If you want to call people who have walked in the faith and are still weak in the faith to where a trial, tribulation, or hardship takes and causes them to fall away from the faith as a form of the antichrist that is on you.
In Matthew 26:31, Jesus said to His disciples, "You will all
fall away because of me this night. For it is written, 'I will strike the shepherd, and the sheep of the flock will be scattered.' 32 But after I am raised up, I will go before you to Galilee." 33 Peter answered him, "Though they all
fall away because of you, I will never
fall away. They all had a weak moment and temporarily fell away that night, but it was not permanent and this did not make them antichrist's. Proverbs 24:16 - For a righteous man may
fall seven times And rise again, But the wicked shall fall by calamity.
People who hear the word and want to come to the Lord but are hindered by false teachers, or are not given the time and attention in love to help them grow in the faith and then fall away do to hardships is not forms of the antichrist. They are deceived people who need our help to guide them out of that deception. The scripture in 1 John clearly says in the previous verse the ones who is being talked about is forms of the antichrist who are deceivers, not the deceived.
We are either FOR Christ or AGAINST Him. That's what ANTI means, AGAINST. In Matthew 12:30, Jesus said - Whoever is
not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters. If you want to divide up lost unbelievers into categories of deceivers and simply deceived, that's your choice, but ultimately, we are either with Christ or against Christ. There is no middle ground.
Sin no matter how you look at it, if it is not repented/confessed of is not forgiven rather a believer or not.
Do believers or unbelievers repent (Acts 3:19) and confess their sins? (1 John 1:9). Do believers or unbelievers say they have no sin (1 John 1:8) and have not sinned? (1 John 1:10).
James clearly is talking to believers and he says when sin gets full grown to where you obey it again instead of obeying the Lord, that sin will lead to death and the death he is speaking of is not physical death in the flesh. We know this from his final verse that their soul will be saved if returned to the Lord. Physical death in the flesh only kills the body and not the soul.
James 1:15 - Then, when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, brings forth death. Show me the words "where you obey it instead of obeying the Lord" in James 1:15. You have added your own commentary to that verse. In Romans 6:23, Paul said - For the
wages of sin is death; BUT the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. In 1 John 3:9,John said -
No one who is born of God practices sin, because His seed abides in him; and he cannot sin, because he is born of God. Please read 1 John 3:7-10 - NAS and give me a description of children of the devil vs. children of God.
Destruction of the flesh is not about physical death, you have to read the whole context in that chapter. Nobody can be saved after they physically die in unrepented sins, so making the destruction of the flesh being physical death does not fit scripture.
Who said he died in unrepented sins? If his spirit was saved then he obviously repented. Once again,
destruction of the flesh is more than simply being shunned by the church. This is grave physical consequences and goes beyond common divine chastening of the Lord -
ólethros (from ollymi/"destroy") – properly, ruination with its full, destructive results.
The Lord Jesus clearly shows in His parables that once a person dies their chance at receiving eternal life is over, for He says we should have obeyed His ways while in the flesh. No repentance, no confession, then you die = No salvation.
Believers have repented, confessed, and obeying His ways characterizes them. A genuine born again believer who has never repented, confessed, and does not obey His ways is an OXYMORON (1 John 2:3; 2:10; 3:9,10). Now that doesn't mean that a born again believer can never mess up at all.
That scripture in 1 John does not say practices sin, it says does not sin.
The NAS translation does - No one who is born of God
practices sin, because His seed abides in him; and he cannot sin, because he is born of God. Do you interpret "does not sin" to mean never sins at all? Do you believe that you are sinless 100% of the time?
We do sin but the bible makes it clear that you can not continue to sin on an everyday basis, as to continue to do the same sins day in and day out shows no true repentance.
As I explained before, the idea of
practice is to perform repeatedly or habitually and thus describes repetition or continuous action. The practice is habitual, as one's lifestyle or bent of life. Do you agree with that? Does that fit your definition of "does not sin?"
The Lord says produce fruit worthy of repentance, which means if your repentance was true the Holy Spirit will be in you and the fruits produced thereof will not lead a person to sin. How can a person sin if they walk in love, they can't because love is the opposite of wrong doing. Every fruit of the Spirit will not cause or lead a person to sin, if you do sin it is because you have fallen away by giving into your own lusts. And once again James says if it gets full grown and controls you again it leads to death and not eternal life.
Producing fruit is the demonstrative evidence that we have repented. Christians walk in the light and in love, but this does not mean they never sin at all and it also does not mean that they have permanently fallen away every time they mess up. I'm still not seeing the words "sin controls you" and now you "lost your salvation" in James 1:15. That's your commentary. John clearly stated that
no one who is born of God practices sin.. (1 John 3:9) yet you say "those who are born of God practice sin and lose their salvation." Who should I believe?