“If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.” 1 John 1:8
August 23, 2024
A look in the mirror does not tell the whole story. Who am I looking at? The last living apostle, John, writes to make sure that believers in Jesus Christ do not lie to themselves. There were false teachers who claimed that sin was a matter of the flesh, the body only, and that sin did not touch or defile the spirit, the inner me. The self-flattery of declaring that we do not have a sinful nature is a delusion. How convenient. No indwelling sin. Such a view of oneself seriously affects our relationship with God. It is contrary to truth. To be on a quest for spiritual enlightenment that denies the reality of sin is spiritual fiction. It is not a condemning fact for Christians to know that we carry an enemy within. It’s not the whole story about us, but lying to ourselves takes us off in the wrong direction. It is absolute self-deception and biblical error to deny human sinfulness. There are those in our day who deny the fact of guilt of sin by seeking to interpret it solely in terms of something outside of ourselves. There is a remedy for such a false claim. We will see that in 1 John 1:9.
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“O Lord, you know me better than I know myself. Give me the wisdom I need about that person I see in the mirror.”