Lesson 14: The Practice of Sinning (1 John 3:4-10)

John didn’t beat around the bush concerning the consequences of sin—sometimes his words might even give true Christians a start or make them scratch their heads. Though this passage might elicit a similar response, he also provided some points of clarification about sinful behavior and how we should examine it in terms of patterns or consistency. A bit of that clarification is found here. The practice of sinning is the distinguishing factor he mentions, a distinction that helps believers as they inspect their own hearts and then also seek to admonish one another. The true Christian life must be a life of continual repentance, repentance from the sins that will undoubtedly be committed, even by the genuine believer…the genuine believer who will not be OK with continuing in sin. Pastor Daniel emphasizes, “There are reasonable yet terrifying conclusions we can draw about the eternal destiny of the person who is committed to rebellion against God. We can learn much about a person’s relationship with God by that person’s relationship with sin.”

Summary by Seth Kempf, Bethany Community Church Staff