Welcome to Day 2724 of Wisdom-Trek. Thank you for joining me.

This is Guthrie Chamberlain, Your Guide to Wisdom

Day 2724 – A Discerning Life – Discerning the Works of the Devil 1 John 3:4-10

Putnam Church Message – 09/28/2025

Sermon Series: 1, 2, & 3 John

“A Discerning Life – Discerning the Works of the Devil. "

 

Last week, we continued through the letter of 1 John and explored how to have “A Discerning Life: Living in Light of the Lord’s Return."

This week, we continue through the letter of 1 John, and we will explore how to have A Discerning Life: Discerning the Works of the Devil" from 1 John 3:4-10 from the NIV, which is found on page 1901 of your Pew Bibles.

 ⁴ Everyone who sins breaks the law; in fact, sin is lawlessness. ⁵ But you know that he appeared so that he might take away our sins. And in him is no sin. ⁶ No one who lives in him keeps on sinning. No one who continues to sin has either seen him or known him.

⁷ Dear children, do not let anyone lead you astray. The one who does what is right is righteous, just as he is righteous. ⁸ The one who does what is sinful is of the devil, because the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil’s work. ⁹ No one who is born of God will continue to sin, because God’s seed remains in them; they cannot go on sinning, because they have been born of God. ¹⁰ This is how we know who the children of God are and who the children of the devil are: Anyone who does not do what is right is not God’s child, nor is anyone who does not love their brother and sister.

Opening Prayer

When a person today hears the phrase “What you’re doing is a sin,” they probably won’t hear it as “I love you enough to point out that destructive behavior in your life.” Instead, they hear something like, “I’m judging you.” The idea of loving sinners enough to help them deal with their sin is lost on a world that has increasingly downplayed that three-letter word.  (Bulletin)

To understand what sin is, we must explore the root meaning. In both Hebrew and Greek, its root meaning is “to miss the mark” or “to fall short.” It conveys the idea of missing a target, straying from the path, or failing to meet a standard.

Let me share two illustrations to understand sin:
Archery Picture: Imagine aiming at a target. Even if you shoot an arrow that lands just outside the bullseye, you’ve missed the mark. That’s how the Hebrew root ḥaṭṭāʼ illustrates sin—falling short of God’s perfect aim for us.

Modern Analogy: If a GPS guides you to a destination but you take a wrong turn, you’ve deviated from the path. Sin is choosing our own path instead of following God’s direction.

Whatever happened to sin? When did it get deleted from our cultural lexicon? Why have we been told that it’s now one of those “politically incorrect” terms? The word "sin" is obviously no longer in use. Today, it’s been replaced by words like error, mistake, tragedy, addiction, sickness, misdeed, faux pas, failure, weakness, or fault. And on that last one, more often than not, it’s someone else’s fault!

However, the Bible presents an entirely different message regarding sin. The entrance, presence, and consequences of sin are major plot points in the drama of God’s story of creation,>fall,>and redemption. Romans 5:12 sums it up nicely: When Adam sinned, sin entered the world. Adam’s sin brought death, so death spread to everyone, for everyone sinned. Adam was the figure by whom sin made its first appearance on the stage of human history. The consequence of death followed. And from that point forward, the entire story was marred by sin, which spread universally to all humans and brought suffering and corruption to all creation (Rom. 8:18 –22).

However, we’re not left in this desperate plight of bondage to sin and death. The hero of the story of redemption appears on stage, providing a way of escape for all of us enslaved by sin: Because one-person disobeyed God, many became sinners. But because one other person obeyed God, many will be made righteous. (Rom. 5:19 ). Jesus Christ is that life-bringing hero who bore our sin on the cross and rose again: For the sin of this one man, Adam, caused death to rule over many. But even greater is God’s extraordinary grace and his gift of righteousness, for all who receive it will live in triumph over sin and death through this one man, Jesus Christ. (Rom. 5:17 ).  Nevertheless, the drama isn’t over. The curtain hasn’t dropped. In the present act, we still await the return of Christ, when He will utterly vanquish sin and death. In the meantime, the old sin nature remains, still subject to disobedience, corruption, and death. The result is a spiritual conflict between the power of Christ’s righteousness dwelling in those who are saved and sealed by the Holy Spirit and the old tendency toward sin, which Paul calls “the flesh.” Paul depicts this constant melee in Romans 7:18-21:

¹⁸ And I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature.^[a] I want to do what is right, but I can’t. ¹⁹ I want to do what is good, but I don’t. I don’t want to do what is wrong, but I do it anyway. ²⁰ But if I do what I don’t want to do, I am not really the one doing wrong; it is sin living in me that does it.

²¹ I have discovered this principle of life—that when I want to do what is right, I inevitably do what is wrong.

What, then, should be the normal expectation of holiness in the Christian life? Constant victory? Constant drudgery? Frequent defeat? Slow but steady progress? The apostle John helps us begin to answer this question in 1 JOHN 3:4-10. We must be cautious here, though. If we don’t pay close attention to the specific words and the way John uses them, we might come away unsure of our salvation and wondering whether we’re saved by more than just faith alone. Let me assure you that John’s purpose is not to cast doubt on the truly saved but to call pretenders to conversion and straying believers to faithfulness.

3:4

With his opening words of this section, John refers to “everyone who practices sin.” Stop there. Understanding this phrase correctly will make the difference between good theology and bad theology, as well as right and wrong application. The Greek term translated “practices,” poiōn (from poieō [4160]), is a present active participle. John has in mind a person who sins continually, persistently, habitually—as a lifestyle, not an occasional sin.

In short, the kind of person described in 1 John 3:4 is the opposite of the Spirit-indwelled child of God. This person who “practices sin/lawlessness” is the opposite of the true believer mentioned in 2:29 —the person who “practices righteousness.”

3:5–6

Christ’s mission in His first coming was to “take away our sins” (3:5). Christ came “in a body like the bodies we sinners have.” (Rom. 8:3) as the incarnate God-man, lived a sinless life, died to pay for the sins of others, and rose again because sin had no power over Him. Paul wrote, “For God made Christ, who never sinned, to be the offering for our sin,^[a] so that we could be made right with God through Christ.” (2 Cor. 5:21 ). Christ could only accomplish this self-sacrificial, substitutionary act if He was perfectly righteous, without sin. When we place our trust in Him and become children of God, the righteousness of Christ enables us to be declared righteous (positionally) and begins working within us to produce righteousness (experientially). The result for the believer is an all-day, every-day struggle against the power of sin. Because of the Spirit of God living in us, the battle is palpable, and righteous living is possible. But the unbeliever, devoid of the Spirit of God and the righteousness of Christ, will be characterized by “practicing sin.”

In 1 John 3:6, John hammers this point even harder. Nobody who abides in Christ—that is, true believers in fellowship with Him—lives in sinfulness habitually and persistently. And the opposite is also true: T