Everyone who practices sin also practices lawlessness; and sin is lawlessness” (1 John 3:4; NASB).1
“Now Solomon the son of David established himself securely over his kingdom, and the Lord God was with him and exalted him greatly” (2 Chron. 1:1).
“God said to Solomon, ‘Because you had this in mind, and did not ask for riches, wealth or honor, or the life of those who hate you, nor have you asked for long life, but you have asked for yourself wisdom and knowledge that you may rule My people over whom I have made you king, wisdom and knowledge have been granted to you. And I will give you riches and wealth and honor, such as none of the kings whom were before you has possessed nor those who will come after you” (2 Chron. 1:11-12).
INTRODUCTION:
Let me ask you a question,”What is sin?” How do we define it? What sort of thought, activity or word falls within that category of action?
People are notorious for spouting their opinions on a variety of matters. They are quick to say what “should” and what “should not” be done. While, they might not call the “shoulds” and “should-nots” righteousness vs. unrighteousness, sin and not sin, that is what is being declared.
Not only are people quick on stating their opinion on a matter, but they have a tendency of rigidity in their declaration of what they have deemed an unquestionable truth. However, we need to ask in such interactions, “What is it that they are expressing such confidence in that they are basing their dogmatism on?” In other words, “By what standard are their claims being made?”
According to 1 John 3:4…
Let us return to the question of sin, what is it? What defines it? The Scripture states that “sin is lawlessness.” Sounds simple enough, but I ask you, “Is all lawlessness sin?”
Before you answer, think about the nature of the question. Are the two questions (the one about sin, the other about lawlessness) conveying the same idea? Does the Bible deem all lawlessness as sin? Is that the intent of the Holy Spirit as He speaks through the apostle John?
As tempting as it is to just give you the answer, we are supposed to be learning together here, so allow me to give you a couple biblical examples and see whether or not all lawlessness is sin. And, in so doing come to a clearer understanding of what the apostle says when he says “sin is lawlessness” (1 John 3:4b).
Example 1:
"At that time Jesus went through the grainfields on the Sabbath, and His disciples became hungry and began to pick the heads of grain and eat, But when the Pharisees saw this, they said to Him, 'Look, Your disciples do what is not lawful to do on a Sabbath'" (Matt 12:1-2; emphasis added).
What law are the teachers in Israel referring to? What is the standard of appeal that they give here? According to the Pharisees what Jesus’ followers did was sin; it was unrighteousness. They explicitly declared that the disciples of Christ were acting unlawfully. And in so doing, they are insinuating that He has caused them to stumble. If we were to identify the disciples behavior in light of 1 John 3:4 (“sin is lawlessness”) wouldn’t we have to call their action sinful?
Well, what does the embodiment of God’s holiness—the one who knew no sin (cf. Heb. 7:26)—have to say? Did Jesus condemn His disciples? Did the Lord say to Peter or John, “What are you doing, do you not know that you are violating the 4th commandment of God by plucking and sifting grains on the edge of a person’s field in order to feed your empty stomachs?” Jesus said none of those things. Why? Because He knew the Law better than His adversaries, and He understood the intent of the standard to be applied.
What we have in this instance is two standards of opposition being appealed to. The Pharisees believed that what Jesus’ men were doing was unlawful (i.e., sinful). They assumed that their appeal to the Law of God, which they did not cite, was the correct one. However, what they were truly appealing to was a veneered version of God’s Law based on a faulty interpretation; a precious tradition of man that had been handed down for generations.
The 4th Commandment, its Weight, and Shucking Your Neighbor’s Field…
Let us look at the Law to better understand the differences here.
"Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a sabbath of the Lord your God; in it you shall not do any work, you or your son or your daughter, your male or female servant or your cattle or your sojourner who stays with you. For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day; therefore the Lord blessed the sabbath day and made it holy" (Exod. 20:9-11).
"But the person who does anything defiantly, whether he is a native or an alien, that one is blaspheming the Lord; and that person shall be cut off from among his people. Because he has despised the word of the Lord and has broken His commandment, that person shall be completely cut off; his guilt will be upon him. Now while the sons of Israel were in the wilderness, they found a man gathering wood on the sabbath day. Those who found him gathering wood brought him to Moses and Aaron and to all the congregation; and they put him in custody because it had not been declared what should be done to him. Then the Lord said to Moses, 'The man shall surely be put to death; all the congregation shall stone him with stones outside the camp'" (Numb. 15.31-35; emphasis added).
Let us add one more biblical text for our consideration.
"When you enter your neighbor's standing grain, then you may pluck the heads with your hand, but you shall not wield a sickle in your neighbor's standing grain" (Deut. 23:25).
You may note that I have opted on choosing a few different texts than our Lord in proving the point. My intention at this moment is slightly different than His own, which gives reason to the difference in approach. The same underlying truth, however, shall be illustrated.
