The family of God is one—one of necessity, because every member of it possesses the same nature and the same life, and so perfectly one is it in this way that the Lord desired this oneness to be expressed in this world. He says, “Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on Me through their word; that they all may be one; as Thou, Father, art in Me, and I in Thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that Thou hast sent Me” (John 17:20-21). This prayer moreover (for it could not be otherwise) was distinctly answered. In the early days of the Pentecostal Church we read, “The multitude of them that believed were of one heart and of one soul” (Acts 4:32); and in connection with this exhibition of the oneness of the family of God, the apostles with great power gave witness of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. Power went forth with their testimony, convincing the world that Christ had been sent of God. The manifestation of the unity of the whole Church soon passed away, and will never be seen again in this world. But, spite of this, every instructed believer must hold fast the precious truth that the family of God is one, and that the hearts of the children of God must never move in a narrower circle than the heart of the Father Himself As John writes, “Every one that loveth Him that begat, loveth Him also that is begotten of Him.” But that there may be no mistake, and in order to show the holiness of the love that is to be expressed, as well as the channel through which it is to flow, he adds, “By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God, and keep His commandments” (1 John 5:1-2). While therefore joyfully remembering that all who are dear to the heart of the Father must also, by virtue of our common relationship, be dear to us, we must at the same time not forget that the Father Himself must have the first place in our affections, and that true divine love for His children can only flow out when we are in obedience to His word. The love must ever be in our hearts, but the expression of it must be according to God. These two things must never be confounded.
The unity of the family must then be always asserted; and it is in nowise inconsistent with it that the Apostle John gives a threefold division of it; for the classes into which he groups the children of God are expressive only of state or attainment. Just as in a human family grades are found of growth or knowledge, so in the family of God. “There are,” John tells us, “fathers, young men, and little children or babes.” But before he takes up these separate classes he addresses the whole, and gives what is characteristic of all the family. “I write unto you, little children, because your sins are forgiven you for His name’s sake.” The term little children in this verse is not the same as that so translated in the next. If we say “children” in verse 12 as including the whole family, we may keep the term “little children” in the 13th as marking out a special class.
The divine characteristic, then, of every child of God is, that his sins are forgiven. It should be borne in mind, as we may yet see, that no such thing is contemplated in the Scripture as a child of God without the Spirit of adoption, and then, since we pointed out in the last chapter the ground on which God bestows the Spirit, this characteristic will at once be understood. Every child of God therefore—that is every child of God who can cry, “Abba, Father”—enjoys the forgiveness of sins, and the name of Christ is the foundation on which this unspeakable blessing has been received. “Your sins are forgiven you,” says John, “for His name’s sake.” This is the divine testimony, and a testimony based upon the value of the name of Christ before God, upon all the value of what Christ is in virtue of His death and resurrection. The forgiveness of sins therefore which God would have His children enjoy is both divine and eternal—divine in its character, and eternal in its duration. Yes, it belongs to the efficacy of the precious blood of Christ, that when our sins are forgiven, they are forgiven forever. Do you say, But such has not been my thought? Search the Scriptures, and see whether it is not God’s thought, and if it is His thought, it may well become ours. Faith, indeed, consists in our receiving God’s thoughts, and resting in them instead of our own, and thus believing we can rejoice in the fullest import of this message of the apostle—“Your sins are forgiven you for His name’s sake.” Does another say, “But do I not need the cleansing blood every day?” That we sin every day is, alas! true, though it should ever be remembered that there is no necessity for the believer to sin. “These things,” says John, “write I unto you, that ye sin not.” But such is our state that, as a matter of fact, we do sin every day, and hence, pointing out God’s gracious provision for our unworthy failures, he adds, “If any man sin, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous: and He is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the whole world” (1 John 2:1-2).
