The Circle Of Fear

Of anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. - 1 John 2:1


When the popular band The Eagles prepares a new song for concert, they sit in a circle with acoustic guitars and unamplified voices and rehearse their intricate vocals. They call this exercise "The Circle of Fear" because there is no place to hide and no way to conceal any errors they might make in the harmonies. That sense of absolute exposure for their mistakes is what makes this drill so frightening to them.

Apart from Christ, we would suffer a far worse kind of exposure before God of all justice. If we had na advocate and no escape, we would also have no hope. But in Christ, the believer has a Defender who stands before the Father on our behalf. First John 2:1 says, "My little children, these things I wrote to you, so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous." With our failings exposed, He takes our defense. Our Defender carries our relationship with God beyond a "circle of fear" to a fellowship of grace and truth.

Our challenge is to lives of purity and integrity that honor our heavenly Father. Yet, when we do fail, we do not need to fear abandonment or ridicule from our Father. We have an Advocate who will carry us through. - Bill Crowder


Frail children of dust , and feeble as frail,
In Thee do we trust, not find Thee to fail.
Thy mercies how tender! How firm to the end!
Our Maker, Defender, Redeemer, and Friend. - Grant

The One who died as our Substitute now lives as our Advocate.

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1 John 2:1-11

My little children, I write these things to you so that you may not sin. If anyone sins, we have a Counselor with the Father, Jesus Christ, the righteous. And he is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not for ours only, but also for the whole world.

This is how we know that we know him: if we keep his commandments. One who says, "I know him," and doesn't keep his commandments, is a liar, and the truth isn't in him. But whoever keeps his word, God's love has most assuredly been perfected in him.

This is how we know that we are in him: he who says he remains in him ought himself also to walk just like he walked. Brothers, I write no new commandment to you, but an old commandment which you had from the beginning. The old commandment is the word which you heard from the beginning.

Again, I write a new commandment to you, which is true in him and in you; because the darkness is passing away, and the true light already sines. He who says he is in the light and hates his brother, is in the darkness even until now.

He who loves his brother remains in the light, and there is no occasion for stumbling in him. But he who hates his brother is in the darkness, and walks in the darkness, and doesn't know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded his eye.

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