1 John 2:1
My dear children, I am writing this to you so that you will not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate who pleads our case before the Father. He is Jesus Christ, the one who is truly righteous.
His point in writing is to help us reach a place where we sin less. No one, as long as we are living in the flesh, is going to be sinless, but our desire, stemming from our love and relationship with the Lord, is to sin less, keeping our relationship free from guilt, shame, anxiety, worry, hopelessness, and so on. However, if we do sin, we have an advocate, the Comforter, our Defender, our Kinsman Redeemer, who stands before the Father, making us righteous, Jesus. We also have a second advocate who is always interceding for us, the Holy Spirit.
1 John 2:2
2 He himself is the sacrifice that atones for our sins—and not only our sins but the sins of all the world.
Because of Christ’s sacrifice, we have favor with God. God’s wrath for sin has been met by Christ’s sacrifice (atoning). Our just God is able to remain just without compromising His justice because of the sacrifice Jesus made. However, the Holy Spirit, through John, makes it clear that Christ’s sacrifice was not only for us but for every man and woman ever born. It addresses not only the sins of the saved but also those of the unsaved or yet-to-be-saved, regardless of whether they accept His gift or not.
1 John 2:3
3 And we can be sure that we know him if we obey his commandments. 4 If someone claims, “I know God,” but doesn’t obey God’s commandments, that person is a liar and is not living in the truth. 5 But those who obey God’s word truly show how completely they love him. That is how we know we are living in him. 6 Those who say they live in God should live their lives as Jesus did.
When John is saying “know” in this epistle, it refers to knowing as if you have experienced Him. Not simply knowing as if you have perhaps seen Him, heard of Him, or even “know of” Him. But he is saying you have an experience with Him that has impacted your life.
John 14: 21-23
Those who accept my commandments and obey them are the ones who love me. And because they love me, my Father will love them. And I will love them and reveal myself to each of them.”
22 Judas (not Judas Iscariot, but the other disciple with that name) said to him, “Lord, why are you going to reveal yourself only to us and not to the world at large?”
23 Jesus replied, “All who love me will do what I say. My Father will love them, and we will come and make our home with each of them
Do you sense the intimacy, the love God possesses, and the connection He has with those who are obedient in walking with Him? Jesus goes even further in John 17.
Jesus’ prayer in John 17 was that we would be one with Him and the Father, even as they are one—having the same heart and love for others and the family of God. Loving God with all our heart, mind, soul, and strength, and our neighbor as ourselves reflects the obedience that embodies living in the truth. When everything we are reflects who God has designed us to be, we then reflect Him, and people see and feel that love in us if they choose to! It is the oneness of coming into complete agreement with God, as Amos prophesied.
Amos 3:3 NKJV
Can two walk together, unless they are agreed?
We can’t walk with God, live in agreement with God walk in the truth unless we choose to believe and live in his truth and break from our old sin nature. Our flesh gets more in the way, our fleshly desires, our choosing what we want without even considering what God wants even though he has designed us to live a life full of joy and success despite what the enemy, the world, and our own flesh throws our way.
1 John 2:7,8
Dear friends, I am not writing a new commandment for you; rather it is an old one you have had from the very beginning. This old commandment—to love one another—is the same message you heard before. 8 Yet it is also new. Jesus lived the truth of this commandment, and you also are living it. For the darkness is disappearing, and the true light is already shining.
As I said last week, this letter is a teaching given to the family. This is intimate and personal and he is saying I’m giving you something, as family, you need to work on. When he says “new” here the Greeks have two words for new. One that means new, as in recent. The other is new as in fresh. This is the latter. He is saying I need to refresh this commandment with you. “Love one another”
Christian love is not an appendage it is life in Christ, without love our faith is nothing. It was God’s great love that sent Jesus to the cross, it was Christ’s love that held him there so we could once again have relationship with the father and it is that same love that causes the Holy Spirit to live with us and in us. It is God’s love that empowers us to impact the world.
John’s emphasis from the Holy Spirit is not new, it is merely a fresh revisiting…
There is no darkness in God we read that last week 1 John 1:5b
…God is light, and there is no darkness in him at all.
That is why the darkness is disappearing but there is a problem.
1 John 2:9-11
If anyone claims, “I am living in the light,” but hates a fellow believer, that person is still living in darkness. 10 Anyone who loves a fellow believer is living in the light and does not cause others to stumble. 11 But anyone who hates a fellow believer is still living and walking in darkness. Such a person does not know the way to go, having been blinded by the darkness.
The Holy Spirit was addressing a problem in the family. There were those who claimed to follow Christ but harbored hatred for other believers. There is a significant difference between not understanding someone and hating them. Believers exist at various maturity levels, but there should be no room for hatred. Love is meant to triumph, that type of love which only God can instill in us, as described in 1 Corinthians 13. This is one of my ongoing concerns when politics influences the church, when racism impacts the church, or when those who are financially better off begin to look down on those in need. The Holy Spirit is telling us that He will not guide those who carry hatred in their hearts for other believers. Once again, this is a family letter; we should not hate anyone. We may oppose their actions, as Jesus did with the Pharisees, when they failed to challenge the people to live by God’s word and instead imposed a list of laws created by man.
If we lack love for one another, we are longer guided by the Holy Spirit but by our own flesh or, worse, the devil. We will not make progress; we will simply stumble and wander aimlessly.
We can’t allow walls to build up between us. We need to tear them down in love. We are the world’s example of Christ’s heart, and if we can’t love one another, then we are only fooling ourselves and are not truly living for him.
We will have disagreements in the Body, and we will have misunderstandings. As we grow, we will hurt and wound one another, but we must never stop loving. We no longer live; it is Christ in us. We must always keep growing, and one way to notice our growth is to love despite these challenges. Once again, we can’t do this on our own; we have to step aside, surrender our hurts, wounds, and whatever else, and allow the Lord to show us how to handle them with love!
We have differing levels of maturity and we need to understand where we are..
1 John 2:12-14 (NKJV)
I write to you, little children,
Because your sins are forgiven you for His name’s sake.
13 I write to you, fathers,
Because you have known Him who is from the beginning.
I write to you, young men,
Because you have overcome the wicked one.
I write to you, little children,
Because you have known the Father.
14 I have written to you, fathers,
Because you have known Him who is from the beginning.
I have written to you, young men,
Because you are strong, and the word of God abides in you,
And you have overcome the wicked one.
John is stating three maturity levels of Christian
Little children – they grasp the simplicity of their salvation, and have come into an understanding that they are the Children of their amazing heavenly Father
Young men (adolescents)- you have grown beyond your basic understand of salvation and you are children of the King to grasp that you are in a spiritual battle and you are learning to overcome the adversary not by might, or by power, but by His Spirit as you have learned to stand on God’s word!
Fathers have experienced the deep things of Christ. There is a grasping of all He has done, His mission from before time until the end of time. The challenge is for fathers to bring about the replication of themselves and new birth, being a father to others because of what they know.
Where are you on this scale?
Do you have a genuine understanding of the fact you are saved and how much God loves you?
Are you beginning to understand God’s word, recognize that you are in a battle with the world system, your own fleshly desires and the enemy but you are learning to apply God’s word to overcome?
Are you discipling and leading others to Christ? Having experienced the riches of life in Him, do you readily share that blessing, light, life, and love with others, helping to create spiritual children?