Hey there, remember me?

Sorry it’s been a while since I’ve put out my daily thoughts.  It’s been a very hectic few weeks and I’ve just been snowed under with everything.  In light of that, I wasn’t able to give the full effort to these thoughts, so I decided to take a little bit of time away from them until things calmed down.

I think my schedule looks back under control now, so back in the saddle we go!

We will pick up where we left off, and the next few days we will finish out 1 John.  Today we look at 1 John 5: 13-21:

13 I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know that you have eternal life.

14 And this is the boldness we have in him, that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. 15 And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have obtained the requests made of him. 16 If you see your brother or sister committing what is not a mortal sin, you will ask, and God will give life to such a one—to those whose sin is not mortal. There is sin that is mortal; I do not say that you should pray about that. 17 All wrongdoing is sin, but there is sin that is not mortal.

18 We know that those who are born of God do not sin, but the one who was born of God protects them, and the evil one does not touch them. 19 We know that we are God’s children, and that the whole world lies under the power of the evil one. 20 And we know that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding so that we may know him who is true; and we are in him who is true, in his Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life.

21 Little children, keep yourselves from idols.

We see in this passage a focus on sin.  That’s been a constant refrain for John in this letter.  Sin.  He said early that if we confess our sin, God is faithful and just and will forgive us.  We also see him say that if we say we have no sin, we are lying.

Yet today, we see John write that those born of God do not sin, and that God protects them from the evil one.

So, which is it?

Remember there is a difference between “sins” which are actions and “sin” or “sinful nature” which is our condition.  Sins are the things that we do that are wrong, lying, cheating, etc.  Sinful is our broken nature.  The effect of the fall.  Our inborn desire to do those things that are wrong.

Jesus’ death on the cross atoned (forgave) our sins, but His resurrection overcame the power of our sinful nature.  So, through Jesus, you are both forgiven of your sins, as well as have the power to stand up to temptation, through Jesus.

So what John is talking about here is that through Jesus, we really do have the power to stand against our sinful nature and those temptations.  We are able to, through Christ, see temptation for what it is, a destructive lie.

We don’t have have to give into it.  Now, yes, we will make mistakes.  We will fall.  But we don’t have to stay there. We don’t have to stay defeated.  We can get up.  We can keep going.  We can, through the power of Jesus, stand.

John’s point here is that sin doesn’t have to have final power over you today.

Jesus has final power over us.

Live today, through Him.  And in Him, you will truly live!

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