I John 3:6.

Whosoever abideth in Him sinneth not: whosoever sinneth hath not seen Him, neither known Him.

This verse has become a key player in the idea that man can achieve sinless perfection here on earth. That is simply because it is often poorly translated. The KJV, which is always my first choice because I grew up with it, and have so many sections memorized, does a poor job of translating this verse. The verbe tense, in the original language, is what we would call present progessive tense. That means that the action of the verb is taking place in the present, and continues to take place in the present. That is why the graphic above is far more correct, and expresses the meaning of the verb to sin more accurately.

The idea here is that to abide in Christ is to become aware of ongoing sin, and to identify it and turn away from it. In practical terms, someone may be struggling to lose weight, but that person has a craving for doughnuts. Gooey, filled doughnuts with thick icing are always available in the bakery department. This person KNOWS that it’s best to just keep moving past this temptation, knows that it will increase blood sugar, knows that it could set back her recent weight-loss. Is that doughnut a sin? Well, perhaps not to someone who has no weight issues and is not diabetic 🙂 But for our hapless example here, it represents a whole lot of temptation and a slippery slide into binge eating doughnuts until she is literally sick. So she says a quick silent prayer and moves past the tempting aisle, feeling quite virtuous that she managed to resist the temptation–this time.

Don’t even ask me how I know all this. You already know how I know 🙂

Is this to say that our doughnut-loving friend is now sinless? No, of course not. But, as she abides in Christ, she finds it easier to resist that particular temptation. That does NOT mean that she is immune to ALL temptation ALL the time.

In our Sunday school class yesterday we briefly discussed Achan’s sin and the terrible results of it. The Israelites were fighting the city of Ai. They had been told to take no plunder at all, with the clear warning of doom if they disobeyed God’s command. Achan, though, made the mistake of peeking into the tent of one of the citizens. There, in plain sight, he saw that which he then coveted. Now, if he had withdrawn at that moment he would have been fine. But he didn’t withdraw. He entered the tent, took some gold, silver, and clothing, and then buried it in the ground under his own tent. As a result of his selfishness, he and his whole family and all that they owned were destroyed, as God had commanded.

The progression of sin often starts from a place that is not, in itself, sinful. Achan’s first mistake was to just take a look inside of his enemy’s tent. If he had not done so, he would have avoided God’s wrath. By looking, though, he opened himself up to all that followed. He saw, he wanted, he took–and he and his entire family died.

Abiding in Christ gives us the strength to avoid the temptation. It is not a promise that we can achieve sinless perfection, but that we can resist the temptation to keep on sinning in a particular area–like our doughnut-loving example. Doughnuts are not sinful, in themselves. For our friend, though, to see a doughnut is to want a doughnut, and can lead to eating a doughnut in spite of the sure knowledge that it can lead to eating more doughnuts and doing harm to her health.

Abide in Christ. Pitch your tent in Him, and make your home there. Doing so will help you to keep from continuing, or to keep on, sinning in whatever way beckons you the most.