“CHRISTIANS AND SINS”

“If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.”

1 John 1:10

David is considered “a man after God’s own heart” (Acts 13:22). He was given this distinction not because of his moral perfection, but because he feared God.

However, David’s life was marked by spiritual highs and lows. He committed adultery with a woman named Bathsheba, the wife of one of his soldiers, and devised a plan to kill him and take Bathsheba to be his own. To cover his tracks, he ordered that the husband be killed in battle. Later, he took the woman to be one of his wives.

David went on and continued to enjoy his exalted position as king and commander-in-chief of the armed forces of Israel as if nothing happened. He tried his best to ignore and conceal his sin—but not for long. Nathan the prophet came and rebuked him sternly. Thankfully, David responded with repentance but his lovechild with Bathsheba eventually died.

In today’s verse, John gives another statement on how to be in fellowship with God: to not deny the sins we commit. The Bible is replete with verses telling us that we have sinned and continue to sin. To say otherwise is to make God a liar and would mean that we do not honor God’s word.

If we deny our sins, not only do we deceive others, but we also delude ourselves. The Bible nowhere teaches that believers no longer have the capacity to sin. We do sin, and when we refuse to confess or acknowledge our sins, we essentially say God is a liar. When we live in blatant sin, we demonstrate, that for this time, we do not have God’s word.

Just like David, true believers can, at some point, fall into sin and try to conceal it. But we can never hide anything from God. We may shroud it from others and ourselves, but there is absolutely no way for us to keep it a secret from God. He is the all-knowing God who sees all things all the time.

Pursue the Savior today!