Dear church, last weekend, Deputy Senior Pastor Daniel preached a powerful sermon on sin based on scripture taken from 1 John 1:5-10. As disciples of Jesus, we certainly always need to check ourselves and heed the reminder found in 1 John 1:8 (ESV): “If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.” This verse prompted me to meditate on Apostle John’s subsequent words to us in 1 John 3:2-3 (ESV): “Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is. And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure.”
How amazing is the love of our Father – that we should be called His children. We certainly are! As children of God, we should not practice lawlessness or sin, as Apostle John goes on to clarify in verses 4 to 6: “Everyone who makes a practice of sinning also practices lawlessness; sin is lawlessness. You know that he appeared in order to take away sins, and in him there is no sin. No one who abides in him keeps on sinning; no one who keeps on sinning has either seen him or known him.”
Apostle John elaborates further and cautions us not to be deceived when it comes to sin: “Little children, let no one deceive you. Whoever practices righteousness is righteous, as he is righteous. Whoever makes a practice of sinning is of the devil, for the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil. No one born of God makes a practice of sinning, for God’s seed abides in him, and he cannot keep on sinning because he has been born of God.” (1 John 3:7-9, ESV)
When we go on our knees and ask God to cleanse us from our sins, we acknowledge our very real need for His sanctifying grace. That’s why Dietrich Bonhoeffer said “confession is discipleship”. Dear family, I urge all of us to meditate on the passage of 1 John 3:2-9 and ask God to search our hearts just as the psalmist did in Psalm 139:23-24 (NIV), “Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.”
- Senior Pastor Nina Khong