1 John 3:6

“Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the law: for sin is the transgression of the law.” In one sentence John tells us what sin is. His word for sin is hamartía, which Strong’s defines as “a sin”, properly an abstract noun, and it is related to the verb hamartánō, to miss the mark. Here John names the mark that sin misses, which is God’s law.

“Transgression of the law” translates a single Greek word, anomía, built from anomos, “without law”. It means illegality, the violation of law, and wickedness in general, and the KJV also renders it “iniquity” and “unrighteousness”. In this verse it stands as another name for sin itself. Sin is lawlessness, a setting aside of God’s rule and an offence against the God who gave the law.

The verb behind “committeth” is poiéō, an everyday word for making or doing, used very widely. In the Greek, “transgresseth also the law” reads literally “does lawlessness also”, with the same verb, so the person who does sin is at that very moment doing lawlessness. The present tense speaks of what a person goes on doing, the way his life runs.

Paul speaks of the law in the same way: “by the law is the knowledge of sin” (Romans 3:20), and he says he had not known lust “except the law had said, Thou shalt not covet” (Romans 7:7). James adds that “whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all” (James 2:10). Because sin is measured by God’s own law, it is grave in his sight, and only his grace in Christ can forgive it and set us free to obey him.

“And ye know that he was manifested to take away our sins; and in him is no sin.” “Ye know” appeals to what John’s readers already held at the centre of their faith. “Manifested” translates phaneróō, to make apparent, to appear or show openly. The eternal Son of God appeared in human history in a real body, as John wrote in his Gospel: “the Word was made flesh” (John 1:14).

“To take away” is aírō, which means to lift up, and by implication to take up or take away. Strong’s notes that by a Hebrew turn of speech it is used of expiating sin. Christ came to lift our sins off us and bear them away, as the scapegoat of Leviticus 16 pictured and as Isaiah foretold in the suffering servant (Isaiah 53). John the Baptist pointed to Jesus as “the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world” (John 1:29), and Hebrews speaks of Christ’s sacrifice, offered once for all, to put away sin (Hebrews 9:26–28). At the cross God showed himself “just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus” (Romans 3:26).

The word hamartía comes twice in this verse, in “our sins” and in “no sin”. The first is the problem Christ came to solve, and the second is his perfect fitness to solve it.

“He that committeth sin is of the devil; for the devil sinneth from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil.” The word for devil, diábolos, means a slanderer or false accuser, from a verb meaning to traduce or accuse, and as a title it names the Devil, Satan, the adversary of God and of mankind. To be “of the devil” speaks of where a life comes from and to whom it belongs. A life given over to sin bears the devil’s likeness, as a child bears the likeness of a parent. Jesus called the devil the father of lies (John 8:44).

“Committeth sin” is once more poiéō, the doing of sin as a way of life, and “sinneth” is hamartánō. The devil “sinneth from the beginning”. He was the first sinner, and the present tense tells us he has gone on sinning ever since, so he is the source and the pattern of every life that is given to sin.

“For this purpose” points to God’s own intention in sending his Son, and “manifested” is the same verb as in verse 5. Christ appeared to take away our sins, and he appeared to destroy the devil’s works, and the two purposes belong together. “Destroy” is lýō, to loose, untie, break up or dissolve. Christ came to undo what the devil has done and to break its power. He triumphed over the principalities and powers (Colossians 2:15), through his own death he won the victory over death and the devil (Hebrews 2:14–15), and those united to him are freed from sin’s rule (Romans 6:1–7). This victory was promised long before, in the first promise of the gospel (Genesis 3:15) and in the promise of Immanuel (Isaiah 7:14).

“Whosoever abideth in him sinneth not: whosoever sinneth hath not seen him, neither known him.” To abide, ménō, is to stay, remain, dwell or continue. Abiding in Christ is a lasting, close and dependent union with him, the life Jesus described when he called himself the vine and his disciples the branches (John 15:4–7). From him comes the power to bear the fruit of righteousness, and whoever remains in him breaks with sin as the pattern of his life.

Of the one who goes on in sin John says that he “hath not seen him, neither known him.” The seeing is spiritual sight, a true grasp of who Christ is and of his holiness. “Known” is ginṓskō, the ordinary verb for knowing, coming to know, perceiving and understanding. The verse itself shows what kind of knowing John has in view, because it is knowledge that changes how a person lives. Jesus said that eternal life is knowing the only true God and Jesus Christ whom he sent (John 17:3).

John is speaking here of sin as the settled pattern of a life, and the same letter says plainly that believers still sin and need forgiveness. Earlier he wrote, “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us,” and promised that God forgives the sins we confess (1 John 1:8–10). Soon after he wrote, “My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous” (1 John 2:1). Paul says that all have sinned (Romans 3:23).

