Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of 1 John 2:14
I have written unto you, fathers, because ye have known him [that is] from the beginning. I have written unto you, young men, because ye are strong, and the word of God abideth in you, and ye have overcome the wicked one.
14. because ye are strong ] Strong in the spiritual warfare in which they have already won the victory: comp. Heb 11:34, where, however, ‘strong in war’ probably refers to actual warfare between the Jews and other nations.
the word of God abideth in you ] An echo of Joh 15:7. This is the secret of their strength and the source of their victory. They conquer because they are strong, and they are strong because God’s word is ever in their hearts. They have God’s will, especially as revealed in Scripture, and in particular in the Gospel, as a permanent power within them: hence the permanence of their victory. So long as they trust in this and not in themselves, and remember that their victory is not yet final, they may rejoice in the confidence which the consciousness of strength and of victory gives them.
It is plain from the context and from Joh 5:38; Joh 10:35; Joh 17:6; Joh 17:14; Rev 1:9; Rev 6:9, that ‘the word of God’ here does not mean the Word, the Son of God. S. John never uses the term ‘Word’ in this sense in the body either of his Gospel or of his Epistle, but only in the theological Introductions to each.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
I have written unto you, fathers, because … – The reason assigned here for writing to fathers is the same which is given in the previous verse. It would seem that, in respect to them, the apostle regarded this as a sufficient reason for writing to them, and only meant to enforce it by repeating it. The fact that they had through many years been acquainted with the doctrines and duties of the true religion, seemed to him a sufficient reason for writing to them, and for exhorting them to a steadfast adherence to those principles and duties.
I have written unto you, young men, because ye are strong … – The two additional circumstances which he here mentions as reasons for writing to young men are, that they are strong, and that the word of God abides in them. The first of these reasons is, that they were strong; that is, that they were qualified for active and useful service in the cause of the Redeemer. Children were yet too young and feeble to appeal to them by this motive, and the powers of the aged were exhausted; but those who were in the vigor of life might be called upon for active service in the cause of the Lord Jesus. The same appeal may be made now to the same class; and the fact that they are thus vigorous is a proper ground of exhortation, for the church needs their active services, and they are bound to devote their powers to the cause of truth. The other additional ground of appeal is, that the word of God abode in them; that is, that those of this class to whom he wrote had showed, perhaps in time of temptation, that they adhered firmly to the principles of religion. They had not flinched from an open defense of the truths of religion when assailed; they had not been seduced by the plausible arts of the advocates of error, but they had had strength to overcome the wicked one. The reason here for appealing to this class is, that in fact they had showed that they could be relied on, and it was proper to depend on them to advocate the great principles of Christianity.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 14. The word of God abideth in you] Ye have not only thoroughly known and digested the Divine doctrine, but your hearts are moulded into it; ye know it to be the truth of God from the power and happiness with which it inspires you, and from the constant abiding testimony of the Spirit of that truth which lives and witnesses wherever that truth lives and predominates.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
To the former sort he only repeateth what he had said before, supposing their greater wisdom to need no more; (see L. Brugens. Not. in Bibl. Sacr. of the insertion of this clause); only the repetition importeth his earnest desire they would again and again consider it. The other he also puts in mind of their active strength and vigour, and of the rootedness which the gospel must now be supposed to have in them, whereby they were enabled to
overcome the wicked one. And by all which endowments they were all both enabled and obliged to comport the better with the following precept, and its enforcements.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
14. young men . . . strongmadeso out of natural weakness, hence enabled to overcome“the strong man armed” through Him that is “stronger.”Faith is the victory that overcomes the world. This term “overcome”is peculiarly John’s, adopted from his loved Lord. It occurs sixteentimes in the Apocalypse, six times in the First Epistle, only thricein the rest of the New Testament. In order to overcome the world onthe ground, and in the strength, of the blood of the Saviour, we mustbe willing, like Christ, to part with whatever of the world belongsto us: whence immediately after “ye have overcome the wicked one(the prince of the world),” it is added, “Love not theworld, neither the things . . . in the world.”
and, c.the secret ofthe young men’s strength: the Gospel word, clothed withliving power by the Spirit who abideth permanently in themthis is “the sword of the Spirit” wielded in prayerfulwaiting on God. Contrast the mere physical strength of young men,Isa 40:30; Isa 40:31.Oral teaching prepared these youths for the profitable use ofthe word when written. “Antichrist cannot endangeryou (1Jo 2:18), nor Satan tearfrom you the word of God.”
the wicked onewho, as”prince of this world,” enthrals “the world”(1Jn 2:15-17; 1Jn 5:19,Greek, “the wicked one”), especially the young.Christ came to destroy this “prince of the world.”Believers achieve the first grand conquest over him when they passfrom darkness to light, but afterwards they need to maintain acontinual keeping of themselves from his assaults, looking toGod by whom alone they are kept safe. BENGELthinks John refers specially to the remarkable constancy exhibited byyouths in Domitian’s persecution. Also to the young man whom John,after his return from Patmos, led with gentle, loving persuasion torepentance. This youth had been commended to the overseers of theChurch by John, in one of his tours of superintendency, as apromising disciple; he had been, therefore, carefully watched up tobaptism. But afterwards relying too much on baptismal grace, hejoined evil associates, and fell from step to step down, till hebecame a captain of robbers. When John, some years after, revisitedthat Church and heard of the youth’s sad fall, he hastened to theretreat of the robbers, suffered himself to be seized and taken intothe captain’s presence. The youth, stung by conscience and theremembrance of former years, fled away from the venerable apostle.Full of love the aged father ran after him, called on him to takecourage, and announced to him forgiveness of his sins in the name ofChrist. The youth was recovered to the paths of Christianity, and wasthe means of inducing many of his bad associates to repent andbelieve [CLEMENT OFALEXANDRIA, Who Is theRich Man Who Shall Be Saved? 4.2; EUSEBIUS,Ecclesiastical History, 3.20; CHRYSOSTOM,First Exhortation to Theodore, 11].
