1John 1:8 - Stopping short... of heaven

"If we should say that sin we are not having, ourselves we are deceiving and the truth is not in us."

-You’re not fooling anybody.  Maybe just yourself.  There is never a point in this life, on this side of heaven, where any one of us could ever safely say that we have not sinned.  That we have it all together.  That we never have or will (ever again) make a mistake.

-There are those who will not even acknowledge their sin.  This perhaps is more the audience which John is addressing.  John is giving us a litmus test for those who have truly trusted Christ.  Because there are those who deny Him, who deny their need for Him, in that they deny their sinfulness.  They justify their actions.  They have yet to come to terms with how far short they fall of the sublime moral perfection of their Maker, the almighty thrice-holy God of heaven, and stopping short of this truth, the truth that all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, they show that they have in fact stopped short of Heaven altogether.  They are missing the truth, and are only deceiving themselves.

-There are others, tho, who because they are ashamed of their sins, of their shortcomings, will want to gloss over them.  They look around them in the assembly and think they are seeing a bunch of Mary Poppins-es, practically-perfect people.  Everyone looks like they have their act pretty much together, no problems or blemishes here.  Pay no attention to that (flawed) man (hiding) behind the curtain.  They want to put their best face forward and think that acceptance depends on perfection.  Or they simply do not have the requisite humility to be honest about how they messed up and are messed up.  But even these are mistaken, deceiving themselves - not only about the state of things in their assembly (where there are no perfect people, despite any appearances to the contrary, even if it looks as though there may be no imperfect people allowed)(and sadly this is the case in too many a Christian assembly), but also about what it takes to be a ‘good’ follower of Jesus.  Surely the eyes of the Lord move to and fro throughout the earth, looking for folks who more closely resemble the humble, contrite tax collector who was honest about his sin, as opposed to the Pharisee who was trying to convince others (and who had certainly convinced himself) about how good and upright he was (Luke 18.9-14).