Understanding 1st John Chapter 2
Welcome Prayer Word to Music Silence
Okay, last week we discussed some interesting issues relative to what John’s 1st Epistle message.
First we talked about God being light. Then in week two we discussed how based on his writings there is a difference between “Walking in darkness and walking in light” And “Having sin” And “Keeping His commandments”
We came to this view by charting the following passages (on the board)
7 1st John 2.1-2 April 24th 2016 Meat
Overview of John’s Message
So now we come to chapter two. And the contents must be taking into consideration with some deliberation because like a complex philosopher, John drops a LOT of information into single statements, and though the Greek is not real complex the singular ideas presented are a bit difficult to take in context of the rest.
So let’s do a quick summary of what John does (in chapter two) before hitting each verse.
The things he introduces in this chapter (in order) include:
John telling us that the great object for why he was writing to them was that they should not sin but if they sinned, and were conscious that they were guilty before God, they should not despair, because they had an Advocate with the Father who had made propitiation for the sins of the world. This is a continuation of what he had said in the close of the previous chapter and so we can’t separate the importance of it due to chapter headings.
Then John tells us that the evidence for the fact “that we know God,” is to be found in the fact that we keep his commandments.
Then He tells us that what he is saying was “no new commandment,” but was what they had always heard concerning the nature of the gospel. That he was describing no new commandment, nothing that they haven’t heard before but in another sense it was new in that Jesus gave it as the characteristic of His religion. A large part of the epistle is taken up in explaining this commandment requiring love to the brethren. John then specifies different audience members to whom he was writing – namely “little children, fathers, and young men.”
And to each of these classes of believers (if you will) he commands them not to love the world, or the things that are in the world” because all that is of this world is not of the father.
The Advent of Antichrists
Then John will do something that is almost entirely ignored by the modern Evangelical – he calls attention to the fact that the closing dispensation of the world had come (at verses 18-20). The evidence he uses is that antichrist had appeared. And he points out the characteristics of the antichrist which he says is essentially that he would deny that Jesus was the Christ, involving a practical denial of both the Father and the Son. He will point out that these persons were abroad where the believers could be seduced by them.
Now let me pause here and point something out. Last week we showed from chapter 3 verses 22-23 that the commandments of God are to believe on His Son whom He has sent AND to love.
Then John opens up here in verse 2 and says:
1st John 2:1 My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous:
Then he makes a case to them that the antichrist was abroad and claiming that Jesus was not the Christ and he warns them that this seductive spirit was seeking to seduce them.
The Essence of Believing
What was the antichrists ambition? To get them to believe that Jesus was not the Christ. To move them to unbelief! This is the why John is writing to them – to ensure that they Don’t sin (which would be to listen to the antichrists claims that Jesus was not the Christ! To get them to disbelieve!) Get it?
John then wraps the chapter up and expresses his opinion that the recipients of his epistle would NOT be seduced, but that they had an anointing from above which would keep them from the wiles of those who would try and lead them astray, and so he earnestly exhorts them to abide in God the Savior, so that when he should appear “they might have confidence and not be ashamed at his coming.”
This chapter is really remarkable in laying out what it means to sin as a believer, in refuting the idea that a believer who walks in the
Christian Eschatology and the Sin of Disbelief
Light is impervious to the sin of disbelief, and on Christian eschatology. With regard to this last area (eschatology or the study of end times) I do not understand how anyone could believe, just reading this single chapter, that an anti-Christ is still going to head our way. So let’s get into the verses in chapter 2 beginning at verse 1.
1 John 2:1 My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous: 2 And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.
Understanding John's Address
Alright, back to verse 1. My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. We don’t really know why John appeals to these specific titles here (and we could spend some time in conjecture) but what we DO know is he begins here saying: “My little children,” in the Greek, “teknia mou.” The term actually means little children even “infants,” and in an apostolic sense John could have been speaking to the youngest in the faith, the newly converted, those who needed to be nourished and cared for and fed the Milk of the Word.
In one sense it is a tender appellation from an aged apostle who has by this time seen and been through A LOT!, (right). I mean walked with Jesus three years, was one of His go-to apostles, and with Peter and James witnessed many things the others hadn’t. And then he has experienced some thirty or so years of watching the Gospel spread – amidst all sorts of ups and downs – and so when he calls someone “my little children” that is saying something.
We also remember that Jesus referred to the apostles as “little children” prior to his passion and so I am sure this phrase had an impact on John who at that time was a babe in Christ. “My little Children, these things write I unto you.” We can read this line as, the things I HAVE written to you OR the things I am writing to you. I believe from the Greek the best way to understand this (especially since there were no chapters and verses in this epistle) is to read it as: “In light of the things that I have already written (or said) to you, I now write . . . “
The Sin of Unbelief
“That ye sin not.” Now, it is really really easy to just teach this plainly and for what it says: John has written “that they sin not.” It’s great advice and if we remove the line from the surrounding passages and purpose of the Epistle we could teach it this way. “I am writing so you will not sin. You won’t lust, you won’t lie, you won’t get revenge . . .” etc.
