1 John, Part 4: The Three Stages of Faith

1 John 2:12-14

We are in week four of our sermon series on 1 John. To review, so far John has explained that in order to join in the fellowship and joy that he has with the Lord and with fellow Christians, we must walk as Jesus walked, obeying His commands, loving one another as He has loved us. John also reminded his readers that if we sin, we have an advocate in Jesus, who will forgive us and cleanse us of our sins. Because of Jesus’ sacrifice for our sins, no longer do we have to walk in darkness; we can walk in the light as He is in the light, having fellowship with Him and with one another.

Throughout his letter, John illustrates what loving one another looks like. First, we can see the care and love he has for those he’s writing to. For example, in 1 John 2:7, he says, “Beloved, I am not writing to you a new commandment, but an old one, which you have had from the beginning.” Six different times, he starts sentences by saying, “Beloved.” He wouldn’t use that affectionate term unless that was truly in his heart. He’s setting the tone, and it’s one of care and concern, motivated entirely by love.

The other term he uses a lot is “my little children.” In 1 John 2:1, he begins by saying, “My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you will not sin.” As it’s generally understood, John is quite old when he writes this letter, but these “little children” are not his actual offspring. He’s using this term as an elder in the faith, and he’s writing from the perspective of a loving father hoping to encourage his beloved family of God to follow Jesus. It’s important to note this, for it greatly affects how we interpret not only the verses we will be looking at today, but the whole letter.

Let’s read the three verses which are our text for today, 1 John 2:12-14 (BSB). It says:

12 I am writing to you, little children, because your sins have been forgiven through His name.

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 have written to you, children, because you know the Father.

14 I have written to you, fathers, because you know Him who is from the beginning. 

I have written to you, young men, because you are strong, and the word of God abides in you, and you have overcome the evil one.

Before I explain the points John is making, I’d like to offer some insight into the terms he’s using. In last week’s sermon, I mentioned that “brother” is actually the Greek word “meno,” and it usually refers to both men and women because there is no gender-neutral word that means “siblings” in the Greek language.

In the same way that the term brother should not be understood to mean only male siblings, these instructions are not being given only to young men, actual fathers, or little children. Even though the words are father and young men, they should be understood to mean parents and young adults of both genders.

In addition to that, for someone to be included in either of those categories, a person need not be a literal parent or in their 20s. The same with the term little children. We shouldn’t think this refers to young kids, although it wouldn’t exclude them. Rather, I think each of these terms refer to people of varying degrees of maturity of faith.

After all, as we progress in our faith, we go through stages. When we first become believers, we are young in faith—we are like little children. Next, we begin to grow and move beyond the elementary teachings in Scripture—we are like young adults. Then, we are able to reproduce our faith and teach others—we are like parents. Our walk with the Lord is supposed to progress through stages of maturation. As 1 Peter 2:2 urges us, “Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation.”

So, with all of that in mind, let’s go through these three verses again, one at a time. Verse 12 says, “I am writing to you, little children, because your sins have been forgiven through His name.”

Earlier in this letter, 1 John 1:9 said, “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” Why do you think John suddenly points this out again?

Well, the first step in coming to faith in Jesus involves forgiveness, doesn’t it? This is part of the “elementary” teachings that the Book of Hebrews talks about. Hebrews 6:1 says, “Therefore let us leave the elementary teachings about Christ and go on to maturity, not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works, and of faith in God.” Those elementary teachings about Christ are how John started his letter. It’s not that we leave that behind in the sense that we forget about it, but rather, having learned it, we don’t need to learn it again. In fact, we should mature beyond it, in the sense that we don't stop there.

It’s like learning a language. We don’t keep reviewing the alphabet once we’ve mastered it—we begin reading and writing. We don’t need to learn the alphabet anymore.

But I wonder too if John doesn’t intend something even more in mentioning that their sins have been forgiven. John has been speaking about walking as Jesus walked. Well, it’s not easy to love the way that Jesus loved. The Cross is costly. Loving fellow Christians in theory is super easy, but loving them in practice is much more difficult. If you’ve ever tried to selflessly love someone, you probably found out pretty quickly that it’s easy to get hurt. Relationships require forgiveness. 

So, if we are going to love others the way Jesus loves us, we will need to forgive others. Obviously, the importance of forgiveness is a message that Jesus preached to His disciples, for we see them bringing up a key question about it. In Matthew 18:21-22, it says: “Then Peter came to Jesus and asked, ‘Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother who sins against me? Up to seven times?’ Jesus answered, ‘I tell you, not just seven times, but seventy-seven times!’” Then Jesus tells the Parable of the Unforgiving Servant who would not forgive his fellow servant who asked for forgiveness, even though he himself had been forgiven of the debt he owed. Luke 7:3-4 clarifies this principle even more and says: “Watch yourselves. If your brother sins, rebuke him; and if he repents, forgive him. Even if he sins against you seven times in a day, and seven times returns to say, ‘I repent,’ you must forgive him.”

