What Does “Christian” Mean?
If I were to ask you, “Are you a Christian?”, and you said, “Yes, I’m a Christian?”, what would you mean? What would you mean by the word “Christian”? You may say, “Christ-follower,” but what is a Christ-follower? What does it mean to follow Christ?
If you double-click on the word “Christian” what pops up? What ideas and words and images and content fills this word for you? Maybe you’d mean something like, “I’m trying my best to live a good, moral, kind and generous life.” Or, “I’m going to heaven instead of hell.” Or, “I’m conservative in my values and politics.” Or, “I believe God promises to bless me if I obey him, that God wants me to be successful if I will just have faith in him.” What does “Christian” mean?
John Wants to Encourage Christians
In the letter of First John that we’re studying, John is writing churches to help them know that they are indeed true Christians (5:13). He wants to help them discern the messages of false teachers that were going around hindering people’s faith (2:26).
The way he does this is by giving three tests, the moral, relational, and doctrinal test. In chapter one, he gave the moral test (v. 6). If you claim to know God but ignore holiness and moral purity, your claim is empty. He then moves to the relational test (2:9). Those who have the light of God living in them will love the people of God.
These tests are mainly to use against the false teachers, not the churches. He wants these churches to see the falseness of the false teachers. He wants to protect their faith. He’s not writing to make Christians doubt or second-guess their faith. He’s actually writing to encourage Christians, to confirm the genuineness of their faith.
True Christians are Encouraged by the Truth
In 2:12-14, John seems to abruptly shift gears and start talking about something totally unrelated to the moral or relational tests. What’s he doing here?
He’s reminding these churches who they are, reminding them of all the blessings they have as children of God. These blessings include: the forgiveness of sins, knowing the Father and the Son, being strong and overcoming the evil one. He doesn’t want his readers to have the impression that he thinks they’re in the darkness or that he doubts the genuineness of their faith.
His digression in these verses is to increase their confidence as true Christians, and to prepare them for the exhortation he gives them in verses 15-17 about not loving the world.
The main point of this text, and this sermon, is that true Christians are encouraged by the truth. I want to first say something about the structure of these verses, then discuss what they mean, and then draw one main application.
What is John Saying?
Some think that John is dividing up the churches into three categories of spiritual maturity: the children, the young men, and the fathers. I don’t think that’s what John is doing here, for several reasons.
First, his repeated emphasis on Christians loving one another would, I think, be hindered if he were teaching that there are three categories of people in the church. In other words, because our sinful tendency is to compare and compete with one another, instead of love one another, it wouldn’t seem wise for John to be separating the church into three groups because then we’d always be wondering which group we’re in, what group another person is in, and the temptation to boast or feel lots of shame would be great. It’s hard to love people if you’re always comparing yourself to them, or them to you.
Second, if he were addressing three groups of varying levels of maturity in the church, you’d expect the order to go like this: children, young men, and then fathers, or fathers, young men, and then children. But instead the order is children, fathers, young men. The groups aren’t in ascending or descending order, suggesting that John isn’t intending to split them up like that.
Third, the fact that he begins each cycle with “little children” (v. 12), or “children” (v. 13), strongly suggests that he’s talking to the entire church because throughout the letter he uses these terms to refer to the whole church (2:1, 18, 28, 3:7, 18, 4:4, 5:21). John repeatedly addresses all his readers as “children,” so it seems unlikely that here he would mean something like “infants in Christ,” or “newborn Christians.”
Fourth, the things he writes about each group applies to all Christians, not just some Christians. For example, all Christians have their sins forgiven (v. 13) and know the Father (v. 13) and have overcome the evil one by the word of God (v. 14). Yes, there are reasons why John applies these specific things to specific people. But he’s not saying that they only apply to those people.
Therefore, it seems better to say that John is writing to all Christians and then dividing them into two groups, “fathers” and “young men,” or older and younger believers. These aren’t groups based on spiritual maturity but based on age. We’ll see how as we move now to what John means by what he says to these groups.
To the Children
I want to look at what John says to each group, starting with children, then fathers, then young men. To the children, or the whole church, John says, “Your sins are forgiven for his name’s sake” (v. 12). He’s already said in 1:9 that forgiveness is for all who confess their sins.
