LOVE GOD AND LOVE ONE ANOTHER

• ... God is light and in Him is no darkness at all. 6 If we say that we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice 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 Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin. 8 If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. 9 If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. - 1 John 1:5b-9

 
You may have heard the following verse quoted many times, 1 John 1:10, "If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us." Unfortunately, most of the time it is misquoted and out of context, by claiming that it is normal to sin, because a Christian is only a forgiven sinner. But what is the true contextual meaning of this verse? Upon closer analysis of the verses above and below this verse, we see that it does not say that we are helpless sinners who cannot stop sinning. John was the apostle of love, but he was also one of the sons of thunder (as Jesus called him in Mark 3:17). He loved people enough to be firm in correcting them. And because he also loved those who deceived themselves thinking that they were Christians, the apostle harshly corrected them. This correction also applies to Christians today who think they are righteous when in fact they are living in sin. Because God is light and in Him there is no trace of darkness, whoever lives in sin does the works of darkness and cannot say that they have fellowship with the Lord.
 
The original Greek word translated fellowship is "koinonia," and it means "contributory help, participation, (b) sharing in, communion, (c) spiritual fellowship, a fellowship in the spirit” (according to Strong's Concordance"). So our relationship with God is one of sharing and communion in spirit, a relationship with the participation of both sides. The Lord wants us to open our hearts completely before Him and reveal to us who He is, because He wants us to want to know Him intimately and to be known by Him in the smallest details. Our heavenly Father knows everything about us, but only after we are willing to give Him all our emotions, thoughts, feelings, experiences, dreams, desires, all our past, present and future can He step in to heal, restore and guide us. Why? Because our Lord does not override the free will He gave us.
 
Let us look closer to verse 1 John 1:7, “But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin.” The original word "allēlōn" can be translated as singular or plural, and its meaning in this context is singular, that is, "one with another," meaning “one person,” and not "one with another," meaning “others.” It is about fellowship with God, not with fellow believers. How could fellowship with other believers lead to the washing away of our sins through the blood of Jesus Christ? But fellowship with God, which takes place in the light, that is, in pure living, pleasing to the Lord, means intimacy, communion in the spirit and this close relationship gives us righteousness, cleansing us of every sin we have committed, through the sacrifice of Jesus. When we enter into the presence of God, who is holy and pure, we feel urged to ask Him to forgive us for every sin we ever committed. We may seem clean compared to those around us, but compared to the Lord, none of us is righteous. Every person needs to realize that they need Jesus and the forgiveness that can be received only through faith in Him and His sacrifice. God knows how weak our fallen human nature is. That is why He sent His own Son to pay for our sins, so that we can be reconciled to Him and be saved. If we admit that we have sinned and sincerely ask for forgiveness, the Lord "is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." The following verses show the motivation behind what was written:

• 1 John 2:1-6 My little children, these things I write to you, so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. 2 And He Himself is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the whole world. 3 Now by this we know that we know Him, if we keep His commandments. 4 He who says, “I know Him,” and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him. 5 But whoever keeps His word, truly the love of God is perfected in him. By this we know that we are in Him. 6 He who says he abides in Him ought himself also to walk just as He walked.

 
We are called to stop sinning, and to be holy in all our conduct, as we also read in 1 Peter 1:15. This means to be "set apart for God," separated from the world, to be people of integrity with a pure heart. Only by separating from the values ​​and works of the world can we fully belong to God and live in His light. Holiness is the result of being born-again and continuing the process of being transformed through the renewing of our minds through the Word of God. We cannot be holy by our own strength, no matter how hard we try. Holiness comes only by sincere faith in Jesus and in His sacrifice by which He freed us from the power of sin and death. This means that we live by having the righteousness of Jesus. But it is up to us to reckon ourselves "dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord." (Romans 6:11b).
 
To know Jesus, we must spend time with Him. And in order to enter into His presence, we must have His righteousness, that is, asking for forgiveness when we sin, so that we can benefit from the effects of His sacrifice. When we come to really know Him, to understand how much He loves us, how good, merciful and just He is, we want to be like Him and obey Him. As we get to know Jesus better, we understand more deeply how much He loves us and our love for Him grows also. When we know the dimensions and depth of His love, we become filled with all the fullness of God (Ephesians 3:19) and know that we are fully His. That is why when we sin because of the pressures of those around us, the suffering or the problems we go through, we quickly ask for forgiveness and we want to return to being in right-standing with our Lord.
 
In 1 John chapter 4, it is abundantly clear that if we know Jesus, we love one another and when we love God and others, we are free from sin. When we seek to grow in God’s love, we become more caring of others and sin less. And if we choose to do the works of the light and hate the works of darkness, we become more and more free from ourselves. As a result we seek to spend time with God's children in spiritually clean environments and avoid those who live in sin and the places they prefer.
 
Let's take the time to study the Word of God and analyze the verses in the context they are written, in order to believe the truth. If we base our faith only on what we hear or read from other sources, without verifying what the Bible says, we do not have a firm foundation and may not even believe the truth. God wants to reveal the mysteries of the Scripture to all of us who love and follow Him, but in order to receive His revelation, we must spend time studying the Bible and seeking His presence. Only in this way can we truly believe that we are no longer under the bondage of sin but are free and saved through the righteousness of Jesus. Hallelujah! We are meant to grow more and more in the likeness of our Lord. Our heavenly Father wants us free to make right choices and live fulfilled lives through the righteousness of Jesus. He made His Son “who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him” (2 Corinthians 5:21).
 
Thank You Lord for Your forgiveness, for the new life we ​​have in You. Because You have loved us, we can love You in return and even love others. Through the Holy Spirit we became born-again and because we died with Jesus, we were also raised with Him and we no longer live, but Christ lives through us, if we let Him do it. It is up to us to stop following the lead of the lusts of the flesh, and let Jesus truly be on the throne of our hearts.


Carmen Pușcaș