---
title: 1 John 3:4
url: https://jw-apologetics.app/verses/1-john-3-4/
markdown: https://jw-apologetics.app/verses/1-john-3-4.md
type: verse
perspective: Protestant (historic Nicene) response to Jehovah's Witness teaching
reference: 1 John 3:4
testament: NT
section: Letters
index: https://jw-apologetics.app/llms.txt
---

# 1 John 3:4

## Text (Berean Standard Bible)

> Everyone who practices sin practices lawlessness as well. Indeed, sin is lawlessness.

## JW Usage

Watchtower theology accepts John's equation of sin with lawlessness in 1 John 3:4 and deploys it to reinforce the need for obedience to God's standards — which, in practice, include obedience to the organisation's directives as the means of knowing those standards. Because "righteousness" is framed as ongoing law-keeping aided by the organisation, 3:4 is used alongside texts on practical obedience rather than as a verse that drives the reader back to Christ's finished work.

## Protestant Usage

Read 3:4 as the definition that makes grace necessary. "Sin is lawlessness" (ESV; NWT: "sin is lawlessness") means every violation of God's will is a breach of his law. Combine with Romans 3:23 ("all have sinned") and Isaiah 64:6 ("all our righteous acts are like filthy rags") and the conclusion is that no one qualifies by their own conduct. The response is not more rigorous law-keeping; it is the imputed righteousness Romans 5:17 calls "the gift of righteousness." Use 3:4 to set up the grace conversation: if sin is precisely lawlessness, then self-generated obedience — even Spirit-empowered obedience — cannot be the ground of acceptance with God, because every past breach is already on the record. Galatians 5:4 makes the categorical warning explicit: "you who would be declared righteous by law have been separated from Christ; you have fallen away from his undeserved kindness." 3:4 is not a harder-try verse; it is the verse that makes Christ's finished work the only coherent option.

## Arguments Using This Verse

- [Grace vs Works](https://jw-apologetics.app/arguments/romans11-grace.md) — Romans 11:6 in the NWT [Salvation]
- [When 'Is' Becomes 'Means'](https://jw-apologetics.app/arguments/is-to-means-broader-pattern.md) — The NWT's Pattern of Paraphrasing the Greek Copula [NWT Translation]