LIVING AS HE LIVED

August 31, 2025|Living as He Lived|1 John 2:1-6

JD Cutler

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As we continue this morning through the letter we call 1st John, I will remind you that John began with a prologue where he establishes himself as an eyewitness to the manifested word, Jesus Christ, he put their message in the context of what they had seen and heard, and made the claim that in receiving them and their message we are receiving Christ and our fellowship is with them and with the Father and the Son.

Moving from there John declares the main emphasis of his letter, not everyone who says they have fellowship with God actually does. He uses the imagery of light and dark to describe both God and those who have fellowship with him. He introduces us to numerous essential themes he will pick up later in his letter. The cleansing blood of Christ, sin in our lives, and the confession of sins.

In the text we looked at last week, John calls us to confront the reality that none are sinless. If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and if we say we have not sinned, we make God a liar. But he also assures us, if we confess our sins, God is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Some take that to mean our initial salvific confession of sins and conclude that John is calling for sinless living after our conversion.

There are some who claim to know Jesus and teach this line of thinking. Its a false doctrine called sinless perfectionism. Proponents of this teaching like Todd White and Joyce Meyer claim to be sinless, completely ignoring the teachings of the scriptures when Paul describes his own struggles, when James says we all stumble in many ways, and John when he says if anyone does sin.

John MacArthur in a sermon on verse 1 of chapter 2 calls the second half of verse 1 a breath of air in the otherwise suffocating statements that John makes. If it wasn’t for the second part of verse 1 we might be tempted to conclude that John is indeed teaching us that we should expect to live a perfect life and if we don’t we are not a Christian. The statement we are going to look at this morning is absolutely critical. MacArthur calls it the divine relief and a welcome respite from the absolutes of God’s standard.

Yes, John says I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin.

But help us if he ended there, for everyone of us who belong to Christ have experienced daily the failure of loving God with all our heart, mind, soul, and strength and to love our neighbor as ourselves.

But thanks be to God, John doesn’t end there. He goes on, but if anyone does sin, acknowledging the ongoing struggle that believers have with sin. It is that tension, that reality, that John is going to speak to this morning.

So friends, if you have ever struggled with the idea that your sin indicates that you do not belong to Christ, if you have ever doubted God’s love for you because of an ongoing struggle with sin, if you have ever felt the weight of trying to walk in the light, then I pray that this morning would be a deep breath in your lungs.

On the other hand, if you have minimized sin in your life, if you have ever thought that sin is not a big deal, if you have ever embodied the very idea that Paul argues against in Romans 6, if grace abounds, why not keep on sinning, then I pray that today would be a wake up call to you on the seriousness of sin.

I pray that John’s words would be both convicting to the one who thinks sinning is no big deal and relief to the one who is crushed by their sin as we look at the opening six verses of chapter 2 of 1 John this morning.

This morning we are going to look at our attitude towards sin, our assurance when we sin, and our abidance in him who knew no sin. If you haven’t already, open your bibles to 1 John chapter 2 and let’s read the first six verses together and then we will go back and deal with each section as we work our way through them.

1 John 2:1–6 (ESV)

¹ My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. ² He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world. ³ And by this we know that we have come to know him, if we keep his commandments. ⁴ Whoever says “I know him” but does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him, ⁵ but whoever keeps his word, in him truly the love of God is perfected. By this we may know that we are in him: ⁶ whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked.

Having seen the full picture of where John is going, let’s go back and deal with his opening statement under the heading…

I. OUR ATTITUDE TOWARDS SIN

1 John 2:1a “1 My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin.

For the first time John uses an expression he will repeat throughout this letter. My little children or My dear sons. We should read it as, my own dear children. At this point, the apostle John is an aged pastor and much like Paul describes himself concerning Timothy, sees himself as a spiritual father. Far from being derogatory, it is a term of endearment. John wants his readers to understand his heart for them, his concern for them, and his responsibility towards them.

But where did John conclude that a pastoral heart is a fatherly heart?

From Jesus himself. Listen to the words Jesus used after Judas had left the supper to address the remaining 11 disciples.

John 13:31–35 “31 When he had gone out, Jesus said, “Now is the Son of Man glorified, and God is glorified in him. 32 If God is glorified in him, God will also glorify him in himself, and glorify him at once. 33 Little children, yet a little while I am with you. You will seek me, and just as I said to the Jews, so now I also say to you, ‘Where I am going you cannot come.’ 34 A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. 35 By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.””

