1 John 2 - Are You More in Love with Jesus or the World?

I am going to be using The Passion Translation (TPT) for the Daily Bread in 2025. To give you a taste of it, the following the link will contain both the NIV and TPT side by side, so you can compare and contrast both translations. There are also study notes that you can hover over for the TPT. You can still listen to the NIV by hitting the sound icon in the top left. 

There is no perfect translation and new translations can add new insights to traditional translations. I.e. NIV was written in 1984 and TPT in 2020. 

Click Here to Read 1 John 2 in NIV and TPT

1My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin. But if anybody does sin, we have an advocate with the Father—Jesus Christ, the Righteous One. 2He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world.

John, of course doesn't want the believers to sin, but he reminds them they have an advocate who stands before the Father to intercede for them. Since He isrighteousness and perfectly holy, He alone could forgive us of our sins. We also call this "satisfaction" for our sins. Jesus paid the price for our sins. In the Great Exchange, we were given His righteousness so that we would be PERFECT in God's sight. 

Jesus didn't die for our sins alone, but for the sins of the whole world, something we often forget. 

Love and Hatred for Fellow Believers

3We know that we have come to know him if we keep his commands. 4Whoever says, “I know him,” but does not do what he commands is a liar, and the truth is not in that person. 5But if anyone obeys his word, love for God is truly made complete in them. This is how we know we are in him: 6Whoever claims to live in him must live as Jesus did.

Keeping God's commands on a consistent basis (none of us does it 100% of the time) is evidence that the faith we profess is true. Someone may claim they know God, or have an experience of His love, but it they don't demonstrate it in everyday life, they are a "phony". This is what we call a "hypocrite". 

Now it is important to say we are all "hypocrites" in some sense of the word. I.e. We claim to be followers of Jesus, but we don't always follow his plan for his life or behave in a way befitting of a believer. Some of us may even gone for periods of time in our lives, where we might have not looked anything like a Christian. 

But the bottom line for John is that if we claim to know God, our lives should reflect it. He is confronts a philosophy that seeped into the church that said, "You can know Jesus and then live for pleasure since the body is bad anyways."

This is part of the Gnostic heresy as explained here, 

Others of the (Gnostics) yield themselves up to the lusts of the flesh with the utmost greediness, maintaining that carnal things should be allowed to the carnal nature, while spiritual things are provided for the spiritual. For they (the Gnostics) declare that we (the church) simply receive grace for use, wherefore also it will again be taken away from us; but that they themselves have grace as their own special possession, which has descended from above by means of an unspeakable and indescribable conjunction; and on this account more will be given them. Irenaeus (A.D. 180) Ante-Nicene Fathers vol.1 pg.324

7Dear friends, I am not writing you a new command but an old one, which you have had since the beginning. This old command is the message you have heard. 8Yet I am writing you a new command; its truth is seen in him and in you, because the darkness is passing and the true light is already shining.

John is referring to the old commands they would have known from the Old Testament, as revealed in the Ten Commandments. It is also summarized, "Love God with all your heart, soul, strength, and mind. And love your neighbors as youselves."

But there was a sense in which he was giving them a new command, because the love spoken of in this verse is only fufilled in the person of Jesus. Jesus fully expressed love for God and others in everything he did and said. This truth was seen in Jesus, and now lived in them through the Holy Spirit. As such the true love, which characteriized the true light of those who followed him, had now come into the world. 

9Anyone who claims to be in the light but hates a brother or sister is still in the darkness. 10Anyone who loves their brother and sister lives in the light, and there is nothing in them to make them stumble. 11But anyone who hates a brother or sister is in the darkness and walks around in the darkness. They do not know where they are going, because the darkness has blinded them

Said in another way, if you call yourself a Christian and hate your brother or sister, you are not a child of light but of darkness. The truest test of our Christian faith is how we treat each other. This is why it is so sad where there is division and fighting in the church. The world looks at this and may even rationalize this is why they don't go to church. And they might be right. 

Reasons for Writing

12I am writing to you, dear children, because your sins have been forgiven on account of his name. 13I am writing to you, fathers, because you know him who is from the beginning. I am writing to you, young men, because you have overcome the evil one. 14 I write to you, dear children, because you know the Father. I write to you, fathers, because you know him who is from the beginning. I write to you, young men, because you are strong, and the word of God lives in you, and you have overcome the evil one.

