Sinners, Saints & Fellowship

⁵This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all. ⁶If we claim to have fellowship with him yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live by the truth. ⁷But 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.

⁸If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. ⁹If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. ¹⁰If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word has no place in our lives.

1 John 1: 5-10

This verse follows yesterday's verse. You will probably recognize the second part from church. We say it every Sunday as part of our corporate confession. Part of having fellowship with others is recognizing that we sin - that we are all sinners. As Martin Luther put it, "We are both sinners and saints." We must recognize that in ourselves, and in other people. No person is perfect except Jesus. He rocks like that.

The first part of this passage talks about how we must strive to walk in the light instead of darkness. We should try to avoid temptation and sin by replacing bad habits with good ones. We should distract ourselves with things that will build ourselves and others up.

The second part of the passage talks about what to do when we fail. Note that I said when - not if. We are sinners by nature and saints through God's grace. God gives us His grace freely. There's always enough to cover our sins. So then why strive to keep from sinning? Simply because we want to do and be good.

Once we recognize that our fellow Christians are sinners and saints, our fellowship deepens. Think back to Kairos and small group. It was a place and time where you had fellowship - where people could share freely about the stuff they normally might not share. Why is that? Because of the fellowship you had with your small group. As we take that back into our home churches, we can create an environment of fellowship that provides us the same opportunities that small group at Kairos does.

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