confession, which then receives response from faithful and righteous God.
Describing God as faithful asserts that he keeps what he promises. We do not approach him just to find that he changed his mind on what he has promised. He is also righteous. He does what is right. He would never punish anyone for doing right or approve an act of sin. His deeds and his nature are consistent at all times.
The third and final claim John refutes here is the claim not to have sinned (ouch hēmartēkamen, “we have not sinned”) found in 1:10. The situation is one in which after John has indicated the availability of forgiveness, the critic responds by saying that no act of sin has been committed so as to be forgiven. John sees two problems with such a claim: (1) we make God a liar, and (2) the word of God is not in us. The Scripture is very clear on the matter of all those who have been born by Adam and Eve (and this includes all members of humankind) being participants in sin. They are not only sinners by way of their own individual acts of sin (sin being defined as all that does not measure to the level of God’s perfect nature as light) but also by virtue of having the touch of Adam and Eve—the grandparents of all of us. Theological debates may not be settled whether this passing on of sin from Adam and Eve to us is by way of representation or other,79 but the fact that the sin has been passed on is expressed in the Bible without ambiguity (Pss 14:2, 3; 51:5; 130:3; 143:2; Rom 3:10–18; 5:12). To make the claim that one has not sinned, therefore, amounts to saying that God tells lies and also a failure to listen to the word of God. There is no escape except by way of confessing our sins. When confession has been done, forgiveness from faithful and righteous God is guaranteed. What an opportunity to enjoy fellowship with God, even from our weak point!
Summary of the Three Claims Refuted
| The Claim | Consequences | Remedy | Blessings | Verses |
| Fellowship with God while living in darkness | Lie to ourselvesNot do the truth | Walk in the light | Fellowship with one anotherCleansing from sin | 1:6, 7 |
| We do not have sin | Deceive ourselvesTruth not in us | Confess sins | ForgivenessCleansing fromunrighteousness | 1:8, 9 |
| We have notsinned | Make God a liarHis word not in us | – | – | 1:10 |
The Intended Goal—Not to Sin (2:1–6)
(2:1) My little children, I write these things to you in order that you might not sin. And if anyone should sin we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous; (2) and he (himself) is a propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the whole world. (3) And by this we know that we have known him, if we keep his commandments. (4) The one who says, “I have known 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 claims to remain in him ought also to walk just as he himself walked.
After addressing his readers as “my little children” (teknia mou) in 2:1, John tells them the reason for his writing as “in order that you might not sin” (hina mē hamartēte). The use of the aorist tense here (hamartēte) could be deliberate, to communicate that his purpose for writing is that the readers would not do an act of sin.80 Elsewhere in the epistle, John uses present tense verbs as he disassociates the believer from sin. In 3:6, using the present tense hamartanei, he says, “Everyone who remains in him does not sin” (pas ho en autō menōn ouch hamartanei), and in 3:9 uses both the present tenses poiei and hamartanein as he says, “Everyone who has been born of God does not do sin . . . is not able to sin” (pas ho gegennēmenos ek tou theou hamartian ou poiei . . . ou dunatai hamartanein). As it will be shown when these passages are discussed below, John is asserting that a believer cannot sin as a matter of habit. In his use of aorist tense in 2:1, he is seeing the goal of obeying God’s word as freedom from sin. However, John cannot by this assertion be denying that even the believer has the inherited sinful nature. If he said this, he would be denying his own statement in 1:8. The point rather is that the believer and sin belong to two different spheres. This is in view of who God is (light, and in him there is no sin—1:5) and who believers are (persons in fellowship with God—1:3). Sin is, therefore, not to be perceived as mere disobedience to some set of rules, but a failure to respond in any given situation in a manner that corresponds to God being light.81
John hastens to acknowledge that total freedom from sin may not be a possible experience in this life and so pronounces provision for that act of sin, which a believer may find it to be his or her experience from time to time. He states, in 2:1b, “and if anyone should sin, we have an advocate with the Father” (kai ean tis hamartē, paraklēton echomen pros ton patera). His work as our advocate82 is that he stands in our place so that we are not consumed by the holy God. He stood for us on the cross, and on the basis of the blood he shed to cleanse our sins (1:9) he stands even now when we sin and confess that sin.83 John identifies this advocate as “Jesus Christ the righteous.” The use of the adjective “righteous” (dikaios) here is important. It is because he has no case of his own84 to answer before the court of heaven that he can serve as our advocate. At a secondary level, the quality of being righteous can also be applied to the manner in which he dispenses his services. He does not only qualify before God who is light, but also serves his clients (us) faithfully. We at times hear of advocates who have not passed on to their clients whatever the courts of justice awarded to them. Not advocate Jesus Christ! As Yarbrough puts it, “There is no chance that what he urges in God’s presence will be rejected” and “those who look to him for advocacy can be assured that he will do the right thing.”85
In 2:2 John further describes Jesus as “propitiation for our sins” (hilasmos . . . peri tōn hamartiōn hēmōn). The meaning of the term hilasmos is debated. It is, for example, translated propitiation here (also, NKJB and NASB), expiation (NRSV), or sacrifice of atonement (NIV). The basis of the debate is that the word propitiation focuses on the fact that God is appeased (and by implication he was wrathful), while expiation focuses on sins’ removal, tying it especially with the function of the mercy seat86 within the Old Testament’s economy of redemption. The NIV’s choice (sacrifice of atonement) could be influenced by the fact that both ideas are facts, in view of Scripture. God’s wrath against sin is real (Rom 1:18) and removal of sin (1:9) is the act by which God’s attitude changes from one of wrath to that of fellowship with the believer. While the context here seems to favor more the act of appeasing God (it goes well with his work as advocate) the idea of expiation should not be totally lost. It is because sins have been removed that God is appeased. These intertwined functions make Yarbrough translate the term (hilasmos) as “expiatory propitiation.”87 One of them (expiation) is basis of the other (propitiation) and the other is a guaranteed outcome of the first.
John says that the sins in question here is not only our (believers’) but peri holou tou kosmou (“for the whole world”). Jesus died for me in particular and for everyone else in general. As commonly put in theology, the death of Jesus was and is sufficient for every sin, but only efficient for sins that are confessed. It is the basis upon which God has extended, and continues to extend, “patience and forbearance to those who merit his rejection.”88 It satisfied the demands against everyone who comes by faith to accept him as hilasmos (basis for removal of sin and restoration of fellowship with God).
With the matter made clear who Jesus is to us as believers (that is, paraklētos and hilasmos) John goes on to state how our knowledge of him may be tested. It is “if we keep his commandments” (ean tas entolas autou tērōmen, 2:3). In fact, John continues and says that the one who claims this knowledge and does not keep his commandments “is a liar and the truth is not in him” (pseustēs estin kai en toutō hē alētheia ouk estin, 2:4). This is because the commandments are rooted in the will of God and the provision of Jesus as advocate and propitiation is part of that will. To know Jesus means that we will seek to do the will of God, which in summary is to be like Christ. The knowledge spoken of here is not just “knowledge about” but “knowledge in experience.”89 One cannot have close experience with God through Jesus and still