The truth then is, that once cleansed from the guilt of sin we are cleansed forever. “By one offering He hath perfected forever them that are sanctified” (Heb. 10:14). On the ground of the efficacy of that one perfect sacrifice, God in His grace not only forgives our sins, but He never more imputes guilt to the believer. He cannot tolerate sin in His people, and thus, if they sin, the Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous, undertakes their cause, on the foundation of His one perfect propitiation for their sins, prays for them, in response to which God, acting by His Spirit, brings home, through the instrumentality of the Word, the sin to their consciences, produces self-judgment and confession, and then, as the apostle also says, “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” Every believer is under the abiding efficacy of the precious blood, and as a consequence there is no further question of guilt But God will surely deal with His children in the way of chastisement if they sin, and continue in sin, with the object of humbling them in His presence, that they may tell out their sins before Him. Then they are washed by the water of the Word—by the action of the word of God upon their hearts and consciences —not cleansed by the blood, for that has been done once and for all, and cannot be repeated. It is therefore absolutely true, as stated in this scripture, that the sins of all the children of God are forgiven—forgiven for His (Christ’s) name’s sake, and forgiven eternally.
Having addressed the whole family, John next classifies the children under three denominations, fathers, young men, and little children or babes. He gives the characteristics of each, in the thirteenth verse, and then proceeds to give them counsels and admonitions. We may then look at these several classes as defined by the apostle (vss. 13-27).
(1.) The fathers. “I have written unto you, fathers, because ye have known Him that is from the beginning” (vs. 14). This term fathers marks out attainment, and that alone. It by no means therefore follows that “fathers” are old believers, though it will be generally true that the “fathers” will mainly be composed of such. Still, it is to be remembered that many old Christians—old in the sense of the length of time they have been believers—are yet but babes, while in some cases those who are comparatively young believers, may, from their rapid growth in grace and in the knowledge of the Lord Jesus, be found among the “fathers.” The important thing is to see that this class includes all, of whatever age, who are distinguished by the spiritual characteristic of knowing Him that is from the beginning.
“From the beginning” in John points out a very distinct epoch. It is not, as in his gospel, “in the beginning,” which dates from eternity itself, but from the beginning; that is, from the time Christ as the eternal life was introduced into this scene; for as soon as Christ was born into the world He was the second Man, though it is also true that He did not take the place of such until after the resurrection. Nor was He indeed in the condition of the second Man (as to circumstances) until after He had risen from the dead. “Him that is from the beginning” will therefore indicate Christ, Christ as He now is at the right hand of God, as the firstborn from the dead, and the beginning of the creation of God (Col. 1:18; Rev. 3:14). Together with the cross, and by means of the cross, God dosed up His relationship with Adam, the responsible man; and thereafter everything dates from the Man of His counsels, the ascended and glorified Christ Hence, according to the testimony of John, blood and water flowed out from the side of a dead Christ—the blood that expiated sin, and the water that cleanses or purifies—in token that life is not in the first but in the last Adam. Christ therefore is, as St Paul speaks, Himself our life, and He is on this account the true beginning, inasmuch as He is the firstborn from the dead.
To know Him that is from the beginning is thus to know Christ as He is, and where He is, as the eternal life “which was with the Father, and was manifested unto us,” as all that He now is in Himself, as the glorified Man at the right hand of God. But it is sometimes asked, “Do not all believers know Him?” This question does but ignore the truth of our passage. All believers more or less know Christ as their Saviour, and own Him as their Lord; but this is a far different thing from knowing Himself. To know Him in a special, in any, character, is blessed; but the knowledge of which the apostle here speaks embraces what He is, apart from any special presentation or character. For example, we who live in England may know the Queen as our sovereign without any personal acquaintance at all with her. Her children, on the other hand, while they do not forget that she is the sovereign, know her rather as what she is in herself—her mind, character, and ways. So the fathers here have risen beyond any character, office, or relationship which He may sustain towards them, and find their delight in Himself, in what He is, in all His moral beauties, perfections and excellencies.
