We are continuing our study in the book of 1 John and highlighting God's intent through the Apostle John to give us assurance of our salvation in Jesus Christ. Unlike the Gospel of John, where John wrote in order that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ and believing that you would have life in His name, in 1 John, John is writing to those who do believe. And his purpose, his main intent, is to give the believers assurance, to show them that they have all that they need in Jesus. And because of their faith in Christ alone and His full payment for their sin, they can know that they have eternal life.

John is pointing us back to Jesus, to that which we heard from the beginning, to the one that John knew and lived with and looked intently upon and handled with his own hands. There were some false teachers in the churches to which John writes. Some of them had gone out from the believers, left the churches, and they were attempting through their false doctrine to lead believers astray, to lead them away into false teaching. The essence of this teaching was the same as it always is, attacking who Jesus is and what He accomplished. The teachers denied Jesus' humanity, His incarnation, and they offered some higher knowledge, some greater spirituality and secret knowledge, something more, something different than Jesus alone. 

So John is again pointing the believers back to Jesus, warning them of the false teachers and their lies and appealing to the brethren to find their peace, their full joy, and their assurance in Jesus alone. That is the message of 1 John. And in chapter 1, we spent quite a bit of time showing that John is contrasting believers with unbelievers, that he, as Paul and Jesus do, was using descriptive language to show the truths concerning who the man in Adam is in contrast to who the man in Christ is. 

We looked at Paul's language in Romans 8 last week where Paul described this contrast using the terms spirit and flesh. He also spoke of those in Adam or in Christ, those under the law and those under grace. Here in 1 John, we see John use the terms light and darkness. It is the believer who walks in the light and it is the unbeliever who walks in darkness. In the Gospel of John, as well as many, many other Scriptures, we saw that light is equated with life and that Jesus gives us light. He gives us life, His life, when we place our faith in Him. 

And so John says those who walk in light, believers, have fellowship with God, have fellowship with one another, have all of their sins forgiven through the blood of Jesus Christ. They are the ones who speak the same, agree with God concerning their sin and need for a Savior. And thus, through faith, they are restored from all unrighteousness. In fact, Jesus has given to us His very righteousness and taken our sin upon Himself on the tree. 

We're going to look at these truths in our text today in 1 John 2:2 that Jesus is our advocate, that He is the propitiation for our sins, the full satisfactory payment. And we're going to see incredible assurance and hope in verse 1 that we can live a holy life based on truth, the truth of who we are in Jesus Christ. Let's look at our text together in 1 John 2, verses 1 to 6.

1 John 2:1, "My little children, these things I write to you, so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. And He Himself is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only, but also for the whole world. Now by this we know that we know Him, if we keep His commandments. He who says, I know Him and does not keep His commandments, is a liar and the truth is not in Him. But whoever keeps His word, truly the love of God is perfected in him. By this we know that we are in Him. He who says he abides in Him ought also himself to walk just as He walked."

We're going to look at five points this morning. First, that you may not sin. Second, if we sin, we have an advocate. Third, your sins are forgiven. Fourth, keeping His word. And fifth, abiding in love.

Well, John uses some very interesting wording here. He calls the believers His little children, a term of endearment. He's talking to them as a loving father. Consider the contrast in 1 Corinthians 5. In 1 Corinthians 5, Paul is dealing with sin, sexual sin among the believers. Listen to his tone and his words in contrast to John here in chapter 2, verse 1, where he is talking about sin as well. 1 Corinthians 5:2, he says, "And you are puffed up, and have not rather mourned, that he who has done this deed might be taken away from among you. For indeed, as absent in body, but present in spirit, I have already judged as though I were present, him who has so done this deed. In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, when you are gathered together, along with my spirit, with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ, deliver such a one to Satan, for the destruction of the flesh, that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus." 

In 1 Corinthians 4:21, Paul said to the Corinthians, "What do you want? Shall I come to you with a rod?" My brothers and sisters, John is not questioning the faith of those to whom he writes. He's not chastening them, nor questioning their behavior, nor testing their faith. What he is doing is encouraging them concerning their true faith and the salvation that they possess in Jesus Christ. And this truth, this salvation, he links to sin, or rather, not sinning. 

