BRACING THE BRUISED (2:12-14)

PREPARATORY QUESTIONS

1. Why the sudden switch from prose to poetry?

2. Does John see these as age groups or levels of spiritual maturity?

3. Why does he seem to repeat himself?

4. In what sense have the young men already overcome the wicked one?

5. How does the passage connect with what’s before, and what’s after it?

NOTES ON THE PASSAGE

Asking questions as you read, is key in studying the bible. These few verses pose several conundrums! When you reach such a passage, slow down: they are usually important in understanding the bigger picture.

CHRISTIAN ASSURANCE

The heretics have been actively undermining the believers' confidence in the truth of John's message about the Sonship of Christ, and ostracising those who held firm (3 John 10). Our words can build others up, or tear them down. Edification is more than just encouragement: it operates on the level of the human spirit, not just in. the mind. John knows he needs to speak deep into his hearers' wounded spirits, to reassure and strengthen them. And unlike prose, poetry can speak directly to our spirits as well as our minds.

He is seeking to affirm, encourage and brace the bruised and battle-weary - by speaking his fatherly affirmation into their spirits. John's opening paragraphs on 'walking in the light' could be misread as questioning the reality of the believers' faith: "if we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us". In fact, the opposite is true. He is writing, he says, because whether young in the faith or old, they are genuine born-again believers.

This theme of Christian assurance runs throughout the letter. The same tests that expose the heretics, can build our assurance. 'We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love the brethren' (3:14). 'By this we know that we abide in Him and He in us, because He has given us of His Spirit' (4:13). 'We know that whoever is born of God does not sin' (5:18). 'We know that we are of God, and the whole world lies under the sway of the wicked one' (5:19).

Doubt is the opposite of faith, and will give way under persecution. John is wanting to brace them for further trials. These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life, and that you may continue to believe in the name of the Son of God' (5:13).

CHILDREN, YOUNG MEN, FATHERS

Throughout his letter, John repeatedly refers to his readers as ‘my little children’ (2:1, 2:12, 2:23, 3:18, 4:4, 5:21). The Greek word teknia means child in the sense of offspring, rather than age. Just as an earthly father will speak into his child's future identity (for better or for worse!), John is here telling them who they are, in Christ.

All the New Testament authors express similar sentiments - a fatherly concern and love for those to whom they are writing. For many, John would have literally been their father in the faith. But for all of them, he has that deep love of the brethren which comes from fellowship with the Father; he manifests God's Father-heart. So rather than seeing verse twelve as referring to new believers, we should see it as encompassing all his readers, whether mature or immature. John's reason for writing, is true of every one of them: their sins have been forgiven, for Christ's name's sake. This is the foundation stone of a Christian's identity.

This then implies that everything John will go on to write, is applicable and important for Christians of every age group. When he goes on to talk about Christian perfection, this is not something that can only be 'achieved' after many years of experience and trials; it is something available by faith to believers at any stage of their Christian walk.

In verse thirteen, the terms he uses for fathers and young men usually refer to age groups rather than maturity. And he uses a different word for child (paidia), which unlike tekna has no connotation of relationship. So it seems that verse thirteen refers to an age classification.

The fathers (the older men) have known the One who is from the beginning. The tense indicates both an initial experience and an ongoing state.

They are living in fellowship with Christ, and are deeply aware that He is both Alpha and Omega. They know that they were chosen in Christ before the world began, to be holy and blameless before Him in love, and their election in eternity-past acts as an anchor for the stern of their 'ship of faith'. But they also have an anchor for its bow! They know that the whole of history is leading to a culmination in which Christ will return. They have 'a living Hope' (1 Pet 1:3), who will call them into resurrection bodies and the glory of His Presence.

Their security in His constant care has become seasoned through many trials over the years, such that they are much less daunted by new threats. And their testimony of God's providence throughout their lifetime, can buttress the younger ones' faith.

The young men have overcome the evil one. This may be a reference to the remarkable constancy exhibited by Christian youths during Emperor Domitian's persecution, ongoing at the time John was writing. Or it may indicate that they had been specially targeted by the secessionists, but had seen through them. Either way, just as in wartime it's the young men who get called up, they have been on the front line.

How we see ourselves, radically affects what we are capable of. Seeing ourselves as underdogs, punchbags for Satan to hit again and again, leads to a defeatist mentality. But knowing that in Christ we have overcome him, and will do so again and again, gives us strength and authority in the spiritual. Not cockyness or triumphalism, but deep-seated confidence of the power of Christ's life within us. This is what John is speaking into their spirits.

These young men had become strong through the word of God abiding in them. They had emerged as overcomers from the initial onslaught of accusations from the devil, just as Jesus did in the wilderness. Satan had sought God's permission to sift their faith until nothing was left in the sieve. But Christ had prayed for them, and they had claimed the blood of Christ and used the sword of the Spirit to overcome the enemy!

