All of us who are not oblivious to our own weaknesses have prayed the opening lyrics to Kathy Troccoli’s “Stubborn Love”:
Caught again, Your faithless friend
Don’t You ever tire of hearing what a fool I’ve been?
Guess I should pray, but what can I say?
Oh, it hurts to know the hundred times I’ve caused You pain
Though “Forgive me” sounds so empty when I never change
Yet You stay and say, “I love you still”
Forgiving me time and time again.
Yesterday I wrote about resurrection and eternal judgment as part of a post on the “elementary principles” or “first things” of Christ. In such situations, what I believe is a teaching gift from God kicks in, and I draw Scriptures together into a picture of “the faith” as it was delivered to the saints by the apostles (Jude 1:3). Often, I am doing that purposely to contrast “the faith” as it was delivered by Martin Luther and John Calvin to the evangelicals specifically and the Protestants in general.
I have learned over my decades of writing and teaching, though, that what I say is not always what people here. More and more then, I have had to intensely focus on the mercy of God. I do not want to compromise God’s standards, nor justify sin, but the reality is that almost all of us know the feeling behind Kathy Troccoli’s words in “Stubborn Love.” They’re very similar to the words in Casting Crown’s “East to West.”
Maybe I should learn from John’s first epistle, arguably the harshest, scariest letter in the New Testament (next to Hebrews?). He does not wait till the end to emphasize the mercy of God, he begins with it … before he goes on to teachings significantly scarier than what I wrote yesterday.
This is especially true if we can understand what John means by walking in the light. First let me write out 1 John 1:7-2:2:
But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ, his Son, cleanses us from all sin. 8 If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. 9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and righteous to forgive us the sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 10 If we say that we haven’t sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us. My little children, I write these things to you so that you may not sin. If anyone sins, we have a Helper with the Father, Jesus Christ, the righteous. And he is the “at-one-ment” for our sins, and not for ours only, but also for the whole world.
In the verse that precedes this section John says that if we claim to have fellowship with God, but walk in darkness, then we are liars. It is easy to conclude from this that walking in darkness is walking in sin, and walking in the light is walking in purity. That conclusion is wrong, however.
John writes about walking in the light in his Gospel as well. No one knows whether John is quoting Jesus in these verses or explaining Jesus’ words to Nicodemus, but they have biblical authority either way:
This is the judgment, that the light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the light; for their works were evil.For everyone who does evil hates the light, and doesn’t come to the light, lest his works would be exposed. But he who does the truth comes to the light, that his works may be revealed, that they have been done in God. (Jn. 3:19-21)
Notice that this passage does NOT say “he who does good” comes to the light, nor that his deeds are “good,” but instead it is he who “does the truth” and his deeds are “done in God.”
I don’t believe this passage, nor 1 John 1:7, are about good deeds, but about deeds that are exposed to God. Paul wrote, “… everything that reveals in light” (Eph. 5:13). He also wrote:
You were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord; walk as children of light (for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness, and truth), as you try to learn what is pleasing to the Lord. (Eph. 5:9-10, NASB)
Notice in this passage that “goodness, righteousness, and truth” are not the light, but “the fruit of the light.”
Light is that which exposes. We do not immediately live in mature righteousness when we become Christians. Instead, Peter describes a progression in which “if these things are in you and increasing” they make us always bear fruit (2 Pet. 1:3-8). Both Peter and the writer of Hebrews speak of those who are not mature, but need milk (Heb. 5:13-14; 1 Pet. 2:1). We should know the Lord more and obey him more as we grow older in him (cf. 1 Jn. 2:12-14). We are, however, immediately children of the light when we are saved (Eph. 5:9).
The point is that walking in the light means exposing your deeds to God even if they are evil … especially if they are evil. If you do so, you can have unhindered fellowship with those who are around you because you are not pretending to be something other than what you are. You also have ongoing purification from the blood of Christ (1 Jn. 1:7).
You should live holy, but that is not what walking in the light means. Walking in the light means exposing your deeds to God and to others (privately to those who will pray for you) so that you can receive the fruit of the light from God and the prayers of those who are close to you (James 5:16).
God is a God of great mercy. Even under the Old Covenant, the Israelites knew to flee to the Lord because of his abundant pardon (Isa. 55:7). Perhaps the most repeated phrase in the Old Testament is “his mercy endures forever” (cf. Ps. 136).