And what he says is that he writes these things, the things of chapter 1, in order that we may not sin. It is my firm conviction that God's intention in saving me was for me to live a holy and righteous life. And I believe that he has accomplished what is necessary in me through regeneration and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, Christ's life in me, and has provided to me all things necessary for life and godliness. It is his expectation that I would bear fruit for his glory, that I would not walk as I once walked, like the Gentiles in the futility of their mind. 

I am also firmly convinced from the Scriptures that this holy living comes as a result of who I now am in Christ, his power working in me, as I look to him, trust in him, believe him, abide in him, one day at a time. I do not believe that the law is binding on the believer. I do not believe that the law can produce holiness in my life. Jesus instituted a new covenant, and it is now through him that I can produce fruit. Paul summarizes the Christ's life in Galatians 2:20 when he says, "I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. In the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness comes through the law, then Christ died in vain." 

I now live by faith in the Son of God, and he now lives in me, his life out through me. This understanding of the Christian life is absolutely vital if we are to have a holy, consistent, fruit-bearing life. And yet this teaching opens us up to many accusations of licentiousness, antinomianism, and a let-go-and-let-God mentality. But these are not the things that we teach, that we know from the Scriptures. And it is comforting to me to see that Paul received these exact same accusations when he taught these truths. 

The Jews said that he taught against Moses, and the law, and the temple, and the very people of God. It wasn't just Paul who taught the Christian life as Christ in you, and the new birth as the basis for a new life in him. Turn over to 1 Peter 1 with me, please. 

1 Peter 1 at verse 13, "Therefore, gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and rest your hope fully upon the grace that is to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. As obedient children, not conforming yourselves to the former lusts as in your ignorance, but as He who called you as holy, you also be holy in all your conduct. For it is written, Be holy, for I am holy. And if you call on the Father, who without partiality judges according to each one's work, conduct yourselves throughout the time of your stay here in fear, knowing that you were not redeemed with corruptible things, like silver or gold, from your aimless conduct received by tradition from your fathers. But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot, He indeed was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you, who through Him believe in God, who raised Him from the dead and gave Him glory, so that your faith and your hope are in God."

Look at verse 22. "Since you have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit and sincere love of the brethren, love one another fervently with a pure heart, having been born again, not of corruptible seed, but incorruptible through the Word of God, which lives and abides forever." 

What is our holiness based on? Peter says we are to rest our hope fully on God's grace. We are to place our faith and our hope in God, and we are to be holy as He is holy. Why? Since you have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit, we have been born again through the Word of God. And the result of this is that we are to love the brethren in sincerity. We are to love one another fervently with a pure new heart that God has placed in us and poured His love into. 

We see consistently throughout the New Testament that those who believe Jesus are new men. They are born again. They are given a new heart and a new spirit, and the very Spirit of God living in them, working in them with the very power that raised Jesus from the dead. We live like new men because we are new men. Without this truth basis, the Christian life makes no sense. A holy life is consistent with who we are. 

What I want you to see in our text in 1 John 2:1 is that John teaches this very truth. He bases his exhortation, his method or way to a holy life on the very same thing as Paul and Peter, on the truth of our salvation in Christ and what that means for us. I write you these things, he says. What things? The things he just wrote in chapter 1. John starts out in chapter 1 pointing us back to Jesus, declaring to us Jesus, to focus us in on Jesus, that which we heard, which we knew from the beginning. 

Then he makes these tremendous statements in verses 5 to 10. He tells us that God is light and in Him is no darkness at all. We learned last time that Jesus is the manifestation of that light and that light is equal with life. We saw that it is Jesus who gives us light, who gives to us life, His very life, when we place our faith in Him. For those who believe Jesus, who walk in the light, no longer in darkness, they have fellowship with God. Their sins have been forgiven. They have been restored from all unrighteousness and now by imputation have received Christ's righteousness. We have been cleansed from all sin by His blood. 

My friends, something profound has happened for those who believe Jesus. In 2 Corinthians 5:14, Paul says, "For the love of Christ compels us because we judge thus, that if one died for all, then all died. And he died for all that those who live should live no longer for themselves, but for him who died for them and rose again." 

