No one who remains in Him keeps on sinning. No one who continues to sin has seen Him or known Him.
Parallel translations
- WEB Whoever remains in him doesn’t sin. Whoever sins hasn’t seen him and doesn’t know him.
- KJV Whosoever abideth in him sinneth not: whosoever sinneth hath not seen him, neither known him.
- NKJV Whoever abides in Him does not sin. Whoever sins has neither seen Him nor known Him.
- NASB No one who remains in Him sins continually; no one who sins continually has seen Him or knows Him.
- NLT Anyone who continues to live in him will not sin. But anyone who keeps on sinning does not know him or understand who he is.
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
Whoever abides in Christ does not keep on sinning; persistent sin shows one neither knows nor has seen him. True abiding breaks the dominion of sin.
Overview
John speaks of habitual, unrepentant sin as incompatible with abiding in Christ. He is not teaching sinless perfection (see 1:8 to 2:1) but that those truly united to Christ no longer live in the practice of sin. Continuing in sin betrays a lack of genuine knowledge of Christ. Faithful readers understand this of a settled pattern, not occasional failure.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 10
- 3 Jn 1:11Beloved, do not imitate what is evil, but what is good. The one who does good is of God; the one who does evil has not seen God.
- 1 Jn 3:9Anyone born of God refuses to practice sin, because God’s seed abides in him; he cannot go on sinning, because he has been born of God.
- 1 Jn 2:4If anyone says, “I know Him,” but does not keep His commandments, he is a liar, and the truth is not in him.
- 1 Jn 4:8Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.
- John 15:4–7Remain in Me, and I will remain in you. Just as no branch can bear fruit by itself unless it remains in the vine, neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in Me.
- 1 Jn 5:18We know that anyone born of God does not keep on sinning; the One who was born of God protects him, and the evil one cannot touch him.
- 1 Jn 3:2Beloved, we are now children of God, and what we will be has not yet been revealed. We know that when Christ appears, we will be like Him, for we will see Him as He is.
- 2 Cor 4:6For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” made His light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
- 1 Jn 2:28And now, little children, remain in Christ, so that when He appears, we may be confident and unashamed before Him at His coming.
- 2 Cor 3:18And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into His image with intensifying glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
Resources, by level
Commentaries & study tools
Free animated overview and word-study videos for this book.
Sermons and teaching on this passage from across YouTube.
Clear, readable, conservative exposition — the best free place to start on any passage.
Matthew Henry, Barnes, Gill, the Pulpit Commentary, Ellicott, Cambridge, and more — stacked on one page for this exact verse.
The beloved Puritan exposition of this whole book — warm, devotional, and verse by verse (free, CCEL).
Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.
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 3:6 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.