Contrary to the false teachers, “walking in the light” doesn’t mean that those who do so never sin, but that when they do they don’t try to hide it from God. The promise for us is that when we don’t hide our sins from God, when we tell them to him, what awaits us is acceptance not condemnation. Forgiveness and cleansing is for those who agree with God about their sin.
The forgiveness of sins applies to all true believers, not just newborn Christians. This is really good news and meant to encourage true believers because, even though we know we’re supposed to obey God, we don’t always obey God. We know we shouldn’t sin, but we sin anyways. We do things we shouldn’t do and don’t do certain things we should do. We willfully and repeatedly prefer to do things our way rather than God’s way. God is understandably displeased by this and he wouldn’t be just or good if he just stood by while his creatures did whatever they wanted, mocking his right to rule them.
Because he’s just, God judged our sins. But because he’s merciful, he judged them on Jesus instead of on us (2:1-2). So that now he can be both faithful and just to forgive us and cleanse us of our sins.
Sin is a debt that must be paid and a stain that must be removed. And it’s a debt that we can’t pay and stain we can’t wash. This is why John says we must take our dilemma to God. Our sin is a God-sized problem. So we must be honest about the fact that we have sins, and then take them to the only One who can do something about them.
What you mean by “Christian” must include the forgiveness of sins as the foundation. God made us, is holy, we’ve sinned against him and owe him a massive debt that we can’t afford and that he would be right to collect on, but in Jesus’ perfect life, death on the cross, and resurrection from the dead we can find a full and free cancellation of our sin debt.
Just think of it brothers and sisters: every sin you’ve ever committed is forgiven by God. He doesn’t hold them against you because he already dealt with them on the cross.
When it says, “for his name’s sake,” it means “on account of his name.” God forgives our sins “on account of Jesus’ name,” or because of Jesus Christ. God only forgives us because of Jesus. This is where the Christian life begins and ends. This is why John begins his little pep-talk like this, by raising the flag of forgiveness above all the other flags of truth that he’s waving. He wants us to know that in Jesus, the most pressing problem we’re faced with has been dealt with. Even though we’re guilty to the core, in Jesus we can declared innocent and set free.
Then John says to the children in verse 13, “You know the Father.” This applies to all Christians and is the result of the forgiveness of sins. Those who’re forgiven enter into a relationship with God. They move from fearing God as Creator and Judge to enjoying him as Father.
The Holy Spirit within a believer makes us aware of our filial, or intimate family relationship, with God and causes us to cry out, “‘Abba! Father!’ The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God” (Rom. 8:15-16).
By telling these churches that they “know the Father,” he’s affirming the genuineness of their faith because throughout the letter he says that those who truly know God keep his commands and love one another and believe true things about God. He’s saying, in effect, “You are doing these things, you are this kind of people, because you know the Father.”
To the Fathers
Next John says to the fathers: “You know him who is from the beginning” (vv. 13, 14). There’s only one other place in the New Testament that refers to believers as “fathers.” 1 Timothy 5:1, “Do not rebuke an older man but encourage him as you would a father, younger men as brothers.” Paul is giving young Timothy advice on how to relate to older men in the church. The designation “father” is clearly referring to “older men,” or those older than Timothy. There’s no indication that it’s referring to more spiritually mature men.
I think John means the same thing here. He’s not addressing those who’re more spiritually mature, but those who’re more advanced in years, that is, older men.
He says that they’re those who “know him who is from the beginning.” What does that mean? Who is the one they know?
In 1 John and in the Gospel of John, the only person said to be “from the beginning” is the Word, or Jesus Christ. So “knowing him who is from the beginning” is “knowing Jesus Christ.” John is reminding the churches that older people know Jesus.
Why would he give them this reminder? Think of it, what would you like to hear as you approach death, as your life nears its end? Wouldn’t you want to be encouraged that even though death is getting closer and closer, you belong to Jesus?
