1 John 3:4-10 does not teach sinless perfectionism — the Greek present tense indicates habitual lifestyle of sin, not single acts

Winger takes the passage seriously without capitulating to sinless perfectionism. He surveys three major interpretive approaches: (1) SINLESS PERFECTIONISM — saved people stop sinning, or grow toward sinlessness until death delivers them. Winger rejects this; sinless perfection awaits the resurrection. (2) TWO-NATURES APPROACH — it is the old flesh sinning, not the true/new-nature self, so "I" am not sinning. Winger rejects this as a distortion of Paul's old/new man language that renders the passage toothless. (3) WINGER'S VIEW — the Greek verb tense (present active continuous) indicates ongoing habitual practice of sin, not individual acts. The NASB and ESV both render this as "practices sin." 1 John 2:1 makes clear Christians can and do sin ("if anyone sins, we have an advocate"), so chapter 3 must be addressing lifestyle. A person who lives an ungodly, worldly lifestyle while claiming Christ cannot have assurance of salvation. The application is not despair but repentance: get your life right with Jesus. The way to know who the children of God are (v. 10) is by observable lifestyle difference from the world.