What Does 1 John 2:1 Mean?
My little children, I write these things to you so that you do not miss the mark. And if anyone misses the mark, we have one who comes alongside us before the Father, Jesus the Anointed One, the aligned one.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous:THE KEY
The verse puts the missed mark and the advocate in the same sentence: the miss is real, and so is the one who stands with you before the Father.
THE MEANING
You are addressed as a child even as the verse names the possibility of missing the mark. Its desire is that you not miss; when you do, Jesus Christ, the aligned one, is your advocate with the Father. Your failure is named without becoming the final word about your place before the Father.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie that one failure leaves you alone before the Father is undone: the verse names an advocate precisely when someone misses.
THE ROOT
ἁμάρτητε
hamartēte
GROWS FROM
ἁμαρτ-
hamart-
The Greek word-family carries the image of missing or failing to attain; in this verse it names sin.
“miss the mark” in this verse is hamartēte. The verse leaves the miss visible, but places an advocate in the very sentence that names it. Exposure and abandonment are not the same thing here.
ALSO GROWS
hamartanō: To miss or fail; the verb’s lexical form.
ἁμαρτάνω
It shows the action behind the verse’s word for sin.
hamartia: Sin; a missing or failure.
ἁμαρτία
This noun names the same word-family and appears again in 1 John 1:9.
hamartōlos: A sinner.
ἁμαρτωλός
This branch shows how the word-family can describe a person in relation to sin.
παράκλητον
paraklēton
GROWS FROM
παρά + καλέω (para + kaleō)
Παρά (para) means beside; καλέω (kaleō) means call. Παράκλητος (paraklētos) names one called in as support, hence an advocate.
“one who comes alongside us” in this verse is paraklēton. The Greek word carries both the advocate’s role and the image of a summoned presence. That presence is named exactly where the possibility of missing is named.
ALSO GROWS
paraklētos: Advocate or helper.
παράκλητος
This is the noun used for Jesus in the verse.
paraklēsis: Appeal, encouragement, or comfort.
παράκλησις
It shows another way this word-family can express support.
kaleō: Call or summon.
καλέω
The call at the center of the word helps illuminate the advocate as one summoned to support.
δίκαιον
dikaion
GROWS FROM
δικ-
dik-
Right or just; the quality of being in alignment.
“the righteous” in this verse is dikaion. Jesus is named as the aligned one while the verse speaks plainly about the reader’s missing. The advocate’s defining quality is not the miss but alignment.
ALSO GROWS
dikaiosynē: Righteousness; alignment.
δικαιοσύνη
This related noun makes visible the alignment carried by the adjective.
dikaioō: To justify or declare right.
δικαιόω
This verb shows the family’s connection to being set in a right relation.
THE PATTERN
When a person has missed, scripture names the failure and places intercession or cleansing beside it.
Therefore I will divide him a portion with the many, and he shall divide the plunder with the strong, because he poured out his living soul to death, and was counted with the rebels. He carried the falling short of many, and for the rebels he stepped in.Who is the one who condemns? It is the Anointed One who died, but more than that, who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who also approaches on our behalf.If we speak our shortcomings into the open, he is steady and aligned, to release our shortcomings, and to cleanse us from all crookedness.THE THREAD
If we speak our shortcomings into the open, he is steady and aligned, to release our shortcomings, and to cleanse us from all crookedness.Both verses use the same Greek word-family for sin: ἁμαρτάνω (hamartanō, to miss) here and ἁμαρτία (hamartia, sin or missing) there. Here the advocate is named when missing is possible; there, that same missing is brought into the open and met with release and cleansing.
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