1 John 2:1-3 restates John’s purposes for writing this letter: that we may not sin. He explains that if we do sin, Jesus is both our advocate and propitiation, which means that He has turned away God’s wrath and petitions for forgiveness on our behalf. Avoiding sin allows us to know God, obey His commandments, and experience the fullness of eternal life.
In 1 John 2:1-3, John completes his series of seven conditional statements and reaffirms his purpose in writing this letter which is for his little children to know God and experience the fullness of eternal life.
In the opening chapter, the Apostle John:
Grounded the message of his epistle as coming from the beginning of Jesus’s ministry—of which John was a close eyewitness. (1 John 1:1).
Established the fact that “God is Light and in Him there is no darkness at all.” (1 John 1:5).
Introduced the concept of walking in the Light versus walking in darkness. These metaphors of Light refer to God’s holiness and perfection. The metaphor of darkness refers to sin and the corrupt ways of this world. (1 John 1:6)
Listed five conditional statements defining what it means for believers to walk in the darkness or the Light and described their consequences. (1 John 1:6-10)
As we will see in this commentary of 1 John 2:1-3, John will add two more conditional statements and complete his series of conditional statements at seven:
And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous; (v 1b)
By this we know that we have come to know Him, if we keep His commandments. (v 3)
John is writing to believers who have already received the Gift of Eternal Life (1 John 2:13), so that they may fully experience eternal life by having fellowship and joy (1 John 1:3-4). Fellowship with God and Joy are part of the Prize of Eternal Life.
In 1 John 1, the author specified two reasons why he wrote this epistle,
He wrote it so that his readers could have fellowship (“koinonia”—partnership/community) with God and His followers. (1 John 1:3)
He wrote it so that his readers may share in the complete joy of John and all who have fellowship with God through Christ Jesus. (1 John 1:4)
After making the first five conditional statements (1 John 1:6-10), John restates his purpose for writing this letter before he continues:
My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous (v 1).
The first sentence of verse 1 is the third time John has stated his purpose for writing this epistle.
My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin (v 1a).
John’s purpose for writing this letter is so that his readers (whom he affectionately addresses as my little children) may not sin.
John writes in the first person here, saying I am writing these things. He has shifted from using “we” to refer to himself and the testimony of the apostles as he did in the opening verses of this letter (1 John 1:1-5) to “I.” This shift is likely because John has begun using “we” to identify himself with his readers starting in 1 John 1:6.
By addressing the recipients of this letter as my little children, John refers to his position of authority over them in an affectionate manner.
By the time he wrote this letter, John was likely an old man who had spent decades spreading and teaching the good news of Jesus to others in obedience to Jesus’s command (Matthew 28:18-20).
John’s instruction had helped guide and grow his readers in their faith as a father guides his children. John may have been the last living apostle and consequently would have been viewed as a type of “father” of the Christian faith. John’s paternal language is also consistent with 2 John 1:1 and3 John 1:1, 3.
John’s third expressed purpose for writing this epistle is related to his first two reasons for writing it. In fact, they functionally serve the same purpose said three different ways.
All three of John’s expressed reasons for writing are connected: if we do not sin, we have fellowship and His joy made complete in us. Ifwe choose to sin, we do not have fellowship, and His joy is not in us.
John is writing sothat his readers (my little children) may not sin and accordingly experience joy and fellowship with God.
To sin means to miss the mark or fall short of God’s perfect standard. Sin is any thought, attitude, or action that disobeys God’s will. Sin is failure to live in full alignment with the truth, light, and goodness of God’s creative design.
The consequence of sin is death (Romans 6:23). Death means separation. When a person’s body dies it becomes separated from their soul and spirit (James 2:26). Sin separates us from God. Adam and Eve spiritually died and were separated from God the day they sinned by disobeying God’s command (Genesis 2:17, 3:24). They were also separated from immortality when exiled from Eden (Genesis 3:22).
The ultimate penalty of sin is eternal separation from God in the Lake of Fire (Matthew 25:41, Revelations 20:14-15).
Our sins are graciously forgiven through the cross of Jesus. He Himself is the propitiation of our sins, as will be explained in a moment.
We receive and accept God’s gift of forgiveness of sin when we believe in Jesus. Believers in Jesus have had all their sin (past, present, and future) forgiven and they stand pardoned from the ultimate penalty of sin (eternal separation from God in the Lake of Fire). The Bible is clear that there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus (Romans 8:1); and that where our sins abound, God’s grace abounds all the more (Romans 5:20), because Jesus took on our sin in exchange for His righteousness (2 Corinthians 5:21); and He nailed our sins to the cross (Colossians 2:13-14).
John is writing to believers whose sin has already been forgiven in Jesus (1 John 2:12) and who are therefore no longer in danger of eternal separation from God. However, believers, even after receiving the Gift of Eternal Life, are still able to and do sin. In fact, John has just stated that any believer who claims that they no longer sin is deceiving themselves (1 John 1:8).
When believers choose to sin and/or do not confess their sins, they do not lose their relationship with God, but they do lose intimacy with Him. They miss out on the joy that could be theirs. They break fellowship with God and are separated from Him when they walk in the darkness (1 John 1:5-6). This separation is a form of death (Romans 6:16).
John is writingto his little children so that they may not sin and miss out on this joy. He wants his children to experience life rather than death, connection and fellowship rather than separation.
That you may not sin is an exhortation for believers to walk in the Light and joyfully abide in fellowship with God.
Again, John is not saying that believers willnot sin. “You will not sin” would imply an unrealistic and unbiblical expectation that believers no longer commit sin after receiving eternal life. John has already made clear that believers do still sin and that denying this reality is self-deception (1 John 1:7-8), which rules out any notion that sin is eliminated in this life.
The expression—youmay not sin—is not a command to sinless perfection (though we should strive to be perfect as our Father in Heaven is perfect—Matthew 5:48). Every believer continually sins and needs the blood of Jesus to continually cleanse us so that we may remain in fellowship with Jesus (1 John 1:7). What John then means by the expression—you may not sin—is that he is writing so that his children may not choose to walk in the darkness of sin, and instead choose to walk in the Light as He is in the Light.
John is writing to encourage believers to resist sin; to actively and intentionally seek to walk in the light so that they do not forfeit the joy, intimacy, and fellowship that come from walking with God. John’s concern is not their loss of being justified in God’s sight (the Gift of Eternal Life), which is already secure in Christ. Rather, John does not want his little children to miss the Prize of Eternal Life and suffer the practical consequences of choosing darkness over light. John’s primary emphasis in this letter is the Prize in this age, which is to walk in joy and fellowship now.
John immediately follows up his pastoral hope for his little children: that you may not sin, with an assurance of what happens when they do sin.
THE SIXTH CONDITIONAL STATEMENT
And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous (v 1b).
The sixth condition: And if anyone sins…
In this context, the relative pronoun—anyone—refers to anyone among John’s readers/John’s little children. In a broader sense anyone refers to anyone who, like John, is a believer in Jesus and who has received the Gift of Eternal Life and who is in God’s spiritual family.
The expression And if anyone sins therefore means: if any believer sins.
The present active verb—sins—means the same thing that sin meant in John’s interjection: I am writing these things so that you may not sin. In both cases, the verbs sin and sins mean choosing to sin or to break fellowship with God and to walk in the darkness.
The full condition John is describing is: If any believer deliberately sins and chooses to walk in darkness.
Over the course of the previous five conditional statements, John has described the negative consequences we as believers will suffer if we choose to sin and walk in darkness.
These negative consequences include:
Walking in darkness (1 John 1:6)
Lying and not practicing the truth (1 John 1:6)
Loss of fellowship with God and His followers (1 John 1:7)
Not having Jesus’s blood cleanse us of our sins for the purpose of fellowship with God (1 John 1:7, 9)
Being self-deceived and not having the light of His truth in us (1 John 1:8)
Calling God a liar and not having His word in us (1 John 1:10)
All of the above are negative consequences of sin that no believer should want to experience. But none of those consequences amount to loss of the Gift of Eternal Life, or being removed from God’s family, or suffering the eternal penalty of sin—which is separation from relationship with God forever.
But here, John does not add another negative consequence for believers when they choose to sin. Instead, he gives a reassuring reminder of God’s faithfulness to believers if they mess up and choose to sin and/or walk in darkness.
The consequence of the sixth condition is: we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.
