In last week's text, verses 5 through 10, we noted that there was a foundation in verse 5,

that God is light and in him there is no darkness. We noted that in verses 6 and 7 there is an application that we should not walk in darkness but we should walk in the light.

And we noticed that in verses 8 through 10, there was a clarification,

namely that walking in the light does not mean sinlessness, but it means confessing

our sins and receiving forgiveness. Two of those points are picked up in the next two verses,

and I'm going to develop them and one other. I would summarize the three headings of this text like this. One, don't sin. Two, don't despair if you do sin, and three, don't hog Jesus for yourself.

Let's take those one at a time and unpack them for our faith and obedience.

First, don't sin.

Verse 1, first half.

My little children, I am writing this to you so that you may not sin.

Two points under this. We need a definition for sin and we need to see the seriousness of

sin that would motivate John to write a letter with the purpose of urging Christians not to sin.

First, the definition. The clearest must straightforward definition of sin in this book is chapter 3 verse 4.

There John says, everyone who commits sin is guilty of lawlessness. Sin is lawlessness. There's our definition.

Or to unfold it,

sin is our refusal to submit to God's law or God's word. Or my definition would be, sin is in subordination against God.

When God's word says what God is joined together, let not man put asunder and you plan to divorce, you sin.

When God's word says put away all deceit and you plan to mislead the IRS on your tax statement, you sin.

When the word of God says you sin.

When the word of God says, bring up your children in the instruction of the Lord and you make

no effort to teach your children the word of God, you sin among civilized people sin is kept discreet. It is usually encased in attractive containers of rationalizations.

And it's not usually considered to be very serious, is it?

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