Bible Study 1 John 2

 

Commentary of the Book of 1 John 

By Dr. Barry L. Jenkins

Text Used: Legacy Standard Bible

Bible Study 1 John 2

Text:

Jesus Christ Our Advocate

2 My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an [a]Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous; 2 and He Himself is the [b]propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only, but also for those of the whole world.

3 And by this we know that we have come to know Him, if we keep His commandments. 4 The one who says, “I have come to know Him,” and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him; 5 but whoever keeps His word, truly in him the love of God has been perfected. By this we know that we are in Him: 6 the one who says he abides in Him ought himself to walk in the same manner as He walked.

7 Beloved, I am not writing a new commandment to you, but an old commandment which you have had from the beginning; the old commandment is the word which you have heard. 8 [c]On the other hand, I am writing a new commandment to you, which is true in Him and in you, because the darkness is passing away and the true Light is already shining. 9 The one who says he is in the Light and yet hates his brother is in the darkness until now. 10 The one who loves his brother abides in the Light and there is no cause for stumbling in him. 11 But the one who hates his brother is in the darkness and walks in the darkness, and does not know where he is going because the darkness blinded his eyes.

12 I am writing to you, little children, because your sins have been forgiven you for His name’s sake. 13 I am writing to you, fathers, because you have known Him who has been from the beginning. I am writing to you, young men, because you have overcome the evil one. I have written to you, children, because [d]you have known the Father. 14 I have written to you, fathers, because you have known Him who has been 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 evil one.

Do Not Love the World

15 Do not love the world nor the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. 16 For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life, is not from the Father, but is from the world. 17 And the world is passing away, and also its lusts, but the one who does the will of God abides forever.

18 Children, it is the last hour; and just as you heard that antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have appeared. From this we know that it is the last hour. 19 They went out from us, but they were not really of us; for if they were of us, they would have remained with us; but they went out, so that [e]it would be manifested that they all are not of us. 20 [f]But you have an anointing from the Holy One, and you all know. 21 I have not written to you because you do not know the truth, but because you do know it, and [g]because no lie is of the truth. 22 Who is the liar but the one who denies that Jesus is the [h]Christ? This is the [i]antichrist, the one who denies the Father and the Son. 23 Everyone who denies the Son does not have the Father; the one who confesses the Son has the Father also. 24 As for you, let that which you heard from the beginning abide in you. If what you heard from the beginning abides in you, you also will abide in the Son and in the Father. 25 And this is the promise which He Himself [j]made to us: eternal life.

26 These things I have written to you about those who are trying to deceive you. 27 And as for you, the anointing whom you received from Him abides in you, and you have no need for anyone to teach you. But as His anointing teaches you about all things, and is true and is not a lie, and just as He has taught you, [k]abide in Him.

28 And now, little children, abide in Him, so that when He is manifested, we may have confidence and not [l]shrink away from Him in shame [m]at His coming. 29 If you know that He is righteous, you know that everyone also who does righteousness has been [n]born of Him.

Verse by verse commentary:

Verse 1: “My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous;”

John wants his readers to respond to God’s mercy with a life of obedience. Grace is not an excuse to sin. Mercy is wasted on one that would respond to grace by wanting to sin. This is not a call to sinless perfection (which does not exist on this side of heaven). “Advocate” is the Greek word is parakletos, meaning “helper,” such as an attorney in a legal matter. When you have been born again, you always have an attorney with you arguing your case. Imagine when you sin, the Lord Jesus Christ is there with you and He says to the Father, “Put that sin on my account for I paid for it at Calvary.”

Verse 2: “and He Himself is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only, but also for those of the whole world.”

“Propitiation” means satisfaction. Christ has paid the entire sin debt for the whole world of those that believe. He has not paid for the sins of those who did not believe. To do so would be to go against the will of the one who has rejected Christ. No one is saved against their will. “Of the whole world” refers not to every single individual, but to mankind in general. Christ actually paid the sin debt only for those who would repent and believe.