John reassures us that because of Jesus, no matter how badly we may sin or how deep into the darkness away from God we may walk, we will never be eternally condemned for our sins. In this conditional statement, John reminds us of who it is that takes care of our sins—Jesus Christ the righteous, who is our Advocate with the Father.
The Apostle Paul explains this reality of Jesus covering our sinfulness in 2 Timothy:
“If we are faithless, He remains faithful, for He cannot deny Himself.” (2 Timothy 2:13)
Paul describes believers in Jesus as being “in Christ” (Romans 8:1, 12:5, 1 Corinthians 1:30, 15:22). If a believer is “in Christ” then for Jesus to deny that person before the Father would be to deny Himself, because all believers are one in Him. Therefore, even when we are faithless, He is still faithful. Any and every time we (John’s little children and anyone who is a believer in Jesus) sin or stumble or backslide into darkness, we have an Advocate with the Father.
Our Advocate with the Father is Jesus Christ the righteous.
An advocate is one who comes alongside another to represent, defend, and speak on his behalf—especially in a legal setting.
The Greek term John uses that is translated as Advocate is a form of the word: παράκλητος (G3875—pronounced: “par-ak-lē-tos.” It literally means “called to one’s side or aid” and describes someone who is a comforter, intercessor, counselor, or legal advocate. This is the same Greek word that John used in his Gospel when Jesus described the Holy Spirit as the “Helper” He would send them (John 14:16, 14:26, 15:26, 16:7). This instance in 1 John is the only time that “paraklētos” is used to refer to Christ.
Both Jesus and the Holy Spirit are our “Paraklētos.”
In the context of verse 1, “paraklētos” describes Jesus as our Helper, Counselor, Intercessor and/or legal Advocate who pleads our case.
When we hear or read Advocate, we might first think of a lawyer, but a mediator could be more accurate. When we sin, we do not need a lawyer to get us off the charges (Romans 8:33-34), but we do need an intercessor or mediator.
We see an example of this in Luke 22, where Jesus tells Simon Peter that He is praying for him just before He predicts that Peter will deny Him,
“Simon, Simon, behold, Satan has demanded permission to sift you like wheat; but I have prayed for you, that your faith may not fail; and you, when once you have turned again, strengthen your brothers.” (Luke 22:31-32)
There are three things that Jesus prays for Simon Peter:
That Peter’s faith would not fail.
That Peter will return to Christ.
That Peter will strengthen and encourage others when he returns.
In Luke 22:31-32,Jesus intercedes and prays for Simon Peter before he even committed the sin of denial. Jesus knows that he will sin and prays for his return before he has even turned away.
When believers sin, they do not stand alone before a holy God to argue their own defense. Jesus’s advocacy is really intercession and is connected to His role as the perfect High Priest (Hebrews 9:11-15, 24-25). Instead, they have an Advocate and a Mediator—Jesus Christ the righteous.
John describes Jesus as the righteous, because He alone is righteous. As the Messiah (Christ means “Messiah”—John 1:41), Jesus was sent by the LORD to fulfill the Law and accomplish God’s will (Psalm 40:7-8,Isaiah 42:1,Matthew 5:17,John 6:38, 17:4). Jesus is the only human to perfectly fulfill God’s Law. He did this by setting aside His own ambitions and desires and chose to follow His Father’s will by faith (Luke 22:42). Jesus’s righteous fulfillment of God’s Law and His perfect obedience to His Father’s will was finished on the cross (John 19:30,Philippians 2:5-8).
All other humans have sinned and fallen short of God’s glory (Romans 3:23). No one but Jesus is righteous before God according to their own merits. Jesus alone is perfectly qualified to represent us before theFather because He Himself is righteous.
Jesus is not only righteous, He is also God become Man and He is the Christ.
As the Son of God, Jesus is One with God the Father (John 10:30). When Jesus acts as our Advocate with the Father, He does not stand as a separate or lesser being pleading with a reluctant God. Rather, He intercedes as the eternal Son who is fully one with the Father in will, purpose, and nature.
As the Christ, Jesus is the long-promised Messiah—the Anointed One sent by God to redeem, rule, and restore. When Jesus acts as our Advocate with the Father, He does so as the divinely appointed Redeemer King whose saving work has fully satisfied the demands of righteousness. Our Advocate is therefore the very One whom God promised would suffer and bear our sin and bring justification (Isaiah 53). Because Jesus is the Christ, His intercession rests on His accomplished mission—His obedient life, sacrificial death, and victorious resurrection.
When Jesus advocates and intercedes for believers, He does not defend our sin before the Father. His advocacy does not excuse, minimize, or deny our wrongdoing. Jesus’s intercession fully acknowledges all the evil of our sin and the death we deserve for our sins.
When Jesus advocates and intercedes for believers, He represents us as those who belong to Him. His standing before God is flawless. And Jesus shares His righteous standing with those who are in Him. John explains this in verse 2 when he says: Jesus Himselfis the propitiation for our sins.
Paul beautifully elaborates on how Jesus is the propitiation for our sins in 2 Corinthians:
“Now all these things are from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation, namely, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and He has committed to us the word of reconciliation.” (2 Corinthians 5:18-19)
In other words, it was the Father’s plan for Jesus to reconcile the unrighteous and sinful world through His own sinless righteousness. And Paul concludes this thought with the statement: “He [God] made Him [Jesus] who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him” (2 Corinthians 5:21).
So here in his sixth conditional statement, John is reassuring believers that if anyone of them sins, Jesus does not reject them or withdraw His Gift of Eternal Life, but rather, Jesus stands with the Father as their Advocate who has personally paid the full penalty of all their sins Himself.
The believer’s justification in God’s sight rests not in their continued personal performance. It rests in Christ’s righteousness, His death, resurrection, and ongoing intercession. That our Advocate is Jesus Christ the righteous is everything.
Paul marvels at the remarkable truth that the One whom believers sin against is also the same Person who defends us from our sins against Him. In the Book of Romans, Paul does this through a series of rhetorical questions that he himself answers.
Paul’s first question and answer show how we become righteous through God Himself. The following is a rhetorical question with the expected answer, “No one”:
“Who will bring a charge against God’s elect? God is the one who justifies.” (Romans 8:33b)
Next, Paul asks:
“Who is the one who condemns [those whom God has justified]?” (Romans 8:34a)
Paul answers this question with this assertion:
“Christ Jesus is He who died, yes, rather who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us.” (Romans 8:34b)
The Person who could condemn us is Christ. But He is also the one who intercedes for us as our Advocate. Because Jesus intercedes for us as our Advocate, He does not condemn us as our Accuser. “There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” (Romans 8:1)
Paul then concludes that since Jesus is the only one who could condemn us, but instead He chooses to intercede for us as our Advocate, then there is no one who can condemn us.
He does this again by a rhetorical question that anticipates the answer “no one”:
“Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?” (Romans 8:35)
Paul emphatically answers this question: “No one and nothing can separate us.”
“For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 8:38-39)
Both Paul and John affirm that everyone who has received the Gift of Eternal Life have their sins eternally forgiven through Jesus. Jesus’s advocacy means that even when believers stumble, their relationship with the Father is not severed. The righteous Son stands at the Father’s right hand, continually interceding, ensuring that no accusation can condemn us.
Fellowship can be lost because of our sin (1 John 1:5-6, 8,10). But the Gift of Eternal Life can never be taken away. And our fellowship can be restored when we confess our sins, because He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness so that we can walk in the Light with Him again (1 John 1:9). But no matter how far we have strayed or how often we sinned, we have Jesus as our Advocate.
JESUS IS THE PROPITIATION FOR OUR SINS
and He Himself is the propitiation for our sins; and not for ours only, but also for those of the whole world (v. 2).
Verse 2 is an extension of verse 1 and the work Jesus does for us when He intercedes on behalf of our sins.
The conjunction—and—connects verse 2 to verse 1.
The pronouns He Himself refer to Jesus, Himself. Himself describes how Jesus personally intercedes for us as our Advocate and how He is the propitiation for our sins.
In English, propitiation means the act of appeasing or satisfying righteous anger through an offering. In a Biblical sense, propitiation refers to the removal of God’s just wrath against sin by means of a sacrifice.
Propitiation is an important aspect of atonement.
Atonement and propitiation both deal with the problem of sin and the need for reconciliation between God and humanity. They both involve the idea of a sacrifice that addresses guilt and restores the relationship.
