1 John 2: What the Passage Says

The Chapter in a Sentence

John writes so that his readers will not sin, and tells them that if anyone does sin, Jesus Christ speaks to the Father on their behalf. He says that knowing God shows itself in keeping his commands and in loving one's brother rather than hating him, and he tells his readers not to love the world or the things in it, because the world and its desires are passing away. He warns that it is the last hour and that many antichrists have appeared, people who left the group and who deny that Jesus is the Christ. He urges his readers to hold on to what they heard from the beginning and to remain in Christ.

Claim by Claim

1. 2:1
   • The writer addresses his readers as his little children.
   • The writer says he writes these things to them so that they will not sin.
   • If anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father.
   • That advocate is Jesus Christ the righteous.
2. 2:2
   • Jesus Christ is himself the propitiation for our sins.
   • He is the propitiation not for our sins only.
   • He is also the propitiation for the sins of the whole world.
3. 2:3
   • By this we know that we have come to know him.
   • The test is whether we keep his commandments.
4. 2:4
   • The person who says he knows him while not keeping his commandments is a liar.
   • The truth is not in that person.
5. 2:5
   • In whoever keeps his word, the love of God has truly been perfected.
   • By this we know that we are in him.
6. 2:6
   • The person who says he abides in him is obligated to walk as that one walked.
7. 2:7
   • The writer addresses his readers as brethren.
   • The writer says he writes no new commandment to them.
   • He writes an old commandment, which they had from the beginning.
   • The old commandment is the word which they heard from the beginning.
8. 2:8
   • The writer says that again he writes a new commandment to them.
   • This thing is true in him and in them.
   • The darkness is passing away.
   • The true light is already shining.
9. 2:9
   • The person who says he is in the light while hating his brother is in the darkness up to now.
10. 2:10
    • The person who loves his brother abides in the light.
    • There is no cause of stumbling in him.
11. 2:11
    • The person who hates his brother is in the darkness.
    • He walks in the darkness.
    • He does not know where he is going.
    • The reason is that the darkness has blinded his eyes.
12. 2:12
    • The writer writes to them as little children.
    • He writes because their sins have been forgiven them for the sake of his name.
13. 2:13
    • The writer writes to them as fathers.
    • He writes because they have known him who is from the beginning.
    • The writer writes to them as young men.
    • He writes because they have overcome the wicked one.
    • The writer writes to them as little children.
    • He writes because they have known the Father.
14. 2:14
    • The writer has written to them as fathers.
    • He wrote because they have known him who is from the beginning.
    • The writer has written to them as young men.
    • He wrote because they are strong.
    • He wrote because the word of God abides in them.
    • He wrote because they have overcome the wicked one.
15. 2:15
    • The readers are commanded not to love the world.
    • They are commanded not to love the things that are in the world.
    • If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.
16. 2:16
    • Everything that is in the world is the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life.
    • All that is in the world is not from the Father.
    • All that is in the world is from the world.
17. 2:17
    • The world is passing away.
    • The lust of the world is passing away.
    • The person who does the will of God abides forever.
18. 2:18
    • The writer addresses his readers as little children.
    • It is the last hour.
    • They have heard that antichrist is coming.
    • Even now many antichrists have arisen.
    • From this we know that it is the last hour.
19. 2:19
    • They went out from us.
    • They were not of us.
    • If they had been of us, they would have remained with us.
    • Their going out happened so that it might be made manifest that they were not all of us.
20. 2:20
    • The readers have an anointing from the Holy One.
    • The readers know all things.
21. 2:21
    • The writer did not write to them because they do not know the truth.
    • He wrote because they do know the truth.
    • He wrote because no lie is of the truth.
22. 2:22
    • The liar is the one who denies that Jesus is the Christ.
    • That person is the antichrist.
    • That person denies the Father and the Son.
23. 2:23
    • Everyone who denies the Son does not have the Father.
    • The one who confesses the Son has the Father also.
24. 2:24
    • The readers are told to let what they heard from the beginning abide in them.
    • If what they heard from the beginning abides in them, they also will abide in the Son and in the Father.
25. 2:25
    • This is the promise that he himself promised us.
    • The promise is eternal life.
26. 2:26
    • The writer has written these things to them concerning those who are leading them astray.
27. 2:27
    • The anointing which they received from him abides in them.
    • They have no need that anyone teach them.
    • His anointing teaches them concerning all things.
    • The anointing is true and is not a lie.
    • As it has taught them, they will abide in him.
28. 2:28
    • The writer addresses his readers as little children.
    • They are told to abide in him.
    • The purpose is that when he appears we may have confidence.
    • The purpose is that we may not be ashamed before him at his coming.
29. 2:29
    • If they know that he is righteous, they know that everyone who does righteousness has been born of him.

