1 John 3:5-6
Most
of us know someone that we really don’t want to spend time with in the same
room. There is a clash of personalities or a difference of opinion that gets
expressed in an offensive way. And when you see that person you feel like
heading to the door. You avoid them. Or maybe they have offended you in some
deep manner with words or deeds, and forgiveness has happened, but you have
chosen not to associate with them. So they show up and you leave.
We
can love people without liking them or their actions. We can deeply desire God’s
best for them without inviting them into our homes. Love doesn’t mean
friendship. I have no desire to meet almost any famous people. There isn’t one
sports star, entertainment personality, or political figure that I really want
to meet. In fact, I have avoided and will probably continue to avoid
opportunities when they arise.
Oil
and water cannot be mixed. You put them in the same glass and after a few
minutes they would each occupy their own layer. They would separate automatically
and predictably. The only way to get them to mix is by adding an emulsifier to
the mix. This third compound then changes the way the electrons align at the
molecular level and the two can stay together. Otherwise they will separate.
The electrical forces at the molecular level force them apart.
Jesus
came to separate us from our sin. He came to not just removed the penalty for
the sin, but to get sin out of our lives. He came, not to just give us a bath,
but to clean us to the point that we no longer need a bath. None of us gets
there before we die, but that is His design. We are to be like Him, and He has no
sin.
Sin
and the Jesus-follower should not be in the same room, let alone the same life.
I know you are thinking to yourself, but that isn’t my reality. I see the sin
in me. I know my struggles. If I am a Jesus-follower, why is there sin? Two
things are at work.
First
Jesus separates us from our sin and the eternal consequences of that sin. Then
Jesus works the process of cleaning us up throughout the rest of our life. That
is why John says that those who follow Him can’t remain in a life of sin. Sin
can’t become the everyday desire and practice of someone who claims that Jesus
has worked and is working in their lives. Our lives must change over time,
change in His direction. If that process isn’t at work in us, if we don’t feel
the pull and tug of the Holy Spirit, if we don’t yield to this influence, we
can rightly question whether we are His.
Our
whole lives will be a mixture of oil and water. Over time there is less and
less of the oil of sin, and purer and purer water. When we submit to this
process and put obedience into practice in our lives, we become what He meant
us to be in the first place. We get the best of this life, and the life to
come. What could be better than this?