Strictly speaking, atonement is the broader term. Atonement means “cleansing.” It refers to the removal of sin and the reconciliation that results from the blood sacrifice.
Propitiation is more specific. Propitiation means “satisfaction.” Propitiation describes the satisfaction of God and the cessation of His righteous anger against sin as atonement has been made.
In the Bible, there are two closely related Greek nouns that are translated as propitiation:
ἱλασμός (G2434—pronounced: “hil-as-mos”)
ἱλαστήριον (G2435—pronounced: “hil-as-tay-rē-on”)
Both of these Greek words essentially mean the same thing, as they describe God’s satisfaction, but there is a slight nuance in the way these two terms convey this meaning.
“Hilasmos” (G2434) refers to the atoning sacrifice itself that satisfies God’s wrath.
“Hilastayrēon” (G2435) refers to the place or locus where God’s wrath is satisfied.
The ancient Greek translation of the Old Testament (the Septuagint) regularly uses the term “hilastayrēon” to describe “the mercy seat” (Exodus 25:17-22,Leviticus 16:13-15) or the ledge of the alter (Ezekiel 43:17-18). The author of Hebrews also uses “hilastayrēon” to describe the “mercy seat” (Hebrews 9:5). The mercy seat was the lid of the Ark of the Covenant. It was where blood was sprinkled on the Day of Atonement (Leviticus 16:8-34).
The mercy seat was the place of propitiation because the LORD’s presence dwelt above the mercy seat (Exodus 25:22,Leviticus 16:2,Numbers 7:89).
The term John uses for propitiation in verse 2 and again in 1 John 4:10 is “Hilasmos” (G2434).
As the propitiation for our sins, Jesus is the atoning sacrifice that satisfies God’s wrath. In fact, some English translations of 1 John 2:2 render “hilasmos” as “atoning sacrifice” and read: “He himself is the atoning sacrifice for our sins” (NIV, CSB).
The Mosaic Law prescribed animal sacrifices to be offered to atone for the sins of the people because sin brings guilt and death, and atonement requires the shedding of blood. The LORD declared:
“For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it to you on the altar to make atonement for your souls; for it is the blood by reason of the life that makes atonement.” (Leviticus 17:11)
These sacrifices depict the gravity of sin. Sin is not trivial. Sin incurs real penalty: death. And forgiveness requires substitution. As the author of Hebrews explains, “without shedding of blood there is no forgiveness” (Hebrews 9:22).
On the Day of Atonement, the high priest would offer blood for himself and for the people to “make atonement for the holy place because of the impurities of the sons of Israel and because of their transgressions in regard to all their sins” (Leviticus 16:16). The author of Hebrews points out: “it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins” (Hebrews 10:4).
Yet all these sacrifices were repeated continually, year after year, day after day, century after century.
The sacrifices under the Law were God’s ordained means of ceremonial atonement and were a foreshadowing of the greater, once-for-all sacrifice that would truly remove sin (Romans 6:10,Hebrews 9:12). The sacrifices pointed to the cross and to Jesus Christ Himself who is the propitiation for our sins.
In fact, Paul tells the Romans that the reason God passed over Israel’s sins in the days before Jesus was because He looked ahead to the then-future crucifixion of His Son. Paul called this “the forbearance of God” (Romans 3:25):
“Christ Jesus; whom God displayed publicly as a propitiation [“Hilastayrēon”—G2435] in His blood through faith. This was to demonstrate His righteousness, because in the forbearance of God He passed over the sins previously committed.” (Romans 3:24b-25)
When the Father looks at the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross, God is fully satisfied. Jesus has taken away God’s displeasure toward us because of our sins. The reason believers can be justified in the Light of God’s presence is because Jesus Himself is the propitiation of our sins. It is only by the blood of Jesus that we are born into God’s family and it is only by the blood of Jesus that we are able to have fellowship with the Father.
And John tells us that the reason God sent Jesus to be ourAdvocate and the propitiation for our sins is because He loves us (John 3:16,1 John 4:9-10). The cross is the fulfillment of God’s love for us. And Jesus’s dual role as both our Advocate and thepropitiation for our sins makes Him uniquely qualified to intercede with the Father and petition for our forgiveness.
After describing Jesus as the propitiation for our sins, John goes on to describe the entire extent to which His sacrifice can atone when he adds: and not for ours only, but also for those of the whole world (v 2b).
Jesus’s sacrifice on the cross does not only have the power to propitiate and satisfy God’s wrath against the sins of those who believe in Him, it also has the power to cleanse every sin in the entire world. Jesus died for everyone. He died for those who would believe in Him and He died for those who reject Him. Jesus died for the sins of the whole world.
John states this clearly that Jesus’s propitiation is unlimited. His sacrifice is not restricted to propitiating our (believers’) sins only. The cross was for the sins of the whole world which includes the sins of unbelievers. Because Jesus is the propitiation for our sins (believers) and also for those of the whole world (unbelievers), His death on the cross is not limited to any one group. His atonement is comprehensive.
The reason Jesus is able to propitiate the sins of the whole world is because He is the Son of God. As God, His sacrifice has infinite value. The immortal Son of God became human to become mortal and sacrifice Himself so that He could save people from their sins (Matthew 1:21,1 John 4:9-10).
That Christis thepropitiation for the sins of the whole world does not mean that everyone’s sins will be forgiven regardless of whether they believe in Jesus and receive the Gift of Eternal Life. Jesus’s blood redeems all who believe (John 3:14-15).
The blood of Jesus is available to propitiate the sins of the whole world, but the blood of Jesusonly actively propitiates the sins of those who believe in Him. Belief in Jesus is required to have Jesus’s blood applied to our sins so that God’s wrath is removed and we can have eternal life. Jesus explained this when He taught:
"As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up; so that whoever believes will in Him have eternal life.” (John 3:14-15)
Jesus is talking about the Gift of Eternal Life when He says: “whoever believes will in Him have eternal life” (John 3:15). Notably, eternal life is “in Him”—Jesus is the source of propitiation and the source of life.
Paul also talks about the Gift of Eternal Life being received through faith when he wrote: “having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ” (Romans 5:1). Paul then goes on to talk about the ongoing propitiation for our sins that believers continue to have through Jesus when he said: “having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from the wrath of God through Him” (Romans 5:9).
After John writes that Jesus is the propitiation for the sins of the whole world, he then states the seventh and final conditional statement of this series.
THE SEVENTH CONDITIONAL STATEMENT
By this we know that we have come to know Him, if we keep His commandments (v 3).
This statement is the capstone of the series of conditional statements.
The number seven, in Hebraic thought, is the number of completion. This seventh conditional statement completes what the other statements have been pointing toward; namely, knowing Him and keeping His commandments (which John will later reveal to be summed up in loving one another). Knowing God intimately and keeping His commandments to love are essential qualities to sharing fellowship and joy with the Father and His Son.
In John’s seventh conditional statement, he reverses the order. Instead of stating the condition first and the consequence last, he states the consequence first and concludes with the condition.
The consequence is: By this we know that we have come to know Him.
The condition is: if we keep His commandments.
This reversal of this pattern which states consequence first and condition last also stylistically informs John’s readers that he is wrapping up his sequence of conditional statements. But another and seemingly more significant reason for switching the pattern is to emphasize both the consequence and the condition.
The consequence and the condition of this statement introduce two of 1 John’s major themes:
Knowing God (1 John 2:3-5, 2:13-14, 3:1, 3:6, 3:24, 4:2, 4:6-8, 4:13, 4:16, 5:20)
Keeping His Commandments to Love One Another (1 John 2:5, 3:10-11, 3:14, 3:17-18, 3:23, 4:7-12, 4:19-21, 5:2-3)
These two themes converge multiple times throughout this epistle, but perhaps most significantly in 1 John 4:7, which says: “Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God.”
Both themes directly flow from Jesus’s teaching (1 John 1:1-2).
Jesus defined eternal life as knowing God. (John 17:3).
Jesus commanded His disciples to love one another as He loved them. (John 13:34-35, 15:12, 15:17)
The consequence of this conditional statement is: By this we know that we have come to know Him which aligns with Jesus’s definition of eternal life (John 17:3). And the condition we have for knowing we have eternal life is: if we keep His commandments which Jesus gave as to love one another (John 13:34-35, 15:12, 15:17).