Words Worth Explaining

Every language note in this chapter, gathered. These explain what a word meant, never what it means for the reader.

2:1

"advocate" translates the Greek parakletos, someone called to stand beside another, above all in a legal setting: the counsel or supporting witness who speaks for you before the judge. The Gospel of John uses the same word for the Spirit, where the KJV renders it "Comforter." "the righteous" is a courtroom-flavored word too: the one who is in the right.

2:2

"propitiation" renders the Greek hilasmos. In ordinary Greek religious language it meant an offering that turns away a god's anger; many readers of this letter have heard it instead as the wiping away of the sin itself. The word carries both senses and the letter does not decide between them, which is why English versions vary so widely here.

2:3

In the King James, to "keep" a commandment means to obey it and hold on to it, not just to remember it.

2:5

"perfected" in 1611 meant brought to its intended completion, not made flawless. "the love of God" is open in the Greek: it can mean God's love for people, a person's love for God, or the kind of love that comes from God. The grammar allows all three.

2:6

"walk" is a standard Jewish and early Christian idiom for the whole course of a person's conduct, not physical walking. "abide" is the ordinary Greek verb for remaining or staying put, and it is repeated throughout this letter as a keyword.

2:7

"Brethren" follows Greek manuscripts reading adelphoi, brothers; other manuscripts read agapetoi, beloved, which is why modern versions say "dear friends." Either way the address is to a whole congregation of men and women.

2:8

"The darkness is past" means the darkness is on its way out and already fading. Light and darkness were common word pictures for truth and lies.

2:9

"his brother" means a fellow member of the community rather than a blood relative. The Greek word covers women as well as men, and throughout this letter it refers to others in the same group of believers.

2:10

"occasion of stumbling" translates skandalon, the trigger of a trap or the obstacle that trips a person up. The Greek here is genuinely ambiguous: it may mean nothing in such a person makes him fall, or nothing in him makes anyone else fall.

2:11

"Whither he goeth" is old English for "where he is going."

2:12

"for his name's sake" uses "name" in the ancient sense, where a person's name stands for the person himself and for his authority. The phrase means on account of who Jesus is.

2:13

"the wicked one" is a person, not wickedness in general: the Greek says "the evil one," a title for the devil. "fathers" and "young men" may mark age groups within the congregation, or length of time in the community; the letter does not say which.

2:14

The switch from "I write" to "I have written" follows a change of tense in the Greek. Letter writers in that world often used a past tense for the letter in hand, since by the time it was read the writing was over. It most likely refers to this same letter rather than an earlier one.

2:15

"The world" here does not mean the planet or the people on it. It means a way of living that leaves God out.

2:16

"lust" in 1611 meant strong desire of any kind, with no necessarily sexual sense. "flesh" here means human nature turned in on itself, not the physical body as such. "the pride of life" translates alazoneia, the boasting of someone showing off his resources and his style of living.

2:17

"Passeth away" means fading and slipping out of sight, the way something old wears out.

2:18

"the last time" translates a Greek phrase meaning "the last hour." "antichrist" is a word found in the Bible only in John's letters; built from Greek, it means one who stands against Christ, or one who stands in place of him. The verse holds two ideas together: a figure the readers had been told to expect, and people already among them.

2:19

The last clause is compressed in Greek and can be read either as "none of them belonged to us" or as "not all of them belonged to us." Translators divide on it. "made manifest" is older English for made plain or brought into the open.

2:20

"unction" is simply the older English word for an anointing: oil poured on a person to mark him out for a role, as kings and priests were marked out. "the Holy One" is a title. The manuscripts also differ in the second half: some read "you know all things," others "you all know," which is why English versions end this verse differently.

2:22

"the Christ" is a title, not a second name. Greek christos means anointed one and translates the Hebrew word Messiah. The dispute in view is over who Jesus is, not over whether he existed.

2:23

In the King James Version the words "he that acknowledgeth the Son hath the Father also" are printed in italics, the translators' signal that they had no Greek behind them in the text they worked from. Other manuscripts do contain the clause, and modern editions print it as part of the verse.

2:26

"seduce" in 1611 meant to lead astray or mislead, with no sexual sense at all.

2:27

"the anointing" is the same word that the KJV rendered "unction" in verse 20. The "any man" who need not teach them is set against the people of verse 26 who were trying to lead them astray.

2:28

"confidence" translates parrhesia, literally the freedom to say everything: the standing of a person who can speak openly because he has nothing to hide. "his coming" translates parousia, a word used in that world for the arrival and official presence of a king or high official visiting a city.

2:29

The pronouns "he" and "him" shift between God and Christ across these verses without any marker in the Greek, and it is not clear where one gives way to the other. "born of him" elsewhere in this letter means born of God.