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
I have written unto you, fathers,…. This, with the reason annexed to it, is repeated, to raise the attention of the aged servants of Christ, and to quicken them to a discharge of their duty, who are apt to abate in their zeal, to grow lukewarm and indifferent, to cleave to the world, and to the things of it, which they are cautioned against in 1Jo 2:15. The whole of this, with the reason,
because ye have known him [that is] from the beginning, is left out in the Vulgate Latin version, and Complutensian edition.
I have written unto you, young men; this repetition to them, with some additions, is also made, to stir them up the more to love the saints, who are too apt to be carried away with the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, warned against in 1Jo 2:16;
because ye are strong; not naturally, for sin has sadly weakened human nature, so that a man, by the strength of nature, can do nothing that is spiritually good: nor in themselves, though regenerated, but in Christ, in whom are righteousness and strength; without whom they can do nothing, though they can do all things through him strengthening them; and so are strong in the exercise of grace on him, and in the performance of every duty, being strengthened by him with strength in their souls:
and the word of God abideth in you; either Christ the Logos, the essential Word of God, who might be said to be in them, and abide in them, because his grace was implanted in their hearts, called Christ, formed there, and because he dwelt in their hearts by faith, and lived in them; and hence they had their strength, or came to be so strong as they were, and also overcame Satan, because he that was in them was greater than he that is in the world: or else the Gospel is meant, which cometh not in word only, but in power, has a place in the heart, and works effectually, and dwells richly there; and this is a means of spiritual strength against sin and temptation, and to perform duty, and to stand fast in the truth against the errors and heresies of men and is that piece of spiritual armour, the sword of the Spirit, by which Satan is often foiled, and overcome: hence it follows,
and ye have overcome the wicked one; [See comments on 1Jo 2:13].
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
I have written (). Repeated three times. Epistolary aorist referring to this Epistle, not to a previous Epistle. Law (Tests of Life, p. 309) suggests that John was interrupted at the close of verse 13 and resumes here in verse 14 with a reference to what he had previously written in verse 13. But that is needless ingenuity. It is quite in John’s style to repeat himself with slight variations.
The Father ( ). The heavenly Father as all of God’s children should come to know him. He repeats from verse 13 what he said to “fathers.” To the young men he adds (strong) and the word of God abiding in them. That is what makes them powerful () and able to gain the victory over the evil one.
Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament
Him that is from the beginning. The eternal, pre – existent Christ, who was from the beginning (Joh 1:1). The eternal Son, through whom men are brought into the relation of children of God, and learn to know the Father. The knowledge of God involves, on the part of both fathers and children, the knowledge of Christ.
Strong [] . See on was not able, Luk 14:30; I cannot, Luk 16:3.
Fuente: Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament
1) “I have written unto you, fathers”. John reminds these that he had (Greek agrapsa) written (formerly) to them about Jesus, the Divine one from the beginning. Joh 1:1-3; John 14, 17 etc.
2) “Because ye have known him that is from the beginning.” John reaffirms the deity and eternality of Jesus who had come from the Father and existed from the beginning. Joh 20:21; Joh 20:30-31.
3) I have written to you, young men”. John reminds the mature young men that he too had included them and their interest in his former letter.
4) “Because ye are strong”. (Greek hoti ischuroi) strong or strong ones you are – men able to fight as crusading soldiers of the cross. Eph 6:11-18.
5) “And the word of God abideth in you.” John commended these young men because the Word of God was abiding in, having a restraining and guiding influence in their daily lives. Act 20:32; 2Pe 3:18.
6) “And ye have overcome the wicked one.” (Greek nenikate) meaning “ye have conquered, subdued, put to flight” (Greek poneron) the wicked one, the devil. Every Christian young man’s victory over flesh impulses to sin should cheer and encourage others to know that each child of God ‘ thru the Word and the Spirit, can effectively resist the devil and temptations to wrong. 1Co 9:26-27; Jas 4:7-8.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
14 I have written unto you, fathers These repetitions I deem superfluous; and it is probable that when unskillful readers falsely thought that he spoke twice of little children, they rashly introduced the other two clauses. It might at the same time be that John himself, for the sake of amplifying, inserted the second time the sentence respecting the young men, (for he adds, that they were strong, which he had not said before;) but that the copyists presumptuously filled up the number. (67)
(67) There are no different readings that can justify the supposition of an interpolation. The only reading that Griesbach considers probable is ἔγραψα for γράφω at the end of the 13th verse. If that be adopted, then the three characters are twice mentioned, and in regular order. The objection that τεκνία in ver. 12, is παιδία in ver. 13, is not valid, for he uses the latter in the same sense as the former in ver. 18, as denoting Christians in general; while here, in connection with “fathers” and “young men,” they must mean those young in years or in the profession of the gospel. The repetition is for the sake of emphasis. — Ed
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
A PLAIN TALK TO YOUNG MEN
1Jn 2:14
An address delivered before the Y.M.C.A. of the University of Minnesota.
DR. A. C. DIXON, once said, I saw two portraits in the National Art Gallery in London. Under one of which was the title, A Man. Under the other A Woman. They were meant to express the artists ideal of manhood and womanhood, and, as I gazed upon them, I thought it is better to be a man than a king; a true woman, than a queen.
It is quite impossible for any one to understand, or even imagine all the motives that move young people to quit their homes for college, to leave the employment that has characterized life for many summers and turn to the work of students.
Some of them, doubtless, become students simply because their parents send them to college. In others the student spirit is born of ambition for place and power. In still others, it is only an expression of the natural, perhaps inherited, trend of life, but let us hope that in the greater majority, education is sought, struggled for, gained at great sacrifice, that it might make of us men and women.
I use the words with their weight in them. I come, therefore, this afternoon to speak to you, hoping to stimulate such an ambition in every breast, and I bring to you this particular passage of Scripture because it seemed to me to set forth some of the fundamentals essential to your future success, or, in other words, necessary to your moral greatness, your genuine manhood.
