Read with Me
1 John 1:8-10 (HCSB)
If we say, “We have no sin,” we are deceiving ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say, “We don’t have any sin,” we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us.
Listen with Me
At the time that John penned this letter to the Church at large, it had been sixty years since Jesus’ death, resurrection, and ascension. In those sixty years, the good news had spread throughout the Roman Empire, and there was a Church in every major and many of the minor cities across the empire, each consisting of several individual congregations. And the gospel had spread much further, far to the south in parts of Africa, and far to the north and east in Asia.
But with that spread, heresies had also arisen, and had grown under the shade of the gospel. Sometimes the growth and spread of the heresies was subtle and slow, but occasionally they sprang out into the open, blatantly challenging the scriptural orthodoxy at the root of the true gospel. Some of these heresies are called out very specifically by the risen and exalted Jesus in the letter he sent to the Seven Churches of Asia in Revelation chapters 2 and 3.
Among the most damaging of these heresies was Gnosticism. The Gnostics borrowed from Greek philosophy as well as from the mystery religions that had flourished in the empire for over two centuries. And among their key beliefs was something called “dualism”.
Dualism proclaimed that human beings had a dual nature, with one part being flesh, made of crude material substance. The flesh, the seat of emotions and actions, was considered unredeemable and doomed to death and decay. On the other hand, they taught that humans also had an immortal, immaterial soul. The soul, the seat of thought and spirituality, was believed to be made of finer spiritual material that was incorruptible.
This dual nature led to the belief that the flesh and the spirit acted independently of each other and had no real effect on each other. Thus, if a person sinned, it was only the flesh that sinned, leaving the pure, spiritual soul unaffected. And since the body was fleshly and ultimately doomed to death and decay anyway, sin was seen as no big deal, not corrupting to the soul, and not affecting one’s salvation.
This led many to believe that they had no sin, and therefore, even though they might choose to believe in Jesus, they really didn’t need to be saved or forgiven, because any sins their flesh had committed had not tainted or stained their eternal soul. And after they became part of the Church, they saw no need to amend their ways. Those men and women continued in their immoral lives, claiming that the sins their bodies were involved in did not affect their pure, immortal souls in the least.
In these three verses, John strongly opposes that whole mindset as the heresy it is. His key point is that if someone claims that they have no sin that needs to be forgiven, that their sinful actions of the past have not separated them from God because, regardless of the actions of their bodies, their souls are still pure and holy, they are deceiving themselves and others, as well as making both God and Jesus out to be liars, since they have both declared that humans are not two unrelated beings, but a single integrated being, and that sin corrupts both body and soul.
As John clearly points out, the solution to sin and the resultant separation between God and the sinner is not denial, greater knowledge (gnosis), or a more powerful philosophy, but confession of our sins and repentance, an active turning away from those sins. Then we can receive forgiveness and the resulting reconciliation, as well as transformation of the heart and mind (Roman’s 12:1-2, 2 Corinthians 5:17) that purifies us from all unrighteousness.
Pray with Me
Father, it’s interesting how these verses have been used to somehow prove that it is impossible to live without sin after we are purified from all unrighteousness, and that if someone claims to NOT be sinning every day, they are deceived or outright lying. But that interpretation ignores what is clearly stated all throughout Your word, that Your people are to be holy, and not just in our souls while our bodies are still trapped in sin, which is still Gnosticism, but as a whole being, restored to Your image through salvation and sanctification. It even completely contradicts what John writes later in this very letter (3:4-10 and others) that indicate that we, as Your kingdom people, are supposed to live holy lives every day in every dimension. Help me, Lord, to know You better and more fully each day, to follow You more closely each day, and to allow You to completely transform me into a holy man of God in every dimension of my life each day. Amen.