1 John · chapter 2 of 5
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1 John 2 teaches that Jesus Christ the righteous is our advocate with the Father and the propitiation for our sins, and that knowing him shows itself in obeying him and loving our brother. John warns against loving the world, notes that many antichrists have appeared who deny the Father and the Son, and urges believers to abide in what they heard and in the anointing they have, so that they may stand firm when he appears.
After speaking of light and confession in chapter 1, John develops what it means to know God and abide in him. He writes to believers facing teachers who had left the church and denied Christ. The chapter combines comfort in forgiveness, the demand for a consistent life and a warning against error.
John writes to his little children so that they may not sin. But if anyone does sin, they have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous, who is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but for the sins of the whole world. We know that we know him if we keep his commandments. Whoever says he knows him but does not obey is a liar, and whoever says he abides in him ought to walk as he walked (vv. 1-6).
It is not a new commandment but an old one from the beginning, and yet new, because the darkness is passing away and the true light is already shining. Whoever says he is in the light but hates his brother is still in darkness, and whoever loves his brother abides in the light. John then tells little children, fathers and young men that their sins are forgiven, that they know him who is from the beginning and that they have overcome the evil one (vv. 7-14).
John commands them not to love the world or the things in it: the desires of the flesh, the desires of the eyes and the pride of life are not from the Father. The world is passing away with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever. It is the last hour, and many antichrists have come. They went out from us because they were not of us; had they been, they would have stayed. Believers have an anointing from the Holy One and know the truth. The liar is the one who denies that Jesus is the Christ, and whoever denies the Son does not have the Father either (vv. 15-23).
Let what they heard from the beginning abide in them, and they will abide in the Son and in the Father, with the promise of eternal life. The anointing they received abides in them and teaches them. Little children, abide in him, so that when he appears we may have confidence and not shrink in shame. Everyone who practices righteousness has been born of him (vv. 24-29).
References follow ESV book names and verse numbers. Read each verse in your Bible before the explanation.
John writes so that they may not sin, but if anyone does sin they have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. The message joins a serious call to holiness with the assurance that Christ defends his own.
Jesus is the propitiation for our sins, the sacrifice that turns away God's wrath, and not only for believers' sins but for those of the whole world. His work reaches out to every people.
John commands us not to love the world or the things in it, since the love of the Father is not in the one who loves it. The world here is the system of desires and values that stands against God, not creation or people.
The world is passing away with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever. Obedience to God builds on what lasts, not on what is ending.
6 questions with answers and references, ready for Sunday school, small group or a Bible quiz night.
Answer: Jesus Christ the righteous. — 1 John 2:1
Answer: The propitiation, not only for believers' sins but for those of the whole world. — 1 John 2:2
Answer: If we keep his commandments. — 1 John 2:3
Answer: That he is still in darkness. — 1 John 2:9
Answer: The desires of the flesh, the desires of the eyes and the pride of life. — 1 John 2:16
Answer: The one who denies that Jesus is the Christ. — 1 John 2:22
1 John 2 joins comfort with responsibility. When we fail, we do not have to run from God, because we have an advocate; but we cannot take sin lightly either. A group can ask what keeping his commandments looks like in daily life, especially love for the brother that is sometimes hard for us.
The chapter also warns against the world, not as something evil in itself but as a system of desires that competes with God. A good question for the week is which desires get more of my attention than the will of God.
1 John 2 invites us to abide in Christ, to love our brothers and to reject whatever opposes the truth. Chapter 3 continues with the great love of the Father, who calls us children of God, and with the call to love in deed.
It is the sacrifice that covers sin and turns away God's righteous wrath against it. John says Jesus himself is that propitiation, because he gave his life on the cross. So forgiveness is possible without God overlooking sin, since the debt was paid.
John says that people have heard an antichrist is coming, but that many have already appeared. He defines them by their teaching: they deny that Jesus is the Christ and deny the Father and the Son. Christians debate whether there will also be a final figure, but the text stresses the present danger of this teaching.