Sometimes Christians worry about their standing before God. Sometimes we don’t experience the confidence the New Testament says followers of Jesus can have (1 Jn 5:13–15; Heb 10:19). Many of us carry guilt and a deep sense of shame and, rightly or wrongly, we question our value to ourselves, our families, our friends and our Creator. It is hard for those among who feel this way us to hold onto our faith against shame and to hope for change. That is why we can be thankful for John’s first letter, because it is a letter which brings together two themes we struggle to join: grace and obedience.
Those in the Biggest Trouble Are Those Who Deny Their Sin
In 1 John chapter 1 those who deny they have any sin end up making God a liar for sending his Son to deal with sin. It is not those troubled by their sin God shuts out; a sign of knowing God is that we acknowledge and confess our sins (1 Jn 1:9).
John’s teaching echoes the gospels. It is the proud Pharisee, boasting in his righteousness, who has the real problem. He may sleep well at night, but he did not leave the temple being justified before God (Lk 18:10–14). It is the sinner who won’t draw near, the woman who weeps much because she has been forgiven much (Lk 7:36–50), the people who have felt most keenly both the attraction and the deadly cost of sin who draw near to be healed. In Jesus’ words: “only those who know they are sick seek a Doctor” (Mk 2:17 NLT).
It is those who are not grieved over what grieves God, those who live a lifestyle of unrepentant sin who have most to be concerned about—although they will be blind to their condition (1 Jn 1:9, 11). This is the kind of sin John is talking about in 1 John 3: unconcerned, unrepentant sin. Or again, I believe this is what he means by “a sin that leads to death” in chapter 5 verse 16 to 17:
If you see any brother or sister commit a sin that does not lead to death, you should pray and God will give them life. I refer to those whose sin does not lead to death. There is a sin that leads to death. I am not saying that you should pray about that. All wrongdoing is sin, and there is sin that does not lead to death. (emphasis mine)
We Have Hope
Hope is more powerful to change us than either guilt or duty. Hope pleases God and opens our lives to his grace-filled help because hope is faith’s child. We can persist through the most challenging things in life, including dealing with sin and its consequences, if we know that we will win in the end. John thrills:
See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! … Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. All who have this hope in him purify themselves, just as he is pure. (1 John 3:1–3)
John expects our purity to be a process. Jesus is pure, we purify ourselves. Don’t give up the struggle for purity now, for the struggle is not ultimately futile.
An Encouragement
The possibility of not sinning now exists. We can grow in purity regardless of our moral starting point (I admit, some of us are starting a long way back!) or natural moral gifts (I admit, some of us by nature and nurture are more patient or gentle!). We can flee from sin to grace and learn to grow in obedience in the strength that God gives. We can learn again and again to keep grace and obedience together. One of the joy-filled surprises of 1 John is that the apostle wants Christians to be encouraged by the signs of God at work in them, he wants them to enjoy, celebrate and take heart in what they get right even while they acknowledge their sin.[1]
While we battle the power of sin in us, with trust in God and his Spirit enabling us, it is easy to grow despondent because we focus on our failures. John asks us not to compound any wrongs we step or stumble into by forgetting to thank God for his work that is going on in us at the same time. Some days the victories may feel small but they are to be celebrated and used to encourage our hearts that God is powerfully at work in our lives:
This is how we know that we belong to the truth and how we set out hearts at rest in his presence: if our hearts condemn us, we know that God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything. (John 3:19-20)
In Christ Jesus, obedience is joined to grace. As John writes:
My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. (1 Jn 2:1)
And a Warning
It is not fair to John, or our own health as Christians, to ignore his plea that we strive to unearth the deep roots of sin from our lives. Christ came to destroy the devil’s work which is sin in us (3:8–9). We are not to belong to the evil one like Cain (3:12) and live in unrepentant or high-handed, un-challenged sin. Lives marked with worldly remorse, like Cain’s, are not lives marked by the repentance and change—they are warning signs that we are in grave danger of abandoning the life and light of the Son.
A Concluding Prayer and a Word of Praise
Father of light,
be pleased to reveal those parts of our lives as individuals and as your people gathered that need to be purified. In your mercy destroy the devil’s work; by your Spirit continually interrupt our sin.
We ask this in the name of your Son Jesus Christ, our Saviour, our understanding mediator and our brother. We ask on the basis of his atoning sacrifice for the sins of the whole world.
Amen.
Father,
we rejoice that we are children of God and that you are at work in us. Thank you for the signs that you love us: that by your Spirit you wrestle with us, discipline us and continue the task of making us pure. Thank you for not giving up on us even when we at times give up on ourselves. Thank you for your great acceptance of us in Christ Jesus.
May we learn to accept ourselves in you and rejoice in your work in us as you continue to fulfil our desire to make us like your Son.
Amen.
[1] See 1 John 2:8, 12–14, 19, 24; 3:1–2, 18–22, 24; 4:4–6, 11–17; 5:1–4, 13, 14, 19, 20.
