Our teacher John the apostle has been sharing with us how much God loves us throughout the book of First John. The overriding theme of John's book is filled with example after example of the lengths that our Heavenly Father has taken to assure that we may have a relationship with Him. In the final words of John to his audience he has been addressing the differences between sin that is unto death and sins that are not unto death. We have been learning that the one sin that will keep a person from being in fellowship with God and making it to heaven one day is the rejection of Jesus as Savior. Today John shares with us about the nature of all the other sins of people. He wrote in First John in chapter five and verse seventeen:
All unrighteousness is sin, and there is a sin not unto death.
Notice first the word “all”. When John wrote all, he meant all. Today there seems to be a ranking of sin by many people. Some say this sin is worse than that and this one is not really that bad, but John says that “all unrighteousness is sin.” In the book of Jeremiah in chapter nine beginning in verse three through eight we read:
And they bend their tongues [like] their bow [for] lies: but they are not valiant for the truth upon the earth; for they proceed from evil to evil, and they know not me, sayes the LORD. Take you heed every one of his neighbor, and trust you not in any brother: for every brother will utterly supplant, and every neighbor will walk with slanders. And they will deceive every one his neighbor, and will not speak the truth: they have taught their tongue to speak lies, [and] weary themselves to commit iniquity. Your habitation [is] in the midst of deceit; through deceit they refuse to know me, saith the LORD. Therefore thus saith the LORD of hosts, Behold, I will melt them, and try them; for how shall I do for the daughter of my people? Their tongue [is as] an arrow shot out; it speaks deceit: [one] speaks peaceably to his neighbor with his mouth, but in heart he lays his wait.
This was Jeremiah's recorded declaration of the children of Israel just before they were taken over by the Babylonian Empire. Sin was rampant, and people were proceeding “from evil to evil.” Look at the tone of the words once again. The Lord desires that they turn from these sins, these unrighteous behaviors, and “know” Him rather than “refuse to know” Him. This nation refused to know God during Jeremiah's writing, and today we must all ask this question, “Will we hold on to our unrighteousness, whatever it may be, and refuse to know God?” God through John makes “all unrighteousness sin”, and these sins are not those that will leave us out of a relationship with God should we turn from them. However, should we cling to them, justify them, ratify them, and proclaim them as “evolving” or anything otherwise, we have rejected the word of God and made our word superior to His. This is indeed the sin that is unto death.
Yesterday was historic in America. For the first time in our history our leader proclaimed a particular sin as affirmed by him personally. The line of demarcation has been drawn, and should we begin to proclaim that “all except this particular unrighteousness is sin” we have added to John's words and thereby made the word of God of none effect. May God have mercy upon us in this country as we proceed forward and fulfill the very habits and manner of living of the people of Israel from long ago. “All unrighteousness is sin, and there is a sin not unto death” as John wrote it. May we all bow our heads before the Almighty God and be sure that we align with His appraisal of the matter.
Next time we will take a look at what John says about those who are born of God, so read ahead, and we shall join together then.
Until tomorrow...there is more...
Look for the new devotional book “Equipped for Battle – From Generation to Generation” in all major bookstore sites, www.amazon.com ; www.barnesandnobles.com ; download to e-books, and find it locally at www.mrzlc.com/bookstore
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