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Spiritual Vacation?

              This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all. If we claim to have fellowship with him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live out the truth. 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.

If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. (I John 1:5-9)

 

Don’t you just look forward to weekends and vacations? You work hard all week, or all year, and finally, you get to kick back and take it easy. You might take a trip or just pop the top on your favorite tipple. I know people who claim that the whole time they spend in Florida during the winter is a long vacation. Sometimes, when it comes to Christianity, I think people sometimes think that after being good Christian soldiers on Sunday, or maybe even from Sunday to Thursday, we get to take a vacation and do things we know we shouldn’t do.

This was the whole theory behind Mardi Gras. It was the day before Lent, the last chance to engage in folly and wild living before entering the penitence and sobriety of Lent. I’m sure there are other similar practices, whether they are personal or social. Sure, we want to walk in the Light, but doesn’t everyone deserve a “night out”? But, “if we claim to have fellowship with him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie…”

We all do this, even if we don’t think about it in quite these terms.  We also wouldn’t like to think of them in terms of cheating, but isn’t that what the “I deserve a spiritual vacation” is all about? And yes, Scripture makes it clear that if we confess our sins, God will forgive us, but that leads to the question of what “confess” means. It comes from Latin and Proto-Indo-European words meaning “together or with” and “to speak.” In other words, it involves agreeing with God about something.

So, if you had a spouse or significant other who engaged in one-night stands, then came home and “confessed” that he/she had done something wrong, would you believe that he/she really thought they were doing something wrong? What if the practice continued week after week? And if you confronted him/her and he/she said, “Well, we all deserve a vacation,” would you shrug your shoulders and say, “OK, I’ll forgive you”? Yes, there is a passage tin which Jesus tells us to forgive seventy times seven times. I’m not disputing that. What today’s passage says is that if we confess our sins, God is faithful to forgive us. Again, that requires that we agree with Him that our sins are wrong. He is not obligated to forgive us for taking a spiritual vacation. 

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