It is an interesting circumstance that John, in this Epistle, addresses the little children first, speaks to the fathers next, and leaves the young men to the last, as if they were the ones in whom his chief thought centered, and from whom the noblest things might be expected; and, in what I shall say, I purpose to impress upon you the exceeding wisdom of the Apostles words, I have written unto you, young men, because ye are strong, and the Word of God abideth in you, and ye have overcome the wicked one.
YOUR CHIEF EXCELLENCE IS YOUR STRENGTH
It is not your youth! It is your strength! Youth has no particular virtue in itself, nor is it any proof of power; but the strength of youth, where it exists, is its chief excellence. It was that of which the Apostle thought, when he said, because ye are strong.
It is the grace of youth. We sometimes wonder why youth is full-rounded, full-blooded and beautiful, when the greater maturity has its wrinkles and evident weakness.
It is because youth is commonly the time of strength. The heart throbs in the young man as it does not in men full of years. Every vein and artery pulses with power that will not be indefinitely continued, and that very full-bloodedness makes up the grace of the earlier years. Take my advice, and get your photographs now. I have in my home photographs of my oldest brother, and I delight to look upon them because every feature has its grace; but when I look on him, I see that the weight of years have already begun to tell, and much of the grace so evident, forty years ago, he does not possess now.
The strength has abated; the grace of youth is going.
That strength is also the glory of youth. Solomon, in his Pro 20:29, says, The glory of young men is their strength.
All succeeding ages have accepted his proverb. That strength suggests such possibilities. It is a very potency itself, and it is in demand in the world. One of the characteristics of the times in which we live is the bid that business and professional life makes for young men. Perhaps never in the worlds history have the officers of weightiest moment, and of large money returns, been filled by men of such youthful years as now.
Only this week, the Secretary of a Home Missionary Board, said to me, I find, in my labors, that the churches everywhere are demanding young ministers for pastors.
I answered, It is not only true of the churches, but of the other professions largely, and equally so of business life.
A friend of mine, living in a city of some 40,000, said a few years since, We have seven bank presidents in our city, and but one of them is past thirty-five years of age. It is not because those who count themselves young are so superior that these things exist, but because the world appreciates the possibilities in youth.
Men deal in youth as the members of the Chicago Board of Trade do in futures, and in fact it is a future. They take us not so much for what we are, as for what we may become, and their hope is based solely in the fact that youth is the time of strength.
It may not be high-bred. It may not be composed of blue-blood. It may be almost ragged in its poverty, and yet its power is such that men dare to speculate in it and out of it many of them make colossal fortune.
The fact is that in America, we care but little how a boy was born, in whose house he was bred, what blood he has to his credit. It is his native strength in which we trust, and that confidence has brought to America far less of disappointment than the children of lords and dukes and nobles have given to the older world.
Solomon wrote, under inspiration, and he did not say, the glory of young men is good birth, nor yet, the glory of young men is breeding in the house of kings, nor yet, the glory of young men is to come into possession of fathers bonds, but the glory of young men is their strength.
I congratulate you, my young fellows, upon every full drop of blood in your body. It is an engine of power. Preserve it. Employ it, and I speak to you, young men, because ye are strong.
Some of you must have come up to college, this year, fresh from the farm. Your advantages to this hour may have been meager. In the first year of your studies, your progress may be slow, and the way seem full of discouragements, but these things are no occasion of despair. Fortune has favored you still, because ye are strong.
Ernest Gordon, speaking of his fathers education says, of his beginnings in the school at New London, Up to this time, there had been little preliminary instruction. The classes, therefore, were much in advance of the newcomer, but though the cabbage outstrips the oak in the first months of spring, final results are never uncertain.
Now, I would not like to have the high-school, city-bred boys suppose that I mean to call them cabbage-heads; but I say to you now that if you would escape that denomination eventually, you must look well to your laurels, because these sons of toil are strong, and the glory of young men is their strength.
This strength is the measure of ones responsibility. We sometimes suppose that a mans birth is that measure. Not so!
We sometimes say that a mans circumstances are that measure. Not so!
Mans strength is that measure! If I were on a farm again, I would not hold the philosophy of farming that obtained when I was a boy, namely, that every man must hoe out his own row.
He might be a little man. No matter. He might be a weak man. No matter. He must hoe his row, keeping pace with the profession. That is not right!
That is not after Gods ordination! Mans strength is the measure of his responsibility. The larger man ought to bear the heavier loads; the man of larger intellect, the heavier loads; the man of larger body, the heavier loads; the man of larger heart, the heavier loads.
Gladstone said to some young men, Be strong, and exercise your strength. Work onwards, work upwards, and may the blessing of the Most High sooth your cries, clear your vision, and crown your labors.
Gladstone was right, in his advice, as well as gracious in his benediction.
There is nothing to be more coveted than strength, and we know that it grows with exercise, but in its possession and in its increase, we add to our responsibilities.
Some of you perhaps have already, and I trust the time will come when the others will have, read Victor Hugos Les Miserables.
You remember the incident of the farmers wagon sinking in the mud, and of the men about it who were helpless to hinder it from mireing deeper still, with the single exception of Jean Val Jean. For him to lend the lift possible to his mighty powers, was for him to make known to his enemy who he was to expose himself to a fresh arrest and imprisonment. He hesitated a while, but seeing the danger in which the man was placed, could not restrain himself from assistance, and crawling under the wagon, he strained his mighty muscles and lifted the load, only to be detected and thrown in prison in consequence. What obligation was there upon Jean Val Jean to render such assistance, when he was sure it would cost him so much? Only this, he was strong; and we ought to understand that our powers are not given to us to be employed as we please, and only when we will; but wherever there is occasion, and God calls for it, or the interests of our fellow-men demand it. Our strength must be put to service, and its extent is the measure of our responsibility.
