Staying Clean for Jesus by Deniz22 |
![]() The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. 2 Peter 3:9 KJV A little tip on reading the Jewish Christian Epistles, especially 1+2 Peter, James and 1 John...they are written to both saved and unsaved Jews. Case in point is the scripture quoted above. By no stretch of the Scripture is God holding off the coming of Christ to give saved Jews an opportunity to repent! This may be especially disastrous in the case of Chapter One of First John. Reading the chapter before reading commentaries will allow the unbiased reader to see its strictly evangelistic nature. Evangelism is always directed to unsaved individuals, not believers. 1 John 1 is first encouraging non-believing Jews to believe on Christ and thus enjoy the same fellowship with the Father and the Son the Apostles were experiencing by faith in Christ. 1 John 1:9 has been an uneasy, ill fitting yoke of bondage to Christians who should be rejoicing in a once and for all salvation, sustained by the knowledge we are new creatures in Christ, whose old sinful nature is nailed to the cross. The call for Christians to daily confess their sins is based on a misapplication of who John is addressing when he writes, “If WE say WE have no sin, WE lie and the truth is not in US...” Now, who continually claimed they were not sinners by virtue of being Abraham’s descendants? Rhetorical question indeed! The truth of what I am teaching here is validated by the simple fact neither the Apostle Peter or Paul taught the daily confession of all sin as the way of maintaining our salvation. If the usual application of First John is correct...it would be vital and essential and therefore repeated many times in the NT scriptures, as are all other fundamental doctrines. Such is simply not the case with this teaching! Remember, Christ told the hesitant Peter,”Except I wash you, you have NO PART in Me.” Christ went on to make clear He was not speaking of initial salvation (the washing of the blood) but rather the washing of our minds from the “dirt” of this world. This is to allow our focus to return to our beloved Lord Jesus and His further revelation of Himself, His agenda for Israel, the Church and the Gentile nations. A believer full of lust and loving the world simply cannot have true fellowship with Christ. The water Christ personally applied to Peter's dirty feet represents “the water of the Word” and as Christ freely applied it to those already “accepted in the beloved”, so He called us to do for our fellow believers in Christ. We do this by validating their faith and reminding them of our Heavenly calling. Believers have all been washed in the blood of Christ once and for all. No need to repeat that washing, but as we walk in this corrupt world we cannot keep our minds clean anymore than Peter could keep his feet clean while walking in the dirty streets of Jerusalem. Therefore, our minds must be periodically washed with the "water of the word". This allows true fellowship with Jesus. Another way of saying the same thing is to note Paul's call to 'be renewed in your mind daily'.
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Deniz22
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