Last time we were unpacking 1 John 3:3 where the Apostle John wrote, “And every one that hath this hope set on him (Jesus) purifies himself, even as he is pure.”
We looked at the believer’s hope in the return of Christ and the effect this hope should have on the Christian’s life. We ended the message with illustrations from the lives of Lot and Joseph and discovered that Lot polluted himself but Joseph purified himself.
We learned that Lot ran toward the sin of Sodom and Joseph ran away from it. When it comes to keeping yourself pure, this is the first thing the believer needs to do—run! The second thing is just as important and we learned that we need to pursue righteous living, faithfulness, love, and peace. Hang out with those who call on the Lord with pure hearts. (2 Timothy 2:22)
Let’s continue our brief journey in 1 John chapter 3.
1 John 3:4 Everyone who makes a practice of sinning also practices lawlessness; sin is lawlessness.
Have you noticed that John uses the word “sin” several times in this chapter? Why? Because there were some false teachers who had slipped into the church and were teaching (Gnostic) heresy concerning sin.
The term gnosticism comes from the Greek word gnosis, meaning "knowledge." Gnosticism is a philosophy which centers on a search for higher knowledge. The Gnostics taught that this knowledge was not intellectual knowledge but a knowledge which the ordinary Christian was incapable of attaining.
There were two doctrines basic to the Gnostic beliefs:
1. Supremacy of knowledge (gnosis)- They believed that only a few, the Gnostics, are the ones who are privy to the deep, deep knowledge of God.
2. Separation of spirit and matter.
* All matter was considered evil and detestable and the source of evil.
* The spirit of a person was considered good and desirable and impervious to evil.
Since “matter was bad” and “the spirit was good” Gnostics believed that any sins you committed with the body…physical matter… didn’t matter.
As a result, there were some people in the church that actually believed that they did not sin. They believed that when sin took place it was their body that sinned, not their spirit and so they refused to accept responsibility for their sins.
This is why John writes in 1 John 1:8 “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.”
The Gnostics also believed that a “knowledge of God” was the only thing that was important in the Christian life.
Today you have many in the church that have a similar doctrine…they know what it means to be saved and they can look back to the knowledge of an experience they had walking down an aisle or saying a prayer.
At church services across the nation people are being asked to raise their hand, walk an aisle, sign a card, pray a prayer and then they are being told that they're Christians…no matter what happens…no matter how they live. The evangelist tells them, “Remember this day; write it down…this is the day you were saved.”
And so they, in their mind, confirm their salvation by a past act. But we do not find any example of that in Scriptures. In fact, in his letters the Apostle John relates salvation, not to an experience, but to a person’s obedience. In 1 John 2:4 he writes, “He who says, I have known Him, and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him.”
So there were some false teachers who had slipped into the church and were teaching Gnostic heresy. And back to our text in 1 John 3:4 the Bible says, “Everyone who makes a practice of sinning also practices lawlessness; sin is lawlessness.”
We are being given a definition of “sin.” Sin is living in rebellion against the Law of God. It's not just a series of violations against that Law, it's a heart attitude that hates that Law. It's a rebellious attitude. It's the power of sin that produces a bent toward breaking the Law of God. The Bible says we are “born in sin”. This means that the purest and truest expression of the sinner’s heart is that they will violate the Law of God. Sin is lawlessness.
Those who practice lawlessness are not Christians. That is not my opinion; it comes from Jesus Himself. In Matthew 7 Jesus said, "I do not know you, I've never known you, you who practice lawlessness."
If you in constant rebellion against the Law of God…if you do that which is lawless and if you say like those on the Day of Judgment said to Jesus, "Lord, Lord, I did this and that in Your name," He will say, "I don't know you, I've never known you, you who practice lawlessness." It's not what you say, it's what you practice that flows out of a rebellious heart.
Salvation changes that. It changes the believer's nature, the believer's disposition toward sin. Your defiance is replaced with compliance. Your rebellion is replaced with obedience. Your hatred of God's Law is replaced with your love for God's Law. That feeling you once had that God's Law was intruding into your life and cramping your style is replaced with an attitude that God's Law moves into your life to produce real joy and lasting satisfaction.
When you get saved it happens as you are submissive to the Word of God in the Gospel message and you ask for forgiveness for violating and rebelling against the Law of God. The sinner comes, confessing that rebellious attitude and rebellious practice, asking to be forgiven and transformed. And when that transformation comes, then what is said in Psalm 40 verse 8 becomes a reality: “I delight to do your will, O my God; your Law is within my heart.”
