Continuing in Sin

Continuing in Sin
Words of Faith 5-21-24
Dr. Jeffrey D. Hoy © 2024
Jeff.Hoy@faithfellowshipweb.com
Faith Fellowship Church - Melbourne, FL
www.faithfellowshipweb.com
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1 John 3
[4] Everyone who sins breaks the law; in fact, sin is lawlessness. [5] But you know that he appeared so that he might take away our sins. And in him is no sin. [6] No one who lives in him keeps on sinning. No one who continues to sin has either seen him or known him.

Oh great! I might as well give up! John, how can I have any hope? I try. I confess and repent. I set a new course. But inevitably, I sin. Sometimes, more often than I would like to admit... it is the SAME sin. I feel defeated enough, but then you say if I continue to sin... I have not seen or ever known Jesus.
But wait a minute, John. What is that Greek tense you used? Did you mean to use that present tense, imperfect meaning "continuous action" instead of the aorist tense? Doesn't that mean if we "continue intentionally to sin"? Does that refer to a continuous lifestyle of sin? Is the meaning that God breathed here-- "If we continue to walk in our sin as if it does not matter?" "If we choose the lifestyle of sin over the lifestyle of grace?" Then... apparently, we have yet to see or know Him? Okay. That makes more sense.
John was speaking specifically to those Gnasty Gnostics. Remember the ones who said all flesh is evil. Some decided to "express" their "freedom from the flesh" by deliberately indulging in sin. They had wild orgies in the name of being "set spiritually free" by Jesus. John is saying, "Hogwash!" (I will have to look up the exact Greek for that, but the meaning is there.)
Such a view may sound crazy, but there are some theological circles in which "grace" is celebrated as a permit to flaunt sin. There are even streams of "Christian thought" that seek to "ordain" a sinful lifestyle as the primary identity of a leader or an entire congregation. Nothing new, really. It was all going on in the first century-- Gnasty Gnosticism.
The truth? When we meet Jesus, face His eyes that look straight through our excuses, at His nail-scarred hands, and continue to find only love in that gaze, we stop sinning.
Yes, we will still make mistakes. Yes, we may be tempted and even fall. But when we face squarely the enormous cost of grace, we no longer treat it cheaply. We do what it takes to get well. We work out our salvation. We turn away from sinful lifestyles. We run from temptation. If we continue to walk in sin and our sin does not cause us pain in the face of His sacrifice, it may be reasonable for John to ask if we have ever really met Jesus at all.

Okay, Lord. You've got me-- all of me, even that area I have refused to discuss. You have loved me in spite of my errors. You have even loved me through my times of rebellion. I choose to take your hand-- with the wound that healed me-- and walk with You today. Amen.

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© Jeffrey D. Hoy 2024
Dr. Jeffrey D. Hoy - Faith Fellowship Church (EFCA)
2820 Business Center Blvd.
Melbourne, Florida 32940 (321)-259-7200
Jeff.Hoy@faithfellowshipweb.com
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