Verse 3: “And by this we know that we have come to know Him, if we keep His commandments.”

Obedience to the commandments of God is the result of salvation through grace not the cause of salvation. We are saved first, then we obey. There is no work based salvation. Churches that teach salvation by works are demon inspired because they do not give the honor to Christ that He deserves. 

Verse 4: “The one who says, “I have come to know Him,” and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him;”

John gives us a litmus test to determine the spiritual condition of those that profess to be Christians. Does their walk match their talk? Forgiveness through the blood of Christ does not remove the moral obligation to obey the commands of God. The word “know” means a close personal relationship. You can not “know” God and with intent disobey Him. Again, this does not mean sinless perfection, but rather the desire is to please the Lord even when we fall short.

Verse 5: “but whoever keeps His word, truly in him the love of God has been perfected. By this we know that we are in Him:”

The litmus test of obedience constitutes objective assurance that one is genuinely saved. Obedience is the external, visible proof of the spiritual condition of your heart. What does your obedience say about the condition of your soul?

Verse 6: “the one who says he abides in Him ought himself to walk in the same manner as He walked.”

There is an old rabbinic saying: “Walk in the dust of your rabbi’s sandals.” This means that you are walking so close with them that as they pick up their sandaled feet their dust falls back on you. We are to do the same with our Lord Jesus Christ. We are to model our lives after His and walk as He walked. 

Verse 7: “Beloved, I am not writing a new commandment to you, but an old commandment which you have had from the beginning; the old commandment is the word which you have heard.”

“New” is not referencing time, but new in kind. The commandment is to love. The commandment of love was “new” because the Lord Jesus Christ personified love in a fresh, new way, and it was made real in the believers’ hearts and made alive by the Holy Spirit.

Verse 8: “On the other hand, I am writing a new commandment to you, which is true in Him and in you, because the darkness is passing away and the true Light is already shining.”

Now why is it a new commandment for believers who are regenerated and indwelt by the Holy Spirit? It is new because it was given on the other side of the cross, before the coming of the Holy Spirit. On this side it is new. Believers are to do the will of God and the will of God to love Him. The old commandment had never changed: Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength (Deut 6:5) and love your neighbor as yourself (Lev 19:18). However, it was new in that believers now had the illustration of the Lord Jesus Christ’s love, especially his love as demonstrated on the cross at Calvary. The Christian is to let God’s light shine through our lives to a dark world, as Christ did.

Verse 9: “The one who says he is in the Light and yet hates his brother is in the darkness until now.”

The original Greek conveys the idea of someone who habitually and continually hates or is characterized by a lifestyle of hate. Those that hate their brothers yet profess to be Christians, with a life characterized by hate, demonstrate by such actions that they have never been born again.

Verse 10: “The one who loves his brother abides in the Light and there is no cause for stumbling in him.”

Now, John gives us a positive test of living in the light. Unlike his opponents, his concern is with deeds, not claims. "Whoever loves his brother," is "in the Light." Conversely, the one who does not live "in the Light" will not manifest God's love in their lives.

Verse 11: “But the one who hates his brother is in the darkness and walks in the darkness, and does not know where he is going because the darkness blinded his eyes.”

“Walks” means “lives.” He habitually spends his life in darkness, or sin. John is stating clear directions for knowing who is in Christ and who isn’t. The Lord Jesus Christ said that you would know them by their fruits. John is telling us what fruit to look for. We are to look and see how a person treats his or brother or sister in the faith. Again, John is referencing lifestyle not a momentary lapse. What one does habitually reveals the inner heart condition.

Verse 12: “I am writing to you, little children, because your sins have been forgiven you for His name’s sake.”

