1 John 2:1-6 My little children, these things write I to you, that you sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father… I. LET THAT BE YOUR AIM, TO "SIN NOT." Let it be your fixed purpose, not merely that you are to sin as little as you can, but that you are not to sin at all. II. But not only would I have you to make this your aim, I WOULD HAVE YOUR AIM ACCOMPLISHED AND REALISED; and therefore "I write these things unto you, that ye sin not." We are to proceed upon the anticipation not of failure but of success in all holy walking and in every holy duty. Believe these things, realise them, act them out. For they are such things as, if thus apprehended, change the character of the whole struggle. They transfer it to a new and higher platform. We are brought into a position in relation to God in which holiness is no longer a desperate, negative strife, but a blessed, positive achievement. Evil is overcome with good. III. WHY, THEN, IS PROVISION MADE FOR OUR SINNING STILL AFTER ALL? We have purposed in good faith that we will not offend. We rejoice to think that we may now form that purpose with good heart; not desperately, as if we were upon a forlorn hope, but rather as grasping the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. For He cheers us on. He knows how at every step, in spite of all the encouragement given us beforehand, that we may hang back, fearing with too good ground that even if, in the form we used to dread, our sin shall seem to give way, it may in some new manifestation lie in wait to trouble us. And therefore He assures us that He is always beside us, "our advocate with the Father." We need not there fore be afraid to walk with the Father in the light. (R. S. Candlish, D. D.) Parallel Verses KJV: My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous: |
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