KOINE GREEK - Practice

 

Wilful Sin vs. the Sin We Stumble Into: What the Bible Really Says about the meaning of the word "Practice"

We all know sin is serious—Christians aren’t pretending otherwise. But Scripture draws a line between two very different experiences of sin in the believer’s life, and understanding that line can bring both sobering clarity and real comfort.

In 1 John 3:4–9, John uses strong language about those who “practice” sin (the Greek poieō in the present continuous tense). He’s describing a settled pattern, a lifestyle of deliberate, ongoing rebellion against God—sin that is not occasional but habitual and unrepentant. John says the one who keeps on practising sin “has neither seen Him nor known Him” (v6). That’s not a casual slip; it’s a life that refuses to bow to Christ’s lordship. It’s pride in its purest form: “I know what God says, but I’m going to live my way anyway.” The heart is hardened, the conscience seared, and repentance is absent.

Contrast that with the honest struggle most believers know only too well. We sin—sometimes deeply—but we hate it, grieve over it, confess it, and run back to the cross. That’s not the “practising sin” John warns about. That’s the normal tension of a redeemed person still living in a fallen body. Paul describes it in Romans 7: “For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing” (v19). Yet he doesn’t despair—he points to the deliverer: “Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!” (v25).

Tuesday evening’s Bible study in 1 Timothy 1:8–9 brings this into sharper focus. Paul reminds us the law is good “if one uses it lawfully,” and it’s not made for the righteous but for lawbreakers, rebels, the ungodly—for those who live in deliberate opposition to God’s ways. The law exposes and restrains wilful, high-handed sin. But for the believer, the law no longer condemns; grace now reigns (Romans 6:14). We’re no longer under law as a condemning master—we’re under grace as a transforming power. When we sin, we don’t lose our standing; we lose our joy until we repent and return to the One who already paid for it all.

So the difference is not “good Christians never sin” versus “bad Christians do.” The difference is direction:

Wilful sin = a settled choice to live in rebellion, refusing repentance, proud in self-rule.

Stumbling sin = the honest battle of a child who falls, hates the fall, gets up, and clings to Jesus again.

Article written by Shaun Fereday, Leader @SFGH Church