Practicing Righteousness or Sin is a Result of Paternity
3:1 Look at the kind of love the Father has given to us, that we are called God’s children. And we really are! Because of this the world does not know us. And it is no wonder, because it did not know Him.
3:2 Beloved, right now we are God’s children, and exactly what we will be has not yet been revealed. But we know that when ˹Christ˺ is revealed, we will be like Him, because we will see Him just as He is. 3:3 And everyone who has such hope fixed on ˹Christ˺, purifies himself, just as He is pure.
3:4 Everyone who practices sin is also rebelling against God. In fact, sin is rebellion against God. 3:5 And you know that ˹Christ˺ was revealed to take away sins, and in Him there is no sin. 3:6 Everyone who abides in ˹Christ˺ does not sin. Everyone who sins has neither seen Him nor known Him.
3:7 Little children, don’t let anyone deceive you. The one who practices righteousness is righteous just as ˹Christ˺ is righteous. 3:8 The one who practices sin is the Devil’s offspring, because the Devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God was revealed was to destroy the works of the Devil.
3:9 Everyone who has been born of God does not practice sin because ˹God’s˺ offspring abide in Him, and he is not able to sin because he has been born of God. 3:10 By this it is clear who God’s children are and who the Devil’s children are. Everyone who does not practice righteousness is not God’s offspring, to be specific, the one who does not love his fellow believer.
Translation by the author from the SBL Greek New Testament.
Summary of Verses 3:1-10
In this unit, John explains that practicing righteousness or practicing sin is a result of “paternity”. God’s children purify themselves (3:3). The Devil’s offspring practice sin (3:8). One can identify God’s children and the Devil’s children by their actions.
Click here for a full outline of First John.
Verse 3:4
Everyone who practices sin…
Verses 3:1-3 focused on God’s children who purify themselves from sin and practice righteousness (v. 2:29). In verses 3:4-6 John now turns his attention to those who practice sin, exposing their nature and the true nature of sin.
From John’s dualistic perspective there are two groups of people: God’s children (3:1) and the Devil’s offspring (3:8). They are characterized by righteousness and sin respectively.
…is also rebelling against God. In fact, sin is rebellion against God.
In these phrases John explains the true nature of sin. It is not simply breaking God’s law/commandments by doing sinful acts (i.e., law breaking), rather it is disregarding God’s standards and opposing God’s authority, which John describes as “rebellion against God“. This is a translation of the single Greek word ἀνομία / anomia. In her commentary, Karen Jobes describes anomia as “the rejection of God’s authority and the exaltation of the autonomy of the self” [JOBES p. 143]. She also notes that, “It is from the lawless heart that acts of sin flow” [JOBES p. 144]. This is the point Jesus made when He explained to His disciples:
20 Rather, what comes out of a person makes him unclean. 21 For from within, out of a person’s heart, come evil thoughts, all kinds of sexual immorality, stealing, murder, 22 adultery, greedy acts, and wicked actions; as well as deceit, unbridled lust, envy, blasphemy, arrogance and foolishness. 23 All these evil things come out from within and defile a person.” (Mark 7:20-23)
Anyone who has their hope fixed on Christ, purifies themselves from these things, just as Christ is pure (v. 3:3).
Greek Note: ἀνομία / anomia
As noted above, “rebellion against God” is a translation of the single Greek word ἀνομία / anomia. Nearly all modern English translations translate ἀνομία / anomia in this verse as “lawlessness”. For example, the New American Standard Bible (NASB) says: Everyone who practices sin also practices lawlessness; and sin is lawlessness.
A number of commentators do understand this verse as describing transgressing the law, breaking the commandments, or law breaking. However, many commentator believe that more is meant here than just simply doing sinful acts that violate the law. As Martin Culy explains in his handbook, the word anomia “carries the nuance of rebellion or willful rejection of an established standard” [CULY p. 71]. It represents an attitude that originates in the heart.
In support of this latter view note that in many passages in the Greek Septuagint and New Testament where anomia occurs, the Law is not mentioned or in view. This is the case in First John.
Verse 3:5
And you know that ˹Christ˺ was revealed to take away sins,
The verb “revealed” is one of the words John uses for lexical cohesion throughout First John. [See Post 02 regarding Lexical Cohesion.] It is used in verses 1:2 (2x), 2:19, 2:28, 3:2 (2x), 3:5, 3:8, and 4:9 (translated variously in the English Standard Version (ESV) as “made manifest”, “become plain”, “appears”, and “appeared”). The word suggests activity by God to disclose truth or knowledge about Himself, His purposes, and His plans. Often, what is disclosed could not be known by man apart from God revealing it.
Back in verse 1:2 John proclaimed that “the Word, the source of life” was “revealed“. It took physical form in the historical person of Jesus Christ. Eternal life was revealed in Him.
In this verse John adds that Christ was revealed, appeared in history, to take away sins. John the Baptist made a similar claim about Jesus when He came to be baptized:
“Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29)
The word “Christ” in my translation is a substitution for the far demonstrative pronoun ἐκεῖνος / ekeinos in the Greek text, which means “that one”. So a more word-for-word rendering of the phrase would be: “that one was revealed to take away sins“. In First John, John uses this pronoun six times as a personal reference to Christ (2:6; 3:3; 3:5; 3:7; 3:16; 4:17), and always in the context of Christ as an example for Christians. In this verse the implication is that since Christ came to take away sin, there should be no place for sin in the life of the person who follows Him.
