Read with Me
1 John 3:4-6 (HCSB)
Everyone who commits sin also breaks the law; sin is the breaking of law. You know that He was revealed so that He might take away sins, and there is no sin in Him. Everyone who remains in Him does not sin; everyone who sins has not seen Him or known Him.
Listen to Me
Some see John’s standards in these verses as impossible and demotivating. Others shade his meaning to make themselves feel more successful, translating the phrase “Everyone who remains in him does not sin” to “Everyone who remains in him does not sin continually”. And since no one “continually sins”, sinning every moment of the day, then those who sin regularly but not “continually,” can feel like they meet the standards, and are fine spiritually.
But John’s point is that sin is lawlessness, an awareness of what is required, but rebellion against those standards, a refusal to live by them, choosing one’s own way instead of choosing to live by God’s standards of behavior. And that kind of rebellion and refusal can have no place in the mind and heart of a true disciple of Jesus. The Gnostics were becoming more influential in John’s day, teaching that outer behavior didn’t matter; all that mattered was a forgiven heart. They taught that sinful behavior was purely a consequence of living in a physical body, and that God understood that no one could live a truly holy life as long as their pure souls were confined in the prison of the flesh.
But John put the lie to this philosophy by pointing out that sin on the outside shows that there is a spiritual problem on the inside. He points to the fact that Jesus had come, not to show His people a better philosophy that they would be able to live out only after they died, when they would finally be freed from the flesh, but to destroy the devil’s work (1 John 3:8b), and to take away not just the penalty for past sins, but to take away all unrighteousness in our hearts (1 John 1: 9), enabling all His people to live genuinely holy lives here and now.
Thus, John can say on the authority of Jesus Himself that when a person comes to Jesus, the transformation they receive (Romans 12:1-2) changes not just their status, but their behavior as well. Thus, if someone professes faith in Jesus, but lives the same life that they lived before, still engaging in sinful behaviors, still rebelling against God’s clear commands, that shows that they still are not living in relationship with God, that their faith is merely intellectual consent that has not yet saved them.
Pray with Me
Father, these are strong words that cut across much of what passes for the “normal Christian life” today, a life that differs little if at all from that of an unsaved person. The Old Testament promised radical transformation with the coming of Jesus and the pouring out of the Holy Spirit on the people of the kingdom (Ezekiel 36:25-27, Joel 2:28-32, Zechariah 13:1), and the writers of the New Testament proclaimed that these promises of transformation and real holiness had indeed been made true by Jesus. In Him and through the power of the Holy Spirit, we really can live genuinely holy lives in thought, word, and deed every day. Thank you, Lord, for the promises and for the fulfillment of them that is ours in Jesus today. Amen.