Day 494: Walking the talk - 1 John 2 vs 1 - 5

1 My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. 2 But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. He is the propitiation for our sins - and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world. 

3-4 And by this we know that we have come to know Him, if we keep His commandments. Whoever says “I know Him” but does not keep His commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him; but whoever keeps His word, in him truly the love of God is perfected. 5 By this we may know that we are in Him: whoever says he abides in Him ought to walk in the same way in which He walked. 1 John 2:1-5 (From the English Standard Version)

It’s always sad when people's actions don't match up to their words. Whether it's the assurances a business person gave about a product and the after care they would provide, or, worse still, the promises someone made to be be faithful in a relationship – but which they never kept – it leaves us with the conclusion that they were lying. It demolishes their credibility. So what did the apostle John long to see in the lives of those who said they were Christians? (vs1)

He wanted them to be people who turned away from all sin – even from what we may think of as 'little sins'. Why does he stress that, and how are Christians to go about not sinning? (vs 3-4)

John says it is by keeping the commandments Jesus gave to His disciples – especially that we should love one another as He loved us – that we will keep from sinning. We need to do all that Jesus calls us to do. And John stressed it because there were people in his day who claimed to be Christians, but who didn't follow Jesus' commandments. They behaved in ways that were not appropriate for a Christian to behave. We see that happening in our generation still. But does that mean that John thought it possible and easy to live without sinning in any way? (vs 2)

Obviously not. While our ambition should be to walk each day in perfect obedience to Jesus Christ, the reality is that we stumble often and in many ways. We often fail to do the right things we want to do, and end up doing wrong things we didn't want to do. Are we then just hypocrites too? Is there any hope for us?

I suggest that the people John speaks of in vs 3-4 (who say they know Jesus, but don't bother to keep His commandments) are people who don’t care about sin in their lives. They don't take holiness seriously and are casual about things like promiscuity and honesty. But in vs 9 of the last chapter John had said to Christians who ARE troubled when they’ve done wrong that “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”  And in this chapter he now tells us how such forgiveness is possible – even for when we failed badly! That's what vs 2 is all about.

The word advocate meant someone who comes along side a person to speak on their behalf, such as a lawyer would do. That's what Jesus Christ does for those who have trusted in Him and who long to do His will. And to say that He is 'the propitiation for our sins' means that He is the one who has appeased God's righteous anger for all our sins. Sins past as well as those we still fall into. The blood Jesus shed on the cross and the perfect life He gave in exchange for sinners, satisfied God's holy and just demands. That's why all our sins can be fully forgiven. How amazing is that!

But John says this was also ‘for the whole world’. Does that mean everyone's sins are forgiven whether they ask for it or not? Will everyone therefore go to heaven? Again, obviously not. It just means that the perfect sacrifice Jesus made is sufficient to blot out the sins of people form every age and from every nation. God's love and mercy extends to the ends of the earth.

Verse 5 should therefore be true of those who profess to be Christians. If we are going to talk to others about Jesus Christ, then we need to walk each day in the way Jesus walked when He was in the world. Sin will keep us from doing that – or doing that will keep us from sin.