067. How can 1Jn 3:6; 1Jn 3:9 and kindred passages in that epistle be adequately reconciled ...

How can 1 John 3:6; 1 John 3:9 and kindred passages in that epistle be adequately reconciled with 1 John 1:8; 1 John 1:10?

They can be adequately reconciled by noticing exactly what John says. In 1 John 3:6 he says: “Whosoever abideth in Him [that is, in Christ] sinneth not,” literally, “is not sinning,” that is, is not practicing sin. The verb is in the present tense, which denotes continuous present action. John does not say that he never sins but that he is not making a practice of sin, does not continue sinning (this being the exact force of the language used). The same thing may be said of 1 John 3:9, the literal translation of the opening words of which verse is: “Every one begotten out of God is not doing sin [that is, sin is not his practice], because His seed [that is, God’s seed] abideth in him, and he cannot be sinning [be making a practice of sin] because he is begotten of God.”

We should also bear in mind Johns definition of sin in the fourth verse of the same chapter: “Sin is lawlessness.” In John’s usage here sin is the conscious doing of that which is known to be contrary to the will of God. Of course, one who is begotten of God may do that which is contrary to the will of God but which he does not know to be contrary to the will of God, and therefore he does not sin in the strict sense in which “sin” is used here. Afterwards, when he comes to know the will of God, he will see that it is wrong, and confess and forsake it, but any one begotten of God will not be making a practice of doing that which is known to be contrary to the will of God.

It is plain that there is no contradiction between what is actually said here and between what John actually says in 1 John 1:8; 1 John 1:10. In the first of these verses he says: “If we say we have no sin we deceive ourselves.” This does not mean that any one who says he is not sinning at the present moment, that he is not doing that which he knows at the present moment to be contrary to the will of God, deceives himself; for there are certainly moments when we can say that we are not at that moment doing that which we know to be contrary to the will of God. But what John says is that if a man says he has no sins to be forgiven, to be cleansed by the blood of Jesus (see context), that is, that he has never sinned, he deceives himself, and the truth is not in him. In the 10th verse John adds the further thought: “If we say that we have not sinned,” we not only deceive ourselves but “we make God a liar, and His word is not in us.” A man may not be sinning at the present moment—and if a man is born of God, he will not be sinning at the present moment—but nevertheless he has sinned in the past, and if he says he has not, he makes God a liar, and His word is not in him. The reeonciliation here, as in every other apparent contradiction in the Bible, is found by taking exactly what the inspired authors say.