In First John 2:1-8 we find the apostle going into detail about the Lord’s message to those who desire to spend eternity with Him and His Son. John calls these people his “little children.” Recall that this is the same title Jesus gave His 12 disciples who, for 3 1/2 years, had preached His Gospel of the Kingdom of God, healed the sick, cast out demons (“devils”), cleansed the lepers and raised the dead. However, as the previous segment revealed, THEY HAD NOT BEEN CONVERTED AND WERE THEREFORE NO DIFFERENT FROM THOSE TO WHOM THEY MINISTERED. They were operating under the power of the Holy Spirit which was WITH THEM, BUT NOT IN THEM. The Spirit was not in their personal lives during that time because they had not been converted, and would not be converted until the Holy Spirit came upon them on the Day of Pentecost (Acts 1:5,8; 2:1-12).

Prior to that day the disciples had not experienced a 180 degree reversal of life that true conversion entails. Such is the spiritual condition of the modern church. With the exception of the Philadelphia era church (1930’s to 1980’s), that condition (apostasy) has characterized professing Christianity since the days of the original apostles. Read about the church’s apostasy using the key word–Apostasy. Recall that the Apostle Paul, writing to the churches of Galatia in the mid-50’s A.D., was amazed that they had so soon abandoned the Gospel that Christ taught and had embraced a “PERVERTED GOSPEL” (1:6-9). The writings of the other apostles reveal that they, too, found the same apostasy taking place among many of the church people to whom they ministered. Satan had wasted no time in infiltrating the church with his “new and improved” versions of God’s Truth. Within a hundred years of her founding, the church of God in no way resembled the church that He had established on the Day of Pentecost in Jerusalem in 31 A.D. Read “My People Called by My Name” and Who are God’s People? Key words–Called and People respectively.

Nothing has changed. As the Philadelphia era of church history was coming to an end the Laodicean era was beginning to form. The church, with the exception of God’s tiny remnant, quickly evolved back into the Law-rejecting, paganistic morass that she is today. Read about her apostic evolution in the series titled God’s Letters to the Church Eras. Key word–Letters. For a summary of the modern church’s spiritual condition, read the homepage of this website. Now back to First John chapter two verse one.

Here we find the apostle making a statement that is literally laughed at and ridiculed when mentioned in church circles. John’s words, prompted by the Holy Spirit, normally fall on deaf ears. This problem has a long history (Heb. 5:9-14). John’s offensive statement involves the focus and central theme for everything the apostles did and taught their followers during their ministries and as God’s apostles continue to do and teach today. John states that what he (and the other apostles) wrote to the churches was written “SO THAT YOU WILL NOT SIN.” Those words can produce reactions ranging from laughter to a lecture on the effects of Adam’s sin gene transferal into the spiritual dna of every human who has ever lived. Read Why is the Bible so Confusing? #1-Original Sin. Key word–Confusing.

Following John’s offensive “STOP SINNING” statement, he notes that someone within the church might possibly slip and commit a sin. In those extremely rare occasions, the offender “has an Advocate with the Father–Jesus Christ the righteous.” John makes it clear that sin among salvation seekers must be extremely rare (if at all) by using the vitally important “IF” word relative to sin within the church. Here John equates the PAST sins of church people to the PAST sins of the entire world. He notes that Jesus is the PROPITIATION for OUR PAST sins and can be the propitiation for the PAST sins of the entire human population.

The PROPITIATION act of Jesus is addressed by the Apostle Paul in Romans 3:24,25 where he explains that converted people’s PAST (PRE-CONVERSION) SINS were forgiven through “the grace of God that IS (present tense) IN CHRIST JESUS.” We will have much more to say about being IN Christ in the following segment. Note the timing of the sins for which Jesus became the PROPITIATION (atoning sacrifice). Note that He died for our SINS OF THE PAST–PRIOR TO OUR CONVERSION. Conversion means a complete reversal of life’s “walk”–from darkness to light, from sin to righteousness, from walking in agreement with Satan to walking in agreement with God. THESE “WALKS” (OUR LIVES) GO IN THE EXACT OPPOSITE DIRECTIONS. HAVING ABSOLUTELY NOTHING TO DO WITH EACH OTHER, ONE’S PRE-CONVERSION AND POST-CONVERSION “STEPS” (WORDS, THOUGHTS AND DEEDS) ARE AS DIFFERENT AS DEATH AND LIFE, TO WHICH THEY LEAD RESPECTIVELY.

Notice in John’s letter (2:2) that what the true saint has undergone (conversion and justification–removal of all PAST sins), THE WORLD’S PEOPLE CAN ALSO EXPERIENCE. Obviously, the world’s people do not confess, ask forgiveness for and receive forgiveness for their current sins. AND NEITHER DO GOD’S TRUE, VERY ELECT SAINTS. Why? BECAUSE GOD’S SAINTS HAVE STOPPED SINNING. Again, John’s emphasis on the “IF” word relative to sin shows that sin among God’s true, converted, Holy Spirit-led, Law-keeping Very Elect saints is extremely rare, if at all. He is saying that if we continue to sin after supposedly “getting saved,” that we differ from those outside the church only in our being worse sinners than they are BECAUSE WE HAVE THE ORACLES (LAW) OF GOD TO GUIDE US IN OUR WALK WITH THE LORD (Rom. 3:1,2) along with the Holy Spirit which empowers us to resist Satan’s temptations. Read Paul’s statement where he asks what advantage did the Jews have over the Gentiles relative to conversion leading to eternal life? His answer was that the Jews had a GREAT ADVANTAGE IN THAT THEY HAD ALWAYS HAD THE LAWS OF GOD–HIS “ORACLES” WHICH THEIR ANCESTORS HAD RECEIVED FROM THE LORD HIMSELF FROM ATOP OF MOUNT SINAI. Because they had access to God’s will in written form, they obviously had an advantage over the Gentiles who had never known His Holy Words. Because the church has those same oracles, her sinning parishioners are, in God’s view, greater sinners than those outside the church who do not have them. This is a hard spiritual pill to swallow, but swallow it church people must if they are to have any chance of receiving salvation at the return of Jesus Christ. In Romans 6:1 Paul asks the ultimate question: “Shall we continue to sin so that God can demonstrate His grace?” His answer: “GOD FORBIDS IT.” L.J.