I wanted to explore the 1 John 2 passage where it talks about children, young men and fathers - which is a description of how the Christian matures spiritually throughout our lifetime.
12 I write to you, dear children, because your sins have been forgiven on account of his name.
13 I write to you, fathers, because you have known him who is from the beginning.
I write to you, young men, because you have overcome the evil one.
I write to you, dear children, because you have known the Father.
14 I write to you, fathers, because you have known him who is from the beginning.
I write to you, young men, because you are strong, and the word of God lives in you, and you have overcome the evil one.
13 I write to you, fathers, because you have known him who is from the beginning.
I write to you, young men, because you have overcome the evil one.
I write to you, dear children, because you have known the Father.
14 I write to you, fathers, because you have known him who is from the beginning.
I write to you, young men, because you are strong, and the word of God lives in you, and you have overcome the evil one.
In his enlightening sermon The Stages of Spiritual Growth, John MacArthur paraphrased v12...
John says, "I'm writing to you, all of you Christians, because you've all been forgiven not by anything you deserve or merit. You've been forgiven because it pleases God to put on display the wonder and glory of His grace."
MacArthur tells us a few of the things spiritual maturity is not.
It has nothing to do with your standing before God, that's fixed. It has nothing to do with God's love for you, that's established for eternity. It has nothing to do with time, there are people who have been Christians a long time and they're not mature. There are people who have been Christians a short time and they're progressing rapidly toward maturity. It has nothing to do with information, even biblical information because you can have information that's not really applied. It has nothing to do with activity, busyness doesn't equate to spiritual maturity. It has nothing to do with prosperity, temporal success, material benefit, the size of ministry, level of influence is not necessarily a measure of one's maturity...
You could say that at any point in the life of a believer they're either in the Spirit or in the flesh, they're either functioning in obedience to God and walking in the Spirit, or they're functioning in disobedience to God and walking in the flesh....
It's not an absolute in that you are or you aren't, it's relative as you grow. But I will tell you this, the only times you grow are the times when you are spiritual. The times when you're carnal, you fall back. So spiritual growth is the relative spiritual development of a person through all the accumulated times of walking in the Spirit. So the more you walk in the Spirit, the more you're going to grow.
So, in verse 12 John is recognizing that they are all Christians, but that they're at different levels of spiritual maturity, and that's ok.
So, in verse 12, when John used the word children, he was meaning all the children of God - all believers.
But in verse 13, it's a different word, meaning babies, or new and/or immature Christians. And just like the relationship or bond with mom and dad is all important to babies, so is the newness of the relationship with Christ to new Christians. It's about the relationship, not the information or doctrine, which means they're more likely to be led astray by false doctrine. They don't have the necessary wisdom or discernment - just like young children.
According to v14 young men are strong and have defeated Satan because the Word of God lives in them. They have moved past the beginning stage of relationship alone, and have become knowledgeable in the Truth. They have sound doctrine which is grounded in the Word, they are no longer susceptible to the false teachers, and are not easily deceived. They have grown in wisdom and discernment and delight in the truth. They still sin, but there is a decreasing frequency of sin. Not only that, but even though they sin less, their increasing hatred of sin makes the sin they do commit, seem worse to them.
So, in verse 12, when John used the word children, he was meaning all the children of God - all believers.
But in verse 13, it's a different word, meaning babies, or new and/or immature Christians. And just like the relationship or bond with mom and dad is all important to babies, so is the newness of the relationship with Christ to new Christians. It's about the relationship, not the information or doctrine, which means they're more likely to be led astray by false doctrine. They don't have the necessary wisdom or discernment - just like young children.
According to v14 young men are strong and have defeated Satan because the Word of God lives in them. They have moved past the beginning stage of relationship alone, and have become knowledgeable in the Truth. They have sound doctrine which is grounded in the Word, they are no longer susceptible to the false teachers, and are not easily deceived. They have grown in wisdom and discernment and delight in the truth. They still sin, but there is a decreasing frequency of sin. Not only that, but even though they sin less, their increasing hatred of sin makes the sin they do commit, seem worse to them.
I love how he describes spiritual fathers.
The third stage of spiritual development is when you don't just know the doctrine, you know the God who revealed the doctrine. You've begun to plumb the depths of the character of God. This is when your life becomes an experience of worship. This is when it's not just warfare about the doctrine. This is when you understand what the hymn writer meant when he talked about being lost in wonder, love and praise. This is when you get to the point where your soul is exhilarated in the knowledge of God. It's not the parts anymore, it's the sum of the parts. And in some ways you're back to the relationship again only it's fuller and richer and fully informed by sound doctrine to know the author of that doctrine, to know the God who is behind it. It's to deeply, intimately know God. (emphasis mine)
Everyone is at a different stage in their spiritual development. And it's not so much about exactly where you're at at a given time, it's about progress. And the power behind that progress is, of course, the Word of God.
how can you be a spiritual young man? When you're strong in the Word. So there you go. You're not even going to be a spiritual young man if you're not strong in the Word. How you going to become a spiritual father? You're never going to know the God who wrote the Word until you know what He wrote. And as you go over it and over it and deeper and deeper into it, the character of God begins to develop and to grow and expand. You literally live your life in awe of the wonder of who God is. The Word is life itself. It is the living Word. The Word is life giving. We're begotten again and sanctified by the Word. The Word is life maturing, grow in grace and in the knowledge that the Word provides. The Word is transforming, "Be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind." It is the bread of life by which we live and grow. And the pursuit of all of us is to become that spiritual father and the characteristic of that spiritual father is an intimate knowledge of God like the knowledge that Christ has of His own Father....
So if you wanted to pray an ultimate prayer, pray in your spiritual growth that God would bring you to the place where you would go from one level of glory to the next as you gaze at the image of Christ that you would literally get to the place where you know God in some measure the way Christ knows Him. (emphasis mine)
May that be our prayer today, and every day.
Tomorrow's passage: Ezekiel 47-48, 1 John 3
7 comments:
Just wondering if you will be continuing this for 2012?
There is actually a Facebook group for this site and there's been some discussion about that over there. Here's the link ~ it's an open group, so I think you should be able to see everything.
https://www.facebook.com/#!/groups/126305860769110/
And, of course, if you are ON Facebook, you could add yourself to the group!
Oops, I'm not very brilliant. You must be a member of Facebook in order to see stuff on Facebook! (it's Saturday morning and I haven't had enough coffee yet, obviously!) It's not the same as photo albums that can be viewed by "outsiders."
The plan is to continue next year, but trying to figure out how and using what study/plan is the issue.
Amen, Tammy. Great post! It's like our OTHER mutual good friend, Nancy Leigh DeMoss sometimes says: We are the product of what we have been becoming.
We won't wake up one day in the future to discover we're sweet, godly, wise old ladies if we are not already working at becoming sweet, godly, wise ladies NOW!
Doug/Debbie - yes, what Tammi said!
We are planning to continue next year but with a slightly different format. After reading the Bible through in a year twice now, we're ready for a bit of a change. The plan is to study certain books of the Bible more closely. We still need to decide exactly what that looks like, but that's our starting point for next year.
I love the way this is worded. We all know some professing believers aren't truly believers and some are following Christ, but very immature. Personally, I find it hard to tell the difference. This is very helpful for me to help discern so I know whether to share the gospel or whether to start teaching and discipling. Thanks so much!!
Thanks for this post, Tammy. I actually re-read those verses when I was reading the passage trying to understand what he was talking about. The post was very helpful.
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