It is important for us to understand as we dig into 1 John that John is not writing simply to address false teachers, although he does that, John is not writing simply to expose hypocrisy, although he does that, John is writing to beloved members of the household of God because he cares for them, because he loves them, and because his greatest desire is that they would walk in the truth.

John is writing to beloved members of the household of God because he cares for them, because he loves them, and because his greatest desire is that they would walk in the truth.

To these beloved believers, he says, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin.

This is why context matters so much, this statement does not come out of nowhere, it is tied to what John has said so far.

If we back up a little, we find ‘if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness’. If we understand that statement as addressing ongoing sin, confession, and the assurance of forgiveness as we talked about last week, we can immediately see how comforting a statement it is. We talked about this last week that God’s faithfulness in providing Christ and his justice of covering believer’s sins by the sacrifice of Christ are the very things that encourage us to know that we have forgiveness.

But for those who are wrestling with the old sin nature we can also see that there is a temptation to use that comfort to embolden us to sin. To think that because he is faithful and just to forgive our sins, and all we have to do is confess our sins, then we have a license to sin as long as we confess.

A believer does not sin without first justifying the sin, but how often do we use God as an excuse to justify our sins?!

When a believer justifies divorce, because God wants me to be happy.

When a believer justifies using pornography because God created me with these desires.

When a believer justifies lying to someone because God wouldn’t want me to hurt them.

When a believer justifies an immoral lifestyle because God created me this way.

But by far, the worst justification of all is for a believer to acknowledge something is a sin and then because of God’s infinite grace, go ahead and sin by convincing themselves they can just confess and ask forgiveness.

I think John understands human nature and he understands the temptation to take something beautiful and misuse it, so he quickly writes, I am writing these things so that you may not sin. 

In the Greek this implies not just the absence of the habit, but of single acts of sin.

Yes we should confess our sins, but secondly we should forsake all sin.

We can see if we take this statement in isolation, how some people end up with a wrong view of what John is saying and arrive at the false doctrine of sinless perfection. John says his desire is that we may not sin. And listen, one day this will be true of us. When we see him face to face and we become as he is, when we live in his everlasting light and have been purged fully and finally of our old nature, we will experience the sinless perfection Christ attained for us on the cross. Yes and amen. But we have no scriptural basis to think that we will obtain that standing this side of heaven.

Knowing that is our destination, and knowing that the will of God is our sanctification, our becoming more and more like Christ, it should be our desire as well. Our aim in life ought to be to forsake all sin, even though we know that we will do so imperfectly. Let me say it this way, the inevitability of our failure is not an excuse to not try.

I firmly believe John is not addressing a reality that we can experience but an attitude we ought to have.

God is light and in him is no darkness at all, and our desire ought to be to walk in the light as he is in the light.

To be holy because he is holy.

To live as a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.” (1 Peter 2:9)

The Bible makes it abundantly clear that God hates sin and that those who love the Lord hate evil. In Proverbs 8:13 we read “13 The fear of the Lord is hatred of evil. Pride and arrogance and the way of evil and perverted speech I hate.” Psalm 97:10a is a call to those who love the Lord “10 O you who love the Lord, hate evil!

The problem that I have seen in my experience with the American church is that we do hate sin, as long as we are talking about the sin of others, but we often often ignore the sin in our own lives.

We will stand and declare that the homosexual lifestyle is an abomination, but we tolerate no fault divorce in the church as though they are not equally heinous sins in God’s eyes.

We will stand and declare about the evils of the abuse of alcohol by the world, but ignore the abuse of food in our church, which are equally dishonoring to God and dangerous to our bodies.

We could go on and on, no doubt you can come up with numerous examples of your own, but here is the point.

The problem that I have seen in my experience with the American church is that we do hate sin, as long as we are talking about the sin of others...

We ought to be at least as passionate about confronting the sin in our own lives as we are of confronting it in others. John wants to make sure that we do not see in his statement as a license to sin. Our attitude towards sin should not be tolerance but hate. We ought to despise the sin that remains in our lives and do everything in our spirit empowered ability to rid ourselves of it. We resist sin by attacking the root of sin, which James says is our own desires.

James 1:14–15 “14 But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. 15 Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death.”

We are not talking about simply refraining from acting on sin, we are talking about even hating the desire in us for sin. Make no mistake, this is the most difficult battle there is. Many of us can refrain from committing outwards sins like adultery, murder, theft, but how often to we entertain the lust, anger, and covetousness in our thoughts and actions?

