1 John chapter 2

vs 1

I recently got into a... discussion with an older woman at Bible college. She was saying that it was ok for us young people to be idealistic, but when you get older and you've got more experience, then you realise what the world is really like. She just had such a fatalistic attitude, that God will do what he will do, and we just get caught up along in the ride. An elder from St Ives used to say to me "If you're not a socialist when you're young, you've got no heart. If you're not a capitalist when you're older, you've got no brain".

I say monkeyfarts. John knows that we are going to sin. He's not stupid. He's done his fair share of sinning. But does that stop him writing a letter with the purpose of trying to stop us from sinning? Sinless perfection is our goal! Yes, we may never meet it in this world. In fact, theologically we know it's not possible. But to just give up and admit defeat in a fatalistic manner is incredibly wrong. Instead, God gives us hope by giving us his Son as our defence lawyer.

vs 2

Our sins have already been forgiven. Enough so that the whole world's sins have been dealt with (at least in a potential sense).

vs 3

Part of what John is writing this letter for is to teach, and the other is to assure. Here, he is giving an assurance through a lesson - we can know our spiritual and eternal assurance if we are obeying Jesus. So what should we be doing?

vs 4

John is brilliantly frank. People who know Jesus do what he says. He's the Son of God, after all. If you know that, you do what he says, right?! Yes, Jesus is my friend and my brother, and he's the Lamb of God yadda yadda. If Thessalonians taught you anything, he's also a guy with a whole army of angels who can nuke the earth at any minute. He's also going to send a lot of people to hell. He's God, he's King. Obey.

vs 5-6

And through obedience is completeness in Christ gained. Which makes obvious sense. You've got to walk the walk if you talk the talk. I don't know if fatalism is stronger here in Australia than elsewhere (it is certainly strong - "She'll be right"), but it's completely un-Christian to be fatalist. Reliance on God isn't fatalism. It's active.

vs 7-8

Sometimes we need to remember the words of Ecclesiastes, that "nothing is new under the sun". This way of worshipping God isn't new. It's the only way. It's the way since the beginning. Active obedience. You know we can't know everything about God's will. We just have to obey what we do know of it.

What makes this command new is the fact of Jesus' coming, and the fact of his return. For thousands of years, people lived without the knowledge of exactly how the Messiah's arrival on earth was going to be. We've got that info. Funny how we can still bitch and moan that we don't know something. Hell, we already know we're going to win!

vs 9

For all John's bluntness, he's also repetitious. But there's purpose in it. Like a lot of the older letters, John is forced to deal with the problem of false teachers. And it turns out a great way to spot a false teacher is by seeing if they walk the walk of Christianity. But it's also a great way of making sure we are in the light, that we are following the truth.

vs 10-11

Our love for each other is so vital to John, that it's a major part of almost everything he writes. There's a tradition that when he was really really old, and the Christians used to have to carry him to the church, he would always give the same message, "Little children, love one another". When someone finally said "Teacher, do you not have anything else to say?" he replied "There is nothing that is more important that our Lord Jesus said than for us to love one another". Love for other Christians is key to the Christian faith.

vs 12-14

This little poem tells us so much about what is in John's mind and the audience to whom he is writing. The message of this poem is essentially that these who know the father have overcome the evil one. The message of the rest of the book is basically "As you have overcome the evil one, so keep overcoming". But if he said that, he'd sound too much like Paul.