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Commentaries and Other Bible Study Helps - Prayer Tents - Prayer Tents
2:1-6 Jesus Christ in Everyday Life. The light (1:5) that God sheds on daily living comes through his Son.
2:1 My little children. John's way of addressing his readers (cf. vv. 12, 28; 3:7, 18; 4:4; 5:21) exemplifies the love to which he summons readers. may not sin. See note on 3:9-10. Jesus is an advocate, taking up the cause of believers in the presence of God the Father. Otherwise their sin would bring judgment upon them. Paul speaks of Christ as mediator (1 Tim. 2:5), and Heb. 8:1 refers to him as high priest.
2:2 Propitiation (Gk. hilasmos) here means "a sacrifice that bears God's wrath and turns it to favor," and that is also the meaning of the English word "propitiation." (See note on Rom. 3:25.) As the perfect sacrifice for sin, Jesus turns away God's wrath (see also 1 John 4:10). For the sins of the whole world does not mean that every person will be saved, for John is clear that forgiveness of sins comes only to those who repent and believe the gospel (see 2:4, 23; 3:10; 5:12; cf. John 3:18; 5:24). But Jesus' sacrifice is offered and made available to everyone in "the whole world," not just to John and his current readers.
2:3 by this we know. Assurance of salvation is possible (see note on 2 Pet. 1:10). First John gives numerous means of self-diagnosis (cf. 1 John 1:7; 2:5; 3:14; 4:13; 5:2). Here the test is ethical: do professing Christians have a changed life and keep the Lord's commandments? Obedience to God does not bring about justification (which comes by faith alone), but obedience as a pattern of life does give evidence that one has been born again. To know him involves a personal relationship that transforms practical behavior.
