Whoever remains in him doesn't sin. Whoever sins hasn't seen him, neither knows him.
Whosoever abideth in him sinneth not: "Abideth" is meno and means to settle down and be at home. It is one of John’s terms for fellowship. Vincent says, "To abide in Christ is more than to be in Him, since it represents a condition maintained by communion with God and by the habitual doing of His will" (348). "Abideth" is present tense and suggests persistency in remaining in Christ. It literally means "whosoever keeps on abiding in Christ." Jesus urges this persistent abiding in Him in His illustration of the vine and the branches (John 15:1-6). Now, John says, the person who remains in persistent fellowship with the Lord "sinneth not." This passage has afforded some difficulty to Bible students who read it without comparing other passages or inquiring into the meaning of the term "sinneth." Does this passage mean that a real Christian never sins? Does it teach perfectionism? If it does, then the Bible contradicts itself, for John himself says, "If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us...If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us" (1 John 1:8-10). If the Bible contradicts itself (as some door-to-door religionists say), we might as well throw our Bibles in the river and live as we please because it cannot be the word of an all-powerful God. Beloved, the Bible does not contradict itself, here or elsewhere. The simple solution to this apparent, but not real, contradiction is settled in the tense of the verb, "sinneth." As has been noted several times in the study of 1 John, the present tense in the Greek speaks of continuous action, or habitual practice. This is the tense of the verb, "sinneth." John says, "Whoever keeps on abiding in Christ does not keep on sinning as a regular routine of life." He is not referring to one-time acts of weakness but to a habitual way of life. The Christian who returns to a life of sin deprives himself of fellowship with God. As Wuest says, "Character is shown by one’s habitual actions, not the extraordinary ones" (147). A momentary lapse in one’s faith that results in sin does not give indication of the true character of a man. It is when he lapses completely into sin as a habit of life that his character changes from that of a Christian to a sinner. Such a person has "fallen from grace" (Galatians 5:4; 1 Corinthians 10:12). He has "forsaken the right way" and shall receive "the wages of unrighteousness" if he does not return to the Lord in repentance (2 Peter 2:15).