Forgetfulness

Over the course of time, many unsavory characters have arrived on the scene proclaiming to be Christ, often twisting and perverting scripture in order to justify their erroneous and heretical views. Many don't seem to understand The First Epistle of John , and the nature of sin and grace. If they did, they wouldn't be mislead and arrive at the errant and outright dangerous conclusions that they do.

In order for us to confess (and thus be forgiven of) our sins, we must first be conscious of the fact that we are indeed sinners.

One of the points that John was trying to explain was that the Son and Father are a package deal, and that the spirit of Antichrist (a denial of the relationship between Jesus and the Father) was incompatible with church doctrine, and was in fact heretical.

Whatever mishmash of misinformation or rumor that may have been going around at the time that contradicted his divine origin and his sinless life either stemmed from the heathen or from well-meaning but tragically misguided members of cults.

Anyone who outright denies the fact that they need His salvation is in fact lost.

Anyone who claims to have a relationship with Christ and who does not mind his commandments is lost and is walking in darkness.

If we name the name of Christ, we would make an earnest effort to walk and grow in his grace.

What we are talking about is various forms of self-deception.

1 John explains the litmus test, or measuring stick by which we are judged.
Does Christ count you as his own?

Anyone who places these things above the Lord (idolatry) does not, in fact, serve the Lord.
The serve themselves.

Sin is, in definition, a failure to serve God's purposes.
It is to serve the desires of the flesh instead.

If we walk in the light, when we do sin, it is laid on Christ's charge.
It is as if we never did sin.
We dust ourselves off and keep moving.

If our conversion was insincere, we will be branded the hypocrites we are and Christ will one day tell us to depart from him.

Like it all never even happened.
There's that concept of forgetfulness once again.

Hijacking improper motives to reach this particular goal will get us nowhere.