And this, it must be distinctly observed, is the highest and last attainment to be made. There is nothing beyond. When converted, we are occupied mainly with the work of Christ and the grace of God; afterward we delight in truth; but finally, if we press on to the things that are before, Christ Himself absorbs our attention, and then only do we become “fathers,” in the meaning of the apostle. A remarkable exemplification of this statement may be adduced. Some time back it was our privilege to visit a saint in great bodily suffering. His hands and his face were alike distorted by the severity of his affliction. But though suffering most acutely when we saw him, and with scarcely any temporal comforts to alleviate his condition, he did not for one moment speak of himself or his pains. His conversation turned entirely on the Lord. In the course of our visit he used words to this effect, “For the first ten years of my Christian life I knew and enjoyed the efficacy of the precious blood of Christ. After that, the whole circle of Church truth dawned upon my soul, and, while I did not lose the blessedness of the value of the blood, the new truths that had been opened out to me formed the chief subject of my meditations. But now,” he said, “through the goodness of God, I have been introduced into another circle, where Christ Himself fills my vision. Not that,” he continued, “the other truths are less precious, only Christ Himself is more precious still, and I feel that now I want nothing beside. No,” he concluded, “it is Christ Himself now, and only Christ.” This saint of God was, as the reader will perceive, a true father, and his experience marks the order of Christian growth, and justifies the statement already made, that the knowledge of Christ Himself is the last attainment reached.
Another thing may be added. As it is the last attainment, so when this is possessed nothing more is needed, except indeed an ever fuller and increasing knowledge of the One we know. This is shown from the fact that when John turns to address the several classes, he has neither counsel, warning nor exhortation for the “fathers.” He simply repeats, “I have written unto you, fathers, because ye have known Him that is from the beginning” (vs. 14). This is easily understood. These “fathers” were wholly occupied with Christ Himself, and had therefore discovered the secret of all growth, progress, and safety. For conformity to Christ is produced, through the power of the Spirit, by the contemplation of Christ (2 Cor. 3:18). The one object of the Christian life is to learn more of Himself, and Satan cannot find entrance into a heart that is full of Christ. John therefore needed not to say anything to these; for, in fact, they wanted nothing. Take, for example, all the precepts of Scripture, and what are they? They are but the embodiment of some trait of Christ; and hence in knowing Him these “fathers” possessed all, or were at the source of all, that was necessary for their sustenance and growth in the divine life. If they needed encouragement, wisdom, guidance, consolation, or admonition—all this; yea, all the blessings secured for us in redemption, they possessed in the One they knew.
It may be that but few are really “fathers.” But the question for our souls is this, Shall we be content to be anything else? The child of today is the man and the father of the future. Should it not be the same with us spiritually? Alas! that so many of us are so dwarfed and stunted. The consequence is, that very many never pass beyond the stage of childhood. As we read in the epistle to the Hebrews, “When for the time ye ought to be teachers, ye have need that one teach you again which be the first principles of the oracles of God; and are become such as have need of milk, and not of strong meat” (vs. 12). But if we would know the full blessedness of the Christian life, or rather if we desire to learn more of the boundless treasures that are contained for us in Christ Himself, we must press on with full purpose of heart in the study of all the blessed unfoldings of His person, of His graces, beauties, and moral perfections which are contained in the word of God. If indeed we sit daily, like Mary, at the feet of the Lord, to hear His word, we shall be on the road to become “fathers” in the family of God.
(2.) Young men. This is the second class which John distinguishes amongst God’s children; and concerning these we have first their characteristics, and then the divine counsels addressed to them both for guidance and warning. In commencing his exhortation to them, the apostle repeats their special characteristic, and adds a clause which reveals to us the source of their strength—“The young men are strong; they have derived their strength from the word of God, and it has been exhibited in their victory over the wicked one.” (Compare verses 13-14.) These several points are of exceeding interest. But the fact of their being strong needs only to be mentioned; it is the source of their strength that contains instruction for us. Their strength, then, flowed from having the word of God abiding in them. It is this, indeed, which gives power in every direction—with God, before men, and, as here, in conflict with Satan.
