this third chapter of 1 John the apostle is dealing with individuals who are
indifferent to sin and God’s law. They believed they could engage in any and all kinds of sinful activities and still maintain fellowship with God.
But sin is not something to which professing believers can be indifferent. On the contrary, sin is a willful disregard for God and His character. It is a rebellious revolt against God’s will.
No believer is excluded from the obligation to obey God in all things. As John explains, sin by its very nature is “synonymous with being of the devil” (1 John 3:8) and “the opposite of being just” (1 John 3:7).
To live a life that is comfortable with sinning is to affiliate yourself with the world and the devil and to be at enmity with God. It is the very opposite of righteousness. Living in sin is diametrically opposed to living as God’s child, and contrary to the spirit of the believer that seeks to adore Christ as the Savior who rescued His people from both sin and death.
- Lord, I know that Your law requires conformity to it in two ways – a conformity of my nature and a conformity of my life. Help me understand and apply this truth.
- Lord, thank you for showing me what sin is and how You conquered sin and death through the blood of Christ. Thank you for Your law and how it points out my transgressions and omissions to Your commands. Allow Christ to take me by the hand and lead me back to Your law that I might keep it acceptably before You with reverence and godly fear. Help me to live as a child of God before You.
- Lord, as Your child I am commanded to be holy as You are holy.
- Your law is truth, and the truth of Your Word transcends reason. It contains the gospel of God which is profitable to lost sinners (1 Tim. 2:16). It instructs me in my moral duties to You and to those around me. Through Your law, Your truth, Your Word, You guide me into blessed communion and help me grow to eternally enjoy Jesus Christ.
Further References for 1 John 3:4
1 John 5:17; Rom. 4:15; John 8:34; Rom. 7:7; James 2:10