C.S. Lewis writes about the difficulty we face when we try and confront our sin and live holy lives before God in mere Christianity which begins, “No man knows how bad he is till he has tried very hard to be good.” By good he is talking about resisting temptation and refusing to give in to sin.

All that to say, the Apostle John understands full well the fight he is calling us to, when he says so that you may not sin, which is what leads him to that beautiful breath of fresh air MacArthur talks about in the second half of 1 John 2:1.

Having, I pray, been convinced this morning, that our desire as believers ought to be a sinless life, let us move to the encouragement John gives us with our present reality. Let’s look at…

II. OUR ASSURANCE WHEN WE SIN

Let’s pick up in verse 1 and read through verse 2.

1 John 2:1–2 (ESV)

¹ My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. ² He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world.

But if, introduces the contrasting potentiality of a believer sinning.

Although John’s desire is that his readers would not sin, he understands the reality that even those who strive with all their might to not sin, will stumble. Indeed, if we look closely, John identifies himself with us when he says, if anyone does sin, we (including John and the other apostles) have an advocate.

This is the tension we talked about in the beginning. While we should not only have a desire not to sin, and strive to not sin, we will all stumble and experience sin in some way or another.

This was the point of the exercise last week, when I had you look to the right and the left and realize that we are all sinners, not so we would shrug our shoulders and say, oh well, we are all sinners, but that we would realize that even the one with the strongest desire not to sin will still sin this side of heaven.

Rather than being okay with it, or numb to it, or even indifferent to it, John wants us to understand that the presence of sin in the life of the believer does not cut us off from our fellowship with the Father. Remember his goal in writing is that we may have fellowship and that our joy would be complete. While we hate the reality that sin still finds expression in our lives, we do not have to question whether it separates us from the Father.

So what is the difference between an unbelieving sinner and a believer who sins? John says we (believers) have an advocate with the Father. It is that term that I want to lean into this morning. The greek word here is ‘paraklētos’ (par-ak'-lay-tos).

A word that Jesus uses for the Holy Spirit, translated in the gospel of John in the ESV as ‘The Helper’ who will…

…be with us forever.

…will teach us all things and bring to remembrance what Christ said.

…who will bear witness concerning Christ.

…who will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment:

…who will declare things to come.

…who will glorify Christ.

Christ identifies this Helper as the Spirit of Truth that will carry on Jesus’ ministry to his people in his stead, who proceeds from the Father, at the request of the son. In other English translations helper is translated comforter or as it is in our text today advocate. Here John uses the same word to describe Jesus, tying the ministry of Jesus and the Holy Spirit together. The translators here choosing to translate advocate to indicate the unique role Christ plays in the Christian’s life. While the word choice may be unique to John’s writing both in his gospel and in his letter, the thought is not.

In Paul’s writings to the Roman church we find this description of Jesus operating as intercessory for us at the right hand of God. Romans 8:34 “34 Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us.” Or the author of Hebrews who says Hebrews 7:25 “25 Consequently, he is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them.”

In essence the word teaches us that God the Father is seated on the throne, Christ our advocate is seated next to him, and the Holy Spirit is indwelling the believers here on Earth serving as helper, comforter, and intercessor for us here. In it’s purest sense the word advocate is a legal term describing one who pleads another's cause before a judge.

Although God hates sin and ultimately very sin will be punished according to his righteousness we have Christ as our advocate before the righteous and just judge.

Imagine if you will, a courtroom scene where the case has been laid out against you and you are utterly guilty and the judge has ever legal right to impose full weight of the law on you. This is a picture of every man or woman’s position apart from Christ. For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God and the wages of sin (the just payment) is death. And yet, for those who have been brought into a saving relationship with Christ, Christ stands in our place, having already bore the full weight of our sin in his body, so that he can say, yes they are guilty, but they are mine and the price has already been paid. The Holy Spirit reminds us of this reality as our comforter. Christ’s advocacy is inseparable from the Holy Spirit’s comfort and working in us, so that they both can equally bear the title of advocate, comforter, or helper. The Spirit is the comforter that reminds us of the ministry of Christ in heaven on our behalf.

What makes Jesus qualified to serve in this role?