The consequence of the seventh condition is: By this we know that we have come to know Him…
John begins this conditional statement by putting the consequence first. He introduces the consequence with the expression: By this. The this in the “By this” expression refers to the condition at the end of this statement. Namely, if we keep His commandments.
So, the full meaning of John’s statement is that By keeping His commandments we know that we have come to know Him.
As it has throughout the entire series of conditional statements which began in 1 John 1:6, the pronoun—we—specifically refers to John’s primary audience and himself. More broadly, we refers to believers in Jesus who have already received the Gift of Eternal Life.
In verse 3, both words that are translated into English as know are forms of the Greek word: γινώσκω (G1097—pronounced: “gin-ō-skō”). “Ginōskō” refers to experiential or relational knowledge rather than intellectual knowledge. “Ginōskō” is also a “stative” verb which means it describes a state of being as opposed to an action. As a stative verb, “ginōskō” is more about who we are than it is about what we do.
1 John 2:3 contains the first two of twenty-five occurrences of “ginōskō” in this epistle. The Greek verb, “ginōskō” appears more times in this short letter than any other book in the New Testament except for the Gospel of Luke (twenty-eight occurrences) and the Gospel of John (fifty-seven occurrences).
Even though both instances of know in verse 3 are forms of “ginōskō,” the Greek verbal tenses and the object of what we know are different.
The first instance of “ginōskō” in verse 3 is translated as: we know.
The object of the first instance of “ginōskō” is the second “ginōskō.” The object or thing thatwe know in the first use of “ginōskō” is certainty. It is assurance that we have come to know Him (Jesus).
The verbal tense of the first instance of “ginōskō” is present continuous. This means we can presently and constantly experience assurance and know with certainty that we have come to know Jesus if we are keeping His commands.
The second instance of “ginōskō” in verse 3 is translated as: we have come to know. The object that we have come to know is a not a thing, but a person—the person of Jesus.
1 John 2:3 is an obvious connection to John 17:3 when John used “ginōskō” when he quoted Jesus’s definition of eternal life:
“This is eternal life, that they may know [‘ginōskō’] You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.” (John 17:3)
If we know (“ginōskō”) Jesus, we experience eternal life.
The verbal tense of the second instance of “ginōskō” is the perfect tense. Normally, when a Greek verb is in the perfect tense it emphasizes the ongoing effects of an already completed action. But when a stative verb such as know is in the perfect tense, it amplifies whatever the meaning of that word is. So here the meaning of this second “ginōskō” could mean: “weknow intensely,” “we experience deeply,” or “weknow fully.”
John says we can fully know Jesus and experience Him deeply if wekeep His commandments. When we consider this with Jesus’s definition of eternal life in John 17:3, then we see that John is saying the way we can know that we are fully experiencing eternal life (knowing Him) is by keeping His commandments.
Before we move on to explain this condition, it should first be pointed out that coming to know Him does not refer to the Gift of Eternal Life, but rather it refers to having greater intimacy and fellowship with God which is part of the Prize of Eternal Life.
In this letter, John is proclaiming eternal life (1 John 1:2) to believers whose sins have already been forgiven (1 John 2:12). And John explicitly states that he is writing so that his readers may have fellowship with God and His followers (1 John 1:3) and that “our [shared] joy may be made complete” (1 John 1:4).
We saw in 1 John 1:5-10 that the way to be in fellowship with God is to confess our sins and walk in the Light as He is in the Light. And walking in the Light as He is in the Light means to keep Jesus’s commandments (v 3) to love one another as He loved us (John 15:12,1 John 4:11).
Walking in the Light, confession, choosing to not sin, keeping His commandments, and loving one another are all works. This is consistent with the purpose believers are redeemed to—to do “good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them” (Ephesians 2:10). But we are redeemed from sin through the grace of God and the death of Jesus, apart from works (Ephesians 2:8-9).
The Bible consistently teaches that the Gift of Eternal Life is not tied to our ability to follow God’s law but is rather solely a product of His grace and mercy,
“And I give eternal life to them, and they will never perish; and no one will snatch them out of My hand.” (John 10:28)
“Because by the works of the Law no flesh will be justified in His sight” (Romans 3:20a)
“For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast.” (Ephesians 2:8-9)
“He saved us, not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but according to His mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out upon us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that being justified by His grace we would be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life.” (Titus 3:5-7)
Faith in Jesus is the sole requirement to receive the Gift of Eternal Life. Just as the Israelites only needed enough faith to look upon the bronze snake in the wilderness to be healed of the deadly poison from the serpents, so too must we have enough faith to look upon Jesus on the cross to receive the Gift of Eternal Life (John 3:14-15). As Jesus promised: “I will give to the one who thirsts from the spring of the water of life without cost” (Revelation 21:6b), all who have faith to ask Him for a drink of life are gifted eternal life.
Keeping His commandments is not a sign that we have the Gift of Eternal Life, because believers can (and sadly often do) walk in the darkness. John’s entire point of his letter is to admonish believers to walk in light, which means we all have the potential to walk in darkness. His letter would have no urgency if we could not walk in the darkness. In fact, in 1 John 2:15-16, John will also make clear that believers have a binary choice of who and what to love; we can love and follow the world and its lusts or we can follow God.
If the Gift of Eternal Life rested on our ability to keep His commandments, it would not be a gift. It would be a reward. None of us could earn it. We would all be doomed, because we continue to sin and do not always keep His commandments. Peter was adamant that he would never deny Jesus, yet he did. The same can be true of us and keeping His commandments.
If the Gift of Eternal Life is tied to our ability to keep His commandments, then the Gift could be revoked. But God’s gifts are irrevocable (John 10:28-29,Romans 8:37-38, 11:29). Likewise, if our confidence that we have the Gift is derived from our good behavior then our faith is in ourselves rather than in Christ.
John’s point deals with what we experience, not who we are. When believers are born again, we are new creations in Christ (2 Corinthians 5:17). John’s desire is for believers who have been given eternal life also gain the fullest experience of eternal life. And that comes from knowing God, and knowing God comes by following His commandments.
The seventh condition: if we keep His commandments.
The condition for knowing that we are experiencing the fullness of eternal life through knowing Him is if we keep His commandments. If we keep His commandments, we know that have known Him.
John expands on this in 2 John, where he says: “and this is love, that we walk according to His commandments” (2 John 1:6).
Obedience flows from knowing God and walking in the Light as He is in the Light.
As explained above, keeping His commandments is not a sign that we have the Gift of Eternal Life. But it can be a sign of fellowship. Keeping His commandments is a sign that we are experiencing the Prize of Eternal Life.
The commandments John is talking about are the commandments Jesus taught His disciples. These are summed up with His command to love one another as He has loved them. Jesus explained these commandments to John and the other disciples on the night He was arrested:
“A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.” (John 13:34-35)
“This is My commandment, that you love one another, just as I have loved you.” (John 15:12)
“This I command you, that you love one another.” (John 15:17)
Jesus also taught that if we keep His commandments, we are His friends and abide in His love:
“If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love; just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love.” (John 15:10)
“You are My friends if you do what I command you.” (John 15:14)
To “abide” is to rest in, as one “abides” in a house. The only way we are able to keep His commandments to love one another is by abiding in God by faith. If we keep His commandments we love one another. And if we love one another we keep His commandments and enjoy the Father’s love (John 14:23). But if we do not love God, we will not keep His commandments or abide in God’s love (John 14:24a).
John teaches these things in another conditional statement later in this epistle:
“If we love one another, God abides in us, and His love is perfected in us.” (1 John 4:12b)
John then writes:
“By this we know [‘ginōskō’] that we abide in Him and He in us.” (1 John 4:13a)
So, 1 John 4:12b-13a is essentially a reprise of 1 John 2:3 with the command to love one another explicitly stated. And John is even more explicit on this point in 2 John, when he says: “and this is love, that we walk according to His commandments” (2 John 1:6). John also included the theme of abiding in John 15, where he recalled Jesus saying:
“Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in Me.” John 15:4
Jesus explained the outcome of abiding in God as being able to enjoy the blessing of the Father’s love, keeping His word and loving Jesus,
“If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our abode with him. He who does not love Me does not keep My words.” (John 14:23-24)
This verse pictures moving into God’s house and living in familial fellowship with Him. Knowing God is the active experience of eternal life. Knowing God will be expressed in our actions and the way that we live and the way we walk. But knowing God is not primarily about following the Law for the sake of the Law. The Pharisees followed religious rules, but they did not know God (Matthew 15:7-9). Rather, we can see from the context of 1 John and the teachings of Jesus that keeping God’s commandments is about love—love for God that spills out into love for others.
