READING TIME: 3-5 MINUTES
April 3, 2020
1 John 3:6, 9 – Real Christians Don’t Sin?
1 John 3:6: “No one who abides in Him sins; no one who sins has seen Him or knows Him” (NASB).
1 John 3:9: No one who is born of God practices sin, because His seed abides in him; and he cannot sin, because he is born of God” (NASB).
In these verses, John is saying that those who remain in fellowship with Jesus Christ do not sin. Those who sin do not have the intimate experience with the Lord that is available to all believers.
The present tense form is widely misunderstood, as you’ll see below. According to my good friend, Tom Stegall, this tense form can be used in the NT for:
• a past event (the historical present)
• a present event (normal use)
• a future event (futuristic present)
• a past-to-future event (gnomic present)
• a momentary event (instant. present)
• a repeated event (iterative present).
The present tense form can be used for present, past (John 1:29), and future (John 14:3).
Some have claimed that since the verbs sin (hamartano) and poieo (to do, to commit, to practice, used with the noun sin in v. 9) are in the present tense, they mean keeps on sinning or continues to practice sin. In other words, they say John is not talking about occasional sin or sin in an absolute sense, but habitual repeated sin (called iterative action). Some Bible translations reflect this interpretation in verse 6 and/or verse 9 (e.g., NIV, NET Bible, ESV, NASB). However, if used in a habitual sense, the present tense would need additional words that indicate repeated action. This viewpoint is a misunderstanding of the present tense form and illegitimately attributes a continuous notion or repetition to the present without clear contextual clues. The present tense form simply looks at the action as a process in progress. There is nothing inherent in the present tense form itself that demands a continual or repetitive action, and John’s readers should not be expected to catch such a subtle use of the present tense form. Habitual use of this tense form in 1:8 and 5:16 would be inconsistent with its use in 3:9. (Also, try making sense of continuous action in a verse like John 6:33—“For the bread of God is He who comes down from heaven . . .”) Apparently, this mistranslation of the present tense form is theologically derived and assigned by those who teach that those who are genuinely saved will not persevere in sin.
There are other problems as well. What sins would qualify as habitual—anger, pride, lust, or prayerlessness? And when should sin be considered habitual—if committed once a day, once a week, once a month, or once a year? Which sins disqualify a person as a true believer? Is there a list of certain sins that prove one is not saved? What about King David’s sins of murder and adultery? Since he was surely saved, do sins have to be worse than his to prove one is unsaved? How much sin is a Christian capable of? Since you undoubtedly agree that Christians do sin, how much is too much before you deny he or she is a true Christian? Where do you draw the line? Why does the Bible instruct church discipline for Christians who sin?
The absolute use of the present tense for the verb sin, not the habitual use, makes perfect sense when we understand what John says about the new nature.
In 3:5 John says that Jesus Christ came to take away our sins and “in Him, there is no sin.” Then verse 6 says that when Christians are abiding in Jesus they do not sin—it is impossible to sin because there is no sin in Him. If believers abide in the sinless Christ, verse 9 says they cannot sin. Fellowship with Him never results in sin! We sin when we stop abiding and walking in the Spirit.
Verse 9 puts this truth in terms of the new nature that a Christian receives in regeneration. God’s “seed” in the believer refers to the new life that gives the believer a new nature. A sinless parent begets sinless children. The believer’s new nature from God never expresses itself by sinning, therefore those believers who sin are not in fellowship with or abiding in Jesus Christ.
CONCLUSION
Real Christians sin and sometimes sin seriously and repeatedly. We know this from experience and the testimony of Scripture. But when the Christian is abiding in fellowship with Jesus Christ, it is impossible to sin because in that sphere—in Christ Himself, there is no sin. Jesus came to take away the sin of the world. He did that provisionally when He died on the cross for sin, and He does that experientially for all believers who abide in Him. Without this understanding, many Christians will doubt their salvation because they know that they sin. God’s grace gives us not only a way to avoid sin (3:6, 9) but also a remedy when we do (1:9).
Sources Consulted
Bing, Charlie. GraceNotes #59. “Real Christians Don’t Sin? 1 John 3:6, 9. < https://www.gracelife.org/resources/gracenotes/?id=59&lang=eng>.
Burling, Dr. Darryl. “Verbal Cheat Sheet.”
Derickson, Gary W. First, Second, and Third John. Ed. H. Wayne House, W. Hall Harris III, and Andrew W. Pitts. Evangelical Exegetical Commentary. Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2012.
Decker, Dr. Rodney. “Expansion of Mounce’s Chapter 15.” November 2003.
Köstenberger, Andreas J.; Merkle, Benjamin L; Plummer, Robert L. Going Deeper with New Testament Greek: An Intermediate Study of the Grammar and Syntax of the New Testament. B&H Publishing Group, chapter 8.
Kubo, S. “1 John 3:9; Absolute or Habitual.” AUSS 7 (1969) 47–56.
Louw, J. P. “Verbal Aspect in the First Letter of John.” Neot 9 (1975) 98–104.
Mathewson, David L. “The Abused Present,” Bulletin for Biblical Research 23, no. 3 (2013): 343-363.
Mathewson, David L.; Emig, Elodie Ballantine. Intermediate Greek Grammar: Syntax for Students of the New Testament. Baker Publishing Group, chapter 6.
Merkle, Benjamin L. “The Abused Aspect: Neglecting the Influence of a Verb’s Lexical Meaning on Tense-Form Choice.” Bulletin for Biblical Research 26.1 (2016): 57-74.
Stegall, Dr. Tom. “Clarifying Greek Verb Tenses.” PowerPoint and Handout for Duluth Bible Church’s Fall Bible Conference Breakout Session on Oct 5, 2017.
Wilkin, Bob. “Do Born Again People Sin? 1 John 3:9.” < https://faithalone.org/magazine/y1990/90march2.html>.