Most newly-born-again believers have a honeymoon period of joy in their salvation. But most also subsequently experience major tests of their faith - which if they have not been warned about, can lead to them falling away. Awaiting death in Herod's dungeon, John the Baptist had messaged Jesus for reassurance that He was indeed the Christ. Jesus replied, "Blessed is he that does not take offence'.

The little children (paidia, not tekna) haven't yet been exposed to the spiritual battle; but they have already come to know the Father. This was the first element of their Christian experience of the Trinity. Christ's whole purpose in dying was 'to bring men back to the Father' (1 Pet 3:18), to reconcile us to Him just as the prodigal son was reconciled to his father.

Western evangelicalism focusses on knowing Christ, and through Him coming to the Father. But Jesus's gospel focussed far more on the Father than on Himself. For example, the Sermon on the Mount contains seventeen references to the Father, and Jesus teaches the disciples to pray to the Father. And many of the parables teach about the Father's nature (e.g. the prodigal son). Jesus's self-revelation as the co-equal Son of God is far more prominent in John's Gospel than in any of the Synoptics, and occurs mainly when He is arguing with the scribes and Pharisees. It wasn't till the Upper Room that He specifically told His disciples, 'You believe in God; believe also in Me'.

Unlike our times, a son's upbringing was largely through his father. There were no schools, little social mobility, and no vocational training other than joining his father as a carpenter, fisherman, farmer or whatever. Marriage was arranged by one's parents, and initially a young man would bring his bride back to his parents' home. Fathers were generally held in high esteem by their children, and fatherly love and 'knowing how to give good gifts to one's children' was taken for granted.

But the image of God portrayed by legalistic Pharisaism and Temple worship, was that of a hard taskmaster: more like an Egyptian slavedriver for whom one's best was never enough. Between them the scribes and Pharisees had elaborated the Ten Commandments into three hundred and sixty five commands, each of which had multiple sub-clauses. Truly, they 'bound heavy burdens, hard to bear, and laid them on others' shoulders' whilst carving out loopholes for themselves such as the 'korban' rule. Their hypocrisy gave God a bad name!

So Jesus's role-modelling of a way 'whose yoke was easy, whose burden was light', and of intimate communion with His Father, was radical. He replaced all the legalism with love: loving God with all your heart and soul, and crossing social barriers to 'love your neighbour as yourself' like the good Samaritan. To call Almighty God 'Abba, daddy' was unheard-of.

Things are very different in our culture. Many modern-day Christians have never actually met the Father for themselves, because our image of true fatherhood is so distorted. The industrial revolution meant fathers worked away from home for long hours, and 'Just wait till your father gets home!' became a threat not a promise. Education was taken over by the State. Rapid technological change created a 'generation gap' mindset which taught that children needed to rebel against their parents in order to 'find themselves'. Marital breakdown and divorce meant that many a father abandoned their children, who were then taught to hate them by their mother. 'Patriarchal' became a term of abuse indicating domination and control. Calling God 'father' became impossibly difficult for many.

Would God that the day will come again, when new Christians routinely know the Father!

Setting these verses in the context of the rest of the lretter, it would seem that there are two different dimensions of Christian maturity: There is growth from the initial joy of salvation and sins forgiven, through the battle-hardening experiences of persecution from outside and heretical cults forming within (Acts 20:29,30), to the seasoned faith and father-heartedness of the older men (and women). But there is another dimension which John will go on to describe, relevant whatever one's age or length of spiritual life. It is about restoring the image of God in us: becoming in character what we already are in status, the children of God (3:1-3). This restoration is driven by love; and when the love of God has been perfected in us, our fellowship with the Father is freed from any inhibition, such that we can face death and judgement without any sense of fear.

Is verse fourteen mere repetition to drive the message home? In verses twelve and thirteen, John had used the present tense: ‘I am writing’. But now he uses the aorist tense: ‘I wrote’; and he no longer mentions the new believers. To me this implies he had written previously, before the new believers had been converted.

In John's second letter the heretics still have access to the church whereas in his first, they have already seceded and left. So theologian Howard Marshall holds that John's letters were written in reverse order to how we have them in our bible, implying that John is here referring back to what we call his 'second' letter.

His motives for the previous letter were just the same as for the present one. So he’s implying, ‘My view of you hasn’t changed as a result of this split in your church. I don’t think any the less of you than I did previously.’ In fact he commends the young men for their spiritual strength and their adherence to the doctrine of Christ the Logos, and His teaching. This is why they have overcome the devil, the 'strong man armed' (Lk 11:21).