Christ takes away sins through his atoning sacrificial death on the cross which makes forgiveness possible.
The word “sins” is plural, probably indicating that what John has in mind here is individual sins or sinful acts, rather than the power of sin.
and in Him there is no sin.
Several things are implied by this simple statement that “in Him there is no sin“:
- Jesus’ lack of sin indicates His opposition to sin.
- Jesus lived without sin so that he could destroy it. Sin can only be taken away by someone who is himself sinless.
- Jesus’ sinless life is the model for the believer’s life.
Note that John says “in Him these is no sin” rather than “in Him there was no sin“. The present tense is significant because it emphasizes “that sinlessness is characteristic of Jesus’ eternal nature. He was sinless in His preexistence, in His life in the flesh, and in His eternal position as Son” [BARKER p. 331]. “It is not simply His earthly life that is in mind but His eternal character as the Son of God” [MARSHALL p. 177, footnote 10].
That Jesus is sinless provides the basis to assess whether or not a person abides in Christ, which is the focus of verse 3:6.
Verse 3:6
Everyone who abides in ˹Christ˺ does not sin.
To understand this phrase it is important to first review what John means by the word “abide”. To abide is John’s distinctive way of describing the believer’s relationship with God through Jesus Christ. Abiding is the mutual continuous personal relationship between the believer and Christ that begins when a person becomes a believer.
– Mutual: Christ and the believer.
– Continuous: Constant and sustained.
– Personal: A close interactive familial relationship.
Here John states that everyone who has this kind of intimate and ongoing relationship with Christ does not sin. This does not mean that John necessarily expects an abiding believer to live a totally sinless life. Recall that in verse 2:1, John suggested that a believer might sin:
My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you do not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate in the presence of the Father – the righteous Jesus Christ.
According to John, no one is free from sin (see 1 John 1:8 and 10).
So what does it mean that the person who abides “does not sin“. There are several ways to understand this.
1. One common understanding is that John is referring to continual or habitual sinning. This is the idea behind the way the New International Version (NIV), English Standard Version (ESV), and New American Standard Version (NASB20) translate this verse:
No one who lives in him keeps on sinning. (NIV)
No one who abides in him keeps on sinning. (ESV)
No one who remains in Him sins continually. (NASB20)
In other words, the true believer does not habitually sin, or live in sin. This understanding is based on giving weight to the progressive aspect of the Greek present tense, in which this verb occurs (ἁμαρτάνει / hamartanei – Present Active Indicative).
This understanding should not be seen as implying that the believer may sin as long as it is not continual or habitual, or that occasional sins are to be expected and OK. John has a high standard – the believer is to be righteous as God is righteous.
2. Another understanding is to see this phrase as an implicit imperative, so that the sense is, “Everyone who abides in ˹Christ˺ ought not sin“. However, if John meant that he could have easily and clearly expressed it using a different grammatical construction.
3. Another understanding is that it anticipates what will be true when the eschatological hope is realized at Christ’s return. John states in an absolute manner truths that are not yet true.
4. Another understand is that John is referring to a particular kind of sin, such as willful sin as opposed to unintentional sin. Thus: “Everyone who abides in ˹Christ˺ does not willfully sin“. However, there is no indication in the context that John is using a limited meaning for the word sin.
5. Another understanding is to see this as a simple conditional statement of fact, thus: “If someone abides in Christ he does not sin.” In other words, to the extent that one abides in Christ, one does not sin. Sin is not compatible with abiding.
Stating that “everyone who abides in Christ does not sin” is like stating, “everyone who remains under an umbrella does not get wet.” Two statements of fact. As long as you remain under the umbrella you do not get wet; as long as you abide in Christ you do not sin. If you come out from under the umbrella you will get wet; if you do not abide in Christ you will sin (which is why John writes about confession in 1:9 and Christ as our advocate in 2:1). When it is raining, you must decide whether you will remain dry (remain under the umbrella) or get wet. When temptation comes, you must decide whether you will abide in Christ or sin.
The bottom line is that the one who abides in Christ can enjoy freedom from sin. But this kind of life is only available by abiding. And if that person does sin, he or she can confess the sin and be cleansed (1:9).
Everyone who sins has neither seen Him nor known Him.
This is the antithesis of the first phrase.
“Seen” is not referring to seeing with the eyes, but seeing “the significance of Jesus as the one who reveals the unseen God” [MARSHALL p. 184].
“Known Him” in the sense of having a relationship with Him.
Go back to Verses 3:1-3
Go forward to Verses 3:7-8
Your Personal Study
Read First John 3:7-8 below and answer the questions.
3:7 Little children, don’t let anyone deceive you. The one who practices righteousness is righteous just as ˹Christ˺ is righteous. 3:8 The one who practices sin is the Devil’s offspring, because the Devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God was revealed was to destroy the works of the Devil.
1. Who provides the example of righteous living for Christians?
2. Where do those who practice sin get their ‘paternity’ from?
3. How long has the Devil been sinning?
4. What do you think “the beginning” refers to?
5. How and when was the Son of God revealed. See 1 John 1:1-3.
6. What are the works of the Devil?
First John Translation.
First John Translation with Outline and Notes.
Bibliography of source information used for this series of posts.
Title Slide Image Credit: First John in Codex Alexandrinus, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.
Unless otherwise noted, English translations of Bible verses are by the author from the Greek text and are not quotations from any copyrighted Bible version or translation.
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