1 John 3:4-6 “Everyone who commits sin is guilty of lawlessness; sin is lawlessness. You know that he was revealed to take away sins, and in him there is no sin. No one who abides in him sins; no one who sins has either seen him or known him.” This episode is about the face that Jesus died for our sins and about how the lives of sinners and the lives of believers should look different. Music:"Adding the Sun" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
A New Life
1 John 3:4-6 “Everyone who commits sin is guilty of lawlessness; sin is lawlessness. You know that he was revealed to take away sins, and in him there is no sin. No one who abides in him sins; no one who sins has either seen him or known him.”
This is the same verse as yesterday because I spent the whole time talking about verse 4 and I didn’t even touch on these other two verses. I think these verses are important and I didn’t want to leave you hanging. Verse 5 says, “You know that he was revealed to take away sins, and in him there is no sin.” This is referring of course to Jesus Christ. There was no sin in Jesus. Did you know that Mary was also without sin? I find both of these remarkable. I know Jesus was fully God, but He was also fully human and we can’t seem to help ourselves from sinning.
This verse says He was revealed to take away sins. John 3:16 says, "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” God sent His only son to us so that He could pay for all of our sins. God is a just God and He gave Adam and Eve a just consequence for what they did. However, He did not want to be apart from His children forever. He knew reparation had to be paid for the sins of the world. He sent His only son to walk among us and then to be crucified so that we could be reunited with the Lord.
I can’t imagine how hard it must have been for either one of them. The Bible paints a pretty clear picture of how hard it was for Jesus. When He was in the Garden of Gethsemane His sweat was drops of blood. When I am doing the sorrowful mysteries of the rosary I am always so sad when it talks about that mystery. One narration of the rosary says that Jesus saw all the sins of the world, He also saw the wrath of His father that He had to appease. Can you imagine the sins of the whole world flashing before your eyes? Think about how awful we feel after watching a few stories on the nightly news. Now imagine you are seeing the sins of every human being on the planet, those that came before, and those that will come after. That is a lot for one person.
The next verse says, “No one who abides in him sins; no one who sins has either seen him or known him.” This is the other reason why I said yesterday that I passed this verse over many times before deciding to write about it. I don’t understand this verse as everyone sins. So when it says that no one who abides in him sins, I wonder about that. Then the next line is even more upsetting because it says that no one who sins has either seen him or known him. What? St. Paul, who we know has seen Jesus and knows Jesus because of his personal encounter with Him says that he sins. So, I did not want to address this verse because I don’t understand it myself.
Also, if I am being completely honest I didn’t want to address it because it says something that could invite conflict. It could make some people upset to hear this. If someone told me that if I sin it means I don’t know Jesus, I would be upset. This type of thinking is what the enemy wants though. If we are scared to talk about things that people might not agree with or that might make people upset, then there won’t be much we can talk about. We need to be bold when talking about our faith. There are lots of things that God says that upsets people. We can’t pretend he didn’t say them. Jesus said plenty of things that upset people in His time here on earth, so did his disciples. We are all called to be disciples. That means that we are all called to pass along God’s message, whether people like it or not.
Now, that does not mean we shove God’s message down the throats of everyone we meet whether they want to hear it or not. It does mean that we address the hard subjects, even if they make us uncomfortable. It means, if there is something about our faith that we don’t understand, we take the time to learn what it means so that we can clear up any misinformation that is out there and so we can understand it better. Father Mike said the other day that teachers of the faith are held to a higher standard. We are all called to be teachers of our faith. We are called to spread God’s word and to help others encounter Jesus. We can’t do that if we don’t try to deepen our own faith and understanding.
The more we get to know God the deeper our relationship gets with Him. The more we read and understand His word, the closer we get to Him. I want to discover all God’s word has to offer. I want to understand it all. The only way I can do this is to be brave enough to talk about the scriptures that I don’t understand. I love that we only cover a verse or two each day. This gives us the chance to really look at what each verse is saying and to really get a good understanding of what each verse means and how it applies to our life. Knowing what God wants from us and applying that knowledge to our lives are two very different things. Have you ever heard the quote, “Knowledge is Power”? Well there is another quote that I feel is a little more accurate. “Knowledge isn’t power until it is applied.” It doesn’t make a difference if we know every line of the Bible if we aren’t going to do anything with that knowledge. The only way that the scripture can change your life is if you take what you learn from it and use that knowledge to make changes in your life.
Now, lets get back to 1 John 3:6, “No one who abides in him sins; no one who sins has either seen him or known him.” This verse is not saying that if you sin you are not a believer. according to the commentary that I found (click here for commentary) the context of this verse was talking about a relationship with Christ. It is saying that true fellowship with Christ cannot result in sin- this is part of John’s defense agains the claim that the gospel give people an excuse to do wrong. The commentary also talked about how a believer is marked by a changed life. When Jesus enters your life, you live a different life. Yes, believers do sin, but they try not to and hopefully the don’t continually and repeatedly sin.
The verse is showing that there is a difference in the lives of believers and non-believers. You should be able to look at the life someone is living and be able to tell if they are a believer or not. The commentator says, “Though every believer is a work in progress, every believer’s life should show a noticeable difference in living a life that becomes more like Christ. If a person’s life is not different that that of a non-believer, there is no reason to be confident they are a true believer.” This gives us something to think about. Can people tell just by looking at my life that I am a believer? Have I been changed by my relationship with Christ? Is there something more I could be doing to be living a more Christian life? God sent His only son to die on a cross for my sins. Am I do all I can to honor that sacrifice? Am I doing my best to ensure I don’t sin? Am I repenting when I do sin? Is there anything I could be doing differently?
Dear Heavenly Father, I ask that you bless all those listening to this episode today? We are so grateful that you sent your son to be with us and to make reparation for our sins. Lord, help us to honor this sacrifice. Help us to live the way you want us to live. If there is something we could be doing differently we ask that you shine a light on that and put a desire to do it in our hearts. Lord, we love you so very much and we want to do what you want us to do. Please help us. Please guide us Lord. We ask all of this in accordance with your will and in Jesus’ holy name, Amen.
Thank you so much for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus. I really do appreciate you! There are so many things to fill up your day and you are taking time out of an already busy day to be on this journey with me. It brings me comfort to know that I am not doing it alone. I look forward to spending time with you again tomorrow. Have a blessed day!