For over 70 years of my life, from early childhood through most of my adulthood, I was taught that “sin was the transgression of the law,” and 1 John 3:4 was quoted. That was, I was told, breaking or not keeping the 7th day Sabbath, the annual Holy Days as outlined in Leviticus 23, not following the “clean and unclean” meat laws as given in Leviticus 11 and Deuteronomy 14 and not obeying other “select” laws or commands from the Law of Moses. When God began lifting the veil from my heart and turning my eyes from the Law to Jesus (2 Cor. 3:15-16) and I saw that the Law, the Mosaic covenant, had been accomplished and fulfilled by Jesus I struggled for awhile in trying to understand this verse that had been quoted so often, “Whosoever committeth sin trangesseth also the law: for sin is the transgression of the law.” How was this verse to be understood?
Questioning is generally the first step in coming to understand a Scripture or passage. So, I now had my question, “How is this to be understood?”
Most often the next step is to check various Bible translations to see if what seems to be unclear is translated in a clearer or more understandable way by other translators. Most translations that I checked (about 16 on my eSword Bible program on my computer) were similar. There was a bit of difference in some. Here are some of the variations I found of the phrase “transgresseth the law.”
“...doeth also lawlessness;” “...breaks God’s law,” “...goes against the law,” “practices also lawlessness;” “...guilty of breaking God’s law,” “...practices disobedience,” “...perpetrateth iniquity;” “...guilty of violating Law,”
I still was not sure how this phrase was to be understood since all the translations were similar. I checked a few commentaries. I have mentioned other places that commentaries are not Scripture but are just the comments of men. However, much can be gained in understanding of history, information regarding manuscripts from which our translations come, etc. Most of the commentaries I checked didn’t shed much light on this verse, but, a few began to give a little bit of clarity to me. Vincent’s Word Studies said, “Rev., correctly, is lawlessness.” This I saw in some of the translations. Scofield said, “Whosoever practiseth sin practiseth also lawlessness; and sin is lawlessness.” I still was equating “lawlessness” to “transgresseth the law.”
I read through the entire letter of 1 John looking for anything John had to say about “law.” Other than this verse, chapter 3 and verse 4, I didn’t find anything. John does speak frequently about keeping God’s commandments. This I had been told was the 10 commandments and “The Law.” What I saw, however, throughout the letter was love and righteousness being talked about. My next step was to do some word studies to see if that might give me insight.
I checked the Greek from Strong’s Concordance and Thayers Greek Definitions. To my surprise there was not a Greek word for “transgresseth” and another for “law”. There was just one word that was translated as a phrase. The word is “anomia”, Strong’s number G458. Strong defines this Greek word as “illegality, that is, a violation of law or (generally) wickedness.” The Greek word is used 17 times in the New Testament, 9 times as iniquity, 3 times as iniquities, 3 times as law, and 1 time each as transgresseth, transgression and unrighteousness. Vine’s Expository Dictionary of Biblical Words says about anomia, “Its usual rendering in the NT is ‘iniquity,’ which literally means unrighteousness”. Based on Strong’s definition “transgresseth the law” may not be a wrong translation but it doesn’t appear to be what John was expressing. Checking the context we do not find that John was speaking of law or “the law” anywhere, as I stated above.
Notice what we do see, within the context of the entire letter, John is speaking repeatedly of love and of righteousness. Chapter 2, verse 1, “Jesus Christ the righteous”. Chapter 2 and verse 29, “If ye know that he is righteous, ye know that everyone that doeth righteousness is born of him.” Chapter 3, verse 7, “...he that doeth righteousness is righteous, even as he is righteous.” Verse 10 of chapter 3, “whosoever doeth not righteousness is not of God.” Then, verse 12 of this same chapter, speaking of Cain, “because his own works were evil and his brother’s righteous.” And, chapter 5 and verse 17 he tells us “all unrighteousness is sin.” Although the Greek word translated “unrighteousness” here is another Greek word, adika, Strong’s number G93, it is synonymous with anomia. This is the same thing John was expressing in chapter 3 and verse 4 but which has been obscured by a bad translation. A free translation of this verse makes it clear. “Whosoever does (commits) sin is doing unrighteousness: for sin is unrighteousness.”
When we go back to chapter 3 and read on past verse 4, keeping to the context of what John was writing about, we see clearly that he wasn’t talking about “the law” but unrighteousness. In verse 6 he tells us that when we abide in Jesus we don’t sin, we aren’t sinners. Verse 7 he tells us to not let anyone deceive us, that when we do righteousness we are righteous, even as Jesus is righteous. Verse 10 says that if we are not doing righteousness we aren’t of God. In other words, if we are of God, have been born again and have the Holy Spirit living within us we are righteous, we are not doing iniquity. Sin is unrighteousness. We are without sin
Because of Jesus we are deemed righteous. God the Father see us just as He sees Jesus, righteous. 1 John, chapter 3 and verse 4, is telling us that sin is unrighteousness. Those without Jesus are practicing sin, are unrighteous, are not in right standing with the Father and Jesus Christ. But, that isn’t us, the born again sons and daughters of God.
And, John repeatedly speaks about God’s commandments, which he clearly states in verse 23 of this same chapter, is 1.) believing on the name of His Son Jesus Christ, and, 2.) love one another. It continues by saying, “as He gave us commandment.” John earlier had given us the words of Jesus regarding this. It is found in chapter 13 of the Gospel of John, verse 34, “A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another.” He continues in the next verse, “By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another.” John is repeating this statement in verse 23 of 1 John 3 that we just read. He reiterates this statement throughout the entire letter of 1 John.
John over and over tells us in this letter that God loves us and if we are abiding in His love we are loving our brethren. We abide in His love and He sees us as righteous. 1 John 2:29, “If ye know that he is righteous, ye know that every one that doeth righteousness is born of God.” 1 John 3:7, “...: he that doeth righteousness is righteous, even as He is righteous.” He tells us that we are not sinners, and that sin is unrighteousness. We are not sinners but we are righteous!
October 2019
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