1 John 3:4
1 John 3:44Everyone who practices sin practices lawlessness as well. Indeed, sin is lawlessness.
Watchtower theology accepts John's equation of sin with lawlessness in 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.
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 ("all have sinned") and ("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 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. 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.