My children, these things I write to you in order that ye may not sin; and if any one sin, we have a patron with the Father, Jesus Christ [the] righteous;
John sets a standard that leaves no room for sinning. Then he names the provision for the moment a believer does sin: an Advocate with the Father.
The words "these things" point back to what John has already written:
It is important to ask what he had been writing with this aim in view. His subject was fellowship with the Father and the Son, and the fullness of joy in it. For "the joy of the LORD is your strength," and this joy would be their safeguard. The two statements are closely linked: John writes so that their joy may be complete, and he writes so that they may not sin.
No one should turn this truth into an excuse:
And note, these truths are not given so that we may sin. God forbid that I should write one line that would make us careless in our walk.
Who does John mean by "my little children"?
In this letter John addresses the saints as the children of God. Older translations do not always keep the distinction between "children" and "little children." The first term covers the whole family of God. The second covers those in the family who are spiritually the youngest and least mature. Chapter 2:1 is one of the places where "little children" should really read "children"... Here it is easy to see that the appeal not to sin takes in not one class only, but the whole family of God.
John's Gospel uses the same word for the Holy Spirit:
The word translated "Advocate" here is the same word translated "Comforter" in John 14. It means "One called alongside to help." The risen One, Jesus Christ the righteous, is the One called alongside the Father in glory, to help His saints if and when they sin. The Holy Spirit is the One called alongside us here below, to help us.
This differs from His work as high Priest:
The high Priest has to do with our weaknesses, helping, supporting, sympathising. The Advocate has to do with the believer when he sins. There can be no sympathising with sin. But if the believer sins, how moving it is that the Lord does not give us up. On the contrary, He is active for our recovery.
John does not say the Advocate is with God, but with the Father:
"With the Father." Then the link of relationship, the family tie, we are assured, has not snapped. Thank God, it never can! And at such a moment He reminds us of it. He is our Father, and we are His children, however badly we have behaved. Yet restoring us to communion is no light matter. It takes the active service of the Lord Jesus Christ as Advocate to bring it about.
One writer pictures what that service looks like:
He who died for our sins is our advocate, our defender, our lawyer — the One who takes on the whole case of our restoration. We see it in that beautiful picture, when He took the basin and poured water and washed His disciples' feet.
Which comes first — our repentance, or His advocacy?
John does not say we shall have an Advocate when we repent. He says, "if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father." It is the settled possession that Christians always have. Sin is always inexcusable in a saint; but if one does sin, we have that Advocate with the Father. His advocacy brings us to repentance. It is not our repentance that makes Him our Advocate, but His grace which puts everything into effective action.
Why this title, and not one that speaks of His kindness?
John stresses the righteousness of our Advocate. We might have expected His kindness and mercy to be stressed instead. Yet elsewhere, when sin is in question, the emphasis falls on righteousness, and so it is here. The One who takes up our case in the Father's presence when we sin will see to it that righteousness prevails. On the one hand, our sin shall not tarnish the Father's glory. On the other hand, He will deal with us righteously. So we come to a proper and righteous judgment of our sin, are brought to confession, and are forgiven and cleansed.
- Aim — John writes so that his readers will not sin. Their safeguard is fellowship with the Father and the Son, and the full joy it brings.
- Address — "My little children" takes in the whole family of God, not one class of younger believers within it.
- Advocate — the word means "One called alongside to help." Christ is that helper with the Father above; the Spirit is that helper in us below.
- Father — this is not a sinner coming back to God for salvation. It is a child, still in the family, being restored to communion.
- Righteous — He acts first, before we repent. And He acts righteously: He brings us to confession instead of passing over the sin.
and *he* is the propitiation for our sins; but not for ours alone, but also for the whole world.
This verse comes right after the promise of an Advocate for the believer who sins. It names the ground that Advocate stands on. It also widens the view from "our sins" to the whole world. How far does the death of Christ reach?
John does not present Christ pleading for mercy on our behalf. He presents Him as the One who has already settled the whole matter. One writer sets out the two questions, and the two answers:
The One who is our Advocate on high is also "the propitiation for our sins." This fact brings us back to the rock foundation upon which everything rests. His propitiatory sacrifice has met every claim of God against us, and He takes up His advocacy with the Father on that righteous basis. His propitiation has settled for us as sinners the eternal questions our sins have raised. His advocacy now settles the family questions that come up when we, as children of God, sin.
The word points back to the tabernacle, and to one day in Israel's year: the Day of Atonement. On that day the high priest carried blood inside and sprinkled it on the golden lid of the ark, called the mercy-seat.
Writers have often pointed out that the word translated propitiation in this passage really means "mercy-seat," or propitiatory — that is, the place where propitiation was made. This is easy to see if we remember what Aaron did on the great day of atonement. God told him to carry the blood of the sin-offering into the holiest place of all. There he sprinkled it on the mercy-seat, and in front of it too. Now it was the blood so sprinkled that made propitiation, as far as the picture goes. Aaron sprinkled it there for the eye of God, and it met all His claims on His people because of their sins. … In the tabernacle the mercy-seat was hidden behind the veil. In the gospel Christ, as the mercy-seat, is set out publicly before everyone. So whoever accepts God's testimony to the power of His precious blood may come near with confidence.
Some Bibles end the verse "for the sins of the whole world." Others simply say "for the whole world." Commentators differ over whether the words "the sins of" belong. One argues that the phrase implies them:
The words some want to leave out are necessarily implied; for what else does "not for ours only" do but imply them? Had it said, "not for us only," it would have been entirely different; but "not for ours only" must imply: then for the sins of others also.
Another insists on keeping the distinction, to guard the verse from proving too much:
Christ is a propitiation in a general way for the whole world, but only "for our sins." There is a marked distinction when he speaks of the whole world. So it is wrong to put in "the sins" when the world is in question… If the Lord had been the propitiation for the sins of the whole world, then the whole world would receive the fruit of it and go to heaven.
Both sides use the same distinction. Christ's death faces God, and it faces particular people. Scripture uses different words for each.
Being the Godward side of His death, the widest possible circle is in view — "the whole world." When the substitutionary side is stated, only believers are in view: it is "our offences," or "the sins of many." Only believers stand in the realised benefits of the death of Christ. Yet God needs to be propitiated about every sin men have ever committed, and about the whole great outrage sin has done. In the death of Christ He has been propitiated. Because of this He can offer forgiveness to men freely, without compromising one feature of His nature and character in the smallest degree. … God is not against man but for him. What righteousness demanded, love supplied. God Himself provided the propitiation: His own Son, who was God, became it.
This wide reach gives the evangelist something to say to every person.
The evangelist cannot go and tell every creature that Christ died as his substitute. But he can tell him that He died as a propitiation. Then, when through grace the soul believes on the Lord Jesus Christ, he can learn the further calming truth: He died as a substitute, and bore all his sins in His own body on the tree.
- Foundation. The Advocate stands on finished work. Propitiation settled the eternal question of guilt. Advocacy handles the family question when a child of God sins.
- Meaning. "Propitiation" is mercy-seat language. The blood was there for God's eye, and it met every claim He had because of sin.
- Reach. From that foundation the verse widens — the Godward side of the cross takes in "the whole world," not a select circle.
- Limit. That reach is not universal salvation. Commentators differ on the wording, but agree that the sins Christ bore are "our sins," "the sins of many."
- Result. So the invitation goes to every person alive. God can forgive anyone who comes without setting aside His righteousness. Whoever comes then learns that Christ died for him.