Instead of a heart of rebellion, your heart is transformed to one that loves the Law. In Romans 7 we find Paul saying, "The Law is holy, just and good. And when I break the Law it's not what I want to do, it's what I don't want to do."
Back to 1 John 3:4 where it says, “Everyone who makes a practice of sinning also practices lawlessness; sin is lawlessness.”
Your Bible may say, “Whoever commits sin…” The verb “commits” means making sin a habit in your life. Christians do commit sins but they don’t make a habit of sinning; they are brought to conviction by the indwelling Spirit of God (John 16:8).
The believer is uncomfortable with sinning. In Psalm 32:3 David says, “When I kept silent, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long”.
Do you find it hard to quit sinning? Many people find it hard to quit sinning because they are looking at their actions the wrong way.
* They view their sin as an offense against themselves. “Chuck, why did you do that—you jerk!”
* They view their sin as an offense against others. “If so-and-so knew I did that I’m going to be embarrassed or ashamed.” “He or she treats me too well for me to be doing that.”
* They view their sin as an offense against their situation. – “I’ve been so blessed; why did I do that?”
But the Bible teaches us that while we sin against ourselves, our loved ones and our situation, our sin is an offense against God.
* David says to God in Psalm 51:4 – “Against You, You only, I have sinned And done what is evil in Your sight, So that You are justified when You speak And blameless when You judge.”
* In Genesis 39:9 Joseph says to Potiphar’s wife who was trying to seduce him, “How then could I do such a wicked thing and sin against God?”
So when believers sin, they know they have offended a holy God and ask Him to forgive them (1 John 1:9). This is why John goes on to write in verse four that “sin is lawlessness”…in other words, sin is a constant state of mind and heart that is in rebellion against the law of God.
When an unbeliever sins they may think to themselves, “I know that this is wrong, but I’m having so much fun…I’m getting so much satisfaction from it…it is what it is…”
But when a Christian sins they experience immense grief and agony. The Christian’s “new man” struggles with his or her unredeemed flesh, as Romans 7 says. In the Christian’s new nature, there is a love for the Law of God that is energized by the Holy Spirit…this love moves him to pursue righteousness and abstain from immorality.
Galatians 5:24 puts it this way, "Now those who belong to Christ have crucified the flesh with its passion and desire." Fleshly passion and desire was in the “driver’s seat” of the Christian before he or she came to Christ but when this person came to Christ he crucified or put to death his flesh. Colossians 3 says, "We have put on the new self who is being renewed with a true knowledge according to the image of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
Ten Tests of True Christianity
The book of 1 John was a book written with a single purpose in mind. And what was that purpose? The apostle John, in 1 John 5:13, tells us that he wrote this book so that you as a Christian might have assurance of your salvation. “I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life.” (NIV)
As you read through the five chapters of the book of 1 John, you will find several “tests” that we could ask ourselves, and if we are honest with ourselves and do not try to justify ourselves, we will know if we are saved or not.
Here are just ten of the many tests we will find in the epistle of 1st John:
Question #1 Do we walk in the light or in the darkness?
1 John 1:6-7 “If we claim to have fellowship with him yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live by the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin.” (NIV)
Question #2 Do we claim to be without sin, or do we confess our sins?
1 John 1:8-10 “If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word has no place in our lives.” (NIV)
Question #3 Do we just say we know God or do we obey Him?
1 John 2:3-5 “We know that we have come to know him if we obey his commands. The man who says, “I know him,” but does not do what he commands is a liar, and the truth is not in him. But if anyone obeys his word, God’s love is truly made complete in him.” (NIV)
Question #4 Do we hate our brother or do we love him?
1 John 2:9-11 “Anyone who claims to be in the light but hates his brother is still in the darkness. Whoever loves his brother lives in the light, and there is nothing in him to make him stumble…” (NIV)
Question #5 Do we love the world or do we do the will of God?
1 John 2:15-17 “Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him…” (NIV)
Question #6 Do we isolate ourselves or do we rejoice in assembling with the body of Christ?
1 John 2:18-19 “Dear children, this is the last hour; and as you have heard that the antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have come. This is how we know it is the last hour. They went out from us, but they did not really belong to us. For if they had belonged to us, they would have remained with us; but their going showed that none of them belonged to us.” (NIV)
Question #7 Do we deny that Jesus is the Christ or do we acknowledge Jesus is the Son of God?
1 John 2:22-23 “Who is the liar? It is the man who denies that Jesus is the Christ. Such a man is the antichrist — he denies the Father and the Son. No one who denies the Son has the Father; whoever acknowledges the Son has the Father also.” (NIV)
Question #8 Do we practice sin or do we strive toward righteousness?
