The word “advocate” may conjure up images of attorneys and courtrooms, and rightly so. John is the only New Testament writer to use the word, which was typically used in legal contexts. Here, in his letter, he uses it to refer to Jesus; in his gospel, it’s used by Jesus to refer to the Holy Spirit. But either way, we shouldn’t read this as suggesting that we need a high-powered attorney to save us from the hanging judge…

As we’ve seen, chapter 2 of 1 John opens with identification of Jesus as our advocate. John also calls him the “atoning sacrifice” for our sins. Some older translations have the word “propitiation,” a word that could describe the gift of flowers that a husband gives his wife to appease her anger. Does that mean we needed cross of Jesus to get God to calm down and stop being mad at us? Sort of—but John considers this first to be an act of God’s love.

Imagine having the pastoral responsibility of teaching a community about the reality of sin, even confronting people who may be in denial about its seriousness. That wouldn’t be the world’s most popular sermon series. But as we’ll see, John approaches the matter as a wise elder.

Does it sound strange that folks in John’s community may have claimed to be sinless? Perhaps. But in this episode, I want us to consider why we ourselves often have such a hard time thinking and talking about sin. And if we can’t fully recognize sin for what it is, can we fully appreciate the gift of grace that we’ve been given?

Who would dare claim to be without sin? As the story of the adulterous woman in John 8 suggests, not even the self-righteous Pharisees would do this. But some people in John’s community, it seems, may have done just that. John addresses the matter in general terms that are hard to pin down. Nevertheless, John makes it clear: anyone who claims to be sinless is lying to themselves and calling God a liar to boot.

Reading between the lines of John’s letter, it seems that some folks in his community may have begun to believe and teach that it was somehow possible to be sinless. In the next episode, we’ll start taking a look at how John responds. But first, in this episode, we’ll draw upon the wisdom of Paul in his guidance to the churches of Corinth and Galatia. What do you do when people begin to stray from the gospel, particularly in the matter of sin?

As mentioned in previous episodes, we have to guess a bit at the controversies that were troubling John’s community. Five verses into 1 John, we begin to get some hints about the errant beliefs some were teaching, which apparently had to do with the reality of sin and what Jesus accomplished on the cross. But right up front, John holds the community to a common standard: if you’re going to claim to be a Christian, then you’d better live like it, and walk in the light.

In John’s gospel, Jesus declares himself to be “the light of the world.” Indeed, throughout that gospel, John seems to play with images of darkness and light: Jesus was “the light of all mankind,” for example, while Judas went out into the night to do his dirty work. And one of the most striking claims of 1 John comes only five verses into the letter. “God is light,” he declares, a statement that carries with it a moral imperative: if you believe in and serve a God who is light, then you must not walk in darkness.

John isn’t the only one to use images of dark and light to convey meaning; you can see it in movies all the time if you look for it. Light versus darkness often symbolize good and evil. As we’ve seen, in his letter, John declares that God is light, and in his gospel, Jesus claims to be the light of the world. Add to this that in the gospel of Matthew, Jesus says that his followers are to be the light of the world. What does all this mean for us as Christians, and how we live?

In this podcast, we will continually draw connections between the letters of John and his gospel, particularly to what’s known as the “Upper Room Discourse,” or Jesus’ final words to his disciples before his arrest and crucifixion. As John writes about fellowship, he also writes about joy, and in a way that is reminiscent of Jesus’ own teaching. The fellowship of believers should be characterized by joy!