1 John 2:1

Observe the sudden change in the Apostle's manner. His heart is very tender toward his people, and he adopts an affectionate and personal tone: (1) He passes from the formal “we” to “I”. (2) He styles them τεκνία μου, filioli mci, mcine Kindlein his favourite appellation (cf. 1 John 2:12; 1 John 2:28; 1Jn 3:7; 1 John 3:18; 1 John 4:4; 1 John 5:21). Not only was it very suitable on the lips of the aged teacher, but it was a phrase of Jesus (cf. John 13:33). St. John had caught the phrase and its spirit. He remembered how the Master had dealt with His disciples, and he would deal with his people after the same fashion and be to them what Jesus had been to himself as gentle and patient.

He assumes this tone because he is about to address a warning to them, and he would fain take the sting out of it and disarm opposition. He foresees the possibility of a two-fold perversion of his teaching: (1) “If we can never in this life be done with sin, why strive after holiness? It is useless; sin is an abiding necessity”. (2) “If escape be so easy, why dread falling into sin? We may sin with light hearts, since we have the blood of Jesus to cleanse us.” “No,” he answers, “I am not writing these things to you either to discourage you in the pursuit of holiness or to embolden you in sinning, but, on the contrary, in order that (ἵνα) ye may not sin.” Cf. Aug.: “Lest perchance he should seem to have given impunity to sins, and men should now say to themselves, ‘Let us sin, let us do securely what we will, Christ cleanses us; He is faithful and righteous, He cleanses us from all iniquity,' he takes from thee evil security and implants useful fear. It is an evil wish of thine to be secure; be anxious. For He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins, if thou art always displeasing to thyself and being changed until thou be perfected.” As a physician might say to his patient: “Your trouble is obstinate; the poison is in your blood, and it will take a long time to eradicate it. But I do not tell you this to discourage you or make you careless; no, on the contrary, to make you watchful and diligent in the use of the remedy”; so the Apostle says: “My little children, these things I am writing to you in order that ye may not sin”.

If, however, we fall into sin, let us not lose heart, for Παράκλητον ἔχομεν πρὸς τὸν Πατέρα. παράκλητος, “one called to your side,” so, in a forensic sense, “one who undertakes and champions your cause,” “an advocate”. Vulg., Advocatus; Luth., Fürsprecher bei dem Vater. Here of the ascended Jesus; in John 14:16; John 14:26; John 15:26; John 16:7, of the Holy Spirit, where Vulg. simply transliterates Paracletus, and both our versions give “Comforter,” Luth., Tröster an impossible rendering, since the word is not act. but pass. Render “Advocate” in every case. Cf. saying of R. Li‘ezer ben Jacob: “He who does one commandment has gotten him one advocate (פרקליט, παράκλητος), and he who has committed one transgression has gotten him one accuser (קטיגור, κατήγορος). Repentance and good works are as a shield in the face of punishment.” In the days of His flesh Jesus was God's Advocate with men. He told the Eleven in the Upper Room that, though He was going away, God would not be left without an Advocate on the earth to plead His cause and win men to faith (John 16:16-17). The Holy Spirit has come in the room of Jesus, and still from age to age performs the office of God's Advocate with men. Nor has the advocacy of Jesus ceased. He is our Advocate in Heaven, pleading our cause with God. The history of redemption is thus a progressive economy of grace: (1) the O. T. dispensation, when God was conceived as remote in high Heaven; (2) that of the Incarnation, when He revealed Himself as a Father and, by the advocacy of His Eternal Son, made His appeal to the children of men; (3) that of the Holy Spirit, under which we live in the enjoyment of a double advocacy our Glorified Redeemer's, who “maketh intercession for us” (Romans 8:34) in the Court of Heaven (cf. Christina Rossetti's Verses, p. 41: “Day and night the Accuser”), and the Holy Spirit's down here, wooing us to faith by His gracious importunities. δίκαιον, Rothe: “Only the righteous One, the guiltless, the One that is separate from sin, can be the Advocate with God for sinners, in general the Mediator of salvation, and make His friendship for us prevalent with God, because only such a one has access to God and fellowship with God (Heb 7:26; 1 Peter 3:18; John 16:8; John 16:10)”. “What better advocate could we have for us, than He that is appointed to be our judge?” (Jer. Taylor, The Great Exemplar, I. i. 3).