1 John
1Jo 3:3-5 - Purifying Hope
by Joe Holder
And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure. Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the law: for sin is the transgression of the law. And ye know that he was manifested to take away our sins; and in him is no sin. (1Jo 3:3-5)
Do not sever this lesson from its context, the first two verses of the chapter. You have in this flowing context far more information than you at first glance see. Have you ever wondered how New Testament writers would define hope? By a full reading you quickly understand that they didn't think of hope as wishful thinking against expectations. But here John actually defines it. You do not see the word hope in the first two verses, but this lesson refers to the whole idea presented in those verses and sums it up in one word, hope. Linger reflectively over this truth. Let its force settle deeply into your mind. Allow it to strengthen your life and outlook in faith.
Now with that foundation firmly settled in our minds, let's move into the lesson. You will occasionally meet people who say they are Christians and believe devoutly in God. But when you examine their conduct and attitude toward life, they do not reflect the transformation John implied in this lesson. They say they love God and believe in their security in Christ. They say they live in hope of the resurrection and eternity with God. But they constantly struggle with depression, anger, self-absorption or other negative sinful attitudes. They may honestly confess their sins, though often they are so filled with pride they prefer to deny personal sins. But if they confess their sins, they also tend to remain in them, thus confessing the same sins over and over, for they continue to repeat them. You see no purification of personal conduct. You see no joyful outlook and no growth in spiritual knowledge or maturity. How do you explain this dilemma? The most obvious explanation is rather direct. John doesn't say that every person who truly has this hope will try to purify himself and fail. He says the person who truly has this hope will in fact purify himself. To say anything less puts us in contradiction to John's statement and to inspired Scripture. We should not put ourselves in this posture. Apparently it is possible for people to think they have this hope, to say they have it, but in fact they don't! Do you see in John's language that this hope will not allow the person who has it to continue in a stagnant sinful lifestyle? It is impossible! The hope always promotes purification in personal conduct.
Theologians use the term perseverance to describe this link between salvation and godliness. Sometimes people who do not respect Scripture's emphatic connection between salvation, at least a true profession of faith, and godliness will teach that we must choose between the doctrines of preservation and perseverance. On rare occasions I have heard some say, with no supportive historical evidence whatever, that ancient Christians who used the term perseverance simply misunderstood the two words and used one when they actually intended the other. However if you read their writings reasonably, you will conclude that they knew exactly what they believed and they wrote their convictions with precision. They believed in perseverance. You need not make every child of God a near-perfect Christian to teach this doctrine, but you cannot believe that a resolute sinner is a child of God in disobedience and hold the historic or the Bible perspective.
John didn't give a private mystical definition to sin. He made it as obvious and simple as possible. While believers in the New Testament Age are not under the Law (Ro 6:14), a faithful New Testament believer will acknowledge the union of the Law and God's fixed moral character. Whether we are under the Law or not, when we violate its moral principles, we violate God's righteous nature, and we sin!
And ye know that he was manifested to take away our sins; and in him is no sin. John leads us to honest acknowledgement of our sins. We cannot deny our sins and understand John's teaching in this letter. But he views an honest confrontation of personal sin with the divine remedy for our sins. If Christ was manifested to take away our sins, how can we view our personal sins lightly? How can we dismiss them in sinful pride and pretend they don't exist? How can we continue the practice of them and convince anyone that we truly believe in Him? We can't! If He came through the incarnation to take away our sins, we must then hold His incarnation in high regard. Apart from what Jesus accomplished during His incarnation, His time in human flesh, we have no salvation! We have no hope for deliverance from our sins.
But in the same breath John reminds us that in Jesus Christ, the divine remedy for our sins, there is no sin. Notice John uses the present tense verb here, "In him is no sin." Sometimes theologians and Bible students will debate whether or not Jesus could have sinned. What is the point? He didn't! You can only address that question apart from Bible fact! That should convince us not to go there at all! Go where the Bible takes you, but avoid speculative questions that admittedly go in a different direction than Biblical teaching. Not only did He not sin, even now in heaven He has no sin. He did not commit personal sins. And the sins the Father imputed to Him He took in their legal penalty to Calvary and to death. But they do not remain with Him. He satisfied the Father's just requirements for their payment. He does not today carry our sins in heaven. He finished that work and ascended sinless back to the Father. At His ascension the sin question had already been resolved!
But John approaches this truth cautiously. He freely leads us to this amazing comfort in Christ's work. But he does not isolate that work from its moral and ethical implications to us. In him is no sin. If there is no sin in Him and we in heaven will be so like Him as to see Him as He is, we will confront and eliminate sin in our lives. We need not believe in the attainment of sinless perfection to hold to this truth. But we cannot hold to it and tolerate or justify continuing sin in our lives. If we hold to this truth, we will strive to imitate Christ's moral and ethical conduct. If we honor the truth of His sinless person, we must impose that goal as ours. We must at every possible occasion move in that direction. Sins that we may have tolerated a year ago we should now see more clearly as the sins they are and eliminate them from our life. What we consider as morally acceptable conduct today should be far more precise than what we viewed as acceptable Christianity even one year ago. Lest we allow pride to control our life we should approach our growth in godliness with a liberal measure of personal humility.
We should also increase in the wisdom that understands that our personal victory over sins we practice or permit in our lives will not occur through stubborn pride or personal energy. This approach to the elimination of sin in our conduct will grow legalism and arrogance in us. Or if we are honest enough to see and to confess our ongoing sins, it may grow despair in us. But it will not grow victory in us! The power to overcome sinful habits in our lifestyle and attitudes grows out of our faithful belief in Christ, the resurrection and our eventual conformation to His likeness. It is not the stubborn willpower of the man or woman who has this hope that delivers them from sin. It is the hope of that reality that overcomes sin in us. The more we live with a heavenward worldview and lifestyle the more we will realize our personal victory over sins in our life. The more we accept our future glory with Christ in His likeness the more we will confront and overcome sins in our person. Do you see the union between these two points in our lesson? Do you understand how John sees our ability to overcome sin as growing out of our hope in Christ, not out of our personal ability?
To combine these two truths harmoniously we must also understand another truth. For John hope is not a sentimental emotion or a wishful desire. Neither sentimental emotions nor wishful desires will conquer sin in our conduct. They will set us up for repeated failure. We may cross swords with our sins, but when the final blow strikes, the sin will hold the upper hand against us. How pure is God in your thoughts? Do you really believe this? This view becomes the true measure of your objective for your own actions. So you first of all eliminate the idea of redefining sin as a floating moving measure, subjectively seen as sin only in relation to your personal outlook. You will see it as God sees it, in the clear straightforward definition John gives us in this lesson. And then as you seek to conquer sin in your life, the power to overcome sinful habits will relate directly to your attitude toward Christ and His boundless love for you. Your concept of His love will not lower your expectations and increase your tolerance of sins. It will do the exact opposite. Let the purifying life begin.
1Jo 3:6-10 - Who Sins? Who does not sin?