Here the aged apostle has a message of affection for every class and age of Christian disciples.
And is it not wise for Christian teachers occasionally to proclaim to Christians some message designedly appropriate to each particular stage? For the cycle of man’s fleeting life, like the cycle of the revolving year, has its succession of seasons--its springtime of childhood, its summer of youth, its autumn of maturity, and its winter of old age. Each of these succeeding seasons of life has its own joys and sorrows, weakness and strength, temptations, besetting sins, and preventing graces. And the gospel has a message appropriate for each period in life.
I. It has, first of all, a message for little children. Very beautiful and wonderful it is to think of Jesus, the Son of God, as the Babe of Bethlehem, passing through every stage of infancy, with all a child’s trials, thoughts, hopes, fears, imaginings. Never before, in the history of the world, had any religion taken little children so closely and so warmly to its heart. And do not little children stand in need of the gospel of Christ? A child’s life is often a very mingled life. Heaven often lies about us in our infancy, but often also heaven seems to flee quite far away. In every fortress of innocence there lurks some evil traitor, waiting to hand over the keys of the citadel to the temptations crouching at the gates. Little children, therefore, need all the help which parental discipline and affection, Combined with religious education and good companionship, can render in their conflict against evil. But, my children, you cannot lead good and beautiful lives by simply trusting to your training. In religion, as in all things else, self-help and firm resolve are of the greatest importance.
II. Now pass from childhood to the second stage of life--youth. The season of youth is a very glad and glorious time. It has all the freshness of spring and all the fertility of summer. Yet it is a season of great and frequent perils. And Jesus, the Son of God, under stood both its glory and its danger (Mar_10:17-22). The self-sacrificing love of Christ is the most powerful of all magnets for attracting the devotion of the young. What young man who steadfastly gazes upon the spectacle of the Cross can withstand its blessed influence and its strong, appealing power? To show thee the pitiless violence of sin, as well as to enable thee to conquer it, Christ gave Himself up for thee with broken heart, yet unbending determination, upon the cruel Cross. Wilt thou not, then, make Him thy hero, thy model, thy all-inspiring friend?
III. Our text has also a message for the aged. Old age, like every other season of life, has its own besetting sins and its own appropriate graces. The forms of sin change with the changing course of years. As the hot fires of vigour die down into cold cinders of decrepitude, the gay, thoughtless, and softly indulgent youth hardens into the cynical, envious, covetous, ambitious old man. On the other hand, old age has also its special graces. Especially do these graces shine in those who, “from the beginning,” have been true and faithful unto Christ. He will not disdain the gleanings of your latest years, if with all your heart you truly seek Him. But for you, conscript fathers of the Church of Christ, there is a richer and a brighter message. You have known Christ from the beginning of your pilgrimage. You were faithful in the bursting freshness of spring, in the wearying heats of summer. You know by this time what God is; you have proved Him to the uttermost in childhood, youth, and maturer years. Experience has taught you that He never fails. And so for you there remains the special grace of the aged--the grace which transfigures the wrinkled face with the radiance of inward joy, and sets the golden crown of perfect peace upon the snowy head. For you, the seed graces of spring and the flower graces of summer, have developed into the rich fruit graces of autumn. Self-control has ripened into self-conquest; kindness has been hallowed into love; the heavy morning of self-denial has brightened into the cloudless day of self-repose; the toil of the ascent has been repaid by the landscape from the summit. Nor is this all. The sunset, too, is glorious. And after sunset, as the twilight of evening deepens into the darkness of night, the stars begin to peep in the roof of heaven, stars which were invisible by day. And when death itself shall appear to you, ye old and faithful servants of the Lord, it will be not death, but victory. (Canon Diggle.)
The guileless spirit abiding in the light in its threefold aspect of childhood, fatherhood, and youth
These verses form, I think, a break or interruption in the apostle’s line of argument. John calls upon those to whom he writes to consider, not only what he is writing to them, but what they themselves are to whom he is writing; what he is entitled to assume in and about them as likely to ensure a favourable reception of his message.
I. Considered in itself, the appeal recognises, on the one hand, a common character in all believers, that of “little children,” and on the other hand a distinction between “fathers” and “young men.”
1. In addressing us all as little children, John makes a distinction between his first and his second appeal. It is the same thought in reality, only put in somewhat different lights. For the Father is truly known, only in the forgiveness of our sins for His Son’s name’s sake.
2. The appeal is next made to the two classes or companies into which we may be divided: those who are fathers in Israel, and those who are young men.
II. It stands between two opposite precepts; the one positive, the other negative. “Love the brotherhood” (verses 9-11); “Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world” (verse 15). To love the Father, and the brethren as the Father’s family; not to love the world lying in the wicked one; these are the contrasted commands between which the apostle’s earnest and affectionate appeals occur. The entrance of the light into the world, its entrance into the hearts of as many as are in Christ, necessarily causes a division. It unites by a new bond of brotherhood the children of the light among themselves. And it separates between them and the world. The separation, or distinction, is not of their own making, but of God’s. He is in the light. He is Himself the Light. It is He who is the Divider, and not they. Nor is the distinction of such a sort as to feed or nurse vaingloriousness on our part, or to be invidious as regards the world. Far otherwise. It is fitted to humble us in the very dust, as often as we think of what we are in ourselves, and but for sovereign mercy must ever have been; of what many, very many, around us are; less guilty, by many degrees, than we; and more likely than we to win, not only earth’s approval, but, one would almost say, even Heaven’s favourable regard too. What am I? And what are they?(R. S. Candlish, D. D.)
