“So if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you. 23. Leave your gift at the altar and go. First be reconciled to your brother (or sister), and then come offer your gift.” ESV (I added the parenthesis.)
I realize that I am coming into the middle of something, but I saw something in this text that is very important in our lives. It is tempting to explain the whole thing about “offering gifts at the altar,” but I am not going to do that. What I want to concentrate on are these words: “First be reconciled to your brother (sister) and then come offer your gift.” The importance of being reconciled to your brother/sister is that God will not receive your gift at the altar until you do. I don’t know what “brother” or “sister” you need to be reconciled with today. It might be someone in your family that you are out of sorts with, or it might be someone at your workplace, or someone in your church, etc. What I want you to see is no matter who it is that you need to be reconciled to, it is important for you to take the initiative to do it. Look at the wording in the text: “…and there remember that your brother has something against you.” It is up to you to seek reconciliation. A word that is not used in the text, but is certainly implied, is “forgiveness.” You cannot be reconciled to your brother or sister until you have forgiven him or her. Jesus pointed this out in the model prayer in Matthew 6:12: “And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.” The little conjunction “as” is important. The American Century Dictionary defines it when used as a conjunction: “…to the extent to which is or does….” Your reconciliation with your brother or sister will take place to the extent of which you take the initiative. It doesn’t matter what the offence is, you need to take the initiative. Jesus did not say that it would be easy to do this, He just said to do it. Reconciliation is important to you, because you need to be reconciled to everybody in your life. You might be thinking right now that Brother Joe has completely lost his mind. But Jesus did not leave any “wiggle room.” Another word that is not used in the text is “peace.” You will not have the peace that you want until you have forgiven everyone that you need to forgive and have been reconciled to your brothers and sisters. But you might be thinking: “Brother Joe, you don’t know how badly he or she hurt me…” Again, Jesus did not take that into account. If you want the peace that only Jesus can give, forgive, forgive, forgive and be reconciled to your brothers and sisters. Reconciliation is important to you, because you cannot be fully right with God until you are reconciled to your brothers and sisters. This does not mean that God doesn’t love you anymore. This does not mean that God has “washed His hands” of you. It doesn’t even mean that God can’t use you. What it does mean is that none of that will be real and powerful in your life until you reach down deep in your soul and forgive those people in your life that you need to forgive and are reconciled with them. You know intrinsically that things are not right with God when you are holding a grudge against someone. Lest you think me glib on this matter, be assured that as I have written this, I have been going through my own mind and heart, attemtpting to assure myself that I have been reconciled to everyone in my life. It doesn’t matter whether they are reconciled to me, or to you. What matters is that we are reconciled to them. We cannot please everybody and everybody will probably not be pleased with us, but if we are at peace in our hearts and minds, we not only feel better, we are better human beings. This is important for Christians if we want to witness to the world about the Savior who forgave them and us from the cross. Give this some serious thought today and do it. Bro. Joe
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“Come unto Me all you that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.”
