What Do You Practice? (1 John 3:4-6)

Everyone who practices sin also practices lawlessness; and sin is lawlessness. You know that He appeared in order to take away sins; and in Him there is no sin. No one who abides in Him sins; no one who sins has seen Him or knows Him.
(1 John 3:4-6, NASB)

John makes what appears to be an abrupt shift from yesterday’s verses to today’s. But not really. We ended yesterday’s study talking about hope. But that verse ended with John’s assertion that we who follow Christ will one day be pure as He is pure.

With those words echoing, John continues by contrasting the “unpure” with the pure. Because God is pure, only those who are pure can abide with Him.

And of course, it’s impossible to be pure, to be righteous, apart from Jesus Christ. He came to earth to become our once-for-all sacrifice. He took our penalty for sin so we can be pure in the Father’s eyes.

And once we are saved by the blood of Christ, our desire should be to be like Him. We should no longer be slaves to sin. We should no longer practice sin. Yes. We will sin sometimes. It’s that flesh again. But the key word is practice.

Anyone who practices sin cannot abide in God. You will either practice sin or you will practice a Christ-like life. One or the other.

So ... what do you practice? Is your time spent living a habitual sin? Or do you keep your focus on God? If it's the latter, then your practices should be prayer, Bible study, service, worship, fellowship ...

What do you practice?