Three stages of natural and Christian life: the distinction of three sort of Christians, “fathers,” “young men,” and “little children”
1. Though spiritual growth be most considerable here, yet natural age is not altogether to be excluded. God hath people of all sorts and sizes, some old, some in the freshness of youth, others that are but newly got out of infancy and childhood. For fathers or old men, we read of Paul the aged (Phm_1:9) and of Mnason an old disciple (Act_21:16). Among young men we read of Josiah (2Ch_34:3), of good Obadiah (1Ki_18:12), of Samuel (1Sa_2:18), of Timothy (2Ti_3:15). Hosanna was not displeasing to Christ in little children (Mat_21:15-16). Well, then, people of all ages should apply themselves to religion. Old men excuse themselves, they are too old to interest themselves in Christ; and the children are not ripe, and young men are otherwise occupied; but fathers for age should be also fathers for knowledge and godliness (Pro_16:31). On the contrary, how sad is it when men have spent many years unfruitfully, and are acquainted with all other things but God and their own souls, and have not as yet begun to live spiritually; when they have one foot in the grave, and are as good as dead already! You never begin to live till you live in Christ. You have but told over so many summers and winters; all that time is lost that is spent in your unregeneracy. A man may be long at sea, and yet make but a short voyage. Oh, bethink yourselves before your hoary head go down to the grave in sorrow! Submit to this work before it be too late. Chimneys long foul, if they be not swept, are fired at length.
2. For young men, it concerneth them to apply their hearts to godliness. There is an ignorant conceit that it is not so necessary for young men to study the Scriptures, or to trouble themselves much with thinking of heaven, because they are lusty, and likely to live many years, and therefore think it more fit for them to mind the things of this life, and let old men alone to think of heaven and holiness. Our apostle was not of this mind. Scripture biddeth us “remember our Creator in the days of our youth” (Ecc_12:1). Our best and flowery years should be consecrated to God. And David would have the “young man cleanse his way” (Psa_119:9). It is but reason that God, that gave all, should have our first and best; they glorify God most who begin with Him soonest. The lusts of youth being boiling hot, need the correction of a more severe discipline. The devil layeth most snares for them, as those who are most prone to sin, who are like to serve him longest; and therefore, that they may not be caught in Satan’s snares they should begin with God betimes. A good man may remember old sins with new fears that they are not pardoned. Now afflictions may awaken the sense of old sins, as old bruises trouble us a long time after upon every change of weather.
3. For babes or little children; they being born in sin must also be born again. Surely they that have the education of children belonging to them should season them betimes with good principles; they find the benefit of it ever afterward. Scripture often inviteth us to a careful education of them; and there be many promises of good success (Pro_22:6). Dye the cloth in the wool, and not in the web, and the colour is the more durable. God worketh strangely in children, and many times rare things are found in them beyond expectation. (T. Manton, D. D.)
Spiritual growth
1. There is a great difference among Christians; all are not of one stature, strength, and growth in godliness; as here, there are fathers, young men, and babes. He supposeth the more elderly will be fathers in Christ, and that everyone hath profited according to his time and standing. God created Adam and Eve in their full perfection, but doth not regenerate us into our full stature in Christ.
2. It may fall out that the elder Christians may be babes in Christ, and the younger Christians rather fathers for their longer experience in the things of God, and for the better government of their passions. David when young was wiser than his enemies, than his teachers, than the ancients (Psa_119:100). Gracious abilities come not from age, but from the Spirit. Ancient men try several conclusions to their own loss; but God is more ancient than they, and at one prospect seeth all things; if He will direct me I am safe. Joseph young, at seventeen years old, was wiser than his brethren. Daniel and his fellows ten times more than all the astrologers and magicians, though children (Dan_1:17-20). And many times youth goeth before the aged in ripeness of wisdom, and in solid manners, though they are so much behind them in number of years.
3. As to spiritual growth, some may be weak and strong, young and old at the same time, in different respects, as we see by experience. Some are weak in knowledge and unsettled in the faith, who yet have a good zeal towards God, and are temperate, just, and holy, and have a great command over their affections and passions. On the other side, some are of a good understanding, and they come behind in no gift, yet are subject to carnal passions and affections, and so are babes in that respect (1Co_3:1-3). A spiritual people is not a people of parts, knowledge, and abilities, but of grace and sanctification.
4. There is a wonderful difference between Christians and themselves at sundry times; so that these three degrees may be coincident. The gravest father may be as weak as the youngest child, as violently tempted as the young man. Satan’s design is against the spiritual Christian, and those who are more eminent than others, to throw them into the mire, that religion may have the greater wound and dishonour. In violent gusts of wind, even cedars may fall to the ground. Therefore, as we grow in grace, we should increase in humility and godly fear.
5. All this doth not hinder but that some from their settled constant frame may be called “fathers,” “young men,” and “babes.”
(1) Fathers are such who, through long experience and much acquaintance with a godly life, do walk more constantly, cheerfully, and fruitfully in the ways of God than others do.
(2) Young men in Christ are such as have most courage, resolution, and earnestness, yet not that experience which Christ’s old servants have gotten; a middle sort of Christians, not so settled as the aged, nor yet altogether so weak as babes. They are more exercised with temptations, and a life of conflicts, as having many rebellious passions to subdue, which being irritated by the suggestions of Satan and the baits of sense, do put them to no small trouble.
(3) There are babes or little children.
Use--1. If there be “fathers,” “young men,” and “children,” then--
(1) Let us “not despise the day of small things” (Zec_4:10), not in ourselves nor others.
(2) Let us not despise the meanest degree of grace in others. Time was when everyone was a babe in Christ, and time may be when those who are but babes may grow old men (Mat_20:16).
Use--2. Let us consider in what rank we are, that we may wisely apply ourselves to the duties proper to our condition. Usually that which old men want is fervour; that which young men want, if they know their hearts, is sincerity; the one must beg quickening grace, as David doth often in Psa_119:1-176.
Use--3. To awaken us to labour after the highest rank of grace. God is the more honoured the more fruitful we are (Php_1:9). (T. Manton, D. D.)
Fathers:--
Fathers in Christ
1. St. John says, “I write,” and by and by, “I have written,” this shows, I think, the importance of his subject. If he has already written upon it, he must think it to be a very necessary truth if he writes upon it yet again. Foundation stones should be laid with scrupulous care; and truth, which is fundamental, should be repeated by the teacher till the disciple has learned it beyond all fear of ever forgetting it.
2. This form of speech also reveals the unchanging conviction of the writer, who, having written once, is glad to write the same things again. This shows a mind made up and decided, from which proceeds consistent testimony. If we live a thousand years, at the close of life we shall have nothing more nor less to say than the imutable truth of God. We hope to understand the truth better, but we shall never discover better truth.
