1 John 2:12 - Meaning and Application

This command about holy love, along with the reasons for it, may be aimed at the different groups of believers being addressed here. The whole Christian church is like a school, and all its members must keep the bond of sacred love. Since a serious warning follows, and true religion in the love of God and the love of fellow believers cannot stand without it, John fittingly opens with a solemn address to believers of every level.

He speaks to the youngest, the oldest, and those in between. In the school of Christ, there are children, mature believers, and older disciples. Each group has its own stage of growth and its own duties, but some commands apply to all of them, especially mutual love and a refusal to love the world. Wise pastors will give each part of God’s family the right portion of teaching. John does that here when he says, “I write unto you, little children, fathers, and young men” (1 John 2:12-14).

He begins with the lowest in the Christian school, the little children. These are new believers, spiritual infants, still learning the basic truths of Christian godliness. John seems to encourage them by speaking to them first, and older believers can profit by hearing what is said to the youngest. The first lessons must often be repeated, because they are the foundation of everything else.

John writes to these little children for two reasons. First, their sins have been forgiven for Christ’s sake, for his name’s sake (1 John 2:12). Even the youngest true disciple is pardoned. Sins are forgiven either for God’s name’s sake, meaning for the praise of his glory, or for Christ’s name’s sake, because of the redemption found in him. Those who have been forgiven by God are strongly bound to turn away from a world that pulls against the love of God.

Second, John writes to them because they know the Father (1 John 2:13). Children usually know their father before anyone else, and children in Christ also know God as Father. God promised, “They shall all know me, from the least to the greatest” (Hebrews 8:11). To know that God is their Father is great wisdom for them. As people say, it is a wise child that knows his father. These believers can be sure whose power gave them new birth and whose grace adopted them. Those who know the Father should be drawn away from the love of this world.

Next John turns to those of the highest standing and longest experience, the fathers, the older disciples. He gives them an honorable title and says, “I write unto you, fathers” (1 John 2:13-14). He moves from the lowest rank to the highest, so that those in the middle may hear both lessons and understand where they are headed. Even the oldest disciple still needs instruction. The oldest saint must go to heaven with his Bible in his hand. Fathers still need to be written to and preached to, because no one is too old to learn.

John speaks to them because of their knowledge. They know “him that is from the beginning” (1 John 2:13-14), that is, the Lord Jesus Christ, as in the opening of this letter and Gospel (1 John 1:1). Christ is the beginning and the end of all Christian knowledge, just as he is the Alpha and Omega. Paul counted everything else as loss because of the worth of knowing Christ Jesus his Lord (Philippians 3:8). Those who know him who was before the world began should find this world less attractive.

Then John addresses the middle stage of Christian growth, the young men. These are believers in their strength and bloom, those who have reached maturity of judgment and can tell good from evil. He speaks to them for three reasons. First, they have already done battle well: “because you have overcome the wicked one” (1 John 2:13). Satan is always fighting against souls, especially against Christ’s disciples. But those well taught in Christ’s school can use their weapons and defeat the evil one. And if they can defeat him, they can also be called to defeat the world, which is one of his main tools.

Second, John speaks to them because of their strength. “You are strong, and the word of God abides in you, and you have overcome the wicked one” (1 John 2:14). Young men often take pride in their strength, and it is fitting for youthful believers to be strong in Christ and in his grace. Their strength will be shown and tested in overcoming the devil. If they cannot stand against him, he will overpower them. So strong Christians should show their strength by conquering the world too. The same strength used against the devil must also be used against the world.

Third, John speaks to them because God’s word lives in them (1 John 2:14). The word of God must remain in mature believers. It feeds them and gives them strength. It is the weapon by which they overcome the wicked one, the sword of the Spirit, which helps them put out his fiery darts. Those in whom God’s word lives are well equipped to conquer the world.

After this careful introduction, John gives the warning that is at the heart of practical religion: “Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world” (1 John 2:15). Be dead to the world, and turn away from its affairs and attractions. All classes of Christians must agree in this. If they were united in being dead to the world, they would soon be more united in other things too. Their love should be kept for God, not wasted on the world.

John then gives the reasons for this warning. They are several, and they need to be, because it is hard to persuade even believers not to love the world. The reasons begin here.

This world-love clashes with love for God. John says, “If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him” (1 John 2:15). The human heart is too small to hold both loves fully. The world pulls the heart down from God, so the more world-love grows, the more love for God fades.

Worldly love is also forbidden by God. John says it is “not from the Father, but from the world” (1 John 2:16). God does not appoint this love. He calls us away from it. It comes in from the world, as if the world were taking over the place of our affection.

So we need the right view of the world. In one sense, the world is good, because it is God’s work, and it shows his greatness. But we must think of it as it now acts on us in our broken state, stirring up our weakness and feeding our evil desires. The world is closely linked with the flesh, meaning our bodily nature and its sinful bent. It presses in on us and joins with the flesh in opposition to God.

That is why the things of the world fall into three main kinds, matching the three chief desires of fallen human nature. First is the lust of the flesh. Here “flesh” means the body, as it is set over against the eyes and the life. The lust of the flesh is the desire to enjoy bodily pleasures, along with the things that stir up those pleasures. This is often called sensual indulgence.

Second is the lust of the eyes. The eyes are drawn to wealth, and an unchecked eye craves riches and possessions. This is greed, the desire to have more and more.

Third is the pride of life. A proud mind wants show, luxury, and outward splendor. It wants honor and praise. In part, this is a disease of the ears, because it loves to hear admiration and flattery.

These desires must be turned away from and rejected. Once they rule our affections and wants, they are no longer from the Father, but from the world (1 John 2:16). The Father does not approve them. The world may keep them for itself. Our desire for them must be put to death and brought under control. So giving way to them is not something the Father has appointed, but something the tempting world slips into us.

We should also remember how brief earthly things are. “The world is passing away, along with its desires” (1 John 2:17). The things of this world are fading and dying quickly. Even desire itself, and the pleasure that comes with it, will dry up and end. “The eyes of those who are called to see” and all their vanities will soon fail (Ecclesiastes 12:5). What has become of all the pomp and pleasure of those who are now lying in the grave?

By contrast, the one who loves God lasts forever. “Whoever does the will of God abides forever” (1 John 2:17). Doing God’s will is the mark of the one who loves God, as opposed to the lover of the world. The object of his love remains forever, unlike the world that is passing away. His holy desire remains forever too, unlike the fading lust that belongs to this world. Love will never fail. He himself is also an heir of immortality and endless life, and in time he will be brought into it.

From all these verses, we should notice how pure and spiritual the apostles’ teaching is. Our bodily life must be brought under God’s rule. The body, with its desires and actions, should be directed by religion, or by the victorious love of God.