John reminds us that it is his unique standing before God as the righteous. Jesus Christ the righteous.  That righteousness is perfectly spelled out in Hebrews 7:26 “26 For it was indeed fitting that we should have such a high priest, holy, innocent, unstained, separated from sinners, and exalted above the heavens.” Holy, innocent, unstained, separated from sinners, and exalted above the heavens. Jesus can serve as an advocate because he alone can stand in the presence of the Father, unmarred by sin and guilt. He is perfectly holy. But his righteousness is only one part of our assurance. It would do us no good for the Son to stand before the father as our advocate based on his righteousness alone. We would still be guilty and deserving of death and God being perfectly just and righteous would not be able to overlook our sin against him.

We needed something more. Which is what John describes next.  He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world. He (himself) is the propitiation- a term John uses twice for Jesus in this letter and one that is important for us to understand.

One way we can understand how John would have used the word is to look at the Septuagint (the greek translation of the Hebrew old testament) where we find this word being used to translate ‘the mercy seat’ and ‘the day of atonement’.

It is the idea of turning away wrath through an offering. The core idea is about turning aside divine wrath and restoring favor—not by bribery or manipulation, but through a sacrifice that satisfies the demands of God’s righteous justice.

When John says Jesus is the propitiation for our sins, there is the idea that Jesus is both the sacrifice that removes sin and that satisfies God’s justice. It is what make fellowship with God possible.

This sacrifice was only possible because Jesus was the sinless perfect lamb (the righteous one) who died for the unrighteous.

The question that remains is ‘for whom did Christ die?’

John says that he is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world. How we understand this statement will affect much of our theology.

If John is saying that Christ died for the sins of the whole world, that is every person in the world, then we have a universalist claim that ultimately everyone will be saved. While there are people who hold this, I would argue no one who takes scripture seriously would conclude that John means that when he makes this statement. Anyone, who is not a universalist, would agree that the effect of Christ’s atoning work on the cross is limited to those who believe.

My goal this morning is not to go to deeply into our understanding of the atonement, but rather to point out that, either way you lean still requires us to understand John’s statement of Christ being the propitiation for not ours only but also for the sins of the whole world as not indicating that everyone is saved.

More likely, John is indicating that Christ’s atonement is not limited to himself and his immediate audience, but that it was made for those who are far off, both in geographical and temporal location.

When we understand it that way, John is reminding his audience that they can go out and proclaim the atoning sacrifice of Christ to the ends of the earth and in every place they will find men and women who respond to that message and can have assurance that their sins are forgiven in Christ.

Luther said it this way in his commentary on 1 John. “Thou, too, art part of the world, so that thine heart cannot deceive itself and think, The Lord died for Peter and Paul, but not for me” [LUTHER].

This I think is John’s main emphasis in this portion of our text.

When we sin, as those who belong to Christ, we can be assured of our forgiveness because we have been united to the righteous one, who had no sin and yet served as the atoning sacrifice, the propitiation for our sins. Because of Christ, even when we sin, we can rest in his finished work and not our own merit.

So far we have looked at the believer’s attitude towards sin, our assurance when we sin, but how does this all work itself out? I think this is how John finished up this section. Let’s turn to our last division.

III. OUR ABIDANCE IN HIM WHO KNEW NO SIN

Picking up in verse 3, let’s read through verse 6 together this morning.

1 John 2:3–6 (ESV)

³ And by this we know that we have come to know him, if we keep his commandments. ⁴ Whoever says “I know him” but does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him, ⁵ but whoever keeps his word, in him truly the love of God is perfected. By this we may know that we are in him: ⁶ whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked.

How do we know that we have come to know him, him being Jesus Christ the righteous propitiation for our sins?

How do we know that we are included in the statement, we have an advocate with the Father that he makes in verse 2?

John says our assurance that we have come to know him is, if we keep his commandments.

Applying the same principle in the negative, he says whoever says, there is one of those conditional statements we talked about last week that fill this letter, I know him.

This is essentially the same statement John made previously when he said, If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. Now he says, whoever says, “I know him” but does not keep his commandments is a liar and the truth is not in him.

Of course, we immediately see the connection, which John continues in his application. Last week we saw him say, But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin. This week we read but whoever keeps his word, in him truly the love of God is perfected.

Our test of fellowship with God is that we walk in the light, as he is in the light. Our test of knowing him is that we keep his commandments. Commandments here not being limited to the ten commandments or even the law, but rather that which he commands, summarizes in whoever keeps his word.

