1 John 2:13

I write unto you, fathers,.... Not merely in age, though they might be men in years who are here intended, or only with respect to their long standing in the church, which might be the case; though

I write unto you, fathers, because ye have known him that is from the beginning. I write unto you, young men, because ye have overcome the wicked one. I write unto you, little children, because ye have known the Father.

Unto fathers, because to such belong much experience, and the knowledge of ancient things, he ascribeth the knowledge of him who is the Ancient of days, from the beginning, and than whom none is more ancient, and whom they should be supposed so well to know by their long continued course in religion, as fully to understand his good and acceptable will, what would be pleasing and what displeasing to him. I write unto you, young men, because ye have overcome the wicked one: to such as were in the flower of their strength and age in Christianity, he attributeth victory; to whom therefore it would be inglorious to slur the honour of that noble conquest they had gained over the wicked one, the god of this world, as he is elsewhere called, , by suffering themselves again to be entangled in its snares and bands. His method is, we see, to place this order of Christians last, as a middle state, which he would have us conceive afterwards to be interposed between the other two; which method we find he observes in going over them again the second time. I write unto you, little children, because ye have known the Father: he again first begins with his little children, whom he now bespeaks by another compellation in the Greek, (before teknia, now paidia), importing no material difference, except this latter signify more capacity of instruction; and he now also gives them another character, which implies so much, that he not only considers them as the passive subjects of a privilege, remission of sins, which they were capable of in the first moment of their being born into the Christian state, (as the word teknia, above, seems to intimate), but as being able to use their understanding, and consider whose children they were, because ye have known the Father; before said also of the eldest sort of Christians; but he is there mentioned by a description more suitable to their more aged state; and therefore the knowledge ascribed to the one, and to the other, though the same in kind, must, in respect of degrees, be accommodately understood.

13 I write unto you, fathers, because ye have known him that is from the beginning. I write unto you, young men, because ye have overcome the wicked one. I write unto you, little children, because ye have known the Father. Ver. 13. Him that is from the beginning] The Ancient of days. Old men love to speak of ancient things. These are ancient things, 1 Chronicles 4:22. You know him with a knowledge of acquaintance; you have had much familiarity and intercourse with him, you are not far from knowing even as also you are known, 1 Corinthians 13:12. To this pitch of perfection all God’ s people must aspire, as all men do follow after old age. Because ye have overcome the wicked one] "The glory of young men is their strength," Proverbs 20:29. The Hebrew word there rendered young men, signifieth choice men, sc. for military employments; neither can they better show their valour than by resisting the devil, that he may flee from them. Weak grace may evidence pardon of sin; but it is strong grace that can overcome the temptations of Satan. Because ye have known the Father] We say, He is a wise child that knows his father (and the Greeks have a proverb to the same purpose, Hom. Od.); but God hath no child so young that more or less knoweth him not. The bastardly brood of Rome are all for their mother.

(7) THE THINGS THEY MUST NOT LOVE IF THEY WALKED IN THE LIGHT (1 John 2:12-17).—The solemnity of the thoughts of 1 John 2:9; 1 John 2:11 is too much for the warm heart of the Apostle. He cannot bear even to seem to suggest that his “dear little children” are shrouded in the gloomy horrors of moral darkness, haunted by the faithful memories of their sins, and enticed hither and thither by the malevolent spirits of evil. He will warn them with the most tender and pitiful affection against the wicked one, the world, the flesh, the follies and vanities of the human heart; but first he will show them frankly what he thinks of them, what he hopes of them, the trust he places in them, the grounds which he takes for granted in writing to them. (12) I write unto you, little children.—The arrangement of these triplets should be prefaced by saying that the last “I write,” in 1 John 2:13, is, according to the best reading, “I wrote,” or “I have written;” and that the “little children” of 1 John 2:12 is the same word as that which he used in 1 John 2:1 for the whole class of his readers, and is therefore quite general, but that the “little children” of 1 John 2:13 is a different, word, meaning children in age. So we get:— I write.I wrote.. All readers.1. Children in age. [Suggested, according to the perfect simplicity of St. John’s style, by the term used in the first set for his readers generally.]. Fathers.2. Fathers.. Youths.3. Youths.Reasons.. Forgiveness.1. Knowledge of the Father.. Knowledge of Christ. 2. Knowledge of Christ.. Victory.3. Strength, perseverance, victory.Some have thought the second triplet an explanatory note that has crept into the text; others that “I write refers to what he is doing at the moment, “I wrote” the view they would take when they read what he had written. It seems better, however, if we allow the Gospel to have been written first, to refer “I am writing” to the Epistle; “I did write” to the Gospel. Because your sins are forgiven you for his name’s sake.—Rather, have been forgiven. When Christ expired on the cross, the sins of all were forgiven who should in after-time believe and carry on their repentance towards perfection. The process is realised in the soul when it wakes up to a sense of love of the Saviour through faith. (13) Fathers.—The heads of families. Him that is from the beginning.—There can be little doubt that this means the same Person as the subject of “His name’s sake.” (Comp. John 1:1; John 8:58; John 17:5; Knowledge of Christ is assigned in both cases as the reason for addressing the elder members of his audience, because fully to understand the work, the doctrine, the example of Christ, is a work fitted for mature thought. (Comp.

