Bible Strands
1 John 3:4
Everyone who practices sin practices lawlessness as well. Indeed, sin is lawlessness.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — John writes to a community under pressure from teachers who minimized the reality of sin, positioning this definition between the call to purity (3:3) and Christ's sinless appearance (3:5).
The words — ἀνομία (anomian) is the interpretive hinge: the prefix ἀ- (without) + νόμος (law) makes "lawlessness" a state of operating outside the law's jurisdiction, not merely breaking a rule.
The thread — Romans 4:15 states the inverse ("where there is no law, there is no transgression"), and 1 John 5:17 equates unrighteousness with sin, while Romans 3:20 shows the law's function is to make sin visible.
Why it lands — The verse refuses to let sin remain a private lapse; it demands that the reader treat every act of sin as a declaration that God's authority does not bind them.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Greek words
King James Version
Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the law: for sin is the transgression of the law.
Cross-references
- 1 John 5:17 All unrighteousness is sin, yet there is sin that does not lead to death.
- Romans 3:20 Therefore no one will be justified in His sight by works of the law. For the law merely brings awareness of sin.
- Romans 4:15 because the law brings wrath. And where there is no law, there is no transgression.
- Numbers 15:31 He shall certainly be cut off, because he has despised the word of the LORD and broken His commandment; his guilt remains on him.”
- 2 Corinthians 12:21 I 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 John 3:8 The 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.
- Daniel 9:11 All 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.
- Romans 7:7 What 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.”
- James 2:9 But if you show favoritism, you sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors.
- 1 Samuel 15:24 Then 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.