We human beings like to hide our sins. This is not a new concept. All the way in Genesis, Adam and Eve hid from God when they realized their sin. We have been hiding ever since. We don’t want anyone to know when we have made a mistake. We do our best to conceal our sinful thoughts and actions. The truth is, there is no hiding from God. He sees our sins, every single one. The way to freedom from sin and coming out of hiding is to confess our sins to God and turn away from them.
John urges readers to confess sin rather than conceal it in 1st John 1. He wrote in this passage of Scripture, "If we claim we have no sin, we are only fooling ourselves and not living in the truth" (verse 8). When we try to hide our sins and claim that we do not have them, we are not fooling anyone, just ourselves. This is no way to live. You see, when we try to hide and conceal our sin, we cannot find freedom from the sin we are struggling with. There is a better way than concealing sin, and that is confession. That is why John continued writing, "If we confess our sins to Him, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness" (verse 9). This promise is incredible. When we confess our sins, God promises forgiveness and restoration. He offers us the true freedom from that sin that we deeply desire.
What sins are you struggling with today? Is there any sin that you are struggling with that you have been trying to conceal? Bring it to light today. Confess it before God. Acknowledge your sins before God. Tell Him that you are sorry for your sin and ask Him to help you turn away from that sin and honor Him in all areas of your life.
Take time today to confess your sin to God. Bring any sin in your life before God. Tell Him how you have disobeyed Him and let Him down. Confess all sins, even the ones you want to hide from Him. This, my friend, is the beginning of a journey toward healing and freedom from that sin.
1We proclaim to you the one who existed from the beginning, whom we have heard and seen. We saw him with our own eyes and touched him with our own hands. He is the Word of life. 2 This one who is life itself was revealed to us, and we have seen him. And now we testify and proclaim to you that he is the one who is eternal life. He was with the Father, and then he was revealed to us. 3 We proclaim to you what we ourselves have actually seen and heard so that you may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ. 4 We are writing these things so that you may fully share our joy.
5 This is the message we heard from Jesus and now declare to you: God is light, and there is no darkness in him at all. 6 So we are lying if we say we have fellowship with God but go on living in spiritual darkness; we are not practicing the truth. 7 But if we are living in the light, as God is in the light, then we have fellowship with each other, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, cleanses us from all sin.
8 If we claim we have no sin, we are only fooling ourselves and not living in the truth. 9 But if we confess our sins to him, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness. 10 If we claim we have not sinned, we are calling God a liar and showing that his word has no place in our hearts.
