Something that’s always bothered me is there are a few verses in the Bible that say that a person who is born again will not or cannot sin.
“We know that whosoever is begotten of God sinneth not; but he that was begotten of God keepeth himself, and the evil one toucheth him not.”
1 John 5:18 ASV
“Whosoever is begotten of God doeth no sin, because his seed abideth in him: and he cannot sin, because he is begotten of God.”
1 John 3:9 ASV
These struck me as pretty strong evidence because even looking into the Greek I can’t find anything indicating that this is a mistranslation. Even looking into the definition of the Greek words I can’t find any indication that they can have an alternate meaning. Furthermore when I look into verses that say we all still sin they are worded in a way that could be referring to past sin and possibly not future or present sins. My heart tells me that all Christians will still sin no matter how hard we try not to. I’ve met many many extremely devoted Christians and all of them admit they still sin. I’ve actually never met a Christian in person who claims they don’t still sin. I find it very hard to believe that I’ve never met anyone who is born again. I have really tried very hard to devote my life to Christ. I’m always studying and trying to learn from other Christians who have different perspectives and no matter how hard I try to achieve this goal I fail. Now I don’t steal, lie, cheat, drink alcohol, harm or attack others, etc. Mostly my sins are things like doubt, worry, complaining, frustration, and occasionally pride. Maybe some light boasting in there as well. I believe that everyone will sin even after being born again. I believe there is a difference between being a slave to sin and occasionally stumbling in sin. As Christians we are no longer a slave to sin we are no longer controlled by our sinful nature but we are not perfect and will still stumble from time to time. This is what I believe. So I decided to create this poll to see what percentage of Christians claim they don’t sin and to perhaps see more perspectives on this subject to see if there’s some evidence I’m missing to help me better understand whether I’m just truly not born again or that everyone sins whether they are born again or not. In the event this becomes a debate between those who claim not to sin and those who claim they do sin I will remind everyone please refrain from saying that a person is not a Christian or is not born again as it is against the forum rules.