I used the text printed above to share a truth with you that you need to hear and to know, i.e., that God wants the best for you. No, I have not gone off the deep end in thinking that God is enamored with us, and just cannot help but love and care for us. What I mean is that in spite of us, God loves us and wants the best for us. The Bible calls it grace – God’s unmerited favor. I think that the Bible illustrates for us. God sent His Son to die for us, to rise from the grave, to ascend to the right hand of the throne and to intercede for us. God sent His best gift to us in order for us to be the best that we can be. Without Jesus, we would be hopelessly lost and bound for eternity apart from God. Without Jesus, we would flounder about and live only for the world, which promises so much, but delivers so little. Jesus constantly invites us to Himself. We do not come to Jesus just to be saved and delivered from hell, though that is of the ultimate importance. We come to Jesus to be saved and to live a better life – a new life. Anyone who has been lost in the world and living for the world will tell you that when Jesus came into their lives, their lives were better and more satisfying. This is what Jesus wants for us. When I was in prison ministry, which I was in for over twenty years when I ministered in the Tucker Baptist Association, I used to tell those men, who thought that their lives had been ruined, that Jesus wanted the best for them. That was not an empty promise, for they were not hopeless if they did not want to be. But I also told them that they needed to want the best for themselves, and that this could be found in Jesus. Jesus sent the Holy Spirit to be with us and to live in us. In the sixteenth chapter of John, Jesus promised His disciples that when He left, He would not leave them comfortless. Here is the promise in John 16:7: “Nevertheless it is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you, but if I depart, I will send Him to you.” He further promised in John 16:13: “Howbeit when He, the Spirit of truth is come, He will guide you into all truth: for He shall not speak of Himself; but whatsoever He shall hear, that shall He speak: and He will show you things to come.” Through the Holy Spirit, those who have been saved by faith in Jesus will have Jesus’ constant presence in their lives. If God did not want the best for us, He would have left us without guidance after His Son had been crucified. The last promise of Jesus in Matthew’s gospel was, “Lo I am with you always, even unto the end of the world.” Through His constant presence, the Holy Spirit wants to lead us into what is best for us. This is a personal promise for you!!!! God wants the best for us; therefore, He disciplines us. This is of the greatest importance for us to know if we really want to have God’s best. Here is what Hebrews 12:5-6 (quoting Proverbs 3:11-12) tells us about God’s discipline: “And have you forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons? ‘My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor be weary when reproved by Him. 6. For the Lord disciplines those He loves, and chastises every son (or daughter) whom He receives.’” (ESV) (I added the parenthesis.) The rationale for this is given in Hebrews 12:9-10: “Besides this, we have had earthly fathers who disciplined us and we respected them. Shall we not much more be subject to the Father of spirits and live? 10. For they disciplined us for a short time as it seemed best to them, but He disciplines us for our good, that we may share His holiness.” (ESV) God loves us enough to discipline us in order for us to receive His best for us. When we understand this truth, we will be better servants of Jesus Christ. There are many other things that I could use to show that God wants the best for you, but, in my mind, these are three of the most important proofs. Grab this truth and run with it: “God wants the best for y-o-u !!!! Bro. Joe Verse 1: “To everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven.”
Verse 8: “A time to love, and a time to hate: a time of war and a time of peace.” Solomon seems to be fatalistic and pessimistic in Ecclesiastes, but if you look beyond what is written you can make sense of his fatalism and pessimism. We have to remember that the Bible was written under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit and what is written is truth whether we understand its complete meaning or not. I do have to admit that verse 8 of Ecclesiastes 3 has been off-setting to me at times. I don’t have any problem with “a time to love,” but I have to give some thought to “a time to hate.” Actually, I did give some thought to it, and it was really simple. Solomon did not write that there is a time to hate people. Jesus, especially, never told us to hate people. But there is a time to hate and I will share here some things that we need to hate. We should certainly hate the things that God hates. We find one of these things in Jeremiah 44:4-5: “Howbeit I sent unto you all my servants the prophets, rising early and sending them, saying, Oh, do not this abominable thing that I hate. 5. But they hearkened not, nor inclined their ear to turn from their wickedness, to burn no incense unto other Gods.” God hates idolatry of all kinds, but Israel could not seem to stay away from it. God does not want us to put anything ahead of Him, not because of His insecurity, but because He knows that it is better for us to give Him first place. Therefore, we should hate the things that might call our attention away from God. I could go on and on with this, because there are a lot of things that we know God hates, e.g., adultery, lying, cheating, stealing etc. In other words, we should hate sin in general because God hates sin. We should certainly hate things that keep us from being the best that we can be. There are a number of things that can do this. Some obvious things are alcohol and drugs. Until people learn to hate what these substances are doing to their bodies, they will not give them up. I don’t mean to be an old fuddy-duddy here, but our choices of entertainment and reading might keep us from being the best that we can be. I am certainly not against entertainment, and I am definitely not against reading. I love to read novels as well as other literature, but there are some things that we can read or watch that do not help us become better people. I don’t know what that might be for you, but I know what it means for me. At least we should learn to hate what the wrong kind of entertainment and reading can do for us. I can share with you something that it is always time for me to hate, i.e., when I want to feel sorry for myself. (Oh, come on, you know what I mean.) I think that this is one of Satan’s tools that he uses against us, because when we give in to self-pity, we are not any good to God or people. I have always said that every minute that we spend feeling sorry for ourselves is a wasted minute. The same could be said of hours, days, months and years. I don’t remember that I have ever done anything good or uplifting when I have been inside the trap of self-pity. After years of having plenty of opportunities to feel sorry for myself, I have learned to hate it and to bat it down before it takes hold in my life. I want to recommend the same to you. If you are having a “pity party” at the present time, you need to man or woman up, and get over it. Learn to hate anything that makes you shrink into yourself. I once read that the “smallest package in the world is a person wrapped up in himself or herself.” I don’t know about you, but I do not love feeling small in my heart. There are plenty of other things that we should hate, but people are not in that category. Bro. Joe “Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusts in thee.”
