11 verses of chapter 2.
My little children, these things write I unto
you, that ye sin not, and if any
man sin, we have an advocate with the
Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.
And he is the propitiation for our sins,
and not for ours only, but also for
the sins of the whole world.
And hereby we do know that we know
him, if we keep his commandments.
He that saith, I know him, and keepeth
not his commandments, is a liar, and the
truth is not in him.
But whoso keepeth his word, in him verily
is the love of God perfected.
Hereby know we that we are in him.
He that saith, he abideth in him, ought
himself also so to walk, even as he
walked.
Brethren, I write no new commandment unto you,
but an old commandment which ye had from
the beginning.
The old commandment is the word which ye
have heard from the beginning.
Again a new commandment I write unto you,
which thing is true in him and in
you.
Because the darkness is past, or is passing,
and the true light now shineth.
He that saith he is in the light,
and hateth his brother, is in darkness even
until now.
He that loveth his brother abideth in the
light, and there is none occasion of stumbling
in him.
But he that hateth his brother is in
darkness, and walketh in darkness, and knoweth not
whither he goeth, because that darkness hath blinded
his eyes.
May God bless the reading of his precious
words.
Again we humbly but earnestly pray it will
be the Holy Spirit who alone can, may
he interpret and illuminate the words for our
mutual edification.
Just a brief introduction of what we have
already seen in our study thus far.
In the opening of the epistle, beginning in
verse one, going through verse four, and even
verse five, we have the gate to fellowship
with God, even through the person of our
blessed Lord Jesus, who is the word of
life, the life eternal, who was made incarnate
to bring to you and to me the
love and the grace of his father to
redeem us.
He alone is the gate to the fellowship
that is ours with the father.
Looking at verse five and six and going
down into chapter two and verse two, I
believe we could give this subject of affection
a very important subject in relation to its
context.
Holiness is the only way to maintain fellowship
with God.
Holiness the maintenance of fellowship with God.
And we have the apostle dealing with the
question of sin, and particularly bringing before us
in relation to that fact, that even we
as believers should realize the only thing that
can mar the fellowship of our hearts, the
communion of our souls in happy fellowship with
the father, must be, can only be, sin.
Trials may never do that.
Troubles and difficulties need not do such, for
often they bring us even nearer to his
heart.
But that which separates the mutual fellowship and
mars it between the father has to be,
and can only be, sin.
If he said of St. Augustine that there
was only one thing he feared, which his
enemies delighted if they could possibly bring him
to do, for they realized he was not
afraid to die, he was not afraid to
suffer, he was not afraid to give himself
in death for the sake of his Savior
he loved, but they said there was only
one thing he feared, that was sin.
And my beloved, humbly but earnestly, may you
and I have the same godly fear.
But what a joy to realize as you
take the embrace of this section from verse
six and going down into chapter two and
verse two.
The opening verses of chapter two bring God's
provision for the sin that comes into the
life of a believer.
Note the blessed introduction of the chapter as
John particularly declares, my little children, these things
write I unto you that ye sin not.
One of the obvious purposes of the epistle,
and may I say if you will read
through the epistle, I believe you will find
seven distinct references by John as to the
purpose of his writing.
And here he declares, these things write I
unto you that ye sin not.
Let us take, as we have already noted
in the preceding portion, that it is not
possible for us to say we cannot sin,
or that we do not sin, but nevertheless
let us not minimize the exhortation that we
should not sin.
For God will not minimize the awfulness of
sin, and to the heart of the Father,
sin in the life of a believer is
far more tragic to him than in the
life of an unbeliever.
For it is one of his own children.
But then notice he goes on to say,
if, and sometimes it has been translated and
possibly can be, but if any man sin,
if any believer sin, and may I suggest
what John is implying is nothing that is
common, but he is implying that it should
be an infrequent, a very rare thing.
If any man commit a sin, if