Articles
LIttle Words
We often read different passages in our Bibles and overlook little words that are important to context and meaning. Turning our Bibles to I John 1:6-10, we see the little word “if” used five times. When we look at Thayer’s Greek Lexicon, it describes the Greek word “if” as a conditional particle, which makes reference to time and to experience, introducing something future, but not determining, before the event, whether it is a certainly to take place. The passage cited above actually starts in verse 5 saying, “God is light and in him is no darkness at all” (NKJV). This verse sets the standard of holiness, purity and righteousness of God. With God there is no darkness which represents impurity, falsity, unrighteousness. Now that we have God as the standard, we must walk in the light to have fellowship with him. This means our Christian life should be a journey of righteousness and holiness. Walking in the light is not just religious sincerity but a way of life, walking in the truth and being a light to the world. We need to take a self-evaluation and look at where we are spiritually; light or darkness. We need to be in the light because verse 7 tells us that being in the light we receive the cleansing of our sins by the blood of Jesus Christ. In Eph. 1:7, we see “in Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the richness of his grace.” (NKJV) It comes back to the little word “if” we choose to walk in the light then we can be “in Him”. As we go further verse 8, we need to understand we can deceive ourselves into thinking we are upright with no sin. Dan King in his commentary on 1-3 John gives us a phrase to think about; “Denial of sin: Missing the road to forgiveness”. Have we totally discounted Rom. 3:23, “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God”(NKJV). We need to humbly look at ourselves and step away from self-denial and realize we make mistakes. We think we might be fooling the world but the continuation of verse 8 tells us “the truth is not in us”. Why ignore our sins when in verse 9, the Lord has made a way out; confess your sins and He will forgive our sins. The added value is He will cleanse us from all unrighteousness. The little word “if” is important because adherence or non-adherence can carry eternal consequences.
