If you haven't read last week's post, I recommend you check it out in conjunction with this post.
1 John feels like a book full of contradictions if we are not clear about an important fact: our true self is our spirit that has been purified and is no longer capable of sin, but our soul is the part we deal with here in the natural and HAS NOT been born again, thus requiring our constant determination in mind, will, and emotion on the Word with the Holy Spirit to walk in obedience.
Once we understand that our spirit is perfect but our soul is not 1 John suddenly makes much more sense, and is SO EXCITING! Additionally, if we understand that the word "sin" in English is an amalgam of three words, iniquity, transgression, and sin, it also much a lot of sense.
Just for curiosity's sake:
Iniquity: referring to our spirit being; twisting God's way into human ways.
Trangression: willful disobedience against God's Words.
Sin: "missing the mark"; literally just missing God's best. Can be unintentional or accidental.
1 John 1:8-10 through 2:2 TPT
"If we boast that we have no sin, we're only fooling ourselves and are strangers to the truth (Jesus). But if we freely admit our sins when His light uncovers them, He will be faithful to forgive us every time. God is just to forgive us our sins because of Christ, and He will continue to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. (being right in the eyes of God.)
If we claim that we're not guilty of sin when God uncovers it with His light, we make Him a liar and His Word (Jesus) is not in us.
You are my dear children, and I write these things so that you won't sin. But if anyone DOES sin, we continually have a forgiving Redeemer who is face-to-face with the Father: Jesus Christ, the Righteous one.
He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours, but also for the sins of the whole world."
(Another fun thing: if we read the above replacing the word "sin" with "unbelief" as defined by Jesus in John 16:9 it hits very different. Try it!)
Keeping all of that in mind, including the unbelief part, let's read a verse of Hebrews...
Hebrews 3:12 TPT
"So search your hearts every day, my brothers and sisters, and make sure that none of you has evil or unbelief hiding within you. For it will lead you astray, and make you unresponsive to the living God."
We seek out and offer up all sin (unbelief) to be forgiven and healed by God, and then we rely on the Holy Spirit to refuse to go back to that unbelief. Let's keep going in 1 John...
1 John 3:5-6 TPT
"And you know without a doubt that Jesus was revealed to eradicate sins, and there is no sin in Him. Anyone who continues to live in union with Him will not sin. But the one who continues sinning hasn't seen Him with discernment or known Him by intimate expereince."
What can be extrapolated from this verse? That living in union with Jesus is to see Him with the eyes of discernment, which means able to see God's life and evil's death, and to know Jesus by intimate experience!
Everything always comes back to John 15 for me! ABIDE in Jesus to be in intimate relationship with Him in order to continue to root out unbelief from the soul in order to live in greater and greater obedience to God!
That's all for this week, dear friends! Keep making dates to spend time with your Creator and Redeemer in order to keep the mind, will, and emotions fixed on LIFE!
#abidetothrive