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Welcome back to the Hope Bible School verse-by-verse Bible study of 1 John. Get a new lesson every other week on Monday at 12:00 PM Eastern.

We are now on Lesson 17.

Let’s review what we learned in Lesson 16.

We learned that God promises that if you daily choose to walk in the light by spending time in the Word of God, you will have deep and intimate fellowship with Him, you will have fellowship with others that are seeking God, and you will experience the continual cleansing of all sin because of the blood of Jesus.

Now let’s read our verse for Lesson 17.

1 John 1:8 If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.

Let’s focus on the first part of 1 John 1:8 If we say we have no sin…

The word “sin” means missing the target. The target is keeping God’s commands. Sin is an act, thought, or behavior that violates God’s commands and misses the target.

In Genesis 2:16-17 we read that God commanded Adam not to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

Genesis 2:16-17 And the LORD God commanded him, “You may eat freely from every tree of the garden, 17 but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil; for in the day that you eat of it, you will surely die.”

In Genesis 3:1-7 we read that Adam and Eve were deceived by the serpent regarding God’s commands.

Genesis 3:1-7 Now the serpent was more crafty than any beast of the field that the LORD God had made. And he said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden?’ ” 2 The woman answered the serpent, “We may eat the fruit of the trees of the garden, 3 but about the fruit of the tree in the middle of the garden, God has said, ‘You must not eat of it or touch it, or you will die.’ ” 4“You will not surely die,” the serpent told her. 5“For God knows that in the day you eat of it, your eyes will be opened and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” 6 When the woman saw that the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eyes, and that it was desirable for obtaining wisdom, she took the fruit and ate it. She also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate it. 7 And the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked; so they sewed together fig leaves and made coverings for themselves.

Adam made a choice to disobey God. He missed the target of keeping God’s commands. He sinned.

In Romans 5:12 we read that because of this choice, sin entered the