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The past few weeks our small group began studying 1 John. After reading over the fairly familiar passage, I was struck by a truth that just made me a little confused. Maybe I had just selectively ignored it before. But it seemed so contradictory, I had to stop for a second.
"But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin."
The passage is talking about walking in the light, as in confessing our sins and being truthful about our failures as we seek righteousness. But then it throws in this seemingly random little tidbit about how walking in full transparency before God gives us fellowship with those around us.
Uh, what?
I know we are supposed to confess our sins to the Lord and also to one another, but I feel from fellowship comes a willingness to confess. Not as much the other way around most of the time.
However, John said what he said the way he did for a reason.
Sin feels divisive. Not so much my own sin, but others’ sin. Others’ sin is just so apparent to me at times. It’s so easy for me to see the ways others fail me. To push away because I don’t want to deal with it. To justify the gap that I put between us because I tell myself I don’t need that in my life. I don’t need to deal with their sin and issues. I have enough to deal with. I need to take care of myself.
So I push away. In the name of self care and sanity. I remove myself from those who hurt me. Or maybe even those I just don’t necessarily agree with.
But the passage says something completely different. Sin can bring fellowship and unity. Well, maybe not the actual sin, but the awareness of it. To address our sin and to bring it into the light will bring us fellowship with others.
That is not what I am experiencing. So where is the disconnect?
The passage is talking about me. About my sin. How much more often to I dwell on the sins of others instead of addressing my own?
Maybe if I spent more time bringing my sin into the light, asking for forgiveness and accountability, seeking encouragement from others, I would be experiencing the fellowship that this passage promises. Instead of being repelled by the sin I see in others and cutting them out because of it.
Maybe then, in our own openness and humility, there would be freedom for others to address their own sin. Maybe, instead of defensiveness, people would feel safe to open up about the struggles they face as well.
Our sin will not bring us unity, but bringing it into the light and fighting alongside others to overcome it will. We are all broken in need of saving. We are all in the trenches together.
I pray that we will learn more compassion and patience. We will extend grace to one another. We will be more disgusted by our own sin than the sin of others, and we will bring them into our fight against it in the power of Christ.