Does 1 John 3:9 Refer to Living Out Our “Born” Identity?

For more context on this question, see the article and discussion at “Does 1 John 3:9 Actually Say a Christian Can’t Sin?”

The basic interpretive problem in 1 John 3:9 is that John seems to say Christians do not sin. We know this can’t really be what he’s saying, because he says pretty much the opposite in 1 John 1:8 and 10.

Most interpreters solve the problem by taking John’s “does not sin” (NKJV) as a way of saying does not “make a practice of sinning” (ESV, and the same idea in CSB, NIV). Other views have taken the sin clause plainly and looked for a different understanding of who or what is really doing the sinning (Christopher Cone). A third option is to look for a different angle on what “born of God” means.

Is it possible that “born of God” refers to living the Christian life in a manner consistent with new birth and the fact that God’s “seed abides in” us—and so, not sinning? In this view of “born of God,” John’s point is not so much that those “born” don’t sin, but that those who don’t sin are fulfilling their “born” identity (no relation to Robert Ludlum). This resembles Paul’s “act like who you are” reasoning in Romans 6, and it works in two directions: (1) If you live right, you’re respecting who you are; (2) if you are properly mindful of who you are, you will live right. Also in this view, “he cannot sin” (v.9) must mean something like, “while living like who he is, he cannot sin” or “while fully embracing who he is, cannot sin.”

Probably a good place to start testing this view is to look at how John uses “born of God” in other passages. We find the phrase in five passages in the New Testament, all in 1 John (ESV):

• 1 John 3:9 – 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.
• 1 John 4:7 – Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God.
• 1 John 5:1 – Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God, and everyone who loves the Father loves whoever has been born of him.
• 1 John 5:4 – For everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith.
• 1 John 5:18 – We know that everyone who has been born of God does not keep on sinning, but he who was born of God protects him, and the evil one does not touch him.

If we expand our search to all of John’s uses of “born,” we gain one more passage in John’s epistles and several in the Gospel of John.

• 1 John 2:29 – If you know that he is righteous, you may be sure that everyone who practices righteousness has been born of him.

In the Gospel of John, these references are noteworthy:

• John 1:13 – who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.
• John 3:4 – Nicodemus said to him, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?”
• John 3:5 – Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.
• John 3:6 – That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.
• John 3:7 – Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’
• John 3:8 – The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.”

The remaining references to “born” in John’s Gospel appear to refer to literal, physical birth.

The question, then, is this: Does John’s use of “born of God”/“born of him” support a “born identity” view of 1 John 3:9? Some observations:

• In the Nicodemus narrative, John uses “born again” and “born of the Spirit,” but never “born of God.”
• In the letters, “born of God” is linked closely with doing right, loving others, knowing God, believing, loving God, and overcoming the world.
• In the letters, there is a strong flavor of family relationship. (NET uses “fathered” for gennao in these passages.)
• 1 John 5:18, John says those “born of God” are protected in a special way resulting in their not sinning.

There doesn’t appear to be any way to make a solid, positive case for the view that John uses “born of God” to mean “living like someone born of God” or “one living out his identity as a born of God person.” The fact that John uses the perfect tense participle everywhere (“a having-been-born one”) seems to add to the awkwardness that reading.

But we’re probably on the wrong track trying to solve the 3:9 problem in a strictly grammatical-usage way. The fact that there are a number of similar interpretive problems in John’s epistles bears this out. John often cannot mean what he seems to mean if we read with a presumption of completeness in mind.

I’ll try to explain through some examples.

• Does 1 John 1:8 really mean that anyone who claims to be sinless is a completely truthless person?
• Does 1 John 2:3 really mean that everyone who keeps Christ’s commandments truly knows him? (cf. Matt 7:22-23)
• Does 1 John 5:10 really mean every case of unbelief turns God into an actual liar?
• Does 1 John 5:15 really mean every prayer request is granted? (cf. 2 Cor 12:8-9)

Given that Scripture always ultimately agrees with Scripture, we can’t read John as though all his statements on various topics are complete statements. There is often more involved than what he’s saying. He is, of course, always telling the truth, but he often isn’t giving us all of the truth.

Conclusion

In the end, it’s probably best to interpret 1 John 3:9 using a “how to interpret John in general” approach. Interpretive problems similar to the one in 3:9 occur multiple times in John’s epistles. He frequently uses sets of very brief, stark contrasts that seem to conflict with other parts of the NT or even other statements in John’s letters.

Somewhat like the Proverbs, John aims for brevity, simplicity, and probably ease of recall, so there are unstated conditions. You can’t be brief, simple, and memorable and also fully explain everything.

With that in mind, it’s likely that in 1 John 3:9, the apostle’s point is pretty close to “live out your born identity.” But it’s a lot closer to “you can tell who truly has the identity by how they live.” The traditional view that “do not sin” boils down to “do not practice sin” is consistent with this core message. It’s not what John literally says, but it’s consistent with his themes, and we know John does a lot of compressing.