The Father and His Children
J. M. Gibbon. 1 John 2:12-14 I write to you, little children, because your sins are forgiven you for his name's sake.… Having shown what God is, and what follows from that, what Christ is, and also what follows from that, St. John now tells his readers what by the grace of God they themselves are, and what follows from that. St. John's description of Christians. I. IN THEIR UNITY, or as to the things they have in common. 1. A common life (ver. 12). "Children" is one of the standing terms in this Epistle for all Christians of all ages and ranks; and the great truth to which this term witnesses is the kinship of all Christian people. 2. We are all feeble in power, partial in knowledge, fractious in temper, imperfect in all things. If Newton at the height of his career felt himself a child strolling on the shore of a fathomless sea; if St. Paul at the height of his inspiration felt that his views of truth were imperfect, "for now I know in part, and prophesy in part"; if Michael Angelo at eighty said, "I carry my satchel still" — still like a little child going every day to school to learn a new lesson; if J.R. Green, with all his mine of knowledge, said, "I shall die learning"; surely, then, we must feel that the term "little ones" is no piece of apostolic play fulness, no mere pet name prompted by St. John's great love, but a strictly accurate description of us all. 3. Faith in His name, i.e., in Himself, as revealed by Him self to us — is the first religious act of man. Forgiveness in His name is the first religious gift of God. Faith and forgiveness constitute the first act of reciprocity, of give and take between God and man. Now forgiveness of sin is the third fact common to all Christians. All Christians are akin. All are imperfect. All are for given. 4. To know the Father means to live in direct personal communion with the Father — personally to love Him, to obey Him, to draw near Him in prayer and praise. To live with regard to God not like an orphan whose father is a mere memory or a hearsay, but like a child whose father is alive and at home, who sees him every day, knows him better and loves more as each day passes — that is the crowning feature of the Christian life. II. IN THEIR VARIETY. 1. Knowledge is the feature of age. "I write unto you, fathers, because ye know." You cannot begin your Christian life with knowing; you must begin with believing. Life — only a life of action for God can change belief into knowledge. 2. Young men, there is a fight before you. Mrs. Oliphant, in one of her weird stories, tells of a secret chamber in a haunted castle, where dwelt for ages a bad ancestor of a lordly race, keeping himself alive by unholy arts. Every heir of that house on his twenty-first birth day was compelled to enter the chamber alone and meet the temptations of this evil man. One by one they fell into the snare; till one came who discarded the sword given him, and met the tempter in God's name, and conquered. Well, that weird ghost story is our own life story. All men and all women meet that spectre. We would protect you young folk; we would save you the temptation in the wilder ness; but it may not be. Hell will assault you at every point of your nature. Now a young man's strength in that dread hour depends on how much of God's Word he has in him. (J. M. Gibbon.) Parallel Verses KJV: I write unto you, little children, because your sins are forgiven you for his name's sake. WEB: I write to you, little children, because your sins are forgiven you for his name's sake.