Define Continue

As I was doing my Bible Study this morning I was continuing my reading in 1John 5. I came across the 18th verse and I had to look up the definition of the word. The word you ask? Well, I will give that to you in a minute; first, here is the verse.

"We know that anyone born of God does not continue to sin", now this is just the first part of the verse I know. But this is the part I wanted to focus on.

So, now for the word. It is...CONTINUE. I had to wonder what that really meant. Was it a reference to any sin, a particular sin, or that if we sin at all then maybe we aren't saved. These are questions I have had several times in my life and only now have I had any answers, kind of!

I tried to look in my Bible Handbook and didn't find anything useful (to me) for this passage, so I decided to look up the word CONTINUE in the Dictionary. Now I wish I hadn't!!

The Dictionary gives several definitions; but, the ones that caught my attention are these, "to go on again after an interruption". Ouch. Another definition is, "to stay".

I have found that when I choose to sin that the Holy Spirit almost always -no not almost, every time- prompts me, urges me, provides a distraction, interrupts the choice to give me another option. If I would listen, I would hear the interruption. I would see the distraction. I would choose the other option. Sometimes I do. Sometimes I don't.

What I get out of this scripture in light of this definition is this: I am not sure!! I am still thinking about it. I do think that when we accept the sacrifice of Jesus, we are bound to heed the interruptions that God gives us in regards to sin. If we are in the Spirit we will not want to continue or stay in our sin. We will look for those interruptions and a way to get out. Hopefully, we will look for ways to not even get into it!

When we sin, and we all do because the Bible says that 'all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God; we should not want to set up camp there. When someone confronts us on it, we should want to repent and turn from our sin. We should not 'continue' in that sin.

I am still processing this idea and trying to integrate it into my thinking and and weighing it against some things that I was taught in church. I would love to hear any thoughts on this.

I will post again when I have processed, searched, and questioned this more.