Lying To Ourselves
It’s very easy to lie to ourselves. In a lot of ways, it’s easier to lie to ourselves than it is to lie to other people. We tell ourselves that we’re doing fine, we tell ourselves that we’re not sinning, we even can tell ourselves that we had no choice in the matter. But, no matter what we tell ourselves, lying to ourselves is just as wrong as lying to someone else.
One of the major lies that we can tell ourselves is that we can sin and live in darkness while we’re still following God. John, in 1 John 1:5, plainly states that we can’t do that and that we’re deceiving ourselves. God is light, there is no darkness in Him. If we’re living in sin or darkness, how can we say that we’re walking with Him as well? We can’t live in sin, and live for God, the two are mutually exclusive. It’s easy to say sometimes that everyone is doing it, or it’s not a big deal, but if we’re Christians, knowingly and repeatedly sinning is completely unacceptable. If we are truly walking with God, we’re going to change the way we live. How about us? Do we do “little” sins habitually, and not think that it’s not that big of a deal? If we do, we need to pray for God’s help to stop, sin is sin and sin is always wrong.
John goes on to say that if we say that there is no sin in our lives, than we’re deceiving ourselves even more. Everybody has sin in their lives. We may not want to admit it, but we all have something we do that’s wrong. We need to ask God for the strength to stop sinning, and for forgiveness for our sins. John says that God will forgive us if we ask and clean us. However, we need to ask Him to do it, we can’t do it ourselves, and pretending that we don’t sin just makes it all worse.
In closing, John details the worst lie that we can tell ourselves. It is telling ourselves that we have not sinned. This is worse than the others because it makes God a liar. The Bible says repeatedly that everybody has sinned. God sent Jesus to die for all of our sins. If we say that we’ve not sinned, than Jesus didn’t have to die, and the Bible is not infallible. We all have sinned. If you say you haven’t, then you’re just lying to yourself, and insulting God’s sacrifice. Is that really the best choice?
Lying to ourselves is easy; none of us like thinking that we’re in the wrong. But, we need to be honest with ourselves. We all have sinned, but with Jesus’ help, we can be forgiven and made better. So, let’s look at our lives. Is there any sin in our lives that we’ve been trying to ignore? Are we really walking with God the way we should?
