After John’s introduction to his epistle (1John 1:1-4) and from 1John 1:5, the author of this epistle had been addressing problems that the believers had to face due to their believing the Gospel. There were pretenders and false teachers who had come into the believing community in order to gain power over believers in the name of the Jewish leadership at Jerusalem. However, in 1John 2:12-14 the author specifically addressed the whole believing community, mentioning them in contrast to those men who were troubling the local body of believers.
John began addressing the whole group in what is called two triplets by many Biblical scholars. In the first triplet he says he is presently writing to them (1John 2:12-13a), and in the second he claims to have already written to them (1John 13b-14). The first triplet begins with and address to “little children” (teknion; G5040). Jesus, himself, used the phrase to describe all his disciples in John 13:33. The term was often used in the first century AD of a teacher’s disciples / students. The rabbi or teacher taught a group of people, and considered them his spiritual children. Paul used the term to address the folks he wrote to as though they were his own children (2Corinthians 6:13; 12:14 and in Galatians 4:19), and even claimed to be a spiritual father to them (1Corinthians 4:15). So, whether John referred to his readers as ‘his’ children (cp. 1John 2:1; 3:18) or the Lord’s children is a matter of interpretation. Nevertheless, in 1John 2:12 the writer addresses the whole community of believers, not spiritually immature disciples, and he specifically tells them that their sins are forgiven, for Christ’s name sake.
Why would he say that? Why would this be something they needed to know? If they were Jesus disciples, certainly they would have known already that he had forgiven their sins and dealt with them at the cross. This was the very reason they became believers in the first place—the good news that their sins had been forgiven (Luke 24:47; Acts 4:12; 13:38; cp. Romans 2:22-23). In fact, this is the basis of John’s statement above, namely, that Jesus is the “propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world” (1John 2:2). So, why did John reiterate, here, that their sins had been forgiven? There seems to have been a need to know this, to recall it for some reason and perhaps apply it to their present circumstance. So, something was awry, and whatever occurred was probably the result of the work of the false teachers, whom John mentions later in his epistle in the context of it being the last time (1John 2:18). So, John was addressing the climax of the enemy’s (viz. Annas, the high priest in Jerusalem) opposition to the Gospel’s outreach in the first century AD.
This was the time when Paul was imprisoned in Rome, and James, Peter, John and Jude wrote their epistles (cir. 62 to 66 AD). It was the time when all believers had to “earnestly contend for the faith, which was once delivered” to them (Jude 1:3) by the Apostles and evangelists sent out by Jesus (Matthew 23:34). It seems to me that John spoke of the time that Jesus mentioned in his Olivet Prophecy, saying there would come a time of persecution (Matthew 24:9), when many would be offended and begin to betray one another (Matthew 24:10). It would be a time when many false teachers would arise and begin deceiving the many, not the few (Matthew 24:11), and due to the iniquity of the persecutors, the love of many, perhaps the majority of believers, would wax cold (Matthew 24:12). I believe that John referred to this particular sin in 1John 2:12, telling the “little children” that the Lord forgives them for his name’s sake. Stop yielding themselves to the false teachers and return to the Lord.
Next, John divided the group of believers into the older folks (the fathers) and the younger, more aggressive and energetic folks (the young men). John began by reminding the fathers that they had come to know “what was from the Beginning” (Jesus).[1] Most translations have “him” (that was from the beginning), but the Greek is not the personal pronoun, autos (G846), but ton (G3588), which is the definite article, translated “the” or “what, which, whatever” etc. In other words, John spoke of the fathers knowing the Gospel that Jesus preached, the Gospel that came from the Beginning or Ruler, Lord (Jesus).
Finally, John turned to the young men, reminding them that they had already overcome the wicked one (meaning the Jewish authorities at Jerusalem, personified as Ishmael / Hagar in Galatians 4:21-31). Why would they submit to the wicked one now? Why would they turn back to embracing the false doctrines peddled by the Jewish authorities, which were able to save no one? This was John’s argument put to the believing community in hope to help them see the futility of their apparent abandonment of Jesus and the Gospel.
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[1] See my first lesson in this series on John’s epistle That Which Was from the Beginning.
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