1 John 3:4-7 “Everyone who sins breaks the law; in fact, sin is lawlessness. But you know that he appeared so that he might take away our sins. And in him is no sin. No one who lives in him keeps on sinning. No one who continues to sin has either seen him or known him. Dear children, do not let anyone lead you astray. He who does what is right is righteous, just as he is righteous.” (NIV)
Question #9 Do we love our brother just in words or do we love our brother in deeds?
1 John 3:14-18 “We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love our brothers. Anyone who does not love remains in death. Anyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life in him. This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers. If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him? Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth.” (NIV)
Question #10 Do we listen to the world or do we listen to the words of God?
1 John 4:5-6“They are from the world and therefore speak from the viewpoint of the world, and the world listens to them. We are from God, and whoever knows God listens to us; but whoever is not from God does not listen to us. This is how we recognize the Spirit of truth and the spirit of falsehood.” (NIV)
These are just ten of the tests for true conversion found in this short letter. In the text of Scripture we have been exploring, 1 John 3:5-6, we have been dealing with the test: “Do we practice sin or do we pursue righteousness?”
With this test John says it explicitly, if you abide in Christ (as His child) you do not practice sin. Verse five tells us that in Jesus there is no sin…He was manifested to take away our sins. And if you are in Him, you do not practice sin.
Now this is not to say that Christians do not struggle against sinning. Galatians 6 makes it clear that a Christian can struggle with sin in their life and even get trapped by it (vs. 1) to the point where they need another brother or sister to come to their rescue.
The sin that John is referring to in his letter is that blatant sin; that “If loving you is wrong, I don’t want to be right” kind of sinning. John is referring to that “in God’s face” kind of sinning.
As both a Christian and a pastor, I have approached a professing brother or sister with God’s Word about their sin. And in many of those discussions I have seen people process their encounter with God’s Word the following way:
* The Bible says it is wrong;
* They know it is wrong (they agree with me);
* They’ve been told by others that it is wrong;
* Their conscience screams it is wrong…
* But they still do it;
* They rationalize it;
* They try to justify it;
* They do everything but cease and desist.
1 John 3:5-6 says, “You know that He appeared in order 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.”
Jesus appeared to take away sin. This is why Jesus came… “to seek and to save the lost” (Luke 19:10) and to take away their sins. John 3:16 says, “For God so loved the world that whosoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.”
Verse six says, “No one who abides in Him keeps on sinning; no one who keeps on sinning has either seen Him or known Him.”
But you say, ‘But I do know Him!” You do? Then why are you making a habit of sinning? Did someone tell you that you are a Christian because you said a prayer? Joined a church? Had Christian parents? Grow up in a Christian family? Is this why you think you are a Christian?
Can you feel the tension (or the conviction) here? There are many people who are self-deceived; some have been deceived by a preacher or by the devil himself. This is why John writes in verse seven:
1Jn 3:7 Little children, let no one deceive you. Whoever practices righteousness is righteous, as he is righteous.
1Jn 3:8 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.
There were people going around in John’s day, the Gnostics, that wouldn’t accept responsibility for their sin because they believed that only matter was sinful and since it was their body that was the instrument of sin, they were not guilty of it.
Again, forms of Gnosticism ebbs and flows through the church today and one example of that is the doctrine of “sinless perfection” that is taught by many of the Word of Faith teachers on Christian TV. Here is a quote by a popular woman preacher:
“Now whether you like it or not, whether you want to admit it or not, whether you want to operate on it or not, you are made the righteousness of God in Jesus Christ. Most people who go to denominational churches never ever hear that! They never hear it! Never! All I was ever taught to say was, ‘I, a poor, miserable sinner.’ I am not poor. I am not miserable. And I am not a sinner. That is a lie from the pit of hell! That is what I was [sic] and if I still was, then Jesus died in vain. Amen?”
The Bible clearly teaches that Christians can never attain sinless perfection in this life. Proverbs 20:9 says, “Who can say, ‘I have cleansed my heart, I am pure from my sin’?” James 3:2 says, “For we all stumble in many ways. If anyone does not stumble in what he says, he is a perfect man, able to bridle the whole body as well”.
In Galatians 5:17 Paul writes, “For the flesh sets its desire against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; for these are in opposition to one another, so that you may not do the things that you please”. And John writes in 1 John 1:8, “If we say that we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us”.
All perfectionism is essentially a tragic misunderstanding of how God works in sanctification. Sanctification is a process by which God—working in believers through the Holy Spirit—gradually moves them toward Christlikeness (2 Corinthians 3:18). That the transformation is gradual—not instantaneous, and never complete in this lifetime—is confirmed by many passages of Scripture.