Isaiah prophesied during a crucial time in the history of the Jews. He prophesied at the time of the fall of the northern kingdom of Israel, and when the Assyrians were threatening the southern kingdom. As it is in many prophesies in the Bible, this chapter makes a promise to Israel, but there is also a promise that transcends time. Verse 3 of Isaiah 26 is a good example of this. It is a promise for a time and place, but it is also a promise that we can take for ourselves for it is true for all time. What is the promise? The promise is that “perfect peace” is possible. Peace is one of the most elusive things in this world. Thousands of books have been written that have endeavored to help people find peace. I have read some of these books over the years in order to be able to minister to troubled people – and for myself. The problem with a lot of these books was that they tried to show people how to have peace without reference to God and without making any moral and spiritual changes in their lives. The changes would be cosmetic changes that did not get to the real matter of why people feel guilty in the first place. People feel guilty because of a little three letter word that the world has tried to do away with but cannot. The word is s-i-n. Some of you might stop reading here, because you do not want to deal with the fact of your own sin. We cannot eradicate sin by denying its existence. We can deal with it by admitting it, and going to the real source of perfect peace. In the historical context of this verse, Isaiah was writing to people who were not dealing with their sins. He gives them, and us, the solution to the problem. The path to perfect peace does not have a human solution. The promise of the perfect peace that Isaiah was writing about has to do with our relationship to God, and in our case, to Jesus. We find perfect peace when our minds are “stayed on God.” The NIV translates “stayed” as “steadfast.” We can find peace when we steadfastly fasten our minds and hearts to a relationship with the God of the universe. We can find perfect peace when we take our minds off of our personal troubles and the troubles of the world, and trust in Almighty God to be with us during all of these troubles. The peace that we seek is perfect because it is peace from a perfect God, not because of our own perfections. That peace is available to us through our Lord. It is almost as if Paul had this verse in mind when he wrote Philippians 4:6-7: “Be careful for nothing (Do not be anxious about anything…) but in everything by prayer and supplication let your requests be made known to God. 7. And the peace of God, which passes all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.” Doesn’t that look something like perfect peace? Perfect peace is found when we put our faith and trust in God – in Jesus: “Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusts in thee.” Jesus taught that the path to a real relationship with God is faith in Him. We can have that perfect peace, the peace that “passes all understanding,” when we put our faith and trust in Jesus Christ. Having this peace does not mean that we will never encounter trouble. This peace enables us to go through all of the struggles of this life without panic and without fear. We can have peace in the midst of turmoil because our minds are not fastened on the turmoil, but on the Lord, the One Who we can trust to get us through it. I’m not writing this as a self-righteous person who is talking down to you. I am writing this as an imperfect human being who has found this perfect peace in my relationship with Jesus Christ. It does not mean that I have perfectly learned to have peace, but that by trusting in Jesus, I have found that I can have His perfect peace. The good news is that you can have it too. This peace is only a prayer away. Bro. Joe “He that loveth silver shall not be satisfied with silver; nor he that loveth abundance with increase: this is also vanity.”