Paul noted that the leaders who sought righteousness by the law “did not arrive at that law” (Romans 9:31). But the Gentiles, who were not even seeking righteousness, “attained righteousness, even the righteousness which is by faith” (Romans 9:30). True righteousness comes from the inside out (Deuteronomy 30:14,Matthew 5-7,Romans 12:2,Colossians 3:2, 10).
In the next section of The Bible Says commentary (1 John 2:4-6), we will explain the first two of John’s three “the one who says…” statements of 1 John 2:4, 6, 9.
1 John 2:1-3
Christ Is Our Advocate
1 My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous;
2 and He Himself is the propitiation for our sins; and not for ours only, but also for those of the whole world.
3 By this we know that we have come to know Him, if we keep His commandments.
Set to dark mode
1 John 2:1-3 meaning
In 1 John 2:1-3, John completes his series of seven conditional statements and reaffirms his purpose in writing this letter which is for his little children to know God and experience the fullness of eternal life.
In the opening chapter, the Apostle John:
(1 John 1:1).
(1 John 1:5).
(1 John 1:6)
(1 John 1:6-10)
As we will see in this commentary of 1 John 2:1-3, John will add two more conditional statements and complete his series of conditional statements at seven:
(v 1b)
(v 3)
John is writing to believers who have already received the Gift of Eternal Life (1 John 2:13), so that they may fully experience eternal life by having fellowship and joy (1 John 1:3-4). Fellowship with God and Joy are part of the Prize of Eternal Life.
In 1 John 1, the author specified two reasons why he wrote this epistle,
(1 John 1:3)
(1 John 1:4)
After making the first five conditional statements (1 John 1:6-10), John restates his purpose for writing this letter before he continues:
My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous (v 1).
The first sentence of verse 1 is the third time John has stated his purpose for writing this epistle.
My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin (v 1a).
John’s purpose for writing this letter is so that his readers (whom he affectionately addresses as my little children) may not sin.
John writes in the first person here, saying I am writing these things. He has shifted from using “we” to refer to himself and the testimony of the apostles as he did in the opening verses of this letter (1 John 1:1-5) to “I.” This shift is likely because John has begun using “we” to identify himself with his readers starting in 1 John 1:6.
By addressing the recipients of this letter as my little children, John refers to his position of authority over them in an affectionate manner.
By the time he wrote this letter, John was likely an old man who had spent decades spreading and teaching the good news of Jesus to others in obedience to Jesus’s command (Matthew 28:18-20).
John’s instruction had helped guide and grow his readers in their faith as a father guides his children. John may have been the last living apostle and consequently would have been viewed as a type of “father” of the Christian faith. John’s paternal language is also consistent with 2 John 1:1 and 3 John 1:1, 3.
John’s third expressed purpose for writing this epistle is related to his first two reasons for writing it. In fact, they functionally serve the same purpose said three different ways.
All three of John’s expressed reasons for writing are connected: if we do not sin, we have fellowship and His joy made complete in us. If we choose to sin, we do not have fellowship, and His joy is not in us.
John is writing so that his readers (my little children) may not sin and accordingly experience joy and fellowship with God.
To sin means to miss the mark or fall short of God’s perfect standard. Sin is any thought, attitude, or action that disobeys God’s will. Sin is failure to live in full alignment with the truth, light, and goodness of God’s creative design.
The consequence of sin is death (Romans 6:23). Death means separation. When a person’s body dies it becomes separated from their soul and spirit (James 2:26). Sin separates us from God. Adam and Eve spiritually died and were separated from God the day they sinned by disobeying God’s command (Genesis 2:17, 3:24). They were also separated from immortality when exiled from Eden (Genesis 3:22).
The ultimate penalty of sin is eternal separation from God in the Lake of Fire (Matthew 25:41, Revelations 20:14-15).
Our sins are graciously forgiven through the cross of Jesus. He Himself is the propitiation of our sins, as will be explained in a moment.
We receive and accept God’s gift of forgiveness of sin when we believe in Jesus. Believers in Jesus have had all their sin (past, present, and future) forgiven and they stand pardoned from the ultimate penalty of sin (eternal separation from God in the Lake of Fire). The Bible is clear that there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus (Romans 8:1); and that where our sins abound, God’s grace abounds all the more (Romans 5:20), because Jesus took on our sin in exchange for His righteousness (2 Corinthians 5:21); and He nailed our sins to the cross (Colossians 2:13-14).
John is writing to believers whose sin has already been forgiven in Jesus (1 John 2:12) and who are therefore no longer in danger of eternal separation from God. However, believers, even after receiving the Gift of Eternal Life, are still able to and do sin. In fact, John has just stated that any believer who claims that they no longer sin is deceiving themselves (1 John 1:8).
When believers choose to sin and/or do not confess their sins, they do not lose their relationship with God, but they do lose intimacy with Him. They miss out on the joy that could be theirs. They break fellowship with God and are separated from Him when they walk in the darkness (1 John 1:5-6). This separation is a form of death (Romans 6:16).
John is writing to his little children so that they may not sin and miss out on this joy. He wants his children to experience life rather than death, connection and fellowship rather than separation.
That you may not sin is an exhortation for believers to walk in the Light and joyfully abide in fellowship with God.
Again, John is not saying that believers will not sin. “You will not sin” would imply an unrealistic and unbiblical expectation that believers no longer commit sin after receiving eternal life. John has already made clear that believers do still sin and that denying this reality is self-deception (1 John 1:7-8), which rules out any notion that sin is eliminated in this life.
The expression—you may not sin—is not a command to sinless perfection (though we should strive to be perfect as our Father in Heaven is perfect—Matthew 5:48). Every believer continually sins and needs the blood of Jesus to continually cleanse us so that we may remain in fellowship with Jesus (1 John 1:7). What John then means by the expression—you may not sin—is that he is writing so that his children may not choose to walk in the darkness of sin, and instead choose to walk in the Light as He is in the Light.
John is writing to encourage believers to resist sin; to actively and intentionally seek to walk in the light so that they do not forfeit the joy, intimacy, and fellowship that come from walking with God. John’s concern is not their loss of being justified in God’s sight (the Gift of Eternal Life), which is already secure in Christ. Rather, John does not want his little children to miss the Prize of Eternal Life and suffer the practical consequences of choosing darkness over light. John’s primary emphasis in this letter is the Prize in this age, which is to walk in joy and fellowship now.
John immediately follows up his pastoral hope for his little children: that you may not sin, with an assurance of what happens when they do sin.
THE SIXTH CONDITIONAL STATEMENT
And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous (v 1b).
The sixth condition: And if anyone sins…
In this context, the relative pronoun—anyone—refers to anyone among John’s readers/John’s little children. In a broader sense anyone refers to anyone who, like John, is a believer in Jesus and who has received the Gift of Eternal Life and who is in God’s spiritual family.
The expression And if anyone sins therefore means: if any believer sins.
The present active verb—sins—means the same thing that sin meant in John’s interjection: I am writing these things so that you may not sin. In both cases, the verbs sin and sins mean choosing to sin or to break fellowship with God and to walk in the darkness.
The full condition John is describing is: If any believer deliberately sins and chooses to walk in darkness.
Over the course of the previous five conditional statements, John has described the negative consequences we as believers will suffer if we choose to sin and walk in darkness.
These negative consequences include:
(1 John 1:6)
(1 John 1:6)
(1 John 1:7)
(1 John 1:7, 9)
(1 John 1:8)
(1 John 1:10)
All of the above are negative consequences of sin that no believer should want to experience. But none of those consequences amount to loss of the Gift of Eternal Life, or being removed from God’s family, or suffering the eternal penalty of sin—which is separation from relationship with God forever.
But here, John does not add another negative consequence for believers when they choose to sin. Instead, he gives a reassuring reminder of God’s faithfulness to believers if they mess up and choose to sin and/or walk in darkness.
The consequence of the sixth condition is: we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.
John reassures us that because of Jesus, no matter how badly we may sin or how deep into the darkness away from God we may walk, we will never be eternally condemned for our sins. In this conditional statement, John reminds us of who it is that takes care of our sins—Jesus Christ the righteous, who is our Advocate with the Father.
