1 John 3:8 He That Commits Sin (And, Not But)

There’s a temptation for Bible teachers to oversimplify the scriptures, to make them easy to understand. The fact is, that there are things in the Bible that are “hard to be understood”, according to 2 Peter 3:16. Peter knew very well that the things of God need to be revealed by the Father, by the Spirit. It seems good in God’s sight, to hide things from the wise and prudent, and reveal them unto babes. [Matthew 11:25 & Luke 10:21] The wise and prudent try to figure things out on their own. The ‘babes’ know that they can’t figure it out, and humble themselves to let the Father reveal the things of the Spirit.

One of the ways you can oversimplify the scriptures, is to just ignore some parts. It’s easy to just go off with some scriptures that seem pretty plain, standing alone… and ignore others that seem contradictory. Someone else goes off with the seemingly opposite scriptures, and ignores the first. They get contentious, and one says the scripture plainly says ‘this’, and the other says, ‘BUT’ it says ‘this’. Many Christians actually want it simple for their carnal mind to grasp, so they choose which of the two simple teachings to follow… and that’s often how the body of Christ gets divided, and new denominations are born.

We need to take an “AND” view of all the parts of the Word, rather than a “BUT” view. “And” has a sense of inclusiveness. “But” has a sense of conflict.

What I shared yesterday is one of those cases where you can take an ‘and’ view, or a ‘but’ view. I opened up with the view of 1 John 3:8 that is least understood. Now let me bring in the ‘and’ view.

1 John 3:8 [KJV] says, “He that committeth sin is of the devil; for the devil sinneth from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, the He might destroy the works of the devil.”

This verse leaves two major questions: What does ‘committeth sin’ mean; and what does ‘of the devil’ mean? ‘Committing sin’ can mean a momentary transgression of child of God, AND it can mean the willful choosing of a life in rebellion to God… loving sin and darkness. ‘Of the devil’ can mean a believer momentarily following through on a lie that was birthed by the father of lies; AND it can mean one is totally given over to Satan, his father.

If you interchange the two wrongly, and don’t rightly divide, you can discourage the heart of the righteous; or strengthen the hands of the wicked. (See Ezekiel 13:22)

Yesterday, I gave the example of John, the apostle, when Jesus rebuked him for wanting to call down fire on some Samaritans that didn’t receive Jesus very well. Jesus said, “Ye know not what manner of spirit you are of.” [Luke 9:55 KJV]

That is different, but not contrary (‘and’, not ‘but’), to the many examples that we are more familiar with, of others that the scriptures say were ‘of the wicked one’ (Cain – 1 John 3:12); or ‘of your father the devil’ (The Pharisees – John 8:44)

Both understandings are very important. I have seen and experienced the harm that can be done to a precious child of God, when the Cain & the Pharisees application is applied to all, even the righteous ones, born of God, who stumble for a moment. That misapplied doctrine is one of the works of the devil, that the Son of God came to destroy. God is sending His Word, and delivering us!