I am writing to you, little children,
1 John 2:12-14
because your sins are forgiven for his name’s sake.
13 I am writing to you, fathers,
because you know him who is from the beginning.
I am writing to you, young men,
because you have overcome the evil one.
I write to you, children,
because you know the Father.
14 I write to you, fathers,
because you know him who is from the beginning.
I write to you, young men,
because you are strong,
and the word of God abides in you,
and you have overcome the evil one.
Regardless of how long one has been a believer in Jesus, there is always more to know, to grow, and to mature in intimacy with God.
In this, John’s first letter, he structures it unconventionally. John places his greeting about halfway through the letter instead of at the beginning. He addresses three different groups of people: children, young men, and fathers.
John says he is writing to the little children because their sins have been forgiven on account of his name. This is the most basic level of the faith, the forgiveness of sins. One can know the forgiveness of their sins without knowing much else about God or the gospel. Consider the man on the cross to whom Jesus said, “Today you will be with me in paradise.” How much did he understand about Jesus besides that he was the man sent from God to save his people from their sins?
This presents an excellent question to ponder. How much knowledge of the gospel does one have to have to be regenerated by the Holy Spirit? To be born again? As I read the accounts of people coming to faith in the gospels and Acts, in some cases, the new disciple has very little doctrinal knowledge of God and his gospel. In other cases, the new believer is well-read in the Word of God. From this, I take it that very little doctrinal knowledge is required. The convicting and regenerating work of the Holy Spirit is what is essential.
I think back on my own experience. I had learned Sunday School stories, and so had some basic Bible knowledge. I did not, however, have knowledge of soteriology (the study of salvation). I did not understand penal substitutionary atoning sacrifice, for example. I did understand that Jesus loves me, and for me to be his, I needed to confess him. That was my five-year-old theology. It was enough to result in my being born again. Seventy-three years later, I have gone through the stage of being a child, a young man, and now a father in the faith.
John also credits children with knowing the Father. Those who have come to faith as children of God, regardless of their chronological age, not only have the knowledge of their sins being forgiven, but they also have a personal relationship with the Father. There is an innate understanding, whether articulated or not, that they have been adopted into God’s family and now have a heavenly Father.
Who are the young men? Obviously, they are further down the road of maturity than the children. The Greek term translated as “young men” was used to describe the fourth stage of manhood by the Greeks. They understood it to refer to someone aged twenty-two through twenty-eight. Generally considered the strongest and most capable of doing battle as warriors. I take these terms, children, young men, and fathers, not literally but as spiritual descriptors indicating one’s spiritual maturity.
Young men are believers who have overcome the evil one, Satan and his demonic appointees, in their personal lives and possibly in assisting others to find freedom and deliverance from the evil one. They are identified as strong, and the word of God abides in them. One cannot be strong without abiding in God’s word. The two go together. It is this strength from God’s word abiding in a young man that enables him to overcome the evil one. These are the essentials of a victorious life.
Finally, John addresses the fathers who have known him who is from the beginning. This is different from knowing the Father. I believe this intimates a more thorough knowledge of the triune God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit: one God, three persons, one essence. To become a father in the faith, one must have a deeper understanding and experience of God than does a child or young man. Spiritual fathers have produced spiritual children (evangelized) and discipled them into young men in Christ. Finally, their kids have become spiritual fathers as well. There is a term for these kinds of people: they are disciple-makers.
One characteristic of spiritual fathers is humility. You can’t fake it until you make it. I occasionally joke about how humble I am, and I am so proud of my humility.
If you think you have humility, you probably don’t. Humbling ourselves is hard. Partly because we don’t know how to recognize it in ourselves. You can often recognize it in someone else. We can think we are humble. But are we really? What steps can one take to pursue humility? One suggestion: when you recognize pride, repent immediately. God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble.
“…It is good for the heart to be strengthened by grace…” Hebrews 13:9
