Everyone who practices sin practices lawlessness as well. Indeed, sin is lawlessness.
Parallel translations
- WEB Everyone who sins also commits lawlessness. Sin is lawlessness.
- KJV Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the law: for sin is the transgression of the law.
- NKJV Whoever commits sin also commits lawlessness, and sin is lawlessness.
- NASB Everyone who practices sin also practices lawlessness; and sin is lawlessness.
- NLT Everyone who sins is breaking God’s law, for all sin is contrary to the law of God.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Sin is lawlessness, rebellion against God's law. To sin is to defy God's rightful authority.
Overview
John defines sin as lawlessness, transgression of God's standard and revolt against his will. This sober definition exposes the seriousness of sin against the holy God of light. It sets up the contrast with Christ, who came to take away sin, and with the righteous life expected of God's children.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 15
- 1 Jn 5:17All unrighteousness is sin, yet there is sin that does not lead to death.
- Rom 3:20Therefore no one will be justified in His sight by works of the law. For the law merely brings awareness of sin.
- Rom 4:15because the law brings wrath. And where there is no law, there is no transgression.
- Num 15:31He shall certainly be cut off, because he has despised the word of the LORD and broken His commandment; his guilt remains on him.”
- 2 Cor 12:21I am afraid that when I come again, my God will humble me before you, and I will be grieved over many who have sinned earlier and have not repented of their acts of impurity, sexual immorality, and debauchery.
- 1 Jn 3:8–9The one who practices sin is of the devil, because the devil has been sinning from the very start. This is why the Son of God was revealed, to destroy the works of the devil.
- Dan 9:11All Israel has transgressed Your law and turned away, refusing to obey Your voice; so the oath and the curse written in the Law of Moses the servant of God has been poured out on us, because we have sinned against You.
- Rom 7:7–13What then shall we say? Is the law sin? Certainly not! Indeed, I would not have been mindful of sin if not for the law. For I would not have been aware of coveting if the law had not said, “Do not covet.”
- Jas 2:9–11But if you show favoritism, you sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors.
- 1 Sam 15:24Then Saul said to Samuel, “I have sinned; I have transgressed the LORD’s commandment and your instructions, because I feared the people and obeyed their voice.
- 2 Chr 24:20Then the Spirit of God came upon Zechariah son of Jehoiada the priest, who stood up before the people and said to them, “This is what God says: ‘Why do you transgress the commandments of the LORD so that you cannot prosper? Because you have forsaken the LORD, He has forsaken you.’”
- Jas 5:15And the prayer offered in faith will restore the one who is sick. The Lord will raise him up. If he has sinned, he will be forgiven.
- 1 Chr 10:13So Saul died for his unfaithfulness to the LORD, because he did not keep the word of the LORD and even consulted a medium for guidance,
- 1 Kgs 8:47and when they come to their senses in the land to which they were taken, and they repent and plead with You in the land of their captors, saying, ‘We have sinned and done wrong; we have acted wickedly,’
- Isa 53:8By oppression and judgment He was taken away, and who can recount His descendants? For He was cut off from the land of the living; He was stricken for the transgression of My people.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Christ at the center
Jesus is the Word of life made manifest, the propitiation for our sins, the Son in whom is eternal life — 'that you may know that you have eternal life.'
How 1 John 3:4 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Greek word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.