Sinless Perfection?

I John 3:9-15

One of my younger brothers came home from school one day
in shock. Some of the other kids had been doing some things that were wrong and one of their fathers caught them at it. His son said, “My old man was really mad and was going to spank me but I just ran off from him and he couldn’t catch me.”

My brother asked, “What’s wrong with his dad? If we did that, we’d never get to stop running. Dad would always be right behind us, waiting for us to stop for rest or a drink. It’s just easier take the spanking and get it over with.”

While us kids did a lot of stupid things, like most kids, we always knew that wrong doing would surely be punished. As a result, we didn’t do a lot of the things those around us did. Many of them wound up in serious legal problems because they thought they could get by with it, demonstrating what Ecclesiastes 8:11 says. “Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil.”

We didn’t do what others did because we knew we couldn’t get by with it. The country song, Daddy’s Hands describes Dad’s punishment, stating that even when they were causing pain, there was love in Daddy’s hands. In fact it was that love that caused him to administer punishment. He didn’t want us to suffer the things some of the others suffered. Hebrews 12:6-8 says God is the same way, chastening every one of his children. “For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not? But if ye be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards, and not sons.”

Any person who can habitually get by with sin is not God’s child, because God does not allow his children to behave that way. While they still have the old human nature struggling to do wrong, the Holy Spirit is in them to counteract the old nature, and when they yield to it, Punishment is sure because they cannot get away. Paul describes the experience in Romans 7:9-25. Just as there were things we couldn’t do because My father wouldn’t permit it, there are things Christians can’t do because God will not permit it.

“Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin; for his seed remaineth in him: and he cannot sin, because he is born of God. In this the children of God are manifest, and the children of the devil: whosoever doeth not righteousness is not of God, neither he that loveth not his brother.” (I John 3;9-10)

While Dad did not physically prevent us from doing wrong, he developed an attitude in us that could not be ignored. One of my brothers got arrested once for something he had done, proving that we were still capable of committing the crimes. He felt so terrible about it that he never dared tell Dad, and he made sure it never happened again.

Prisons physically prevent people from committing crimes, yet the recidivism rate is nearly ninety percent, because the attitude, the spirit if you will has not changed. God changes the spirit, giving us the Holy Spirit. While we are physically capable of doing the sin, we will never be able to keep doing it if we are his children. I Corinthians 6:12 tells us there is no sin capable of taking away salvation. “All things are lawful unto me, but all things are not expedient: all things are lawful for me, but I will not be brought under the power of any.” We choose not to let them control us.


That some who claim to be Christians can live at peace in a constant state of sin makes it clear that they are not God’s children, and never have been. If they ever had been, the Holy Spirit would have prevented their going to that point. I Corinthians 5 stresses the need for us to withdraw from those who deliberately do wrong and allow God to work freely. We are not to punish them, but to stop protecting them from God. If they are his children, God will chasten them. When He has chastened them we are to receive them back willingly. Galatians 6:1 commands, “Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual, restore such an one in the spirit of meekness; considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted.” If we get proud that we didn’t get chastened, and rub it in, we’ll be chastened as well.

I John 1:10 states, “If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.” If we were incapable of sin, that verse would be false. There would be no need for an advocate as we find in I John 2:1-2, nor would there be any reason to chasten us. We sin from time to time, but it is not our lifestyle.