EVEN IF YOU DONT CONFESS YOUR SINS DAILY OR WEEKLY,YOU ARE STILL FORGIVEN.ITS JUST COMMON SENSE
Friends
How can we tell the congregation that if they do not confess their sins,or keep short accounts with God on their sin, He will not forgive them? So what are we saying? That our forgiveness is based on our daily/weekly confessions?How dare we preach that? But what about 1 John 1 9 The ONLY verse in the entire bible that seems to suggest we must confess our sins or else we will not be forgiven.
I will need you guys to really pay attention on this one.
The first chapter of John was specifically addressing a group of people called gnostics and docetists. Now any pastor worth your time should know this.A simple background check on context should reveal this.Heck even Wikipedia, WIKIPEDIA!!! States this fact on its contents under the first epistle of John page.
Yet many pastors and preachers teach as if this chapter is addressed to Christians causing more harm than good.
Anyway the gnostics are a type of spiritual UNBELIEVERS who claimed that Jesus if He be God then did not come in real human flesh(explains why John was insisting on Christ’s physicality in the opening verses) neither did He die on the cross,they even questioned the existence of sin.
John was speaking to such in this chapter. So with that context in mind,lets look at 1 John 1 8-10
1 John 1 8
If we say that we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us.
Remember, Sin to the Gnostics was a figment of imagination. It does not exist. They believed they had no sin in their lives and so John addresses this directly with a very strong statement of fact.
1 John 1 9
On the other hand, "if we confess our sins, He is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness."
1 John 1 10
If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar and His word is not in us.
The Gnostics were told in no uncertain terms, if they were to confess (agree with God completely) regarding sin,that sin did infact exist and then they could realize that they were still in sin,still in Adam and not in Christ.That if they agreed with God concerning this issues,then nothing stops them from being purified from ALL unrighteousness.
Notice “ALL”…not “some” that were confessed today.
Then in verse 10 he reaffirms the truth that sin exists otherwise God would be a liar.
Friends
The whole of this chapter in a more accurate sense would be Saint John hoping to convince unbelievers in the existence of sin and how they must believe in a real life Jesus who was not a spirit as they (gnostics) claimed.
However If you still insist on daily confession to get forgiveness, what happens while confessing you miss out on one?
So what should we do when we commit sins?
When you sin and you will sooner or later,keep in mind and at heart that your sins of the past present and future are forgiven and that you are still a child of God. It is by keeping your eyes on the glory of the Lord (Jesus and His finished work on the cross) that we are transformed from glory to glory into a similar image.2 corinthians 3 18.
It is grace(what you just read up there) that teaches us to say no to ungodliness. Titus 2 12
Friends God loves you and does not want you to have a consciousness of sin.Instead He wants you to have peace and confidence when you approach Him. Understand that nothing can separate you from His love. Romans 8 39
You are free to confess your sins to God, but your confession will not get you any more forgiveness.I understand that sometimes we do apologise to God for stuff we do/did and there is nothing wrong with that.
The lie that we refute is that we must confess our sins daily,weekly or yearly or else we are not forgiven.
Now share this with your pastor and get excommunicated.
Seriously though,Thanks for reading the whole thing.I know it’s much longer than our usual posts but it was necessary.Thanks again.See you soon.