1 John 3:4-10

4 Everyone who makes a practice of sinning also practices lawlessness; ¹sin is lawlessness.

5 You know that ²he appeared in order to ³take away sins, and ⁴in him there is no sin.

6 No one who abides in him keeps on sinning; ⁵no one who keeps on sinning has either seen him or known him.

7 Little children, ⁶let no one deceive you. ⁷Whoever practices righteousness is righteous, as he is righteous.

8 ⁸Whoever makes a practice of sinning is of the devil, for the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was ⁹to destroy the works of the devil.

9 ¹⁰No one born of God makes a practice of sinning, for God’s^[a] seed abides in him, and he cannot keep on sinning because he has been born of God.

10 By this it is evident who are the children of God, and who are the children of the devil: whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, ¹¹nor is the one who ¹²does not love his brother.

Cross References

• 1. 3:4 [ch. 5:17; Rom. 4:15]
• 2. 3:5 Heb. 9:26; See ch. 1:2
• 3. 3:5 [Isa. 53:11, 12]
• 4. 3:5 See 1 Pet. 2:22
• 5. 3:6 ch. 2:4; 4:8; 3 John 11
• 6. 3:7 ch. 2:26
• 7. 3:7 ch. 2:29
• 8. 3:8 Matt. 13:38; John 8:44
• 9. 3:8 Heb. 2:14; [Gen. 3:15; Luke 10:18; John 16:11]
• 10. 3:9 ch. 5:18
• 11. 3:10 ch. 4:8
• 12. 3:10 ch. 4:20, 21

Footnotes

• [a] 3:9 Greek 'his'