“I’m not going to church, because I don’t want to be around a bunch of hypocrites!” Maybe you’ve heard such a criticism leveled at Christians – maybe you’ve even said things like this. And there is a reason that we hear such sentiments expressed so often: all Christians are, in fact, hypocrites to some extent. All of us fail to measure up to our own confession of faith, unable as we are to love God with all we are and all we have, and to love other people just as much and in the same way that we love ourselves. None of us follows Jesus as consistently as we should.

In other words, we all live in the tension between I John 1:8 and 1:9. We recognize the fact that we are sinners in need of a Savior, but we rejoice in the forgiveness that God provides for us through the sacrifice of Christ. In short, Christians don’t claim to be perfect. We simply claim to be forgiven.

But in today’s passage, John points out that we can’t stop there, because Jesus didn’t go to the cross so that we could keep on sinning without suffering any consequences. No, He died and rose again “to destroy the works of the devil” (3:8). That’s why if we make a practice of sinning, we aren’t really on Jesus’ side at all. It’s only by making a practice of righteousness, continuing to do the things that are in accordance with God’s will, that we demonstrate that we are truly the children of God (3:10).

So yes, we are forgiven because of the shed blood of Christ alone. But because we are forgiven, because His Holy Spirit abides in us (3:9), the whole direction and focus of our lives should be changed. We should turn away from ourselves and turn to Christ in thanksgiving and service and in love. For to do anything less isn’t just practicing hypocrisy. It’s engaging in the lowest form of treason against our King.

I John 2:28-3:10 (ESV)

28 And now, little children, abide in him, so that when he appears we may have confidence and not shrink from him in shame at his coming.
29 If you know that he is righteous, you may be sure that everyone who practices righteousness has been born of him.

See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him.
2 Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is.
3 And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure.
4 Everyone who makes a practice of sinning also practices lawlessness; sin is lawlessness.
5 You know that he appeared in order to take away sins, and in him there is no sin.
6 No one who abides in him keeps on sinning; no one who keeps on sinning has either seen him or known him.
7 Little children, let no one deceive you. Whoever practices righteousness is righteous, as he is righteous.
8 Whoever makes a practice of sinning is of the devil, for the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil.
9 No one born of God makes a practice of sinning, for God’s seed abides in him; and he cannot keep on sinning, because he has been born of God.
10 By this it is evident who are the children of God, and who are the children of the devil: whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is the one who does not love his brother.