Someone wrote that “life is like a bowl of cherries, take one and you want another.” This is essentially what Solomon meant in Ecclesiastes 5:10. Another translation of the text is that “he who loves money shall not be satisfied with money.” We can actually put almost anything that we can hold, touch or possess in the place of silver and it will be the same. Try this: “He that loves food will never be satisfied with food.” Any way, you get the idea, and you know that it is true. Here is the principle: There is nothing on this earth that can bring us total satisfaction. Think back on your life: Did you ever tell your parents that if they would buy you one thing or another that you would never ask for anything again, because you thought at that moment that this “thing” would give you total satisfaction, only to discover that it really did not? I’m almost certain that you did, at least I know that I did. Your parents were probably like mine and knew better, so they did not give in to your whim. God is like that too. He knows that we are never totally satisfied, and that is another reason why He doesn’t give us everything that we want. You can name almost any human desire, or whim, and this principle will hold true. Life just goes on and we go from one desire to another. The point is that we have to look beyond this earth to find true satisfaction. The real values of life are spiritual. In the place of trying to satisfy our whims and wants, we should seek to find contentment in God. Contentment means that we have come to grips with our human needs and wants, and have decided that they are not the “be all and end all” of life. In Philippians 4:10-13, Paul gave us the principle of contentment: “But I rejoiced in the Lord greatly, that now at the last your care of me hath flourished again: wherein ye were also careful, but ye lacked opportunity. 11. Not that I speak in respect of want: for I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content. I know both how to be abased, and I know how to abound: everywhere and in all things I am instructed both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need. 13. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” Paul was in prison at this time and had received a monetary gift from the church at Philippi. He wanted them to know that he was truly grateful, but that He had found contentment in something much higher than money. At some point in our lives we have to ask ourselves where our real satisfaction, or contentment, lies. If our satisfaction lies in what we possess, then we are cheating ourselves out of the richness that God’s blessings can bring into our lives. Earthly pleasure can become so addictive that we move from one pleasure to another, and usually end up digging a deeper hole as we go. We need to find our satisfaction, or contentment, in the “riches of God’s grace.” Paul wrote about this in Ephesians 2:4-7: “But God, who is rich in mercy, for His great love wherewith He loved us. 5. Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ. (by grace are you saved;) 6. And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus: 7. that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward through Christ Jesus.” While many are pining away here, endeavoring to fulfill their earthly desires, God has acted on our behalf through His Son to help us find contentment in the “riches of His grace.” Now, there is real satisfaction that will last for eternity. We do not understand that now, but we will understand it “by and by.” Bro. Joe “If we say 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. 10. If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us."
“Sin” is a little three letter word that people do not like. In fact, some people hate it so badly that they will not even use the word and think that you are an old fashioned old fuddy duddy if you use it. However it is an inescapable word and must be dealt with. People deal with it in different ways. Let me show you what I mean: People deal with it by denying that there is any such thing as sin: “If we say we have no sin…” What this means is that literally anything goes. It can go to great extents. If there is no such thing as sin we can kill people for any reason and we will not be guilty before God. We may break man’s law and have to pay for it before the bar of man’s justice, but we will still have to deal with God. “Thou shalt not kill” is not a suggestion, but a commandment. If there is no such thing as sin, we can do anything that we want without guilt. This is postulated today as truth, and we are paying a big price for it. God is not blind to the breaking of His laws and He is not blind to our personal sins. He knows when we do not honor Him as we should. He knows when we have crossed the line of morality and flaunt His word. We cannot deny the reality of sin and get by with it. People deal with it by saying that sin is really no big deal: “If we say that we have not sinned…” This is not a denial of the reality of sin, it is just a confession that sin does not matter to the individual. “Okay, so I committed adultery, what’s the difference, everybody is doing it.” (Everybody is not doing it, but it is used as an excuse.) The severity of sin is not measured today by polls. If a majority of people think something is alright, then it is alright no matter what the Bible says. This is giving human beings a lot more credit than we deserve. History is fraught with the dangers of this philosophy. In Nazi Germany it became alright to murder Jews because that was the prevailing opinion in Germany at the time. People believed Hitler’s lies and were led to devastation. For a more modern example, do we really think that killing a baby and selling its body parts is alright? What biblical text would we base this on? Sin is a big deal – even my sins and your sins. None of us can judge others, but God has already judged sin and He will deal with it. It is a big deal to Him and should be to us. People need to deal with sin by confessing it: “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” We cannot deny the reality of sin, nor can we take away from the seriousness of it. What we can do is realize our own sins, repent and confess them before our Holy God. It is said that, “Honest confession is good for the soul.” This is literally true, particularly if that confession is made to God. We just need to come clean with our sins, and allow Jesus Christ to cleanse us from them. I am certainly not writing this to judge you or anyone else. I am painfully aware of my own shortcomings and sins, and I deal with them daily by confessing them. My salvation does not depend on this, but my effectiveness as a Christian witness does. I was saved when I gave my life to Jesus by faith, but that did not mean that I no longer needed to confess my sins. In fact, John used the little pronoun “we” in this text. Even the great apostle John had to confess his sins and be cleansed by Jesus. I do not know how you are dealing with sin, but I know how you need to do it. I base this, not on my opinion, but on the Bible. You need to get honest with yourself and with God, then repent and confess your sins and be cleansed. Right now would be a good time to do that. I just did! Bro. Joe “But also for this very reason, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue, to virtue knowledge, 6. to knowledge self-control, to self-control perseverance, to perseverance godliness, 7. to godliness brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness love.”