But we have to remember the context of this epistle – what is written on the board – and what the Christian commandments are according to John in the third chapter. We also have to remember that John will wind up writing in this chapter that there are anti-Christs out there (who can be defined as anti-Christs by virtue of the fact that they do NOT BELIEVE Jesus is the Messiah) and that these beguilers are seeking to bring others down to the place where they also will not believe, which IS the sin John is writing as a means to help them avoid committing. This is the context of all this brought in and considered.
Put it all together and I propose (again and by way of reiteration) that when John tells “his little children” in the faith that he writes so that “they will not sin,” I suggest he is talking about committing a sin against the New Commandment of Christ – a summary of which he will provide us in chapter three which says the commandment is: To believe on Jesus Christ whom He has sent and to love one another as He gave commandment.
And then, as John will do, he adds: “And if any man sin,” (I would add “in these things or in this area,”) “we have an advocate with the Father.” In the walk of a Christian saved by grace through faith all failures (sins, transgressions, evil) can probably be categorized as either failing to believe or trust in God and/or failing to love. Understanding this helps us to see where we as Christians need to focus in our daily spiritual walk.
Advocate with the Father
Believers fail to meet the expectations of God but all hope ought not be lost as John adds, referring to these failures:
“And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father.”
There’s some interesting things about this line from John. Where he writes that we have an advocate with the Father the word for advocate is Greek is paraklete. Why is this interesting? For starters the term is used by Jesus Himself four times in scripture – and this is the only time the word is used – all in the Gospel of John.
And how does Jesus use the term? In John 14:26 He says:
“But the Comforter (parakletos), which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.”
This is one instance (of four) where (because comforter is masculine) the Holy Spirit is assigned the masculine gender “He” instead of its typical neuter gender, “it.” But also note that Jesus says:
“But the parakletos, which is the Holy Ghost . . .”
Apostles and the Paraklete
Who did Jesus say this too? The apostles, right? Of whom John was one. He was there and heard Jesus say this. But now here in His epistle John calls whom the paraklete?
“And if any man sin, we have an advocate (paraklete) with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous: and He (Christ Jesus) is the propitiation for our sins . . .”
In John, Jesus calls the paraclete the Holy Spirit and here John calls the paraclete Jesus. What gives? I would put it this way – Lord forgive me if I’m wrong.
Prior to his passion and ascension and overcoming sin and death, Jesus was operating by God’s spirit in Him. Once He overcame His flesh by hearkening to the Spirit of God in Him, the Spirit of Jesus – which we “might, might, might” consider as the spirit of God that has been filtered in and through Him and His flesh – abides and works in and through us, allowing Christ to, as Paul says in Galatians 2:20:
“I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me."
The Role of the Holy Spirit
Of course Paul also said in Ephesians 3 beginning at verse 14 (listen carefully to these words):
14 For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,
15 Of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named,
16 That he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man
(got that – now listen);
17 That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love,
18 May be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height;
19 And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God.
In my estimation John has assigned the term paraklete (which Jesus called the Holy Spirit) to Christ – or the Spirit of Christ.
In one heck of a passage Paul says in Romans 8:9-10:
“But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his. And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the Spirit is life because of righteousness.”
Philippians 1:19 speaks of “the supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ,” and Peter writes in 1st Peter 1:11 “Searching what, or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ which was in them did signify . . .”
In 2nd Corinthians 3:17 Paul clearly assigns the Spirit to Jesus when he says:
“Now the Lord is that Spirit: and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.”
All of these things cause me to see the Spirit or Holy Spirit much more in terms of the motivating force from God, which once it passed through the perfect mortal flesh of Jesus is now relatable to man and to wonder (yet again about the third co-eternal person of creedal Trinitarianism.
One more thing before we move on. We have a tendency to teach and reiterate that Jesus is presently up in heaven advocating on
The Concept of Jesus as an Advocate
Believers have crafted stories appealing to the belief that Satan accuses us before God, pointing fingers and declaring us guilty. These tales suggest that Jesus, our advocate, stands up and claims us as His own. While dramatic, this notion requires scrutiny.
God is all-knowing; the drama doesn't unfold as imagined because Jesus completed it. Those who are His belong to Him, and God recognizes them. Before His crucifixion, Jesus declared in John 12:31, “Now is the judgment of this world: now shall the prince of this world be cast out.” The term “now,” used twice in this verse, refers to the present time and onward. If the prince of this world was cast out then, his accusatory actions are over. He may still tempt, but he is powerless; Jesus has claimed victory for all time.
John's use of the term "paraklete" or advocate should not imply a lawyer arguing our case before God. Instead, it is better understood as having a friend, a comforter with access to the Father, who abides with us by the Spirit. This Advocate assures us that we are His, confirming that we have not lost ground.
Okay, after saying:
1 My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous – don’t you just love that title, by the way – Jesus Christ the righteous?
John adds:
2 And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.
The Meaning of Propitiation
The King James Bible translates "propitiation" from the Greek “hil-as-mos.” This term appears only in the New Testament in 1st John 4:10:
1st John 4:10 Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.
