First John: 1 John 3:6b-When the Believer Sins, They Never Experience Fellowship with Jesus Christ Lesson # 106
First John • Sermon • Submitted • 58:39
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1 John 3:6 No one who abides in him keeps on sinning; no one who keeps on sinning has either seen him or known him. (ESV)
“No one who keeps on sinning has either seen him or known him” is composed of the following: (1) nominative masculine singular form of the adjective pas (πᾶς), “no one” (2) articular nominative masculine singular present active participle form of the verb hamartanō (ἁμαρτάνω), “who keeps on sinning” (3) emphatic negative adverb ou (οὔ), “no one” (4) third person singular perfect active indicative form of the verb horaō (ὁράω), “has seen” (5) accusative third person masculine singular form of the intensive personal pronoun autos (αὐτός), “him” (6) negative particle oude (οὐδέ), “either…or” (7) third person singular perfect active indicative form of the verb ginōskō (γινώσκω), “known” (8) accusative third person masculine singular form of the intensive personal pronoun autos (αὐτός), “him.”
The nominative masculine singular form of the adjective pas means “any one, any person” since the word pertains to any one of a totality.
The word pertains to totality with emphasis on its individual components and here the word is of any person in the Christian community.
Once again, the verb hamartanō means, “to sin” referring to any mental, verbal or overt act of sin that is contrary to the will and law of God.
The present tense of the verb hamartanō is a gnomic present which is not used to make a statement of a general, timeless fact but rather is used to describe something that is true any time and does take place.
Therefore, the gnomic present of the verb is expressing the idea of the believer who “at any time does” sin.
The verb horaō is employed in a figurative or metaphorical sense and means “to see” in the sense of experiencing God’s presence through fellowship which is accomplished by exercising faith in the Spirit’s teaching in the Word of God which reveals the Father’s will.
The meaning of the verb horaō is emphatically negated by the emphatic negative adverb ouk, which means “never” since it expresses an absolute, direct and full negation.
The perfect tense of the verb is an intensive perfect, which is used to emphasize the results or present state produced by a past action.
The present state in our context is never seeing Jesus Christ in the sense of experiencing being in His presence and the past action is committing sin.
Therefore, the verb horaō and ouk indicate that any believer who does at any time sin “never sees” Jesus Christ in the sense that they never gain an experiential knowledge of Him.
They never personally encounter God, which results in being affected by this encounter with the Trinity and the gaining of practical spiritual wisdom and more of the character of Christ.
The verb ginōskō is in the perfect tense and means, “to know experientially” in the sense of personally encountering, observing or undergoing something through a process.
It also means “to know experientially in the sense of having knowledge or practical wisdom gained from what one has observed, encountered or undergone.”
It implies being affected by what one meets.
Here in 1 John 3:6, the verb’s object is Jesus Christ and thus it means an “to know experientially” Him in the sense of personally encountering Him through the process of experiential sanctification (i.e. fellowship) as He is revealed in the pages of Scripture and in prayer by God the Holy Spirit.
It also involves being affected by this encounter with the Lord resulting in the gaining of practical spiritual wisdom and more of the character of Christ.
The meaning of this verb ginōskō is emphatically negated by the negative particle oude (οὐδέ), which is used to emphatically advance upon the previous emphatic negation that the believer who does at any time exist in the state of sinning never at any time sees the Lord Jesus Christ.
The perfect tense of the verb is an intensive perfect, which is used to emphasize the results or present state produced by a past action.
The present state in our context is never knowing Jesus Christ experientially and the past action is committing sin.
1 John 3:6 Anyone who does at any time live in fellowship with Him is never sinning. Anyone who does at any time sin, never sees Him, nor knows Him experientially. (My translation)
The second eternal spiritual principle or spiritual axiom in 1 John 3:6 asserts that anyone or any believer who does at any time exist in the state of sinning, never sees the Lord Jesus Christ, nor knows Him experientially.
“Sees” (horaō) and “know experientially” (ginōskō) both speaks of fellowship with Jesus Christ but from different perspectives.
The latter speaks of personally encountering Him through the process of experiential sanctification (i.e. fellowship) as He is revealed in the pages of Scripture and in prayer by God the Holy Spirit.
It also involves being affected by this encounter with the Lord resulting in the gaining of practical spiritual wisdom and more of the character of Christ.
The former is used in relation to the fellowship metaphor of walking in the light whereas ginōskō is not.
The verb horao therefore, speaks of fellowship with God in relation to the metaphor of walking in the light.
The implication is that sinning prevents from one seeing the Lord just as walking literally in darkness prevents a person from seeing anything.
In contrast, living in fellowship with Jesus Christ enables the believer to see Him just as walking literally in light enables a person to see where they are going and who is in front of them and around them.
John uses this verb in this same exact manner in 3 John 11.
3 John 11 Beloved, you must continue making it your habit of not imitating that which is evil in character but rather that which is divine good in character. The one who is performing divine good is living by means of the one and only God as a source. The one who is committing evil never sees the one and only God. (My translation)
Therefore, in 1 John 3:6, John is again reiterating to the recipients of this epistle that living in the state of sin is totally incompatible with experiencing fellowship with the Lord Jesus Christ.
In fact, John affirmed in 1 John 3:5 that Jesus Christ is impeccable.
Thus, for a believer to live in the state of sinning will prevent them from experiencing fellowship with Jesus Christ who is holy and sinless.
Sinning is thus totally incompatible with the holy and sinless character of Jesus Christ.
Thus, there is no possible way whatsoever to experience fellowship with Him if they are existing in state of sinning.
Also, if you notice, the two principles presented in verse 6 are antithetical in that they contrast the state of the believer living in fellowship with Jesus Christ with that of the believer existing in the state of committing sin.
Therefore, if we combine these two principles, John is teaching the recipients of this epistle that experiencing fellowship with Jesus Christ is an absolute which means that the believer is either existing in the state of being experiencing fellowship with Him or not.
In other words, they are either obeying the Word of Christ which results in experiencing fellowship with Him or they are disobeying His Word and thus sinning and thus not experiencing fellowship with Him.
John is thus teaching in 1 John 3:6 that existing in the state of committing sin or sinning is totally incompatible with and inconsistent with being a child of God.
When the believer is experiencing fellowship with God by obeying the Word of God, they are demonstrating to others they are children of God and are experiencing for themselves this fact.
However, when they are sinning, they are not experiencing the fact that they are children of God and are not demonstrating to others that they are God’s children.
Therefore, the first eternal spiritual principle or spiritual axiom in 1 John 3:6 teaches that any believer who does at any time exist in the state of living in fellowship with Jesus Christ is never sinning.
The second teaches that any believer who does at any time sin, never sees the Lord, nor knows Him experientially.
This means that the believer will experience fellowship with Lord when they do not sin.
If they sin, they are not experiencing fellowship with Him.
The solution is to confess their sins (cf. 1 John 1:5-10) to be restored to fellowship with Him and which fellowship is maintained by obedience to the Lord’s teaching (cf. 1 John 2:3-6).