John testifies that not every sin is a sin unto death. One could object to him that every sin carries within itself deadly poison, but there is no contradiction here: the apostle does not deny this, but speaks of the degree of poisoning. A brother who sins must not be condemned; rather, one must pray about his fall and grieve over him. If everyone born of God does not sin, then it follows that if I cannot help sinning, I cannot be counted among those born of Him. But then what relation do these words have to us, the many sinners who constantly stumble?

These words give us hope that if we continue to follow Christ, He will free us from all sinful inclinations and dependencies.

Can you imagine an ordinary person, not the Son of Man, who would not sin? Great saints spoke of themselves as great sinners. Yet here the apostle John speaks of "sinlessness" as something quite familiar: "We know..."

Perhaps the solution to this paradox, as in many situations of spiritual life, lies in the four-word formula: "already yes, not yet." Birth from God, like salvation and like entering the Kingdom, is a dynamic concept. It has not simply happened; it is happening in us, and as it happens we move away from sin, because we both guard ourselves from evil and leave the evil one nothing in us to "get hold of."

Today we read the fifth chapter, in which the apostle clarifies and develops his thought about discerning spirits. Once again, in somewhat different words, he offers a criterion for discernment, saying that everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, is born of God. This means that the birth of the Spirit about which we read at the beginning of the third chapter of John’s Gospel occurs at the moment when, regardless of how much or how little you know about Jesus, you say in your heart: He is God. Bewilderment and grumbling then fall away, and you no longer need any proof. You simply know that this Jesus, who came by water and blood, also came by the Holy Spirit, and that He is your God. What a miracle that He has made this birth available to us!