Sin and the Christian
1 John 3:1-9
When I worked for a huge family distribution business, several of us used to meet for lunch and play cards. We had to take an hour lunch and had nothing else to do. Of course, discussions normally ran all across the board, from sports, to politics, to religion, to families, money and a lot of silly stuff.
One day, a friend of mine name Russell was mad and frustrated about his job. He said, “We ought to go out there in the warehouse, fake an injury and sue this family so we don’t have to work the rest of our lives.”
I know he was kidding, or at least I assumed it. I responded with proper “one-up-manship”. “You might sue them and win, but I am holding out for adoption.”
I mean, what if you were adopted by the wealthiest man in the world? Bill Gates, Warren Buffet, and Mexican telecommunication magnate Carlos Slim are listed by Forbes as the three wealthiest persons on the planet, as best they can tell.
To be in one of these men’s will would be a dream for most people. But what about being an heir to the creator and owner of the universe? That is probably the overwhelming thought John had mid-letter in writing to these Christians of what is probably Western Turkey today. Being more than part of a will, since God will never die, we are promised something more living and real.
Joh 16:15 "All that the Father has is mine; therefore I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you."
A new definition of a living will: The living Father gives all to His Son, and His Son shares all with us!
John has already told us that we cannot live above sin; that we would sin. He has shared that we need to confess our sins for complete restoration and fellowship with God. He has said that the mark of a Christian is the desire and power to do righteousness, both of which are absent from someone not possessing the Spirit of Christ. He said, those who have this salvation will love God and demonstrate love to others. He told us how to expect temptation, either in what we want to satisfy our cravings, satisfy our pride or desire to own. He told us how to recognize error. He encouraged us to live like His children and let Him live through us.
Then the original languages begin with a word that is not easily translated into English.
1Jn 3:1 "See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him."
The NIV and ESV attempted to capture the wonder of the word without trying to weaken its meaning.
The King James begins with “Behold”. Not a word we used every day. “Eido” means to look upon with amazement, to capture the wonder of something.
We have to realize that John did not write in Chapters and Verses. He wrote in prose with paragraphs. When he said, 1Jn 2:29 “If you know that he is righteous, you may be sure that everyone who practices righteousness has been born of him.”
…I am sure that He humbly thought, “We, sinners by nature, by the gift of God have an opportunity to actually do something that is counted as valuable in Heaven to a Holy God.”
“Wow,” he thought. “Oh how much God must love us to do that for us!”
Some text omit the phrase, “and so we are”, believing that it was added in commentary by a scribe.
But if so, it means that scribe captured the idea and said, “Amen! Oh yes we are.” If you can grasp what John is saying, you too will say, “Wow, unbelievable! Praise His name He loved the unlovable.” This love of God, this moment of unrestricted praise is something the world cannot experience.
John then says, “They don’t get it, and they don’t like us.” The reason, “They don’t get God and they sure don’t like Him.”
1Jn 3:2 "Beloved, we are God's children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is."
One of the things the world notices is that we look still the same. Nothing physical shows the perfection that God completes in us on the inside. We cannot even notice the difference in a mirror.
But our physical perfection will occur at the rapture. We don’t fully understand what it will be like, but we know we will be like Him.
In this verse is a strong principle and I hope we can grasp it tonight. Look carefully at the last part of this verse 2. What specifically will cause us, according to this verse, to be like Him? “We shall see Him as He is.”
In that is a great mystery. How does seeing Jesus as He is assure us we shall be like Him in every recognizable aspect?
Remember Hebrews 12:1-2? “Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, ---looking to Jesus---, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God." (Emphasis mine).
Do you see the principle? Looking to Jesus purifies a soul, through and through. Someday we will see Jesus physically and have a perfect body.
How does that help me today? Spiritually, I must look to Jesus to overcome my sin. Mentally, I must look to Jesus to overcome my weaknesses. Life is victorious when our focus is on our master and not on our problems or ourselves.
Notice the next verse.
1Jn 3:3 And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure.
See, when our mind is focused on Him and the hope that He gives, we find victory over sin, self, Satan and the world.
As we read the next six scriptures, it will seem that John has contradicted himself terrible. It will seem that he has set a bar so high, none of us will make heaven.
However, I want to take this passage as a group, apply some principles, and then see how John is supporting the way to successfully live the Christian life.