Therefore, from now on, we regard no one according to the flesh, even though we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know Him thus no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old things have passed away. Behold, all things have become new. Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ and has given to us the ministry of reconciliation. That is, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation. 

Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us. We implore you on Christ's behalf, be reconciled to God. For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. Those who believe Jesus are in Christ. This is the positional truth that John talks about in chapter 1. Having our sins forgiven, being cleansed from all unrighteousness. But notice too that Paul says anyone who is in Christ is a new creation. God did something more than just forgive our sins, justify us, declare us to be righteous. He actually gave to us His righteousness. He gave to us His very life, made us new men. The old has gone, the new has come. 

I have been crucified with Christ, and now the life that I live, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave Himself for me. Christ lives in me. His very life is lived out through me as I believe Him. You see, this is the actual truth that John expresses in chapter 1. The truth that Jesus has given to us His life. Light equals life, and Jesus gives us His life when we believe Him. All of this, from John's Gospel, from Paul's letters, all of this New Covenant Biblical truth is wrapped up in John's words when he says, It is God's intention, His desire in saving us that we may not sin, that we will walk in holiness, that we should show the power of the Gospel, the awesome power of His life in us as a witness and a testimony to men. 

In Romans 5:20 and 21, Paul said, "Moreover, the law entered that the offense might abound, but where sin abounded, grace abounded much more. So that, for the very purpose that, our salvation is for this purpose, that as sin reigned in death, even so grace might reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord." It is God's intention, His purpose in saving us, that grace would reign through righteousness to eternal life. It is His life in us. It is because of what He has done in our salvation that we can now live a holy life, and it is Christ in you that makes that possible.

You say, well, then I should not sin. If all this is true, and I'm a new man, and I have a new heart, and I've died to sin, and I'm no longer under the law, and grace is reigning in my life, then I should not sin. That is true. You should not sin. And in fact, you have everything necessary to live a godly and righteous life, and in every moment, at every point of temptation, you have the choice to believe Jesus, to trust Him, to depend on Him, and reckon in your mind the truth of your death to sin, to live a life of salvation, and Christ's power in you, and to not sin.

The problem is, we don't always make that choice. I don't always make that choice. I know God's truth. I know what He says is true of me in Christ. I know that the way to live a holy life is by reckoning what He says to be true, agreeing with Him about who I now am, and then yielding to His power and life in me through faith. I know this is God's way in each individual moment of need and dependence as I walk through this life, but I don't always make the choice to believe Him. Sometimes I yield to the sin that still dwells in me and choose to act irrationally, contrary to who I am, and I sin. 

Let me give you an example. Let's say you come from a long, hard day at work, and you're all stressed out and anxious with the thoughts that fill your head. You walk into the house to find your wife equally stressed, things a bit of a mess, and the kids in rare form. It's not really what you were hoping for, but your wife is clearly worn out and needs some help. What do you do? What do you think? What do you believe? Then to set the act in motion, you begin to converse with your wife, a kiss and a smile, and how was your day? But then she says something cross, something that rubs you a little, and you feel anger rise up, and the moment of truth has come. You raise your voice, and the angry tone comes, and you lash out at your wife in frustration from all the struggles of your day, and the disappointment that your evening is quickly becoming.

This is real life, my friends. Real struggles. And although we have the power, we have the choice in that moment to pray, to renew our minds to God's truth, and reckon it to be so, and ask Jesus to help us, and then act in love, we don't always make that choice. We don't always have that discipline. Sometimes we revert back to what we were, and we yield to that sin dwelling in us, and we fail to love. We act in selfishness, and we sin. So now what? What do I do? Am I done? Have I fallen and lost my salvation? Does God reject me? Should I fall into despair? 

Look at what John says. "My little children, my little technion. Strong says it can be translated, darlings." My little darlings, listen to me. "I write you these things so that you may not sin. I want you to reckon these truths, apply them, live in light of them. But, if anyone sins, remember, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ, the righteous." 

My brothers and sisters, I can testify. It is my deepest desire to live for Jesus, to live in holiness, to be a witness, to lead my family, to love my wife, to teach them about Jesus by words and actions. And I know I spent countless days in the woods when I was working for the USDA, thinking about these things, planning out the evening in my head, anticipating a time of fellowship in the Word, a meal of peace and quiet and encouragement when I got home. It is my desire, it is my heart, because God has done this. But many, many times, the evening played out as described above, not in consistency with my heart's desire and the will of God. 

