CHAPTER 2

(A.D. 90)

THE ADVOCATE

¹My little children, these things write I unto you, that you sin not. (This presents the fact that the Lord saves us from sin, not in sin. This Passage tells us that, as Believers, we dont have to sin. Victory over sin is found exclusively in the Cross.) And if any man sin, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the Righteous (Jesus is now seated at the Right Hand of the Father, signifying that His Mission is complete, and His very Presence guarantees intercession [Heb. 7:25-26; 9:24; 10:12]):

²And He is the propitiation (satisfaction) for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world. (This pertains to the fact that the satisfaction is as wide as the sin. If men do not experience its benefit, the fault is not in its efficacy, but in man himself.)

EVIDENCE

³And hereby we do know that we know Him (refers to a know so Salvation), if we keep His Commandments. (This can be done only as the Believer understands that the Cross is the solution for all things, and that it must ever be the Object of our Faith. That being done, Christ will live through us by means of the person of the Holy Spirit, and the Commandments will be kept, referring to the entirety of the New Covenant [Gal. 2:20].)

⁴He who says, I know Him, and keeps not His Commandments (if our claims do not correspond with His demands, then we really dont know Him), is a liar, and the Truth is not in him. (If ones life is not changed by what is professed then one really doesnt have what is professed.)

⁵But whoso keeps His Word (we are to abide by the Word of God, ever making it the rule of our lives, and we can do so if our Faith is solidly placed in the Cross), in him verily is the Love of God perfected (refers to the Fruit of one who keeps His Word): hereby know we that we are in Him (refers to Rom. 6:3-5).

⁶He who says he abides in Him (pertains to a claim being made) ought himself also so to walk, even as He (Christ) walked (pertains to the manner in which we order our behavior).

PROOF

⁷Brethren, I write no new Commandment unto you (to love the Brethren is not a new Commandment), but an old Commandment which you had from the beginning. (To love the Brethren has been the foundation and the keynote of the Plan of God from the very beginning.) The old Commandment is the Word which you have heard from the beginning. (Since the old Commandment of Love has ever been before the Believer, there is no excuse to not walk after this direction.)

⁸Again, a new Commandment I write unto you (the Commandment of Love is both old and new), which thing is true in Him (Christ) and in you (if we are in Him, then we should be like Him): because the darkness is past (pertains to the time before Christ), and the true Light now shines. (The true Light is Christ, which Light will shine forever, and pertains to the time since Christ has come.)

⁹He who says he is in the Light, and hates his brother, is in darkness even until now. (How can we claim to have love, and at the same time hate our Brother? Such a person isnt saved, despite his claims.)

¹⁰He who loves his Brother abides in the Light (the type of love addressed here is the God kind of Love, which one cannot have unless one is truly saved), and there is none occasion of stumbling in him. (To walk in the light is to be governed by love, which removes the stumbling blocks.)

¹¹But he who hates his Brother is in darkness, and walks in darkness (this is an individual who has once known the Lord, but is losing his way with God simply because of hatred in his heart for a fellow Christian; consequently, he walks in darkness), and knows not where he goes, because that darkness has blinded his eyes. (The penalty of living in spiritual darkness is not merely that one does not see, but that one goes spiritually blind, which makes one an open target for false doctrine.)

¹²I write unto you, little children, because your sins are forgiven you for His Names sake (because of what He did for us at the Cross).

¹³I write unto you, fathers, because you have known Him who is from the beginning. (This refers to those who are mature in the Christian life.) I write unto you, young men, because you have overcome the wicked one. (This refers to Believers who have now come to the place where they are living in the Power of the Spirit, and their victory over Satan is a consistent one.) I write unto you, little children, because you have known the Father. (This refers to Believers who havent been saved very long. The Greek word used here is paidion, and refers to a child in training. It is the business of the Fathers and the young men to train the young converts in the ways of the Lord.)

¹⁴I have written unto you, fathers, because you have known Him who is from the beginning. (John is repeating himself here in order that the Fathers may ever know and understand that Gods Prescribed Order of Victory has got them to this place [a place of overcoming strength], and they must not allow false doctrine to come in and destroy that.) I have written unto you, young men, because you are strong, and the Word of God abides in you, and you have overcome the wicked one. (Never forget how you have overcome, which is by Faith in the Cross of Christ [II Pet. 2:2].)