3. “I write,” and “I have written,” also indicate the abiding need of men: they require the same teaching from time to time. Men’s natures are still the same, men’s spiritual conflicts and dangers are still the same, and hence the same truth is suitable, not only from day to day, but from century to century. Though we can now digest the solid meat of the kingdom, yet the children’s bread has lost none of its relish in our esteem.
I. Who are the fathers?
1. We usually associate that idea somewhat with age; but we must take care that we do not make a mistake here, because age in grace, albeit that it may run parallel with age in nature in many cases, does not always do so. In the Church of God there are children who are seventy years old. One would not like to say of a man of eighty that he had scarcely cut his wisdom teeth, and yet there are such. On the other hand, there are fathers in the Church of God, wise, stable, instructed, who are comparatively young men. The Lord can cause His people to grow rapidly, and far outstrip their years. From their early youth they have a discernment of God’s Word, and a quickness of apprehension wonderful to notice. More than that, I have even observed a depth of experience within a very short time granted to certain young believers, so that though they were but youths in age they were fathers in piety. Nevertheless, as a usual thing, it is to be expected that advancement in grace should be accompanied with advancement in years. These are the fathers, then, men who have aged in grace, have come to the full development of their spiritual manhood, and have been confirmed in that development by the test of time and trials.
2. “Fathers,” again, are persons of maturity, men who are not raw and green, not fresh recruits. These men know what they know, for they have thought over the gospel, studied it, and have embraced it with full intensity of conviction.
3. “Fathers,” again, are men of stability and strength. As the Spartans pointed to their citizens as the real walls of Sparta, so do we point to these substantial men as, under God, the brazen walls and bulwarks of the Church. Men who are well taught, confirmed, experienced, and trained by the Spirit of God are pillars in the house of our God.
4. The fathers of the Church are men of heart, who naturally care for the souls of others.
5. Having this care upon him the father comes to be tender; he partakes somewhat of the tenderness of a mother, and thus is called a nursing father. Sympathetic care and hearty tenderness are gifts of the Holy Spirit, and will bring you a happiness which will richly compensate you for your pains.
6. Not yet have I quite reached the full meaning of a father; for the father is the author, under God, of the being of his children; and happy is a Church that has many in it who are spiritual parents in Zion, through having brought sinners to Christ.
II. What is the prominent characteristic of a father in Christ? “I write unto you, fathers, because ye have known Him that is from the beginning.”
1. Observe here the concentration of their knowledge. Twice he says, “Ye have known Him that is from the beginning.” Now, a babe in grace knows twenty things: a young man in Christ knows ten things: but a father in Christ knows one thing, and that one thing he knows thoroughly. Oh, to have one heart, one eye, for our one Lord, and for Him alone!
2. Note the peculiarity of their knowledge as to its object: they know “Him that was from the beginning.” Do not the babes in Christ know the Lord Jesus? Yes, they do; but they do not know Him in His full character. They know Him as having forgiven their sins, and that is much, but it is not all. Yes, and as I grow and become a young man, I approach nearer to Jesus, and get another view of Him; for I overcome the wicked one even as He did, and thus I stand side by side with Him in the conflict. But if I come to be a father I enter into fellowship with the great Father Himself; for it is union with God the Father that makes a man a father in God. When you become a father in Christ you see Christ from the Father’s point of view; not as newly come to save, but as “from the beginning” the Saviour of men. The father in grace rejoices to behold the Lord Jesus as God: he beholds the glory of His adorable person as forever with the Father or ever the earth was. He sees that covenant even from of old ordered in all things and sure in the hand of Him that was from the beginning. There is one point that the father in Christ delights to think upon, namely, that the coming of Christ was not an expedient adopted after an unforeseen disaster in order to retrieve the honour of God; but he understands that the whole scheme of events was planned in the purpose of Divine wisdom for the glorifying of Christ, so that from the beginning it was part of Jehovah’s plan that Jesus should take upon Himself human nature, and should manifest in that nature all the attributes of the Father.
3. I want to notice again, that this knowledge is in itself special: the knowledge itself is remarkable as well as the object of the knowledge. “Ye have known Him.” Yes, we do know the Lord as a living, bright reality, a daily friend, councillor, and companion. True fathers in grace not only know the Lord by much meditation, but they know Him by actual intercourse; they walk with Him, they talk with Him. They look upon matters not from man’s standpoint, but from Christ’s point of view, and hence they understand much of the Lord’s ways which aforetime were dark to them. He who very deeply sympathises with a man knows Him well. Learning by faith to sit still and believingly wait the event, these fathers calmly expect that all things will work together for good to them: and hence they understand the unbroken serenity of the heart of Jesus, and know Him in His joys as well as in His sorrows.
III. What is the message to the fathers? I would indicate that message by referring to the context.
1. John has been saying that we should love one another. If you are truly fathers you cannot help loving all the family: the fatherly instinct is love, and fathers in Christ should be brimful of it.
2. The next message immediately succeeds the text, “Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world.” You have all the marks of what they call declining years--I call them ascending years; you will soon be gone from the world and its changing vanities, therefore do not set your love on earthly treasures.
3. While they are not to love the world they must take care that they do not fall victims to any of the lusts of this present evil world, such as the lust of the flesh. You are grown ripe in grace, and will soon enter heaven, live accordingly.
4. The next exhortation to the fathers is that they should watch, for, says the apostle, “Ye have heard that antichrist shall come, even now there are many antichrists.” Oh, valiant fathers, keep ye watch and ward.
5. Lastly, it is the duty of the fathers to prepare for the coming of the Lord. “Abide in Him, that, when He shall appear, ye may have confidence, and not be ashamed before Him at His coming.” (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Christian fathers and the knowledge of the Divine Being
In the distinction of Christians, they are fathers who best know Him that was from the beginning.
