1 John 2 Studies

For those who may wish to ‘study’ this chapter, the following simple resources are provided for you. Each chapter is divided into a number of studies and each study or passage has a simple four-Part, verse-by-verse approach, to help you take in and think further about what you have read.

Passage: 1 John 2:1-6

1 My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin. But if anybody does sin, we have an advocate with the Father – Jesus Christ, the Righteous One. 2 He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world.

3 We know that we have come to know him if we keep his commands. 4 Whoever says, ‘I know him,’ but does not do what he commands is a liar, and the truth is not in that person. 5 But if anyone obeys his word, love for God is truly made complete in them. This is how we know we are in him: 6 whoever claims to live in him must live as Jesus did.

A. Find Out:

1. Why was John writing? v.1a
2. Yet what happens if we do sin? v.1b
3. What is Jesus? v.2
4. How do we know we know him? v.3
5. What happens when a “believer” isn’t obedient to Christ? v.4
6. What must a “believer” do? v.6c

B. Think:

1. What two things does John expect Christians to do?
2. When we fail or sin, what happens?
3. How is obedience such an important thing in the Christian life?

C. Comment:

     John has just spoken about how we deal with our sin by coming to God and confessing it openly. Repentance, we said, was the key to coming into and remaining in fellowship with God.  The objective of coming to Christ is to have him remove our sin.

    Now he states that one of his purposes for writing is to help them not sin (v.1a). Salvation is ongoing and so if the first objective of coming to Christ is to remove our sin, the second objective is to keep us from falling back into sin.

    But immediately he says that this pastoral giant recognises the reality of Christian living and says, but if you do sin (for we quite possibly will from time to time) then Jesus is there speaking up for you (v.1b).  This is truly wonderful!  This is John’s teaching: don’t sin, yet when you sin inadvertently, Jesus is there speaking up for you, and as soon as you are aware of it, confess it.   When that happens, we find that Jesus’ death on the Cross acts in the same way as an Old Testament sacrifice and atones or makes up for, or pays the price for, our sins (v.2).

     This, keeping free from sin, John now equates with being obedient!   Relating to Jesus means we will obey all he has said.   In fact, he says, being obedient is a sign that we know him (v.3).

     To emphasise the point, John uses the fourth of his ‘wrong-way-of-thinking’ illustrations (v.4): those who say they know and have fellowship with God but who don’t do what He commands.   This is the positive side of the same coin we saw in v.6 where negatively he spoke of those who said they knew God but actually did wrong.

    Next John links obedience and love (v.5).   Because God is love (see later in the letter) everything He says and does is an expression of love and so when we do the things He instructs us to do, they will also be an expression of love.  This is yet a third way that we know we are Christians.   If we claim to know Christ (v.6) we must walk in the say way he did, the way of obedience and love.

      So far John has told us three times how we may know or have fellowship with God. First it was by living in the light (1:6,7) and then it is by being obedient (2:3) and finally it is about living in love (2:5).  All of these are really all about ‘being’ and character, and it is being like Jesus.

D. Application:

1. A Remedy

•   We are not to sin yet when we do there is a remedy. Be thankful – Jesus is there, speaking up for you.

2. Obedience.

•   Loving obedience to Jesus is part of the package. Ensure you are.

Passage: 1 John 2:7-11

7 Dear friends, I am not writing you a new command but an old one, which you have had since the beginning. This old command is the message you have heard. 8 Yet I am writing you a new command; its truth is seen in him and in you, because the darkness is passing and the true light is already shining.

9 Anyone who claims to be in the light but hates a brother or sister is still in the darkness. 10 Anyone who loves their brother and sister lives in the light, and there is nothing in them to make them stumble. 11 But anyone who hates a brother or sister is in the darkness and walks around in the darkness. They do not know where they are going, because the darkness has blinded them.

A. Find Out:

1. What was John writing? v.7a
2. What was it? v.7b
3. Yet what also was it and how seen? v.8
4. Where is someone who hates his brother? v.9
5. Where does the one live who does love his brother? v.10
6. What, again, is the state of the one who hates his brother? v.11

B. Think:

1. How do you think John was writing both an old & new command?
2. How does verse 9 parallel what has gone earlier?
3. What should be the practical outworking of this passage?

C. Comment:

     John has just written about the need to obey Christ’s commands and now he speaks about the command to love as both an old (v.7) and a new command (v.8). How can it be both old and new?

     It was an old command in that it was given to the Jews centuries before (see Deut 6:5 and Lev 19:18), to love the Lord with all your heart etc. and your neighbour as your self.    Jesus put these two together in Mt 22:37-40.   Yes, the Law already said it.

