Considering All Sin, Please Explain 1 John 3:6-9
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First John 3:6 in the New King James Version reads as follows. “Whoever abides in Him does not sin. Whoever sins has neither seen Him nor known Him.” First John 3:9 says, “Whoever has been born of God does not sin, for His seed remains in him; and he cannot sin, because he has been born of God.” However, in 1 John 1:8 says, “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us,” and 1 John 1:10 says, “If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us.” So, on the one hand, 1 John 3:6 and 9 seem to be saying that the Christian cannot sin, and 1 John 1:8 and 10 seem to be saying that Christians do sin. So, is this a contradiction in the Bible or is there some other explanation?
First John 3:6 and 9 are two verses where I have a disagreement with how the translators have translated the Bible from Greek to English. Other translations do not create a contradiction in the same text. The English Standard Version has this translation of 1 John 3:6, “No one who abides in him keeps on sinning; no one who keeps on sinning has either seen him or known him.” It also translates 1 John 3:9 as follows: “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.” This translation is much clearer, and it reflects the original Greek text better.
At issue is how to translate the Greek verbs that John uses for “sin.” The Greek verb is ἁμαρτάνω. The form that John uses in verse 6 is ἁμαρτάνει. The breakdown of this form is present tense, active voice, indicative mood, third person, singular number. What is special about this form is the combination of the tense, voice, and mood. When a Greek verb is used in the present, active, indicative, it has the idea of ongoing action. In other words, what John is saying in these verses does not describe the idea of just committing one sin, but the practice or habit of continuing to sin. In essence, he is saying that the Christian does not make a habit of sinning. It is not his ongoing practice. He does not mean to say that a Christian never sins. He made it clear in chapter one that the Christian who says he never sins actually is not telling the truth. He goes on to say in chapter two verse 1 (1 John 2:1) that if we sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ. This is another verse that implies that Christians commit sin.
So, John is saying this in chapter three verse six. If we abide in Christ, we are not going to continue to habitually sin or make a ongoing practice of sinning. Why is this? It is because we have been taught by Christ not to sin any more. So, as Christians, we are going to make an effort to stop sinning. If we do not make an effort to stop sinning, then we really have not learned what it means to be a Christian. Christianity requires a person to repent of their sins before they can become a child of God. A person who has not done this, hasn’t really obeyed the gospel.
John wrote to refute the false doctrine of gnosticism. There were some false teachers in his day who were saying that you could continue to sin and be a Christian. They taught that one did not need to stop committing fornication, idolatry, lying, and other sins. They said that one could continue to do these things. So, John wrote these words to refute what these false teachers were saying. As Christians, we have committed to repenting of sin. This is an ongoing aspect of our lives that we must continue to practice. This means that we must make an effort not to commit sin. If we do sin, we may confess those sins to God and ask for forgiveness. However, this does not mean we can just ignore God’s command to repent. We must try everyday to live up to our commitment to repent and not sin against God and Jesus Christ.