Nov 30 Daniel 5:17-31, Daniel 6:1-28 1 John 1, 1 John 2:1-12 Psalm 136:1-12

Dan 6:4-5

Then the high officials and the satraps sought to find a ground for complaint against Daniel with regard to the kingdom, but they could find no ground for complaint or any fault, because he was faithful, and no error or fault was found in him. Then these men said, “We shall not find any ground for complaint against this Daniel unless we find it in connection with the law of his God.”

What a testimony. The satraps and the officials wanted to bring Daniel down, they desperately wanted to get him in trouble with the king. 

So they investigated him. They probably spied in him, bribed servants for information and did all the things you’d expect in a historical royal court. 

But nothing. They couldn’t find any dirt on this guy at all. 

The only thing they could do was use his faith. That was it. 

I winder, if someone wanted to bring you down – is that the only leverage that they would be able to use? Your faith? Or would they find something far easier to use against you? 

If we’re honest I don’t think any of us could claim to be as squeaky clean as Daniel. But you know what? Is not a bad thing at all to aim for. What if we decided to live without fault to the world? That we wouldn’t download that movie for free, or we wouldn’t nudge the figures a little on the taxes – that we wouldn’t do anything at all that the world could hold against us? (Incidentally those were just two examples of things that came to mind – don’t limit the list to just those)

What if we decided that the only thing anyone could ever hold against us was our faith? What a living testimony we would be. 

What if, today… we started down that path?

1 John 1:6-10

If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice 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 cleanses us from all sin. If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.

And..

1 John 2:1

My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. 

What is John saying? At some points, you can take him as saying if you sin the light is not in you. But also if you say you have no sin, you are lying. It can seem contradictory, but its’ not.

First, he’s talking about walking in the darkest and saying we have fellowship with Him that we lie. That doesn’t mean someone who lapses and sins… walking in darkness is choose darkness, choosing sin and not letting it bother you.

Because, as John says – we all mess up. We all have sin in our lives that needs to be combatted. And if we say we don’t we are deceiving ourselves.

But equally if let sin have dominion over our lives and we call ourselves Christians, that doesn’t hold true either. We are walking in darkness.

There is a difference between battling sin and letting it have dominion.

And that’s the point John is making. He’s saying, leave sin behind. Defeat sin. If you allow sin to control you, then you are not in the light. He’s telling us that so that we don’t in. But if we do… we have an advocate with the father – Jesus Christ. He’s there to deal with our sin.

Flee sin. But when you fail, don’t spiral out of control and think you’ve fallen from grace. Trust Jesus to help you beat it and trust Jesus to forgive you when you fail.