(Audio version; Music: "Forgive Me" by: Tenth Avenue North and "Say Something" by: WorshipMob)
Introduction
Political
seasons here in America have been pretty much the same thing for as long as I
can remember—candidates making outrageous promises hoping that the majority of
people will believe their lies over their opponent’s lies. When our political
leaders repeatedly make promises that they have no intention of keeping (i.e.
President Obama’s now famous lie about his signature healthcare legislation:
“If you like your plan, you can keep your plan.”), it’s hard to take anything
they say seriously. There are few things worse than a broken promise. For me, a
broken promise is the most painful because it involves a betrayal by someone in
a position of trust. However, not far behind is the non-apology, apology. I
know you know this one. It’s the insulting I’m
Sorry, But…apology. Perhaps there are still some people in the world who
haven’t been insulted by this type of non-apology, apology. For you lucky few,
let me just warn you that if there is a “but” anywhere in the apology, it’s not
an apology. The only other words that should go with “I’m sorry” are, “Please
forgive me.”
I’m not
sure when our society went off the rails but we throw out the words “I promise”
and “I’m sorry” like used toilet paper—and the words have pretty much the same
value. If someone offends you repeatedly, how many times can they say “I’m
sorry” before you don’t believe they are sorry? But something changes about an
apology when the words, “please forgive me” are added by the offender—not in
the mind of the one offended but in the heart of the one who committed the
offense. You see, to ask for forgiveness requires the humility the begins the
process of changing a heart. When I say I’m sorry, a response from you is
unnecessary. However, when I ask for forgiveness I am acknowledging that I have
wounded you and I’m not making any excuses for my actions—I’m not only sorry
but I am doing what I can to rebuild whatever I may have broken by trying to
reach out to you with my heart not just my words. I want you to realize that if
you are unwilling to take the extra step and ask for forgiveness when you’ve
offended someone, what you are really saying with your non-apology, apology is
that you don’t really think you did anything wrong. That’s what you’re saying
when you say, “I’m Sorry, But…”
Subject Text
1 John 1:5-10
5This
is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him
there is no darkness at all. 6If we claim to have fellowship with
him yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live by the truth. 7But
if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one
another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin. 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.
Context
John’s witness
of Jesus is unlike any of the other Gospel writers. And our Subject Text, from one of his three
pastoral letters, is no different. First John was written sometime around 85 A.
D.—90 A. D. before John’s exile to Patmos. Nevertheless, Christianity is by
this point into its second generation of believers having already endured
severe oppression and persecution. The greatest danger facing the Church during
his day is the same danger that faces the Church in our day—ambivalence, loss
of interest and declining commitment. This letter isn’t written to any specific
churches although it was sent to several Gentile congregations and has been
instructive to all believers in all ages. The language of our Subject Text is distinctly Johannine in
its Christology with a theological development that contrasts opposite extremes—love
and hate, life and death, God and Satan, truth and error, and in our Subject Text the contrast between light
and darkness.
Text Analysis
5This is the message
we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no
darkness at all.
There is
probably no better way to describe God than the way John does it in v. 5 when he says that God is light. To
say that no darkness resides in God reinforces the point. Specifically, you can
add light to darkness but you can’t add darkness to light. We always have to
use John’s gospel as the backdrop for what he writes in his letters to the
churches. When John says God is light, we need to recognize his words in the
context of the revealed Christology found in his gospel. In this case, we
should be reminded how John opens his Gospel. This is how John described Jesus:
In the beginning was the Word, and
the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through
him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In
him was life, and that life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness,
but the darkness has not understood it (Jn 1:1-5).
And later
in John’s gospel, Jesus describes Himself much the same way in an encounter
with the Pharisees when He says:
“I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in
darkness, but will have the light of life (Jn 8:12).”
So we can
never allow the backdrop of John’s gospel to be far from understanding v. 5 of our Subject Text. John had absolutely no trouble seeing God in Jesus so
when he refers to God as having light in Him you can rest assured that for
John, God and Jesus are interchangeable references.
