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CHAPTER 1Saints gain fellowship with God by obedience—We must confess our sins to gain forgiveness. |
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1 aTHAT which
was from the bbeginning, which we have heard, which we have
seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, of
the cWord of life;
2 (For the life was manifested, and we have seen it, and bear witness, and ashew unto you that beternal life, which was with the Father, and was manifested unto us;) 3 That which we have aseen and heard declare we unto you, that ye also may have fellowship with us: and truly our bfellowship is with the cFather, and with his Son Jesus Christ. |
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4 And these things awrite we
unto you, that your joy may be full.
5 This then is the message which we have heard of him, and declare unto you, that God is alight, and in him is no bdarkness at all. |
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6 If we say that we have fellowship with him,
and awalk in bdarkness, we lie, and do
not the truth:
7 But if we awalk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the bblood of Jesus Christ his Son ccleanseth us from all sin. |
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8 If we say that we have ano
bsin, we cdeceive ourselves, and the
truth is not in usa.
9 If we aconfess our sins, he is faithful and bjust to cforgive us our sins, and to dcleanse us from all unrighteousness. 10 If we say that we have anot sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us. |
8a the truth is not in us If any say that they are without sin, the truth in not in them; for all men are sinners. It is the 'carnal' or worldly nature of fallen mortally temporal man to follow after the weakness of the flesh. And without spiritual guidance and control over the natural man, he is but subject to the nature of the creature which in one respect follows the laws of nature of survival of the fitest, which is a self-centered perspective of caring only for self and one's self interest over even truth and light and the welfare of mankind, having love and respect one for another as equals. It is this self interest and self centeredness which makes a person an enemy to God. Lucifer even exhibited such a nature in the preexistance while only a spirit being, thus this flaw is not unique to the physical body only, but is so inhanced by it as to the wants, desires and needs of the physical creature. If Satan could not even control this aspect of his person while but a spirit, how could he have ever so exercised control over a body when he could not even control his nature in the spirit? Therefore it would have not served any purpose for Lucifer to have a body. He would not have been able to be in control of it for he could not even control his spirit nature to begin with. In this respect it is more merciful that Satan and those who also lacked such ability to control their spirits, that they never are to have a physical body for they would not be able to exercise control over it at all. It would have been in effect useless to them. | |