What, then, is meant by having the Word abiding in them? Our blessed Lord has given us the clue when He says, “If ye abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you” (John 15:7). In this case it means no less than that His words should have found their home in our hearts, and in such a way as that they have formed our thoughts; yea, rather, because filling us with divine thoughts they have produced the mind of Christ in us, so that the very desires we utter in prayer are but the expression of His own mind and will. Hence He can say, “Ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you.” So with the “young men”; the word abiding in them indicates the word so treasured. up in their souls that it forms and governs the life, and is there in their possession always ready for use against the attacks of Satan.
“This is,” you may say, “the very thing we desire.” Many express the same thought. It should then be understood, that to have the word of God abiding in us involves labor. For example, if I but seldom read the Scriptures, and even then cursorily or hurriedly, it is impossible that I can have the word of God abiding in Me. No, this blessing can only be reached by reading, prayer, meditation, and the ministry of the Spirit. In this way the word that is written in the Bible is transferred to our hearts, is stored up there as a priceless treasure, and becomes the spring of all our thoughts, activities, and conflicts. We read that Israel in a later day will have God’s law put into their minds, and written in their hearts, and that then all will know the Lord from the least to the greatest (Heb. 8:10-11). They had always possessed the law in the tables of stone, but this gave them no power for obedience or conflict; but when it is engraven on their hearts everything is changed; they become faithful and strong in the ways of the Lord. In like manner, when we only possess the word of God in the Bible, it does not help us in our daily warfare; but the moment we have any part of it treasured up in the heart it becomes, as we have seen, the spring of life and power through the Spirit of God.
It was then through the word abiding in them that the “young men” overcame the wicked one, and this for a twofold reason. Treasuring up the word, they were in obedience to it, and Satan cannot touch the obedient believer. As long as he is kept in dependence and obedience all Satan’s assaults are foiled. And this same word, abiding in the heart, becomes the ready sword of the Spirit where—with to repel and put to flight the adversary of our souls. The Lord Himself is the perfect example of this, as of all else, in the temptation in the wilderness. Speaking in the Spirit in the Psalms, He says, “I delight to do Thy will, O My God: yea, Thy law is within My heart.” Led up of the Spirit into the wilderness, He was tempted of the devil; but to every temptation He replied, “It is written.” He used the word already abiding in His heart, and thus met every assault and confounded the adversary, who at last retired baffled and overcome. The instruction for us lies in this, that if the word is not beforehand in the soul it cannot be employed as a weapon for defense. How often have we had to confess, that had we remembered such and such a Scripture, we might have been saved from this mistake and that snare! It is therefore of the first importance that we should seek to have the word of God abiding in us. It is the only sword of the Spirit, and with no other weapon can the ceaseless assaults of Satan be repelled. If indeed we would be strong, “young men,” it is absolutely necessary, always necessary, but especially in a day like the present, when the very foundations of our faith are being assailed, to treasure up the living word of God in the inmost recesses of our hearts. The divine resource for us in such a state of things is to prize, meditate, and feed upon the sure word of God.
There is, however, a special danger to which the “young men” are exposed, and this forms the subject of the address to them. “Love not the world,” says the apostle, “neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth forever” (vss. 15-17). The world therefore is the one special danger, arising out of the character of their conflict, to which the “young men” are exposed. It was so with Samson, the Nazarite, and a “young man,” because of his strength through his separation unto the Lord, and not being drunk with wine, but filled with the Spirit. (Compare Num. 6; Eph. 5:18.) As such he became the special object of Satan’s enmity and assaults, and the temptation with which he succeeded in luring him to shame and disaster was one of the things in the world of which John speaks—the lust of the flesh.