Perhaps the most telling use of that phrase is in Lamentations 3:21-23. Lamentations is a lament about the captivity in Babylon. It has just begun, and Jeremiah is pouring out his heart in sadness for Judah’s sin that has caused God to destroy Jerusalem and the temple. He knows they will be there seventy years for their sin, but right in the middle of that loment, he writes:
This I recall to my mind; therefore I have hope. It is because of Yahweh’s loving kindnesses that we are not consumed, because his compassion doesn’t fail. They are new every morning. Great is your faithfulness. (Lamentations 3:21-23)
As we believe the frightening words that are written in chapters 2-4 of 1 John–and the words from Scripture in my section on eternal judgment a few days ago–let us first remember the words of 1 John 1:7-2:2. He does want us to work out our salvation with fear and trembling (Php. 2:12); he does want us to “make every effort” to add virtue to our faith (2 Pet. 1:5) and to “make every effort” to make our calling and election sure (2 Pet. 1:10); but he also wants us to know that when we falter, he has made “abundant” (Isa. 55:7) provision for our stumbling growth.
I write about 1 John 1:7-2:2 all the time. Maybe I can post the longer version from my book, Rebuilding the Foundations (available wherever books are sold) on this blog sometime so it’s quickly available. Here today, I will leave out my arguments and just expound this passage from my perspective.
1 John 1:7-2:2 not only tells us that God knows we will sin, but it refers to those who claim they don’t as liars. The 1 John 2:1-2 part says the goal is not sinning, but God has a provision if we do. That’s the mildly encouraging skeleton.
The great part is what John says about walking in the light. It is easy to think in the context of John’s letter that “walking in the light” means walking in righteousness. No, it means “walking in the open.” It means exposing your deeds to God and man. We are to confess our sins to God (1 John 1:9), and we are to confess them to men as well (James 5:16).
When we do our deeds before God, exposing them to God, and letting God shine his light on them, 1 John 1:7 says that we will have fellowship with one another and the blood of Jesus will continually cleanse us from sin (the Greek is the word from which we get catharize … look up catharize). This is because, as Paul says in Ephesians 5, the fruit of the light is righteousness, goodness, and truth.
Be out in the open, expose everything to God and as much as possible to your brothers and sisters in Christ, and God will abundantly pardon, give you fellowship, and continually catharize you. It doesn’t get much better than that. Or does it?
Let’s therefore draw near with boldness to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and may find favor for help in time of need. (Heb. 4:16)
God is on a mission because your destiny is to be conformed to the image of Christ so that Jesus can have many brothers and sisters (Rom. 8:29). This is God’s mission, to make you just like Jesus.
You may be a faithless friend, like Kathy Troccoli sang. You may wonder how God could possible forgive you one more time, and part of it is that he’s expecting you to forgive like he does. Your foolish repetition of stupid sins you hate helps you know how merciful he expects you to be to others.
Don’t bail out on him. Don’t turn you back on him. If we are faithless, he remains faithful because he cannot deny himself (2 Tim. 2:13). We are his workmanship (Eph. 2:10). He expects us to cooperate, to make every effort, but he knows exactly how good or bad you will be at that, and if you are loyal to him, you will get to see his provisions for your weakness.
That same verse says that if we deny him, he will deny us, so be fiercely loyal. Give yourself to loyalty and honoring God, this is the first and greatest commandment. If you do it, your will find that your miserable failures help you fulfill the second greatest commandment, to humbly love others a yourself, and even to esteem them above yourself as worthy of more honor! (Php. 2:1-4).
Let’s fight the good fight. If you don’t want to ashamed when Jesus comes, remain in him (1 Jn. 2:28) through thick, thin, stupidity, and failure. Stay on the potter’s wheel, and do not be flung off!
There are a lot of opinions and rumors about Constantine, the Council of Nicea, and the events of the fourth century that changed Christianity to Christendom. Not only will you get the incredible story, with all its twists, plots, and intrigues, but you will find out how history is done and never wonder what is true again.
The Rest of the Old, Old Story 
You ask the hardest questions, Jon. There is one thing I feel confident saying. Perfection is never snapping out in anger and never dwelling on lust even for a few seconds. As Ephraim the Syrian put it, our mind should react to a lustful thought the way we react to a cinder in the eye.
That said, it is wrong and dangerous to condemn yourself after immediately apologizing for something that came out of your mouth or to condemn yourself for overcoming lust in a few seconds. I can promise you, after decades of close interaction with people, that the only that that self-condemnation can produce is misery and hopelessness. It can also produce repulsion from God.
Our relationship with God is a process. We are fighting forward, encouraging each other along the path, forgiving each other 70 x 7 times, in order to live a life pleasing to God while the devil, like a roaring lion is looking for people to devour.
A miserable, self-condemned, defeated, hopeless person may not have been devoured, but he is too injured to go forward. He is the mugged person that the Samaritan came along to help. You need a Samaritan AND an innkeeper who will let you rest and attend to your needs until the Samaritan returns to check on you.
