2 thoughts

1 John 2

1 My dear children, I am writing this to you so that you will not sin.

But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate who pleads our case before the Father.

He is Jesus Christ, the one who is truly righteous.

2 He himself is the sacrifice that atones for our sins;

     and not only our sins but the sins of all the world.


3 And we can be sure that we know him if we obey his commandments.

4 If someone claims, "I know God," but doesn't obey God's commandments, that person is a liar and is not living in the truth.

5 But those who obey God's word truly show how completely they love him.

     That is how we know we are living in him.

6 Those who say they live in God should live their lives as Jesus did.



John puts forth 2 thoughts here...


The first thing John says is that Jesus offers His sinless life as a fitting offering to God for you & me, and for everyone else in the world.

I've heard it illustrated this way...

    I break the law by speeding/

    I go before a judge having been charged with speeding & admit I was speeding.

    He hands down a fine for breaking that law.

    Then, knowing I don't have any money, the judge comes down off the bench & pays my fine.

Is that an oversimplification?

Sin & God cannot coexist because God is so blindingly holy.

Our sinfulness cannot coexist with God - like trying to mix oil & water.

Even though we can admit to God that we're sinful, that's not enough, because we have nothing to offer as payment for the consequences of that sinfulness.

Jesus came down out of heaven, lived among us a perfect life, & offer to God His perfect life as payment for the consequences of our sins.

Did any of that make any sense?

I understand it, but just because I do doesn't mean everyone else will.

Anyway, hopefully I quantified that whole situation enough to make it understandable, at least a little bit.



The second thing John says is that if we really are a Christ follower, then we'll obey Him, being & doing what He indicates He wants us to be & do.

And how do we know what He wants us to be & do?

All we have to do is look at Jesus' life - that will probably tell us most clearly how we are to be & what we are to do in our lives.



So, there you have it.

Or at least that seems to me what John is saying here.

It's 2 really big things - 2 things that were pretty revolutionary in their concept back then.

People had to do all kinds of things to make amends to their different gods & goddesses to make it possible to connect with them.

Jesus (who is God) offers His life as the way for us to make that connection.

gods back then (& now) didn't do that - we were the ones stuck with making it right.

And proof that we are followers of our god, then we must obey Him &live like Him.

Gods & goddesses back then were hardly living examples of all that was good & pure in the world.

That was (& is) one of the many uniquenesses of Christianity - our God IS the living example of all that is good & pure.


ok, I'm rambling. sorry. I'm shutting up now...