The verbs in these verses are in the present tense: “committeth”, “sinneth”, “doeth”. John uses them for what a person keeps on doing, the direction and habit of a life, and his strong words “sinneth not” and “cannot sin” describe a life that has broken with sin’s rule. A child of God still stumbles. When he does, he confesses his sin and turns back, and the desire of his heart is toward righteousness. The one who belongs to the devil lives on in sin without repentance and makes it his way. So these verses teach a real and lasting change in everyone born of God, and they leave sinless perfection in this life out of view.

Paul describes the same change. Those united to Christ are “dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Romans 6:11), they walk by the Spirit against the desires of the flesh (Galatians 5:16–17), and they pursue holiness (Hebrews 12:14). The pursuit is real and growing, though imperfect, and the strength for it comes from Christ.

“Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin; for his seed remaineth in him: and he cannot sin, because he is born of God.” “Born” is gennáō, to beget, and figuratively to regenerate. To be born of God (theós) is the new birth, in which God gives new life and a new nature to a person who believes in Christ. This life comes wholly from God and makes us his children by his own act. “Doth not commit sin” joins poiéō and hamartía again, the practice of sin.

“His seed remaineth in him.” Spérma means seed, and by extension offspring or descendants. “Remaineth” is ménō, the same verb as “abideth” in verse 6, so Christ’s people abide in him, and God’s seed abides in them. What God has planted stays, and like a seed it grows and bears fruit of its own kind.

“And he cannot sin” is ou dýnamai. Ou is the plain word “not”, and dýnamai means to be able. John grounds this inability in the new birth itself, “because he is born of God”. A life of continuing sin goes against the very nature of one who has God’s life in him.

“Little children, let no man deceive you: he that doeth righteousness is righteous, even as he is righteous.” “Little children” is tekníon, a tender diminutive John uses for his spiritual children. He writes as a father, with warmth and with authority, to people who could be led astray. “Deceive” is planáō, to cause to wander or lead astray, the word that gives us “planet”, a wandering star. False teachers were telling believers that a person could stand right with God whatever he did, and John warns against them here, as he later tells the church to try the spirits (1 John 4:1).

“He that doeth righteousness” uses poiéō once more, the same verb as “committeth sin” in verses 4 and 8, so the doing of righteousness stands directly against the doing of sin. “Righteous”, díkaios, describes someone just and upright, living in line with God’s law. The one whose life is marked by doing right is righteous in God’s sight, and his doing shows a changed nature. John says elsewhere that whoever knows God keeps his commandments and walks as Christ walked (1 John 2:3–6).

“Even as he is righteous” sets the standard, which is God’s own righteousness. The “he” is God the Father, and with him Jesus Christ, who shows that righteousness in a human life and has left us an example (1 Peter 2:21). Just before this passage John says that we shall be like him when he appears, and that whoever has this hope purifies himself (1 John 3:2–3).

“In this the children of God are manifest, and the children of the devil: whosoever doeth not righteousness is not of God, neither he that loveth not his brother.” “Manifest” here is phanerós, an adjective meaning visible, manifest, evident or well known. The difference between God’s children and the devil’s is there for all to see, and “In this” looks ahead to the marks by which it is seen.

The first mark is righteousness, dikaiosýnē, equity of character and act, what is right by God’s standard. Whoever lacks it in his life is “not of God”, which means he did not come from God and does not belong to his family.

The second mark is love for the brother. The brother (adelphós) is a fellow believer, and the love (agapáō) is the self-giving love that belongs to God himself, for “God is love” (1 John 4:8). Jesus made mutual love the mark by which the world would know his disciples (John 13:35). Paul sets the works of the flesh, such as hatred and strife, against the fruit of the Spirit, which is love among the rest (Galatians 5:19–23). The highest example of this love is Christ laying down his life (John 15:13).

“Children of God” carries the language of the covenant, in which Israel was called God’s children, and it now belongs to all who are brought into God’s family through Christ. God adopts us by his Spirit (Romans 8:15) and is shaping us to the image of his Son (Romans 8:29). The marks of verse 10 are the family likeness. The children do righteousness because their Father is righteous, and they love because he is love.

These verses show us God as the righteous One, whose law marks out what is right and whose holiness stands against all lawlessness. They also show that he has acted against sin himself. He sent his Son, in whom is no sin, to take our sins away and to undo the works of the devil, and that victory is already won. He gives his children a new birth and plants his own seed in them, where it remains. The holiness John describes grows from that seed, and God, who began this good work, carries it on (Philippians 1:6).

The passage also gives us a sure way to tell the true from the false. Anyone can claim to know God, and John gives his little children marks that anyone can see: doing what is right, and loving the brothers. When a child of God stumbles, the same letter points to the advocate with the Father, “Jesus Christ the righteous”, who is the righteous One of this passage too. The God who calls us to be righteous as he is righteous is the God who has made us his children.