Granted, John doesn’t expressly remind the “children” in this letter that they are to forgive because they have been forgiven, but I don’t think it’s reaching too far to make this application. After all, we are to forgive others because our “sins have been forgiven through His name.”

In the same way, if we know that we did something to offend a fellow Christian, Jesus tells us what we need to do. He says in Matthew 5:23-24, “So if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar. First go and be reconciled to your brother; then come and offer your gift.”  

This issue of forgiveness is foundational to maintaining fellowship with Him and fellow believers.

If this speaks to you, and the Holy Spirit has shown you someone you need to go to and ask for forgiveness from or if there is someone you’ve hardened your heart against and you need to forgive them, let me encourage you: don’t delay in making things right. Let us walk as Jesus walked and be willing to forgive.

Looking next at verse 13, John addresses parents, young people, and children again. He says: “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 have written to you, children, because you know the Father.”

I think of this verse as a stanza of poetry, made up of multiple lines. I’m not sure how exactly John wanted us to interpret this stanza, but some thoughts struck me while meditating on it, so I want to take it line by line. John began this letter by testifying, “That which was from the beginning…this is the Word of life.” (1 John 1:1).

Again, John seems to be referring to how he started, because he says, “I am writing to you, fathers, because you know Him who is from the beginning.” This “Him” who is from the beginning is Jesus Christ, who is the Word of life.

He’s the one we’re all supposed to imitate. In order to be a “father” in the sense that John seems to be using this term, we must have heard, seen and touched Jesus, just as we discovered in the beginning of this series. Because in order to imitate someone properly, you have to really know that person.

Now, as we all know, it’s easy to imitate a caricature of someone. I think that’s why there are people who haven’t truly met Jesus, yet they do some of the things Jesus told us to do—and it makes them seem like “good people” when they imitate Him.

But these “fathers” John is addressing, these people are the real deal. They have a personal relationship with Jesus. They know Him; Jesus has transformed them and made them new creations; they’ve grown and matured in their faith.

Then the next line in the stanza is, “I am writing to you, young men, because you have overcome the evil one.” To grow from children to young adults in our spiritual walk, part of that growth involves overcoming the devil—battles must be fought and won. It’s one of the steps we must hurdle to move from children in the faith to young people.

In the context of what John has been writing about, we know that the devil tries to keep us from loving our fellow Christians. He does that by amplifying divisions and creating disunity. We have to overcome the devil’s schemes in order to maintain fellowship with our brothers and sisters in Christ. It’s a constant battle, though—it’s not won after one fight.

Thankfully, God has given us everything we need to battle the evil one and win. Ephesians 6:11-12 says, “Put on the full armor of God, so that you can make your stand against the devil’s schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the power of this world’s darkness, and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.”  

It’s important to remember that these weapons are not given to us so we can battle people. Our battle is against the devil and his minions. As that verse said, our battle is against the darkness in the world.

John has been telling us to walk in the light. If we walk in darkness, then we cannot fight against the devil’s schemes, because if we walk in darkness, we are surrendering to the devil’s plans. These young people John is speaking to are those who’ve overcome the devil. These are the people who have put on the full armor of God.

This armor is available for all of us to put on so we too can defeat the enemy. Continuing in Ephesians 6:13-17, it says: “Therefore take up the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you will be able to stand your ground, and having done everything, to stand. Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness arrayed, and with your feet fitted with the readiness of the gospel of peace. In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. And take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.”

In order to grow and mature in our faith, we must do battle against the enemy, so do you think this is why there are a lot of Christians who are still very “young” in their faith? Is this why so many people give up and walk away from their faith? John speaks of this battle as a onetime event, and we will see what he means by that next week, but to walk as Jesus walked and mature in our faith, we must daily do battle against the enemy’s slings and arrows, and follow Jesus’ commandments to love one another.

Alexander MacLaren says about this verse in 1 John, that we shouldn’t think following Jesus’ commandments applies only to lofty or spiritual matters. He says, “Bring the laws of Jesus Christ down to the little things, for, in the name of common sense, if our religion is not meant to regulate trifles, what is it meant to regulate? Life is made up of trifles. There are half a dozen crises in the course of your life, but there are a thousand trivial things in the course of every day. It would be a poor kind of regulating principle that controlled the crises and left us alone to manage with the trifles the best way we could.”

