Category Archives: Christian life

What Exactly is Sin?

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1 John 2:1-2 – My dear children, I am writing this to you so that you will not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate who pleads our case before the Father. He is Jesus Christ, the one who is truly righteous. He himself is the sacrifice that atones for our sins—and not only our sins but the sins of all the world.

John indicates a follower of Jesus should not sin. However, he uses that word “if” again to indicate we may sin and points us to Jesus as our help when we do.

But what is sin?

Throughout the history of the church there have been, and still are, lists of what is sin. Different words have been used.

  • Transgression
  • Disobedience
  • Missing the mark
  • Overstepping the law
  • Rebellion
  • Not meeting God’s standard

Sin, whatever it is, is a serious issue.

Romans 6:23 – For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Hebrews 9:22 – And according to the law almost all things are purified with blood, and without shedding of blood there is no remission for sins.

Thankfully Jesus made a way for us to find forgiveness. How do we do that? Through repentance. Repentance is more than saying “I’m sorry.” It includes:

  • Confession of sin
  • Forsaking of sin
  • Turning to God.

Psalm 38:18 – For I will declare my iniquity; I will be in anguish over my sin.

Luke 18:13 – And the tax collector, standing afar off, would not so much as raise his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me a sinner!’

Luke 15:21 – And the son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and in your sight and am no longer worthy to be called your son.’

As we turn from sin and to God, we accept by faith His forgiveness.

  • Know that faith works
  • Agree that fasith works
  • Agree that “it’s for me”

What is faith? It includes both intellectual agreement and trust. Intellectual agreement is believing something to be true. Trust is actually relying on the fact that the something is true. Often a chair has been used to illustrate this. Intellectual agreement is recognizing that a chair is a chair and agreeing that it is designed to support a person who sits on it. Trust is actually sitting in the chair.

Job 19:25 – I know that my Redeemer lives.

There are, just like sin, many different words used to describe this redemption by Jesus Christ.

  • Propitiation – God’s demand that punishment for sin be satisfied
  • Adoption – made a part of the family of God
  • Redemption – price paid as a ransom
  • Justification – declared righteous with God because of shed blood of Jesus
  • Reconciliation – restored to fellowship with God
  • Substitution – we deserved death, but Christ died for us
  • Sacrifice (mediator) – one who gives what is necessary to bring God and man together.

Little Word – Big Meaning

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“If” is a little word with a big meaning.

The first espitle of John is full of “if” statements. They all require action on our part. God has already done His part by sending His son as the redeemer for all mankind. “If” we believe. “if” we respond.

Check out some of these “if” statements and take a moment to see if you have responded to the action required.

  • 1 John 1:6 – If we say that we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth.
  • 1 John 1:7 – 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.
  • 1 John 1:8 – If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.
  • 1 John 1:9 – If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
  • 1 John 1:10 – If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us.

John makes it clear that walking with Jesus requires our obedience.

  • 1 John 2:3 – Now by this we know that we know Him, if we keep His commandments.
  • 1 John 2:15 – Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.

John’s “if” statements show that our relationship with God does not depend on what others do or do not do. “if” our heart is true, God receives us.

  • 1 John 3:20 – For if our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and knows all things.
  • 1 John 3:21 – Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence toward God.

As we have accepted the love of God and His forgiveness, we must love. No debate, no waffling – we must.

  • 1 John 4:11-12 – Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.  No one has seen God at any time. If we love one another, God abides in us, and His love has been perfected in us.
  • 1 John 4:20 – If someone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen?

Confidence in Him who gave us new life will be the witness within that in all things His plans/design will be made know. As we understand His will we can go with confidence before with our needs.

  • 1 John 5:9 – If we receive the witness of men, the witness of God is greater; for this is the witness of God which He has testified of His Son.
  • 1 John 5:14-16 – Now this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us.  And if we know that He hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we have asked of Him. 

I Know

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Doing a study of 1 John, I read the epistle over day after day in different versions of the Bible.

