Passage: 1 John 3:3-6

The Big Idea

Everyone who has the hope of being God’s child, and of one day being like Jesus, purifies himself. That doesn’t mean cleaning ourselves up; it means renouncing the pride, self-reliance and unbelief that break our fellowship with God. Sin isn’t a “mistake”; it’s lawlessness, rebellion against God. Jesus came to take away our sins, and in Him there is no sin. When we abide in Him, sin no longer rules our lives. John isn’t teaching sinless perfection; the question isn’t whether we sin, but how we respond when we do.

This Hope (3:3)

John writes: Everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself, just as He is pure (1 John 3:3).

What hope?

The close, intimate relationship with God as His children (1 John 3:1-2).
Humble, dependent children.
Growing daily to be more humble and dependent, just like Jesus. That’s what it means to become “like Him.”
Remember Jesus praying, trusting, giving, all for His Father’s glory.

Purifies himself.

This does not mean we clean ourselves up!
It means we renounce the impure desires that break our fellowship with God:
pride (a child of God has no need for it);
self-sourced living;
unbelief, doubt and fear.
Focusing on being God’s children isn’t passive. It’s actively diving into the life of Christ!

Just as He is pure.

Our choices to turn away from these sinful patterns flow directly from what Jesus has already done for us and in us.

Call It What It Is (3:4)

Whoever commits sin also commits lawlessness, and sin is lawlessness (1 John 3:4).

We often lose the battle against sin because we won’t call it what it is: lawlessness, an offense against God, the great Lawgiver.
Instead we say, “If I’ve done anything wrong…” or “Mistakes were made…”
Call it what it is: sin. As John Stott put it, the first step toward holy living is to recognize how serious and wicked sin really is.
The root of sin is lawlessness. Not a mistake, but rebellion against God.

Sin is anything that isn’t the way God would have it. God wants your righteousness to come through trusting Jesus and calling on His name. He will answer. He will save.

He Came to Take It Away (3:5)

You know that He appeared to take away our sins, and in Him there is no sin (1 John 3:5).

Jesus’ mission was to save us from our sins:
from sin’s penalty (we’re forgiven);
from sin’s power (we’re being set free);
and one day from sin’s presence (we’ll be with Him).
He had no sin of His own, so He could take ours.
In Him there is no sin, and you can be in Him, by faith, now and always!
This is His work, not ours.

Our part? Abide.

Abiding and Sinning (3:6)

Whoever abides in Him does not sin. Whoever sins has neither seen Him nor known Him (1 John 3:6).

When we abide in Him, stay connected to Him, His work is certainly accomplished in us.
Sin no longer rules us. Our hearts change at the level of their deepest desires.

It’s very important to understand what John means, and doesn’t mean, by does not sin.

John already told us that if we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves (1 John 1:8). So he’s not teaching sinless perfection.
The grammar is the key. In 1 John 1:8, he’s speaking of occasional acts of sin. Here, the Greek present tense speaks of ongoing, habitual action: a settled lifestyle. Many translations bring this out with phrases like “keeps on sinning” or “continues to sin.”
So John means that someone who abides in Christ doesn’t live in an ongoing, comfortable lifestyle of sin.

As David Guzik puts it, in a sense the question isn’t “Do you sin or not?” We all sin. The question is, “How do you respond when you sin?” Do you give in to the pattern and let it dominate your life? Or do you humbly confess it and fight it with the power Jesus gives?

Do we make excuses for our sin, or ignore it?
A true Christian is an enemy of sin. We see it as the enemy in our own lives.

If there’s no basic change in our relationship with sin, something is wrong with the relationship. Hating sin, and turning from sinful ways, is the path of a true believer.

We abide in sin, or we abide in Jesus. We focus on sin, or on Jesus. We trust ourselves, or we trust Him.

Grace Takeaway

Sin is an attack on our relationship with God, and Jesus came to take it away: its penalty, its power and one day its presence. You can’t manufacture or fake a changed relationship with sin; only grace makes it real. So call sin what it is, bring it to Him and stay close to Him. The question isn’t whether you’ll ever stumble. It’s whether you’ll keep abiding in the One in whom there is no sin.

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Sin: An Attack on Relationship