Call It What It Is
If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. - (1 John 1:9)
Sometimes we need to take drastic measures to be free from a sin. Jesus said, “If your right eye causes you to sin, pluck it out and cast it from you; for it is more profitable for you that one of your members perish, than for your whole body to be cast into hell” (Matthew 5:29).
Jesus wasn’t speaking literally here. He was using an expression that was commonly understood in that culture. The right eye was thought to be the best eye. So when Jesus made that statement, He was saying, “Do whatever it takes to be free from that sin.”
We have to call sin what it is. Don’t call it a mistake or a weakness; that is the verbiage we use to soften what we do. Call it a sin. We are all human, and we all make mistakes. But there is a big difference between that and going out and overtly sinning.
After David committed adultery with Bathsheba and his sin was exposed, he admitted it and made this statement to God: “Against You, You only, have I sinned, and done this evil in Your sight—that You may be found just when You speak, and blameless when You judge” (Psalm 51:4).
David didn’t say, “Lord, I am weak and human, and I make mistakes.” Rather, he said he had sinned against God. That’s what it means to confess your sin. Start by calling it a sin.
The Bible says, “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9). If you want to be forgiven of your sin, you must first confess it. The word confess means to agree with God. It means seeing sin the way God sees it.
Copyright © 2015 by Harvest Ministries. All rights reserved.
Unless otherwise indicated, Scripture taken from the New King James Version. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
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