There are two things pointed out—the world, and the things that are in the world. It is very important for us all that these should be understood. John uses the term “world” in a moral, not, it need scarcely be remarked, in a physical, sense; that is, not as the place in which we live, the created world, the earth, but as setting forth the whole system of things round about us, the world as organized by man, and controlled by Satan as its prince and god. (See John 12:31; John 14:30; 2 Cor. 4:4.) Cain was its originator, when he went out from the presence of the Lord, and built a city—the expression of organized society; and his descendants embellished the world which had thus been formed with arts and sciences, the object of which was to make man happy apart from God. The world is therefore always in antagonism to God; or, to speak according to the teaching of the New Testament Scriptures, to the Father. The flesh is in opposition to the Spirit, Satan to Christ, and the world to the Father. It is on this account that John says, “If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.” This does not mean that every one who loves the world is not a believer, but that such an one could not be in the enjoyment of the Father’s love. The Father indeed could not manifest His love to a lover of the world; for there is the most absolute contrariety between the world and the Father. This was shown out in the cross of Christ God demonstrated by that cross what man and what the world were. It was the world that crucified Christ. Satan succeeded in banding together against God’s only-begotten Son all ranks and classes of society. The whole world, Jew and Gentile, the religious and civil authorities, were united as one man to put Him to death; and thereby Satan demonstrated that he was the prince of this world. God now holds the world to be guilty of the death of His Son; and a child of God could not therefore love the world, and have in him at the same time the love of the Father. Nay, his only possible attitude towards it should be that of the Apostle Paul, as expressed in his words, “God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom” (or whereby) “the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world” (Gal. 6:14). All this is so plain and simple that no believer would question it; but who, at the same time, is there that cannot perceive the danger of us all from this source? Satan is very active, and our hearts are very subtle, so that worldliness, in some shape or form, finds an easy entrance amongst the children of God. We have need therefore to be always on the watch, and to remember these solemn words, that the love of the world absolutely excludes from the heart the love of the Father. What folly we are often guilty of! For the sake of a passing gratification we are content to forfeit the sweetest and most blessed enjoyment of the soul, to lose from our hearts that which gives perpetual sunshine, and ministers solace in every trouble and sorrow which can befall us in our wilderness path.
To guard against all misconception, the apostle speaks not only of the world, but also of the things that are in the world; and these are specified as the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life. That is, everything which the flesh can desire in any shape or form, all that may please the eye, everything the eye may covet or desire to possess, and also everything in which a man can take pride, which gives him importance in this world or exalts him amongst his fellowmen, whether it be rank, distinction, learning, strength, skill, or power— all, in a word, that ministers to man as man in this world. The “young” man is to eschew all these things, and will just in proportion as he understands their relation to a rejected Christ, and consequently to the Father and His love.
It will be seen, moreover, that the Spirit of God points out in this scripture the three avenues to our souls — the avenues through which Satan ever seeks to beguile us with his worldly fascinations and enchantments. These gateways should therefore be ever carefully guarded. It is easier to keep the enemy out than it is to expel him after he has effected an entrance. Just as Nehemiah after he had built the wall appointed watches of the inhabitants of Jerusalem, every one in his watch, and every one to be over against his own house to maintain the city in holy separation, so should we guard the portals of our souls against the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, in order to keep ourselves in the enjoyment of the Father’s love. To succeed in this, a walk in the presence of God, constant watchfullness and prayer in the power of the Holy Spirit, are absolutely requisite.
The apostle enforces his exhortation by an argument of another kind. “The world,” he says, “passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth forever.” He reminds us of the transient character of the world and its possessions in contrast with the perpetual duration, the immutable character, of all that attaches to God. Doing His will, we abide forever; for in His grace he has associated us with Himself, and with His beloved Son (1 John 1:3), and eternity therefore is our portion—an eternity of blessedness and joy. And the more we enter into this, the more our hearts comprehend the character of the place into which we have been brought and are possessed and controlled by the Father’s love, the more we shall be fortified against the allurements of the world, and perceive their utter vanity. “Every trace of Egypt,” says a well-known writer, “is a reproach to the believer.” This testimony is true, for Christ “gave Himself for our sins, that He might deliver us from this present evil world, according to the will of God and our Father” (Gal. 1:4).