Text:           1 John 1:8-10

By:               Sunday Eyanrin (Evangelist)

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LET US START BY READING OUR TEXT

1 JOHN 1:8 – 1O

8. If we say that we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us. 9. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous 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.

Verse 8: When a believer is experiencing true fellowship with God he/she may then be tempted to think or say that he/she is, at that moment at least, free from sin. John warned against this self-deluding conception.  He declared, “If we say that we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us” (v.8; cf. v. 6; 2:4).

If Christians understand the truth that God’s Word teaches about the depravity of the human heart, they know that just because they are not conscious of failure does not mean that they are free from it. If the truth is “in” them as a controlling, motivating influence, this kind of self-deception will not take place.

Whether someone claims to be “without sin” for a brief period of time or claims it as a permanent attainment, that claim is false.

 Verse 8 provides another false response, “If we say that we have no sin, we’re deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us.” The problem is what is meant by “sin”?

The expression to have sin means to be guilty. This phrasing is found in three other places John 9:41; 15:22, 24; 19:11. These are all the expressions of this phrasing. By the way, the only writer that uses the expression “to have sin” in the whole New Testament is John; nobody else uses that expression, only John. And these are the only other references that he has.

Now look at John 9:41, “Jesus said to them, “If you were blind, you would have no sin; but now that you maintain, ‘We see,’ your sin remains.” Remember John 9 is the healing of the blind man, and the Lord says, “If you just admit that you are guilty”, if you just admit your sin, you would have no sin, your sins would be washed away. But since you say – we’re not blind, we can see – your blindness remains, your sin remains.

But when Jesus says, “You have sin,” He means guilty. We could understand it as, “If you just admit your guilt.” He is not saying, “Oh we don’t have a sin nature,” he’s talking about the guilt of sin. John 19:11 says, “Jesus answered him, “You would have no authority over Me at all, if it had not been given to you from above; for this reason the one who handed Me over to you has the greater sin.

Verse 9: Verse 9 parallels verse 7 and is just saying the same thing, “if we walk in the light,” what happens? “We confess our sins.” Did you notice the verb “confess?” It doesn’t say beg or pleads. There’s nothing wrong with asking for forgiveness, that’s in the Lord’s Prayer. But that’s not the idea. We could cry a bucket of tears, but the key is to confess.

Confess (homologeo, which means acknowledge and is the best synonym for confess) is to speak the same language, to agree with, and that’s what you’re doing here; you’re agreeing with God, you’re acknowledging the sin. You’re saying, “Yes, God, I was wrong. I’m guilty. I did that and I should not have. I acknowledge my guilt.” If we acknowledge our guilt, He’s faithful to forgive us our sins.

It is  important that you  understand in your minds the adjective faithful. That means there has never been a single person, who’s a believer, who has ever confessed his/her sin and God has not forgiven. If you confess your sin, God has forgiven it. And He’s faithful and just to forgive us our sins. And then to “cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”

When we confess our sins with humility and love, God forgives our sins, purifies us from all unrighteousness, and restores us to His fellowship. It may also be said that so long as the idea of walking in the light or darkness is correctly understood on an experiential level, these concepts offer no difficulty.

“Darkness” has an ethical meaning. When a believer loses personal touch with the God of light, they begin to live in darkness. But confession of sin is the way back into the light.

Verse 10: However, after a believer sins, they should not deny that sin. John says, “If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar and His word is not in us.” This statement should be read in direct connection with verse 9. When a Christian is confronted by God’s Word about their sins, they should admit them rather than deny them.

To deny one’s personal sin in the face of God’s testimony to the contrary is to “make” God “out to be a liar.” By contradicting His Word, a person rejects it and refuses to give it the proper “place” in their life.

Again “His word” is the message about Christ.  John 5:38 and 8:37 speak to His Word is not in us. John is obviously talking about the heretics so when you look at verses 6, 8, and 10, they are all the responses of heretics. Verses 7 and 9 are the responses of believers as they are to respond to the fact that God is light.

One more thing, we need to notice is the progression in verse 6: “If we say that we have fellowship with Him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth.” Verse 8: “If we say that we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us.”

That is worse. Many of us have had someone in our lives who was very rigid about telling the truth. They just drove it into us, to tell the truth, no matter what the consequences are. Just tell the truth. There are some people who lie so much they believe their own lies. Many will say that’s ridiculous.

How can anybody lie so much that  they would believe it themselves?” There are some persons who tell lies and you believe it. This is what you have here, we deceive ourselves. Verse 6 you deceive others, verse 8 you deceive yourself, verse 10 you make God a liar. That is the progression. You can just see that John is building to show the consequences of not dealing with sin in your heart.

It is disastrous. So deal with sin in your heart because in the end, you could make God a liar. John is talking about false teachers and what the false teachers do could be influential in the believing community (The Church).

CONCLUSION

Brethren, how conscious are you about this Three letter word “SIN”? This is the greatest vice by the Devil to destroy Man. There are so many ways we Sin, let us look at what James says in James 1:26. and James 3:6 – 10.

If anyone among you thinks he is religious, and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his own heart, this one’s religion is useless.

NKJV

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