The Law of God clearly prohibits working on the Sabbath. It is a declared day of rest, a day that the Lord has declared to be holy for both man and beast, for the citizen and the foreigner, slave and free. Laboring is restricted for six days, but the seventh day is to be dedicated as a day of cessation unto the Lord.
Of course, we must ask “What constitutes working/laboring and is therefore a violation of the Law of God?” We see a man condemned for gathering wood on the sabbath. We are not told what he was gathering it for, but it is safe to assume that he intended to use it for some manner of work (cf. Exod. 16:22-28); whether it be making a fire, or in preparation for a building project. Wood is a necessary tool/material in a variety of labors of man.
Based off of what Numbers 15:30 states, it is evident that what this man was caught doing was in defiance of the Law, and therefore a blasphemous act. And so, he was rightly condemned.
Can the same be said of the disciples who were with Jesus?
According to the law a person could, as they were walking along, gather with their hands the gleanings (scraps) off the edge of a field. The law forbid that they used a tool on their neighbors land as they were passing through, but not the taking with bare hands what was needed to sate their hunger. The intention of the Sabbath was to remind the people of the gift of God; for that was the true intention behind the Sabbath observance:
"Jesus said to them, 'The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath" (Mark 2:27; cf. Deut. 5:14-15).
The disciples who were with Jesus picking grain did not violate the Sabbath because they were not being defiant, they were not blaspheming the Lord’s commandment, nor were they breaking His law. For, what they were doing was not work but an act of necessity. God is not a tyrant that binds the hands of His creatures. Nor does He restrict them from eating or being healed or acts of mercy on this day (cf. Mark 3:4).
The point of Sabbath Law was an observation of rest from normal labors, and a time of refreshment where the creature honored the Lord of life by enjoying Him and thanking Him for His kindness towards them.
What the Pharisees saw as the breaking of the law was not the breaking of God’s Law, but their own self-imposed restrictions. There were many such “laws” placed upon the children of Israel, by those who sought to be their teachers. Unfortunately, the vast majority of therm were blind to the errors that they taught (cf. Matt. 23:16-17, 19, 24, 26: John 9:39-41).
Example 2:
"Now when Daniel knew that the document was signed, he entered his house (now in his roof chamber he had windows open toward Jerusalem); and he continued kneeling on his knees three times a day, praying and giving thanks before his God, as he had been doing previously. Then these men came by agreement and found Daniel making petition and supplication before his God. Then they approached and spoke before the king about the king's injunction, 'Did you not sign an injunction that any man who makes a petition to any god or man besides you, O king, for thirty days, is to be cast into the lions' den?' The king replied, 'The statement is true, according to the law of the Medes and Persians, which may not be revoked.' Then they answered and spoke before the king, 'Daniel, who is one of the exiles from Judah, pays no attention to you, O king, or to the injunction which you signed, but keeps making his petition three times a day'" (Dan. 6:10-13).
The leaders of civil governance within the kingdom of the Medes and the Persians conspired together in order to entrap and do away with Daniel (Dan. 6:3-5). They persuaded the king to sign a law forbidding that any man in the kingdom, regardless of their status, make petition to any god or any other man than the king for 30 days (Dan. 6:6-9). Once the law was signed, it was binding for a 30 day period by which not even the king could rescind (Dan. 6:8).
As soon as Daniel heard that the law was signed he went to his upper room, with his window open towards the remnants of Jerusalem and the former temple of Solomon dedicated to the Lord and prayed unto God as he had always done (Dan. 6:10; cf. 1 Kgs. 8:30). In this moment Daniel, like so many other people of faith, acted in a manner that he believed was the right course of action; an expression of conscience that worldly men define as unlawful.
In this, he did not sin. I would argue, no more than the Hebrew midwives when they lied to Pharaoh disregarding his law concerning the male offspring of Israelite women. Just as it wasn’t a sin for Rahab to lie to the city officials in Jericho offering misinformation concerning the whereabouts of the Israelite spies that Joshua had commission.
“Sin is lawlessness;” what John says in his 1st epistle is absolutely true. But not all “laws” are binding on the children of God. Sin is described in Scripture by a variety of adjectives: rebellion, transgression, iniquity, etc. Sin as lawlessness is only a true sin when it is in violation of God’s Law, not man’s.
The Pharisees had erected their own standard of holiness that they led the people with. But to truly sin, to truly act lawlessly is to act defiantly towards the commandment of God; absent of the love due Him, and that, reciprocated to our neighbors. Such an action is blasphemous, for it takes lightly the Law-Word of God which is the standard of a man’s condemnation or justification (not in the adherence to the Law, but in submission to the fulfillment of the Law’s requirements… Jesus Christ; apart from whom no person can be justified, but stands condemned).2
Why Solomon…
Now you might be wondering why I cited the texts concerning Solomon at the outset. I did so because of the way we sometimes misread the biblical message before our eyes.