I was struck by how often the word “know” was repeated throughout the five chapters. “Know” is listed 32 times in the New King James Version.  “Knows” is listed three times and “known” is listed four times.

Another phrase, “from the beginning” is listed nine times.  The phrase, “We write” is listed one time.  Another phrase, “I write” is listed seven times, and “I have written,” five times.    There are nineteen “if” statements and thirteen times John writes about “commandments.”

These repeated phrases tell us one thing.  That is:  By word and by written truth John has passed along to us “from the beginning” these truths.  This is not anything new he is exhorting to us.  Not a new doctrine, not a new idea.  We are not about to receive a new revelation to move us to the next level, a phrase a lot of the TV evangelists use all the time.  It is simply the same gospel truth that our Lord and Savior conveyed to his disciples from the very beginning.  It is the same truth the Old Testament prophets also preached. 

You might ask, what are these truths that are being given again to us in this letter from John?  Obviously, we have not all understood it or he would not have to preach it to us again.  Sooner or later if we hear the same thing that God is trying to speak to us, we may get it.  Maybe!  Duh!

The whole of this book, five chapters and all 104 verses is that we would learn the joy of being in fellowship with our Lord and Savior.  That cannot happen if we fail to walk in the way He has told us.  To walk holy and blameless, which is our “reasonable service.’

Romans 12:2 – And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.

What hinders us from walking in the way He has told us to walk?  John tells us we often take our eyes off God’s Word and listen to what the world/our culture tells us.  He gives us warnings.

1 John 1:4-9 – And these things we write to you that your joy may be full.  This is the message which we have heard from Him and declare to you, that God is light and in Him is no darkness at all.  If we say that we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth.  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.  If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.  If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

1 John 2:1-7 – My little children, these things I write to you, so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.  And He Himself is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the whole world.  Now by this we know that we know Him, if we keep His commandments.  He who says, “I know Him,” and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him.  But whoever keeps His word, truly the love of God is perfected in him. By this we know that we are in Him.  He who says he abides in Him ought himself also to walk just as He walked.  Brethren, I write no new commandment to you, but an old commandment which you have had from the beginning. The old commandment is the word which you heard from the beginning.

1 John 2:15-17 – Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—is not of the Father but is of the world. And the world is passing away, and the lust of it; but he who does the will of God abides forever.

A big part of walking in the right way, according to John, is to stay based in the love of God.

1John 3:1-3 – Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God! Therefore the world does not know us, because it did not know Him. Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. And everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself, just as He is pure.

1 John 3:11 – For this is the message that you heard from the beginning, that we should love one another,

1John 3:16 – By this we know love, because He laid down His life for us. And we also ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.

1 John 4:7-11 – Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. He who does not love does not know God, for God is love. In this the love of God was manifested toward us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him. In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.

1 John 5:19-20 – We know that we are of God, and the whole world lies under the sway of the wicked one.  And we know that the Son of God has come and has given us an understanding, that we may know Him who is true; and we are in Him who is true, in His Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God and eternal life.

Salt and Light

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“You are the earth’s salt. But if the salt should become tasteless, what can make it salt again? It is completely useless and can only be thrown out of doors and stamped under foot.” “You are the world’s light—it is impossible to hide a town built on the top of a hill. Men do not light a lamp and put it under a bucket. They put it on a lamp-stand and it gives light for everybody in the house. “Let your light shine like that in the sight of men. Let them see the good things you do and praise your Father in Heaven.”

You are the salt of the earth

  • Salt is distinctive

Romans 12:2 – And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.

1 John 2:15-16 – Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—is not of the Father but is of the world.

  • Salt preserves

1 Peter 1:22-25 – Since you have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit in sincere love of the brethren, love one another fervently with a pure heart, having been born again, not of corruptible seed but incorruptible, through the word of God which lives and abides forever, because “All flesh is as grass, And all the glory of man as the flower of the grass.
The grass withers, And its flower falls away, But the word of the Lord endures forever.”

