Just a little sin?

Sin is Lawlessness

(1 John 3:4, Preaching: Pastor Stephen Magee, September 4, 2016)

[4] Everyone who makes a practice of sinning also practices lawlessness; sin is lawlessness.

A practice of sinning

John had something important for his Christian readers to consider about sin and lawlessness that we will consider today and in the coming weeks. Whatever else we may learn from our meditation upon his words, this much is clear from the context of the surrounding verses: John does not expect the church, so clearly touched by the grace of the Messiah, to go on with the “practice of sinning.”

There is a temptation here to take the word “practice” in this verse and assume that John must be referring to more than just the normal sinning that we all do and confess. But no, John is not talking about super-sinning—just everyday sinning. It might help to translate this first part of the verse as plainly as possible. It just says, “Everyone who is doing sin also does lawlessness.” The word translated “practice” is just the normal word for “do.”

Augustine and the theft of pears

Let's look at a particular sin—one of the most famous sins in the history of the church. It was committed by a sixteen year old boy who went into a neighbor's yard with some of his friends one night. The boys shook the neighbor's pear tree, knocking much of the fruit off the tree. They tasted some of the pears and threw them to the man's pigs. They did not steal the pears because they were hungry or because these were such great pears. They did it for the joy of sinning.

This sin would have certainly been forgotten to history if it had not been for the fact that the boy wrote about it when he was 43 years old. For 27 that sin bothered him, and 10 years after his baptism as a Christian, he wrote to God about his sin in a book with the name “Confessions.” Near the beginning of that book he explored this one sin—the ugliness of it, the offense against God who provides good fruit in season to His children, and grants us the joy of friendship so that we can serve Him not only alone, but also together. The author, the famous Augustine, writes to God for pages about this sin just to get to the bottom of it, even though it was only an evening prank by some foolish young boys.

Look at any little sin, and think about it enough, and you may see more about it than you may wish to admit.

Sins like murder, sexual immorality, and theft seem to lead us so speedily into the sin of false witness. We lie to ourselves and others. Especially we lie to the Lord about our true motivations and actions. Do we ever go back to God and confess? Do we go back to the man who owned the pears and admit 27 years later that we were among the group of boys who shook his tree that night so many years ago?

Sin is lawlessness

We tend to use the word “sin” to talk about individual actions. A word like “lawlessness” is more often used to refer to a condition that goes beyond one person. Here John says that “sin is lawlessness.” Where do these two words come from and why is John using both of them?

The word for “sin” has the idea of missing some goal, but it does not mean that the person missed the target only by a hair. It means that the sinner does not have any share in the target at all. What is the target? In biblical terms, the target is set by God. He defines what obedience is for man, and alternatively what disobedience is. The second word, “lawlessness,” is without law. It does not mean that the person has no internal sense of right and wrong, but only that his definition of right and wrong does not match up well with God's Law. Such a person is lawless. He may have his own “laws,” but that understanding is so off-base that he is without the Law of God.

Jesus on Lawlessness

At the end of the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus spoke of some who would call Him “Lord,” and yet He would judge them to be “workers of lawlessness.” (Matthew 7:23) The scribes and the Pharisees were big on law, yet Jesus confronted them bluntly saying, “You … outwardly appear righteous to others, but within you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.” (Matthew 23:28) He also warns His disciples that at the end of the age “lawlessness will be increased” and therefore “the love of many will grow cold.” Does this mean that at the time of the Lord's return the world and the church will have a complete apathy concerning issues of right and wrong? Not necessarily. It only tells us that for many their moral outrage will be without the right Law. They will be lawless concerning the true Law of God.

The Ten Commandments and the Sermon on the Mount

John's burden in this verse is that the church turn away from doing sin, sin which is nothing short of lawlessness as it concerns the true Law of God. Over the years the women of our church have read many good books together. They don't get together to steal pears for the fun of it. They want to know the love of the Lord and to follow the God-Man who took away their sin. This year they will have an opportunity to read a book on the Sermon on the Mount found in Matthew 5-7. In these three chapters, Jesus gives His disciples a right understanding of the Law of God, and how that Law fits into a life of grace-empowered Christianity. Such a study is just what we need in any era when the love of many may be growing cold and when there is so much moral outrage against evangelical Christians but so little understanding of the true Law of God.

Sin is catchy. It is a leprosy that can bring about a vast lawlessness. We need to see every decision to sin as not just a silly prank that everyone does, but a dangerous condition that requires healing attention. Sin is catchy, but then so is the righteousness of Christ. He touched leapers, and instead of Him getting unclean, they were cleansed. Wherever He went, He brought life. We are the body of Christ together with all those throughout the world who call upon the Name of the Lord. We are not those who shout “Lord, Lord” but then commit ourselves to the sin that is lawlessness. We bring an aroma of life to our families and our world.

May we catch the weightier matters of the Law this year because the women of the church will be studying the Sermon on the Mount. May they love the gospel and may that make a difference in their lives and in ours. You know who God first used to change the pear-stealing sinner into a man who had the courage to see that his sin was actually lawlessness? His mother Monica. May the mothers of the church help us to see how to turn the other cheek, how to love our enemies, and how to build our house on the Rock of Christ and His Word.

Old Testament Reading—Esther 1 – A queen removed

Gospel Reading—Luke 9:1-6 – Preaching the gospel and healing everywhere