1 John 2:1-2 - Dear Children (That's You)
- Chad Werkhoven
- Oct 2
- 4 min read
Fight temptation. But when you sin, remember you have an Advocate.
1 John 1–2:2 (NIV)
1 That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched—this we proclaim concerning the Word of life. 2 The life appeared; we have seen it and testify to it, and we proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and has appeared to us. 3 We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you also may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ. 4 We write this to make our joy complete.
5 This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all. 6 If we claim to have fellowship with him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live out the truth. 7 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin.
8 If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. 9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. 10 If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word is not in us.
2 My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin. But if anybody does sin, we have an advocate with the Father—Jesus Christ, the Righteous One. 2 He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world.
Canons of Dordt
Point 5 - Perseverance of the Saints
Article 1: The Regenerate Not Entirely Free from Sin
Those people whom God according to his purpose
calls into fellowship with his Son Jesus Christ our Lord
and regenerates by the Holy Spirit,
God also sets free from
the dominion and slavery of sin,
though not entirely from the flesh and from the body of sin as long as they are in this life.
Summary
John's letter writing style differs from Paul & Peter's. That only makes sense, because John's gospel writing style is completely different than Matthew, Mark or Luke's. And his Apocalypse - the official name for what we often refer to as Revelation - well, that's different than just about every other book in the Bible!
Whereas most of the other epistles have rather formal introductions which identify the original recipients (to the saints in X, Y, Z...), the author(s), and perhaps a greeting (grace, mercy and peace be yours...), John never identifies himself, and he doesn't name the addressees until the second chapter: My dear children...
The word John uses there - teknia - is one of the first words we learned in beginning Greek. There was no pedagogical reason for putting this word first, like how an English reader might learn cat or dog first because of their simplicity. Rather, even though John is the only Biblical writer to use this word, it very well describes who the entire Bible is written to: to our Father's dear children.
So even if you don't remember anything else about our dive into these opening passages of John's first letter this week, remember this: you are God's teknia, and He authored sixty six individual books over the span of thousands of years and in three very different languages so that you could know one thing: if you sin, you have an advocate with the Father - Jesus Christ, the Righteous One.
Dig Deeper
The final clauses of this opening article of the Canon's fifth and final point illustrate well the tension we've seen so often as we've worked through the Canons this year: On one hand, God also sets free from the dominion and slavery of sin... As a regenerated person, sin no longer has dominion over you; you've now been freed from its slavery. Soli Deo Gloria!
But then comes the contrast that sets the tension. You've been set free for sure, though not entirely from the flesh and from the body of sin as long as they are in this life. Anybody whose been a Christian for longer than five minutes knows this concept well. Even though sin doesn't have dominion over you - that is, it can't make you do anything - it continues to poke at you and tempt you every moment of your life.
And you sometimes cave into those temptations. Not just sometimes... often. As God's dearly beloved child, John wrote you this letter so that you would not sin. He implores you to use the strength derived from your fellowship with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ that we read about earlier this week to triumph over the temptations that continually plague you.
But John, inspired by the Holy Spirit, also wants to remind you that when you do sin, you have an advocate standing before our Father in heaven who has provided the atoning sacrifice for your sin: Jesus Christ, the Righteous One.
(Curious about what John means when he writes that Jesus atoned not only for our sins but also for the sins of the whole world? Certainly John wasn't a universalist, and this doesn't this contradict what we learned about Limited Atonement. John simply means here that our Father has teknia all over the world. Check out our post on The Saving Effectiveness of Christ’s Death from earlier this year).
ACKNOWLEDGE WHO GOD IS: Our Father, who loves His teknia (dear children);
ALIGN YOUR LIFE WITH GOD'S WILL: Pray for continuing strength and resolve to resist temptation, and thank God for your Advocate, Jesus Christ the Righteous One;
ASK GOD FOR WHAT YOU NEED:
Read the New Testament in a year! Today: 1 John 4
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