“By juxtaposing ‘light’ and
‘darkness’ 1 John divides the world and human existence into two mutually
exclusive domains. Specifically, 1 John allies ‘light’ and ‘truth,’ ‘love’ and
‘forgiveness.’ ‘Darkness’ keeps company with lying, disobedience, ignorance and
spiritual blindness. Light invokes all the images associated with God and
salvation; darkness, of sin and death.
John’s
Gospel identifies Jesus as the light that shines in a dark world, an
illumination that bestows life upon all who are willing to identify with him. 1
John also marks the transition from the ‘darkness’ to ‘light’ at the advent of
Jesus…The ‘message’ that the church first ‘heard’ and continues to ‘preach’,
the ‘word’ that they had ‘from the beginning,’ is the narration of Jesus’ life,
death and resurrection. Adherence to this message of light demands spiritual
formation. The community is to ‘walk in the light as God is in the light.’
Adherence to the message of light also requires confession, one that is not
exhausted by words. To ‘hate’ a fellow Christian is to betray the confession
and demonstrates solidarity with darkness. To walk in God’s light is to be
forgiven, cleansed and unencumbered by the powers of evil. The community is
created and sustained by God’s light.”[1]
6If we claim to have fellowship
with him yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live by the truth.
Not unlike
some Christians today, there where Christians during John’s day who seemed to
think they could claim to be Christians but live as though they weren’t.
According to v. 6, confessing our
allegiance to Jesus while stumbling around in the darkness of our sins makes us
liars. Pretty harsh words unless you’ve experienced the pain of its reality in
your own life. I know I can’t be the only one who understands this. The
“Christian” father who is an abusive alcoholic. The “Christian” husband who
cheats on his wife; The “Christian” student who cheats on her test. The
“Christian” employee who steals from his boss; The “Christian” pastor swimming
in pornography; The “Christian” wife who can’t bring herself to be honest with
her family about her addiction. The life of a Christian is a life that has been
transformed from a life lived in darkness to a life that is lived in the light;
I life that is lived in the open; a life that is transparent; a life that is
authentic; a life that is lived consistent with what we say we believe.
“There is a
sense, of course, in which all Christians live in the darkness. They live in
this world which is opposed to God and characterized by darkness. But the situation
of the Christian is like that of a person walking on a dark stage in the circle
of light cast by a spotlight which is focused on him; he moves slowly forward
so that he can walk in its light without fear of stumbling and losing his way. To
live in the glare of the spotlight involves living a life that is compatible
with being in the light, a life that is free from sin. To live in the darkness
means to live without the benefit of divine illumination and guidance and so to
live in sin. What John is saying is that it is not possible to have fellowship
with God and yet to live in sin because to have fellowship with God means
walking in the light while to live in sin means to walk in the darkness…[John’s
audience was] deceived in thinking that they could have fellowship with God
while they practiced sin, and they were deceived in thinking that the
experience which they thought was fellowship with God was really fellowship
with him…Truth means to live according to the way revealed by God and so as
those who belong to the divine sphere. John says that those who practice sin
demonstrate that they do no belong to God; in other words, they do not have
fellowship with God.”[2]
7But if we walk in the light, as
he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of
Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin.
When we are
walking in the light, it means that we are in fellowship with God. It means we
are reconciled to God. However, being reconciled to God has both an eternal and
a temporal component in v. 7. Being
reconciled to God means we are also reconciled to and can have authentic fellowship
the people around us. Remember, walking in the light doesn’t mean hiding our
sins but confessing them so that there can be forgiveness and love—allies of
the light. It is a mistake to interpret v.7
to mean that Christians will never sin. Instead, the act of purification from
sin is at the same time a one-time act and a continuous act. Living a sinless
life, while ideal, is not the reality of our lives and that’s not what these
verses are teaching. Instead, walking in the light means living a life where we
allow the light to expose the sins in our lives. Thereafter, fellowship with
God leads to confession of that sin which leads to forgiveness of and
purification from sin and gives us the opportunity to start over with a clean
slate—every day if necessary.