In those times, in those moments of despair, we need to come back to grace. We need to remember that we have an advocate, Jesus Christ the righteous. He is sitting at the right hand of God on His throne and He is interceding for me. He is my defense attorney. He is my advocate. The Scriptures tell us in Job and Revelation and Hebrews that Satan is the accuser of the brethren, that he is before God day and night pointing out my flaws, my sins, my transgressions. And he is right. It is true that I do not deserve my salvation. I do not deserve God's mercy and grace. I need it, but I don't deserve it. And Satan is right that I should be judged for my sins.

But Jesus is there and He is my advocate. And He says, yes, John knew sin. Yes, he deserves punishment for that sin. But I took that punishment. I paid for that sin on the cross. It is finished. The debt is paid. And my friends, I am free from condemnation under grace. Now this does not mean that this doesn't have consequences in the here and now. Sin causes all kinds of real problems and it undermines our witness and renders others fruitless. 

Think about how my choice to believe Jesus and love my wife would make a difference in her life, her ministry to my children and to others, as opposed to coming home and using harsh words and ending up in a fight and going to bed with a cold shoulder treatment. Sin needs to be dealt with. John writes to us the truth so that we may believe and apply the truth so that we may not sin. But he says, if anyone sins... Notice those words, if anyone sins. John is not making this an expected outcome. He is not expecting everyone to sin and go on sinning. He is expecting quite the opposite. Holiness and righteousness that is consistent with the nature of those who believe. 

But if anyone perchance would sin, he says, don't go into despair. Just turn to God and confess your sin. Agree that it is sin. Apologize to your wife. Explain it to your kids. And receive God's grace because we have an advocate. Jesus. And He is the righteous one who never submitted to temptation, who never sinned, but always did what pleased the Father in total dependence on Him. And He is the one who paid the full debt for my sin in my place. And my brothers and sisters, He is the one who ever lives to make intercession for me in His high priestly work before the Father. He is my advocate.

We've seen in our text that John wrote these things that we may not sin. We have seen that if we sin, we have an advocate. Now in verse 2 we see that John wants you to know that your sins are forgiven. And this solely because of what Jesus did on the cross. Look at verse 2. "And He Himself is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only, but also for the whole world." Notice John emphasizes the truth that He Himself, Jesus, is the propitiation for our sins. This is such a tremendous truth, and a tremendous word that John uses here, propitiation. 

In this verse lies the heart of the Gospel, the good news. When we fall, when we sin, where do we look? What comfort do we have? What way do we have of getting back on the horse and riding on in victory? You see, my justification is based solely in the Gospel, in Christ's death in my place for my sins. And my sanctification is based solely in the Gospel truth as well. In grace, in the truth of Christ's work on the cross, and in me. We can never get past the Gospel, my friends. We can only come to understand and appreciate and believe it more. And the truth is, Jesus paid it all. Jesus finished the work. Jesus accomplished my salvation. 

Now, there are many religions today which call themselves Christian who deny this very central, vital truth. They say that you have to do something more, that you have to do works and rituals and sacraments and many, many things to contribute to work with what Christ did on the cross in order to attain, to accomplish, to earn our salvation. This is heresy at its core. The idea that Christ is insufficient, Christ's work is lacking somehow, and we must do something more. But John makes clear here the very heart of the Gospel message. Jesus is the propitiation. He is the full, satisfactory payment for our sins, and not for our sins only, but for the sins of the whole world. 

My brothers and sisters, Jesus paid it all. It is finished. Salvation is available to every man, woman, and child on this planet. God is willing. Jesus is willing. The question for each of us is, are we willing? Are we willing to recognize our sin and our need and our deserved punishment, the righteous wrath of God for my sin? Do I believe and know that I am a sinner and I cannot do anything to change that fact? I cannot do anything to make up for that fact, and my only hope is Jesus' propitiatory work on the cross. The fact that He took my sin on Himself and paid the penalty for me satisfying the wrath of God. 