The early church put great emphasis on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. These whom he calls “little children,” refers to all believers, regardless of their age or their maturity as believers. The basis on which all Christians have assurance of their salvation is the forgiveness of sins because of the shed blood of Christ. “Your sins have been forgiven you for His name’s sake.”

Verse 13: “I am writing to you, fathers, because you have known Him who has been from the beginning. I am writing to you, young men, because you have overcome the evil one. I have written to you, children, because you have known the Father.”

John now describes three levels of spiritual growth: “fathers,”“young men,” and “children.” “Fathers,” are the most mature, having a deep knowledge of the Sovereign God. The height of spiritual maturity is to know God and walk in holiness and have sound doctrine. They stand strong against sin and doctrinal error because they know His Word. “Children” are those who have a basic understanding of God and need to grow spiritually. All are in God’s family and manifest Christ in their lives at different levels.

Verse 14: “I have written to you, fathers, because you have known Him who has been 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 evil one.”

John repeats the message in these verses to assure them of their belonging to God’s family. Remember to “know” someone Biblically is to have a close intimate relationship with them. The “fathers” being mature in the faith have known the Lord Jesus Christ from the beginning of their faith in the Christian era. In the previous verse John said that the young men were strong and they were able to overcome the evil one. But now he gives them the secret: “ the word of God abides in you.” A thorough understanding of the Word of God is the best offense and defense against the evil one. 

Verse 15: “Do not love the world nor the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.”

While John has been expressing the importance of love, he now moves to a type of love that God hates: the love of the world.  Here, “love” signifies affection and devotion. God, not the world, must have the first place in the Christian’s life. The “world” means not the physical, material world, i.e. earth, but the invisible spiritual system of evil dominated by Satan. This includes thinking and acting like the world of Satan. John gives another litmus test to evaluate whether a person is a true Christmas: does he love the world? Where are your affections? Are they on things above or on the evil system under the control of Satan?

Verse 16: “For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life, is not from the Father, but is from the world.” 

John now describes the evil in the world: lust of flesh, lust of eyes, and the pride of life. “Lust of the flesh” means the sin nature of man received at physical birth; the rebellious self will that is dominated by sin and in complete opposition to God. “Lust of the eyes” refers to Satan’s use of the eyes as a strategic gateway to incite ungodly desires. The “pride of life” has the idea of arrogance over one’s circumstances, which produces an attitude of haughtiness or exaggeration, showing one’s desire to impress other people. All three have Satan as their source.

Verse 17: “And the world is passing away, and also its lusts, but the one who does the will of God abides forever.”

John is not advocating a work based salvation, but rather God’s gift of love transforms the believer so that they do God’s will in gratitude. Satan’s world system is temporary. God’s system is permanent and unchangeable. Those who follow God’s will abide as His people forever. Satan’s world system is doomed to destruction. 

Verse 18: “Children, it is the last hour; and just as you heard that antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have appeared. From this we know that it is the last hour.”

We have been in the last days since Christ ascended into heaven after the resurrection. John characterizes the whole time between the first and the second coming of Christ as “the last hour.” The reference to “many antichrists” is  a distinct prediction of many antichrists through the course of history, followed by a final Antichrist at the end during the Tribulation Period. 

Verse 19: “They went out from us, but they were not really of us; for if they were of us, they would have remained with us; but they went out, so that it would be manifested that they all are not of us.”

John is letting us know that the false teachers came from within the church. They may have performed outward exercises showing religious zeal, but inwardly they were hypocrites and deceivers. They left the church and probably in a harmful manner. This was not John’s advocating that Christians can lose their salvation, rather that they were false teachers from the beginning that deceived the church by acting religious. 

Verse 20: “But you have an anointing from the Holy One, and you all know.”

Two characteristics mark genuine Christians in contrast to the antichrists. First, the Holy Spirit guards them from spiritual error. The Holy Spirit will prevent the true believer from falling into false teaching regarding the essentials of the faith. Committed Christians can disagree concerning nonessentials, e.g., method of baptism, immersion, pouring or sprinkling, but there will be uniformity on the method of salvation through the shed blood of the Lord Jesus Christ at Calvary. 

