1 John 3:4 - Meaning and Application

The apostle has already shown that believers must pursue purity because they hope for heaven and fellowship with Christ in glory when he appears. Now he gives more reasons against sin and against any share in the works of darkness. He begins with the nature of sin itself. Sin is the opposite of God’s law: “Everyone who sins breaks the law, for sin is lawlessness” (1 John 3:4). Sin is a lack of harmony with God’s law, the law that reflects God’s own holy nature, reveals his will, fits human nature, and leads people to peace and happiness. To keep on sinning is to reject God’s law, and that is really to reject God’s authority and, in effect, God himself.

He also argues from why the Lord Jesus came into the world. “You know that he appeared to take away our sins, and in him is no sin” (1 John 3:5). The Son of God came in our human nature to honor God’s law. He did this by obeying it and by suffering its penalty and curse. He came to take away our sins by offering himself for our guilt, to take away our sinning by giving us a new nature, and to turn us from sin by his own example. Since Christ is without sin, those who hope to share fellowship with him in glory should seek the purest fellowship with him now.

John also reasons from the close relation between remaining in Christ and turning from sin. “No one who remains in him keeps on sinning” (1 John 3:6). Here, to sin means to live in the practice of sin, not to fall into a single act. A person who truly abides in Christ does not continue in sin as his settled way of life. Union with Christ breaks sin’s power in the heart, and continued fellowship with Christ keeps sin from ruling in life and conduct. The negative wording also means something positive: the one who abides in Christ is obedient, keeps God’s commands sincerely, and does what pleases him (1 John 3:22).

Those who remain in Christ remain in covenant with him, so they watch against anything that opposes that covenant. They live in his light and knowledge. So if someone lives in the settled practice of sin, it shows he has not truly seen Christ in saving faith, nor really known him. A real break with sin is one of the clearest signs of spiritual union with Christ, continuing in him, and truly knowing him.

John then warns against a false idea that religion and holy living can be separated. “Dear children, let no one lead you astray” (1 John 3:7). Some will praise your new understanding of Christianity and make you think that knowledge, profession, or baptism is enough, so you do not need careful Christian living. Do not believe them. “The one who does what is right is righteous.” In Scripture, righteousness can mean religion, or godly living, as in “Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness” (Matthew 5:10), “If you should suffer for righteousness, you are blessed” (1 Peter 3:14), and “All Scripture is useful for teaching and training in righteousness” (2 Timothy 3:16). So to do righteousness means to live a life of true religion.

The person who practices righteousness is righteous in every important sense. He is sincere and upright before God. Such practice cannot exist without integrity and a conscience shaped by God. He also has the righteousness that comes from pardon and the right to life, based on the Mediator’s righteousness, that is, Christ’s standing before God on our behalf. He has a claim to the crown of righteousness that the righteous Judge will give to those who love Christ’s appearing (2 Timothy 4:8). He has fellowship with Christ in obeying God’s law, becoming in some measure practically righteous as Christ is righteous. He also has fellowship with Christ in the justified state, meaning he is counted righteous because of Christ.

John next argues from the relation between the sinner and the devil, and from Christ’s work against the devil. To commit sin in this sense is to live under sin’s power, as sinners do, in contrast to saints. Such a person “is of the devil,” meaning his sinful nature fits the devil’s will, and he belongs to the devil’s side, interest, and kingdom. The devil is the one who has promoted sin, practiced it, tempted others to it, and done so from the beginning.

Against that, “the Son of God appeared for this purpose, to destroy the devil’s work” (1 John 3:8). The devil has tried to ruin God’s work in the world. The Son of God came into the world and was shown in our flesh to defeat him and break apart his works. He will keep loosening and destroying sin more and more until it is completely destroyed. We should not serve or cherish what the Son of God came to destroy.

John also argues from new birth and the giving up of sin: “No one who is born of God keeps on sinning” (1 John 3:9).

To be born of God means to be inwardly renewed and restored to holiness and right order by the power of the Spirit of God. Such a person does not go on in sin, does not keep doing what is wrong, and does not practice disobedience, because that is against his new nature and the life given by God. As the apostle adds, God’s seed remains in him. This may mean the word of God, with its light and power, remains in him (as in (1 Peter 1:23), “Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever”), or it may mean the spiritual life given by the Spirit remains in him.

Renewing grace is an abiding principle. Religion, at its beginning, is not a skill a person learns, but a new nature. So the regenerate person cannot sin in the sense the apostle means here. No careful interpreter thinks this means he cannot commit any act of sin at all, because that would go against (1 John 1:9), where believers are told to confess their sins and are promised forgiveness. Rather, he cannot go on in sin. He cannot continue in a sinful course, and he cannot live in a way that marks him off as a sinner instead of a saint, a holy person, or a servant of God.

He also cannot sin in the same way he did before he was born of God, or as people do who have not been renewed. The reason is that he is born of God, and that brings several restraints and changes. First, there is light in his mind that shows him how evil sin really is. Second, there is a bent in his heart that makes him hate sin. Third, there is the spiritual seed, or inward principle of holiness, which weakens the force and fullness of sinful acts. They do not rise from the same full power of corruption as they do in other people, and they do not have the same complete consent of heart and spirit. “The flesh,” meaning our sinful nature, “desires what is against the Spirit.” So in that sense it can be said, “It is no longer I who do it, but sin that lives in me.” In the gospel view, it is not counted as a person’s settled sin when his mind and spirit are against it.

Fourth, when he does sin, he has a spirit that leads him to humble himself and repent. So when John says, “He that is born of God cannot sin,” we should remember the usual difference between natural inability and moral inability. The unregenerate person, someone not yet made new, cannot do what is truly good in a spiritual sense. The regenerate person is, in a happy way, unable to live in sin. There is a restraint laid on his power to sin, like a barrier put in place. It feels against his own mind and will to sin deliberately. We often say of a person known for honesty, “He cannot lie, he cannot cheat, he cannot do such things.” Joseph said, “How then can I do this great wickedness and sin against God?” (Genesis 39:9). In the same way, those who keep living in sin show clearly that they are not born of God.

This also shows the difference between the children of God and the children of the devil. They have different marks. “In this the children of God are made known, and the children of the devil” (1 John 3:10). In the world, there are, as the old way of speaking puts it, the seed of God and the seed of the serpent. The seed of the serpent is known by two signs. First, by neglect of religion. “Whoever does not do right” ignores the duties owed to God, because religion is simply our duty toward God, giving him what is due. Whoever does not do this sincerely is not of God, but of the devil. The devil is the father of irreligious and unrighteous souls. Second, the seed of the serpent is known by hatred of fellow Christians. “Neither he that loveth not his brother” (1 John 3:10). True Christians are to be loved for God’s and Christ’s sake. Those who do not love them, but instead despise, hate, and persecute them, still keep the serpent’s nature in them.