When God’s people cease to respond to God’s call to authenticity to be real: the church turns into a mere social club. In fact, many followers of Christ today have given up on the Christian church because of the lack of authenticity, as one person told me, “I find more honesty in one Alcoholic’s Anonymous meeting than in an entire year going to church.”
So-called Christians have the audacity to refer to themselves Christians yet persist in their sinful lifestyle. I mean loose talkers and gossips, divisive people or those who come to church and yet are not really in church, disobedient and disrespectful to parents, irresponsible fathers and mothers.
Throughout church history you can see various low points in the church when authenticity has waned. Every time it resulted in spiritual destruction to the work of God in our world. Authenticity with each other—being real in our relationship in the context of the church is absolutely essential to our spiritual journey. If being part of the Christian community is merely putting on a good front, pretending to be something we’re not, then we might as well sleep in and not bother about being in church at all!
1 John 1.8-2.2 {New International Version}
8If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. 9If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. 10If 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 2
1My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin. But if anybody does sin, we have one who speaks to the Father in our defense—Jesus Christ, the Righteous One. 2He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world.
In the passage before us today, the apostle John gives us a series of (four) “if” statements (vv 8-10; v 2.1) to reveal God’s call to authenticity.
1. We all struggle with sin v. 1
John tells us to claim have no sin and that we are no longer sinning: that our inner lives no longer have that propensity to sin, claiming that our battle with sin is no longer raging is self deceiving. You can find evidence of this sort of thinking today. Our culture’s view of human nature is that people are basically good, that rebellion and sinfulness springs from bad parenting and oppressive social structures. instead of confessing our sins, we say, “Let us confess our problem with human relational adjustment dynamics, and especially our feebleness in networking” (Christianity Today “Natural Born Sinners 1994).
2. confession brings cleansing v.9
When I became a Christian I discovered the reality of this verse, and ever since has been my steady companion. The word “confess” means “to admit and acknowledge,” literally to “say the same thing.” Confession isn’t just admitting that we’re sinners, but it’s specifically naming our sins to God, what in the 12 step movement they call a searching and fearless moral inventory. We confess by naming our sins, by calling them by name before God: acknowledging, admitting and owning. When we do so, God promises to:
1. forgive us of our sin–according to His nature & character: faithful and just.
2. purify us from all unrighteousness
3. God knows our past v.10
The claim in v. 10 is to have never actually disobeyed God or have broken his laws. Perhaps, no one may say or actually claim this with their words. Yet we see it happen all the time when people forget where they came from: after we start living our lives for Jesus Christ, we no longer like to think about the things we did and the kind of life we lived before coming to Christ. “I’m a new creation,” we say, “so I need to press on to the future and forget what’s behind me.” This mentality leads us to project an image of perfection, an illusion that our lives are perfect, that we’ve never struggled, and that image actually works against God’s work in the lives of non-Christians. John tells us here that if we deny the sinfulness of our past, we’re not just deceiving ourselves, but we’re actually making God a liar. This is because the Bible is filled with statements that indicate every human being has sinned.”
4. Jesus is enough vv 1-2
How often have we used the excuse: “We’re but humans”, “Sapagka’t kami’y tao lamang.” However a worthy aim is not to sin and it is possible; and can be done! How? John refers to Jesus Christ: as the very provision for our sins–who speaks to the Father in our defense with His death as His own defense. His death on the cross is sufficient to cover any and every sin, even “the sins of the whole world.”
In other words, there’s nothing to be afraid of by being open and honest with each other: being authentic and real– because: we all struggle with sin; confession is God’s provision to bring us cleansing; He knows our past–that Christ’s death would be sufficient even for any sin.