“Sin is not
only forgiven, it is erased. How does Jesus’ blood do that? In Old Testament
times, believers would symbolically transfer their sins to an animal, which
they then would sacrifice (see a description of this ceremony in Leviticus 4).
The animal died in their place to pay for their sin and to allow them to
continue living in God’s favor. God graciously forgave them because of their
faith in him and because they obeyed his commandments concerning the sacrifice.
Those sacrifices anticipated the day when Christ would completely remove sin.
Real cleansing from sin came with Jesus, the ‘Lamb of God who takes away the
sin of the world’ (Jn 1:29).
Those who
‘live in the light,’ the true believers, will still find themselves at time in
sin. Christians will not be made completely perfect until Jesus returns and
brings them into his Kingdom. When they do sin, however, God has already made
provision to deal with those sins through the blood of his Son. That provision
allows God’s people to continue to walk in the light—dealing with sin through
confession and receiving his forgiveness so that fellowship with God and with
others can remain unhindered.”[3]
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.
We have a
presidential candidate in America who is insufferably pompous and arrogant. In
an interview about his controversial candidacy, he was asked if he has ever
apologized for anything. He said that he is confident that he would apologize
if he ever did anything wrong. To make matters worse, he claims to be a Christian!
Wait, let me be accurate, he claims to be a “great Christian!” It is a perfect
illustration of the truth in vv. 8-9.
Specifically, if we claim we haven’t sinned, then we are deceiving ourselves
because we are all sinners in need of forgiveness (Rom 3:10). What does it take
to become a Christian? Isn’t it the confession that you’ve done something wrong
and need forgiveness? That means we must humble ourselves enough to confess our
sins; to ask for forgiveness. Some people are too arrogant to admit that they
need forgiveness and miss out on the opportunity to be reconciled to God. To
ease their conscience, they’ve devoted their lives to denying God’s existence
because without God, there is no sin and no confession is required. Other
people bring their sins before God along with a bag full of excuses. A
conditional confession is exactly like saying “I’m Sorry, But…” And that kind of confession is no confession at
all. It is saying that we did something wrong but we really didn’t because of
__________________ you fill in the blank. We can either confess our sins
openly; let the light of God’s truth expose the sins that are in all of our
lives and be forgiven and given another opportunity to live in community with
God and others or we can hide our sins or pretend we have no sins or make
excuses for our sins and live our lives as liars—deceiving ourselves and those
around us.
“To confess
our sins means we are to say the same thing about the sin as God says—to agree
with God about the sins—that they are wrong and need to be abandoned. True
confession calls sin the same thing God calls it: envy, jealousy, lust, hatred,
deceit, greed. In confession we admit with God that sin is wrong. We agree with
God that we must abandon the sin. We recognize with God that this sin by
itself, if there had been no other sin in all the world, would have been enough
to drive the nails through Jesus’ hands and feet and hang him on the cross.
Confession
is no small thing. It is not a matter of praying a poetic prayer or making
excuses about our lives…Confession is a reality check. It connects us with our
inability to save ourselves, with God gracious willingness to do so, with the
enormous price that had to be paid in order to do so, and with the gratitude
that should flow as a result.”[4]
10If we claim we have not sinned,
we make him out to be a liar and his word has no place in our lives.
We are
either sinners or we aren’t, there is no in-between. Think about it, Jesus
either died for the sins of the world (1 Jn 2:2), or He died for nothing. I
contend that that He died for the sins of the world and if anyone, according to
v. 10, refuses to acknowledge their
sin then they are either saying God doesn’t exist to judge their actions as
sinful or that God is a liar when He determined that humanity needed a Savior
to deal with their sins. It’s one or the other and you can decide which is
worse—deny God’s existence or call God a liar.
