Charles Spurgeon Commentary 1 John 2

My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not.

For this we ought to watch and strive, that we do not sin.

And if any man sin-

What then? Is it a hopeless case? Oh, no, far from it; it is a sad case, but there is a remedy for it: and if any man sin,-

We have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous: and he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.

Come, then, to Christ for pardon, whether you are Jews or Gentiles, whether you are saints or sinners, whether you are old or young, whether you are moral or immoral, for God is both able and willing to forgive all manner of sin because of the propitiation offered by his well-beloved Son, Jesus Christ the righteous.

My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not.

He is anxious that they should not sin; he knows they do, and that if they say they do not, they lie. Still, the Christian's object is sinless perfection, and though he will never have it until he gets to heaven, that is all the better because he will always then be pressing forward, and never reckoning that he has attained.

And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.

By this is meant not only that Jesus Christ died for Gentiles as well as Jews, and for some of all nations, but also that there is that in the atonement of Christ which might be sufficient for every creature under heaven if God had so chosen every creature, the limitation lying not in the value of the atonement itself, but in the design and intention of the Eternal God. God sent his Son to lay down his life for his sheep.

We know that Christ redeemed us from among men, so that the redemption is particularly and specially for the elect; yet, at the same time, the price offered was so precious—the blood was so infinite in value—that if every man that ever lived had to be redeemed, Christ could have done it. It is this that makes us bold to preach the Gospel to every creature, since we know there is no limit in the value of the atonement, though we still know that its design is for the chosen people of God alone.

My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not.

That you may abstain from it, and abhor it, and not indulge in anything that would lead you towards it.

And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous:

We are to seek to live a perfectly holy life, but since we constantly fall short of that ideal, here is our comfort; we still have an Advocate, we still have One who undertakes our cause, and pleads for us before his Father's throne.