Lawlessness: “Lawlessness” in the Bible describes a state of rebellion.[1] Sin in this sense of lawlessness is incompatible with the children of God (3:4-6). No one born of God insists on their own arbitrary standards and resists the authority of God’s word. Instead, they will agree with Him, confess their sin, turn away from it, and rely on the Holy Spirit and His truth to live the new life. However, those who refuses the law of God and turns a deaf ear to it remain spiritual insurrectionists. Such defiance reveals that they are unregenerate.[2]
Practice: Our practice (what we do) demonstrates who we are. This is John’s polemic against the deceivers (3:7) who argue that what we do is irrelevant to our spiritual condition. But our actions speak louder than our words. What we do testifies to who we are. We are either children of God who practice righteousness in His likeness, or we are children of the devil who practice lawlessness after his likeness (3:7-8, 10). John presents only two options: “our parentage is either divine or diabolical.”[3] Either we are in a joyful state of fellowship with God, or we are rebels in exile far away from Him and under the sway of the devil (5:19). We were once God’s enemies, at war with Him, following the influence and direction of Satan; but Christ vanquished the evil one (3:8) and He delivered us out of his dominion of darkness (Acts 26:18).[4]
[1] “To be ‘lawless’ does not mean simply to break the law; it means to disdain the very idea of a law to which one must submit” (K. Jobes, 1, 2, 3 John [Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2014], 143).
[2] “Unregenerate” means “not born again.” As John declares, “no one born of God practices sin” (3:9), because “lawlessness [anomia (ἀνομία)]” describes the heart of the unconverted (Matt. 7:23; 13:41; 23:28; Rom. 6:19; 2 Thess. 2:3, 7; Tit. 2:14). Even as John contrasts righteousness and sin (or lawlessness) in this text, so Paul contrasts them in 2 Cor. 6:14. They are mutually exclusive. They separate the sheep from the goats.
[3] John Stott, The Letters of John (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1988), 132. Cf. also John 8:42-45.
[4] Christ destroyed the works of the devil through His atoning sacrifice (Heb. 2:14) and the new life in the Holy Spirit (Rom. 6:4; 7:6; 8:2, 6; cf. also Matt. 3:11; John 3:6; 7:37-39).