“My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous” (I John 2:1).

John exhorts believers not to sin, then teaches that if we do sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ, who is pleading our case. Believers have the potential to sin or not to sin. But what happens when a believer sins?

1. He makes himself unclean in God’s sight. “Let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit” (II Corinthians 7:1).
2. He breaks his fellowship with God. “If we say that we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth” (I John 1:6).
3. He causes the whole family of God to suffer. “Did not Achan . . . commit a trespass in the accursed thing, and wrath fell on all the congregation of Israel? and that man perished not alone in his iniquity” (Joshua 22:20).
4. He loses his rewards. “Look to yourselves, that we lose not those things which we have wrought, but that we receive a full reward” (II John 8).
5. He has no certain access to God. “If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me” (Psalm 66:18).
6. He exposes himself to God’s chastening. “For whom the Lord loveth He chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom He receiveth. . . . For what son is he whom the father chasteneth not?” (Hebrews 12:6,7).
7. He destroys his joy and peace. “And he [Peter] went out, and wept bitterly” (Matthew 26:75).

If there is unconfessed sin in our lives, would it not be better to claim I John 1:9 than to endure the devastating problems that accompany sin? “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” NPS