Evangelical Christianity used to say, “I am a sinner that’s saved by grace.” But that’s not the point, according to John. The question we need to ask ourselves is, “Do I practice sin?”
If the Bible says it is wrong; and I know it is wrong; and I’ve been told that it is wrong; and my conscience screams it is wrong…do I still do it? Do I rationalize it? Do I justify it? Do I do everything but stop doing it?
John writes in verse 8, “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.”
When you continue to sin, you prove that you are not a child of God. Because those who are of God “practice righteousness” (vs 7)…. John writes in verse 3, “you keep yourself pure as Jesus is pure”. When you continue to sin, you don’t prove that you are a child born of God, you demonstrate that you are a child of the devil, because as John says, “the devil has been sinning from the beginning.”
The devil’s “MO” is sin…he has been sinning from the beginning.
Ezekiel 28:12-15 describes Satan as an exceedingly beautiful angel. Satan was likely the highest of all angels, the most beautiful of all of God's creations, but he was not content in his position. Instead, Satan desired to be God, to essentially “kick God off His throne” and take over the rule of the universe.
In Isaiah 14:12-15 it’s recorded that Satan says in his heart, “I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north: I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High.” But Isaiah 14:15; Ezekiel 28:16-17 tell us that God kicked Satan out of heaven.
In Genesis 3:1-14 we find the deposed Satan possessing a serpent and tempting Adam and eve in the Garden of Eden. Throughout the Bible we find Satan instigating sin and tempting men and women to turn away from God. So it is as John writes, “the devil has been sinning from the beginning.”
When you continue to sin, you do not show that you are a child born of God, you demonstrate that you are a child of the devil. Why?
1Jn 3:9 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.
I remember having a conversation with one of my daughters about a habit that she had when she talked to me that I particularly found disrespectful to me. She said to me, “You do it.” I said, “No I don’t.” Well, a few days went by and I noticed that I did do it. She got that manner of expressing herself from me, her father.
John is telling his readers in verse nine that if you are God’s child, you are going to act like Him because His seed, the indwelling Holy Spirit, abides in you. If you are a Christian you cannot practice sinning because you have been born of God.
Jesus tells Nicodemus in the Gospel of John 3:6-7, “A person is born physically of human parents, but is born spiritually of the Spirit. Do not be surprised because I tell you that you must be born again.”
He is speaking of the new nature the Christian receives upon trust Jesus as Savior and Lord. 2 Corinthians 5:17 says, “So that if any one is in Christ, that one is a new creature; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.”
The Christian is one who has been born of the Spirit. This “new birth” affects the way we live. Listen to how the Apostle Paul puts it in Galatians chapter five:
Gal 5:18 But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under law.
Gal 5:19 Now the works of the flesh are clearly revealed, which are: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lustfulness,
Gal 5:20 idolatry, sorcery, hatreds, fightings, jealousies, angers, rivalries, divisions, heresies,
Gal 5:21 envyings, murders, drunkennesses, revelings, and things like these; of which I tell you before, as I also said before, that they who do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.
Gal 5:22 But the fruit of the Spirit is: love, joy, peace, long-suffering, kindness, goodness, faith,
Gal 5:23 meekness, self-control; against such things there is no law.
Gal 5:24 But those belonging to Christ have crucified the flesh with its passions and lusts.
Gal 5:25 If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.
Gal 5:26 Let us not become glory-seeking, provoking one another, envying one another.
When a person becomes a Christian, it’s not like they were joining a club or enrolling into an institution like a school or college. The entire DNA of your spirit is transformed! The Holy Spirit of God comes to indwell you. The New Testament says “Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you?”
So we end with verse ten that concludes this thought from John and then introduces a new one which we will delve into next time:
1 John 3:10 - “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, nor is the one who does not love his brother.”
John has given us some “tests” that we can know whether we are saved. But he has provided us with more than some tests, he has provided us with some evidence concerning the nature of the child of God and the children of the devil.
* Children of God do not practice sin.
* They do not habitually make a lifestyle out of sinning.
* When confronted with sin, God’s children, confess it, repent of it, and stop doing it.
Do they wrestle with sin? Yes. But it is not the pattern of their lives. They do not try to justify their sins and make excuses for it; they confess it and turn away from it.
Children of God not only do not practice sin, they practice righteousness. They do the right thing when it comes to God and others. Christianity is not a preoccupation with not doing the wrong things; it is an obsession with doing the right things.
Psalm 40:8 says, “I delight to do Your will, O my God; Your Law is within my heart.”