If you can carry four to seven studies, without injury to your health, you are culpable if you propose to take only two or three. If you can recite a perfect lesson, you have no moral right to come short of it. If you can render assistance to your fellow-students, giving to them greater bodily comfort, aiding them in mental equipment, or helping them into a higher, diviner life, God will not hold you guiltless except you accomplish it, because ye are strong. In other words, the power of youth is also its responsibility.
YOUR BEST SUSTENANCE IS FROM THE SCRIPTURE
The Word of God abideth in you.
John said to the young men to whom he wrote, as if he counted their strength in part a result of that circumstance.
The Word of God abideth in you.
Indeed I know of nothing that can impart such power to the whole man, body, mind and spirit, as Gods Book, the Bible, when we have received it; when it abides in us. There may be some of you, I know not, who think slightingly of the sacred Scriptures, who imagine that in the battle of the present, the Bible will go down before critical teachers and students. Vain thought; if any entertain such. Semler, Ernesti and Griesbach thought so, when in Germany a 100 years since, they were saying as much, but they are dead and the Bible lives.
Tyndal, Hobbs and Bollingbroke, the English anakim of the same period, supposed that they would bury the Book, but they are dead and it lives. The critics of this age, friendly or infidel, will come to a kindred end, and not one jot or tittle of the Word will fall. The poet has written truth and beauty in these lines.
I paused one day beside the blacksmiths door,And listened to the anvil ring the evening chime,And, looking in, I saw upon the floorOld hammers worn with beating years of time.
How many anvils have you had I said!To wear and batter these hammers so!Just one, he answered, with a twinkling eye,The anvil wears the hammers out, you know.
And so, I thought, the anvil of Gods Word For ages sceptic blows have beat upon Yet though the noise of infidel was heard The anvil is unworn, the hammers gone.
Hide the Word in your hearts, young men; it will sustain your bodies. The man who receives it eschews the things that tend to tear down his physique. To feed on the Word is to find the greatest physical strength in consequence.
Christ forgot His dinner, and said He had no need of it, when He saw an opportunity to speak the Word to the woman at the well, declaring, I have meat to eat that ye know not of, and that the same amount of bread, seasoned with the sacred Word of God, adds such strength to the man as sinful, scriptureless men cannot secure from a godless meal. David talks as if he literally ate the Word of God, saying that it was sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb, and the colored boy in the South, after having accepted Christ, and learned to read the Bible said, It is bettah an lasses.
A blind girl found her fingers calloused by repeated handling of the words of the Bible, and had them pared, but the sense of touch was gone, and her sorrow was unspeakable. She lifted the Bible to her lips, and opened the pages, and thought to kiss it a farewell, when the sensitive lips communicated to her mind, better than her fingers had ever done, and then she cried, Oh, how sweet of taste is the Word of God!
Feed upon it. It will help you physically.
Feed on it for the minds sake. The young man who hides Gods Word in his heart has shown wisdom in his studies. It is the Book of books. Only the small men sneer at it; great men never! They know its inspiration and how many of them have given it first place in education.
It was in the Bible that Bacon found a philosophy that revolutionized all methods of thought.
There Raphael caught the vision of real life that made his paintings like breathing souls.
There Milton found the keynote of his matchless song.
There Thorwaldson learned what he chiseled into the noblest sculpture.
There Mozart caught the harmonies that enriched the earth and reached up to Heaven.
There Burke drank from the highest and purest fountains of law and with the draft took in his charming eloquence.
There Harvey learned from the great physician, and turned the practice of medicine from quackery to science.
There Gladstone discovered the eternal principles of civil justice, the precepts by which to govern nations; and there Charles Spurgeon found the inexhaustible spring of spiritual truth.
Young men, you cannot afford to dispense with what has been the meat and drink of the greatest souls that have enjoyed life beneath Gods stars. See to it that the Word of God has chief place in your education. For your minds sake, make a study of it.
And for the sake of your souls know its content!
Henry Ward Beecher says, The drift of the Book from Genesis to Revelation is the building up of men in Christ Jesus; a manhood which is central, royal, Divine, is the thing which that Book aims at. This object is a mans spiritual development and attraction, and I dare to say that whether you are ever wise in the wisdom of this world, or no; whether you are ever great, as men count greatness, or not; you can be wise in things Heavenly and great in the sight of God and angels, possessed indeed of the only greatness that is genuine and endless, if, with whole heart, you give yourself to the study of the Word of God.
You have not forgotten that Hawthorne, in The Great Stone Face, sets forth the fact that the man to come, the man of highest civilization, of highest culture, the crowned man, the man ideal, is not a man of wealth, not a man of war, not a man of political fame, not a man of poetical genius, not a man of scientific learning, but a man of soul.
It must be so, for after all the body is not the man, the mind is not the man, the spirit is the man, and for its development, the Scriptures are the essentials.
Ernest Gordon, in the life of his father, speaks of the piety of the Puritan family into which that great man was born, and illustrates that piety by saying, We recall especially one old grandmother, hid away upon a back farm with but two books, the Bible and John Bunyans works, who tended and nurtured a spiritual life fairly efflorescent in its devotion, its sweetness, its humilitya devotion which, in the extremest age, was never doomed.
And so if you care for your souls, see to it that the words of John are applicable in your case, And the Word of God abideth in you.
YOUR GREATEST ACHIEVEMENT IS TO OVERCOME THE EVIL ONE
You understand that you have an arch-enemy! John speaks of it. Because ye * * have overcome the wicked one.
There are those, in these days, who belittle the devil, who deny his existence, who explain him into thin air.
I beg of you, as you live, let your souls understand that Satan is, and that he is a deceiver of all men, and destroys whom he can.
You may have enemies in your way and walk of life. You will! If you do wrong, you will have enemies. If you do right, the number will be larger still, and more intense; but the arch-enemy is Satan, the evil one. His defeat is most difficult. Others you can outwit. Not him! Others you can shame from their opposition, not him! Others you might, kill by sword, not him! Crafty beyond human thought; cruel beyond human imagination; eternal is his vigilance. His defeat is the problem of every mans life.
