THE APOSTLE JOHN ON FORGIVENESS,
KNOWLEDGE AND STRENGTH
By Will Vaus
According to 1 John 2:7-14 the light shines in God’s commands and it shines in Christian love. Thirdly, John tells us the light shines in words of encouragement.
John speaks words of encouragement here, seemingly, to three different groups in the church: children, young men, and fathers. If we take these terms to refer to spiritual maturity, rather than chronological age, then John is speaking to new Christians, those who are still young in the faith, and to those who are mature in the faith.
In addition to addressing three groups, John reminds these three groups of three gifts God has given them: forgiveness, knowledge, and strength. However, here there is an overlap. God gives knowledge of himself both to the children and to the fathers, to new Christians and to the mature. This suggests that, in actuality, all three gifts are for all three groups. Each of us still has a place within us where we are children, where we are young men and women, and where we are mature fathers and mothers in the faith. Those of us who are older can probably all identify with the feeling of youth we still sometimes carry in our hearts. Furthermore, the young among us can often say the wisest things, things that belong to maturity.
Therefore, let us look more deeply at the three gifts that John reminds us of here, gifts that belong to all of us as followers of Christ….
First, there is forgiveness. “I write to you, dear children, because your sins have been forgiven on account of his name.” Forgiveness of sins comes through the name of Jesus.
To the Jews, a name was not something which one simply called another person; a name represented the character of that person. The psalmist says, “Those who know your name put their trust in you.” (Psalm 9:10) This does not mean that those who know the name of God, Yahweh, automatically trust in him. It means that those who have come to know God’s character in an intimate, relational way will put their trust in him, for they know by experience that he is trustworthy.
Therefore, when John says that our “sins have been forgiven on account of his name,” Jesus’ name, he means that when we know the character of Jesus, when we have experienced him, then we are assured of forgiveness because forgiveness and love are essential aspects of the character of Jesus.
The second gift John reminds us about is knowledge. “I write to you, fathers, because you have known him who is from the beginning…. I write to you, dear children, because you have known the Father.”
John may have been thinking about his own experience of growing knowledge of the Lord. He met Jesus for the first time as a very young man, maybe even a teenager. He was captivated by this Jesus…his healing, his teaching, his interaction with individual people, his love for everyone he met. Then, even after Jesus left his disciples, John thought about him over the years. How could he not when he was caring for Jesus’ mother Mary? John meditated on all the words and deeds of Jesus, and over the years, he began to see many layers of deeper meaning in it all. Now John was an old man, perhaps in his eighties or even older, and his knowledge of Jesus was still growing through the indwelling Holy Spirit. The same thing will be true for every follower of Jesus Christ. Our knowledge of him grows over the years.
Furthermore, it is not simply an intellectual knowledge of Jesus that grows in our minds; our personal acquaintance with Jesus and his ways grows in our hearts and in our souls.
The third gift John reminds us about is strength. “I write to you, young men, because you are strong, and the word of God lives in you, and you have overcome the evil one.”
God gives strength to every Christian through his word living in us. When we think of God’s word living in us, we may think of Jesus whom John calls the Word in the prologue to his Gospel. Jesus, the Word, lives in us through his Holy Spirit. This process of Jesus living and growing in us is also aided by our reading, our hearing and our application of God’s word in Scripture. That was how Jesus himself conquered the evil one. Jesus met every temptation in the wilderness by saying to Satan, “It is written….” We can meet and conquer Satan in the same way.
These are three great words of encouragement John gives to us: you are forgiven, you know the Lord, and you are strong and can overcome the evil one by the power of God’s indwelling word.
* An extract, with the author's permission, from the book God’s Love Letter: Reflections on 1 John by Will Vaus.
KNOWLEDGE AND STRENGTH
By Will Vaus
According to 1 John 2:7-14 the light shines in God’s commands and it shines in Christian love. Thirdly, John tells us the light shines in words of encouragement.
John speaks words of encouragement here, seemingly, to three different groups in the church: children, young men, and fathers. If we take these terms to refer to spiritual maturity, rather than chronological age, then John is speaking to new Christians, those who are still young in the faith, and to those who are mature in the faith.
In addition to addressing three groups, John reminds these three groups of three gifts God has given them: forgiveness, knowledge, and strength. However, here there is an overlap. God gives knowledge of himself both to the children and to the fathers, to new Christians and to the mature. This suggests that, in actuality, all three gifts are for all three groups. Each of us still has a place within us where we are children, where we are young men and women, and where we are mature fathers and mothers in the faith. Those of us who are older can probably all identify with the feeling of youth we still sometimes carry in our hearts. Furthermore, the young among us can often say the wisest things, things that belong to maturity.
Therefore, let us look more deeply at the three gifts that John reminds us of here, gifts that belong to all of us as followers of Christ….
First, there is forgiveness. “I write to you, dear children, because your sins have been forgiven on account of his name.” Forgiveness of sins comes through the name of Jesus.
To the Jews, a name was not something which one simply called another person; a name represented the character of that person. The psalmist says, “Those who know your name put their trust in you.” (Psalm 9:10) This does not mean that those who know the name of God, Yahweh, automatically trust in him. It means that those who have come to know God’s character in an intimate, relational way will put their trust in him, for they know by experience that he is trustworthy.
Therefore, when John says that our “sins have been forgiven on account of his name,” Jesus’ name, he means that when we know the character of Jesus, when we have experienced him, then we are assured of forgiveness because forgiveness and love are essential aspects of the character of Jesus.
The second gift John reminds us about is knowledge. “I write to you, fathers, because you have known him who is from the beginning…. I write to you, dear children, because you have known the Father.”
John may have been thinking about his own experience of growing knowledge of the Lord. He met Jesus for the first time as a very young man, maybe even a teenager. He was captivated by this Jesus…his healing, his teaching, his interaction with individual people, his love for everyone he met. Then, even after Jesus left his disciples, John thought about him over the years. How could he not when he was caring for Jesus’ mother Mary? John meditated on all the words and deeds of Jesus, and over the years, he began to see many layers of deeper meaning in it all. Now John was an old man, perhaps in his eighties or even older, and his knowledge of Jesus was still growing through the indwelling Holy Spirit. The same thing will be true for every follower of Jesus Christ. Our knowledge of him grows over the years.
Furthermore, it is not simply an intellectual knowledge of Jesus that grows in our minds; our personal acquaintance with Jesus and his ways grows in our hearts and in our souls.
The third gift John reminds us about is strength. “I write to you, young men, because you are strong, and the word of God lives in you, and you have overcome the evil one.”
God gives strength to every Christian through his word living in us. When we think of God’s word living in us, we may think of Jesus whom John calls the Word in the prologue to his Gospel. Jesus, the Word, lives in us through his Holy Spirit. This process of Jesus living and growing in us is also aided by our reading, our hearing and our application of God’s word in Scripture. That was how Jesus himself conquered the evil one. Jesus met every temptation in the wilderness by saying to Satan, “It is written….” We can meet and conquer Satan in the same way.
These are three great words of encouragement John gives to us: you are forgiven, you know the Lord, and you are strong and can overcome the evil one by the power of God’s indwelling word.
* An extract, with the author's permission, from the book God’s Love Letter: Reflections on 1 John by Will Vaus.