One of the most disturbing passages of Scripture to me is not where God orders the deaths of the Ammonites or where a bear attacks some youth for insulting the prophet. To me, one of the most disturbing passages of Scripture is over in 1 John 3.
John lays out some terms on which his basic argument is built. He uses the concept of "children of God" not in the frivolous "we're all God's children", but in the sense of John 1:12 -- a select group of people given special privilege to be called the children of God. This, he says, is the the amazing kind of love the Father has shown to us. He moves on from there by defining sin: "Sin is lawlessness" (1 John 3:4). Then he defines for us "lawlessness" in a very simple way: "This is His commandment, that we believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ and love one another, just as He has commanded us" (1 John 3:23). That's it ... two simple commands. Everything else falls into place with these two basic commands much like Jesus's "Greatest Commandment" and "the second is like unto it" in Matthew 22 or Paul's "the one who loves has fulfilled the law" (Rom 13:8). (How about that? We have consistency!) All well and good. We have "children of God" and we have "sin" which is defined as a failure to either believe or to love.
The sticky part is in John's application of these concepts. Verse 6 says, "No one who sins has either seen Him or known Him." Um ... wait ... really? The King James version of verse 9 only makes this worse: "Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin." Why is that? "He cannot sin, because he is born of God." This passage, then, forms the primary foundation of the argument for perfectionism.
What is perfectionism? The concept to which I'm referring here is the doctrine that holds that a state of complete freedom from sin is not only attainable on earth, but required. The standard Christian, of course, rejects this out of hand. The primary reason that we reject it out of hand is, well, we know no one who meets it. If we are careful, we can even point to Scripture where the Apostle Paul cries, "Who will set me free from this body of death?" (Rom 7:24) and claims that he had not arrived at perfection (Phil 3:12-13). See? We cannot find a biblical example of anyone who arrived at sinless perfection.
So, experience and the absence of a biblical example proves ... or does it? You see, if you admit that experience may be misleading and understand that a lack of biblical example doesn't prove a point, and if you're one who is willing to allow Scripture to form your view of reality, you, like me, will find yourself in a quandary. Is it possible that John's epistle is actually intending to say that sinless perfection is the mark of a true believer? Does John actually say that those who commit sin has no relationship with God? And, if so, what conclusions do we draw? If not, on what basis do we say it's not the case?
I'll leave it to you. Does 1 John 3 demand that all true believers be sinless? If so, what do you conclude ... about yourself and all the other Christians you know? If not, why not? (I'd like to think I have answers, but let's see if we can talk about it first.)
3 comments:
"Does 1 John 3 demand that all true believers be sinless?"
It's hard not to see it that way. But it may also be the means by which we hold ourselves and each other accountable. The reminder that children of God behave in a particular manner corrects us as we stray. Some may stumble, some may backslide, some may struggle. Others might simply do what they please and I think there is a distinction between the two sentences. I struggle with certain behaviors but never consider the behaviors to be more or less than the sinful behaviors they are. I regret to find myself committing the sin once again and am truly filled with remorse. This is where I am saved by my acceptance of Christ. But nonetheless, I am not acting as a child of God while I commit the sin, thus could not rightly hold claim to the title whilst doing so. But I am a child of God by my desire to improve myself. Repentence is an ongoing thing, much like alcoholism. One day at a time. At least it is for me.
All good questions...and I don't really even have much of a stab at an answer, even though I've been asking the question for a long time. Obviously, I think the passage is important and useful as a reminder not to misconstrue grace as a license to sin as Paul warns about in Romans... but yes, thankfully, there does seem to be Biblical support that it is the case that true believers like Paul have not "attained" yet.
Maybe the point that God judges the thoughts and intents of the heart could be helpful here? Jesus commented that the flesh can be weak but the spirit willing... just a thought.
I'll be interested to see everybody else's thoughts!
Marshall Art: "I regret to find myself committing the sin once again and am truly filled with remorse."
I think this is a key, vital distinction between the saved and the unsaved. The saved who sin (and we all do) hate it. We don't defend it. If I find someone defending sin ("Everyone's doing it." "It's not that bad."), it turns on warning lights in my head.
Ruth: "I'll be interested to see everybody else's thoughts!"
So far you and Marshall Art are the only two respondents. I'm hoping for more myself.
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