Jesus also, that he might sanctify the people with his own blood, suffered outside the gate. Therefore, let us go forth to him outside the camp, bearing his reproach. For we have no continuing city here, but we seek one to come.
Select a thought to read by choosing a collection, the month, and then the day:
The apostle John wrote, "He who is commits sin is of the devil" (1Jn. 3:8). This is true. Whoever lives in sin is, as John said, "of the devil". This is also discouraging because if everybody must sin every day, as many Christian ministers teach, then everybody is of the devil, including John.
In consideration of that shocking statement, a question forces itself upon me; to wit, if everybody on earth is of the devil, then who is of God? Was John writing to angels or to dead saints when, in this same epistle, he penned these words: "You are of God, little children . . ."? (1Jn. 4:4). Whoever was being addressed in this epistle must have been not sinning because, according to John, everyone is sinning is of the devil. But if everyone on earth is sinning, as Christian ministers teach, then John couldn't have been writing to anyone still here.
Isn't it obvious that ministers who teach that everybody must sin every day are just plain wrong? After all, John also wrote these words (4:6): "WE are of God; he that is of God hears us. He who is not of God [that is, he who is living in sin] does not hear us." John claimed he was "of God"; that is, he was not sinning every day. Those to whom he was writing were also "of God"; they were not in bondage to sin, either. They were freed from the domination of sin, as John was, and they also had fellowship in sinlessness with God. Please note that John also taught (very bluntly) in this letter that if we say we have fellowship with Christ and, at the same time, continue to live in sin as we did before we confessed him, we are liars (1Jn. 1:6).
John makes it clear, when all he wrote is taken into account, that he is among people who are no longer "of the devil" because they no longer live in sin. This is the truth of the gospel of Christ, and I believe that any minister who teaches otherwise is "of the devil" because his doctrine persuades men to trust in the power of sin instead of trusting in the power of God to deliver us from it.