Mon Aug 25 19:50:16 PDT 2003

Notes for Tuesday Bible Study 1 John 2:12-14 Encouragement and Warning:

The three groups that he addresses could be interperted several ways, but the most plausible is simply the level of spiritual maturity. One of the commentaries points out also that this is looking like a fairly poetic piece of writing, so we might be well advised to not take these classifications completely literally, and it also helps explains his interesting use of repetition. Another suggestion is that these are actually part of an creed or song used in the early church.

Fathers – possibly refering to those who actually were with Jesus during his

earthly ministry, or merely those more spiritually mature. Note his
reference to Christ as "Him who has been from the beginning", similar to
John 1:1 "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the
Word was God". Young men – possibly more mature christians, but not with Jesus during his
earthly ministry. Children – new christians who have yet to prove themselves in their walk or
without much experience. He uses the same phrases in 2:1, 2:28, 3:7, 4:4
and 5:21. It is also possible that he is refering to all christians as
"little children" much in the same way that older people refer to their
"boys" or "girls" despite the fact that they are adults with children of
their own. Recall that John is around 100 years old at this point, so just
about everybody on the planet at that time is substantially younger than
him.

Why this encouragement at this time? He’s been hitting them pretty hard with the "if you aren’t walking in the light" bit, and since this letter is going to a lot of people with different maturity levels, he wants to make it clear that he recgonizes that some of them are doing what they should be doing and that he’s not just being negative.

The "young men" have overcome the evil one, and he commends them for it. How have they defeated him? Through strength and having the word of God in them. This is a frequent theme throughout the entire Bible.

God commands the Israelites to take his words to heart in Deuteronomy 11:18, "You shall therefore impress these words of mine on your heart and on your soul…". David speaks of God’s word as protection against sin in Psalm 119:11, "Your word I have have treasured in my heard that I might not sin against you.". Jesus rebukes satan when he was tempted in the wilderness using the word of God from the OT in Matthew 4:1-11 (read). Paul also encourages the church in Ephesus to put on the whole armor of God which includes "the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God", Ephesians 6:17b. The author of Hebrews has great words for us in Hebrews 4:12 where he states:

And the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged
sword, and piercing as far as to the division of soul and spirit, of both
joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the
heart And in Revelation 1:16, John is describing his vision of Jesus and states "out of his mouth came a sharp two edged sword". But the real kicker is Paul writing to Timothy, teaching and training him to be a minister of the church in 2 Timothy 3:16-17:
All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof,
for correction, for training in righteousness; so that the man of God may
be adequate, equipped for every good work.

Clearly we need to have the word of God in us to be sucessful, effective christians. That comes from studying the Bible like we do here once a week, but it also comes (much more easily) from actively spending time reading and studying the Bible on a daily basis. That’s something that I really haven’t been doing recently. But when looking at this scripture, and all the other scriptures that clearly show that I need to really to take the time to know and understand what is in the Bible so that I can be an effective christian. And unless I start doing it on a daily basis again, I’m not going to get there, I’ll just be treading water.

So, reality check. I need to read the Bible on a daily basis. A couple of years ago, I ran across an interesting suggestion on how to read through the Bible in a year. Read three chapters a day, one starting in Genesis, one starting at Psalms and one starting at Matthew. The breaks work out about right for finishing all of them about the same time and in right about a year of reading. It also helps you get through the dry books like Leviticus because you have Psalms and the gospels to get you through. Unfortunately, I only got to midway through Deuteronomy. I need to finish this and get back into the habit of reading the Word every day. And I’d like you all to hold me accountable to that. I need your help to keep me honest about this, so I’m asking you as fellow christians to ask me about if I’m keeping up with my daily reading.

So, now let’s take another angle on these three verses. What do these verses tell us about what we should see in ourselves as we grow as christians: First, forgivness from sins through Christ and his atoning sacrifice as described in v. 12. Second, as we become more mature, we grow to know God better (the fathers). And as we grow in Christ we gain victory over the evil one in our day-to-day lives through having the word of God and the Spirit of God in us.

———- A minor aside. Disagreements on people issues do happen within the church. Paul and Barnabas got into "sharp disagrement" over whether or not to take John-Mark on a second missionary journey. Mark had turned back partway through the first missionary journey, so Paul didn’t want to take him along on the second. Paul and Barnabas disagreed so much they went in different directions (see Acts 15:36-41). And while Barnabas and John-Mark are not mentioned again in Acts, Paul commends Barnabas in 1 Corinthians 6:6 for working to support himself, and for standing with him in going to the Gentiles in Galationas 2:9. Mark appearently worked with Peter after working with Barnabas, as he is mentioned in 1 Peter 5:13. He was also with Paul again during Paul’s first Roman imprisonment Colossians 3.10 and Paul asks for John-Mark to come be with him in his final days 2 Timothy 4:11 "Pick up Mark and bring him with you, for he is useful to me for service.".

So what can we learn from this story? Disagreements about how, or who should do things in the church aren’t anything new. Issues that aren’t about theology that matter, may not really be solveable by us humans. There isn’t any blame laid out here in the Bible, it just states that they had a sharp disagreement on an issue that they separated. Both men are commended repeatedly for their work and their beliefs, and it appears that either over time, or due to some events, Paul is reconciled to Mark, and there isn’t much evidence one way or the other on his relationship with Barnabas after this other than references that Paul makes in which he refers to Barnabas like a partner in the work of the church.