I love what he said, because sometimes we might think that battling the devil is only necessary when faced with sinful temptations. Actually, battling the devil requires constant vigilance. It seems like his schemes are rarely full-on attacks; he’s prowling around looking for any opening, trying to wear us down with all the trifles of life’s annoyances. How do we respond? Are we still loving as Jesus loves us, even when we’re annoyed or tired?

As MacLaren wisely adds: “But in order that there shall be this continual operation of the motives and principles involved in the gospel upon our daily lives, we must have them very near our hand, ready to be laid hold of. The soldier that would march through an enemy’s country, having left his gun in the hands of some camp follower, would be very likely to be shot before he got his gun.”

It is the same thing with the armor of God. What good does it do us if we don’t put it on? We must put on truth, righteousness, peace, faith, and of course, salvation and God’s Word in order to “overcome the evil one” as these young people in the faith have done.

Then, once again addressing children, the last line in the stanza is, “I have written to you, children, because you know the Father.”

John has been using the Greek word paidion when referring to children. According to HELPS Word-studies, it means, “a child under training.” Earlier he said these paidions’ sins have been forgiven. Well, in order to know the Father, we must have our sins forgiven, mustn’t we? Jesus says in John 14:6-7, “Jesus answered, ‘I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me. If you had known Me, you would know My Father as well. From now on you do know Him and have seen Him.’”

These are the first steps in becoming a Christian: we believe in Jesus Christ, repent of our sins and receive forgiveness; then, we can approach the Father in confidence, having been made holy through Jesus’ redeeming blood.

Now, looking at verse 14, John says: “I have written to you, fathers, because you know Him who is from the beginning. I have written to you, young men, because you are strong, and the word of God abides in you, and you have overcome the evil one.”

In his book, The Early Christian Letters for Everyone, N. T. Wright made a comparison that I really appreciated. To paraphrase him, he said that if Paul’s writings are like a classic hymn and each verse a new thought, then John’s writings in this first epistle are like a modern praise song, repeating the same refrain over and over again.

I agree with that observation, because like a praise song, perhaps John wants this to really sink in, because he’s repeating almost all of what he’s already said. But he adds that the young men are “strong, and the word of God abides in you.”

The Word of God is the weapon He has given us to battle the evil one with, so their strength is in knowing God’s Word. As Ephesians said, the sword of the Spirit is the Word of God. That’s why it’s so important that we study and learn the Word. Without it, we are spiritually weak, still in an infancy of faith.

I really like what MacLaren also says about this: “Scripture, in its entirety, is a strange book to myriads of men who call themselves Christians. And so they are weak. If you want to be strong, ‘let the Word of God abide in your hearts.’”

The Word of God will remain a “strange book” to people until they make the effort required to understand it, but once they do, then they will begin to grow and mature into young adulthood.

As Hebrews 4:12 says: “For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it pierces even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow. It judges the thoughts and intentions of the heart.” It’s not enough to just read it, though. The Word of God must abide in our hearts if we want to mature.

John has used the word “abide” a few times, and as we will find out, he’s going to keep using it throughout this letter. So far, he’s said that if we want to abide in Jesus we must walk as He walked, and if we want to abide in the light, we must love our brothers and sisters in Christ. Now he’s adding that the way to be strong is by having the Word of God abide in our hearts.

Beloved family in Christ, we must learn and apply God’s Word in order for it to abide in our hearts. Pick it up, read it daily, spend time meditating on individual verses. Let it sink down deep in your heart and stay there, ready to be brought to mind. Because if it abides in you, then you will be strong. Then, when the enemy sends an arrow, you can take your shield of faith and deflect that arrow. You can cut down the evil one’s lies with God’s Word. And you can stand strong because you know God will help you because His Word says that He will. But if God’s Word doesn’t abide in you, then how can you wield it as a sword?  

As we’ve been looking at these three different stages of spiritual maturity, have you wondered where you fit in? Are you a little child—a child under training—still learning to read God’s Word and seek His help? Or are you a young adult, wielding the Word of God as a sword, having overcome the evil one? Or are you a parent, teaching and reproducing in others what you have come to live out in daily practice? Wherever you are in your walk with Jesus, know that it is a long process. None of us do this perfectly. That is why John was careful to start this section by reminding everyone of Jesus our advocate, who helps us follow Him and walk in the Light as He walks. The important thing is that you are growing.

Next week, we will answer the question: What is the battle that must be fought and won in order for us to grow in our faith? In the meantime, let us dig into God’s Word so it may abide in our hearts and help us mature in our faith.

Pray: Heavenly Father, we thank You and praise You that You loved us so much that You sent us Jesus to die on the Cross for us so we might know You. Thank You for making a way for us to stand confidently before You. Please help us by Your Holy Spirit to read and study Your Word so it may abide in our hearts and minds so we can wield it confidently against the devil’s lies. Please help us to grow and mature in our faith each day. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.