  • Salt changes and penetrates

2 Corinthians 5:17 – Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.

Ephesians 4:24 – Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.

  • Salt flavors

Galatians 5:22-23 – But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law.

  • Salt spreads

Acts 4:20 – For we cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard.”

1 Peter 3:15 — But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts, and always be ready to give a defense to everyone who asks you a reason for the hope that is in you, with meekness and fear;

  • Salt is irrepressible

Isaiah 55:10-11 – “For as the rain comes down, and the snow from heaven, and do not return there,
but water the earth, and make it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower and bread to the eater, So shall My word be that goes forth from My mouth; It shall not return to Me void, but it shall accomplish what I please, and it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it.

You are the light of the world

  • Light is clear and pure

Ephesians 5:8-9 – For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light (for the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness, righteousness, and truth),

  • Light penetrates

1 Thessalonians 5:5 – You are all sons of light and sons of the day. We are not of the night nor of darkness.

  • Light enlightens

John 12:35 – Then Jesus said to them, “A little while longer the light is with you. Walk while you have the light, lest darkness overtake you; he who walks in darkness does not know where he is going.

  • Light reveals

John 14:6 – Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.

John 12:36 – While you have the light, believe in the light, that you may become sons of light.” These things Jesus spoke, and departed, and was hidden from them.

  • Light guides

John 12:46 – I have come as a light into the world, that whoever believes in Me should not abide in darkness.

  • Light strips away darkness

John 3:19-20 – And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed.

  • Light routs the chaos

Philippians 2:15 – that you may become blameless and harmless, children of God without fault in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world,

  • Light discriminates between right and wrong

John 8:12 – Then Jesus spoke to them again, saying, “I am the light of the world. He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life.”

  • Light warns

Ephesians 5:11-14 – And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather  expose them. For it is shameful even to speak of those things which are done by them in secret. But all things that are exposed are made manifest by the light, for whatever makes manifest is light. Therefore He says:  “Awake, you who sleep, Arise from the dead, and Christ will give you light.”

  • Light protects

Romans 13:12 – The night is far spent, the day is at hand. Therefore let us cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armor of light.

Salt and Light’s Area of Ministry

Luke 10:2 – Then He said to them, “The harvest truly is great, but the laborers are few; therefore pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest.

Philippians 2:15 – that you may become blameless and harmless, children of God without fault in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world,

Galatians 6:9 – And let us not grow weary while doing good, for in due season we shall reap if we do not lose heart.

John 4:35 – Do you not say, ‘There are still four months and then comes the harvest’? Behold, I say to you, lift up your eyes and look at the fields, for they are already white for harvest!

Act 13:47 – For so the Lord has commanded us:  ‘I have set you as a light to the Gentiles, that you should be for salvation to the ends of the earth.’ ”

Your life without salt

Luke 9:62 – But Jesus said to him, “No one, having put his hand to the plow, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.”

Hebrews 10:38 – Now the just shall live by faith; but if anyone draws back, my soul has no pleasure in him.”

1 Corinthians 9:27 – But I discipline my body and bring it into subjection, lest, when I have preached to others, I myself should become disqualified.

  • Tasteless, bland, without flavor
  • Doomed to ruin, useless, good for nothing

Your life without light

2 Corinthians 4:6 – For it is the God who commanded light to shine out of darkness, who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

Ephesians 5:13-14 – But all things that are exposed are made manifest by the light, for whatever makes manifest is light. Therefore He says: “Awake, you who sleep, arise from the dead, and Christ will give you light.”

  • Unclear, stumbling, falling, groping in darkness,
    • chaos, danger

Our obligation to the Word of God to be salt and light

John 15:8 – By this My Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit; so you will be My disciples.

John 15:16 – You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain, that whatever you ask the Father in My name He may give you.

1 Corinthians 6:20 – For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s.