Question: Do Christians still commit sin? | thebereancall.org

TBC Staff

Question: Our church is teaching that Christians will not commit sins if they are truly saved. So, are scriptures such as 1 Peter:4:15 talking about unbelievers?

Response: Concerning your question, 1 Peter:4:15 tells us: “But let none of you suffer as a murderer, or as a thief, or as an evildoer, or as a busybody in other men’s matters.”

Peter is writing “…to the strangers scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ: Grace unto you, and peace, be multiplied” (1 Pet:1:1-2).

It is to these believers that Jesus warns, “But let none of you suffer as a murderer, a thief…[etc.]” (1 Pet:4:15). It is to believers that John writes in 1 John:1:9: “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”

Consequently, Peter wouldn’t warn those who cannot sin, nor would John have written of a remedy for those who haven’t sinned. Though the saved (still living in the “old man,” i.e., the flesh) can still say, “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them” (Eph:2:10). 

Yet, Peter still warns the church in 1 Peter:4:15.