01/31/26 AVAILABLE TO ALL, POSSESED BY FEW

01/31/26 AVAILABLE TO ALL, POSSESED BY FEW

I know you have read this passage many, many times, but I want to repeat it and highlight a specific point.

This passage states emphatically and often that salvation is salvation from sin and sinning. Living righteously and obediently by faith is the norm, the standard life of a Christian. Being saved, living the saved life is not "doing the best I can," it is being and doing that for which we were saved. Salvation is God's transforming and enabling power for sinners to become new creations and to live lives that are becoming to a child of God.

Notice that in this passage (as in all of Scripture), the Divine directive is to live righteously, and there is a backup plan for a believer who might sin. We have a Savior from sin (Jesus), and an Enabler to follow Christ fully (the Holy Spirit, but IF ANY MAN SIN, WE (believers) HAVE AN ADVOCATE WITH THE FATHER, JESUS CHRIST THE RIGHTEOUS. Earlier, we were told, "If we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His (the Father's) Son cleanses us from all sin." Everyone has sinned, and all were born with a sin nature, and confession is essential to salvation. Therefore, John also said,
"If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." God has a standard He requires, and He also has a provision for unwarranted and unnecessary sin that a believer may commit.

The provision is part of salvation, but it is not the norm of salvation. The norm is deliverance from sin, the norm is walking in the light, the norm is obedience, being more than a conqueror, the norm is keeping His commandments and doing that which is pleasing in His sight, the norm is having clean hands and a pure heart. When failure to follow takes place, God is able to forgive and restore, but He requires confession, faith and reconciliation.

Don't get confused, returning to God, reconciliation with God is not an automatic; it is a choice. Just as disobedience is a choice, restoration is a choice, made available by the grace of God.

In this passage I designate the portions that indicate victorious living with (*) and I designate the portion that indicates failure with (x).

1 John 2:1-6
1 My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not (*). And if any man sin (x), we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous:

2 And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.

3 And hereby we do know that we know him, if we keep his commandments (*).

4 He that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him (dlg note... victory over sin is the standard).

5 But whoso keepeth his word, in him verily is the love of God perfected (*): hereby know we that we are in him (*).

6 He that saith he abideth in him ought himself also so to walk, even as he walked (*).