Sunday School - August 3

These are the notes from my second, and last, teaching at Sunday School

Living the Faith - 1 John 2

Last week we lifted three themes of John’s teaching from the 2nd chapter of his first epistle. They were apostolic doctrines, in that John learned them first from Jesus. The themes presented were:

A “I write this to you so that you will not sin” (2:1)

B “Whoever claims to live in Him must walk as Jesus did” (2:6)

C “Do not love the world or anything in the world” (2:15)

Now, focusing on the first of these teachings, how are we to understand these verses?

“Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” (Jesus in Matt. 5:48)

“I write this to you that you will not sin.” (2:1)

“But if we walk in the light… blood of Jesus, His Son, purifies us from all sin.” (1:7)

“We know that anyone born of God does not continue to sin…” (5:18)

Are these meant to be taken literally? Is there a way for us to “not continue in sin,” to be “purified from all sin,” to “be perfect” as our Heavenly Father is perfect?

Under the Old Covenant, under the Law, a standard of perfect conduct was set forth – that no one could attain unto. There were individual and corporate sacrifices that, because of God’s mercy, allowed the people to be forgiven and to try again. But in their trying again, they failed again.

In his letter, I assure you, John was not trying to establish an unattainable goal by which his beloved children were doomed to fail. This was the New Covenant which John had learned at Jesus’ side. “I am writing you a new command; its truth is seen in Him and you.” (1 John 2:8)
John had seen the “grace and truth” of God manifested in Jesus. He was now testifying of it to those who had not; “We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you also may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ.” “…and we proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and has appeared to us.” (1 John 1:3 & 2).

John was stating plainly that the Eternal Life that he saw in Jesus was seen also in his readers.

Let’s turn briefly to Paul, who dealt extensively with the working out of this Life in Christ. How was it that Paul both confessed his sins and claimed victory over them?

“I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. …As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. ...Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it. (Roman 7:15, 17 and 20)

Paul did not teach this as an excuse, or as a license to sin. He was declaring that his sinful nature, (his “flesh” as KJV calls it) could do no good at all. Paul was, as John was, and as we are – A New Creation (2 Cor 5:17), with a new nature, a new life. The old Paul had been crucified with Christ (Galatians 2:20) and buried into Christ’s death (Romans 6:4). Paul could now do all things through Christ that he could not do in his flesh, under the law.

John doesn’t retell the “mechanics” of this new life in Christ. His readers knew the doctrine. It was John’s way to loviningly exhort, to write a letter to them; “so that you will not sin”