Philip Schaff's Popular Commentary (4 vols)

1 John 3:4

In the former part of the section the thought of the Son of God predominates; in the latter, the thought of the author of evil. The same truth is then referred to the indwelling of the Spirit. And the whole is closed by a summary assertion of the contrariety between the children of God and the children of the devil.

1 John 3:4. Every one that doeth sin transgresseth also the law: and sin is transgression of law. And ye know that he was manifested to take away sins: and in him is no sin. The apostle reverts to the proposition that began this second part, that the regenerate as born of God doeth righteousness because God is righteous. In the interval he has dilated on the privileges, present and future, of the state of sonship; ending with the sanctifying effect of the hope of being like Christ at His manifestation in glory. Now, he comes back to the first manifestation of Christ, the effect of which was to render righteousness possible by His atonement and obligatory by His example. But righteousness is something different from purification: to be righteous as He is righteous is more than being pure even as He is pure. Righteousness is that ‘keeping of His commandments' (chap. 1 John 2:4) and ‘doing His will' (chap. 1 John 2:17) which had been spoken of before. To be pure from sin is to be cleansed from its indwelling; to be righteous is to be conformed to the requirements of law: it is the opposite of ‘lawlessness' here, which contradicts express ordinance, and of ‘unrighteousness' in chap. 1 John 5:17, which is the absence of the internal principle of right. Collating these passages, we learn that sin and violation of law (for ‘lawlessness' does not express the full idea) and the principle of wrong within are synonymous and co-extensive terms. Now in the phraseology of Scripture, ‘the Lamb of God beareth away the sin of the world' (John 1:29),' was manifested to put away or annul sin' (Hebrews 9:26). St. John refers to the Baptist's word, and the testimony of all the witnesses, as well known: ‘Behold,' said the forerunner; and the exclamation pointed to that Son of God, the Only-begotten who was in the bosom of the Father and was manifested ‘to take away' not to bear it by imputation, though that is implied sin as unrighteousness: to abolish in His people the very principle of opposition to law and deviation from right. For this is the real connection between the two verses. We shall see presently that St. John has the Antinomian in view, who asserted that the abolition of sin meant the abolition of law. Here, however, he only declares that the design of the Saviour's manifestation was to take away not law, but transgression of law. The manifestation includes the whole process of Christ upon earth. ‘In Him is no sin,' of unrighteousness as defined above, which would have prevented His offering from being that of perfect obedience: this, however, is an undertone supplied by the Epistle to the Romans; St. John's sublime view of the atoning work does not linger upon any vindication of its perfection.

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Philip Schaff's Popular Commentary (4 vols)

1 John 3:4

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