Solomon desired to have wisdom and knowledge to lead God’s people in an effective manner. This was a request of a young man who humbly sought the Lord’s blessing on his life, in his leadership. We are told that God honored his request. He gave to Solomon not only what we asked for—wisdom and knowledge—but also those things that he didn’t ask for, wealth and honor. Then we read these statements regarding him…
"Solomon amassed chariots and horsemen. He had 1,400 chariots and 12,000 horsemen, and he stationed them in the chariot cities and with the king at Jerusalem. The king made silver and gold as plentiful in Jerusalem as stones..." (2 Chron. 1:14-15)
"And Solomon had forty thousand stalls of horses for his chariots, and twelve thousand horsemen" (1 Kgs. 4:26; cf. 1 Kgs. 9:19).
"Now the weight of gold which came to Solomon in one year was 666 talents of gold, besides that which the traders and merchants brought; and all the kings of Arabia and the governors of the country brought gold and silver to Solomon" (2 Chron. 9:13-14).
"He was the ruler over all the kings from the Euphrates River even to the land of the Philistines, and as far as the border of Egypt. The king made silver as common as stones in Jerusalem... and they were bringing horses for Solomon from Egypt and from all countries" (2 Chron. 9:26-27a, 28).
"Now King Solomon loved many foreign women...He had seven hundred wives, princesses, and three hundred concubines, and his wives turned his heart away..." (1 Kgs. 11:1a, 4a).
Sin is lawlessness. That’s what the Word of God teaches. Those who practice lawlessness are guilty of sin. God’s Word teaches that as well. All men are sinners (cf. Eccl. 7:20; Rom. 3:23; 1 John 1:8-10). This too is a truth revealed to us in Holy Writ.
Solomon had been granted wisdom and knowledge beyond any of his peers, beyond those who came before him, and those that would come after him; except for the one who rightfully claimed:
"...behold something greater than Solomon is here" (Luke 11:31).
Like so many of us, Solomon had a blind spot. He knew the Law-Word of God, for this is the source of his wisdom and knowledge. Unfortunately, there was an area where he refused to apply it to his life. Why? Only one answer will suffice: He believed that the law which he lived by was right. No, I’m not speaking about God’s Law, but his own personal standard; or, to put it in blanket form—the standard of man.
What the Law of Kings states…
During the time of Moses, long before the era of kings and the time of great men like David and Solomon, the Lord gave restrictions/instructions on what the king was forbidden from doing:
"Moreover, he shall not multiply horses for himself, nor shall he cause the people to return to Egypt to multiply horses, since the Lord has said to you, 'You shall never again return that way.' He shall not multiply wives for himself, or else his heart will turn away; nor shall he greatly increase silver and gold for himself" (Deut. 17:16-17; emphasis mine).
Solomon violated all three of these restrictions. He turned horses and chariots into a commerce, even building for himself cities to house their great number. He took several wives for himself, wives from every nation from which the children of Israel were forbidden. And, he made silver so plentiful that it lost its value, and gold came streaming into his kingdom year after year.
God blessed Solomon, but the blessings that he had received were the source of his sins. Why? Because he ignored the Torah (instruction/law) of God preferring his own standard to guide his life. His opinion on the matter over-ruled what God had declared. This was his downfall. Obviously, he did not completely give up on the Lord, but his heart was divided. Such a man is tormented in their inner being.
Solomon is a good example of a man that on the one hand wants to honor the Law-Word of God with his whole heart—seeking the wisdom and knowledge of the Lord in humility—and yet, on the same token he revealed a desire to live life by his own rules ignoring what he knew to be true.
Closing Remarks…
There are so many things that people will tell you are wrong. When a situation arises there will be those that tell you, “You need to obey the law;” others will tell you “You don’t have to obey.” How are you going to know the difference?
The sad thing is that many professing Christians cannot answer those questions. Some think that if an authority speaks (in terms of law) that they are required as Christians to obey. Others think that by obeying God’s law that this has kept them from sinning. The area of concern has to be “What has God spoken? And in what way has He spoken it to us?”
Sin is defined by God, and to disregard His Law is to commit sin. In that sense, sin is lawlessness as it disregards the Law-Giver’s Law. But not all violations of law are sinful, especially when we speak of the laws of men. It may be expedient on our part to obey them for convenience sake, but they have no authority to bind the conscience unless they can be shown—in principle—to be rooted in the Law-Word of God. Many struggled with this truth during the years of 2020-2022 for reasons that a reader with wisdom will immediately recognize.
ENDNOTES:
1 All Scripture is of the New American Standard Bible (NASB).
2 To be clear here we stand or fall in response to the Law. Its requirements are the way of life, but humanity stands condemned because internally/externally we are sinners. Thus, we need an obedient substitute towards God’s Law-Word in order to be justified. Jesus’ life is justification for the sinner that believes (i.e., lifelong trust in His meritorious work). And this act refers to the grace of God without which no man is truly saved. However, these truths are not contrary to the idea expressed regarding the Law’s condemnation or justification; only that without Christ (Law’s justification; positive sanction) we can expect the negative sanction of God against us (Law’s condemnation).
Kristafal's Musings 