1 John : Day 4 : Two Digressions

Day Four: Two Digressions

I am writing to you, little children,
    because your sins are forgiven for his name's sake.
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.
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.

Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.  For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life—is not from the Father but is from the world.  And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever.

1 John 2:12-17 (ESV)

In this passage, John gets more into depth as to why he is writing this letter.  Verses 12 through 14 is actually spiritual encouragement to his readers.  In it we see three apparent groups of people; children, fathers, and young men.  Although these appear to be three separate groups, they are three names for the same group.  They are all children because their sins have been forgiven and now they all have the same Father.  They are all fathers because they have experienced the Father and can hand down this knowledge to future generations.  They are all young men because they have engaged in spiritual battle and they have grown in strength.  Now this does not just apply to men, this applies to women as well.  Even though as a church we have men as elders and believe that men should lead their families, this doesn’t mean that women are excluded from this text.  This text applies to both men and women.  

Ask yourself, how am I child of God?  How am I a father (or parent)?  How am I a young man (or woman) in this context?

Even though John is happy with his readers, he also gives a warning.  John tells us not to love the world or the things of this world.  The word for love here is agapaō, which means love in a moral or social sense.  But Jesus uses this same word in Matthew 5:44 when He tells us to love our enemies, so how do we reconcile to two commandments?  The word John uses for world is kosmos, which actually has a variety of meanings from the physical world to the people of the world.  It also has a definition that is figurative or moral.  So, John is not telling us not to love people, or not to honor the command to tend to the Earth, but to not love its morality.  Its morality has been tainted by sin.  We cannot love sin and God at the same time, we choose one over the other.  To love the world’s morality, possessions, and everything else it has to offer is to love some that is temporary.  Even though the Earth has been around for thousands of years, it is still temporary, but God is eternal