The Apostle Paul explains this reality of Jesus covering our sinfulness in 2 Timothy:
“If we are faithless, He remains faithful, for He cannot deny Himself.”
(2 Timothy 2:13)
Paul describes believers in Jesus as being “in Christ” (Romans 8:1, 12:5, 1 Corinthians 1:30, 15:22). If a believer is “in Christ” then for Jesus to deny that person before the Father would be to deny Himself, because all believers are one in Him. Therefore, even when we are faithless, He is still faithful. Any and every time we (John’s little children and anyone who is a believer in Jesus) sin or stumble or backslide into darkness, we have an Advocate with the Father.
Our Advocate with the Father is Jesus Christ the righteous.
An advocate is one who comes alongside another to represent, defend, and speak on his behalf—especially in a legal setting.
The Greek term John uses that is translated as Advocate is a form of the word: παράκλητος (G3875—pronounced: “par-ak-lē-tos.” It literally means “called to one’s side or aid” and describes someone who is a comforter, intercessor, counselor, or legal advocate. This is the same Greek word that John used in his Gospel when Jesus described the Holy Spirit as the “Helper” He would send them (John 14:16, 14:26, 15:26, 16:7). This instance in 1 John is the only time that “paraklētos” is used to refer to Christ.
Both Jesus and the Holy Spirit are our “Paraklētos.”
In the context of verse 1, “paraklētos” describes Jesus as our Helper, Counselor, Intercessor and/or legal Advocate who pleads our case.
When we hear or read Advocate, we might first think of a lawyer, but a mediator could be more accurate. When we sin, we do not need a lawyer to get us off the charges (Romans 8:33-34), but we do need an intercessor or mediator.
We see an example of this in Luke 22, where Jesus tells Simon Peter that He is praying for him just before He predicts that Peter will deny Him,
“Simon, Simon, behold, Satan has demanded permission to sift you like wheat; but I have prayed for you, that your faith may not fail; and you, when once you have turned again, strengthen your brothers.”
(Luke 22:31-32)
There are three things that Jesus prays for Simon Peter:
In Luke 22:31-32, Jesus intercedes and prays for Simon Peter before he even committed the sin of denial. Jesus knows that he will sin and prays for his return before he has even turned away.
When believers sin, they do not stand alone before a holy God to argue their own defense. Jesus’s advocacy is really intercession and is connected to His role as the perfect High Priest (Hebrews 9:11-15, 24-25). Instead, they have an Advocate and a Mediator—Jesus Christ the righteous.
John describes Jesus as the righteous, because He alone is righteous. As the Messiah (Christ means “Messiah”—John 1:41), Jesus was sent by the LORD to fulfill the Law and accomplish God’s will (Psalm 40:7-8, Isaiah 42:1, Matthew 5:17, John 6:38, 17:4). Jesus is the only human to perfectly fulfill God’s Law. He did this by setting aside His own ambitions and desires and chose to follow His Father’s will by faith (Luke 22:42). Jesus’s righteous fulfillment of God’s Law and His perfect obedience to His Father’s will was finished on the cross (John 19:30, Philippians 2:5-8).
All other humans have sinned and fallen short of God’s glory (Romans 3:23). No one but Jesus is righteous before God according to their own merits. Jesus alone is perfectly qualified to represent us before the Father because He Himself is righteous.
Jesus is not only righteous, He is also God become Man and He is the Christ.
As the Son of God, Jesus is One with God the Father (John 10:30). When Jesus acts as our Advocate with the Father, He does not stand as a separate or lesser being pleading with a reluctant God. Rather, He intercedes as the eternal Son who is fully one with the Father in will, purpose, and nature.
As the Christ, Jesus is the long-promised Messiah—the Anointed One sent by God to redeem, rule, and restore. When Jesus acts as our Advocate with the Father, He does so as the divinely appointed Redeemer King whose saving work has fully satisfied the demands of righteousness. Our Advocate is therefore the very One whom God promised would suffer and bear our sin and bring justification (Isaiah 53). Because Jesus is the Christ, His intercession rests on His accomplished mission—His obedient life, sacrificial death, and victorious resurrection.
When Jesus advocates and intercedes for believers, He does not defend our sin before the Father. His advocacy does not excuse, minimize, or deny our wrongdoing. Jesus’s intercession fully acknowledges all the evil of our sin and the death we deserve for our sins.
When Jesus advocates and intercedes for believers, He represents us as those who belong to Him. His standing before God is flawless. And Jesus shares His righteous standing with those who are in Him. John explains this in verse 2 when he says: Jesus Himself is the propitiation for our sins.
Paul beautifully elaborates on how Jesus is the propitiation for our sins in 2 Corinthians:
“Now all these things are from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation, namely, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and He has committed to us the word of reconciliation.”
(2 Corinthians 5:18-19)
In other words, it was the Father’s plan for Jesus to reconcile the unrighteous and sinful world through His own sinless righteousness. And Paul concludes this thought with the statement: “He [God] made Him [Jesus] who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him” (2 Corinthians 5:21).
So here in his sixth conditional statement, John is reassuring believers that if anyone of them sins, Jesus does not reject them or withdraw His Gift of Eternal Life, but rather, Jesus stands with the Father as their Advocate who has personally paid the full penalty of all their sins Himself.
The believer’s justification in God’s sight rests not in their continued personal performance. It rests in Christ’s righteousness, His death, resurrection, and ongoing intercession. That our Advocate is Jesus Christ the righteous is everything.
Paul marvels at the remarkable truth that the One whom believers sin against is also the same Person who defends us from our sins against Him. In the Book of Romans, Paul does this through a series of rhetorical questions that he himself answers.
Paul’s first question and answer show how we become righteous through God Himself. The following is a rhetorical question with the expected answer, “No one”:
“Who will bring a charge against God’s elect? God is the one who justifies.”
(Romans 8:33b)
Next, Paul asks:
“Who is the one who condemns [those whom God has justified]?”
(Romans 8:34a)
Paul answers this question with this assertion:
“Christ Jesus is He who died, yes, rather who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us.”
(Romans 8:34b)
The Person who could condemn us is Christ. But He is also the one who intercedes for us as our Advocate. Because Jesus intercedes for us as our Advocate, He does not condemn us as our Accuser. “There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” (Romans 8:1)
Paul then concludes that since Jesus is the only one who could condemn us, but instead He chooses to intercede for us as our Advocate, then there is no one who can condemn us.
He does this again by a rhetorical question that anticipates the answer “no one”:
“Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?”
(Romans 8:35)
Paul emphatically answers this question: “No one and nothing can separate us.”
“For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
(Romans 8:38-39)
Both Paul and John affirm that everyone who has received the Gift of Eternal Life have their sins eternally forgiven through Jesus. Jesus’s advocacy means that even when believers stumble, their relationship with the Father is not severed. The righteous Son stands at the Father’s right hand, continually interceding, ensuring that no accusation can condemn us.
Fellowship can be lost because of our sin (1 John 1:5-6, 8,10). But the Gift of Eternal Life can never be taken away. And our fellowship can be restored when we confess our sins, because He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness so that we can walk in the Light with Him again (1 John 1:9). But no matter how far we have strayed or how often we sinned, we have Jesus as our Advocate.
JESUS IS THE PROPITIATION FOR OUR SINS
and He Himself is the propitiation for our sins; and not for ours only, but also for those of the whole world (v. 2).
Verse 2 is an extension of verse 1 and the work Jesus does for us when He intercedes on behalf of our sins.
The conjunction—and—connects verse 2 to verse 1.
The pronouns He Himself refer to Jesus, Himself. Himself describes how Jesus personally intercedes for us as our Advocate and how He is the propitiation for our sins.
In English, propitiation means the act of appeasing or satisfying righteous anger through an offering. In a Biblical sense, propitiation refers to the removal of God’s just wrath against sin by means of a sacrifice.
Propitiation is an important aspect of atonement.
Atonement and propitiation both deal with the problem of sin and the need for reconciliation between God and humanity. They both involve the idea of a sacrifice that addresses guilt and restores the relationship.
Strictly speaking, atonement is the broader term. Atonement means “cleansing.” It refers to the removal of sin and the reconciliation that results from the blood sacrifice.
Propitiation is more specific. Propitiation means “satisfaction.” Propitiation describes the satisfaction of God and the cessation of His righteous anger against sin as atonement has been made.