John describes three phases of spiritual maturity by separating children, from parents, and young people. Children need to know their identity is in Christ, who has chosen them and forgiven. They need to know how and why their sins have been forgiven, so they will never doubt how they are saved by grace not by works. 

To parents he writes that they have known God from the beginning. They have a faith journey so they can look back on God's faithfulness. To the young men and young women who are usually in serious battle with the evil one, who is trying to get them to deny their faith or take on the ways of the world, he tells them to "hold on". I.e. This is why so many in their 20's and 30's can go for a period of time where they leave the faith. But since their identity is in Christ, Jesus and the Father will always welcome them back when the come to their senses. (I.e. The story of the Prodigal Son in Luke 15)

On Not Loving the World

15Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, love for the Father is not in them. 16For everything in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—comes not from the Father but from the world. 17The world and its desires pass away, but whoever does the will of God lives forever.

In addition to not loving one's neighbor as themselves, is the issue of walking in the ways of the world. This is summarized as the lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes, and pride. Notice it says, "love". To love is to give yourself completely to something. You can't love the world and its lusts and God. You will either grow to love the one and hate the other or vice versa. (I.e. Matthew 6:24 - Jesus "You cannot serve two masters!)

Warnings Against Denying the Son

18Dear children, this is the last hour; and as you have heard that the antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have come. This is how we know it is the last hour. 19They went out from us, but they did not really belong to us. For if they had belonged to us, they would have remained with us; but their going showed that none of them belonged to us.

Like other New Testament writers, John believed they were living in the end times. He knew of the doctrine of the anti-christ, who he writes about in the Revelation. The false prophets who have already come into the church could be examples of "antichrists". Anybody who teaches or influences people away from Jesus is in a sense an "antichrist". 

John affirms that these apostates were at one time with them, but then their actions proved they were not really sons of God, but sons of the devil. In its footnote you can see TPT says the word "antichrist(s)" is different than the Anti-Christ referred to in the book of Revelation. 

20But you have an anointing from the Holy One, and all of you know the truth. 21I do not write to you because you do not know the truth, but because you do know it and because no lie comes from the truth. 22Who is the liar? It is whoever denies that Jesus is the Christ. Such a person is the antichrist—denying the Father and the Son. 23No one who denies the Son has the Father; whoever acknowledges the Son has the Father also. 

The difference is the believers are anointed by Jesus through the Holy Spirit, who is the Spirit of the Truth. The believers "know" the truth. Jesus is the Truth and they know Jesus. Any one who acknowledges and believes Jesus is the Way, the Truth, and the Life is in the truth! 

John makes it absolutely clear that to deny Jesus is to deny the Father. Some said that Jesus was not the Messiah, but just a good teacher. To deny Jesus is 100% man and 100% God is to deny the essence of what we believe as Christians. . 

26I am writing these things to you about those who are trying to lead you astray. 27As for you, the anointing you received from him remains in you, and you do not need anyone to teach you. But as his anointing teaches you about all things and as that anointing is real, not counterfeit—just as it has taught you, remain in him. 

Though John was warning them about those who would lead them astray, he had full confidence that they were anointed by the Father and the Son and therefore, "He who began a good work in them would be faithful to complete it!" Philippians 1:6 

God’s Children and Sin

28And now, dear children, continue in him, so that when he appears we may be confident and unashamed before him at his coming. 29If you know that he is righteous, you know that everyone who does what is right has been born of him.

As John ends chapter 2, he reminds them that the surest way to be ready for Jesus' return is to remain or continue in Him. In John 15 Jesus says, "Remain in me and I will remain in you." This is a relational word symbolized by a the vine and its branches. This close connection is organic and always leads to the production of fruit. 

There are many ways to remain in Jesus. 

1. Prayer

2. Bible Study

3. Going to Worship with others. 

4. Being in a small group.

5. Serving in the church. Doing what Jesus would do if he were you. 

6. Sharing your faith with others. 

7. Other spiritual disciplines like fasting, silence, solitude, generosity, and frugality. 

Are you abiding in Christ? Does your life show it? Do you love others as Jesus commanded you to do? Are you more in love with the world or Jesus?