"As He is Light we have forgiveness and fellowship one with another." God is pure and has NO fellowship with sin and even goes to the great length of satisfying His very justice against it in His mercy As we stand in the Light (the truth) we have fellowship within sins confession. John narrows down the fellowship with God and one another down to our very confession of it and our forgiveness of one another. Read that again...our confession of it and our forgiving one another! Even we de-facto violate this commandment and possibly even deceive ourselves and by doing so set ourselves OUT of the fellowship!

The temptation of the lie: Hypothetically, if we say we have no sin we deceive ourselves and the truth is NOT in us....and we do NOT share in the light of our Lord Jesus Christ. Some approach this objectively and believe John was battling the Agnostics, but John nevertheless is speaking about the church as he includes himself using the word "we!" We have the same struggle in our flesh. Why would we want to confess our sin or sins? It is like "shooting ourselves in our own foot" when we deal with our own sin! The old man deals in self deceit and wants to tell us we are not all that bad. The flesh does not want us to stand in the mirror of the law for too long and have to deal with that sin. He keeps us from sincerely dealing with it and the truth of God's Word as it requires us to do. It is a subtle yet very powerful LIE!

Required truth: The truth of God's word says "confess your sins!" It means to say along with or to speak the same as. That we say the same thing that God says! To say along with God as opposed to my own words, philosophy, or my own opinion on the matter. We ask ourselves "how can I make self examination fresh, but we come to the same answer again and again. It IS the same. The same flesh, the same old man, and the same struggle with the same point. Consider your sins and confess them! John uses the generic word for sin here....missing the mark of God's glory. Let us confess our sins....that we are born in sin, that all our works are as filthy rags to God, and that we cannot keep the demand of the keeping of God's law. We always fall short! That is why we fall on our knees and call on God to forgive! CONFESS YOUR SINS! Do this to God and to one another! Your flesh will do everything it can to steer you away from self examination and looking at self...even to the point of manufacturing excuses, half truths, and avoidance completely...but do it!

Wonderful result: When we do this we will find that God is just and able to forgive our transgressions. Look at Abraham, Jacob, David, and many many others in the Bible. There are all kinds of examples and we too have our personal stories that we can attest to of deceiving ourselves that same way and continually walking in our sins...YET, God is faithful! The promise that He is faithful to forgive us our sins and seal that He is faithful to forgive us as we confess them to Him and one another. (Don't forget the part about confessing them to God and each other.) Confess and God will forgive them...remove them as far as east is to the west. And He will sanctify us and make us as white as the snow! Read your Bibles about how well it went for those who tried to live in or with their sin without confession.....