John wrote his epistle, because there were many false teachers infiltrating the believing community, and their doctrine effectively denied Jesus was the Christ. They were claiming they believed Jesus was the Messiah, but they didn’t practice what he told the believing community (1John 1:6). Moreover, they held to the position that Jews already had perfect doctrine through Moses, and it lacked nothing (cp. 1John 1:8). Finally, they claimed that by being blameless, according to the Law, it meant they didn’t sin against God. If these things were true, Jesus would have no way of affecting the believer. In other words, while they may not have said so openly, they inferred that Jesus was unnecessary as far as faith is concerned, in much the same manner that Jewish doctrine tries to convey today. If the Old Covenant was flawless (1John 1:6), the New Covenant must be pointless!
John refers to his readers in 1John 2:1 as little children. The Greek word is teknion (G5040), and it was used by Christ to refer to his disciples in John 13:33. It was also used by Paul for those, whom he had brought to Christ through his Gospel (Galatians 4:19), so John used it here to refer to those whom he recognized as believers in Christ, possibly folks whom he had brought or helped bring to Christ through the Gospel.
Notice what John tells them, “I am writing these things to you that you may not sin, but if you do sin, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus, the Righteous One” (1John 2:1)! On the face, that may seem to take a light hearted view of sinful behavior: Don’t sin, but if you do, it’s okay, because Christ will make it good with the Father. This, however, is not the case, and such an idea abuses the context of 1John 1:6-10.
John is referring to a particular sin, which, if practiced, resulted in rejecting Jesus as our Savior. This is what the false teachers had been peddling as true, just prior to the writing of John’s epistle. We need to keep in mind at this point that the Church and the Jews’ religion were not as distinct in the first century AD as they are today. They worshiped together. Certainly, Paul removed those who trusted in Christ from the Jews’ synagogues, once the Jewish authorities began speaking against Jesus as the Messiah, but this didn’t mean Jews who practiced the Jewish faith didn’t come to the assembly of believing Jews (and gentiles) to worship with them and peddle their yarn against the Gospel. Some of these men were highly respected Jewish teachers who were of some renown among the Jews, and the longer the Church was in existence, the more familiar unbelieving Jews became with the doctrine of Christ. In such a context it seems logical that arguments against the Gospel would have become more and more proficient and subtle, in that the ordinary believer in Christ might not be able to readily identify the fallacies involved.
For example, wasn’t the Old Covenant Scriptures the word of God? Yes! Is the word of God deficient in any manner? No! Therefore, if Moses and the Prophets came by the word of God, and the word of God isn’t deficient, why would anyone need the Gospel, as additional Scripture? The word of God is already complete and believing in it doesn’t miss the mark. In other words one doesn’t sin by saying this is so (1John 2:8). The idea is very subtle, but it doesn’t take into account the word of God through Moses, when he spoke of a Prophet who would come later. That Prophet would be like Moses, in that he would lead his people out of bondage, and he would offer greater meaning to the word of God than that which came through Moses (cp. Deuteronomy 18:15-19). Therefore, it was this particular sin to which John referred in 1John 2:1. He hoped his readers didn’t commit that sin, but, if they had, they could still be forgiven. That’s the intended meaning here.
For, Christ is the propitiation of all our sins, and not for ours alone, but even for unbelievers—the whole world (1John 2:2). If this is so, then, certainly, if someone ignorantly believed the yarn of the then current false prophets, that one could be forgiven, if he confessed his sin (1John 1:9).
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