In this city, some of you may be tempted by drink. That is Satan.
In this city, some of you may be tempted by the gambling house. That is Satan.
In this city, some of you may be enticed by the scarlet woman. That is Satan.
Wherever you are, whoever you may be, whatever you may do, hell be there. His traps will be set. His best efforts for your destruction will be made, and your position is that of a duelist. You must overcome him, or be overcome. To lose this battle is to lose life. To gain it, is to gain life; it is to get the victory of victories, the crown of crowns.
The richest man on earth is the man who has overcome the evil one. The most honorable man is the man who has overcome the evil one. The happiest man this side of Heaven is the man who has overcome the evil one.
Whatever else you do, in whatever else you fail, do this, overcome the wicked one. For your life, fail not in the effort. You want to be men! You want to be noble men. There is no such thing unless you overcome the evil one. To yield to him is defeat of manhood; the overthrow of nobility; the loss of God Himself.
To overthrow him you are not able of yourself. Learn the lesson from the little fellow who, having heard of this mighty monster, came to his father and said, Papa, is the devil bigger than I am? Yes, my boy, answered the father. And is he bigger than you? Yes, my boy, he is bigger than I. And is he bigger than Jesus Christ? No, my son, Christ is greater than Satan. Then Ill get Him to help me and well overcome.
I tell you now, youll fight a losing battle against indolence, except you receive the Lord. Youll fight a losing battle against temper, unless you receive the Lord. Youll fight a losing battle against pride, except you receive the Lord, and youll fight a losing battle against passion, unless Christ Himself come in to put it down.
For you there is nothing than temporary, and in the end, eternal defeat, unless Jesus Christ becomes Saviour and God to your souls; and when once that is accomplished the crown of manhood is yours, the crown of honor is yours, the crown of immortality is yours, the crown of eternal happiness is yours.
It is reported that the body of Edward I. was brought up from the grave 800 years after his burial, and they found that the kings crown was still on his head. But my dear young men, if Christ be in you the hope of glory, and by His power ye overcome the evil one, in 800 years, in 1800 years, in 18 millenniums of years, in 18 millions of years, in 18 eternities, if such a conception were possible, your immortal youth will still be wearing the crown which God gave you, when, by a sweet submission of your will, you accepted that Christ who, in you, overcame the evil one.
Fuente: The Bible of the Expositor and the Evangelist by Riley
14. Have written Rather, I wrote. A change of tense from the I write of the last verse. Yet the meaning is probably about the same. The epistolary aorist tense assumed the standpoint of the reading of the epistle, as if saying, while you read this, know that I wrote thus and so. Nevertheless this past tense may be more emphatic than the present. The third address of this triad little children occurs in 1Jn 2:18, where suitable matter occurring reminds the apostle that they should be addressed.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
1Jn 2:14. I have written unto you, fathers, It is said, Job 12:12. That with the ancient is wisdom, and in length of days understanding. The propriety of St. John’s address to the Christians aged in experience consists in this, that age brings both experience and wisdom; and as no knowledge or remembrance of former things could equal their knowledge of Christ, therefore St. John points at this, as hoping their wisdom and long experience had so established them, that the false teachers could make no impression upon them. The most celebrated of the Greek and Latin poets have very frequently taken notice of the strength and valour of young men; and what was a propriety in them, cannot be less so in an inspired apostle. There is therefore this poetical beauty in his sayingto the young men, “Ye are strong, and have got the victory:” the Christian life is in many passages compared to a warfare. These young men were therefore considered as warriors under Christ, the great Captain of their salvation; and as young soldiers count it their highest ambition to distinguish themselves in the field of battle, and obtain the victory over the enemies of their country; St. John alludes thereto, and applauds these young Christians, as in the strength of grace signalizing themselves, in fighting the spiritual warfare, and gaining the victory over the grand enemy. He adds, The word of God abideth in you. The false teachers endeavoured to take the pure word of God from them, and to impose their corrupt and immoral doctrine instead of it; but the apostle intimates the vast advantage of the true Christian principles: thereby through grace they had obtained the victory; and if they would go on conquering and to conquer, they must not hearken to the seducers, who would have taken from them the pure word of God. How much are they to be blamed, who wouldhinder the people from reading the Scriptures; who would take that spiritual weapon out of their hands, and leave them naked and defenceless, to be conquered in this important warfare. And how greatly was it to the glory of these young men, that when their passions and appetites were in their full strength and vigour, yet in the power of the Spirit of God they conquered the temptations arising from sensible objects, and were not discouraged by the contempt and opposition which the gospel met with! Such was the applause bestowed upon them by the apostle, that he might animate and encourage them to persevere to the end. St. John goes over his address to these three sorts of persons a second time, to make the deeper and more lasting impression upon their minds; and if we consider the unwearied zeal and industry of the false teachers, we shall easily perceive that there was occasion for so doing.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
14 I have written unto you, fathers, because ye have known him that is from the beginning. I have written unto you, young men, because ye are strong, and the word of God abideth in you, and ye have overcome the wicked one.
Ver. 14. Because ye have known him ] The same again as 1Jn 2:13 , which to a carnal heart may seem superfluous. Et certe si humano ingenio conscripti essent libri illi, quos pro sacris (ira ut verissime sunt) agnoscimus et veneramur, bonum alicubi dormitasse Homerum disceremus, said one. But far be it from us to reprehend what we cannot comprehend.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
1Jn 2:14 . The Apostle gives the same reason as before for writing to the fathers, as though there could be none greater. He gives the same reason also for writing to the young men, but he amplifies it: they have the strength of youth, but it is disciplined by the indwelling Word, and therefore they have conquered.
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
1 John
YOUTHFUL STRENGTH
1Jn 2:14 .
