Truth Or Consequences Series

Travel about 150 miles south of Albuquerque and you will enter Truth or Consequences. For the tenth anniversary of the popular show Truth or Consequences, in 1950, Ralph Edwards, offered any town in America the opportunity to be the site of the show’s April Fool’s Day birthday broadcast bash. On one condition. That the town changed its name to Truth or Consequences. Citizens of Hot Springs, New Mexico, voted in favor of the honor. Apparently, the publicity breathed new life into the town’s tourist trade. Edwards poured a lot of his money into the place–helping with the schools, the hospital and others.

The New York Times, in 1996, ran an article in which they raised questions about what it means to live in a place with the name Truth or Consequences.

What implications did this sudden switch in identity have on the town and its inhabitants?

Do the good neighbors of Truth or Consequences now live under the shadow of its name?

Do the children grow up trembling at even the thought of telling a lie? Or do they?

Does anyone ever think about the meaning of the words?

John raises a very similar question: Do we take seriously the nature of our sin and its negative effect upon our lives?

Karl Menninger, the famous psychiatrist of the Menninger Clinic in Topeka, KS, wrote a book which focuses sharply on the concept of sin, Whatever Became of Sin? He said we have been playing a word game with sin, replacing it with words like crime, delinquency, sick, etc. One of the unique contributions of Menninger was that he called for a review of the biblical concept of sin–one to include guilt, individual responsibility, accountability, and even punishment.

If that sounds strange to you, let me remind you the writer of I John did not dismiss the idea of sin. Immediately after the prologue, John deals with the issue of sin. Why? Because he knew how sin destroys a person’s relationship with God. Furthermore, when intimacy with God is gone, so too is fellowship with other Christians!

Some false teachers in the church were claiming they were in fellowship with God; however, they had sin in their lives. Others were teaching that one could live above sin. They were not taking seriously the problem of sin, particularly at the point of understanding their own sin. Wha5 would John say to our churches? Unhappiness, transference, talking about “them”, church hoping may be driven by sin that is sub-conscience awareness.

Lewis Smedes, Mere Morality, (p. 2) said we are facing a moral crisis. He contends that it is more than the fact people are doing wrong things–something that has been occurring since the Fall in Eden. The crisis is the loss of a shared understanding of what is right. Worse, it is a crisis of doubt as to whether there is anything called morally right or wrong at all.

I John 1:5-2:2

I believe the Bible teaches us that the root of the problem is not in knowledge, or the lack of it, but it is at the very nature of who we are. People sin,

Romans 3: 9 What shall we conclude then? Are we any better? Not at all! We have already made the charge that Jews and Gentiles alike are all under sin.

10 As it is written:

"There is no one righteous, not even one;

11 there is no one who understands, no one who seeks God.

12 All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one."

13 "Their throats are open graves; their tongues practice deceit." "The poison of vipers is on their lips."

14 "Their mouths are full of cursing and bitterness."

15 "Their feet are swift to shed blood;

16 ruin and misery mark their ways,

17 and the way of peace they do not know."

18 "There is no fear of God before their eyes."

19 Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be silenced and the whole world held accountable to God.

23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God...

Christians, in any age or given situation, run the risk of entering a moral crisis simply because the great usurper of joy and godliness blinds them to the reality of sin and its consequences.

John made three positive statements to refute the errors of the false teachers. They become principles by which believers’ joy will be made complete. They are keys for enjoying intimacy with God and the fellowship of each other.

I. TRUE BELIEVERS WALK IN THE LIGHT AND NOT DARKNESS

“If we walk in the light . . . we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin.” (1 Jn. 1:7)