1 John 3:4

Memory Verse

Everyone doing the sin also does the lawlessness, and the sin is the lawlessness (1 John 3:4).

Sin, as defined by Scripture, is lawlessness. This lawlessness is not merely the absence of a legal code; rather, it signifies a deliberate rejection of God’s revealed standard. Since members of the Church are placed as sons, we are not under any form of law. Nevertheless, we still have a standard: to believe in the character of Jesus Christ, to love one another as Christ has loved us, and to abide in Him (1 John 3:23–24). When we act apart from faith, such action is sin (Romans 14:23). This kind of behavior constitutes a rejection of God’s standard and a pursuit of our own way.

The erroneous definitions of sin as “missing the mark” or “not living up to God’s standard—namely, His own glory, as in ‘all have fallen short of the glory of God’—originate from theology, not from Scripture.

Sin occurs when we act against the standard that we know God has set for us. Falling short of His glory refers to failing to live according to His opinion of us. Rather than allowing man-made religion and philosophy to define sin, we must hold to the Scriptural definition: sin is an act of lawlessness. As such, it is external to the body—never an internal condition of the mind—and it results from not living out from faith.

Since we have been freed from the rule of sin by being immersed into Christ’s death and resurrection—so that we may walk in newness of life (Romans 6:3–6)—let us reckon this to be true (Romans 6:11) and yield our members to righteousness (Romans 6:13), so that sin is no longer a part of our lives as we conduct ourselves in a manner consistent with living out from faith.