March 5 Daily Devotional

Bible Reading

I John 1:1-10:

¹That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, of the Word of life;
²(For the life was manifested, and we have seen it, and bear witness, and shew unto you that eternal life, which was with the Father, and was manifested unto us;)
³That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you, that ye also may have fellowship with us: and truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ.
⁴And these things write we unto you, that your joy may be full.
⁵This then is the message which we have heard of him, and declare unto you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.
⁶If we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth:
⁷But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.
⁸If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.
⁹If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
¹⁰If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.

Devotional

As we come to the end of another week, it is fitting for us to confess our sins. We have failed to render to God the perfect obedience which is His due, and we have not loved Him with perfect love in the days that have passed. We have not shown to our brothers in Christ the love that God's law requires, and we have not given that testimony in word and in life to all men, which our Lord desires of us. Perhaps we do not feel that we can say with Paul that we are pure from the blood of all men, for unlike him we have not borne faithful witness to all the counsel of God in the opportunities given us (Acts 20:26-27).

But if our sins accuse us and shake us and threaten to ruin our sleep tonight, we who have by grace trusted in Christ as our Saviour from sin are not left without help. We have heard the joyful sound of the Gospel. We know that the blood of Jesus Christ, God's Son, cleanseth His I people from all sin. We have been given the promise that if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. We fail, but our Lord never fails. We may be unfaithful, but He abideth faithful. Our great God and Saviour loves and saves to the uttermost, poor and needy sinners like us.

Welcome to "Think on These Things," a twelve-week daily devotional prepared by the late Dr. John H. Skilton, an ordained minister in the Orthodox Presbyterian Church and for many years Chairman of the New Testament Department at Westminster Theological Seminary, Philadelphia.

We are indebted to P & R Publishing and Skilton House Ministries for permission to use this copyrighted material on the OPC Web site. (P & R held the copyright from 1975 to 2005, at which time they reassigned the copyright to Skilton House.)