‘What am I going to be?’ is the question that presses upon young people stepping out of the irresponsibilities of childhood into youth. But, unfortunately, the question is generally supposed to be answered when they have fixed upon a trade or profession. It means, rightly taken, a great deal more than that. ‘What am I going to make of myself?’ ‘What ideal have I before me, towards which I constantly press?’ is a question that I would fain lay upon the hearts of all that now hear me. For the misery and the reason of the failure of so many lives is simply that people have never fairly looked that question in the face and tried to answer it, but drift and drift, and let circumstances determine them. And, of course, in a world like this, such people are sure to turn out what such an immense number of people do turn out, failures as far as all God’s purposes with humanity are concerned. The absence of a clear ideal is the misery and the loss of all young people who do not possess it.
So here in my text is an old man’s notion of what young men ought to be and may be. ‘Ye are strong, and the word of God abideth in you, and ye have overcome the wicked one.’
So said the aged John to some amongst his hearers in these corrupt Asiatic cities. It was not merely a fair ideal painted upon vacancy, but it was a portrait of actual young Christians in these little Asiatic churches. And I would fain have some of you take this realised ideal for yours and see to it that your lives be conformed to it.
There are three points here. The Apostle, first of all, lays his finger upon the strength, which is something more than mere physical strength, proper to youth. Then he lets us see the secret source of that strength: ‘Ye have the word of God abiding in you.’ And then he shows the field on which it should be exercised, and the victory which it secures: ‘And ye have overcome the wicked one.’ Now let me touch upon these three points briefly in succession.
I. First, then, note here the strength which you young people ought to covet and to aim at.
It is not merely the physical strength proper to their age, nor the mere unworn buoyancy and vigour which sorrows and care and responsibilities have not thinned and weakened. These are great and precious gifts. We never know how precious they are until they have slipped away from us. These are great and precious gifts, to be preserved as long as may be, by purity and by moderation, and to be used for high and great purposes. But the strength that is in thews and muscles is not the strength that the Apostle is speaking about here, nor anything that belongs simply to the natural stage of your development, whether it be purely physical or purely mental. Samson was a far weaker man than the poor little Jew ‘whose bodily presence was weak and his speech contemptible,’ and who all his days carried about with him that ‘thorn in the flesh.’ It is not your body that is to be strong, but yourselves.
Now the foundation of all true strength lies here, in a good, strong will. In this world, unless a man has learned to say ‘No!’ and to say it very decidedly, and to stick to it, he will never come to any good. Two words contain the secret of noble life: ‘Resist!’ and ‘Persist!’ And the true strength of manhood lies in this mainly, that, in spite of all antagonisms, hindrances, voices, and things that array themselves against you, having greatly resolved, you do greatly do what you have resolved, and having said ‘I will!’ let neither men nor devils lead you to say, ‘I will not.’ Depend upon it, that to be weak in this direction is to be weak all through. Strong passions make weak men. And a strong will is the foundation, in this wicked and antagonistic world in which we live, of all real strength.
But then the strength that I would have you seek, and strive to cultivate, must be a strength of will founded upon strong reason. Determination unenlightened is obstinacy, and obstinacy is weakness. A mule can beat you at that: ‘Be ye not as the mule, which have no understanding.’ A determination which does not take into its view all the facts of the case, nor is influenced by these, has no right to call itself strength. It is only, to quote a modern saying–I know not whether true of the person to whom it was originally applied or no–is ‘only a lath painted to look like iron.’ Unintelligent obstinacy is folly, like the conduct of some man who sticks to his pick and his task in a quarry after the bugle has warned him of an impending explosion, which will blow him to atoms.
But that is not all. A strong will, illuminated by a strong beam of light from the understanding, must be guided and governed by a strong hand put forth by Conscience. ‘I should like’ is the weakling’s motto. ‘I will’ may be an obstinate fool’s motto. ‘I ought, therefore, God helping me, and though the devil hinders me, I will,’ is a man’s. Conscience is king. To obey it is to be free; to neglect it is to be a slave.
Is not this a better ideal for life than gathering any outward possessions, however you may succeed therein? A thousand things will have to be taken into account, and may help or may hinder outward prosperity and success. But nobody can hinder you working at your character and succeeding in making it what it ought to be; and to form character is the end of life. ‘To be weak is miserable, doing or suffering.’ Ay! that is true, though Milton put it into the devil’s mouth. And there is only one strength that will last, ‘for even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fail.’ But the strength of a fixed and illuminated and conscience-guided will, which governs the man and is governed by God, shall never faint or grow weak. This is the strength which we should seek, and which I ask you to make the conscious aim of your lives.
II. Now note, secondly, how to get it.
‘Ye are strong, and the Word of God abideth in you.’ Those young Asiatic Christians, that John had in his eye, had learned the secret and the conditions of this strength; and not only in limb and sinew, or in springy and elastic buoyancy of youthful, mental, and spiritual vigour were they strong, but they were so because ‘the Word of God abode in them.’ Now, there are two significations of that great expression, both of them frequent in John’s Gospel, and both of them, I think, transferred to this Epistle, each of which may yield us a word of counsel. By ‘the Word of God,’ as I take it, is meant–perhaps I ought to say both, but, at all events, either–the revelation of God’s truth in Holy Scripture, or the personal revelation of the will and nature of God in Jesus Christ our Lord. Whichever of these two meanings–and at bottom they come to be one–we attach to this expression, we draw from them an exhortation. Let me put this very briefly.
