Do you know why Jesus Christ wants you to live a life of obedience, honesty, and confession? 

by Rev. Jack Richards on December 16, 2022

SEARCHLIGHT 

Do you know why Jesus Christ wants you to live a life of obedience, honesty, and confession? 

SCRIPTURE 

IF WE CLAIM to have fellowship with him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live out the truth.  But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his son, purifies us from all sin. IF WE CLAIM to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. IF WE CLAIM we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word is not in us.   1 John 1:6-10 NIV 

SPOTLIGHT 

Did you know that you can be saved/born again but not be close to Jesus Christ? It is not unusual for a Christian to experience hot and cold times, up and down times, or high and low times in his/her personal relationship with the living God. Sometimes you can feel close to Jesus and other times distant. Why does this happen? What can cause your personal relationship with Jesus Christ to be inconsistent? 

The Apostle John identifies 3 things that will make a believer distant from Jesus Christ. All of them are found in 1 John 1 and begin with the words “IF WE CLAIM…” All of them point to the big difference between what a person says and what a person does. Too often believers can talk the talk but not walk the walk. Their actions speak louder than their words. When they say this but do that, they are inconsistent. John wrote to his Christian friends to help them live a consistent Christian life.  

The first reason John gives for not being close to Jesus Christ is DISOBEDIENCE to Christ’s commands. Read the first “IF WE CLAIM” found in verse 6 in the above Scripture section. Do not forget that Jesus said “If you love me keep my commands… Anyone who loves me will obey my teaching. My Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them. Anyone who does not love me will not obey my teaching.” [John 14:15,23,24] When you say you are a believer yet live a life opposite to Jesus’ way, you distance yourself from Him.  You are living your life your way rather than Jesus Christ’s way, Who is the Light of the world. His light reveals what is good and how to live. Christ’s light reveals Christ’s will for your life. In verse 6, the Message paraphrase says, “If we claim that we experience a shared life with him and continue to stumble around in the dark, we’re obviously lying through our teeth-we’re not living what we claim.”  

The second reason John gives for not being close to Jesus Christ is DECEPTION. Read the second “IF WE CLAIM” found in verse 8 in the above Scripture section. James 1:22 states “But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.” [NKJV] When you say you have not sinned, you deceive yourself and distance yourself from Jesus. Jesus Christ said in John 14:6 “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” Jesus is truth. He reveals what is right and what is wrong. He shows you what is true to believe and what is a lie. When you ignore what Jesus says you deceive yourself. The Holy Spirit reveals truth to you. When you avoid it, you are quenching the Spirit. [1 Thessalonians 5:19] In verse 8, the Message paraphrase says “If we claim that we’re free from sin, we’re only fooling ourselves. A claim like that is errant nonsense.”  

The third reason John gives for not being close to Jesus Christ is DENIAL. Look at the third “IF WE CLAIM,” found in verse 10 in the above Scripture section. When you say you have not sinned, you are denying that Jesus Christ is the living God who saved the world from sin. You are claiming to be good and saying that what Jesus said about man being a sinner is not true. You have just distanced yourself from Jesus.  You are denying Jesus Christ’s divine nature to be perfect and sinless. The Bible says that God cannot lie. [Hebrews 6:18] Jesus Christ, the living God, is the way, truth, and life. You are denying your need for a Savior to save you from your sinful nature. Your actions are denying that Jesus is the all-knowing God who came into the world not only to save you from sin but deliver you from the ongoing sinful traps of life. In verse 10, the Message paraphrase says, “If we claim that we’ve never sinned, we out-and-out contradict God, make a liar out of him. A claim like that only shows off our ignorance of God.” 

Jesus Christ longs for you to have a closer relationship with Him. He longs for you to live as if He was standing right beside you every second of each day. Christ longs for you to live a life of obedience, honesty, and confession. You choose how close you want to be to Jesus Christ. Draw closer by asking yourself the following questions. Am I obeying Christ’s commands? Am I being honest with Jesus or ignoring the conviction of the Holy Spirit? Am I confessing that I am a sinner who needs Jesus to be my Savior? Draw closer to Jesus Christ by living the truth, internalizing the truth, and confessing the truth. 

SOMETHING TO DO 

HOW CLOSE ARE YOU TO JESUS CHRIST? Bring a pen and a blank piece of paper without lines to a quiet room where you can be all alone. Draw a big circle on the paper. Put a dot in the center of the big circle. Write the words “Jesus Christ.” Carefully and honestly consider the next instruction. Put a dot, which represents you, on the paper which communicates how close you are to Jesus Christ. Your dot may be inside the circle close to the center dot or perhaps out near the circle line. You may even be outside the circle if you have not yet asked Jesus Christ to be your personal Savior and Lord. Where you place your dot will tell you how close you are to Jesus Christ. Now put an X inside the circle describing how close you would like to be to Jesus Christ.  

SOUL TIME PRAYER 

Lord Jesus Christ, I want to be close to You. I want to know You more than I have ever before known You. I would pray that the Holy Spirit would reveal to me when I allow things to distance me from You. AMEN 

Tags: jesus, new, john, christ, testament, relationship, close, proximity


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