First, I need to explain what “this very reason” is all about. In the preceding verses, Peter assured the recipients of his letter that because of Jesus, and because of His presence in their lives, they were “partakers of the divine nature.” Which in our vernacular means that they were saved. Because they were saved, they needed to add these things to their lives. Keep in mind these things were not added to make them saved, they should be added because they were saved, and because adding these things in verses 5-7 would make them more effective servants of Jesus Christ. Virtue was to be added to faith. Virtue is defined by obviously living the Christian life by our deeds and our words. It is also sometimes translated as power. It means to utilize the faith that we have in Jesus, to live the life that He wants us to live, and to use the spiritual power that this brings into our lives. To virtue knowledge was to be added. This knowledge is revealed knowledge that we get from scripture and from the presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives. To knowledge self-control was to be added. Our faith, virtue and knowledge should enable us to refrain from what we should not do, and to do what we should do. In a nutshell, that is self-control. To these should be added perseverance, which means to keep on keeping on in spite of all of the pitfalls of life. All of the above qualities should result in godliness. Godliness means to live a Christ like life. True godliness does not make us self-righteous, but humbles us because we know that we do not deserve the life that Christ has given us by grace. The next two things to be added will show the result of adding virtue, knowledge, self-control, perseverance and godliness. To all of the above, we are to add brotherly kindness. The things added to our lives will not make us self-righteous and mean like the Pharisees; rather they will make us kind. We will have brotherly love towards people. This brotherly kindness will be extended to our fellow Christians. Anyone who has ever been a member a church knows that brotherly kindness needs to be shared among Christians. All too often, it is the missing ingredient in a church. If we are not kind to each other, people who are in not in church will not be attracted to us. But this brotherly kindness should extend beyond the borders of the church and reach out into the world. This means that we should be kind at home, at work, at play, at the places where we shop; which means that we will practice brotherly kindness wherever we are. Ask yourself if you are a kind person. You might really be working on adding virtue, knowledge, self-control, perseverance and godliness, but if these do not result in brotherly kindness, you have more work to do to show genuine Christian faith. Brotherly kindness leads to Christ like living. Sometimes brotherly kindness will lead us to confront negative things in people’s lives in order to help them do better. Brotherly kindness will certainly make us more effective in this area. To brotherly kindness, we should add love. Here is that word again that regular readers of this blog will be familiar with, that is agape (ah-gah-pay). We are to practice brotherly love in order to be kind, and we are to practice Christ like love in order to effectively lead the Christian life. All of the things that we should add should result in the kind of love that God showed in John 3:16. Lost people will not be attracted to our virtue, knowledge, self-control, perseverance and godliness without brotherly kindness and love. These two things are often the missing ingredients that take away from our witness to the world. We need to take stock of our lives and be sure that we are adding the things to our lives that will make us more effective servants and more effective witnesses of Jesus Christ. Bro. Joe “I know your works…”
I noticed as I recently read through the letters to the seven churches in Revelation that Jesus informed each of them that He knew their works. Some of those works were good and some of them were not good. No matter whether the work was good or bad Jesus knew it. I think that this would be Jesus’ message to our churches today and I also think that this would be His message to each of His people. Jesus knows everything about our works. Jesus knows what we are doing. Just as Jesus had intimate knowledge of what the churches in Revelation were doing, He knows what we are doing in our churches. He knows whether or not we are ministering to our communities or just to ourselves. He knows whether or not we are carrying out the great commission through our daily witness and through our church’s giving. Jesus even knows what we are thinking as churches and what is in our hearts. For example, Jesus knew that Ephesus, the first of the seven churches, had “lost their first love.” He knew that their love for Jesus was not as strong as it had been, and that their love for people had subsequently diminished. He knows whether or not your church is a loving church. Just as Jesus knows what is going on in His churches, He knows what is going on in His people. He has intimate knowledge of our lives. He knows whether or not what we are doing is in His will. It is reasonable to assume that if Jesus knows what we are doing, He knows why we are doing what we are doing. Jesus is always aware of our motivations for our actions – even our good ones. The motivation for our bad actions are easy to determine, but our good actions might be a little more