NOTES for Jo1 3:7-10

There have been many disputes in the history of the Church about orthodoxy, about ‘right faith’. Yet John gives first place not to orthodoxy, not to right opinions—the literal meaning of the Greek word ‘orthodoxy’—but to what is called by another Greek word, ‘orthopraxy’, which translates literally as ‘right actions’ or, more broadly, ‘right living’. John, however, prefers the language of the Jewish-Christian tradition and speaks not of orthopraxy but of righteousness (vv. 7, 10; in the Synodal translation, someone who acts righteously is described as ‘doing righteousness’).

God and the devil confront one another not in some grand battles on a cosmic scale, but in the lives of individual people, in the choice a particular person makes in a given situation, in the decisions that person takes. Righteousness, after all, means following the Torah and keeping the commandments given by God.

Opinions about God are not decisive as long as they do not affect orthopraxy, whether in one's relationship with God or with one's neighbour. The apostle seems to set the bar very high when he says that someone born of God does not act sinfully (v. 9; in the Synodal translation, ‘does not commit sin’). Both now and in John's time, everyone knew that there are no sinless people. The only exception is the Saviour Himself, but this is the sole example. Does this mean that people ‘born of God’ do not exist?

But it is no accident that the apostle speaks of those who ‘act sinfully’ and those who ‘act righteously’ (v. 10; in the Synodal translation, those who ‘do righteousness’). Even in pre-Christian times, the Torah distinguishes between a sin that occurred by accident and a sin resulting from an act—that is, from a conscious choice made by a person in a particular situation. Clearly, for John too there is a difference between accidental or involuntary sin, sin committed through weakness or by mistake, and sin resulting from a conscious choice. Such sin is incompatible with Christian spiritual life—and indeed with a sound spiritual life in general.

Someone who lives the life of the Kingdom will simply not think of committing a voluntary and conscious sin. And if the thought does occur, it means that they do not yet truly know anything of that life. For what is at issue is not religious convictions, however deep and correct, but the experience of another life, beside which the life of the fallen world seems not life at all but merely its pale shadow. And, of course, no one who has tasted real life will be attracted or deceived by such a shadow, just as marsh lights will not deceive someone who has seen the sun.

The need for purification when approaching God was recognized before, but here we encounter an entirely new motive for purification: we are called to be like God, and He is pure. We have been granted a great calling, not yet revealed in all its fullness, but even the little that we can already comprehend is enough for us to build our daily life and our relationships with those around us differently. Let no one be troubled that against the background of His absolute purity, our relative purity will inevitably stand out as less than spotless. The Lord has the power to complete the efforts we have begun so that they become “as no launderer on earth can whiten” (Mk 9:3).

Sin is identified by the apostle with lawlessness. For people accustomed to biblical thinking, this idea is familiar and natural, but those who, as is customary in our culture, are used to distinguishing the legal approach from the moral one may object that not all sins violate the laws of the state. That is true, but there are also other laws established by the Creator in the universe and in the human heart. Unlike rules devised by people, violating them leads not to human punishment but to the spiritual self-destruction of the lawless person who turns away from God and His love.

Returning to the Christian's spiritual life, John repeats again and again that Christian life and sin are incompatible. He develops an idea already expressed at the very beginning of his letter: the path of righteousness entails renouncing conscious sin, sinful intentions and sinful actions. Only the one who acts righteously, like Christ Himself, is righteous. Yet the apostle emphasises Christ's role in a special way. Indeed, it is only because of Him that we can speak of a final victory over sin. He alone is free from sin, and He alone can carry away our sins as well.

The Saviour is not merely an example of the ‘living Torah’. He is the One who can help anyone become ‘living Torah’ who gives themselves to Him and shares His life, the life of the Kingdom He has brought into the world. This does not, of course, mean that the person seeking the Kingdom and following Christ no longer needs to do anything. The ordinary spiritual work, already known before Christ's coming, of which John reminds the recipients of his letter, remains absolutely necessary.

Everyone who follows Christ must be concerned with purification—complete purification—so as not to differ from their Teacher in this respect. Every sin is lawlessness, a violation of the Torah. And lawlessness must be understood literally here: not as breaking the law, but as its absence. This is roughly the same sense in which another apostle, James, says in his letter that whoever breaks one part of the Torah breaks it all. An odd statement, it would seem: sin is something specific, and so is breaking the law.

But when it comes to the inward Torah, this is exactly how things stand: any sin destroys it, producing lawlessness as the complete absence of the Law—the Torah—from a person's heart and life. John sets the bar as high as it can go, but this is understandable, for it is the Kingdom that is at stake. At the same time, the apostle points to the One who can help us enter that Kingdom if we trust Him and walk with Him rather than alone. Christian life becomes life with Christ in His Kingdom, and its purpose becomes taking root in the Kingdom and becoming, as a Christian, ‘living Torah’, like one's Teacher.