1 John 1:9

I read a post this morning where someone had brought up the verse 1 John 1:9 which reads " If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness."

That verse has been a controversial one amongst Christians for quite some time. Why you may ask? Well, if that verse was meant just for a "believer" then it could imply continual confession for forgiveness of our sins. If that was the case, that would be really bad news! Can you imagine having to keep a list of your sins every day to confess and the heavy burden that would place on you? How about the endless thoughts of "Did I forget to confess something? Lord search my heart, bring it to my remembrance! Will I be clean enough? Am I still forgiven?"

While I believe there is absolutely nothing wrong with going to God and confessing or rather being in agreement with Him that any sin in our life is bad and yucky, it isn't necessary to stay "forgiven". Before I go further, I just want to point out that having a relationship with God does mean chatting with Him about our lives, and there will be times in our life where we find ourselves tangled up in sin that we need help to overcome or where a past experience that we have stuffed deep down inside that needs healing to be brought to light. In those times we know we can go to God and confess to Him that we are having a really hard time and admit that we need His help. Psalm 28:7 says that God is our STRENGTH and shield and He does help those whose heart will trust in Him.

Have you been carrying a heavy weight? Well, Jesus has some really GOOD NEWS for you!

Matthew 11:28-30 says "Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”

John 3:16 says "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life."

If you are a believer in Christ, you have been made NEW!

2 Corinthians 5:17 says "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!"

Believer, You are righteous, holy and blameless before His sight! The word "righteous" is defined as a person or conduct which is morally right or justifiable. 2 Corinthians 5:21 says "For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him." Righteousness is the quality of being morally right or justifiable. You cannot be both righteous and unrighteous. You are RIGHT with God! Christ died on the cross for us once for all! You don't have to carry that heavy burden any longer.

Romans 6:10 says "For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all."

Hebrews 10:10 says " By that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all."

1 Peter 3:18 says "For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God. He was put to death in the body but made alive in the Spirit"

So I am going to get back to where I was going with this and that was the verse 1 John 1:9. Let's take a look at it since many question whether it was for believers or non-believers. In my opinion, it is quite obvious when you go back and start at the beginning of 1 John 1 and read it thru to verse 9 and beyond that the text is speaking to people that just aren't getting the Gospel message. This is why at the beginning we see the writer talking about Jesus being "real", that he was actually heard and seen. During this time when this was written, there were people that denied that Christ could have been both human and divine. So, you can clearly see here that the writer is trying to convince these people of his humanity.

In verses 3 and 4 it reads "that which we have seen and heard we declare to you, that you also may have fellowship with us; and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ. And these things we write to you that your joy may be full." It is obvious that these people that are being addressed need convincing so that they might also share in the joy of being in fellowship with each other and Christ. The writer then goes on to explain HOW you can be in fellowship with each other and with Christ.

In verse 8 it reads "If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us." If we do some research into the time this was written, we can find that there were people who not only were denying Christ's humanity but also denied the existence of sin (google Gnosticism teaching). This group of people believed that they were beyond sin -- this was so they could separate themselves from the contamination of the world. They also believed that salvation was obtained by knowledge, essentially self-knowledge.

So the writer in verses 8 thru 10 is really trying to point out the existence of sin and that if these people would confess (acknowledge, agree to God that their sin exists) that Christ would forgive and purify them of their state of being "unrighteous".

You then can see in 1 John Chapter 2, the writer makes a point to start the chapter out with "My dear children" referring solely to believers at that point (changing who would be addressed in the upcoming text). If you can imagine back in that time there would have been a lot of people that brought their own ideas into the church. As well, the teaching of Gnosticism was very popular back then amongst other false teachings and it was trying to penetrate the church. So basically, my point is that we need to have a clear view of the meaning behind the letters written in the bible and that we are careful to keep it in it's correct context. It is so important to read before and after verses, and it doesn't hurt to have a good understanding of the culture and history behind the letters written in the bible.

So for those that don't agree with me, it's ok. We are all in a learning process including myself. Do your own research, seek the Holy Spirit, read the Word and most importantly seek TRUTH! <3