The Bible tells us that God commands us to be holy as He is holy. If we were allowed to sin and still make it into heaven, there would be no point in having heaven or hell. Why would “be holy as I am holy” even be in the Bible if it was not something that God wanted us to do. In the scripture, it says to lay aside every weight. Why would God tell us to lay aside every weight if He really didn’t mean every weight? The Scripture says wisdom, which is applied knowledge, is calling aloud, meaning if applied to this that God is not being cryptic. Holiness is the standard. How are we as Christians supposed to stand before God in his kingdom with the likes of Steven, Job, and David, if it’s okay for us to sin? Yes, David committed sin with Bathsheba, but he repented continually and did not repeat his sin. Yes, God offers forgiveness, but only those who truly feel godly sorrow and wish to repent and not repeat will be forgiven. The Scripture says shall we continue to sin that grace may abound, God forbid. I really don’t understand what you’re talking about when you say the concept that a Christian cannot sin is false because if you were truly a Christian you would not want to sin. The worldly assumption is that no one is perfect, so God wouldn’t require us to be perfect. But we can in fact be perfect because we can do all things through Christ Jesus who strengthens us, so we do not operate under the assumptions and theories of the world because we are called to be a peculiar people (I Peter 1:16; Hebrews 12:1; Proverbs 1:20; Romans 6:1-7; Psalms 51:3; I Peter 2:9).<\/p>\n\t
“This is the message which we have heard from Him and declare to you, that God is light and in Him is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin.\u00a0If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.<\/strong>\u00a0If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.\u00a0If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us.<\/strong>\u00a0My little children, these things I write to you,\u00a0so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins,<\/strong>\u00a0we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous<\/em>” (1 John 1:5 – 2:1).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
No one has stated that sin is acceptable, but that sin happens to the best Christians. Nor do you find that a forgiven Christian will not ever repeat an old sin. It shouldn’t happen, but there is nothing stating that it cannot happen. “Take heed to yourselves. If your brother sins against you, rebuke him; and if he repents, forgive him. And if he sins against you seven times in a day, and seven times in a day returns to you, saying, ‘I repent,’ you shall forgive him<\/em>” (Luke 17:3-4). There is a difference between what we strive for and what we manage to accomplish.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Question: The Bible tells us that God commands us to be holy as He is holy. If we were allowed to sin and still make it into heaven, there would be no point in having heaven or hell. Why would “be holy as I am holy” even be in the Bible if it was not…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[1026,60,179],"class_list":["post-45993","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-answer","tag-holy","tag-perseverance-of-the-saints","tag-sin"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":8832,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/how-can-i-be-assured-god-will-forgive-me\/","url_meta":{"origin":45993,"position":0},"title":"How can I be assured God will forgive me?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 27, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I am so tormented with the fear of the sin against the Holy Spirit. When I read the Scripture, it says \"blaspheme\" which is to \"speak.\" How can one change that to \"reject?\" How can I be assured that God will forgive me of any and every sin? I\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":55194,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/the-bible-condemns-catholic-doctrine\/","url_meta":{"origin":45993,"position":1},"title":"The Bible Condemns Catholic Doctrine","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"October 12, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"by David J. Riggs from\u00a0Catholic Teaching Examined Why would Catholics want to defeat the Bible as the only authority? The answer is: it is their way of trying to justify their own traditions. How else would they justify them? Furthermore, the reason Catholics try to discredit the Bible as the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":24987,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/why-warn-a-person-against-blaspheming-the-holy-spirit-if-he-wont-seek-forgiveness-anyway\/","url_meta":{"origin":45993,"position":2},"title":"Why warn a person against blaspheming the Holy Spirit if he won’t seek forgiveness anyway?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"November 18, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I have read the stuff on\u00a0blasphemy on your site, but I don't read it in the Bible that it says a blasphemous person refuses to come to God. If that is true, why would the passages on blasphemy against the Spirit be in there? If a person won't seek\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":94481,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/stop-trying-to-neuter-the-god-of-the-bible\/","url_meta":{"origin":45993,"position":3},"title":"Stop Trying to Neuter the God of the Bible","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"March 11, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"by Brad Harrub, Ph.D. Somewhere along the way, much of modern American Christianity decided that the best way to attract people to God was to soften Him and make everyone \"feel good.\" Sermons became filled with comforting thoughts, gentle encouragements, and repeated reminders that \"God loves you.\" Churches highlight the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":41302,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/i-met-him-at-the-cross\/","url_meta":{"origin":45993,"position":4},"title":"I Met Him at the Cross","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"December 16, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"by Forest D. Moyer via\u00a0Mind Your Faith In the heart of every person, there is a longing for a Supreme Being. Men who do not know Jehovah have manufactured various gods and rendered their service to the gods of human minds. Those who have diligently sought truth have come to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":7946,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/why-arent-we-following-the-holy-spirit\/","url_meta":{"origin":45993,"position":5},"title":"Why aren’t we following the Holy Spirit?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"December 4, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I believe that the word of God is truly inspired and is the divine authority in every aspect of our lives today. The one problem I see in this answer to this question is that you seem to assume that everyone who believes that God speaks today does not\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45993","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45993"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45993\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45993"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=45993"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45993"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}