Let me say to you, then, if you want to be strong, let Scripture truth occupy and fill and be always present to your mind. There are powers to rule and to direct all conduct, motive powers of the strongest character in these great truths of God’s revelation. They are meant to influence a man in all his doings, and it is for us to bring the greatest and solemnest of them to bear on the smallest things of our daily life. Suppose, now, that you go to your work, and some little difficulty starts up in your path, or some trivial annoyance ruffles your temper, or some lurking temptation is suddenly sprung upon you. Suppose your mind and heart were saturated with God’s truth, with the great thoughts of His being, of His love, of His righteousness, of Christ’s death for you, of Christ’s presence with you, of Christ’s guardianship over you, of Christ’s present will that you should walk in His ways, of the bright hopes of the future, and the solemn vision of that great White Throne and the retribution that streams thence, do you think it would be possible for you to fall into sin, to yield to temptation, to be annoyed by any irritation or bother, or overweighted by any duty? No! Whosoever lives with the thoughts that God has given us in His Word familiar to His mind and within easy reach of His hand, has therein an armlet against all possible temptation, a test that will unveil the hidden corruption in the sweetest seductions, and a calming power that will keep his heart still and collected in the midst of agitations. If the Word of God in that lower sense of the principles involved in the gospel of Jesus Christ, dwell in your hearts, the fangs are taken out of the serpent. If you drink any deadly thing it shall not hurt you, and you will ‘be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might.’
Bring the greatest truths you can find to bear on the smallest duties, and the small duties will grow great to match the principles by which they are done. Bring the laws of Jesus Christ down to the little things, for, in the name of common sense, if our religion is not meant to regulate trifles, what is it meant to regulate? Life is made up of trifles. There are half a dozen crises in the course of your life, but there are a thousand trivial things in the course of every day. It would be a poor kind of regulating principle that controlled the crises, and left us alone to manage with the trifles the best way we could.
But in order that there shall be this continual operation of the motives and principles involved in the gospel upon our daily lives, we must have them very near our hand, ready to be laid hold of. The soldier that would march through an enemy’s country, having left his gun in the hands of some camp follower, would be very likely to be shot before he got his gun. I remember going through the Red Sea; at the mouth of it where the entrance is narrow, and the currents run strong, when the ship approaches the dangerous place, the men take their stations at appointed places, and the ponderous anchors are loosened and ready to be dropped in an instant if the swirl of the current sweeps the ship into dangerous proximity to the reef. It is no time to cut the lashings of the anchors when the keel is grating on the coral rocks. And it is no time to have to look about for our weapons when the sudden temptation leaps upon us like a strong man armed. You must have them familiar to you by devout meditation, by frequent reflection, prayer, study of God’s Word, if they are to be of any use to you at all. And I am afraid that about the last book in the world that loads of young men and women think of sitting down to read, systematically and connectedly, is the Bible. You will read sermons and other religious books; you will read newspapers, pamphlets, novels; but the Scripture, in its entirety, is a strange book to myriads of men who call themselves Christians. And so they are weak. If you want to be strong, ‘let the Word of God abide in your hearts.’
And then if we take the other view, which at bottom is not another, of the meaning of this phrase, and apply it rather to the personal word, Jesus Christ Himself, that will yield us another exhortation, and that is, let Jesus Christ into your hearts and keep Him there, and He will make you strong. I believe that it is no piece of metaphor or an exaggerated way of putting the continuance of the influence of Christ’s example and Christ’s teaching upon men’s hearts and minds, when He tells us that ‘if any man open the door He will come in and sup with him.’ I want to urge the one thought on you that it is possible, in simple literal fact, for that Divine Saviour, who was ‘in Heaven’ whilst He walked on earth, and walks on earth to-day when He has returned to His native Heaven, to enter into my spirit and yours, and really to abide within us, the life of our lives, ‘the strength of our hearts, and our portion for ever.’ The rest of us can render help to one another by strength ministered from without; Jesus Christ will come into your hearts, if you let Him, in His very sweetness and omnipotence of power, and will breathe His own grace into your weakness, strengthening you as from within. Others can help you from without, as you put an iron band round some over-weighted, crumbling brick pillar in order to prevent it from collapsing, but He will pass into us as you may drive an iron rod up through the centre of the column, and make it strong inside, and we shall be strong if Jesus Christ dwells within us. Open the door, dear young friends; let Christ come into your hearts, which He will do if you do not hinder Him, and if you ask Him. Trust Him with simple reliance upon Him for everything. Faith is ‘the door’; the door is nothing of itself, but when it is opened it admits the guest. So do you let that Master come and abide, and you will hear Him say to you, as He said of old, ‘Child! My grace is sufficient.’ How modest He is. Sufficient!–an ocean enough to fill a thimble! ‘My grace is sufficient for thee; and My strength is made perfect in weakness.’
III. Now, lastly, notice the field on which the strength is to be exercised, and the victory which it secures. ‘Ye have overcome the wicked one.’
There is a battle for us all, on which I need not dwell, the conflict with evil around and with evil within, and with the prince of the embattled legions of the darkness, whom the New Testament has more clearly revealed to us. You young people have many advantages in the conflict; you have some special disadvantages as well. You have strong passions, you have not much experience, you do not know how bitter the dregs are of the cup whose foaming bubbles look so attractive, and whose upper inch tastes so sweet. But on the other hand you have not yet contracted habits that it is misery to indulge in, and, as it would seem, impossible to break, and the world is yet before you.
You cannot begin too soon to choose your side. And here is the side on which alone victory is possible for a man–the side of Jesus Christ, who will teach your hands to war and your fingers to fight.
Notice that remarkable phrase, ‘Ye have overcome the wicked one.’ He is talking to young Christians before whom the battle may seem to lie, and yet He speaks of their conquest as an accomplished fact, and as a thing behind them. What does that mean? It means this, that if you will take service in Christ’s army, and by His grace resolve to be His faithful soldier till your life’s end, that act of faith, which enrols you as His, is itself the victory which guarantees, if it be continued, the whole conquest in time.
There used to be an old superstition that–
‘Who sheds the foremost foeman’s life
His party conquers in the strife’;
and whosoever has exercised, however imperfectly and feebly, the faith in Jesus Christ the Lord has therein conquered the devil and all his works, and Satan is henceforth a beaten Satan, and the battle, in essence, is completed even in the act of its being begun.
‘This is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith’; not only because our confidence in Jesus Christ is the blowing of the bugle that summons to warfare and shakes off the tyrant’s yoke, but it is also the means by which we join ourselves to Him who has overcome, and make His victory ours. He has fought our antagonist in the wilderness once, in Gethsemane twice, on the Cross thrice; and the perfect conquest in which Jesus bound the strong man and spoiled his goods may become, and will become, your conquest, if you wed yourselves to that dear Lord by simple faith in Him.