Verse 13. I write unto you, fathers] By fathers it is very likely that the apostle means persons who had embraced Christianity on its first promulgation in Judea and in the Lesser Asia, some of them had probably seen Christ in the flesh; for this appears to be what is meant by, Ye have known him from the beginning. These were the elders and eye witnesses, who were of the longest standing in the Church, and well established in the truths of the Gospel, and in Christian experience. But τοναπαρχης, him who is from the beginning, may mean Jesus Christ in the eternity of his nature, see John 1:1-2; but the sense is the same. I write unto you, young men] These were confirmed disciples of Christ; persons who were well-grounded in the truth, had been thoroughly exercised in the Christian warfare, were no longer agitated by doubts and fears, but had arrived at the abiding testimony of the Spirit of God in their consciences; hence they are said to have overcome the wicked one, 1 John 2:14. They were persons in the prime of life, and in the zenith of their faith and love. I write unto you, little children] παιδια, a very different term from that used in the 12th verse 1 John 2:12, τεκνια, which means beloved children, as we have already seen. This is another class, and their state is differently described: Ye have known the Father. If the apostle does not use these two words indifferently, four states instead of three, are here described:- 1. FATHERS, πατερες. those who had been converted at the very commencement of Christianity, and had seen the eternal Word manifested in the flesh. 2. YOUNG MEN, νεανισκοι. youths in the prime of their spiritual life, valiant soldiers, fighting under the banner of Christ, who had confounded Satan in his wiles, and overcome him by the blood of the Lamb. 3. LITTLE CHILDREN, παιδια. disciples of Christ, not of very long standing in the Church, nor of much experience, but who had known the Father; i.e. persons who had been made sons: God had sent the Spirit of his Son into their hearts, whereby they cried Abba, Father! 4. BELOVED CHILDREN, τεκνια. the most recent converts, and particularly those among young men and women who, from their youth, simplicity, openheartedness, and affectionate attachment to God and his cause, were peculiarly dear to this aged apostle of Jesus Christ. These are represented as having their sins forgiven them on account of his name, διατοονομααυτου, that is, for the sake of Jesus, or on account of his merit or worthiness. These four classes constituted the household or family of God; each class, in ascending gradation, seems to have had more light, experience, and holiness than the other. 1. The τεκνια, beloved children, or infants, are those who are just born into the heavenly family. 2. The παιδια, little children, are those who are able to walk and speak; they know their heavenly Father, and can call him by that name. 3.

13. fathers] The older men among his readers: comp. Judges 17:10; Judges 18:19; 2 Kings 2:12; 2 Kings 6:21; 2 Kings 13:14. The address stands alone in N. T. The nearest approaches to it are Ephesians 6:4 and Colossians 3:21, where the actual fathers of children are addressed. S. Augustine thinks that all the readers are included throughout. Christians from one point of view are children, from another young men, and from another old men. This is possible, but it ignores the order in which the three groups are ranged. Comp. Titus 2:1-8, where S. Paul in like manner gives directions as to the exhortations suitable for Christians of different ages.ye have known] Rather, ye know: ‘ye have come to know and therefore know’, as in 1 John 2:3. The word expresses the result of progressive experience, and is therefore very suitable to the knowledge possessed by the old.Him which is from the beginning] Christ, not the Father, as is plain from the opening words of the Epistle. Moreover, S. John never speaks of the First Person of the Godhead under any designation but ‘God’ or ‘the Father’. By the knowledge which these older Christians had come to possess of Christ is certainly not meant having seen Him in the flesh. Very few of S. John’s readers could have done that; and if they had, S. John would not have attached any moral or spiritual value to the fact. Besides which to express this we should expect ‘ye have seen Jesus Christ’, rather than ‘ye have come to know Him that was from the beginning’.young men] The younger among his readers, men in the prime of life.ye have overcome] Comp. John 16:33. Throughout both Gospel and Epistle S. John regards eternal life as a prize already won by the believer (John 3:36; John 5:24; John 6:47; John 6:54; John 17:3): the contest is not to gain, but to retain. We have perfects in each case (‘have been forgiven’, ‘have come to know’, ‘have overcome’), expressing, as so frequently in S. John, the abiding result of past action. He bases his appeals to the young on the victory which their strength has gained, just as he bases his appeals to the old on the knowledge which their experience has gained.the wicked one] It is important to have a uniform rendering for the word here used (πονηρός), respecting which there has been so much controversy with regard to the last petition in the Lord’s Prayer. The A. V., following earlier Versions, wavers between ‘wicked’ and ‘evil’, even in the same verse (1 John 3:12). ‘Evil’ is to be preferred throughout. Almost all are agreed that the evil one here means the devil, although the Genevan Version has ‘the evil man’, as in Matthew 12:35. Wiclif, Tyndale, and Cranmer supply neither ‘man’ nor ‘one’, but write ‘the wicked’ or ‘that wicked.’ ‘The wicked’ in English would inevitably be understood as plural. For this name for Satan comp.

I write unto you, fathers - As there were special reasons for writing to children, so there were also for writing to those who were more mature in life.