The resurrection proves, shows, that God was fully, completely satisfied with Jesus' payment in my place for my sins as Paul states in Romans 1 verse 4. To say that Jesus is insufficient, to say that there is something more to be done is blasphemy, is to crucify again for ourselves the Son of God, is to reject Jesus' propitiatory sacrifice and to count the blood of the covenant a common, useless thing. It is to trample the Son of God underfoot. 

And my friends, for the man who does this, who holds on to his religion and works even in conjunction with Jesus, this man can expect nothing but the wrath of God. He can expect to pay for his own sins having rejected Jesus' offer of salvation through faith alone, by grace alone. This is the very thing that the false teachers were telling the churches in John's day. That Jesus was not enough. That they needed something more, some higher knowledge, some hierarchy of religion, some work, some mysticism. 

My friends, this is the very same thing the false Christian churches of our day teach and say. And they lead men away from the truth, from salvation, in Christ alone. John wants us to know that Jesus is the propitiation for our sins and not for ours only, but for the sins of the whole world. Jesus died for all men and He offers salvation to all men, but only by grace and only through faith in Him. 

So we see that John is writing to believers so that they will know and believe the truth and depend on Jesus alone and thus not sin. But he wants us to know and to remember that if we sin, if any believer were to sin, we have an advocate. Jesus Christ the righteous. And he wants us to understand that this salvation, these truths, are based wholly in the fact that Jesus is the sufficient sacrifice, the propitiation for our sins. 

He also wants us to have assurance in our God-given, Spirit-implanted heart, our heart's desire to keep His Word. Look at verse 3. "Now by this we know that we know Him if we keep His commandments. He who says, I know Him and does not keep His commandments is a liar and the truth is not in Him. But whoever keeps His Word, truly the love of God is perfected in him. By this we know that we are in Him." 

How can we have assurance? How can we know that we have eternal life? John has said that we walk in the light, that we have fellowship with God, that our sins are forgiven, that we have been restored from all unrighteousness, that Jesus is the propitiation for our sins and that He is our advocate. And here John tells us that we are the ones who keep His Word. 

Now I think it is helpful to clarify again that John defines for us what the New Covenant commandments are. In chapter 3, verse 23, he says, "...and this is His commandment, that we should believe on the name of His Son, Jesus Christ, and love one another as He gave us commandment. Now He who keeps His commandments abides in Him, and He in Him, and by this we know that He abides in us by the Spirit whom He has given us." 

John is talking about fact here, clear truth about believers. John is not saying if you keep the law of Moses perfectly, or even as a pattern of your life, you can know that you are saved. I'm sorry, my friends, but this is not what John is saying, and this is not how the law of Moses works. The law demands perfection. Jesus, in defining the law, said, "...your righteousness must exceed the most righteous men." In fact, He said that the righteousness that comes through the law must be perfect, perfect as God is perfect. 

Paul said in 2 Corinthians 3 that the law is a ministry of death, of condemnation. In Romans 2, he said the law brings only wrath. In Galatians 2.21, as we read before, Paul said that if righteousness could come through the law, then Christ died in vain. Did you hear that, my friends? If we can be righteous by looking to the law, by evaluating ourselves by the Ten Commandments, by putting a list of rules on the refrigerator, and giving ourselves a sticker every time we do one of them, if holiness comes this way, then Christ died in vain. 

Why did He die? What is the purpose? You might say, well, He died to save us, to justify us, but certainly the law of Moses is still binding on us. We don't need the Ten Commandments to show us how to live, to keep us from running amok. Sure, Jesus justified by faith alone, by grace, by the Spirit, but sanctification must include the law of God, and what John is saying here is that we can look at the direction, if not the perfection of our lives, concerning how we measure up to God's law, and this will give us assurance. 

Hogwash. You don't believe me? I'm swimming upstream here, my friends. But listen to Paul's words to the Galatians, who thought this very thing, who were being led astray by false teachers, this same very popular teaching today. Listen to Paul's words in Galatians 3, verse 1. "O foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you that you should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed among you as crucified? This only I want to learn from you. Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?" 