I. The object. By “Him that was from the beginning” is meant Christ, who is also thus elsewhere described (Joh_1:1-2).
1. As to His office and saving efficacy (Rev_13:8).
2. As to His personal subsistence (Mic_5:2; Joh_17:5). The benefit of this meditation.
(a) To further the joy of our faith, in that we see the infinite worth that is in His sufferings to satisfy justice and to expiate sin.
(b) To increase the strength of our confidence against all the assaults of the enemies of our salvation (1Jn_5:5).
(c) That we may be more apprehensive of the greatness of His love, which we shall never be till we consider the dignity of His person.
(d) To show the readiness of our obedience, that we may receive His doctrine, and obey His laws; that we may not be ashamed of His truth, and the profession of His name.
(e) To increase our reverence, and that the ignominy of His Cross may not obscure His glory, nor lessen His respect in our hearts, but that we may have high and honourable thoughts of our humbled Lord in His lowest estate.
(f) To draw our hearts from all created things, and to lessen our respect to worldly vanities, that so our minds and hearts may more look after those things which are eternal and glorious. He that was before the world was will be when the world shall be no more.
II. What kind of knowledge it is that is here spoken of? There is a two-fold knowledge.
1. Speculative and historical: with this most content themselves. The Jews had “a form of knowledge” (Rom_2:20), and so hath the formal Christian (2Ti_3:5) a map or model of gospel truths. There are different degrees of this--a memorative knowledge. Another degree above this is an opinionative knowledge, when they do not only charge their memories, but have a kind of conscience and judgment about these things. But yet wisdom entereth not upon the heart (Pro_2:10). They make men disputers of this world, but not serious practisers of godliness. They have a religion to talk of, but not to live by.
2. Practical and saving. The truth and soundness of our knowledge is mainly known by the effects. We are to “know Him that was from the beginning,” so as--
(1) To believe in Him, and to venture our eternal interests in His hands (Psa_9:10).
(2) To know Him so as to esteem and prize Him (Php_3:8-9).
(3) To know Him so as to embrace Him with love and desire (Joh_4:10).
(4) To know Him so as to obey Him (Jer_22:16).
III. What is herein proper to fathers, or how can this be a ground of distinction between them and others, since all Christians are indispensably bound to know Christ? (Joh_17:3)
1. Whatever is said of either age, fathers, young men, or babes, doth certainly belong to all; as to overcome the wicked one, so to know Him that was from the beginning. To know the Father is common to all the ranks, only most eminently in one more than in the other.
2. There is some peculiar fitness in these characters, and in the several ages mentioned; as--
(1) Plenitude of knowledge belongeth to the ancient (Job_12:12).
(2) Old men are versed in the knowledge of ancient things, and love to discourse of things done long ago. So the apostle commendeth his fathers, or old men, for that they have known the Ancient of Days, or the eternal Son of God, which maketh them more happy than all that knowledge which they have gotten by many years or long experience in the world. (T. Manton, D. D.)
The aged in years and grace
I. Who are fathers, or in the highest rank of Christianity.
1. They are such as are more delightfully employed in the exercises of godliness. I ascribe this to fathers, partly because they are acquainted with the pleasures of obedience (1Jn_5:3); and partly because by long custom they have inured themselves thereto, so that it is become another nature to them. They are alive unto God; and what a man doth with naturalness, he doth it frequently, constantly, and easily.
2. They do more wisely manage the affairs of the spiritual life. They know the craft of Satan (2Co_2:11); they have felt the bitterness of sin (Psa_51:6); they know what hindrances they shall have from the devil, world, and flesh, and how they may resist and grow wise to salvation. Experience hath made them wise to decline the rocks upon which they dashed heretofore.
3. They are more fixed in the truth against the seduction of error. The long experience of the fruit of duties confirms them against those delusions which would draw us from them.
4. Their hearts are brought into a more settled, heavenly temper. A tree that hath long stood out against many stormy winds is the more firmly rooted; so a seasoned Christian that hath gone through all weathers. But men that have not solid rooting wave hither and thither. There is initial grace, and a radicated state of grace.
5. They oftener meditate of God, His Word and works and providence. They have had a long time to make provision and hoard up spiritual treasure; and now they bring it forth (Mat_12:31). Meditation is a difficult work for young beginners; they are not as yet cleansed from vain thoughts, nor have inured themselves to self-government. But now long experience hath taught the aged Christian what a hindrance it is to have their hearts pestered with vanities, how it deadeneth their prayers; and therefore they throng themselves with holy thoughts of God in Christ, who is the beloved of their souls.
6. They can more feelingly than others speak of the shortness, misery, and sinfulness of the present life (Gen_47:8-9). They know the disappointments of a naughty world.
7. They are more weaned from the delights of sense, and have long used to moderate themselves within the bounds of sobriety (Tit_2:2).
8. They think and speak of the world to come, and the blessed state of the faithful in the most lively manner, as apprehending it sure and near (2Co_4:16).
9. They attain unto greater soundness and integrity in the essentials of religion (Tit_2:2).
II. How much it concerneth fathers in years to be fathers in grace, and to be more eminently religious than others, that they may be a pattern to them.
1. It conduceth to God’s honour. If young men and children only should profess religion, you would take it for indiscretion and hotness of spirit; young ponies, they know not what they do. Fathers, when they served God in their ripest age and yet are not weary of His service, this is an honour to Him.
2. For your own comfort, what a support is godliness to old age, when decays of nature are recompensed with the increase of grace, the weakness of body with soundness of mind (2Co_4:16). The mind is vigorous when the body is weak. When the eye is dim, as in old Israel, it can see God the invisible one.
III. The aged in years and grace must be written unto.
1. That they may persevere in godliness. They are not yet out of the reach of temptations. Partly by their own security. A man of long standing, being secure of salvation, may grow remiss and negligent. And if he go round in his accustomed tract of duties, may carry it as if he were now past all danger, and so insensibly decayeth. Well, then, there needeth watchfulness to the very last. Man is a very changeable creature; therefore we should always stand upon our guard. Partly because the course of temptations may be altered; the devil doth not always play the same game. We had need be provided for all weathers (Php_4:12).
