(Expanding on what was previously posted)
In the hands of Armstrongist leaders, this verse isn’t a gentle pastoral definition — it’s a sledgehammer. Herbert W. Armstrong, Rod Meredith, Bob Thiel (“Bwana Bob”), and the latest self-appointed contender Samuel Kitchen have all swung it like a club to convince people that the only way to avoid being “wicked” is to keep the full Old Covenant package: weekly Sabbath, annual holy days, clean/unclean meats, and especially tithing as God’s unbreakable “law.”
The problem? That’s not what the Apostle John was saying. And the damage this misuse has caused — and continues to cause — is measurable in broken families, emptied bank accounts, anxious consciences, and people who finally walk away only to discover that the “one true church” they were warned about leaving was never the New Covenant to begin with.
John uses the word *anomia* — lawlessness. It means living in rebellion against God’s righteous character, not “violating one of the 613 statutes of the Mosaic covenant.”
Right in the same chapter he says Jesus was manifested "to take away our sins" and to "destroy the works of the devil" (1 John 3:5, 8). He says those born of God "do not practice sin" because God’s seed remains in them. Then he immediately defines the real commandment: "believe on the name of His Son Jesus Christ and love one another" (v. 23).
Later in the letter he adds that God’s commandments “are not burdensome” (1 John 5:3). That doesn’t sound like the heavy yoke of Old Covenant regulations that even the apostles in Acts 15 refused to lay on Gentile believers.
The New Testament is crystal clear elsewhere:
- You are **not under law but under grace**” (Romans 6:14).
- Christ is **the end of the law for righteousness** to everyone who believes” (Romans 10:4).
- The Old Covenant is “**obsolete** and ready to vanish away” (Hebrews 8:13).
- The shadows of Sabbaths and holy days find their substance in Christ (Colossians 2:16-17).
John isn’t contradicting any of that. He’s warning against **practicing lawlessness** — living like the devil — while pointing people to the One who sets us free from it.
Herbert W. Armstrong made this verse foundational. He repeatedly taught that “sin is the transgression of the law” and tied it directly to God’s character and the entire Old Covenant system. In his materials, he framed obedience to Sabbaths, holy days, and tithing as essential markers of true Christianity. The whole edifice of British Israelism, end-time prophecy, and institutional authority rested on this definition of sin.
Rod Meredith, the great law-keeping enforcer, carried it forward. Tomorrow’s World has used the exact KJV wording and declared: “To love God perfectly is to obey Him perfectly. Where there is disobedience against the law, there is sin, and sin brings punishment.” It warns against the “no law” approach of “most professing Christians today” and links godly fear to keeping the commandments. The tone is classic Meredith: surrender or face consequences.
Bwana Bob and his Continuing Church of God don’t even try to be subtle. In official CCOG Bible study materials, he writes:
Since the Bible reveals that ‘sin is the transgression of the law’ (I John 3:4, KJV), those who conduct themselves as though His law is done away, are, in Bible terminology, called ‘the wicked.’
He then ties true wisdom to fearing God and doing His commandments. Anyone who suggests the Old Covenant administration has been fulfilled and replaced is labeled wicked and unable to understand end-time truth. This from the same leader whose group has faced its own well-documented controversies while he attacks ex-members and critics.
Samuel Kitchen is the current self-appointed flavor. Associated sites in the remnant “Worldwide Church of God” orbit explicitly state that members “obey God’s tithing law today.” There have even been formal letters of authorization for him to collect tithes under the old framework. He combines this with grand claims of special missions and authority — the same old pattern dressed up as the latest “Elijah” or restorer. Same verse, same enforcement, same tithing envelopes.
In every case the verse is ripped from its New Covenant context and turned into a loyalty test: Keep the law (our version of it) or you’re in rebellion against God.
This isn’t just bad theology. It has wrecked lives for generations.
Members have been taught that failing to tithe (first tithe, second tithe, sometimes building funds on top) is robbing God and risking curses. On modest incomes, this creates real financial hardship while leaders enjoy the “blessings” of authority and resources. Failed prophetic dates (1975 and many since) didn’t lead to humility — they often led to doubled-down legalism and more pressure to “prove” loyalty by stricter observance.
Disfellowshipping has been used as a weapon to silence questions, enforce conformity, and punish families. Children have grown up terrified of “the world,” of losing salvation, of bringing shame on the church. Scandals and cover-ups in various groups (including serious issues in some African congregations under Thiel’s oversight) have been minimized or hidden while the same leaders thunder about “sin is the transgression of the law.”
The psychological toll is heavy: chronic anxiety, scrupulosity, inability to rest in grace, and a works-based relationship with God that never quite feels secure. Many who finally leave carry years of shame and fear even after discovering the New Covenant. Marriages and family relationships have been shattered over “doctrinal purity” that turned out to be shadows.
And all of it is justified with a verse that, properly read, points straight to Jesus taking away sins and giving us a new heart.
The tragedy is that 1 John 3:4 was never meant to be a club. John was writing to believers already in Christ, urging them not to drift back into the devil’s territory of lawlessness. He points them to the Savior who appeared for this very purpose — to destroy sin’s power, not to re-impose the old administration that could never perfect anyone.
Armstrongism turned the verse into a loyalty oath to an obsolete covenant. It replaced the Spirit-written law of love with external regulations, fear of disfellowshipping, and financial extraction dressed up as obedience. The leaders named above — from the founder to the current self-appointed voices — have all played their part in keeping people looking backward to Sinai instead of forward to the cross and the empty tomb.
But here’s the good news that keeps breaking through anyway: "The New Covenant is better." It is not a slightly improved version of the old one. It is new. It rests on better promises. It is empowered by the indwelling Spirit. It produces genuine love, joy, and rest instead of anxious rule-keeping. Many thousands who once sat under these teachings have discovered that freedom — and they are not going back.
If this verse has been used to keep you afraid, guilty, or financially burdened, hear this clearly: That is not the voice of your Good Shepherd. Jesus said His yoke is easy and His burden is light. The same John who wrote “sin is lawlessness” also wrote that perfect love casts out fear. The solution to lawlessness is not more law — it is abiding in the One who fulfilled the law perfectly on our behalf.
So read the whole letter of 1 John. Read Galatians. Read Hebrews. Read Romans 6–8. Then read 1 John 3:4 again. You’ll see it points to freedom, not bondage. To Christ, not to shadows. To grace that actually transforms, not fear that only controls.
The clubs and gavels can stay on the platform with the self-appointed enforcers. The rest of us are free to walk in the light — because the Son has set us free indeed.
Silent Pilgrim
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