THE QUESTION CAUGHT me by surprise. I was teaching a new class of seminary students, and speaking on the subject of sin and humility. “But you don’t mean Christians, right?” she asked. Her demeanor suggested that she expected me to say, “Right. Sorry for not being clearer. When I talk about people sinning, I’m not including Christians.”

But that’s not the answer I gave her. “Yes,” I said, “I mean Christians. Christians sometimes sin.” I had in mind texts like the one we’ve seen from the opening chapter of 1 John:

If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word is not in us. (1 John 3:8-10, NIV)

She paused, confused by my answer and visibly uncomfortable. She tried a different tack: “But certainly not the people in this room.” I disappointed her again: “Yes, including the people in this room.” Some of the other students, confused by her confusion, turned toward her and nodded in agreement. One said quietly, “Yes, me too. I sin.” Her face went blank for a few moments as the room fell silent. Then she abruptly got up and left, returning about twenty or thirty minutes later when she had composed herself.

I’m happy to say that she not only finished the course, she finished her degree — and with distinction. But she had come to us from a tradition that believed differently. What I took as an obvious biblical truth was anything but for her; what I thought was an uncontroversial statement rocked her world.

Does her belief that Christians don’t sin anymore seem strange to you? It did to me. But to be perfectly fair, John himself can be rather confusing on that point.

IN THE PASSAGE I just read to you from 1 John 1, the apostle clearly says that the idea of sinlessness is a lie; Christians sin, but can confess their sin and be forgiven and cleansed. But later, he seems to contradict himself. Here’s how the New Revised Standard Version translates verse 6 of chapter 3:

No one who abides in him sins; no one who sins has either seen him or known him.

Christians sin but should confess it, he teaches in chapter 1. At the beginning of chapter 2, he tells his readers that he’s writing so that they won’t sin, but reiterates that when they do, Jesus is their heavenly advocate. Then he encourages them to abide in Christ, and let the gospel abide in them.

Then how can he say in chapter 3 that “no one who abides in him sins”? Furthermore, how can he say that “no one who sins” — which presumably includes all Christians — “has either seen him or known him”?

Translations like the New International Version solve the problem by shifting the language a bit:

No one who lives in him keeps on sinning. No one who continues to sin has either seen him or known him.

Do you hear the difference? Where the New Revised Standard translates John’s Greek into the simple present tense “sins,” the New International Version has “keeps on sinning” and “continues to sin.” Such translations, in other words, take John to be making a distinction between occasional sin and habitual sin. Christians stumble and sin, but don’t make a habit of it.

The same distinction crops up again in verse 9. Here again is the New Revised:

Those who have been born of God do not sin because God’s seed abides in them; they cannot sin because they have been born of God.

John has encouraged his readers to see themselves as born of God and therefore as his children. How can he then say that those who are born of God can’t sin? Here’s how the NIV fixes things:

No one who is born of God will continue to sin, because God’s seed remains in them; they cannot go on sinning, because they have been born of God.

As Christians, we are born of God and therefore children of God. Again, we may sin, and when we do we can confess it and be cleansed. But our spiritual rebirth is demonstrated in the fact that we do not sin habitually or continually. That’s the typical answer to the puzzle of what seems like a contradiction in John’s letter.

But is it the right answer?

Perhaps. Unfortunately, it’s impossible to say.

But some Bible scholars prefer a slightly different perspective. Remember what John said just a few verses earlier: “sin is lawlessness” (1 John 3:4), a matter not just of behavior, but of moral character. When therefore John says that “those who have been born of God do not sin,” he may be saying that they’re not lawless. Even when they break the law, they acknowledge God’s righteousness and authority and don’t say, “You’re not the boss of me.”

Either way, whether talking about behavior or moral character, John is trying to help his readers discern who has a true relationship with God and Jesus. He doesn’t want them to be misled by people with smooth words who claim to be Christians but live overtly sinful lives.

And maybe, as I’ll suggest in the next post, we don’t have to worry too much about resolving the tension in John’s words.