2. That their growth may be promoted; that they may be stirred up to more seriousness, diligence, and more fruitfulness.
(1) After so long a standing, and so much means, more growth and tendency towards perfection may be justly expected from them (Psa_92:13-14).
(2) Their manifold experience should make them better. It is a miserable thing to pass under so many providences, and not to be improved by them (Deu_29:2-6). (T. Manton, D. D.)
Religion beautiful in all seasons of life
The fruitful tree is beautiful in all seasons; beautiful in the buddings and blossoms of early spring; beautiful in the opening summer with the unripened fruit clustering on its branches; but never so beautiful as when autumn has given the bloom of ripeness to the rich produce of its strength. How glorious is a human character ripe for heaven! (D. Thomas, D. D.)
I have written unto you, young men, because ye are strong, and the Word of God abideth in you, and ye have overcome the wicked one--
Strength, victory, and knowledge in youth
Counselis the prerogative of age. Christianity is preeminently an experience. Even from the religious standpoint we look upon youth as militant, rather than as victorious. The fight with the evil one is upon them; but the victory is in the future. Are we right in this view of the religious possibilities of youth? Certainly not. Our apostle addresses the young men as having overcome the evil one, as having the word of God abiding in them. Now, in fact, we reason just as John does when we look at youth in its relations to society. On that side we frankly recognise their strength, victory, and susceptibility to truth. They are accepted as important factors in the aggressive relations of life. In like manner we assume their ability to receive and apply the teachings of human wisdom. The history of great literary successes is largely a history of youthful triumphs; it makes a place for itself in spite of obstacles. In the secular sense it does overcome the world. “I write unto you, young men, because ye are strong.” There may be strength without maturity. People act upon that principle everywhere. A man who wants a good horse looks out for a young horse. A lady who wants an active servant does not seek for an old man or woman. Not only so, but we expect real and telling service from youth. Ought the case to be any different in the Church of Christ? The work of pushing the gospel into new fields, of bringing other youth under its influence, of carrying on benevolent and missionary enterprises, is work which young men and women can do. Yes, you are strong; and the Church of Christ lays claim to your strength. Service is not to be an incident of your Christian life: it is to be its law, as it was the law of Christ’s life. But the question is not only of Christian work: it is also of Christian character lying behind the work, and inspiring it. There can be no good work without good character. Here we see that the strength of which John speaks is the strength which comes of the abiding of the Word of God in the heart, and of victory over evil. Youth is susceptible to bad influences--takes them in, is shaped by them. Is it not likewise susceptible to good ones? With all the sneers at early piety, early piety is a blessed fact. And why not? It is very evident what youth can do in the way of victory over self and temptation when a great worldly end is to be gained; and are we to say that the young Christian, with Christ’s inspiration in his heart, and Christian influences around him, shall not take up the great cross of Christian service, and practise its grand self-denials, and resist and overcome the world, the flesh, and the devil? No; John is right. He does not assert too much when he says, “Ye have overcome the evil one.” If youth can be Christian it can overcome. If it is truly Christian it will overcome, for Christ is victory. And once more, what of the Word abiding in the youth? “The Word of God abideth in you.” In the order of the text this comes before the conquest over the evil one, and rightly; because the Word in the heart stands to conquest as means to end. John’s thought here centres in the word “abideth.” His emphasis is on the permanent power of the Word over youth. Paul assumes the same thing with reference to Timothy. He calls to mind the unfeigned faith which dwelt in his mother and in his grandmother, and adds, “And I am persuaded that in thee also.” Young people have, many of them, come to think that such mastery by the Word is impracticable. They think they must master the Word before they are mastered by it. In science and art and philosophy the difficulty of a subject does not repel youth. They study, and that intelligently, the works of master minds. They work out hard problems in engineering and astronomy. And what I complain of in a certain class of young people is, that they will not apply to the Bible the same amount of attention and labour which they bestow on other things. Whatever mystery may attach to the Bible, the materials for character building lie on its very surface. If there are parts of this great Divine map which we must still mark “unknown land,” the track to goodness and to heaven is sharply drawn. You are, then, as young men and women, bound by your Christian profession to have the Word of God abiding in you, as a permanent impulse and formative force in your character and life. The Holy Spirit is as ready to make its precepts a living power in you as He is in me. You know, in other spheres, what it is to work on a principle and for a purpose; and it is no harder to know this when the principle is laid down by Christ, and when the purpose is holiness and heaven. The Word of God abideth in you. O young Christians! can you say that this is true of you? Has the power of the Word over you become stronger, more steady, more direct, since you began to follow Christ?(M. Vincent, D. D.)
Unto you, young men
John abounded in charity, but with the utmost stretch of it he could not have written to all young men in this style, for, alas! all young men are not strong, nor doth the Word of God abide in them all, nor have they all overcome the wicked one. Shame that it should be, that when the devil seeks recruits for his army, he should straightway send his recruiting sergeant for these fine young fellows, who ought to serve a better master.
I. The photograph of the model young man.
1. What is spoken in the text has to do only with spiritual qualifications, and it deals with three points. First, this young man is strong. The strength here meant is not mere natural vigour, but a spiritual strength, a strength which is the result of an indwelling of the Spirit; a strength which brings out and consecrates the natural energy, and makes the young man with his vigour to be vigorous in the right direction.
(1) Now, the spiritually strong man may be described in this way--he is one who is very decided for Christ. He is not half-hearted, halting between two opinions. Whoever may be for the false, he is for the true. Whoever may side with the unjust, he is for the honest. He is decided, not only in his service of Christ, but in his opinions. He holds firmly what he does hold. He is a strong man in the truth. God has made him strong in integrity of heart.
(2) While thus strong in decision, he is also strong in the matter of establishment. He once believed truths because he was so taught, but now he has proved, if not all things, yet enough to hold fast that which is good.
(3) He has become strong, through the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, in a vigour diffused throughout his whole spiritual constitution. He knows that he lives. Others in our Churches do something for Christ, and know that they are alive, but their whole spiritual system is relaxed. If they take up the hammer and work for God, they strike such feeble blows that the nails do not know it. Meanwhile, he is not only strong in actual service, but he is strong in what he cannot do. The strong young man will have many schemes crossing his brain, and while he is in his youth he will not be able to realise them, but they will flit before him so often, that at last he will pluck up courage, and as he grows in years and possibilities, he will at last make real that which was once but a dream.