In the Bible, there are two closely related Greek nouns that are translated as propitiation:
Both of these Greek words essentially mean the same thing, as they describe God’s satisfaction, but there is a slight nuance in the way these two terms convey this meaning.
The ancient Greek translation of the Old Testament (the Septuagint) regularly uses the term “hilastayrēon” to describe “the mercy seat” (Exodus 25:17-22, Leviticus 16:13-15) or the ledge of the alter (Ezekiel 43:17-18). The author of Hebrews also uses “hilastayrēon” to describe the “mercy seat” (Hebrews 9:5). The mercy seat was the lid of the Ark of the Covenant. It was where blood was sprinkled on the Day of Atonement (Leviticus 16:8-34).
The mercy seat was the place of propitiation because the LORD’s presence dwelt above the mercy seat (Exodus 25:22, Leviticus 16:2, Numbers 7:89).
The term John uses for propitiation in verse 2 and again in 1 John 4:10 is “Hilasmos” (G2434).
As the propitiation for our sins, Jesus is the atoning sacrifice that satisfies God’s wrath. In fact, some English translations of 1 John 2:2 render “hilasmos” as “atoning sacrifice” and read: “He himself is the atoning sacrifice for our sins” (NIV, CSB).
The Mosaic Law prescribed animal sacrifices to be offered to atone for the sins of the people because sin brings guilt and death, and atonement requires the shedding of blood. The LORD declared:
“For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it to you on the altar to make atonement for your souls; for it is the blood by reason of the life that makes atonement.”
(Leviticus 17:11)
These sacrifices depict the gravity of sin. Sin is not trivial. Sin incurs real penalty: death. And forgiveness requires substitution. As the author of Hebrews explains, “without shedding of blood there is no forgiveness” (Hebrews 9:22).
On the Day of Atonement, the high priest would offer blood for himself and for the people to “make atonement for the holy place because of the impurities of the sons of Israel and because of their transgressions in regard to all their sins” (Leviticus 16:16). The author of Hebrews points out: “it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins” (Hebrews 10:4).
Yet all these sacrifices were repeated continually, year after year, day after day, century after century.
The sacrifices under the Law were God’s ordained means of ceremonial atonement and were a foreshadowing of the greater, once-for-all sacrifice that would truly remove sin (Romans 6:10, Hebrews 9:12). The sacrifices pointed to the cross and to Jesus Christ Himself who is the propitiation for our sins.
In fact, Paul tells the Romans that the reason God passed over Israel’s sins in the days before Jesus was because He looked ahead to the then-future crucifixion of His Son. Paul called this “the forbearance of God” (Romans 3:25):
“Christ Jesus; whom God displayed publicly as a propitiation [“Hilastayrēon”—G2435] in His blood through faith. This was to demonstrate His righteousness, because in the forbearance of God He passed over the sins previously committed.”
(Romans 3:24b-25)
When the Father looks at the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross, God is fully satisfied. Jesus has taken away God’s displeasure toward us because of our sins. The reason believers can be justified in the Light of God’s presence is because Jesus Himself is the propitiation of our sins. It is only by the blood of Jesus that we are born into God’s family and it is only by the blood of Jesus that we are able to have fellowship with the Father.
And John tells us that the reason God sent Jesus to be our Advocate and the propitiation for our sins is because He loves us (John 3:16, 1 John 4:9-10). The cross is the fulfillment of God’s love for us. And Jesus’s dual role as both our Advocate and the propitiation for our sins makes Him uniquely qualified to intercede with the Father and petition for our forgiveness.
After describing Jesus as the propitiation for our sins, John goes on to describe the entire extent to which His sacrifice can atone when he adds: and not for ours only, but also for those of the whole world (v 2b).
Jesus’s sacrifice on the cross does not only have the power to propitiate and satisfy God’s wrath against the sins of those who believe in Him, it also has the power to cleanse every sin in the entire world. Jesus died for everyone. He died for those who would believe in Him and He died for those who reject Him. Jesus died for the sins of the whole world.
John states this clearly that Jesus’s propitiation is unlimited. His sacrifice is not restricted to propitiating our (believers’) sins only. The cross was for the sins of the whole world which includes the sins of unbelievers. Because Jesus is the propitiation for our sins (believers) and also for those of the whole world (unbelievers), His death on the cross is not limited to any one group. His atonement is comprehensive.
The reason Jesus is able to propitiate the sins of the whole world is because He is the Son of God. As God, His sacrifice has infinite value. The immortal Son of God became human to become mortal and sacrifice Himself so that He could save people from their sins (Matthew 1:21, 1 John 4:9-10).
That Christ is the propitiation for the sins of the whole world does not mean that everyone’s sins will be forgiven regardless of whether they believe in Jesus and receive the Gift of Eternal Life. Jesus’s blood redeems all who believe (John 3:14-15).
The blood of Jesus is available to propitiate the sins of the whole world, but the blood of Jesus only actively propitiates the sins of those who believe in Him. Belief in Jesus is required to have Jesus’s blood applied to our sins so that God’s wrath is removed and we can have eternal life. Jesus explained this when He taught:
"As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up; so that whoever believes will in Him have eternal life.”
(John 3:14-15)
Jesus is talking about the Gift of Eternal Life when He says: “whoever believes will in Him have eternal life” (John 3:15). Notably, eternal life is “in Him”—Jesus is the source of propitiation and the source of life.
Paul also talks about the Gift of Eternal Life being received through faith when he wrote: “having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ” (Romans 5:1). Paul then goes on to talk about the ongoing propitiation for our sins that believers continue to have through Jesus when he said: “having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from the wrath of God through Him” (Romans 5:9).
After John writes that Jesus is the propitiation for the sins of the whole world, he then states the seventh and final conditional statement of this series.
THE SEVENTH CONDITIONAL STATEMENT
By this we know that we have come to know Him, if we keep His commandments (v 3).
This statement is the capstone of the series of conditional statements.
The number seven, in Hebraic thought, is the number of completion. This seventh conditional statement completes what the other statements have been pointing toward; namely, knowing Him and keeping His commandments (which John will later reveal to be summed up in loving one another). Knowing God intimately and keeping His commandments to love are essential qualities to sharing fellowship and joy with the Father and His Son.
In John’s seventh conditional statement, he reverses the order. Instead of stating the condition first and the consequence last, he states the consequence first and concludes with the condition.
The consequence is: By this we know that we have come to know Him.
The condition is: if we keep His commandments.
This reversal of this pattern which states consequence first and condition last also stylistically informs John’s readers that he is wrapping up his sequence of conditional statements. But another and seemingly more significant reason for switching the pattern is to emphasize both the consequence and the condition.
The consequence and the condition of this statement introduce two of 1 John’s major themes:
(1 John 2:3-5, 2:13-14, 3:1, 3:6, 3:24, 4:2, 4:6-8, 4:13, 4:16, 5:20)
(1 John 2:5, 3:10-11, 3:14, 3:17-18, 3:23, 4:7-12, 4:19-21, 5:2-3)
These two themes converge multiple times throughout this epistle, but perhaps most significantly in 1 John 4:7, which says: “Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God.”
Both themes directly flow from Jesus’s teaching (1 John 1:1-2).
(John 17:3).
(John 13:34-35, 15:12, 15:17)
The consequence of this conditional statement is: By this we know that we have come to know Him which aligns with Jesus’s definition of eternal life (John 17:3). And the condition we have for knowing we have eternal life is: if we keep His commandments which Jesus gave as to love one another (John 13:34-35, 15:12, 15:17).
The consequence of the seventh condition is: By this we know that we have come to know Him…
John begins this conditional statement by putting the consequence first. He introduces the consequence with the expression: By this. The this in the “By this” expression refers to the condition at the end of this statement. Namely, if we keep His commandments.
So, the full meaning of John’s statement is that By keeping His commandments we know that we have come to know Him.
As it has throughout the entire series of conditional statements which began in 1 John 1:6, the pronoun—we—specifically refers to John’s primary audience and himself. More broadly, we refers to believers in Jesus who have already received the Gift of Eternal Life.
In verse 3, both words that are translated into English as know are forms of the Greek word: γινώσκω (G1097—pronounced: “gin-ō-skō”). “Ginōskō” refers to experiential or relational knowledge rather than intellectual knowledge. “Ginōskō” is also a “stative” verb which means it describes a state of being as opposed to an action. As a stative verb, “ginōskō” is more about who we are than it is about what we do.