¹⁵Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. (The world spoken of here by John pertains to the ordered system of which Satan is the head.) If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. (God the Father will not share the love that must go exclusively from Him with the world.)

¹⁶For all that is in the world (there is nothing in the system of this world that is of God), the lust of the flesh (refers to evil cravings), and the lust of the eyes (craves what it sees), and the pride of life (that which trusts its own power and resources, and shamefully despises and violates Divine Laws and human rights), is not of the Father, but is of the world. (These things have the system of the world as their source, not the Heavenly Father.)

¹⁷And the world passes away, and the lust thereof (whatever the allurements of the world, they soon fade): but he who does the Will of God abides forever (the one who keeps on habitually doing the Will of God).

FAITH

¹⁸Little children, it is the last time (all the period, from the First to the Second Advents may, in this sense, truly be called, the last time): and as you have heard that Antichrist shall come (the Apostle is speaking of the coming man of sin, who will make his debut after the Rapture of the Church), even now are there many Antichrists (in the Greek is Pseudochrists, and refers to one who claims to be of Christ); whereby we know that it is the last time. (We know this is the last dispensation before the Second Coming of the Lord.)

¹⁹They went out from us, but they were not of us (the crowd John speaks of claims to be of the True Church, but John says, they were not of us): for if they had been of us, they would no doubt have continued with us (had they been of the True Church, they would not have succumbed to false doctrine): but they went out, that they might be made manifest that they were not all of us. (Them going out means they turned their backs on the Christ of the Cross.)

²⁰But you have an unction from the Holy One (every True Believer has the Anointing, of the Holy Spirit), and you know all things. (This should have been translated, you all know.)

²¹I have not written unto you because you know not the Truth (what John is writing in this Epistle only reinforces what they have already known), but because you know it, and that no lie is of the Truth. (The Truth will never produce a lie, and a lie can never produce the Truth.)

²²Who is a liar but he who denies that Jesus is the Christ? (Anyone who denies in any fashion Who Jesus is and What He has done to Redeem humanity is a liar.) He is Antichrist, who denies the Father and the Son. (He who denies the Trinity is Antichrist. God the Father and God the Son are represented here, and it is the Holy Spirit Who inspires the Text. So we have here the Trinity.)

²³Whosoever denies the Son, the same has not the Father (no matter the claims, if Jesus is denied, so is the Father): [but] he who acknowledges the Son has the Father also.(If the Son is accepted, the Father is as well, for the Son is the only way to the Father [Jn. 10:30, 38].)

²⁴Let that therefore abide in you, which you have heard from the beginning. (We must not deviate from the True Gospel, which originally brought us to Christ.) If that which you have heard from the beginning shall remain in you, you also shall continue in the Son, and in the Father. (It is the responsibility of the Believer to nurture the stability and growth of correct Doctrines by a Holy life and a determination to cling to them and remain true to them.)

²⁵And this is the Promise that He has promised us, even Eternal Life (which we obtain by accepting Christ and what He did for us at the Cross).

²⁶These things have I written unto you concerning them who seduce you. (All false doctrine comes under the heading of seducing spirits in one way or the other, and is, therefore, labeled Doctrines of Devils [I Tim. 4:1].)

²⁷But the Anointing which you have received of Him (the Holy Spirit) abides in you (abides permanently to help us ascertain if what we are hearing is Scriptural or not), and you need not that any man teach you: but as the same Anointing teaches you of all things (no Believer needs anything thats not already found written in the Word), and is Truth, and is no lie (the Holy Spirit will guide us into all Truth [Jn. 16:13]), and even as it (the Anointing) has taught you, you shall abide in Him (refers to the fact that what we are taught by the Spirit, regarding the Word of God, helps us to abide in Christ).

²⁸And now, little children, abide in Him (presents the condition of fruit-bearing [Jn. 15:4, 7]); that, when He shall appear (the Rapture), we may have confidence (speaks of the heart attitude of the Saint, who lives so close to the Lord Jesus that there is nothing between him and his Lord), and not be ashamed before Him at His Coming. (This presents the fact that some certainly will be ashamed.)

²⁹If you know that He is Righteous (could be translated, Since you know that He is Righteous), you know that every one who does Righteousness is born of Him. (All who are truly Born-Again do Righteousness.)