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

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

    The thing which makes this such a key letter for understanding living a Christian life are the two related, but seemingly contradictory, ideas which it contains regarding sin in our lives. First, John writes that if we claim not to have sinned we are fooling ourselves and calling God a liar. Later, he writes that if we live in Christ we will not sin. Now, the easy way to reconcile these two things is to say that we sinned before we were saved, before we experienced Christ’s saving grace, but once we are saved we will not sin again. However, if that is the case, I know few, if any people, who qualify as saved. It also seems contradictory to things written elsewhere in the New Testament. In addition, that reading seems contrary to what John says when he writes that his purpose in writing was that we do not sin, but if we do, we have an advocate who pleads our case with the Father. So, what do I think John means here? First he is telling us that we will sin. From time to time we will give in to temptation, but when we do God will forgive us if we confess our sins. Important point here: we need to admit that what we did was indeed a sin. Second, he is telling us that even though we know that we will sin we cannot just accept sin as part of our lives. If we are truly living in Christ we will feel pain and shame each time we do sin. We will strive to purge our lives of the desires which lead to sin.

    John offers us instruction on how we can overcome sin. We become susceptible to sin when we love the pleasures of this world. We become ever more able to overcome temptation to sin as we love the things this world offers less and less and desire the things which God offers more and more. This world offers material goods, achievements, and honors. God offers the opportunity to make other people’s lives better, to know that we have done His will. There is another point which John makes which I do not see how to connect to these other points, although I believe that it is connected. John tells us that there is not a singular individual who is The AntiChrist. Rather he tells us that there are, and will be, multiple antichrists. Again and again, people will rise up who will offer salvation in competition with that offered by Christ. Anyone who denies that Jesus is the author of our salvation, or who offers himself as our savior, is an antichrist.