If in doubt, go for the challenging passage… even though whenever I read this passage I am reminded that I sin Daily. Which is what John himself said in a previous chapter. So why is he now saying we should be without sin? In that teaching lies the Cathars, the Holiness movement, and people waiting until their deathbed to be baptized in case they sin.
Am I wrong — and the long tradition of the Augustinian approach to theology, the medieval theologians, the saints, the reformers, and even the anabaptists? For all preach salvation is in Christ and there is no other. Is that not the case?
Is the water we drink pure (in case you don’t know, the photo is of a header tank for supplying water: you don’t need towers in Dunedin).
1See what love the Father has given us, that we should be called children of God; and that is what we are. The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. 2Beloved, we are God’s children now; what we will be has not yet been revealed. What we do know is this: when he is revealed, we will be like him, for we will see him as he is. 3And all who have this hope in him purify themselves, just as he is pure.
4Everyone who commits sin is guilty of lawlessness; sin is lawlessness. 5You know that he was revealed to take away sins, and in him there is no sin. 6No one who abides in him sins; no one who sins has either seen him or known him. 7Little children, let no one deceive you. Everyone who does what is right is righteous, just as he is righteous. 8Everyone who commits sin is a child of the devil; for the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The Son of God was revealed for this purpose, to destroy the works of the devil. 9Those who have been born of God do not sin, because God’s seed abides in them; they cannot sin, because they have been born of God. 10The children of God and the children of the devil are revealed in this way: all who do not do what is right are not from God, nor are those who do not love their brothers and sisters.
There is a key phrase that unlocks the passage, and it is that sin is lawlessness. We all have the law within us, and we do not need revelation to be shamed, and guilty. And this is a good thing: when revelation arrives (as it did with the law) and the law is read our response should be as it was for Nehemiah — remorse, or Peter — guilt. Peter did tell Christ that he should go elsewhere, for he was a sinner — he was not worthy. And none of us are worthy.
I think this passage instead speaks to a sense, a teaching that we can ignore the law. And that is an error — John says that our lives should fulfil the laws — that in Christ we should love the LORD, and our neighbour.
For we are in this world. We are not angels, we are women, and men. We can argue that this should not be, that we should either be completely equal (as did the Diggers) or be able to define ourselves in any way but as two genders (thank you, not, Facebook). Or your laws do not apply because…. we see them as rude, unfair, or they make us “spew a bit”.
But this is wrong. This world is fallen, and we are divided more than we ought to be, and it will never be heaven. Men will seek solace is whatever comfort they can find, from whiskey to heroin, and women will continually strive as it was from the foundation — for their husband, and to rule over him. We will hate, we will twist desire into lust, hunger into food porn, and covetousness into both socialism and advertising.
And what we do matters. We are left in this life to be a witness for Christ: to be his hands, his feet, even if that leads to us being taken to him. We are not here to do evil. And when we do, when we fall — and we will, today — we have a priest that has died for us knowing that we will fail, and fail again.
For the law is perfect ans we are not.