1Jn 3:4-9 "Everyone who makes a practice of sinning also practices lawlessness; sin is lawlessness. You know that he appeared to take away sins, and in him there is no sin. No one who abides in him keeps on sinning; no one who keeps on sinning has either seen him or known him. Little children, let no one deceive you. Whoever practices righteousness is righteous, as he is righteous. Whoever makes a practice of sinning is of the devil, for the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil. No one born of God makes a practice of sinning, for God’s seed abides in him, and he cannot keep on sinning because he has been born of God. By this it is evident who are the children of God, and who are the children of the devil: whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God,"
Here is the conflict: Sinners sin, saints don’t, or so it seems to read.
“No one born of God makes a practice of sinning, for God’s seed abides in him, and he cannot keep on sinning because he has been born of God. By this it is evident who are the children of God, and who are the children of the devil: whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God.”
Yet he already wrote that sinless perfection cannot ever be the case. 1Jn 1:8 "If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us." 1Jn 1:10 "If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us."
There must be something we need to grasp to move on from the sin problem to the victory. And, there must be something John is saying that makes both true.
Christians are free from the guilt of sin. The new birth makes for perfect purification from sin.
2Co 5:21 " For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God."
This presents the first side of righteousness for those who belong to God. Both sides presents two realities.
That first side is our identity, which speaks of who we are in Christ Jesus. Our identity, once we are born again, is defined by the creator and judge of the whole universe. He proclaims us children of God and continues to make proclamations of who we are in Christ Jesus. This is one reality for us in the setting of being in the world but not of the world.
Joh 15:19 "If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you."
Our identity with God, the only one that really counts, does not depend upon our history, heritage, attitude or behavior. It is based upon a ruling of the Father concerning the applications of Jesus shed-blood sacrifice to your life.
Rom 5:17-19 "For if, because of one man's trespass, death reigned through that one man, much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man Jesus Christ. Therefore, as one trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all men. For as by the one man's disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man's obedience the many will be made righteous."
Christians can unfortunately practice sinful acts but sinners cannot perform righteous deeds. When a Christian sins, it does not come from the righteous seed within him.
1Jn 2:29 "If you know that he is righteous, you may be sure that everyone who practices righteousness has been born of him."
You see, a believer who sins must sin apart from who he really is.
In the famous passage of Romans 7, where Paul said, “I don’t want to sin but I do, and I want to do good and end up not doing it”, we see a common thread.
Rom 7:15 "For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate." What does the believer WANT to do in this verse? Look again….
Rom 7:17 "So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me." Paul is saying that this sin is not coming from his true identity, which is pure and blameless in Jesus Christ.
Look for two things in this passage next passage: 1) the desire of the heart, and 2) the origin of sinful action.
Rom 7:18-20 "For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me."
We get a picture: The inner man and the outer man. For a believer, the inner man originates acts of righteousness. The outer man is corrupt and contains “no good thing”.
For the unbeliever, there is no good thing to produce good things. You may think of benevolence, kindness, acts of generosity and love as being good.
Isa 64:6 "We have all become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment. We all fade like a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, take us away."
Righteous acts must come from righteous seed within us.
In short, sin reveals the nature of the unbeliever. Sin covers the true nature of the believer.
Christians cannot practice righteous deeds on their own. Even believers cannot practice righteousness on our own. We must have Christ living through us: an act of faith that He is working and we are submitting.
Joh 15:4-5 "Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing."
I am more convinced than ever that successfully living the Christian life consists of allowing Jesus to live through me more and more each day. That is Christian growth. It is focused, intentional, and by faith.
Christians cannot continue in a sinful lifestyle.
The last thing we see is that it is not natural for a believer, one who has been forgiven, given a new identity and one in which the Holy Spirit of God makes His holy dwelling, to continue to live in sin. John said a Christian cannot continue to live in sin.
The big debate is whether the word “continue” belongs in the verse or not. We know that a believer messes up and sins. We do it every day. Not the big sins of murder, theft, adultery and the like.
The little sins of faithlessness (acting in our own strength), pride (believing ourselves to be sufficient without dependence upon Christ), and forgetfulness (ignoring God in our lives until we get into big trouble). Yes, I mean the little sins. A sin, however, is a step away from God. A step from God is obedience and idolatry. So little sins are really big sins. We do them every day.
So why does John say a true believer cannot continue sinning? Because God is the ultimate, consummate parent.
A. He loves you and seeks to keep you from harming yourself.
B. He disciplines you when you do something harmful, thus sinful. (Hebrews 12:6-11).
C. He is faithful in showing us where we have sinned. (John 16:8-11, Psalms 139:23).
D. He empowers us to overcome sin. (Philippians 4:13).