Paul refers to a related term in Romans 3:24-25:
Romans 3:24-25 “Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus: whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation (hilasterion) through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God”
The writer of Hebrews cites a related term in Hebrews 9:5, where it is translated as “mercy-seat,” and Luke refers to another derivative (hilaskomai) in Luke 18:13, where Jesus narrates the publican’s prayer:
"God be merciful to me a sinner."
Understanding Reconciliation in Biblical Terminology
These references connect to reconciliation, appeasement, turning away anger, and making favorable. They suggest that offense or anger exists, and an action has been taken to mitigate that wrath or make amends. This connects to the blessedness of Christians as peacemakers, reflecting the essence of Jesus, the Prince of Peace.
Worldly propitiation can occur through various methods: soft answers, apologies, acknowledging wrongdoing, monetary remuneration, restitution, or gifts. Sometimes, people are appeased by repentance or behavior changes. However, in terms of God, sacrifices in the Old Covenant temporarily appeased Him but couldn't provide lasting propitiation. True propitiation had to be holy, eternal, and mortal – characteristics embodied in Jesus Christ and His sacrifice for us.
Therefore, our reception of
Reconciliation by Faith
Him and His reconciliatory work is by faith – nothing else we have to offer or add would suffice. It is funny to me how people believe that because God is God that He could simply look at violations against Him and His holiness and disregard them at will. That would make him more of a Drug Lord or Totalitarian than a just and perfect God. But we must also remember that what caused Him to sacrifice His only begotten Son – His LOVE for the world. His love.
So then by and through this sinless, perfect, propitiated offering Christ has made it as though we had not sinned at all. He is either “the author and finisher of the faith” or He is not. When He said, “it is finished,” it either was or it wasn’t. If it was, then it was. And God has been satisfied (propitiated) once and for all by the ONLY means that could ever provide eternal satisfaction and total reconciliation.
Accepting the Finished Work
So we either receive and accept this finished work, this gift, by faith and enter into God’s rest by faith – by faith – by faith in His Son who propitiated all transgression, or we don’t. If we don’t – (LISTEN) – if we don’t receive His Son it can’t be that God is still angry and will pour out His wrath upon us for sins of the flesh – how could He be? His Son took care of the sins of the flesh. Propitiated for them. Finished them and God has been satisfied.
So if people choose to reject the free gift that was provided and extended to all (as proven without question in the next verse) I would suggest that God – who so loved the world – mourns, so to speak over the faithlessness that rejects the work of the Holy Spirit to get all to believe and receive His Son – for which there is no forgiveness in this world nor in the world to come.
The Savior of the World
So (verse 2) He (Jesus the Righteous) is the propitiation for our sins (those who believed on Him at the time of John’s writing – but Listen): “and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.” Let’s do a survey of the New Testament to first see if there are other supports for this position offered here by John.
In the Gospel of John we read about John the Baptist and how he announced Jesus, saying (in 1:29) “Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.” The Samaritans who came to believe on Jesus said to the woman who introduced Him to them (in John 4:42) “Now we believe, not because of thy saying: for we have heard him ourselves, and know that this is indeed the Christ, the Savior of the world.” Later in this epistle John will write (1st John 4:14) “And we have seen and do testify that the Father sent the Son to be the Savior of the world.”
Paul said in 1st Timothy 2:4, speaking of God: “Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth.” We note that if this is God’s permissive will – whether it occurs or not – the means by which all could be saved from afterlife loss would have been accomplished. Paul also says (in 1st Timothy 4:10) “For therefore we both labor and suffer reproach, because we trust in the living God, who is the Savior of all men, specially of those that believe.”
For the living God to be the savior of all men then we must believe that Jesus propitiated for the sins of the whole world, as John makes so clear here in chapter 2 of his 1st Epistle.
Paul adds in Titus 2:11 “For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men,” Some might suggest that the finished work appears to all men but this does not mean the finished work was done for all men. I see God as without darkness and what it says here is what it means – it appears to all men because it was done on behalf of all men.
In John 12:32 Jesus Himself says: “And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me.” And while we must admit that not all men will take advantage of His propitious work this passage seems to suggest that in and through His work of being lifted up Jesus will ultimately…
The Atonement for All
Paul adds in Romans 5:18
“Therefore as by the offence of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation; even so by the righteousness of one the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life.”
The writer of Hebrews says:
(in Hebrews 2:9) “But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honor; that he by the grace of God should taste death for every man.”
Jesus as the Ransom
Paul adds in 1st Timothy 2:6 and speaking of Jesus:
“Who gave himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time.”
From this brief survey, which ignores deeper analysis and presentation of many of the parables, we can see that this passage in the first epistle chapter two does not stand alone –
“He IS the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.”
The Calvinist Argument
The Calvinist argument that Jesus would not have suffered for the sins of the whole world if the whole world is not going to benefit from His suffering is a good one. It does not make sense that God would have His Son suffer for the sins of those whom He knew would not receive Him by faith.
But I would turn this around on them and in the face of all these passages that support the notion that God did, in fact, have His son suffer for the sins of the world that in the end, while the world will certainly NOT initially accept this offering, every knee will bow and every tongue will confess Jesus as Lord and God will have the ultimate victory over Satan, sin, death and even the free will of Man.
Q and A
Meeting 4pm
