Children pray at Chisomo Children's Club in Blantyre, southern Malawi.
This study explores how the Holy Spirit makes us more like Jesus, the unique advocate. This study is number two in the Speak up Bible study course.
Advocacy
Advocacy means speaking up in support of someone in need. There is no word in the Bible that exactly matches the English term – the nearest is the Greek word parakletos, which literally means ‘called to one’s side’.
Look at how parakletos is translated:
- in John 14:16: counsellor, counsel for the defence, helper, comforter, advocate
- in 2 Corinthians 1:3-4: comfort, consolation, help
- in Romans 15:4: encouragement, counsel
Now attempt the following questions. Try to look up the verse after you have attempted to answer the question.
1. For whom does Jesus act as an advocate? (1 John 2:1)
2. Why do they need an advocate? (Romans 6:23)
3. What qualifies him to be our advocate? (1 John 2:2)
4. What are the characteristics of his advocacy? (Hebrews 7:25; Romans 8:34)
5. What is the effect of his advocacy? (1 John 2:2; Romans 8:1)
1 John 1:5–2:6
In this passage Jesus is described as our parakletos. What conditions are set out for us in order to enjoy fellowship with God?
Condition 1 (1 John 1:5- 7)
We must ‘walk the talk’. This includes walking in fellowship with one another.
Condition 2 (1 John 1:8-9):
We must recognise our sin and failure, and confess – notice that it is because of God’s faithfulness and justice that we can be confident that we are forgiven.
Condition 3 (1 John 1:10 – 2:2):
What Jesus has done and continues to do – he died for our sins and now pleads our cause. Jesus speaks up for us in a unique way because he paid such a high price to redeem us. Advocacy is at the heart of Jesus’ continuing love and care for us. He earned the right to be an advocate because he laid down his life for us. His advocacy is linked to his cross.
Condition 4 (1 John 2:3-6):
We are back to the beginning – we cannot know God without doing what he wants. Because if we know God, his Holy Spirit is making us more like him, and encouraging and enabling us to live as Jesus did.
Parakletos describes both Jesus and the Holy Spirit and points to advocacy as a characteristic of God. God’s aim is that humans should ‘participate in the divine nature’ (2 Peter 1:4). If advocacy is a characteristic of God, then it must also be a characteristic of God’s children.
Prayer and campaigning
We finish this study by noting the close relationship between prayer and campaigning. We tend to think of them as very different activities, but this study indicates that speaking up is the same as intercession. One way of linking them is to define advocacy as ‘speaking to the powerful on behalf of the powerless’. Sometimes we can intercede for others with God, and become aware that we can also intercede with those with human power. Equally, we can send our postcards to the Prime Minister, and forget to pray.
Try to identify individuals and groups you would like to intercede for then spend time in prayer. Pray also for those who are taking risks in speaking up for others.
This is just a snippet of a study. For the full version of this and the others in the series - complete with leader’s notes, audio accompaniment and PowerPoint presentation – contact our Campaigns team at campaigning@tearfund.org.