Our approach to Sin
1 John 1: 5-10
5 This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all. 6 If we claim to have fellowship with him yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live by the truth. 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, his Son, purifies us from all sin.
8 If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. 9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. 10 If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word has no place in our lives.
I just returned from a three day youth camp at Yelagiri. This was a hectic schedule, with day long sessions, lovely worship sessions, skits, choreography, activities, alter calls, counseling etc etc. The camp was filled with almost three hundred young people, who were eager to get involved, participate ask questions, clarify their doubts, learn new things..
When I first walked into the camp, for a moment I was stumped. As I watched the young crowd mulling around, I thought I might have been in the wrong place first. I thought these things happened only in west. I thought the “Christian” camps in India had people who met with my understanding of modesty. What I saw was a crowd of youngsters who were like any other crowd of youngsters. Some had weird hairdos, many boys had long hair and pony tails, many girls had very short hairs, a lot of boys were in their shorts, many of the boys wore bangles, and heavy metal chains, some of them ( I mean boys) had their ears pierced and were wearing big ear studs, I even saw a couple of them who had pierced their eye brows and were wearing ornaments in them… My mind was ticking away.. wondering, questioning, doubting, disapproving… till the Lord spoke to me and stopped me… The Lord asked me , hey… What makes these people, come here, and go through this difficult three days when they could have been enjoying the vacation in the cool comforts of their homes, most of them obviously were from well to do families, and later on I came to know that some of them were from non believing families and were there against the wishes of their families. The Lord made me think, and I think the Lord for stopping my chain of thoughts which were based on outward appearances and not based on who they were.
The Lord reminded me of 1 Samuel 16:7. “Do not consider his appearance or his height, .. The Lord does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.”
So the question came up in my mind, what should we be looking for in Christians? It is OK for the Lord to say He looks in to the heart. He has vision that can see the matters of the heart. But how about us? How do we know if we are not going by outward appearances? How can we give out ward signs of our true selves? So that others do not need to go by our outward appearance?
Let us turn to the 1st epistle of John, Chapter 1, verses 5-10. This short passage describes four approaches to Sin by Christians, or four types of Christians for that matter. Let us take a look at the types
1. Liars who do not live by the truth. Vs 6.
2. Deceivers who hide the truth Vs 8
3. Blasphemers who distort the truth Vs 10
4. Confessors who celebrate the truth Vs 9
Let us look at these types a little bit more in detail and see if we fit into any of these categories, or how to identity the people who are like these.
1. Liars who do not live by the truth Vs 1: 6, and 2:4: Many of us claim to know the truth. How many of us really live by the truth? It is easy to claim knowledge, but very difficult to live it, isn’t it.? The truth is that God is light, and in light there is no darkness at all. Can we claim to have fellowship with him, and yet walk in the darkness? We need not feel embarrassed, the bible tells us stories of great people who did this.. Look at Saul, the first King that God anointed over Israel, conceding the persistent demand of the people for a ruler. He know the Lord, he know the truth, yet, he did not live by it. He know that obedience was more important than sacrifice, yet, when the Lord asked him to destroy all of an enemy possessions, he kept back one bleating goat, to sacrifice.
Take the case of King Solomon, he asked for wisdom and got wisdom. He obviously know the scriptures well. There are many books in the bible that are written by him, and yet, he fell into the temptation of building high places for the “gods” that his wives wanted to worship, and offered incense to those “gods”
John gives a nicer expression to this in 4:20. It says, that those of us who say “ I love God, but yet hates his brother is liar, and do not live by the truth.
2. Deceivers who hide the truth Vs 1:10: How many of us like Judas Iscariot? Not many I guess. For many of us he is the villain, especially when we celebrate the passion week before Easter. He was just like many of us, he know the truth, and decided to deceive himself, and others by hiding the truth. Only two people knew who was going to betray Jesus. One was Jesus himself, the other was Judas Iscariot. Yet Jesus did not reveal his identity. If he had, with Peter being there, both the ears of Judas would have disappeared. Judas probably wanted Jesus to become the messiah that every one else was looking for, not the one who suffers and serves, but one who fights and releases Israel politically.
Take the case of David and Bathsheba. David knew the truth about Bathsheba’s pregnancy, but he wanted to hide the same and see if he can put the responsibility back on to Uriah.
Take the case of Ananias and Saphira (Acts 5: 1-9), they thought they can withhold some portion of the money and offer part of it.
How about us? Do we some times hide the truth?
3. Blasphemers who distort the truth. Who do we consider as blasphemers? I know of some one close to us who does not watch English TV, because of the number of times that “Jesus Christ”, or Oh My God, or Christ’s sake, or some thing like that is said irreverently, mostly as a swear word, some times with no mal intentions, some times with mal intentions. This person considers this as blasphemy. Now that is one point of view
The dictionary definition of this term goes like this. 1 a: the act of insulting or showing contempt or lack of reverence for God b: the act of claiming the attributes of deity
2: irreverence toward something considered sacred or inviolable
Jesus Christ was accused of Blasphemy more than any one else mentioned in the Bible.
.. but there is a more serious form of blasphemy that we need to careful about. John says that it is when we claim to be without sin., then without necessarily saying it , we make God out to be a liar. And that is one of the worst forms of blasphemy that we can get into. ( Story of three friends entering heaven after the test) . Many time when we proclaim our innocence, when we say we are blameless, are we making God out to be a liar?
So what type of Christian does God ask us to be? That really is the fourth category, of Confessors who celebrate the truth Vs 9. The truth is that all of us have sinned ands hence have fallen short of the glory of God. And the only way that we get right is by confessing our sins to God. And the word promises that f we confess our sins, he will forgive us, Psalm 32: 5 puts it beautifully. 5 Then I acknowledged my sin to you and did not cover up my iniquity. I said, "I will confess my transgressions to the LORD "— and you forgave the guilt of my sin.” Proverbs 28:13 confirms this piece of wisdom 13 He who conceals his sins does not prosper, but whoever confesses and renounces them finds mercy. Micah 7: 18 and 19, describes this further 18 Who is a God like you, who pardons sin and forgives the transgression of the remnant of his inheritance? You do not stay angry forever but delight to show mercy.
19 You will again have compassion on us; you will tread our sins underfoot and hurl all our iniquities into the depths of the sea.
This morning may I encourage us to look at our attitude and approach to sin, is our tendency to lie about it and hence not live by the truth? Is our tendency to be deceived and hide the truth? Is our tendency to distort the truth and claim that we are sinless and there by blaspheme? Or are we willing to confess our sins and celebrate the forgiveness the God offers through Jesus Christ and celebrate the eternal life that comes with confession?
Let us pray.
Benediction
Now unto him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy, to the only wise God our Savior, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and ever. Amen.
Jude 1:24,25
