Life Group Notes for Sunday 14 March – 1 John 2:1-6
1 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. 2 He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world. 3 And by this we know that we have come to know him, if we keep his commandments. 4 Whoever says “I know him” but does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him, 5 but whoever keeps his word, in him truly the love of God is perfected. By this we may know that we are in him: 6 whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked. 1 John 2:1–6 (ESV)
The big idea from the message: Jesus loved us and has made a way for us to love Him. Love is relationship with God.
Notes:
- The purpose of writing – so that you might not sin (v1)
- What happens when we do sin? We have an advocate (v2)
- What happens to our sin? We have a propitiation (v2).
- John again uses the “unclean / clean” or “defiled / pure” paradigm of salvation, as he has done before, and uses this term propitiation to get us to think about the “atonement”. The atonement is an Old Testament act of making that which is impure, pure again. It literally means “At one”. Propitiation is a way to describe part of that process – it’s the act of giving a sacrifice that turns absorbs God’s anger. So, in Jesus, through His sacrifice, He absorbed the anger of God against sin making us clean.
- The scope of this is “the whole world”.
- The whole world is not saved and in fellowship with God because “atonement” isn’t the same as forgiveness. So the phrase “but also for the whole world” announces to the world that sin need not be a barrier between God and man, because Jesus has paid the atonement sacrifice.
- What happens when we sin, confess and trust Him? We have the fruit of fellowship. (v3-6)
- We keep His commandments
- Our love for God grows
- We imitate Jesus more and more
Discussion questions:
- What key things did you take away from the message?
- How does 1 John 1:8 (sin is a fact in the life of the Christian), and 1 John 1:9 (there is always forgiveness) marry with 1 John 2:1?
- Does propitiation mean that God is no longer angry at sin?
- Is there any specific thing that the Lord is challenging you to address this week?
- How can we pray for your walk this week?
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