1 John 2:1–2: “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 One. And He Himself is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for our sins, but also for the whole world.”

This is an interesting two‑verse passage because it mentions sin, the Father, Jesus Christ as the Righteous One, and that Jesus Christ is not just the atoning sacrifice for our sins but for the whole world. There are many things happening in these verses.

You have the “little children,” which include you and me. He says, “I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin,” which tells you that the aim is for us not to sin.

When God gave the law to the children of Israel, the aim was that, “You will obey this and I will be with you” (Deuteronomy 4:1; 28:1). That is the aim. And here he says, “I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin.” We have the word of God, written so that we may not sin.

Why did God tell Joshua that this book of the law must not depart from his mouth, but that he must meditate on it day and night? It was so that he would be careful to do it (Joshua 1:8). Why did God say, through Moses, that the future king of Israel must always have a copy of the book of the law and read it all the days of his life (Deuteronomy 17:18–19)? It is so that he would not sin.

What do we read in Psalm 119? “Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path” (Psalm 119:105). And in that same psalm: “Your word I have hidden in my heart, that I might not sin against You” (Psalm 119:11).

So we have the word of God as a guide, as direction, so that we would not sin. That’s the first part of this passage: “I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin.” Prevention is better than cure. The word of God is supposed to be the thing you take in that will put you in the right shape. That is the word of God.

Jesus said, “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God” (Matthew 4:4).

Then, “But if…” This is a reality that everyone faces. “If anyone does sin”—not “some,” but anyone—John is saying: your sin is already taken care of. You have the Righteous One. That is not you. You are supposed to emulate the Righteous One, but that is not you.

He says, “If anyone does sin, we have an advocate.” Anyone sinning should put their eyes on the Advocate. When the serpent was biting people in the wilderness, God told Moses to set up a bronze serpent on a pole; anyone who looked at the serpent would live (Numbers 21:8–9). Jesus used that as an analogy for Himself: “Just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, so that everyone who believes in Him may have eternal life” (John 3:14–15).

We see it here: “If anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father.” That is our spiritual reality. Our spiritual landscape has changed: with Christ offering Himself on the cross, our spiritual landscape has changed. When the children of Israel sinned, what did they have to do? Bring a lamb, go to the tabernacle or temple, present a sacrifice. But now we look to Jesus.

He says, “If anyone does sin, we have”—not “we will have,” but we have—an advocate with the Father. That is the reality we have as Christians. Even though he says, “I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin,” we are still not “the Righteous One.” God is the One who cannot sin because of who He is, inherently who He is (1 John 1:5; James 1:13).

Paul writes, “Lay aside the old man” and “walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh” (Ephesians 4:22–24; Galatians 5:16). We have all these words, all this guidance that tells us, “This is what you do; this is how you approach life; this is how you go about things so that you will not sin”—that we should learn what pleases God (Ephesians 5:10).

However, “If anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father.” That means the sin is not “nothing,” but we do have an advocate with the Father. We have a stand‑in on our behalf with the Father. We have Someone representing us with the Father, and He is representing us because He Himself is the atoning sacrifice for our sins.

God bless you. See you later.