complicated. For example, Jesus knows whether or not what we are doing is His will. This means that Jesus has things that He wants us to do that only we can do. It is possible that what Jesus wants you to do will go undone, or that He will get someone else to do it. I have no way of knowing what God’s will for you is, and would not even try to tell you, but He knows and He wants you to know. Furthermore, we need to ask ourselves if we are motivated to do what we do out of a love for Jesus and for people? Just as Jesus knew this about the church at Ephesus, He knows it about us. It is not a bad thing that Jesus knows our works. Jesus knows our actions intimately because He loves us deeply. He loved us enough to die on the cross for us, and to save us. Jesus is part of our lives to begin with because He loves us. If He didn’t convict us of our wrong actions through the Holy Spirit, we would just go our own way and make a real mess of our lives and our churches. We see all of the time what happens when churches go their own way and do their own “church work.” We see what happens all of the time when people go their own way and do not try to live for Him. It is out of love that Jesus disciplines us and calls to us to confess, repent and do better. I have experienced this in my life, and have been glad for His intervention in my life. Here is the point for you: Jesus knows your works and He wants what is best for you. That is why He intervenes in your life. Pay attention to what He is trying to tell you and what He is trying to tell your church. Bro. Joe “To Him who loved us and washed us from our sins in His own blood, 6. And has made us kings and priests to His God and Father, to Him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.”
This morning I began my annual trek through Revelation. I always enjoy this book, if “enjoy” is the right word. It is interesting, but it is filled with some terrible facts about sin and the world. But as I read this morning, I was impressed with what I have printed above that will serve as the text for this article. It tells us what Jesus means to us and what He has done for us. I rejoiced as I read it, and I pray that you will rejoice as I share my thoughts on it. It begins, “to Him who loved us…” As I wrote this, my mind went to the song that I have known since childhood, and still sing: “Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so…” The Bible just told me again! The love of God/Jesus for us is the most amazing fact in the Bible to me. There are a lot of interesting things in the Bible, but the sacrificial, all-encompassing love of Jesus for us is the most interesting, most amazing and most personal of all biblical truths. Here is what I want you to see as you read this – Jesus loves you! Like me, and everyone else in the world, you do not deserve that love, but Jesus does love you. I want you to bask in that love when you read this as I have done this morning. You do not have to understand why He loves you, you just need to believe it and to grasp it for yourself. If you do not know Jesus as your Savior, this would be a good time for you to personally accept His love; if you do know Him as your Savior just stop whatever you are doing right now and thank God for His sacrificial love. The text tells us that He, “washed us from our sins in His own blood.” In 1 John 1:7, the great apostle tells us: “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.” Our modern sensibilities might make us a little shy about the blood of Jesus, but it IS through His shed blood that we can be washed and cleansed from our sins. The root word for “washed” here is the Greek word louo (long o), and means to wash the whole body. This means that the blood of Jesus has completely cleansed us from sin. On the cross, Jesus did not just wash our feet, but He washed us all over. Sin has no dominion over us, because Jesus has cleansed us from sin. This doesn’t mean that we will never sin again, for we will, but because of His cleansing blood, Jesus will forgive us for our sins. Again I remind you, we do not deserve this, but we have it by His amazing grace. (You can stop here and give Jesus a heartfelt “thanks.”) Next, the text tells us that Jesus has, “made us kings and priests to His God and Father…” This is not written to make us proud, but to humble us. What this means is that, in spite of ourselves, Jesus has made us “kings” in that we reign with Him and will reign with Him in glory. This does not give us earthly power, but it does have great eternal significance, for we shall reign with Him forever and ever. He has also made us “priests,” which means that we have total access to the “throne of grace,” and can get through to the Lord by simply praying. It also means that we have the priestly office of introducing others to the “King of kings and Lord of lords.” As “kings” Jesus has given us a great position in His kingdom, and as “priests” He has called us to serve Him in any way that He chooses to use us. The text ends with a paean of praise: “…to Him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.” We are not given the great promise in this text to feed our own pride; rather, we are reminded of who is responsible for our salvation and that to Him belongs “glory and dominion forever and ever.” It is all to His glory and His reign over the universe that we offer thanksgiving and praise. Do it now! Bro. Joe “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. 10. If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us.”