What a priceless thing it is that you may begin your independent manhood with a conquest that will draw after it ultimate and supreme victory. You will still have to fight, but you will have only to fight detachments. If you trust yourselves to Jesus Christ you have conquered the main body of the army, and it is only the stragglers that you will have to contend with hereafter. He that loves Jesus, and has given himself to Him, has pinned the dragon to the ground by its head, and though it may ‘swinge the scaly horror of its folded tail,’ and twine its loathly coils around him, yet he has conquered, and he is conquering, and he will conquer. Only let him hold fast by the hand which brings strength into him by its touch.
Will you, dear young friends, take service in this army? Do you want to be weak or strong? Do you want your lives to be victorious whatever may happen to them in the way of outward prosperity or failure? Then give yourselves to this Lord. His voice calls you to be His soldiers. He will cover your heads in the day of battle. He will strengthen you ‘with might by His Spirit in the inner man.’ He will hide His Word in your heart that you offend not against Him. He will dwell Himself within you to make you strong in your extremest weakness and victorious over your mightiest foe; and in that sign you will conquer and ‘be more than conquerors through Him that loved you.’
Oh, I pray that you may ask yourselves the question, ‘What am I going to be?’ and may answer it, ‘I am going to be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might’; and to overcome, as He also hath overcome, the world and the flesh and the devil.
Fuente: Expositions Of Holy Scripture by Alexander MacLaren
have written = wrote.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
1Jn 2:14. , I have written) In 1Jn 2:13-14, he passes from I write to I have written: and not without reason. For by transposing the verb of writing from the present to the past, he suggests a most strong admonition.-) because.- , ye have known Him who is from the beginning) He who is from the beginning is Jesus Christ. is not the beginning of the Gospel, but the beginning of all things: ch. 1Jn 1:1, note. Artemon objects, that God the Father might also be thus spoken of: Part ii. c. 13. I reply, Why not? But the figure Antonomasia is frequently employed by John, when he speaks of Christ. Comp. 1Jn 2:20. The fathers, as well as the apostle, were already alive at that time, in which Jesus Christ had been conspicuous on earth: and some of them, as it is probable, had known Him both in person and by faith. Comp. ch. 1Jn 3:6, note; 1Co 15:6; Mat 13:16. Certainly all had known Him by faith, and had seen that golden age of the Church, to which the age of the younger men, who ought to avoid antichrists, is opposed. John repeats this clause from the preceding verse, without the addition of more words, subjoining to the statement a treatment of the subject equally brief, and using modesty towards the fathers, to whom it was not necessary that many things should be written. The knowledge of even these respecting Christ is very great, comprising all things. Knowledge is assigned to fathers and children; strength to young men.-, strong) Other young men are strong in body; you, in faith.- , the Word of God) from which is strength: ch. 1Jn 4:4.- , abideth in you) Nor can the Evil One tear it away from you, nor does Antichrist endanger you.- , the Evil One) who especially lies in wait for youth. John appears to refer to a certain remarkable instance of virtue exhibited by the young men to whom he writes. Of this nature was their constancy in confession in the persecution of Domitian; and also the return of that young man, whom the apostle, with the greatest gentleness, led back from robbery to repentance (although the apostle made that expedition not until he had returned from Patmos: comp. 1Jn 2:22, note), as it is most pleasantly described by Clement of Alexandria, in his treatise, What rich man can be saved? ch. 42; by Eusebius, Eccle. Hist., Book iii. 20; and by Chrysostom, in his 1st Exhortation to the fallen Theodore, ch. 11.
Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament
fathers: 1Jo 2:13
because ye are: Eph 6:10, Phi 4:13, Col 1:11, 2Ti 2:1
the word: Psa 119:11, Joh 5:38, Joh 8:31, Joh 15:7, Col 3:16, Heb 8:10, 2Jo 1:2, 3Jo 1:3
ye have overcome: Rev 2:7 – Rev 3:22
Reciprocal: Psa 37:40 – from Pro 20:29 – glory Mat 13:19 – the wicked Act 21:16 – an old Rom 15:1 – strong 1Co 13:13 – abideth 1Jo 2:12 – write 1Jo 3:12 – of 1Jo 5:13 – have I 1Jo 5:18 – wicked Rev 3:12 – overcometh Rev 12:11 – they overcame
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
1Jn 2:14. This verse adds no special thoughts to the preceding two, except to indicate their importance by the repetition for emphasis.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
1Jn 2:14. I have written, &c. He repeats almost the same words, in order that they might the more regard them. As if he had said, Observe well what I now write. He speaks very briefly and modestly to those who needed not much to be said to them, as having that deep acquaintance with God, which comprises all necessary knowledge; young men, ye are strong In God and his grace, Eph 6:10; in faith, hope, love, and in prayer; and the word of God abideth in you Deeply rooted in your hearts, whereby you have often foiled your great adversary. Macknight thus paraphrases the verse: Old Christians, I have written to you to walk even as Christ walked, (1Jn 2:6,) by loving your brethren as he loved you, 1Jn 2:8; because ye have known him from the beginning, and have been deeply affected with the knowledge of his love. Vigorous Christians, I have written the same precept to you, (1Jn 2:8,) because ye are strong in all the Christian virtues, through the word of God abiding in you, and ye have already overcome the devil.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
2:14 {13} I have written unto you, fathers, because ye have known him [that is] from the beginning. I have written unto you, young men, because ye are strong, and the word of God abideth in you, and ye have overcome the wicked one.
(13) He adds afterward in like order, as many exhortations: as if he should say, Remember, you Fathers, as I wrote even now, that the everlasting Son of God is revealed to us. Remember you young men, that that strength by which I said that you put Satan to flight, is given to you by the word of God which dwells in you.