Acts 8:22 English Standard Version (ESV) Repent, therefore, of this wickedness of yours, and pray to the Lord that, if possible, the intent of your heart may be forgiven you.

Yesterday it was implied that Christ can only manifest Himself thru us if we stop sinning intentionally. That comment takes some explaining.

1 John 1:8-10 English Standard Version

⁸ If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. ⁹ If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. ¹⁰ If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.

We all have sin and we do sin, but it is an accident of birth not the intentions of the heart. God is more concerned with the intentions of the heart than the actual act itself.

Hebrews 4:12 English Standard Version

¹² For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.

The Word of God, the Word of Truth, cuts like a cleaver to separate our thoughts from our intentions. The passages in 1 John 1 make it clear that we can and do lie to ourselves but we cannot lie to God. To be able to discern from thoughts and intentions of the heart, the Word of God has to be imbedded in both the mind and the heart.

The Word in our heart is who we are.

The Word in our mind reminds us of who we are.

The Word of God is active and living in both or we will be constantly at odds with ourselves as to what to believe and how to act.

The Word in our hearts is always true.

The Word in our mind is always active, correcting our thoughts to align them with He who is True.

1 Corinthians 13:4-7 English Standard Version

⁴ Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant ⁵ or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful;^{[counts offenses] 6} it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. ⁷ Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

Let us be clear on this issue of agape love. It is the manifestation of the love that abides in us in Christ.

When we try to duplicate this love we are judging ourselves in respect to how agape love acts. We will often find that we fail to love like Christ loves. We are not to condemn ourselves when we fail and we are not to commend ourselves when we succeed.

Sometimes it feels like doing what we are told to do. I’d tell my mother “I don’t wanna!” Her response, “I know but do it anyway.”

We don’t want to be whiners when it comes to love but some of these things are difficult for humans to do in our own strength.

1 John 3:1-3 English Standard Version

¹ See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him. ² Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears^{[love appears]} we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is. ³ And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure.

Here John speaks to our relationship to God and love. The world will not know God but they will know us. In order for the lost world to see Christ in us, Christ manifesting Himself, we must do one thing that allows Christ to do that. We need to stop intentional sin.