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1 John 3:6 Updated American Standard Version (UASV)
⁶No one who abides in him keeps on sinning; no one who keeps on sinning has either seen him or known him.

No one who abides in him. The word here employed (μένων) properly means to remain, to continue, to abide. It is used for persons remaining or dwelling in a place, in the sense of abiding there permanently or lodging there, and this is the common meaning of the word, Matt. 10:11; 26:38; Mark 6:10; Luke 1:56, et sæpe. In the writings of John, however, it is quite a favorite word to denote the relation which one sustains to another, in the sense of being united to him, or remaining with him in affection and love; being with him in heart and mind and will, as one makes his home in a dwelling. The sense seems to be that we have some sort of relation to him similar to that which we have to our home; that is, some fixed and permanent attachment to him. We live in him; we remain steadfast in our attachment to him, as we do to our own home. For the use of the word in John, in whose writings it so frequently occurs, see John 5:38; 6:56; 14:10, 17; 15:4–7, 9; 1 John 2:6, 10, 14, 17, 27, 28; 3:6, 24; 4:12, 13, 15, 16. The passage before us, as in his writings generally, refers to one who lives the life of a Christian, as if he were always with Christ, and abode with him. It refers to the Christian considered as adhering steadfastly to the Savior and not as following him with momentary feelings, emotions, and enthusiasms.

It does not itself necessarily mean that he will always do this; that is, it does not prove the doctrine of the perseverance of the holy ones, but it refers to the adherence to the Savior as a continuous state of mind or as having permanency; meaning that there is a life of continued faith in him. It is of a person thus attached to the Savior that the apostle makes the important declaration in the passage before us, that he does not keep on sinning. This is the third argument to show that the child of God should be pure; the substance of the argument is that the child of God is not a sinner, who keeps on living in sin, who practices sin.

Keeps on sinning. The Bible clearly teaches that all descendants of Adam and Eve have inherited sin. (Romans 5:12) Many Bible translations seem to undermine or disagree with this by saying that a good person (Christian) “does no sin” or “sinneth not.” (Lexham English Bible; Christian Standard Bible; American Standard Version; King James Version) In the original Greek, the verb for “sin” (ἁμαρτάνει hamartanei) at 1 John 3:6 is in the present tense, “where the writer portrays an action in process or a state of being with no assessment of the action’s completion.”^[1] It is usually a continuous action. The Bible clearly distinguishes between inherited sin, which affects all humans instead of the deliberate, continuous practice of sin. Some translations have removed any confusion with a more accurate rendering.

1 John 3:6 Updated American Standard Version (UASV)

⁶No one who abides in him keeps on sinning; no one who keeps on sinning has either seen him or known him.

1 John 3:6 English Standard Version (ESV)

⁶No one who abides in him keeps on sinning; no one who keeps on sinning has either seen him or known him.

1 John 3:6 New American Standard Bible (NASB2020)

⁶No one who remains in Him sins continually; no one who sins continually has seen Him or knows Him.

But we have difficulty with two of these translations at 1 John 2:1.

1 John 2:1 Updated American Standard Version (UASV)

2 My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not commit a sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous one;

1 John 2:1 English Standard Version (ESV)

2 My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.

1 John 2:1 New American Standard Bible (NASB2020)

2 My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous;

The Greek verb (ἁμάρτητε hamartete) is in the aorist subjunctive; therefore, the time of the action is punctiliar, or momentary, which means one act of sinning.

1 John 2:1: The Greek verb for sin (ἁμάρτητε hamartete) is in the aorist subjunctive, meaning one sin

1 John 3:6: The Greek verb for “sin” (ἁμαρτάνει hamartanei) is in the present tense, meaning the continuous practice of sin.

No one who keeps on sinning. That is, as explained above, habitually, deliberately, characteristically, and finally.—Doddridge. ‘Who habitually and avowedly sins.’

Has either seen him or known him. Being imperfect and having inherited sin, Christians may commit an act of sin at times. But they do not live a life of sin, a continuous practice of sin. Those who remain in or abide in the Son are in union with him, having the mind of Christ, being biblically minded. Christians who have fallen away into a life of sin have not “seen” Jesus with their eye of faith. The apostates who stand off from the faith that they formerly had now turn against Christ, live a life of sin, no longer “know” and welcome Christ as the sin-atoning “Lamb of God.” – John 1:36.

By Albert Barnes and Edward D. Andrews

^[1] Michael S. Heiser and Vincent M. Setterholm, Glossary of Morpho-Syntactic Database Terminology (Lexham Press, 2013; 2013).