“From a first-century
Jewish point of view, there could hardly be greater sacrilege than predicating
untruth to God…From a Johannine standpoint, lies and lying (like murder) are
the special province of the devil (Jn 8:44). Liars are singled out alongside
‘the cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, the sexually immoral,
those who practice magic arts, the idolaters’ who will undergo the second death
in the lake of burning sulfur (Rev 21:8). Once again, to do or say anything
that would place God in such a classification is clearly heinous. For a writer
who is proceeding from the bedrock assertion that God is light [in v. 5], John is leveling a very serious
charge indeed at those who say they are free from sin. They are committing ‘a
crime against God.’”[5]
Application
The disease
that seems to have affected our society is the stubborn unwillingness to admit
that we are guilty; that we have sinned against God and people around us. But
the Bible is clear that we have all sinned and are guilty. “Now what do you
do?...When we fall, we can dismiss it. We can deny it. We can distort it. Or we
can deal with it…We keep no secrets from God. Confession is not telling God
what we did. He already knows. Confession is simply agreeing with God that our
acts are wrong…How can God heal what we deny? How can God grant us pardon when
we won’t admit our guilt? Ahh, there’s that word: guilt. Isn’t that what we detest? But is guilt so bad? What does
guilt imply if not that we know right from wrong, that we aspire to be better
than we are…That’s what guilt is: a healthy regret for telling God one thing
and doing another.”[6]
We all do
stupid things that hurt people. Sometimes we hurt people by what we do and
sometimes we hurt people by what we fail to do. In either case, anytime we do
something wrong, whether or not we think someone was hurt by our actions, we
have sinned against God and He was
hurt by our actions. Nevertheless, we have become a society so filled with
pride that we can’t humble ourselves and seek forgiveness from God or from
those we have harmed. Instead, we make excuses for why we hurt someone, as
though they deserved it or it was an accident. A wife cheats on her husband and
then says, “I’m Sorry, But you work
all the time.” A dad beats his child after having too much to drink and says, “I’m Sorry, But I was drunk.” Let me ask
you something, if you were the husband who was betrayed or the child who was
abused, would that apology rebuild what was broken or rub salt in the wound? I’ve
listened to parents make excuses for the wounds they left on their children by
saying, “I’m Sorry, But there are
worse parents than us.” Really, since when did the standard for sin become a
comparative analysis with someone else’s sin? When did it become alright to
commit a sin as long as someone else commits a more heinous sin? Do you see how
by doing this we are excusing our sins as though we didn’t sin at all? Anytime
you hear the words, “I’m Sorry, But…”
get ready to find out that you might be to blame for someone’s sin against you.
Get ready to find out that the person who sinned against you doesn’t really
think they sinned against you. Get ready for an apology that isn’t really an
apology. If you are in the habit of excusing your sins with an “I’m Sorry, But…” apology whether you
are addressing that apology to a friend or a child or a spouse or to God, what
you’re really saying is that you don’t think you did anything wrong but you’re
going to apologize as a formality. The next time you sin against someone and
against God and you’re tempted to brush it off with a mindless, “I’m Sorry, But…” it will be less
insulting to the person you wounded and especially to God if you just say
nothing at all. There is another option though but it requires some personal
humility. If you are truly sorry for your sins and you value your relationship
with people and with God, try an apology that rebuilds the relationship that
has been damaged by your sin. Next time, instead of saying “I’m Sorry, But…,” try “I’m sorry, please
forgive me.”
[1] Ralph P.
Martin & Peter H. Davids, eds., Dictionary of the Later New Testament &
Its Developments, (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1997), pp. 425-426.
[2] I.
Howard Marshall, The Epistles of John—The
New International Commentary on the New Testament, (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B.
Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1978), pp. 110-111.
[3] Bruce
Barton, Philip Comfort, Grant Osborne, Linda K. Taylor, and Dave Veerman, Live Application New Testament Commentary,
(Wheaton, IL: Tyndale House Publishers, 2001), p. 1152.
[4] David
Walls and Max Anders, I & II Peter,
I, II, & III John, Jude—Holman New Testament Commentary, (Nashville,
TN: B&H Publishing Group, 1999), p. 166.
[5] Robert
W. Yarbrough, 1-3 John—Baker
Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament, (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic,
2008), p. 66.
[6] Max
Lucado, Grace for the Moment,
(Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, 2000), p. 326.
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