Welcome to the very first Virtual Bible Study! This week we're discussing 1 John 1.
Let's get started!
First Step: Read the Text. (This doesn't take too long).
This Week’s Reading is 1 John 1. You can find it here.
Second Step: Lesson/Focus Text
If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word has no place in our lives. 1 John 1:8-9
True Deception
When do they learn it? When do they learn to lie? I’ve often wondered that as I watch my children grow up. The youngest I could see. She learned how to lie from her older brothers. And the middle one probably learned it from his older sibling. But where did William learn it? When did he figure out that NOT telling the truth would help him?? I don’t remember sitting him down and teaching him how to deceive. But he does it, still. Is it school? His friends? No... can’t say that it’s passed that way either. Especially since he started doing it before he had friends!
Maybe it stems back further than my children. Further back even than my wife and I, and our parents and our parents parents. Maybe it stems back to the beginning, when our great... grandparents, Adam and Eve, first encountered God in that garden and, when asked what they were doing, said... “Nothin...”. Maybe deception can be traced back there where Adam and Eve both told God(and themselves)... “I didn’t do anything wrong...”
Wherever it comes from, deception is with us today. Lying happens with everyone and to everyone. Even doctors get lied to! Lying happens, most times I think, when we are trying to protect ourselves. It happens as a defense mechanism, shielding us from the consequences of our actions. It happens to make us look better than we are, to spruce us up a bit, and provide a barrier between the person we ARE and the person we WISHED we were.
Still the worse deception, according to the Bible at least, isn’t our deception with work, or our friends and relatives. It’s not even trying to deceive God, no the worse way we are deceptive is with ourselves!
This chapter from 1 John states that quite plainly. “If we say we have no sin we deceive OURSELVES and the truth is not in us...” When we make ourselves look better than we are, when we claim we have no sin, or at least a good excuse for our sin, we deceive no one but ourselves. We tell OURSELVES, “Self... you’re just fine! You deserve to be selfish! You deserve this. Self...you’ve done nothing wrong! Everyone does that at one time or another. Self...you can take care of yourself! Eat, drink, and be merry!”
Of course the only one who is deceived is ourselves. God isn’t deceived! God knows sin where God sees it. And God sees sin in us. It doesn’t matter how much we cover it up or create excuses for it. Sin is still a sin. As they say in the South, “You can put makeup on a pig, but it’s still just a pig!”
That’s why confession is really so important! Confession helps us realize the truth FOR OURSELVES! Not for anyone else. Confessing our sin and our wrongdoing is a service we do, not for God or for our neighbor, but for ourselves. We tell the truth to ourselves. And when we do, when we realize that we cannot do it alone, that we have tripped over our feet more than we’ve danced. When we admit our wrongdoing and admit that we have no excuse for our behavior, then “God is faithful and just and will forgive our sin and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”
Confession is admitting: “Yes! I need you, God! I can’t do this on my own!” It’s saying: “I messed up...and I need forgiveness.” And it’s realizing that we cannot by our own reason or strength believe or come to Jesus Christ. It has to be God!
Confession is a wonderful thing to do for yourself. Consider it a soul make-over! A chance to wash off the old mask you’ve plastered on your face and to put on the new, eternal, everlasting face of Jesus Christ our Lord.
Third Step: Questions to Ponder...
A: The first step to overcoming any obsticle is overcoming denial. The problems we can admit we have are the ones we can fix. What problems are you denying in your own life?
B: Dr. Phil often says: "Those who have nothing to hide, hide nothing." What are you hiding from yourself? Does it help to know that God already knows you better than you know yourself and has already accepted and forgiven you?
C: What role does guilt play in all of this? Have you ever felt guilty for something inconsequential? Have you ever not felt guilty over something you really did wrong?
Fourth Step: Email(if you like) your responses. You can just reply to this email or email it here.
Fifth Step: Close with prayer... Lord Jesus, you have loved me in my sinfulness and have taken that darkness to the cross. Help me come to terms with who I am so that, in my heart of hearts, I may know whose I am as well: yours forever! In your most Holy Name I pray. Amen.
See you next week! :)
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