We do not have to actually overcome sin in order to receive the promises to the overcomer; we are an overcomer merely by believing in Jesus.

The second and third chapters of the Book of Revelation are written to the Christian churches. The Lord Jesus has something good and something bad to say about each church. The Lord speaks only of their works, not of their beliefs. He tells them what they are doing right, what they are doing wrong, and what they should be doing.

The overcomers are always addressed as individuals. It always is "to him who overcomes," never "to those who overcome."

What is it we are to overcome? It is the wrong actions concerning which He is rebuking the churches.

Thus each church is divided into two groups of people: those who through Christ overcome the undesirable practices, and those who do not overcome the undesirable practices. They all are members of the churches, but only those who overcome the undesirable practices receive the promises.

To then insist, as is done today, that everyone who believes in Christ automatically is an overcomer, is to cause the second and third chapters of the Book of Revelation to be of no significance. They mean nothing at all because every member of the churches already has overcome by virtue of believing in Christ.

The passage that is used to support the idea that every believer is an overcomer by virtue of believing is as follows:

For everyone born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith. Who is it that overcomes the world? Only he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God. (I John 5:4,5)

The above sounds as though everyone who is born of God, who believes that Jesus is the Son of God, automatically has overcome the world.

However, the entire text of First John reveals that anyone who is continuing in sin has not been born of God.

No one who is born of God will continue to sin, because God's seed remains in him; he cannot go on sinning, because he has been born of God. This is how we know who the children of God are and who the children of the devil are: Anyone who does not do what is right is not a child of God; nor is anyone who does not love his brother. (I John 3:9,10)

We see, therefore, that what John means by being born of God and what we mean today by being born of God are quite different.

Since the Apostle John wrote the Book of Revelation and also First John, we may conclude that every believer who has truly been born of God overcomes the world, the evidence being that he does not continue to sin. According to John (above), those believers who continue to sin are not the children of God but the children of the devil.

Being a Christian is not in word but in behavior. If we do what is right we are of God. If we do not do what is right we are not a child of God. This is what the Bible teaches.

Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. (Romans 12:21)

They promise them freedom, while they themselves are slaves of depravity for a man is a slave to whatever has mastered him. (II Peter 2:19)

I write to you, fathers, because you have known him who is from the beginning. I write to you, young men, because you have overcome the evil one. I write to you, dear children, because you have known the Father. (I John 2:13)

No one who is born of God will continue to sin, because God's seed remains in him; he cannot go on sinning, because he has been born of God. This is how we know who the children of God are and who the children of the devil are: Anyone who does not do what is right is not a child of God; nor is anyone who does not love his brother. (I John 3:9,10)

To him who overcomes, I will give the right to sit with me on my throne, just as I overcame and sat down with my Father on his throne. (Revelation 3:21)

He who overcomes shall inherit these things, and I will be his God and he will be My son. (Revelation 21:7)

To be continued.