Verse 21: “I have not written to you because you do not know the truth, but because you do know it, and because no lie is of the truth.”

John’s readers had the true gospel. Since they had the gospel, they had the truth. John is not writing a new teaching to his readers. He is writing to them for what I think is a twofold purpose: (1)  to encourage them, and (2)  to warn them because there were false teachers among them.

Verse 22: “Who is the liar but the one who denies that Jesus is the Christ? This is the antichrist, the one who denies the Father and the Son.”

The word translated “Christ” is literally “anointed one.” The word translated “antichrist” is “in place of the anointed one.” In the early church, including John’s readers, docetism was an early Christian heresy. Docetism believed that Christ's body was not human but either a phantasm or of real but celestial substance, and that therefore his sufferings were only apparent.To separate Christ the Savior from Jesus the man was a hallmark of docetism, the heresy that Christ only appeared to be a human being. John called them liars. No soft language here. He stood firmly against all doctrinal heresies. 

Verse 23: “Everyone who denies the Son does not have the Father; the one who confesses the Son has the Father also.”

If you testify that you believe in God and then deny the deity of Christ, you do not believe in the God of the Bible. The God of the Bible is the one who sent His Son the Lord Jesus Christ into the world to die for our sins as our substitute. Christ alone is the one who could make a satisfactory sacrifice to God for our sins. Had he been anyone else other than God, He Himself would have been a sinner.

Verse 24: “As for you, let that which you heard from the beginning abide in you. If what you heard from the beginning abides in you, you also will abide in the Son and in the Father.“

The gospel does not change. However, the methods of preaching that gospel changes as society evolves, i.e. the introduction of the Internet. New technology opens doors to preach to the unconverted in ways not known to early Christians.Christian truth is fixed and unalterable. 

Verse 25: “And this is the promise which He Himself made to us: eternal life.”

Eternal life is the supreme gift of God, mediated and paid for by the Lord Jesus Christ and given freely to those that repent and place their faith in Christ. It is a guaranteed promise for those who meet the conditions: repentance and faith.

Verse 26: “These things I have written to you about those who are trying to deceive you.”

A constant theme of this letter is to guard from and expose false teachers who had infiltrated the church. Another characteristic of antichrists is that they try to deceive the faithful. John is sounding an alarm.

Verse 27: “And as for you, the anointing whom you received from Him abides in you, and you have no need for anyone to teach you. But as His anointing teaches you about all things, and is true and is not a lie, and just as He has taught you, abide in Him.”

Ephesians 4 tells us that Christ gave certain gifts to the church and one was teachers. So, John is not denying the importance of gifted teachers in the church. Instead, his point is that those teachers and believers in general are dependent not on human wisdom or the opinions of men for the truth but on the Holy Spirit. God’s Holy Spirit guards and guides the true believer into the truth and will keep him from spiritual error. To “abide” in Christ is to walk in His truth.

Verse 28: “And now, little children, abide in Him, so that when He is manifested, we may have confidence and not shrink away from Him in shame at His coming.”

John repeats his emphasis on abiding. Whenever John refers to abiding, he is referring to persevering in the faith, which is evidence of being a true believer. “His coming” refers to the rapture when the church is removed from the world to escape the Tribulation Period. Those that are abiding, i.e. walking in the truth, will have nothing to be ashamed of at His coming for the church. 

Verse 29: “If you know that He is righteous, you know that everyone also who does righteousness has been born of Him.“

This is another feature of the believer’s hope. That hope is Christ’s return which not only sustains faith, but makes righteousness a habit. As a result of their habitual righteousness, they will display characteristics of God’s righteousness. Every child resembles his father in the natural and spiritually their Heavenly Father. Holy living is evidence that you have been born again, not the cause of your being born again.