1 John 3:8 - Coke's Commentary on the Holy Bible

He that committeth sin, &c.— Or, who liveth in sin, says Heylin. The original is a Hebraism, importing a habit of sin. Limborch imagines the phase sinneth from the beginning, to refer to repeated acts of sin, and a continued course of it, which preceded Satan's expulsion from heaven. But it seems that the use of the present tense implies a continuance in a course of sin. See John 8:44-47; John 15:27. The word λυση, rendered, he might destroy, is expressive, and leads us to look on sin and misery as a fabric, of which Satan is the great architect, but which Christ is come to overthrow and demolish: accordingly, he has alreadybroken, as it were, the compages and strength of it, and we mayfully expect that it will be gradually levelled, and its very ruins removed. He has certainly done already what has a most powerful tendency to produce such an effect; and will, in his due time, accomplish all his designs against sin and the devil. The inference which St. John intended from this verse is, that Christians should not take part with the devil as all wicked men do; that theyshould not build up again what Jesus Christ came to destroy; but that they should, internally, externally, and perseveringly, practise righteousness; which is falling in with the great design of Christ's coming; and then they will finally be made glorious and happy by him.