February 16. 1 John 1:5-10
John is back to his light and darkness theme in this portion of Chapter 1. Sounds to me like he had some people out there in the churches who were declaring that they never sinned. He wants to make it very clear to us that all of us have sinned. Every. Single. One of us. To willfully declare we are perfect and therefore not in need of God’s saving forgiveness is to be in the darkness. It’s one of the things about dark and light, isn’t it? The darker it is, the less detail we notice. The lighter it is, the more is revealed. The closer we step toward Jesus, Light of the world, the more clearly we see how much we need His saving grace because we fall so short of living the life of love He modeled for us.
Contained within these verses is another famous verse that encapsulates the good news of salvation. 1 John 1:9 says tells us that ” … if we confess our sins to him, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness.” There it is. God’s grace on full display. We are not asked to self-flagellate or perform great feats of valor to be cleansed from our sin. We are not told that unless we are very good from now on, we won’t be saved. Nope. We are told to come into that light and expose that sin to it, confess it, and be cleansed.
You know, admitting we were dead wrong about something and that we sinned sometimes feels harder than doing a task to “make up” for it. But in the end, it cultivates a great humility in us and a deeper awareness of Who is God and who is not. Let’s confess our sins in humility and awe, coming into the light for the deep and total cleansing God will faithfully and justly administer. Rejoice! He forgives fully. Don’t hide in the darkness when the light of Love welcomes you to come and be free!
My verse: 1 John 1:7. “But if we are living in the light, as God is in the light, then we have fellowship with each other, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, cleanses us from all sin.”
My response: Thank You for this call to transparent living. No hiding sins. No acting perfect when we are not. Help me, Lord, to always walk in the light – being honest about my struggles and joyful about Your help in them! Thank You that living transparently and honestly also leads to having genuine fellowship with others instead of artificial and surface-only relationships. Your ways are always best.