2. The text gives a further description of the model Christian young man in the words, “And the Word of God abideth in you.” Her Majesty was on the south side of the water today, but she does not abide there. All the pomp and sunshine of her presence have vanished, and Westminster Bridge and Stangate are as they were before. The Word of God sometimes comes with right royal pomp into the minds of young men; they are affected by it for a time, and they rejoice therein, but, alas! that blessed Word soon departs, and they are none the better for that which they have heard. The model young man in the text is not of this kind. The Word of God abideth in him, by which I understand that he is one who understands the Word, for it must get into him before it can abide in him, and it can only enter by the door of the understanding: he understands the Word, and then by having an affection for the Word he shuts to that door and entertains the truth. The Word of God abides in him, that is, he is constantly feeling its effects. It abides in him--a sacred fire consuming his sins, and comforting his spirit. It abides in him, a heavenly messenger revealing to him the freshness of celestial truth, uplifting him from earthly desires, and preparing him for the mansions in the skies.
3. Thirdly, the text adds, “And ye have overcome the wicked one.” Some young men have overcome that blue devil which keeps men despairing, doubting, trembling, and fearing. Then there is that dust eating devil, of whom we can never speak too badly--the yellow devil of the mammon of unrighteousness, the love of gold and silver; the dread god of London, rolling over this city as if it were all his own. Another form of the wicked one we must speak of but softly, but oh! how hard to be overcome by the young man. I mean Madam Wanton, that fair but foul, that smiling but murderous fiend of hell, by whom so many are deluded. Young man, if you are strong, and have overcome the wicked one, you have overcome, I trust, that Lucifer of pride, and it is your endeavour to walk humbly with your God! You have given up all idea of merit. You cannot boast nor exalt yourself, but you bow humbly at the foot of the Cross, adoring Him who has saved you from the wrath to come. You have given up also, I trust, young man, all subjection to the great red dragon of fashion, who draws with his tail even the very stars of heaven.
II. Let us further observe that these things which constitute him what he is are his qualifications for usefulness. “I write unto you, young men, for ye are strong.” We beg you to use that strength in winning souls for Christ. Remember that this very strength which brings a blessing to yourself will benefit another. That very faith which brought you to Christ is all you want to bring others to Christ. As the angel said to Gideon, so say I to you, young man, “The Lord is with thee, thou mighty man of valour”; and yet, again, “Go in this thy strength.” If the young man inquires for tools and weapons with which to serve his Master, we refer him to the next point in the text, “The Word of God abideth in you.” Now, if you desire to teach others, you have not to ask what the lesson shall be, for it abides in you. Do you want a text that will impress the careless? What impressed you? You cannot have a better. You desire to speak a word in season from the Word of God which shall be likely to comfort the disconsolate. What has comforted your own soul? You cannot have a better guide. Once again, “you have overcome the wicked one.” The man who has once given Satan a slap in the face need not be afraid of men. If you have often stood foot to foot with a violent temptation, and, after wrestling, have overcome it, you can laugh to scorn all the puny adversaries who assail you.
III. The wording of the text suggested to me, to force the conscription. “I have written unto you, young men.” In the French wars, certain young men, unhappily, found their names written down in the conscription, and were marched to the wars. Now, in a war from which none of us desire to escape, I hope there are young men here whose names are written down--heavenly conscripts--who are summoned more fully than ever before in their lives, to go forth to the battle of the Lord of Hosts. I invite every young man here who is already converted to God, to dedicate himself to the Lord Jesus Christ tonight. It will be well if you take a step further as conscripts. You “holy work folk”--as they used to call those who dwelt around the cathedral at Durham, and were exempt from all service to the baron because they served the church--I want you now to think of some particular walk and department in which as young men and young women you can devote yourselves wholly to Christ. Generalities in religion are always to be avoided, more especially generalities in service. What can you do? What is your calling? Ragged schools? Sunday schools? Street preaching? Tract distribution? Here is a choice for you, which do you select? I would inquire next, whether there may not be young men here who can give themselves up to the Christian ministry, which is a step farther. Take care you keep not back whom God would have. Then, further, I have to say, may there not be here some young man who will become a conscript for missionary service abroad? I might tonight read a sort of proclamation such as I see sometimes issued by Her Majesty--“Wanted, young men.” We give no description about the inches either in girth or the height, but we do give this description--“Wanted, young men who are strong; in whom the Word of God abideth, and who have overcome the wicked one.” Once again. If this be impossible, and I suppose it may be to the most of us, then may we not get up a conscription tonight of young men who will resolve to help at home those who have the courage to go abroad?(C. H. Spurgeon.)
Noble young men
I. They have strength in them.
II. They have God’s Word within them.
III. They have the Devil under them. (Homilist.)
Youthful strength
“What am I going to be?” is the question that presses upon young people. But, unfortunately, the question is generally supposed to be answered when they have fixed upon a trade or profession. It means, rightly taken, a great deal more than that. “What ideal have I before me, towards which I constantly press?”
I. The strength which you young people ought to aim at. It is not merely the physical strength, nor the mere unworn buoyancy and vigour which sorrow and care and responsibilities have not weakened. These are great and precious gifts, to be preserved as long as may be, by purity and moderation, and to be used for high purposes. It is not your body that is to be strong, but yourselves. Now the foundation of all true strength lies here, in a good, strong will. Two words contain the secret of noble life: “Resist!” and “Persist!” And the true strength of manhood lies in this mainly, that, in spite of all antagonisms, hindrances, you, having greatly resolved, you do greatly do what you have resolved. But then the strength that I would have you cultivate must be a strength of will, founded upon strong reason. Unintelligent obstinacy is folly. But that is not all. A strong will, illuminated by a strong beam of light from the understanding, must be guided and governed by a strong conscience. “I should like” is the weakling’s motto. “I will” may be an obstinate fool’s motto. “I ought, therefore, God helping me, and, though the devil hinders me, I will,” is a man’s. Conscience is king. To obey it is to be free; to neglect it is to be a slave.