OVERCOMING

Overcoming is one of John's favourite words; he uses it six times in this epistle and sixteen times in Revelation. It usually speaks of prolonged struggle, endurance, resilience, and final victory. However in this case the verb is in the perfect tense, indicating an event in the past which has ongoing significance in the present. So what does it refer to?

Later, John tells us 'He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world' (4:4). 'Whatever is born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that overcomes the world, even our faith. Who is he who overcomes the world, but he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?' (5:4,5). In the Upper Room, Jesus had braced them with the words, 'In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, for I have overcome the world' (Jn 16:33). But these young men can't have overcome the world completely yet, as John immediately goes on to urge them not to love the world! (2:15). This reference to overcoming the evil one must therefore refer to something else.

There is a general principle of the Christian life, that we should leave any form of revenge to God. We should 'not repay evil with evil, but overcome evil with good' (Rom 12:19-21). But again, this refers to an ongoing principle rather than a specific event.

There is a surprising form of overcoming Christ looks for, in our membership of our local church. In His letters (Rev 2 & 3) to the churches under John's bishopric, Christ analyses each church's strengths and weaknesses, and then says, 'To him who overcomes, I will give ....' The implication is that He is looking to specially reward believers who stand out within each congregation, in that they have overcome the characteristic weakness of their fellowship: those who have kept their first love, who have not compromised on idolatry or sexual purity, are not trading on past revival and have not become lukewarm. But Revelation was written while John was in exile on Patmos, some five to ten years after First John was written.

None of the above really fit with this passage. However there is one cross-reference which particularly matches John's comment about the young men. 'Now salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of His Christ have come, for the accuser of our brethren, who accused them before our God day and night, has been cast down. And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, and they did not love their lives to the death' (Rev 12:10-11).

Paul talks about occasions when the enemy attacks us with particular force: times such as when Jesus was tempted in the wilderness. He talks of us needing to 'put on the full armour of God' to be able to withstand (Eph 6:10-15), because 'our conflict is not with human forces, but against principalities and powers, world rulers of this present darkness, and spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly realms'. Many of the trials and tribulations which seem unexplainable to us, are the direct result not of our own fleshly weaknesses or of someone else's personality flaws, but of spiritual attack. And the weapons we need are not better negotiating skills or good lawyers, but ongoing prayer cover and the ability to use the word of God in self-defence - as Jesus did in the wilderness. It seems these young men were already well aware of the need to stand against the enemy in this way: whereas many Western Christians are completely unaware of this dimension of life.

THE CONTEXT: THE DOMITIAN PERSECUTION

The context was of growing persecution of Christians by Emperor Domitian, who had come to power in AD 81, 5 - 10 years before John's letter. He was the first Roman emperor to mandate compulsory worship, demanding that subjects honor him as "God the Lord." Previously, Rome had been a republic for centuries, and then an aristocracy. But Domitian's father Vespasian was a 'nouveau riche' who tried to found a dynasty, effectively seeking to be treated as a monarch. Vespasian's eldest son Titus was the Roman general who oversaw the destruction of Jerusalem in AD 69-70; and thereafter Jews in the Empire had to pay an annual tax of two denarii to survive. For ten years Vespasian ruled with Titus and Domitian as co-regents. {They are now principally known by the surname Flavius; but in their own day, they were also known as the Teitan family, and some early numerology references equate “Teitan” with “666”) After Vespasian's death in AD 79, Domitian's elder brother Titus took over, but died two years later. Some say Domitian poisoned him, out of jealousy over Titus's popularity.

Domitian reigned supreme from AD 81-96. John's Gospel is thought to have been written ca. AD 85, his Letters ca. AD 85-90 and his Revelation, ca. AD 95.

In order to counteract the power of the Roman Senate, Domitian gradually built up a cult of worship. He exacted public sacrifices to, and oaths by his 'genius': the creative force and the protective spirit associated with him and his family. Gold and silver statues of him were erected on the Capitol among those of the state gods, and disrespect to his statue was punished as sacrilege. The Jewish tax was extended to Christians whether Jews or Gentiles. Believers who would not swear 'Caesar is Lord' were accused of treason, and executed. He became increasingly paranoid and authoritarian, and when a cousin was appointed Proconsul of Rome in AD95, Domitian had him executed - possibly on the grounds that had become a Christian. Mercifully, the following year Domitian was assassinated; and the new emperor held no animosity towards Christians.

Whereas Nero's persecution thirty-five years earlier had been confined to Rome but marked by horrific martyrdoms, Domitian's was empire-wide: more systematic but a little less crazed. In Ephesus where John lived, the city erected a magnificent new temple to Domitian in 89-90 AD (around the time this letter was written); its statue of him was 27 ft tall. The building was part of the Olympic games which Ephesus hosted, and the city struck medals that made Domitian look like Zeus.

