1 John 2:5 (NLT)
“But those who obey God’s word truly show how completely they love him. That is how we know we are living in him.”
Christians sin, and so does everyone else. This is a fact that comes with life on earth. We all sin and fall short of the glory of God, and He makes it clear in His Word that sin is a choice. If we truly understand the impact it has upon our lives, we would never make the choice to sin. God will always forgive us for our sin when we confess it and ask for His forgiveness, and this speaks to His incredibly amazing grace. 1John 1:6-8(NLT) tells us, “6 So we are lying if we say we have fellowship with God but go on living in spiritual darkness; we are not practicing the truth. 7 But if we are living in the light, as God is in the light, then we have fellowship with each other, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, cleanses us from all sin. 8 If we claim we have no sin, we are only fooling ourselves and not living in the truth.”
God loves us very much, and He desires that we live a life that is free from sin. We can be sure that this is available to us all. We should not follow the world’s standards and way of life. Instead, we can live in such a way that we please God all the time. 1John 5:4(NLT) declares, “For every child of God defeats this evil world, and we achieve this victory through our faith.” Our Heavenly Father made a more than abundant life available through Christ. This abundant reality is possible for us because of the work God finished through the sacrifice and resurrection of Christ, and we can live powerfully through this victory every moment of each day.
1Corinthians 1:9(NKJV) says, “God is faithful, by whom you were called into the fellowship of His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.” A fellowship is a partnership. It is a relationship of two or more individuals that have a shared interest. Our Heavenly Father has called us into the fellowship that He shares with His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ and with His Holy Spirit. When we give our lives to God by accepting and confessing Jesus Christ as Lord and by believing that God raised him from the dead, we are saved! The Holy Spirit then recreates our dead spirit, and we become alive to God. 2Corinthians 5:17 tells us that we become a new creation in Christ, and the old sinful things that used to grip us fall away.
God’s Word also teaches us in Ephesians 2:1-5(NLT): “1 Once you were dead because of your disobedience and your many sins. 2 You used to live in sin, just like the rest of the world, obeying the devil—the commander of the powers in the unseen world. He is the spirit at work in the hearts of those who refuse to obey God. 3 All of us used to live that way, following the passionate desires and inclinations of our sinful nature. By our very nature we were subject to God’s anger, just like everyone else. 4 But God is so rich in mercy, and he loved us so much, 5 that even though we were dead because of our sins, he gave us life when he raised Christ from the dead. (It is only by God’s grace that you have been saved!)”
The Holy Spirit made us alive in Christ and then made his home inside our living and recreated human spirit. Now we can have fellowship or partnership with the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit! Romans 5:5(NKJV) declares, “Now hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us.” This is an extraordinary blessing! And we should demonstrate our gratitude for it every moment of each day. We should also understand that when we sin against God, our fellowship with Him is broken, and we need to acknowledge our sin and repent from it to restore our fellowship with God.
This should be easy for us to understand. In a marriage, if a spouse cheats on the other spouse, their relationship is injured. Adultery against God is cheating Him out of the honor and reverence He is due, and many of us have done this by continuing to sin against Him. In Ezekiel 43:7(NLT), God told His prophet, “Son of man, this is the place of my throne and the place where I will rest my feet. I will live here forever among the people of Israel. They and their kings will not defile my holy name any longer by their adulterous worship of other gods or by honoring the relics of their kings who have died.” We must understand that when there is broken fellowship, forgiveness from God must be obtained to restore it.
Our Heavenly Father is a Promise Keeper. He is faithful to do what He says. He will supply our needs and send the man that He has ordained to walk with us through life, but we have a responsibility to set the environment of faith for this. We must not continue to sin and take ourselves out of fellowship with God. Acknowledging the error of our ways and seeking His pardon is the practice that honors Him.
1John 1:9(NLT) tells us, “But if we confess our sins to him, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness.” Obedience to God and His Word is required to demonstrate our love for Him. Our sin is disobedience, and we must acknowledge it, seek God’s forgiveness, and correct ourselves. Some of us have been carrying the weight of our unrepented sin for a very long time. It’s too heavy to carry into marriage. We must release it by genuinely and sorrowfully seeking God’s forgiveness. When we do, He promises that He will forgive us and our fellowship with Him will be restored. ■
Scripture quotations marked (NLT) are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved.
“God is a Promise Keeper”, written by Kim Times, edited by Fran Mack and KLizzie for Sundie Morning Sistas ©2024. All rights reserved. All done to the glory of God through Jesus Christ, our Lord! SMS is dedicated to inspiring and encouraging Christian Women through the Word of God.