II. How to get it. “Ye are strong, and the Word of God abideth in you.” If you want to be strong, let Scripture truth occupy your mind. Thereare powers to rule and to direct all conduct, motive powers of the strongest character in these great truths of God’s revelation. They are meant to influence a man in all his doings, and it is for us to bring the greatest of them to bear on the smallest things of our daily life. Whosoever lives with the thoughts that God has given us in His Word, familiar to His mind, and within easy reach of His hand, has therein an armlet against all possible temptation, a test that will unveil the hidden corruption in the sweetest seductions, and calming power that will keep his heart still and collected in the midst of agitations. I remember going through the Red Sea, at the mouth of it, where the entrance is narrow and the currents run strong, when the ship approaches the dangerous place, the men take their stations at appointed places, and the ponderous anchors are loosened and ready to be dropped in an instant, if the swirl of the current sweeps the ship into dangerous proximity to the reef. It is no time to cut the lashings of the anchors when the keel is grating on the coral rocks. And it is no time to have to look about for our weapons when the sudden temptation leaps upon us like a strong man armed. You must have them: familiar to you by devout meditation, by frequent reflection, prayer, study of God’s Word, if they are to be of any use to you at all. And then if we take the other view, which at bottom is not another, of the meaning of this phrase, and apply it rather to the personal Word, Jesus Christ Himself, that will yield us another exhortation, and that is, let Jesus Christ into your hearts and keep Him there, and He will make you strong. Others can help you from without, as you put an iron band round some overweighted crumbling brick pillar in order to prevent it from collapsing, but He will pass into us, as you may drive an iron rod up through the centre of the column, and make it strong inside, and we shall be strong if Jesus Christ dwells within us.
III. The field on which the strength is to be exercised, and the victory which it secures. “Ye have overcome the wicked one.” What does that mean? It means this, that if you will take service in Christ’s army, and by His grace resolve to be His faithful soldier till your life’s end, that act of faith, which enrols you as His, is itself the victory which guarantees, if it be continued, the whole conquest in time. (A. Maclaren, D. D.)
Victorious young men
I. First the “strong” young men. Let the strength possessed be in Christ. “Be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus.” That is omnipotent, immutable; that is infallible; and, so often as you feel there is some momentous thing to be accomplished in the cause of God, rely on the person of Christ, and out of His fulness receive grace for grace. This leads us to consider for what purpose these renewals of strength are received. First of all, there is your warfare--you want more strength for that. You will recollect the cry of Jehoshaphat, when the host of his enemies was advancing against his little army, “Oh, our God, wilt Thou not judge them? for we have no might against this great company that cometh against us; neither know we what to do: but our eyes are upon Thee.” And he got strength enough. Moreover, this warfare is such a perpetual one, that you want perpetual strength for it. But we also want strength for our walk. It is a rough road. A great deal of it is up-hill. Our walk is “by faith, and not by sight,” and amidst its difficulties you want that faith strengthened, so that the Author and Finisher of it may be glorified, and we make some advancement in Divine life. Oh, the vast importance of being kept moving onwards! Moreover, we want strength for the work. “My son, go work in My vineyard today” is the Father’s command. I am sure that, instrumentally, the best method of keeping young men in Christ in health of soul is to keep them well employed.
II. By “The Word of God” we understand every essential truth, whether doctrinal, experimental, or practical. The prominent evil of the day, with regard to theology, is the separating of this threefold description of essential truth. They cannot press them too much, provided they press them upon proper principles and upon a sure foundation. But they frequently do so without that. Then there are others who have got a peculiar and favourite technicality about “my experience”--the preacher does not preach my experience. We like doctrinal statements fully urged and without reserve. We want deep experience, such as the Word of God sets forth. We want, in addition, that active Christianity which shall characterise the recipients of grace as “a peculiar people, zealous of good works.” These I account “essential truths”; and I desire that they should abide in you. We also understand by the phrase, “Word of God,” the eternal, incarnate Word dwelling in you--“Christ in you, the hope of glory.” This makes our Christianity vital.
III. A word about your spiritual victories. “Ye have overcome the wicked one.” You have burst asunder from his bands. By mighty grace you have escaped his pursuit, and got as clear of him as Israel did of Pharaoh. Well, but he is sure to be after you. But “ye have overcome” him! What a merciful, what a gracious, what a glorious thing is faith! It overcomes Satan. The flesh and carnal free will may content themselves with Satan’s drudgery; but faith will not; faith cannot. Then, in overcoming sin, which is the same thing, as it exists in the world and our depraved nature. What is sin in the Christian? The wicked one employing his own emissaries that are yet left behind. Apart from the base corruptions and lusts, there are self-righteousness, and self-conceit, and self-congratulations, and selfish motives and desires to gratify and pursue. There is the spirit of the world. Let me pass on to direct your attention unto the use of spiritual weapons only. “The weapons of our warfare are not carnal.” There are a great number of carnal weapons that are used very adroitly and very manfully, and to a certain degree, in a moral sense, very success fully too. Take, for example, the arguments that are entered into by keen and skilful polemics against infidels. Well, they are all very proper for a certain purpose; but they are not spiritual weapons. The result is that, in many instances, they frequently convince the judgment, and yet do nothing for the soul.
IV. The teaching which these “young men” receive from the apostolic writings. I think it may be summed up in three things. One of them follows immediately upon my text. Reject the world. (J. Irons.)
The strength of young men
“The glory of young men is their strength.” Every lad who is worth his salt desires the strength of fuller years, the sphere of influence, the consciousness of life, the power to protect the weak, to serve the greater, and to take his place in the front of the battle of life. Mothers lean on the arm of their firstborn with a half-concealed but conscious pride. Sisters admire and almost worship the bursting flower of their elder brother’s strength.
1. This hope of the world must not be confounded with mere muscle. Strength without wisdom, skill, or self-repression, strength devoted to an unworthy or insufficient end, scarcely deserves its name.
