Guiding little kids
By By Ken Askew
"My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.
ESV 1 John 2:1
Heads turned, but I didn't think much of it when the baby began to cry; babies cry all the time in church. But whose was it? I didn't recognize them as the young mom quickly rose and whisked the child out of the sanctuary to tend to its needs. From the sound of it, the needs were pretty urgent too.
Well, the joke was on me. The young mom turned out to be a high school senior, and the crying baby was an electronic gizmo that she had to tend to for the weekend as school project. And to hear her tell it, her electronic baby was requiring a lot of attention! But, how much more attention children require in reality. Not days, hours or years, but a lifetime of tending, teaching, interceding and leading; all in the hopes that they'll avoid danger along the way.
John must have felt that same parental duty, love and joy when he penned this letter to a group of young Christians in the early church. He refers to them as "little children" (a phrase only found fourteen times in all scripture) seven times in this short letter. John uses the term in a fatherly tone; gently admonishing them to walk in truth and obedience to Christ.
Chapter one ends with John stressing the importance of believers recognizing and confessing sin in their lives. In our text here, John speaks of the perfectly righteous and eternal remedy to sin found in Christ; our advocate. But notice what he stresses. Notice how he begins by saying that he is "writing these things…so that you may not sin." You see, just like a parent, John wants to guide these young converts clear of danger; clear of false teachings; clear of sin.
Think of it this way. We can explain to our children that a tow truck is designed to pull an automobile out of a ditch after and accident. But we want to teach our children to drive safely and stay out of ditches. We can explain to our children that a doctor can set a broken bone, but we want to teach them to avoid broken bones!
John is doing the same thing here. He's explaining to these babes in Christ that Christ is their advocate before God the Father. He has already told them that they should confess their sins to him. But his point to these "little children" is that they don't sin!
Timeless words indeed.
Ken Askew worships at Tharptown Baptist Church in Russellville. Comments are welcome and may be sent to kenaskew@charter.net.
