Sanctification
1 John 2:1 ESVMy 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.John tells us that he is writing about walking in holiness, but he doesn't want you to be by the second misconception he just covered in Chapter 1 verse 8; which says " If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us." He wants us to know that we are a work in progress, continually needing grace from Jesus as we repent were we fall short.Like Hebrews 10:14 says that Christ has perfected forever those that are being sanctified. This means that our perfection has been achieved, but not yet received; That when we step into eternity we will step into glory, being holy and blameless. As for right now Christ presents us as holy and blameless, though we have not got there yet.He gives us the Holy Spirit as a guarantee of our inheritance, until the redemption of the purchased possession. (Eph 1:14) Because we are not fully there yet, some time we will not be able to do the good we want to do; but do the evil that we don't want to do. (Rom7:19)However, upon salvation, we are sealed with the Holy Spirit who is day by day shaping and molding, hammering and sharpening, and pruning and growing us towards the promise of glorification. The Holy Spirit does this by convicting us of sin and empowering us to walk as new creations and put the old self behind us. (2 Cor 5:17) They call this "progressive sanctification". It means that it is an ongoing work in you, that God is doing shaping you into the image of Christ. On this side of eternity we will never reach perfect holiness.What John is trying to say in our text is that a true believer is always growing. He wants you to know that holiness is important [We are commanded to walk in holiness , to put off falsehood and to put on the righteousness of Christ.] (Col 3:8-9) and obedience is a sign of true conversion, but that we all fail at time and are in need of the grace, mercy, and peace of Christ. We should be passed some of the things we previously struggled with, though we are not perfect.