1 John 1:7-10
7 But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin.
8 If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.
9 If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
10 If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us.
Today we are going to go through the last four verses of chapter one and the four "If we" statements. Powerful statements that will lead us to the most important question that is the main theme of the first chapter in my view. Lets begin.
If we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin. Lets first break down some of these words in the Greek.
peripateó - I walk, hence Hebraistically (in an ethical sense): I conduct my life, live.
koinónia - fellowship (lit: partnership) (a) contributory help, participation, (b) sharing in, communion, (c) spiritual fellowship, a fellowship in the spirit
echó - have, hold, possess.
katharizó - cleanse, make clean, literally
pas - all, the whole, every kind of.
hamartia - a sin, failure, missing the mark, is the brand of sin that emphasizes its self-originated (self-empowered) nature
In Isaiah 2:5 the term walk in the light of the LORD was known to mean to walk or live by GOD's known standard. What is GOD's standard? Here are a few verses for you to point you towards what this may mean. Micah 6:8; Matthew 22:37-40; Deuteronomy 10:12,11:1, 13, 22, 13:3, 19:9, 30:6,20 ; Joshua 22:5, 23:11; Isaiah 56:6, Daniel 9:4, Mark 12:30; Luke 10:27; John 21:15-17; 2 Corinthians 13:14; 2 Thessalonians 3:5; Philemon 1:5; Jude 1:21
When we walk in GOD's light then we have fellowship with one another and all of our sins are cleansed. All sin every kind, the whole is forgiven. There is nothing left that is not forgiven and we are left with His light to walk by. So walking in the Light is living a life that reflects GOD's love and forgiveness given to me by Christ sacrifice to all those around me.
How is His love and forgiveness reflected in your walk today?
If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.
egó - to say, properly, tosay(speak), moving to a conclusion (bringing it to closure, "laying it to rest")
planaó- lead astray, deceive, cause to wander.
This if we seems very self explanatory we deceive ourselves if we say we have no sin. I find it interesting that the word for deceive also refers to lead astray or cause to wander. How often do we willing put on the blinders and lead ourselves astray trying to ignore the truth of GOD's word? and when we do are we also leading others astray and teaching them that rules and traditions are more important then GOD's word?
As we talked about in verse 6 of this chapter John challenged the claims of the Gnostics in his day who broke away and claimed to be living in fellowship with GOD but in reality did not express His character which is light, they thought they were "enlightened" but were actually darkened by their so called illumination- they rejected fellowship with those who had actually seen GOD.
So here in verse 8 John challenges the second false teaching of the Gnostics which was the claim that they could be sinless because their higher knowledge would lift them from the sin realm, essential they could do what they wanted because sin could not affect them. In Romans 7:14-25 we see that as true christians we still sin but we acknowledge it and trust Christ's gift of redemption to take our sin away by confessing it. Which leads us to the next if we.
If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. I love this verse and it can be divided into two parts :
If we confess our sins - Our part and
He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. GOD's part.
Numerous verses in the Bible support the confidence and aspect of the two parts of this verse, our confession and GOD's forgiveness and cleansing. Psalms 32:5,52:2: Proverbs 28:13; Romans 3:24-26 to name just a few. By confessing our sins we are agreeing with GOD that we have fallen short of His standard of righteousness and we cannot confess until we understand who Christ is and what He has done for us. When we confess He is faithful to cleanse us from every, and all sin because He is faithful to His promises.
Lastly
If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us.
The last If we again restates that if we say we have no sin. The two cross reference verses for this vers are John 3:33 and 1 John 5:10 both talk about receiving Jesus testimony and believing who the Son is thus believing God is true in what He says about Jesus. If we dont believe in who Jesus is and Who GOD says He is then we make GOd and Jesus liars and His Word is not in us. We can not deny who Jesus is and say we are christians.
When we say we have no sin we are doing two things:
1- claiming we don't need a Savior thus ignoring and rejecting who Christ is and what He did .
2- ignore what GOD said about Christ and our need for salvation, thus calling GOD a liar, a person who misrepresents the way things are.
Who do you say Jesus is?
If you believe GOD, then you believe He is the Son of GOD sent to save the world from sin.
If you believe who Jesus is then you will walk according to GOD's standard- walking in the Light and your life will reflect GOD's love and forgiveness to others.
If you believe does your life give evidence that the truth of the Father is in you and His Word abides in you?
John the Baptist claimed in John 1:29 that Jesus was the Lamb of GOD who takes away the sin of the world.
Peter claimed in Matthew 16:16 that Jesus was the Christ , the Son of the living GOD
Again I ask Who do you say Jesus is?
Praying for you as you decide who He is to you.
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