The “fathers” are they who “have known Him that is from the beginning.” They abide in “the doctrine of Christ,” having “both the Father and the Son.” The unction is powerful in them, if I may so express it. They have listened, as it were, with deep attention of soul, to the declaration of the Father by the Son (John 1:18). Having seen the Son, they had seen the Father (John 14:7-11). They keep the words of the Son, and of the Father (John 14:21-23). They know that the Son is in the Father, they in the Son, and the Son in them. They are not orphans. (John 14:18-20.)
The “young men” are they who “have overcome the wicked one,” that wicked one who animates the world with the denial of the mystery of the Christ (1 John 5:1-6). But they are not in the full settled power of that mystery, as the “fathers” are, and they need exhortation; so that the apostle goes on to warn them against all that belongs to the world, as they had already stood in victory over that spirit in it which was gainsaying Christ.
The “little children” are they who “have known the Father.” But they are only “little children,” and need warning, teaching, and exhorting. Their knowledge of the Father was somewhat immature; not so connected with the knowledge of the Son, of “Him that is from the beginning,” as was that of the “fathers.” He, therefore, warns them of antichrists, describing them as set against “the truth,” or “the doctrine of Christ.” He teaches them that “whosoever denieth the Son, the same hath not the Father”; that if the anointing they have received abide in them, they will surely abide in the Son and in the Father; and that the house of God was of such a character as that none who savored not of such anointing could remain there. He reminds them that the promise which the Son has promised, is eternal life. And, finally, he exhorts them so to abide in what the “unction” teaches, that they may not be ashamed in the day of the Son’s appearing.