Maybe I can be the Samaritan, who headed off on business somewhere, but I can’t be the innkeeper because I don’t live in England. I am going to contact a friend who lives in Wales. He knows a lot of people and churches, but I am going to try to get you an innkeeper who can tend your spiritual wounds.
Let me give you a scriptural foundation for what I am saying. Above is my personal foundation from interaction with humans. Self-condemnation does not produce righteousness. Instead it is the Romans 7 experience that can only produce sin and death. Romans 8 begins with “There is no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus.” You cannot walk in the Spirit and experience the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus if you do not start there.
James, the Lord’s brother, according to the rumors about him, may have been the most righteous man who ever lived. He was known as James the Just. That man, possible the most obedient man who ever lived, wrote, “We all stumble often.”
I tell you from experience, as I am prone to self-condemnation as well, that you cannot war forward, zealous for good works, while you are thinking about the time you cussed when you burned your thumb. If you commit adultery, then lament, mourn, and weep and do so until you know you will never do it again. If you are hot-headed for a moment, say something you regret, then apologize, then rejoice in triumph that you caught it so fast.
A lot of Christians can’t get rid of their anger (in an argument, say) until the next day. I will only fault them when they give up the fight to reduce that time to an hour. Progress is everything, and as I’m sure you know from piano, thinking about the key you missed, or the quarter note you held for a half note, will distract you and thus **stop** you from progressing with the song.
If you want to be obsessed with a command, be obsessed with “Rejoice, and again I say rejoice.”
Once again I urge, exhort, encourage, and even command you to run boldly to the throne of favor, through the veil–his flesh, that was torn for you–and ask for mercy and favor for your time of need. You need the favor of knowing you are in God’s favor. You cannot go forward looking backward, and it is going forward that is a success.
In the book, Megachurch to Multiplication, and Abilene, TX pastor wrote, “Multiplication requires exceptional prayer. If you pray 5 minutes a day, then 10 minutes is exceptional.” His point was that Christian service is all about diligent progress, just as the Christian life is.
It is possible to progress even while you are among the all who stumble often. It is possible to stumble often, forget it happened, and stumble less. Surely that is how you learned to play the piano because I don’t think there is any other way.
We love him because he first loved us, and we do good because we love him and he loves us. That’s first, above all things, because you are crippled if it is not.
I am going to try to find you an inn and innkeeper.
Thank you Paul. I have replied via FB messenger.
Hi again Paul
I read this a while back, but only got round to commenting now. I appreciate this encouragement and the reminder of the abundance of God’s mercy. I am inclined to ask, do you think his mercy extends to those that struggle with a lack of zeal, passion and love for him from the heart, despite eagerly desiring that they had it (i.e. myself)?
This post also prompted me to ask you about the the issue of sinless perfection. Over the years I have come across others online saying similar things to what you say (on YouTube etc.). Many of these people however, insist that sinlessness is not only possible in this live, but absolutely mandatory to salvation. Others might not advocate outright sinless perfection, but claim that we will pretty much hardly ever sin if we are true Christians – we might have areas to grow, but any sin in our hearts show that we have not properly repented and will go to hell.
(ironically, many of these folks come across as very snarky online in a manner almost equal to a village internet atheist, perhaps proving their own point wrong?)
Needless to say this way of thinking seems pretty grim. However, they will refer to scriptures that seem to support what they say such as 1 John 3:9, 1 Peter 4:1 possibly Hebrews 10:4 etc.
They would also point to the many promises/exhortations about being “blameless” (Ephesians 1:4, Ephesians 5:27, Philippians 1:10, 2 Peter 3:14, Jude 1:24).
What would you say to that? I am regularly discouraged by those passages as I know that I am far from being blameless.
I also find definitions of sin to be somewhat unhelpful at times: I have often heard a distinction made between deliberate wilful sins and addictions on one hand (these sort put a Christian in danger of hell), and unintentional, sins of weakness on the other (these are covered by Christ’s blood). I am pretty sure you have made a distinction at least similar to this before.
However, I find that the line gets blurry pretty quickly after only a little self reflection.
If I snap out in anger during a moment’s frustration, I might quickly regret and apologise, but in that moment I WAS deliberately being hot-headed. Similarly, if in a moment of weakness I choose to dwell on on lustful thought in my mind for a few seconds, I might stop and turn away from that, but I still deliberately chose to lust, even for a few seconds.
Also, one might not be succumbing to the usual, well known addictions (such as porn, alcohol, drugs, gambling, food etc.), but still might be regularly selfish or regularly fail to think and put others before yourself on your heart and mind (that’s me!). Could those not be described as addictions in some sense?
It’s very easy to then conclude that one is damned for such sins.
What are your thoughts on this?
Jon