1 John 2:12-14

Testimony to the reality of their religion; addressed to the church generally, and specially under two aspects.

1 John 2:12-13. I write unto you, little children, because your sins are forgiven you for his name's sake. The apostle, in the act of writing the Epistle, now ceases to distinguish between true and false Christians; he affectionately uses the same appellation which he had used in the first verse when pointing his readers to the intercession and atonement of Jesus Christ; and, taking up again that truth, says that he wrote to them with the confidence that for the sake of His name, on the ground of His finished work on earth and presentation of His Person in heaven, they had the forgiveness of their sins. ‘For My name's sake' in the Old Testament becomes now ‘for His name's sake;' but it occurs only here, and is parallel with St. Paul's ‘God for Christ's sake,' or ‘in Christ hath forgiven you.' This confidence is expressed here first simply as the utterance of joyful congratulation.

Continuing the same strain, St. John, to whom all were ‘little children,' regards them as divided among themselves into two classes: the more mature, whom he congratulates on that spiritual knowledge of which he had spoken in 1 John 2:3: I write unto you, fathers, because ye know him that was from the beginning: ‘that which was' in chap. 1 John 1:1 becomes here ‘Him that was;' that is, the same Jesus through whose name they were all forgiven was, in His Divine Person as the ultimate secret of the virtue of His atonement, fully revealed to them in the faith which they had received and studied and continued to know. This was true concerning all; but it was the special characteristic of the more advanced. The same may be said of the next clause. I write unto you, young men, because ye have overcome the evil one. The head of the kingdom of darkness, alluded to in 1 John 2:8, in whom ‘the whole world lieth' (chap. 1 John 5:19), elsewhere ‘the Prince of this world' (John 12:31), had been overcome by all the ‘little children;' but the struggle in the case of the fathers had issued in the calm certitude of ‘the full assurance of understanding' (Colossians 2:2), while in the young men it was a confident but recent victory. Let it be observed, be-fore proceeding, that hitherto the church had been addressed as children by regeneration; in what follows they are rather children by adoption. Hitherto the Divine Son has been pre eminent: His name, His eternal personality, His opposition to the wicked one. Communion with Him has been chiefly in the apostle's thoughts.

1 John 2:13-14. Here the apostle takes up again the strain which had been suspended, if not actually, yet in thought. The word ‘I write' is changed for ‘I wrote:' first, because the three great principles dwelt on redemption from sin and from the world's ruler by knowledge of God are absolutely fundamental, and must be repeated emphatically; secondly, because the writer sees fit to regard his Epistle as now in the hands of the readers, and ‘I wrote what I am now writing' becomes simple enough; thirdly, because he is about to commence two solemn exhortations for which he would doubly prepare them.

I have written unto you, children or sons of God, because ye know the Father. ‘Sons,' the new designation, corresponds here with ‘the Father.' The Father becomes now pre-eminent, and fellowship with Him through the Son. Forgiveness is connected with regeneration in the Son; as it respects the Father, it is the knowing His fatherly name, and we ‘are called the children of God: ‘in the order of thought this is preceded by the knowledge of the ‘name' of the Son. I write to you, fathers, because ye know him that is from the beginning. This exact repetition is very impressive. To the mature the apostle has nothing to add, for to know Christ is to have all knowledge; through it the Father is known, on the one hand, and the enemy is overcome, on the other.

I write to you, young men, because ye are strong, and the word of God abideth in you, and ye have overcome the evil one. Re-writing what went before, the apostle reminds the young men both of their strength and of the source of it. They were strong or ‘valiant in fight' (Hebrews 11:34), having ‘waxed' or become such through constant victory; not, however, in their own power, but through ‘Him that strengthened' them, who Himself through His word was the in-dwelling and abiding source of their conquest ‘Greater is He that is in you than he that is in the world' (chap. 1 John 4:4): hence it is difficult to decide whether the personal Logos is here meant or His living word, ‘the sword of the Spirit:' certainly not one without the other, though the former use of the phrase suggests that the living Gospel is signified here. Note with what emphasis the last clause is repeated. He who has entered into fellowship with the Son has an abiding victory over the enemy, and this conscious experience of triumph over him, not only in particular assaults but over him, the conqueror has only to maintain by ‘keeping himself' so that the enemy may approach, but touch him not (chap. 1 John 5:18). This is not a promise only, nor an exhortation, but the present reality of the healthy Christian life.