Listen to verse 3. "Are you so foolish, having begun in the Spirit, are you now being made perfect by the flesh?" Are you now being made perfect by the flesh? Are you justified by grace through faith, and now you are being sanctified by grace and faith plus the law? Paul continues in verse 5. "Therefore, he who supplies the Spirit to you and works miracles among you, does he do it by the works of the law or by the hearing of faith?" 

John is not telling us to put the Ten Commandments up on our wall and to evaluate ourselves each day and see how we did, and then find assurance in the results. What he is saying is that believers are the ones who keep. The Greek word literally means to guard, to hold dear, to protect. And John makes clear the meaning of verse 3 in verse 5. Verse 3 again. "Now by this we know that we know Him if we keep His commandments. He who says, I know Him and does not keep His commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in Him." 

What does John mean by keep His commandments? Verse 5. "Whoever keeps His Word, truly the love of God is perfected in him." And by this we know that we are in Him. 

This is the message here. Think about the flow and the context. We are the ones who believe Jesus. We are the ones who walk in light. We are the ones who have fellowship, have our sins forgiven, have been restored from all unrighteousness. We have Jesus the righteous living in us, having given to us His very life, and He ever lives as our advocate to make intercession for us. 

We are the ones who have understood our sin and our need, agreed with God, confessed this sin and need, and come to faith in Christ. Do we guard these words? Do we value the gospel, keep it for ourselves? That is the very thing that John wants us to do. He writes these truths to us that we might keep them, that we might savor, guard, hold on to the gospel truth, to Jesus, to the validity of our salvation, because of our faith in Him. Believe Jesus and love one another. The one who keeps His Word, this is the one who has the love of God perfected in him. 

The one who casts the truth, His Word, His commandments aside, denies the gospel, says we need something more. This is the one who does not know Him, who is a liar and the truth is not in Him. The whole point here from chapter 1, verse 1, is to look at Jesus, to go back to Jesus, to that which we heard from the beginning, to the gospel, and to keep His Word, His truth. 

Notice when John defines the New Covenant commandments as believing Jesus and loving one another, he says, as He, Jesus, gave us commandment. What commandment did Jesus give His disciples? John 13:34, "A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another as I have loved you, that you also love one another." John 15:12, "This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you." John 15:17, "These things I command you, that you love one another." 

How do we know that we know Him? Because the love of God has been poured out into our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us. Because we have a great love for Jesus, we love Him because He first loved us. Because we love the brethren and we believe Jesus. This is deep in our heart. It is our desire. These commandments are not burdensome to us. It is the very thing we desire, to believe Jesus and love one another, because the love of God has been perfected in us. He did that. By this we know that we know Him. 

And again, John gives us assurance of our salvation, that we have eternal life. We know that we are in Him and He is in us. Our last point quickly is in verse 6, abiding love. This love, His love, abides in us. Verse 6, "He who says he abides in Him ought himself also to walk just as He walked." 

Because we abide in Jesus, because the love of God is perfected in us, because we keep His Word, value it, guard it, live by it, we ought to walk in love as Jesus did. The word translated ought here is very interesting. It has the idea of debt or owing. In Luke 17:10 and John 13:14, Jesus uses this word to speak of duty, or that which is due or right. 

Again, the idea here is that it is consistent with who we are. It is right, it is due that we walk in love. This is the same message we see from Paul in Romans 12:1 and 2. In light of all the gospel truths, the implications of our salvation, the mercies of God, it is our reasonable service, it is logical, it is right, it makes sense, since we are new men, that we would walk as new men. 

John is, in a sense, asking us to consider all that he has said in chapter 1 and these first few verses of chapter 2, and draw the conclusion. Understand, believe, and apply these truths, and come to the firm conclusion that it is right, it is due, I ought to walk in love just as Jesus walked in love. Because the fact is, this is who I am. This is what I want. And this is what God has empowered me and does empower me to do by His life in me. I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. And the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave Himself for me. 

Let's close in prayer. Father, we're so thankful for Your Word, Your truth, and we're thankful that You are showing us that we have eternal life in Jesus Christ through faith in Him because we believe Him and trust Him. Father, thank You for the assurance that You give us through Your Word, the promises. And thank You that You've empowered us and changed us and made us new men and given us Your life that we might now live for You as a witness and a testimony in this world to bring You glory. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.