1 John 2:3 contains the first two of twenty-five occurrences of “ginōskō” in this epistle. The Greek verb, “ginōskō” appears more times in this short letter than any other book in the New Testament except for the Gospel of Luke (twenty-eight occurrences) and the Gospel of John (fifty-seven occurrences).
Even though both instances of know in verse 3 are forms of “ginōskō,” the Greek verbal tenses and the object of what we know are different.
The first instance of “ginōskō” in verse 3 is translated as: we know.
The object of the first instance of “ginōskō” is the second “ginōskō.” The object or thing that we know in the first use of “ginōskō” is certainty. It is assurance that we have come to know Him (Jesus).
The verbal tense of the first instance of “ginōskō” is present continuous. This means we can presently and constantly experience assurance and know with certainty that we have come to know Jesus if we are keeping His commands.
The second instance of “ginōskō” in verse 3 is translated as: we have come to know. The object that we have come to know is a not a thing, but a person—the person of Jesus.
1 John 2:3 is an obvious connection to John 17:3 when John used “ginōskō” when he quoted Jesus’s definition of eternal life:
“This is eternal life, that they may know [‘ginōskō’] You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.”
(John 17:3)
If we know (“ginōskō”) Jesus, we experience eternal life.
The verbal tense of the second instance of “ginōskō” is the perfect tense. Normally, when a Greek verb is in the perfect tense it emphasizes the ongoing effects of an already completed action. But when a stative verb such as know is in the perfect tense, it amplifies whatever the meaning of that word is. So here the meaning of this second “ginōskō” could mean: “we know intensely,” “we experience deeply,” or “we know fully.”
John says we can fully know Jesus and experience Him deeply if we keep His commandments. When we consider this with Jesus’s definition of eternal life in John 17:3, then we see that John is saying the way we can know that we are fully experiencing eternal life (knowing Him) is by keeping His commandments.
Before we move on to explain this condition, it should first be pointed out that coming to know Him does not refer to the Gift of Eternal Life, but rather it refers to having greater intimacy and fellowship with God which is part of the Prize of Eternal Life.
In this letter, John is proclaiming eternal life (1 John 1:2) to believers whose sins have already been forgiven (1 John 2:12). And John explicitly states that he is writing so that his readers may have fellowship with God and His followers (1 John 1:3) and that “our [shared] joy may be made complete” (1 John 1:4).
We saw in 1 John 1:5-10 that the way to be in fellowship with God is to confess our sins and walk in the Light as He is in the Light. And walking in the Light as He is in the Light means to keep Jesus’s commandments (v 3) to love one another as He loved us (John 15:12, 1 John 4:11).
Walking in the Light, confession, choosing to not sin, keeping His commandments, and loving one another are all works. This is consistent with the purpose believers are redeemed to—to do “good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them” (Ephesians 2:10). But we are redeemed from sin through the grace of God and the death of Jesus, apart from works (Ephesians 2:8-9).
The Bible consistently teaches that the Gift of Eternal Life is not tied to our ability to follow God’s law but is rather solely a product of His grace and mercy,
“And I give eternal life to them, and they will never perish; and no one will snatch them out of My hand.”
(John 10:28)
“Because by the works of the Law no flesh will be justified in His sight”
(Romans 3:20a)
“For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast.”
(Ephesians 2:8-9)
“He saved us, not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but according to His mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out upon us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that being justified by His grace we would be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life.”
(Titus 3:5-7)
Faith in Jesus is the sole requirement to receive the Gift of Eternal Life. Just as the Israelites only needed enough faith to look upon the bronze snake in the wilderness to be healed of the deadly poison from the serpents, so too must we have enough faith to look upon Jesus on the cross to receive the Gift of Eternal Life (John 3:14-15). As Jesus promised: “I will give to the one who thirsts from the spring of the water of life without cost” (Revelation 21:6b), all who have faith to ask Him for a drink of life are gifted eternal life.
Keeping His commandments is not a sign that we have the Gift of Eternal Life, because believers can (and sadly often do) walk in the darkness. John’s entire point of his letter is to admonish believers to walk in light, which means we all have the potential to walk in darkness. His letter would have no urgency if we could not walk in the darkness. In fact, in 1 John 2:15-16, John will also make clear that believers have a binary choice of who and what to love; we can love and follow the world and its lusts or we can follow God.
If the Gift of Eternal Life rested on our ability to keep His commandments, it would not be a gift. It would be a reward. None of us could earn it. We would all be doomed, because we continue to sin and do not always keep His commandments. Peter was adamant that he would never deny Jesus, yet he did. The same can be true of us and keeping His commandments.
If the Gift of Eternal Life is tied to our ability to keep His commandments, then the Gift could be revoked. But God’s gifts are irrevocable (John 10:28-29, Romans 8:37-38, 11:29). Likewise, if our confidence that we have the Gift is derived from our good behavior then our faith is in ourselves rather than in Christ.
John’s point deals with what we experience, not who we are. When believers are born again, we are new creations in Christ (2 Corinthians 5:17). John’s desire is for believers who have been given eternal life also gain the fullest experience of eternal life. And that comes from knowing God, and knowing God comes by following His commandments.
The seventh condition: if we keep His commandments.
The condition for knowing that we are experiencing the fullness of eternal life through knowing Him is if we keep His commandments. If we keep His commandments, we know that have known Him.
John expands on this in 2 John, where he says: “and this is love, that we walk according to His commandments” (2 John 1:6).
Obedience flows from knowing God and walking in the Light as He is in the Light.
As explained above, keeping His commandments is not a sign that we have the Gift of Eternal Life. But it can be a sign of fellowship. Keeping His commandments is a sign that we are experiencing the Prize of Eternal Life.
The commandments John is talking about are the commandments Jesus taught His disciples. These are summed up with His command to love one another as He has loved them. Jesus explained these commandments to John and the other disciples on the night He was arrested:
“A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.”
(John 13:34-35)
“This is My commandment, that you love one another, just as I have loved you.”
(John 15:12)
“This I command you, that you love one another.”
(John 15:17)
Jesus also taught that if we keep His commandments, we are His friends and abide in His love:
“If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love; just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love.”
(John 15:10)
“You are My friends if you do what I command you.”
(John 15:14)
To “abide” is to rest in, as one “abides” in a house. The only way we are able to keep His commandments to love one another is by abiding in God by faith. If we keep His commandments we love one another. And if we love one another we keep His commandments and enjoy the Father’s love (John 14:23). But if we do not love God, we will not keep His commandments or abide in God’s love (John 14:24a).
John teaches these things in another conditional statement later in this epistle:
“If we love one another, God abides in us, and His love is perfected in us.”
(1 John 4:12b)
John then writes:
“By this we know [‘ginōskō’] that we abide in Him and He in us.”
(1 John 4:13a)
So, 1 John 4:12b-13a is essentially a reprise of 1 John 2:3 with the command to love one another explicitly stated. And John is even more explicit on this point in 2 John, when he says: “and this is love, that we walk according to His commandments” (2 John 1:6). John also included the theme of abiding in John 15, where he recalled Jesus saying:
“Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in Me.”
John 15:4
Jesus explained the outcome of abiding in God as being able to enjoy the blessing of the Father’s love, keeping His word and loving Jesus,
“If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our abode with him. He who does not love Me does not keep My words.”
(John 14:23-24)
This verse pictures moving into God’s house and living in familial fellowship with Him. Knowing God is the active experience of eternal life. Knowing God will be expressed in our actions and the way that we live and the way we walk. But knowing God is not primarily about following the Law for the sake of the Law. The Pharisees followed religious rules, but they did not know God (Matthew 15:7-9). Rather, we can see from the context of 1 John and the teachings of Jesus that keeping God’s commandments is about love—love for God that spills out into love for others.
Paul noted that the leaders who sought righteousness by the law “did not arrive at that law” (Romans 9:31). But the Gentiles, who were not even seeking righteousness, “attained righteousness, even the righteousness which is by faith” (Romans 9:30). True righteousness comes from the inside out (Deuteronomy 30:14, Matthew 5-7, Romans 12:2, Colossians 3:2, 10).
In the next section of The Bible Says commentary (1 John 2:4-6), we will explain the first two of John’s three “the one who says…” statements of 1 John 2:4, 6, 9.