Reading for December 2nd is 1 John 2...
My thoughts on this reading...
My little children... you can hear the term of endearment in John's writing, he cares for his readers as for his own children or grand children, and as fellow believers, he looked on them that way. So, he wants them not to sin, but if they do so (and who doesn't!), he lets them know they have an advocate with the Father. He then speaks of the importance of keeping the Lord's commandments. Throughout the rest of 1 John 1, he's going to come back again and again to some common themes... one is seeking to keep the commandments, another is truth. The final two themes that you will see are related to love and abiding. Already in the first six verses of Chapter 2 you can see all but love mentioned and as we move into the rest of the chapter, we see the idea of a new commandment, which of course is what Jesus told the disciples in the Upper Room on that last night, and which I'm sure had to have echoed in John's heart through the years of his ministry and he takes the time to share them. He does so specifically to the church (his little children), to fathers and to young men.
He calls on them not to love the world or the things of this world, that will eventually fade away, for the world and its desires will pass away, but those who do God will will abide forever.
We then get the warning about the antichrist, of which John says that many have come. By that he means that any who deny the Christ and lead away from Him and the Father are those who are antichrist (opposed to Christ). One's confession of Christ and the Father is how we have eternal life and we are called to abide in the Son and Father. This theme of abiding is also another that I am sure John remembered from the words of Jesus which he includes in John 15 as he speaks of the vine and branch and abiding in the Lord Jesus. As those who are righteous, we are to abide in Him!