     Yet it was now a new command in that Jesus specifically laid it on his disciples (see Jn 15:9-17) as a sacrificial love, a love that comes in response to his love, and then copied his love.    This new command was now actually coming into being as the church grew and the love of Christ was shining through his people.   It was like darkness was receding in the face of growing light (v.8).

     Previously it was a command that people had  to obey out of their own resources. Now it is a command that is lived out because the Spirit of love, the Spirit of Christ, the Holy Spirit, lives within us and energises and enables us to live this life of love.

     So, continues John, (using his fifth ‘wrong-way-of-thinking’ illustrations) if you claim to be in the light (v.9) you can’t hate someone else, indeed if you do you are still in darkness (v.10).  This parallels 1:6 but here it is about relationships with others instead of with God.  Indeed John is so insistent on this that he repeats his assertion that if you hate your brother you cannot be in the light (v.11).

    It is possible for Christians to be saved, it seems, yet not be walking in the light and enjoying the fruit of their salvation (for John was writing to Christians).  These verses are not to write off a person’s salvation if they have a wrong attitude, but they do declare that a wrong attitude about another person can put you right out of the light, the place where you receive and enjoy all of God’s goodness.

D. Application:

1. A wrong attitude?

•   A wrong attitude towards another robs us of our inheritance. Check your attitude towards all others.

2. A wrong attitude?

•   A wrong attitude can blind us to the truth.  Check it out. Have you tolerated your bad attitude towards another?  You’ve been blinded to the truth.  Put it right.

Passage: 1 John 2:12-14

12 I am writing to you, dear children,
    because your sins have been forgiven on account of his name.
13 I am writing to you, fathers,
    because you know him who is from the beginning.
I am writing to you, young men,
    because you have overcome the evil one.

14 I write to you, dear children,
    because you know the Father.
I write to you, fathers,
    because you know him who is from the beginning.
I write to you, young men,
    because you are strong,
    and the word of God lives in you,
    and you have overcome the evil one.

A. Find Out:

1. Why was he writing to them as little children? v.12,13c
2. Why was he writing as to fathers? v.13a,14a
3. Why was he writing as to young men? v.13b,14b,c

B. Think:

1. What characterizes spiritual children?
2. What characterizes spiritual fathers?
3. What characterizes spiritual young men?
4. How does John address different levels of spiritual maturity?

C. Comment:

     If John were addressing literal children, fathers and young men, then he would probably take a different order, i.e. children, young men, fathers, so it is more likely that he is addressing different levels of spiritual maturity.

     First “children”.   He speaks as a pastor to all the flock as “dear children” (note the endearment).    In their earliest stages all Christians know their sins have been forgiven and know God the Father.   The first stages of spiritual development are about forgiveness and reconciliation to the Father.   We should all know that, it is first and foremost about knowing God as our loving heavenly Father and receiving His love and forgiveness.  Perhaps he is implying, you need to hear these things to help you stand strong and grow.

     Next “fathers”.  The same thing is written twice: “you have known him who is from the beginning”.  There is here, a sense of enduring.   Fathers are those who have aged and matured and had much experience of life, who have endured through it.   A father is one who has been through the years of parenthood which, perhaps more that most other things, brings about a deeper maturity.  So John speaks not only to young Christians but also to those who are mature and who have endured for the sake of Christ.   Perhaps he is implying, you know the things that I am saying are true and are needed.    Support me and back me up!

     Finally, “young men”.    Young men have energy and are involved in doing.   These “young men” have fought the enemy and overcome and have prevailed by the word of God in them.   Here he addresses those who are involved in service in the kingdom.   To do that you have to be strong spiritually and have God’s word living in you to sustain you and protect you in the battle.  Perhaps it is as if he is implying, men, you are experiencing this battle right now, and you know the truth of these things I am saying, so I’m simply reminding you that you need to hear and hold onto these things.

     Which group are we in?  Just a young Christian?   Then we really need to take in the truths that John is bringing in this letter.    Or are we someone who has endured in maturity?   Then let’s be encouraged as we reaffirm these truths.  Or are we someone who has been in the service of the King, triumphing over the enemy?   Then let’s grab these truths and be strengthened in the battle by them.

D. Application:

      Serving the king? Fight on! Enduring through the years? Hold on! A young Christian? Grow!

Passage: 1 John 2:15-17

15 Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, love for the Father is not in them. 16 For everything in the world – the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life – comes not from the Father but from the world. 17 The world and its desires pass away, but whoever does the will of God lives for ever.

