new creatures in Christ (2 Cor. 5:17). They have a new life (Rom. 6:4). The fruit that inevitably and invariably grows from a true knowledge of God is obedience. ‘Godliness and holiness of life distinguish true faith from a fictitious and dead knowledge of God,’ says Calvin.73 John is not saying that we never sin. He has said already that only the self-deceived would make such a claim (1:8). Calvin said this verse is identifying not those who never sin, but ‘those who strive, according to the capacity