1 Juan 2:1

1 John 2:1

I. Let that be your aim: to "sin not." Let it be deliberately set before you as your fixed and settled purpose that you are not to sin, not merely that you are to sin as little as you can, but that you are not to sin at all.

II. But not only would I have you to make this your aim: I would have your aim accomplished and realised. And therefore I write these things unto you, that ye sin not. We must assume it to be possible not to sin when we walk in the open fellowship of God. We are brought into a position in relation to God in which holiness is no longer a desperate negative strife, but a blessed positive achievement.

III. Why, then, it may be asked, is provision made for our sinning still after all? "If any man" any of us "sin, we have an Advocate with the Father." Thus our Lord Jesus Christ cheers us on; He assures us that He is near us if we should stumble. There is the Intercessor ever pleading for us: "If any man sin, we have an Advocate with the Father."

R. S. Candlish, Lectures on First John, p. 67.

References: 1 John 2:1 . Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. ix., No. 515; Ibid., Morning by Morning, p. 280; E. Blencowe, Plain Sermons to a Country Congregation, vol. ii., p. 340; Homilist, 1st series, vol. i., p. 407.