The 5 “If we” statements of 1 John.
“If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”
I often find chapters that have a repeated phrase. Today is one of those days. “If we” is found in 1 John 1 five times in verses 6-10. We have 3 negative verses and 2 positives.
“If we say, “We have fellowship with Him,” yet we walk in darkness, we are lying and are not practicing the truth.”
Our fellowship with Jesus leads us into the light. We are living in a dark world and Jesus is our light to make us into lights for the world around us. But for Him to work in us we must have clean fellowship with Him. We must walk with Him.
“But if we walk in the light as He Himself is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin.”
Our fellowship with Jesus cleans up the fellowship with others and it cleans us from the filth sins have left behind. Fellowship with Jesus acts as a bath. But we must get into it.
“If we say, “We have no sin,” we are deceiving ourselves, and the truth is not in us.”
We know for sure that everyone has sinned and will sin but for this moment we may not be sinning. We may be tempted but we are getting some part of the truth of the whole truth of the word of God. My words are not truth but rather God’s are! I want to make sure that my words are at minimum truthful sayings.
“If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”
Without confessions of our sins and reliance on Jesus as Lord, we are not able to be cleansed from all unrighteousness.
“If we say, “We don’t have any sin,” we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us.”
The Bible declares that all of us are sinners and are deeds are filth compared to God’s works. Our hope is that through constant fellowship with Jesus through the Holy Spirit we are made Holy in God’s sight.
One of my favorite verses on fellowship with God is found in Genesis!
“Then the woman saw that the tree was good for food and delightful to look at, and that it was desirable for obtaining wisdom. So she took some of its fruit and ate it; she also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made loincloths for themselves. Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden at the time of the evening breeze, and they hid themselves from the Lord God among the trees of the garden. So the Lord God called out to the man and said to him, “Where are you? ”
Genesis 3:6-9 HCSB
Adam and Eve have just sinned and tried to cover up their sin by covering their nakedness and when they are done God walks into the seen as He has done in the past. First, He calls for Adam to have fellowship with him, “Where are you”. Next, God wants a confession, “What have you done.” And lastly, God provides for them, “Let me take care of that.”
God is doing the same thing for us. He is calling for us, “Where are you?” Next, he is asking for a report of what happened in the moments since our last appointed meeting, “What have you done?”Then through conversation, God begins to reveal how He can help us. And He closes with, “Don't worry about that. Let me take care of it!”
Will you let God take care of it?
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