Having (some say) miraculously survived being dropped in boiling oil, John was exiled to Patmos, from whence he wrote 'the Revelation of Jesus Christ'. Where previously the Christians had regarded the empire as a divinely appointed instrument for the suppression of crime and the restraint of Antichrist, and thus given it their loyalty, it was now clear that God and the emperor were rivals for mens' ultimate allegiance. Thus 95 AD marks the beginning of a conflict between religion and the state which will never disappear until "the kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ". The world rulers of this present darkness, antiChrist rulers such as North Korea, Islamists and the like, will be no more.

GUARDING THE TRUTH, WITHIN THE CHURCH

In the meantime, the underlying spiritual roots of our struggle go on. Satan hates the truths about Christ's incarnation, atonement and authority becoming known, and will attack the Church ('the pillar and ground of the truth', 1 Tim 3:15) in whatever ways he can; external persecution, or internal schism or corruption.

This battle has been with the antiChrist spirits driving the dissenters (2:18-20, 4:1-3). They are ‘of the world’: still in the kingdom of darkness; still driven by lust, envy and pride. They have no concern for the unity of the Spirit and the Body of Christ. Their aim instead is to carve out their own following, and make a name for themselves.

Churches will always contain people with differing views on theological issues. (We’ve discussed freewill and predestination for one.) Some are worth fighting over, some are not. The Spirit can give us anointing to know the difference. But as well as questioning what spirit others are coming in, we need to check our own hearts' responses. Our 'natural man' will respond to anger with anger, to rejection with rejection, etc etc. But our 'spiritual man' overcomes evil with good, prays for those who despise us, and so on.

Having said that, John is clear that it's a good thing the heretics have left (2:19), because it has made clear that they were never truly part of the Body of Christ. Their travelling teachers have been propagating the heresies to other churches under the guise of coming from the mother church in Ephesus, relying on local Christians' generous hospitality (2 Jn 7-11).

If the young men have been the warriors, the older men have supplied the high ground of doctrinal truth and the wisdom of experience. The fathers know the eternal context of what is going on. Their age has given them an understanding of spiritual history and the constancy of the eternal God, much like Moses (Ps 90:1,2; Ex 17:8-13). They are anchored at both bow and stern: an anchor of hope and anticipation of Christ's return, plus the anchor of knowing that we were chosen in eternity past, by an ever-faithful God.

Those of us who class as 'fathers' should be seeking to strengthen our young men. Fathering doesn't stop at the age of majority!

Now we can see how this passage connects with what comes before (reassurance) and what comes after (teaching about the world's temptations, spiritual attacks and discernment). Having laid a foundation of truth which also enables them to see clearly where they stand, John wants them to know that nothing he has written is remotely questioning their true faith. What has happened is no fault of theirs, but rather, a manifestation of the spiritual battle of the end times. The Prince of this world, the ruler of this present darkness, has mobilised his legions of lying antichrist spirits; and they will need to ignore all his worldly seductions and cling on to the truth. The Holy Spirit wilkl give them all the discernment they need to hold onto eternal life and to abide in the Son and in the Father.

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If you are feeling bruised and battered by factions and schisms within the church, take heart! You may be a young man, on the front line. Or you may be a father, holding up others' arms in prayer as the battle rages. Either way, you are a beloved child of God. Christ will uphold you, and you will eventually become an overcomer!

When a father is teaching their son how to ride a bike, he will initially run beside the lad, steadying him. But then he starts to fall back, and as his son cycles ahead he shouts encouragement: "Yeah! Well done! You can do it! Keep going!" - knowing full well that any moment now, his son will fall off and there will be tears. Then there will be comforting, reflecting on how well he did to get so far, and eventually another try, and final mastery.

Our heavenly Father's heart is like that, towards you.

To me, the best example of His encouragement is the story of a young man called Gideon. All his neighbours' farms have already been plundered by the Midianites, and he knows they will be coming for him soon. He's squirreled away the earliest harvest in a deep wine press, where he's hiding from sight, trying to thresh the wheat without any wind to blow the chaff away! He's the youngest child of the weakest clan in the unremarkable tribe of Manasseh - and yet an angel addresses him as a mighty man of valour, saying 'The LORD is with you'. He questions why, if that's true, God seems to have abandoned Israel into its enemies' hands. God says, 'You must lead your people into victory; go in the strength that you have'. Gideon questions whether the youngest child of the weakest clan in the unremarkable tribe of Manasseh is really that strong; and God replies, 'But for definite, I will be with you'.

"Go in the strength that you have, you mighty man of God; for I AM is with you" (Jdg 6:12,14)