2. Again, strength must not be confounded with the proverbial infallibility of youth.
3. Once more, strength is sometimes confounded with insensibility, which is due to imperfect appreciation of reality and a feeble imagination. Wherefore, laying aside all mere muscle, ludicrous self-consciousness, dulness of perception, uncharitable sense of superior wisdom, and the obstinacy of simulated virtue, let us clearly seize, if possible, and utilise that strength of the young which is their glory and the master power of the world.
(1) The strength which the world and the Church yearn for is the youthful (virtus)courage, which, when a great end or lofty ideal has dawned like awful sunrise on the soul, counts all things but loss in comparison of its triumph. The young Athanasius braved the courtly prelates and crowned kings of the world, and through a life long martyrdom maintained the Word which had been flashed in blazing light upon his inmost conscience. The glory of young men is their strength to do battle for a cause larger than themselves, and dearer to themselves than life.
(2) Another noble feature of the young man’s strength is in his power to endure hardness, from which often the older man shrinks baffled. The young man can afford to wait at his post of duty, like the sentinel who has the fate of an army in his hands, like the sea pilot in a storm, or the lighthouse man with the fleets of the channel at his mercy. He can endure as seeing Him who is invisible. The direction of physical force, of stored energy, by wisdom and skill is the wonder of the modern world; but the consecration of the young man’s strength by the free reception and indwelling of the mind of Christ is the hope of the Catholic Church of the Living God. (H. R. Reynolds, D. D.)
The youthhood of the nation
1. And, first, the young are strong in numbers.
2. It is true the young are strong in passions, in impetuous desires, in appetites, and in aspirations, which have yet to be freed from too exuberant growth. But is it not good to see this fresh life?
3. Yes, the young are strong in hope, in trust in God’s future, putting the Janus face of the new year to soften the sombre effect of the countenance of the old year, bidding us listen for the music which is soon to wake in the woodland, on the hillside, and by the streams. And this we need. But this freshness of spirit is only to be cherished as David cherished it--at the fountains of God. Hence the pertinency of St. John’s words, “And the Word of God abideth in you, and ye have overcome the wicked one.” This is the crowning strength of humanity, and no demon can possess the soul while the Word of God abideth in it. In our judgment of the young, we forget what an age of stimulation this is--what a hot house it is to the plants that otherwise might unfold more perfectly and enduringly, and we charge upon human nature what only belongs to the exciting influence of the steam engine and the telegraph. The fact is, all ages are linked together, and the truest strength of the young is derived from a vital connection with the past. “Thou hast been our dwelling place in all generations!”(C. A. Bartol.)
Working power
I like the teaching of an elder philosopher, defining “power” to be that in a cause by which it produces its effect. Power in possession, but not in exercise, is practically as weak as its opposite. To be strong, but inactive, strong for good, but to do nothing that blesses, is to be both weak and wicked. What is the advantage of having a force never harnessed to the weight it was made to draw?
I. What is personal power in this age?
1. The earliest type of personal power is the physical. The first heroes were Nimrods, mighty hunters. To them the lyre was struck, for them the feast smoked, on them beauty smiled. The elder Hercules was one who could rend oaks and strangle serpents. The modern has other labours, only symbolised by those of his prototypes.
2. The next type of personal power is that derived from birth, and blood, and place--patrician greatness. This sort of hero drives across the stage charioted, coroneted, tilled. He bears a name made illustrious by dead men. We still cherish some little portion of this feudal deference, and make way, with decent homage, for the well born. But this greatness is in our day only a shadowy effigy of its once ducal preeminence. Not the crown, but what it circles, is the question; not the emblazoned star, but what beats beneath it; not the fountain, but the redness of the blood that flows in the veins.
3. Next arose in history the type of personal power derived from wealth. The peers of this new order of nobility are ever of redoubtable force. And yet, let one of these gilded peers be a narrow-souled miser, how like a great blot lie his mansion and surroundings on the smiling landscape. Let him be a mean man, how everybody in his heart despises him, even those that fawn!
4. A loftier type of personal power than any we have named is the intellectual. As the soul is the true man, intellectual stature is real stature. The force of this power is far felt and permanent. But this power in its distinctive inheritance, as a lordship among men, is for the few. It cannot be universal. Its conditions are too exacting. It does not go down to the vitalities of character and breathe through all the channels of the heart the spirit of the daily life.
5. Moral power. Its seat is the moral nature, the conscience, and the heart. Its life is the central law prescribed by the supreme Moral Governor--the law of his own being--the force that sways Omnipotence--the law, the force of love. It is ever obedient to the right, just, unselfish. It goes forth in beneficence whenever and wherever it can, as a full fountain flows down, give it open channels. This is the power that more and more asserts supremacy in our day. The humblest mind, the lowliest place may wield this preeminent force. All that was good and vital in other and outlawed types of personal force is restored and immortalised in this. The intellect may be wedded to it. Herein is the clearest mental illumination. Love is light. Here, too, the golden ingots, the silver bars molten in this crucible of love, pour out their shining streams in farthest currency, and dust that perishes is transmuted into polished gems that burn as the stars forever and ever.
II. How, as individuals, may we possess this moral power, find ourselves clothed with it as a personal force, and by it lay hold of and bless our age?
1. The heart itself must be the home and court of this power. The individual heart must yield itself to the control of this truth, come loyally under the monarchy of this right, and pulse in every throb with love.
2. There must be personal purity and integrity in action. The law of unselfish living, enthroned in the heart, must extend its dominion over the life. The man must be seen walking with his conscience at his left hand, the Bible at his right, and God before him.
3. The ascendant law of unselfish devotion to the good of beings must assert itself also, to be puissant, in forms of self-denial--a cutting off of self-indulgencies, a careful personal abstinence from all that may be harmful to our fellows.
4. This power grows and becomes effective by being employed. It must declare itself in action. He who loves will do what love prompts and what love can.
5. As to the particular ways in which this personal force will attach itself to human interests and live in their histories, we may say the circumstances and opportunities of every man alone can give the definite and detailed answer. But these ways are all the ways possible to the man. It will go forth into the vineyard t
