Victors Over Sin – Part I
Today’s Scripture: 1 John 3:4-10
Key Verse: 1 John 3:6
Anyone who continues to live in Him will not sin. But anyone who keeps on sinning does not know Him or understand who He is.
The Bible has a lot to say about sin and how it separates us from God. Sin is so serious that God sent His only Son to deal with it and defeat it forever.
As believers, we need to understand what sin is and how to deal with it. First John 3:4 tells us that sin is “breaking God’s law, for all sin is contrary to the law of God”.
In the book of James, we discover what I call “accountable” sin. This means we are only accountable to the sins that we know about and for which the Spirit of God has convicted us. James puts it this way: “Remember, it is sin to know what you ought to do and then not do it.” (James 4:17).
Therefore, we talk about “growing in our life with God”. Each year of our walk with God, He shows us things that He wants us to add or remove from our lives. Once God has revealed those things to us, then we become accountable for them. In other words, God will not judge us for things that He has not yet revealed to us.
If you remember, earlier in this devotional, we studied the idea of “walking in the light, as God is in the light” (1 John 1:7). This phrase means that a believer lives their life with all the light (truth) that God has shown them. An important question that we should ask ourselves: Am I living out all the truths that that God has revealed to me?
In 1 John 3:6, our Key Verse for today, we see that if a person keeps on sinning, after claiming to be a follower of Christ, they really don’t know or understand Jesus. If God reveals a sin to you and you refuse to accept God’s instruction, then the reality is you really do not know Him as He wants to be known.
When the Bible says we must believe in Jesus, it means believe in Him enough to obey His instructions to you. “Those who obey God’s commandments remain in fellowship with Him, and He with them.” (1 John 3:24).
An important phrase in 1 John 3:6 is “keeps on sinning”. A true believer can sin after coming to Christ. This means doing something that they know is wrong, but they do it anyway. When that happens, the true believer feels the conviction of the Holy Spirit and then repents of their actions.
First John 3:9 repeats this same “keeps on sinning” warning: If someone lives their life in the “practice of sinning”, they are not true believers. “Those who have been born into God’s family do not make a practice of sinning.”
Father, I am eternally grateful that you have united me with Jesus and forgiven my sins. Give me understanding of all the truth that you have revealed to me and grant me strength to live it in my life. In Jesus’s Name I pray, amen.