1 John 3:6

1 John 3:6. "Whosoever abideth in Him sinneth not: whosoever sinneth hath not seen Him neither known Him." See 2 Samuel 12:12, "For thou didst it secretly: but I will do this thing before all Israel, and before the sun." By this it appears that though David was so holy a man, a man after God's own heart, yet his deed was properly called sin; yea, it was mortal sin - sin that deserved death, as is implied. See also the terms used in Psalms 51:1-5; Psalms 51:10; Psalms 51:16. So Job was a man that God gloried in, - that was a perfect and an upright man, one that feared God and eschewed evil; or which is the same thing, one that sinned not. He held fast his integrity to the end and eschewed evil, and made good God's boast of (his) eschewing evil under his temptations. And yet Elihu, who spoke by inspiration was in God's stead, and the forerunner of God, and did not answer as his three friends did, but spoke that which was right, and was not reproved by God, charges him with sinning, Job 34:37, "For he addeth rebellion unto his sin; he clappeth his hands among us, and multiplieth his words against God." See also note on 2 Chronicles 32:31. It won't do to go about to solve the argument from these instances with the doctrine of falling from grace. This verse that we are now upon will not allow of that (see note on latter part of the verse), and if any should imagine that the kind of operation on the hearts of the saints in the New Testament which the Apostle John calls a "being born again," is something peculiar to them, and what God's people, under the Old Testament, were not the subjects of, and that regeneration is a thing peculiar to New Testament times (though that may easily be disproved - (for) the Old Testament saints were circumcised in heart, and had right spirits renewed in them, etc., and therefore were born again), yet we have a remarkable instance in one that was said to have followed Christ in the regeneration. - See Matthew 19:27; Matthew 19:28 - viz., Peter, who denied his Lord with oaths and curses. He was one that had been born again, and therefore was one of them that Christ called little children, and one that He spoke of: Matthew 18:6, "But whoso shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea;" whom He called so on account of their new birth, as it is manifest by the foregoing words, particularly the third verse of the chapter, "Verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven," which is parallel with what Christ says to Nicodemus, "Verily, I say unto you, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God." The Apostle John says, in the latter part of this verse, "Whosoever hath not seen Him, nor known Him," but Peter had seen and known his Lord, and therefore Christ says to him, "Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona, for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven;" and Christ in His prayer in the John 17 speaks of him with others of His disciples expressly as having seen and known Him: verse 3, "And this is life eternal, that they might know Thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom Thou hast sent," and then says in the 6th to 8th verses, "I have manifested Thy name unto the men which Thou gavest Me out of the world: Thine they were, and Thou gavest them Me; and they have kept Thy word. Now they have known that all things, whatsoever Thou hast given Me are of Thee: for I have given unto them the words which Thou gavest Me; and they have received them, and have known surely that I came out from Thee, and they have believed that Thou didst send me." These last words then, by what the Apostle John himself says in this epistle, [show] that Peter was born of God: 1 John 5:1, "Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God: and every one that loveth Him that begat, loveth him also that is begotten of him." So Ecclesiastes 7:28; 1 Kings 8:46. So 2 Chronicles 6:36; Proverbs 20:9; John 9:30; John 9:31, and verse John 9:20 and verse John 9:2-3 Psalms 19:12; Psalms 130:3. There is sin in the New Testament saints as well as the Old. The wise virgins slumbered and slept; Romans 7, "The thing that I hate that I do;" Hebrews 12, "Let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us." James 3:2. And this Apostle John himself in this very epistle several times speaks of those that are born again as liable to sin. It is by the new birth that they become as little children; the Apostle says, 1 John 2:1, "My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous." And this is a confirmation that the Apostle has not only respect to sins that were committed before regeneration. In the words immediately foregoing, "If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and his word is not in us." Again, it is by the new birth by which Christians are born of God, this epistle speaks of the brethren as liable to sin: 1 John 5:16, "If any man see his brother sin a sin which is not unto death, he shall ask, and he shall give him life for them that sin not unto death." And yet in the next verse but one, respects that saying that we are upon: "We know that whosoever is born of God sinneth not: but he that is begotten of God keepeth himself, and that wicked one toucheth him not," which confirms that the Apostle means, when he says, "He sinneth not," is not that he never is guilty of any sinful act. Such expressions in Scripture as this in the text, "sinneth" and "sinneth not," are not always to be taken for committing a particular act of sin, as that in Job, the draught and heat, etc. By them that have sinned, is not intended them that are guilty of a particular act of sin. That in Ephesians 2:3, "Fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind," in the original p?????te?, doing the desires of the flesh - that is, making a trade of this. 1 Peter 3:10, "If thou wouldst see good days, refrain thy tongue from evil, and thy lips that they speak no guile." It is not meant that to do one good action is the way to be happy, but a man's setting himself in such a course, making a practice and business of doing good. How often is the wickedness of the king of Israel and Judah expressed by that, "That they did evil in the sight of the Lord."

1 John 3:6. "Whosoever abideth in him sinneth not: whosoever sinneth hath not seen him, neither known him." The words of the next verse are a full confutation of them that from hence would argue sinless perfection. "He that doeth righteousness is righteous, even as He is righteous." There is no more reason to understand the Apostle of committing only one act of sin by the expression "sinneth," or committeth," or "doeth sin," than to understand of one single act of righteousness, when by the expression, "doth righteousness," and so to understand the next verse thus, "He that doeth any righteousness at any time is righteous even as God is righteous," whereas by doing righteousness the Apostle plainly means practicing righteousness, or making that his practice in the course of his life. So there is equal reason when he speaks here of committing sin to understand him of practicing sin, or making wickedness his trade or practice. See "doing righteousness," etc.

1 John 3:9