1 John
1Jo 2:12-14 - Grand Repetition, Effective Teaching
by Joe Holder
I write unto you, little children, because your sins are forgiven you for his name's sake. I write unto you, fathers, because ye have known him that is from the beginning. I write unto you, young men, because ye have overcome the wicked one. I write unto you, little children, because ye have known the Father. I have written unto you, fathers, because ye have known him that is from the beginning. I have written unto you, young men, because ye are strong, and the word of God abideth in you, and ye have overcome the wicked one. (1Jo 2:12-14)
John frequently repeats his thought with slight variation. This gives Bible readers a distinct benefit in our study. If we struggle with one statement, look at the second statement of the same thought. One will tell you the same thing in different words as the other. Let's single out the repetitions in this passage. They disclose their identity by the target audience.
Little children. The first appearance identifies that their sins are forgiven for his name's sake. The second says, "...ye have known the Father." In John's mind anyone whose sins are forgiven knows the Father, so identifying them as forgiven or as knowing the Father is the same to John.
Fathers. In the first appearance they "have known him that is from the beginning." The second appearance repeats the thought exactly. What is the point here? Little children may hardly know their father. He spends most of the day working outside the home. And often when he comes home at night the child is already in bed asleep. But a mature person knows his father. No one could deceive him into thinking someone else was his father.
Young men. In the first appearance John says he writes them "because ye have overcome the wicked one." In the second appearance he adds to the thought of their overcoming the wicked one that they are strong and the word of God abides in them.
In reading the first section of this book one could form the impression that John was in some grave way dissatisfied with these people. But in this section of the letter he strongly affirms them and his respectful love for them. Though faithful, they faced a grave danger that he felt compelled to warn them of. So he refers to them now in terms of his true personal affection for them, little children, fathers and young men.
At first glance we might think John singled out three distinct groups of people in his audience by these terms. But the sequence seems difficult for this idea. Why arrange them as little children, fathers and then as young men? Perhaps it would be more natural to think in these terms. John considered his whole audience as included in each of the terms. They carried too many attributes he needed to affirm for any single metaphor. As little children they had experienced the forgiveness that God as Father grants uniquely to His own. As fathers, they know the historic past, literally the eternity, of God. God didn't begin with their knowledge or with their personal experience of Him. Considered in light of Verses 3-6, the "him" whom the fathers have known is God, but it is God in the unique person of Jesus Christ. He was not another god or a lesser god. Though incarnated in human flesh, He was truly the eternal God. As young men, these believers had faced the hostile forces of the evil one in strength and godly maturity and had overcome. Their overcoming strength did not grow out of their superior faith or righteousness, but out of their knowledge of the word of God.
The breadth of these attributes surprises us. We strive to reach the status held forth in any one of the categories, but to strive toward all three overwhelms us. So long as we view the passage from the contemporary self-absorbed "me generation" attitude, it will continue to overwhelm us. We cannot claim any of these traits or attainments through personal efforts. Knowing God does not occur through our personal investigation or superior intellect, but through God's merciful revelation of Himself to us. We attempt to grasp the reality of God's eternal incommunicable attributes, and we give them fancy names (omnipresence, omnipotence, omniscience, etc.), but we cannot grasp the simplest of these concepts apart from divine enlightenment. And we may often strive against the wicked one in our own strength. But such striving will result in certain defeat, not in strength or in overcoming evil. We overcome evil through the word of God. I believe the word of God here refers to Scripture. We will never grow beyond spiritual infants, deformed and stunted in our growth, unless we devote major efforts and time in study of Scripture. No believer can grow beyond the maturity of his knowledge of Scripture. We cannot claim growth or spiritual insight based on well-rehearsed clichés. They only reflect a good memory. But when we sweat over Scripture, devoting arduous hours of study and research into its teachings we will begin to build the foundation for true spiritual maturity and growth into what John here refers to as being strong and (even as) the word of God abides in you. In other words our strength against the wicked one grows or diminishes in direct proportion to our knowledge of the Word of Scripture.
Further in this context strength derived from Scripture grows out of intimate and experiential knowledge of the Word, not out of mere memorization of the words. Consider Jesus as our example. When confronted by satan in the wilderness temptation, why did He select the Scriptures He used to answer and to thwart the tempter's enticements? Why not use other Scriptures? How did He use the Scriptures He called forth in answer to the tempter? What was the point, the interpretation, He drew from those passages that made them effective in defeating the wicked one? He could have well memorized the whole of the first five books of the Old Testament and had no such skill in handling Scripture. His selection and His use of those particular passages reveal that He had spent long thinking hours, days, even years, reflecting on and studying Scripture. In this He serves as our example. Easy answers and simple clichés will not turn the wicked one away when he assaults your mind. They will not still his voice when he approaches you in the subtle garb of error, such as the Docetic heresy with which John dealt throughout this letter. The tools to overcome grow out of long thoughtful investigation into the teaching of Scripture.
Through over forty years of preaching, I have observed a frequent failure among otherwise sincere believers. When they first came to the knowledge of Christ and His truth, they were full of zeal and spent healthy blocks of time studying Scripture. After a few years they apparently decided they knew as much Scripture as they needed to know. At that stage their Bibles gathered more dust on the coffee table than sweat from their studious brow. They knowledge soon stagnated, as did their discipleship. Oh, they may well know enough not to fall prey to major heretical teachings, but they often fall prey to satan's subtleties. This slothful neglect of Scripture leaves them vulnerable to the deceit of the greatest of all deceivers. It also leaves them vulnerable to frequent bouts with bitterness and an angry spirit, for they know enough of Scripture to know God's power. But they also know enough to know they are not living it or experiencing it. They want the blessing but not the labor to obtain the blessing. Jacob must wrestle with the angel all night long for the release of the blessing. Too many believers in this category want the blessing, but they have no intent on losing a night's sleep to obtain it. Much less are they willing to wrestle with God for the release of blessing. In their minds the only blessing worth having is the manna blessing, the one you wake up and stroll out in the morning to gather. God gave manna at a particular time, and He limited the time of this blessing. If you play the type and shadow game, manna served the people during their wilderness sojourn. But when they reached the borders of Canaan, the manna ceased and God commanded them to work the land of Canaan for their food.
In your own words write a description of these collective traits, linking them with the three categories, little children, fathers and young men. Translate these traits into the kind of person they would describe in your neighborhood, in your family and in your church. Then compare yourself with that model. Do you fall short? Don't complain and confess. Neither of these activities will alter your spiritual maturity unless accompanied by a significant transformation in your conduct. Is God worth your investment? Let the work begin, but keep God at the center.
1Jo 2:15-17 - Love Identifies the Person