Friend, when you are confronted with the word of God concerning your life, your attitude, your heart, your actions, do you immediately think that you need to bring it in line with his word or not?

That’s a pretty good indicator that you have come to know him and that the love of God is perfected, or completed. Now, does John mean that God’s love for us is carried to its intended end or that our love for God is brought to its intended end?

To that I say, Yes.

Yes. God’s love for us in sending his son was so that we could be reconciled to him and experience life as he intended for us, which is ultimately designed for our flourishing and our good. When we obey his commands and experience life as he intended, his love is brought to its intended end.

Yes. Our love for God is completed or brought to it’s end because those that say they love God, ought to want to want to obey his word and our love for God is complete in that it is beyond mere acknowledgement and feeling but rooted in obedient response to our Lord.

John calls this abiding in him. Where do you think John got this language?

If you said Jesus, you are right. Listen to what Jesus told his disciples, including John in that same upper room discourse we saw in his use of little children.

English Standard Version Chapter 15

15 “I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser. 2 Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit. 3 Already you are clean because of the word that I have spoken to you. 4 Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. 5 I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. 6 If anyone does not abide in me he is thrown away like a branch and withers; and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned. 7 If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. 8 By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples. 9 As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love. 10 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. 11 These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.

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 says, repeating and applying what he heard from Jesus, whoever says he abides in him, ought to walk in the same way in which he walked.

Christ obeyed the Father and abiding in his love, we abide in the love of Christ by keeping his commandments.

Spurgeon says it this way, The first thing about a Christian is initiation into Christ. The next thing is imitation of Christ.

The life of Jesus Christ is the paradigm or pattern for the believer’s life. To abide in him is to live like Him. It is to imitate his faith, his love, his devotion, his obedience, his selflessness. Imperfectly, of course, intentionally, absolutely.

Many of you grew up in the WWJD movement days.

Even if you did not, you may remember the little rubber bracelets with WWJD on them, What Would Jesus Do?

A much better question is WHAT DID JESUS DO?

We don’t have to guess what he would do, we have a record of the way he discipled, the way he ministered, the way he confronted sin and hypocrisy, the way he obeyed both his parents as a child and His heavenly Father, the way he served those undeserving people around him, the way he broke down racial and cultural barriers to share the news of the kingdom, and on and on we could go.

Remember that John is writing in part to combat the false teaching of early gnosticism and docetism.

As for gnosticism, the proponents boasted of their superior knowledge of Christ, emphasizing secret spiritual knowledge and rituals they claimed set them apart, while at the same time teaching that what we do in the flesh is not important. John challenges anyone who is claiming to know Christ to examine not their knowledge of him or their supposed spirituality, but the concrete evidence of their life and whether they kept his commandments or not. We cannot claim to abide in Christ while simultaneously refusing to follow his example of living, which is an example of sinless, perfect obedience to the Father.

Which brings us full circle this morning. If we truly know him and are abiding in him, we will hate sin and desire lives free of its influence. We will fight our sin nature and pursue holiness with all of our spirit-empowered ability. And we will fail, needing to be reminding of our assurance in Him, that in coming to Christ we have a perfect mediator and propitiation for our sins, which should lead us to confess our sins and try to walk as he walked, living a life of obedience and holiness.

I truly believe that within these 6 verses we have a description of the Christian life.

I truly believe that within these 6 verses we have a description of the Christian life. Not comfortable with or excusing sin, but pursuing holiness through obeying his word. Reminding ourselves when we fail that we can boldly come to the throne of grace to receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need, which encourages us not to despair, but to draw near and continue pursuing holiness, apart from which no one will see the Lord.

Our attitude is a desire not to sin, trying to live holy lives, but when we sin we can come to the father through our advocate, and rising from our prayer, assured by both the intercessory work of Christ at the throne and the Spirit in our lives, we begin again to walk in our imitation of Christ with a desire not to sin.

How different would your life be if this represented your walk with Christ?

How different would our church be if collectively we were walking this path together?

How different would our influence be in the world around us?

The applications for this truth of walking as Christ walked are almost as infinite of number of applications as the various situations we will find ourselves in this week. I could never touch all of them even if I tried, but I know someone who can. During our response time this morning, let me encourage you to ask God, through the power of the Holy Spirit to bring to mind specific areas where you are either harboring sin in your life or where you are not imitating Christ in your life so that we can walk out of here with a renewed desire and plan to walk out our faith this week.

Let us pray.