THE ELUSIVE CLAIM OF MODERN CHRISTIANS
THE ELUSIVE CLAIM OF MODERN CHRISTIANS
1 John 1:6 “If we claim to have fellowship with him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live out the truth”
Good morning everyone,
We thank God for such a wonderful day like this. We thank him for his gift of grace, granting unto us sinners what we do not deserve through Christ Jesus. May his name be praised forever.
“God is light and in him is no darkness AT ALL”. The underline word is at all which really speaks a lot. I don’t know why the author will like to qualify this passage with at ALL. In my point of view, the author of this book is trying to place more emphasis on the fact that the divine power, beauty, love, compassion, and all the attributes of God if imputed in us through Christ should be more than enough to sustain us into continual true piety as believers.
It is in this same chapter of this book that most Christian hide behind just a one verse of this entire chapter to justify their continual life of sin. I often hear Christians boldly quoting verse 8 and verse 10 of this chapter not with the intention of acknowledging that we have all sinned, but rather as a justification of their deliberate and habitual sin.
Before we talk about verse 8, in my point of view there were other important things highlighted in verse 1-7 of this same chapter. In my point of view, it will be fair for us to take the entire chapter or if possible the entire book and compare it with other books of the bible that talks about the same topic of salvation to see what exactly it means to be saved.
I think there should be more discussions in our PENSA and YOUTH MEETINGS regarding some of these important topics especially in this part of the world. Having given you the appetite to read about this topic, let us look at some key features in our verse for todays search for scriptures.
“If we say we have fellowship with him, which means there are many of us who sees in our own eyes as having fellowship with God. The question to ask is what will make someone come to this conclusion of saying he or she is having fellowship with God? Several factors are possible but the commonest ones I can think of are;
1) Been born in a Christian home and as result started going to church right from infancy.
2). When one sees him or herself the same way as most of his or her church members.
3). When one finds himself or herself doing almost all the modern religious rituals that every Christian does, for example the person prays in tongues, preaches, sings, fast, etc and as a result come to this conclusion.
In my point of view this verse 6 of this chapter parallels what Jesus said in Matthew 7:22 “Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and, in your name, perform many miracles”.
We can also see that the answer Jesus gave also parallels what the author of this book said in regards to when we make such a claim “ while we walk in darkness”( 1 John 1:6) and “you workers of lawlessness” (Matthew 7:23).This is where I think we have to take a very good look when reading this chapter.
My humble plea to you is after reading this piece ask yourself, could the things I do in secret be done in open or does those things glorify God, before you come to any conclusion.
God bless you.