A. Find Out:

1. What are we not to do? v.15a
2. Why? v.15b
3. What 3 descriptions of the “world” activity are given? v.16b
4. Where do they come from? v.16a,c
5. What happens to the world and its desires? v.17a
6. Who will live for ever? v.17b

B. Think:

1. How is John using the word “world” here?
2. What other ways do we use it?
3. How is John’s “world” in opposition to God?

C. Comment:

    “World” in scripture has various meanings.  It sometimes means the planet on which we live (e.g. Mt 13:35), sometimes the people of the earth (e.g. Jn 1:29), and then finally as the total system of godless thinking by mankind that excludes God (e.g. Jn 15:18).   It is this last usage that John means here.   Now let’s consider the expressions of it that John describes.

     First “the cravings of sinful man” (v.16) mean the sensual desires of self-centred man who simply wants personal comfort and personal pleasure. This is about yearnings to personal gratification that seeks personal well being without any reference to God.   This produces illicit relationships, and foolish and destructive behaviour.

      Then comes “the lust of the eyes”, the constant wanting more of whatever you see which the Bible calls covetousness.  This is what modern materialistic advertising is built upon, and it feeds on the lack of comfort that sin carries with it.  Until we come into a good relationship with God there is always a hunger within us and therefore we crave comfort and our eyes are constantly looking for something to assuage that hunger.   No wonder we use such phrases today as ‘comfort eating’ or ‘retail therapy’!

      Finally there is “boasting of what he has and does”, which is pride exalting self by saying “I’m better than you!”.  Pride is that overbearing opinion of oneself that is blind to failure and weakness.   Pride is what the weak person uses to bolster them self in the absence of knowing God’s love.   They focus on things they have done, abilities that they have, not realising that they can only do them because of God’s loving provision.

     Note that it is all man-centred, on what “I” want, on what “I” can do, on “me” and thus excludes God.  That’s why so many references to ‘world’ in the Bible refer to the human population of the world that is against Christ and ignores God.

     No wonder John says “don’t love the man-centred way of life”.   The world, the planet on which we live, is God’s gift to us to enjoy.  The world, the people on the planet, are loved by God and are to be loved by us.   But all we have, all we are, all we do, is to have God at the heart of it, otherwise our godless existence will only bring our destruction.   If instead, we have God in it all, then eternal life flows in us.

      There is a challenge at the end of these verses: what are our priorities in life?   Are they to focus on my needs, what I want, or are they to come into relationship with God and to do His will.  The former are doomed to frustration, the latter will bring life.

D. Application:

1. “Godly” or “Godless”?

•   That is the question that must be applied to our lives. Is God really the focal point of my entire life?

2. Self-centred or God-centred

•   That is the question. Am I more concerned with my personal comfort than with doing God’s will?

Passage: 1 John 2:18-23

18 Dear children, this is the last hour; and as you have heard that the antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have come. This is how we know it is the last hour. 19 They went out from us, but they did not really belong to us. For if they had belonged to us, they would have remained with us; but their going showed that none of them belonged to us.

20 But you have an anointing from the Holy One, and all of you know the truth. 21 I do not write to you because you do not know the truth, but because you do know it and because no lie comes from the truth. 22 Who is the liar? It is whoever denies that Jesus is the Christ. Such a person is the antichrist – denying the Father and the Son. 23 No one who denies the Son has the Father; whoever acknowledges the Son has the Father also.

A. Find Out:

1. When did John say it was and how did he know that? v.18
2. What had happened and what did that show? v.19
3. But what did he say his readers had? v.20
4. Why was he writing? v.21
5. Who is a liar and an antichrist? v.22
6. What is the link of Father and Son? v.23

B. Think:

1. In what sense does John use the term antichrist here?
2. How is Jesus all important in this?
3. Why is anointing important?

C. Comment:

     Having just spoken about the world attitude, John now moves on to the subject of those who are anti-Christ.   Jesus had spoken about false Christ’s coming (Mt 24:5,24) and such people had apparently already appeared.   From this John deduces that they are in the last times.

     In Mt 24:3 the disciples asked Jesus about the end of the age and he told them to watch for a variety of signs.    In Acts 2:16,17 Peter, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, claims the outpouring of the Spirit was the start of the “last days”, a long period running up to the return of Christ.   Thus John was saying, friends look out, the characteristics that Jesus spoke about in respect of this age are clearly here.  There are clearly people who will deny that Jesus is the Christ.

