Are You Deceived?

If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.

1 John 1:8

In my last post I wrote that we would cover verses 8-10 next time, but as I began to study these and pray about these 3 verses I decided to break this down into 2 posts. So today we are going look only at verse 8 of 1 John chapter 1, and we will pick up verses 9 & 10 next time.

In my previous 2 posts on First John we have seen that God is holy (God is light, and in him there is no darkness at all) and that he requires holiness from us as well. Then we saw that it is only through the blood of Jesus Christ, God's Son, that we can be made holy (the blood of Jesus, his Son cleanses us from all sin). In this verse we are going to see that without the acknowledgment of our sin we are not in fellowship with God. In fact, John goes so far as to say that the truth is not in us.

As I read this, the question that came to my mind was: What does it mean to say that we have no sin, or conversely, how do we acknowledge that we have sin? If getting this wrong results in self deception, and this is somehow tied into our very salvation, we had better get this one right.

What does it mean to say that we have no sin, and why is this important ?

John begins by saying, "If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us." Why would John tell us that if we say we have no sin then truth is not in us? I think the reason is that far too often we tend to see ourselves as better than we really are. The world teaches us that man is inherently good, but the Bible is clear that we are just the opposite - we are evil. The Bible actually teaches that apart from Christ we are dead in our sin (Ephesians 2:5).

In our minds we may have made some mistakes, but overall we're pretty good people. But this is not how God sees us and not how we should see ourselves. There are many passages in the Bible that teach the total depravity of man, but without doing a whole study on that subject let's look at a one; Paul wrote in the letter to the Romans:

None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God. All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.

Romans 3:10-12

This is how God sees us, and before we can have fellowship with Him we must first see ourselves and our sinfulness as He sees it. James tells us to:

Be wretched and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom.

James 4:9

Why would James say this? Because this is the reaction a person has when they see themselves as God sees them, and they see God as He really is. This is really nothing new, in the Sermon on the Mount Jesus begins with these words:

“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted."

Matthew 5:3-4

What Jesus is telling us here is that true salvation begins with us recognizing that we are totally sinful - we are wretched through and through, and there is no good in us at all. Before we can repent of our sin (which is a requirement for salvation) we must first acknowledge that we are sinful and that we have willfully and defiantly disobeyed and rejected God and His commandments. It is not just that we have made little mistakes, but that we are evil to the very core of our being. When we come to this place we will see ourselves as poor in spirit, and we will realize that we have nothing to offer to God. At that point we are then ready to place our faith and trust completely in Him and His provision for our salvation; now we see our sinfulness, and we see that there is nothing within us that can change who we are. Now we can see our need for Christ. Now we see the wickedness of our sin in the eyes of a holy God. This is when mourning comes in, and Jesus tells us that those who mourn will be comforted.

So let's take this now and apply it to what we are seeing here in 1 John 1:8. John is telling us here that anyone who says he has fellowship with God, and does not recognize his own sin, is deceiving himself and the truth is not in him. Does this mean that you cannot be a Christian if you don't recognize your sin? I believe that it does; if we don't see that we are sinful we will never see our need for a Savior. Remember, Jesus said that it is not the healthy who need a doctor but the sick and that He didn't come to call the righteous but sinners (Mark 2:17).

John goes even further in this verse and actually says that those who say they have no sin are self-deceived. Jeremiah tells us that our hearts are deceitful (Jeremiah 17:9) and that is being reiterated here. We must be honest with ourselves and honest with God when it comes to the condition of our heart, because according to what we are seeing here, if we are not we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. In order to experience salvation we must come to grips with our own sinfulness, and as we do and as we confess it to God, He promises to forgive us (more on this next time).

Spend some time today alone with God and ask Him to show you any area of sin in your life that you may have overlooked. Then take what He shows you and confess it to Him, repent of it, and thank Him for the forgiveness of sin that He offers through His Son, Jesus Christ.

Print This Post