Today, I am reading and commenting on  1 John 1-5.

John makes several points in this letter, which I want to touch on.  First, he writes that Christ purifies us from all sin.  I think from the context that John means two things by that.  He means that the blood which Christ shed on the Cross covers over the sins which we committed before we came to accept Jesus as our Lord, but he also means that Christ living within us leads us to not sin.  He also writes that anyone who claims to be without sin deceives themselves and does not have the truth within them.  Yet, later he writes that no one who lives in Christ continues to sin.  John also writes that if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with God in Jesus.  So, John appears to be answering those who say, “I am saved by God’s grace, so it is okay if I go on sinning,” and those who say, “Anyone who has truly accepted Christ will never sin again.”  John tells us that we should live our lives without sin, but ever time we fall into sin we can pick ourselves back up and try again to live up to God’s standard.  Every time we sin. we hurt ourselves and often others.  God calls us to love others, so we should strive as a minimum to not hurt them by our sins.  Even where our sins may not directly hurt others, it will hurt them to the degree which they love us and bringing hurt upon ourselves brings hurt to them.  So, let us strive to love others by doing that which makes their lives better and by not hurting them by sinning against them or against ourselves.  But, when we do sin, let us once more turn to God and request again that His Holy Spirit transform us.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.