-John calls us his little children. Seven times in this letter, in fact. Not just children (which is teknon in the Greek), but a cuter sounding word for a smaller cuter child (teknion). It would be somewhat like how we would call a young Bob, "Bobby", or a young Susan, "Susie". And when they grow older, they most likely come to prefer to be called by the more adult-sounding name. But they will make an exception for their parents or grandparents, most likely. My Grammy got to call me ‘Chrissy’. Or the family will simply persist in using the cuter nickname. We call this is a term of endearment, and John uses one of those here. Whatever his relationship with these readers, we can understand that they are dear to him, that John thus has a fond affection for them, for us. He cares. He is the parent, or the wisened old grandparent, passing on sage words of advice to these younger readers. Grandpa John.
-At this point in his letter Grandpa John has already said quite a bit. Some hard truth. So, here he’s circling back to remind us that he cares about us and wants the best for us. And he wants us to abandon our life of sin, to come out of whatever darkness we may be in and into the Light. Darkness, lying, absence of the Truth, deception, unrighteousness, sin - these are the things which sadden the heart of our heavenly Father. They do not correspond in the least to Who He is or what He is like. And that’s what we are - His children. He is Light, and we are (we have been born again to be) children of Light. John is saying, the apple needs to not fall very far from the tree at all.
-John goes on to add, however, that if one of us does sin - and he may just as well say "when" any one of us does sin - that we have a Helper. An Intercessor. The NASB translates it as "Advocate". It is the Greek word paraklétos, one called alongside, i.e. to help. Modern Greeks use the word, parakalo, for please. it is essentially an appeal for help. The "paraclete", then, is the one who answers this call. The word is used only here by John, and then by Jesus four times in reference to the Holy Spirit Who would be coming alongside believers (actually inside us) to [be our] Help[er] (cf John 14.15-17). Note that even there the context is that of obeying our heavenly Father. So in a sense we are reminded of how God has not left us to our own devices when it comes to walking with Him in the Light, but to the point, if/when we stumble and fall, when we screw up, we have this second "back-up" Helper, Who gives us this second helping of grace. And thirds, and fourths - it's a veritable grace buffet!
-And not just any old helper, this one. He is Jesus Christ the Righteous. He IS the Righteous One, the spotless Lamb, the One in Whom was no sin, the One Who always did everything His Father wanted and obeyed the Father perfectly in every respect. And He is the Christ, the Messiah, the prophesied One Who came and paid the penalty for every single one of all of our sins (more on this in the next verse). He is our perfect High Priest, precisely Who and what we’ve always needed, our go-between for all our whens, whenever we screw up and find our self walking in a bit (or a whole lot) of darkness.
-And to that point, I actually do love that John says, "If". We all know that it’s more of a ‘when’ we screw up, as opposed to an ‘if’ we screw up. But I love the bar set high here. You know, that’s why products like cars made in Japan often tend to be so much more reliable than those made elsewhere, including those made in the USA. Here in the US we expect certain products to fail, that failure is inevitable. Traditionally many American manufacturers have factored in a failure rate in their production numbers, a literal tolerance for defects. By contrast, Japanese manufacturers start with the bar set higher - a zero percent failure rate. And I think the bar we set influences our outcome. When we set a high standard, we are far more likely to achieve it. And vice versa - lowering the bar is akin to compromise. But may it not ever be that we compromise in regards to sin. May it not EVER be that we lower the bar. So maybe let’s not just assume that we are going to sin, that failure is inevitable. Let’s move out in grace with the bar set high, a personal zero percent tolerance for failure, bathed in a corporate policy of bottomless grace, knowing that while we aspire towards heaven, that on this side of it nobody’s perfect. And come what may we have One Who is with us always - He said so Himself. Our ever-present second Helper (but not second rate!) in time of need, always and forever interceding on our behalf. Second helpings at the grace buffet! Thank You, Lord...
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