     But there is more for he refers to people who had gone out from them.  Perhaps the Gnostics had been those who had been part of the Christian congregation before they moved out and established their own distorted beliefs.  The truth is, says John, they were never really part of us and (implied) they had never really known fellowship with the Father.   If they had really had fellowship with the Father they would have known the truth and would not have been seduced by untruths.

    It seems that there will always be those who are part of the Christian congregation (yet not actually part of the church) who don’t fully come to the truth and fully become God’s children.  Jesus’ parable of the Sower (e.g. Mt 13:3-8) indicates there there will be those who hear the Gospel but in whom the word does not genuinely take root.  So sadly, yes, there will be those who appear with us for a while, but who eventually wander away.

     But for the Christians that John is writing to, John is quite clear on two points.   First, they had the anointing or the help of the Holy Spirit and so He would show them the truth of these things.  That was why he was writing, simply to confirm what the Spirit within them was saying.   He wasn’t writing to them to convince them because they didn’t believe but, to the contrary, he was writing because they did know the truth and just needed to have it reaffirmed.

     Second, he says, any person who denies that Jesus is the Christ is an antichrist and cannot know God the Father.   In an age where multi-faith proponents flourish we need to heed John’s words.  Anyone who claims Jesus is not God’s messiah, cannot know God.   Their “faith” is not valid!

D. Application:

1. Denial.

•   Denial of Christ is opposition to God.   Let’s be clear about that.

2. Anti-Christ?

•   A person who denies Christ is an antichrist.   As hard as it may be to take, we may have friends or family who are anti-Christ.   Pray for them.

Passage: 1 John 2:24-29

24 As for you, see that what you have heard from the beginning remains in you. If it does, you also will remain in the Son and in the Father. 25 And this is what he promised us – eternal life.

26 I am writing these things to you about those who are trying to lead you astray. 27 As for you, the anointing you received from him remains in you, and you do not need anyone to teach you. But as his anointing teaches you about all things and as that anointing is real, not counterfeit – just as it has taught you, remain in him.

28 And now, dear children, continue in him, so that when he appears we may be confident and unashamed before him at his coming.

29 If you know that he is righteous, you know that everyone who does what is right has been born of him.

A. Find Out:    

1. What instruction does Jesus give? v.24
2. What has been promised? v.25
3. Against whom is Jesus warning them? v.26
4. Yet what have they, and with what consequence? v.27
5. Again what does he instruct so what will happen? v.28
6. Who has been born of him? v.29

B. Think:

1. What two instructions are given, one following from the other?
2. What warning was he bringing?
3. What reassurance was he bringing?

C. Comment:

     John has just warned about antichrists, people who deny Jesus.    He now tells us that he is writing to help the believers there resist such people and not be led astray. So, he says, hold onto what you heard from the beginning, let it live in you, and as you do that so your relationship with the Father and the Son will continue, and so you will receive eternal life.  Continue in Christ, he goes on, and (implied) don’t be put off by others.

     With this comes a number of reassurances:

    First, if we hold onto the word, onto the truth of the Gospel, then we will remain in relationship with the Lord (v.24).   The call here is to KEEP ON in our living relationship with the Lord that came when His word came and impacted us and He changed us as we responded to it.

    Second, when we do that we will be sure that we have eternal life, for the Lord is the author of all life (v.25).   This is what eternal life it.   It is the very life of Father and Son flowing in us, it is being one with them and so it is their life in us that carries us into eternity, and of course, that means from now on.

    Third, we have received anointing (v.27), or we have received the enabling of the Holy Spirit, and so the Spirit will teach us and confirm us in the truth, and so as He remains in us, so we are to remain in Him.   When someone was anointed in the Old Testament it meant that they were equipped by God to perform a task, whether it was kings or priests.   When we came to Him, He gave us His Holy Spirit and He lives within us, enabling us to be the people He’s called us to be.

     Fourth, if we do that, when he returns we will be confident and not afraid.   Living in the truth, living in him, means we will gladly receive him when he returns and not be afraid of what he might say when he comes (v.28).  Whenever Jesus returns, we want to ensure he finds us living in the light, living in relationship with the Father and as long as we remain doing that, we won’t be afraid of his potential return.

     Finally, as we do right it confirms that we have been born again of him; we are new creations in Christ and our lives prove it (v.29).  This keeps coming over in this letter. We prove we are God’s children by the way we live.   A righteous life is an indication of a heart that is linked with His.

     In all these ways he establishes confidence in us .

D. Application:

1. In Me?

•   Ensure the word lives in you. Ensure The Word lives in you and is free to move through you.

2. Confidence?

•   When we do this, we may live in confidence in Him. Do I have that confidence, that knows his presence and power flowing through me?