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THE NORTHERN KENTUCKY SEARCHER VOLUME 6, NUMBER 3, JANUARY 22, 2006 CONDUCT MATTERS Being a Christian is a glorious, wonderful thing, but it is a life that comes with responsibility. While many in the religious world believe and teach that a Christian’s conduct in no way affects his or her salvation, they essentially teach that once an individual is saved, conduct doesn’t really matter. I believe that is completely false and contrary to the very tenor of the New Testament. A basic theme that runs through the letters of 1st, 2nd, and 3rd John is that conduct matters. For our purpose in this article, we will examine 1 John 3:3-12 The passage reads, “And everyone who has this hope fixed on Him purifies himself, just as He is pure. Everyone who practices sin also practices lawlessness; and sin is lawlessness. And you know that He appeared in order to take away sins; and in Him there is no sin. No one who abides in Him sins; no one who sins has been Him or knows Him. Little children, let no one deceive you; the one who practices righteousness is righteous, just as He is righteous; the one who practices sin is of the devil; for the devil has sinned from the beginning. The Son of God appeared for this purpose, that He might destroy the works of the devil. No one who is born of God practices sin, because His seed abides in him; and he cannot sin, because he is born of God. By this the children of God and the children of the devil are obvious: anyone who does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor the one who does not love his brother. For this is the message which you have heard from the beginning, that we should love one another; not as Cain, who was of the evil one, and slew his brother. And for what reason did he slay him? Because his deeds were evil, and his brother’s were righteous.” Let’s follow the flow of John’s thoughts. The “hope” that John mentions is the hope that he had just talked about, that we are going to be like Him and see Him as He is. Anyone who is truly in possession of this hope keeps himself pure; that is the natural response and the only correct response to the hope that we have. As a matter of fact, keeping oneself pure is a condition to realizing that hope and to help us do it, we have the greatest example of purity that ever has been – Jesus Christ. Obviously, conduct matters. The verb “purifies” is present, active indicative; meaning that we “keep on purifying,” it is a continuous act. So, there are at least four things taught here in verse 3: (a) That our salvation is conditional, (b) That we must abstain from every form of impurity, (c) That hope serves to encourage us to faithfulness, (d) Look to Jesus for the perfect example of purity. In dealing with the false idea that the conduct of a Christian does not matter, John had made the point that God is righteous and that those who are the children of God evidence that fact by doing righteousness. That point was made in 2:29, when he wrote, “If you know that He is righteous, you know that everyone also who practices righteousness is born of Him.” Now, he proceeds to show that sin is the opposite of such righteousness, because sin is lawlessness. That is verse 4 of chapter 3. Let’s think about 3:4 for a moment. Usually the word that is translated as “sin” in the New Testament is the word “hamartia,” the root meaning of which is “missing the mark.” The idea is that of aiming at something but not being able to hit it, falling short. But here a different word is use. It is the word “anomia” and it is a much stronger word. This implies a purposeful disregard of God’s law and can be properly translated as “iniquity.” The idea is that all of God’s law is under consideration here and while a person may claim to be a child of God, if he continues to practice sin, than he is in rebellion and revolt against God. Sin is absolutely incompatible with a child of God. John’s next point is that Jesus came to deliver men from such lawlessness and in Christ was absolute righteousness and no sin. He is our example. Let’s think about verse 5 for a moment as well. Christ was manifested in the world – simply referring to His becoming flesh and dwelling among us; in order to take away our sins. John’s point is simple, if we profess to follow Christ, and he came to take away sins, than all sin must be shunned and avoided. If the Lord’s purpose was to take away sins, and we continue to live in them, than as it relates specifically to us, we have thwarted His purpose. There is no sin in Jesus. Sin and the Lord do not mix. That leads logically to John’s next point in verses 6 and 7. Those who have been begotten of God and are His children, must live righteously - they must live in a manner consistent with the life of the example, the Lord Jesus. The one who habitually abides in Christ will not continue to habitually sin. Understand that John is not saying that a Christian never sins. Understand that he is not saying that a Christian is no such a spiritual level that sin does not taint him; nor is he saying that a Christian’s sins are never counted against him. In this passage, both the sinning and the abiding are continuous, habitual actions - and in the same person you cannot have both at the same time. That is impossible. So, the one who claims to be a child of God and yet continues to live a life of habitual sin is not a true child of God. The plain and simple truth is that one who practices righteousness is righteous, just as the Lord claimed righteousness and lived it. It is important to understand that John is not teaching that the practice of righteousness is how one initially becomes righteous or justified. Rather, the import of his words is that because a Christian has been begotten by God and is in the family of God, and that family practices righteousness, than the child is expected to practice righteousness as well. To embrace the ancient Gnostic idea (that John was specifically dealing with) or the modern Calvinistic idea of “once saved, always saved” is to be deceived. I will have more to say about these verses next week as we continue to emphasize the point that “Conduct Matters.”
Greg Litmer
EVERYONE TEACH ONE!
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