I write to you, children, because [your] sins are forgiven you for his name's sake.
John writes here to the whole family of God at once, before he notes what marks out the babe from the father. Everything that follows rests on one settled fact: their sins are forgiven. And nothing in them explains why.
The English translation hides a distinction in the original.
There are in this letter two words both translated "little children." The one used in 1 John 2:12 and 28 is simply "children." It takes in all believers, since all are children of God. The other, used in 1 John 2:13 and 18, is really "babes," the beginners in the Christian life.
So John is not writing to the immature only. That breadth answers a worry any reader of this letter may feel.
Verse 12 removes all difficulty about whom the apostle writes. The letter says startling things, and the question might arise: are these things really true of me? But this verse gives a complete answer to those who will receive it... He will notice the different traits that mark their spiritual condition. But from the babe to the father they are alike objects of mercy.
The word carries a simple picture.
It signifies simply "a sending away" or "a release," and this is just what a guilty sinner needs regarding his sins. Let them be sent away or dismissed by the One against whom his guilt was incurred, and what a happy release is his! Now this is just what every child of God is entitled to enjoy.
The reason is not any good thing found in the believer. It is the worth of another Person to God.
We learn from it that in the forgiveness of sins God acts solely on the ground of the value of the name of His beloved Son — the name of the One who glorified Him on the earth and finished the work He gave Him to do. What misconceptions this simple truth would clear away from the minds of anxious souls! For then they would stop spending weary days searching for some good thing, or merit, in themselves — something to rest on for acceptance before God, or as sure proof of their conversion. They would see that if they are to be saved it must be wholly through what Christ is to God.
Because the reason lies outside us, the security does too.
Here is eternal forgiveness, an established fact for every child of God. It does not come from any favourable work or virtue on the child's part. It comes "for His name's sake" — the Name of the blessed Son of God, a Name of infinite value and perfection! Is there any possibility of this forgiveness losing its power? Never! For it depends on that Name, which can never be even slightly dimmed in the eyes of God the Father.
Notice the little word "because." John does not write so that they may become forgiven; He writes because they already are.
He begins by calling all the Christians he was writing to "children," a term of affection from the loving and aged apostle. As he writes to them so that they should not sin, he also writes because all their sins were forgiven for Jesus' name's sake. This was the assured condition of all Christians — what God had granted them in giving them faith, so that they might glorify Him. He allows no doubt as to the fact of their being pardoned. He writes to them because they are so.
Doubt on this point does practical damage.
Remember: if you are not clear that your sins are forgiven, if there is the smallest lurking doubt in your soul about it, how can you walk as a forgiven person? It makes a vast difference. A person who really knows he is forgiven has motives, reasons, for acting which he could not otherwise have. You cannot have really right motives unless you know that.
- The Name is the cause. Forgiveness rests on the worth of God's Son to God, not on anything found in the person forgiven.
- The Name gives the gift. "Forgiven" means a sending away: the One we sinned against dismisses our sins and releases us.
- The Name reaches everyone. "Children" here covers the whole family — babe and father alike are objects of mercy.
- The Name settles doubt. John states pardon as a settled fact and allows no question about it. Forgiveness held by that Name can never lose its power.
- The Name shapes the walk. Only a person who knows he is forgiven can act from right motives; without that knowledge, he cannot have them.
I write to you, fathers, because ye have known him [that is] from the beginning. I write to you, young men, because ye have overcome the wicked [one]. I write to you, little children, because ye have known the Father.
John divides the family of believers into three groups: fathers, young men, and children. Each group is named by what it already knows or has done — which raises the question of what real growth looks like, and whether some believers hold blessings the rest do not.
English hides a distinction here. Older versions translate two different words in this chapter as "little children," and only one of them marks out a group within the family.
There are two words in this letter, both translated "little children." The one used in 1 John 2:12 and 28 is simply "children." It takes in all believers, since all are children of God. The other, used in 1 John 2:13 and 18, is really "babes," the beginners in the Christian life.
The three names come from ordinary family life: a child grows into a young man, and a young man becomes a father. But one stage of natural life is missing.
The little children are those in whom life is only beginning to develop. The young men are those who have reached, or are reaching, maturity. The fathers are fully mature, ripe in everything Christianity means. Notice there are no "old men" here. There is no hint of feebleness or decay at all. The life is eternal, and this may and does need development, but in it there is no decline.
Each "because" in this verse describes the readers themselves.
Verse 13 states the characteristic features of those to whom he writes, not the themes he writes about, nor the basis on which he writes.
What stands out about the fathers is what John does not credit them with.
They had "known Him that was from the beginning." This, as we have seen, is the great text of the whole letter. It is all the more remarkable that he does not mention any depths or heights of knowledge. Not a word is said about dispensations, or prophecy, or anything thought to be difficult. One thing stood above all the rest and included everything else: Christ Himself. The fathers were those marked by knowing Him. Wherever they may have learned, and however far their energy once reached, they came back to what they started with — even Christ.
Their mark is a battle already behind them.
They had overcome the subtle traps the devil sets through teachings that oppose Christ. They overcame by being built up in the Word of God. In our earlier years as believers, we have not yet had time to be well grounded in the teachings of the Word. So we are far more likely to be led away by subtle teaching that goes against the Word, and to be overcome by the wicked one.
Their weapon is not new. Christ Himself used it when the enemy came to Him.
He brings out the secret of strength for them — the word of God, in the middle of this world, where God acknowledges nothing as His own. The word of God shows God's way in a world where there is none. That is the word by which Christ Himself overcame. The wicked one came and offered Him all the kingdoms of the world, and He answered by the word — He overcame the wicked one.
The youngest in the family are not left waiting for the best blessing.
This is true of the young men and the fathers too, of course. But John says it with emphasis about the babes: they know the Father. Nothing is more foreign to the whole truth of Christianity than the idea that a person should be ignorant of his relationship with the Father. It is the privilege and right of every Christian, even a babe, and nothing can take it away.
A baby shows how such knowledge can be real while still small.
In natural life, a baby knows its father long before it can speak. Years before it can understand the fulness of his love, the baby knows the father himself. This knowledge is the instinct of nature. The father's arms, the father's chest, the father's voice and smile are the baby's joy.
In verse 14 John speaks to the fathers again — and adds nothing new.
Only the verb form is different: in verse 13 he says "I write," and in verse 14 he says "I wrote," referring to what he had already said. And why this? Why has he no more to say to them? Because it was not a matter of things flowing out from God, as men imagined; here all the fulness of the Godhead lived in bodily form... The very idea of something more denied that fulness, and was a lie of Satan.
- One family. All believers are God's children. In this verse, "babes" names the youngest group inside that family, not the whole family.
- Start — the Father. The very first thing true of a new believer is knowing the Father. No one grows into it.
- Middle — the Word. Young men have already won a victory over the wicked one. They won it by the Word of God living in them — the same weapon Christ used.
- End — Christ Himself. Fathers are not marked by rare or difficult knowledge. They are marked by coming back to the One they began with — Christ Himself.
- No old age. The list has fathers but no old men; this life develops, yet it never weakens or declines.