There are people who feel that they do not have a sin problem, and will be hostile if we say that they do. On the other hand, there are people who feel that their sins have been so bad that Jesus would never forgive them. Then, of course, there are those who deny that there is such a thing as sin. The verses under consideration in this article take care of these opinions. We’ll take a look at the sin problem first. Verses 8 and 10 tell us that we do have a sin problem. Verse 8 tells us that if we think that we never sin we are “deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us.” In other words, those who think that they never sin are living a lie. Verse 10 tells us that, “If we say that we have not sinned, we make (God) a liar, and (God’s) word is not in us." Those who say that they are perfect and never sin really overestimate their holiness and underestimate the power of the devil. Plus, they have a shallow view of sin. We can commit sins by doing wrong, and we can commit sins by not doing what is right. A perfect person would always do what is right, and never do wrong. Those who say that they have no sin are deceiving themselves. I’m not calling you a “bad” person, but I am telling you that you have sinned and need to be forgiven. What can we do about sin? First, John tells us to confess our sins. You know what confession is: when you have done something wrong and tell someone about it, that is confession. Jesus knows that we have sinned, for He knows everything about us, but He wants us to confess our sins to Him. Sometimes we can pray, “Lord, forgive me for my sins,” which covers all of our sins. At other times we must ask Jesus to forgive us for some particular sin. Sometimes confession also includes seeking the forgiveness of people against whom we have sinned. But the most important forgiveness is that which comes from Jesus. Second, John tells us that Jesus will be “faithful and just to forgive us our sins.” You might ask, “What in the world does that mean?” It means that when we come to Jesus in honest confession, He will always forgive us. We can depend on His forgiveness for our sins because He died on the cross to forgive us and exists at the right hand of the Father in order to forgive us. What does it mean that Jesus is “just to forgive our sins”? It simply means that Jesus can forgive our sins. No one else is qualified to forgive us, for no one else died on the cross for us, and no one else has God’s authority to forgive us, and cleanse us, from our sins. If you are dealing with a sin problem now that is interfering with your joy, Jesus can faithfully forgive you right now. There is no need for us to live in the guilt of sin, because we have recourse through Jesus. There is no need for a non-Christian to live on in sin, because Jesus will forgive and save them now. Hey, that’s not just my opinion; it is in the Bible . Third, John tells us that He will “cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” Sin makes us feel unclean. There are people, maybe someone reading this article, who feel unclean and guilty and think that there is no hope for them. There is always hope for you. If you are not a Christian, you can be now by asking Jesus to forgive you and enter into your life and change you. If you are a miserable Christian living in guilt, you can receive His forgiveness and cleansing right now. The Bible promises that if you will seek the forgiveness of Jesus, He will be “faithful and just to forgive (your) sins.” How do you know that this is true? Because the Bible says it is so. Claim His forgiveness now. Bro. Joe |
AuthorDr. Joe Beauchamp is the author of this blog and website. Categories
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