John started his letter by equating Jesus, the “word of life” (1:1) with “the eternal life, which was with the Father and was made manifest to us” (v. 2). This “eternal life” that was “with the Father and made manifest to us” (v. 2) isn’t an impersonal quality of life that comes from the Father, but refers to the “word of life” (v. 1), the Son of God who was with the Father before his incarnation. John is saying that eternal life is found in Jesus because Jesus is the Son of God who came from the Father, and the Father is the epitome of eternal life. God is eternal life, literally. So God’s Son comes bringing the only kind of life that God has, the eternal kind. Having Jesus, then, is having eternal life. Being in Christ means being caught up into the very life of God, into a quality and quantity of life that is unlike any other.
This is really good news for older people who are drawing closer and closer to death. Time has hurried past them, but they’ve found refuge and safety from death in Jesus. As they draw nearer and nearer to death, they need to know that they’re already consciously living in eternity, that in Jesus they have eternal life.
If you’re advanced in years, you can rejoice and rest because you “know him who is from the beginning.” No matter what you’ve done or have left undone, you can exhale in the knowledge that because you belong to Jesus death will only be a door to life for you. Younger brothers and sisters should pray this for older saints and find ways to remind them of these truths.
To the Young Men
Next John says to the young men: “You have overcome the evil one…you are strong, and the word of God abides in you, and you have overcome the evil one” (vv. 13, 14). The word “young men” consistently refers to people of lesser years in the Gospels and Acts. And in 1 Timothy 5:1, Paul uses the term “younger men” to refer to people similar in age to Timothy.
John isn’t referring to people of more maturity than children but less maturity than fathers. He’s simply referring to younger people. Many of you fall into this category, so note and be encouraged by what John says to you.
He says that these younger people have “overcome the evil one,” that is the devil. In the context of First John, where the forces of evil are coming against the churches in the form of false teaching, overcoming the evil one is best understood as rejecting these false teachers and remaining faithful to the message they’ve heard from the beginning.
Verse 14 tells us how they were able to do this. They’ve overcome the evil one because they’re strong, and they’re strong because the word of God lives in them.
Don’t miss the connection between their strength and their living in the word of God. We don’t have to have three hour quiet times to grow strong by living in the word, but if we consistently neglect the word we can expect to be weakened against the assaults of the evil one.
The “word of God” is the message proclaimed and embodied by Jesus Christ. They’ve grown strong in the faith as they stayed close to the message of Jesus. And this strength allowed them to withstand all the crazy things the false teachers were saying.
Young people, if you’re following Jesus, it’s because your faith has been made strong by the word of God and given you the ability to withstand the assaults of the enemy. Praise the Lord! And I’m proud of you.
There are so many evil things and ideas and behaviors that surround you, but you’ve stayed true to the message of the gospel. You’ve chosen the narrow path that leads to life rather than the broad road that leads to destruction. You’ve chosen to lose friends, family, job opportunities, and reputation for Jesus’ sake. You’ve given up time and money to follow Jesus. You’ve decided to live for something bigger than self and given your life to Jesus. You come to church on Sunday mornings and sing songs and pray and read the Bible and meet with other Christians throughout the week. You choose to refrain from things your friends and classmates and coworkers are doing, even if it makes you look stupid or too religious or uncultured.
I’m not saying that this means that the evil one will leave you alone now. In fact, the more you try to follow Jesus, the more he’ll likely oppose you. If he’s leaving you alone, it’s probably because you’re no threat to the kingdom of darkness and death. But as we band together with brothers and sisters in the church and seek to live in the word of God together, we’ll grow stronger and stronger in the Lord, and overcome evil together.
One Main Application
What does all this mean for us? One of the primary ways evil assaults us today is through shame. Yes, there’s false teaching everywhere that we need to be aware of and call it what it is. But there’s false teaching inside of us that damages our souls every day. That false teaching is called shame.
Guilt is about our actions. Shame is about our character, our worth, our value, who we believe we are. Some have said that shame is the primary weapon the enemy has against the people of God. He can’t damn us with guilt, but he can paralyze us with shame.
Evil loves to tell us things that aren’t true to shame us. This is where the devil’s two favorite schemes, deception and accusation, meet to devour our souls.
What lies does evil routinely whisper in your ear? “You’re incompetent, you’re not working hard enough, you’re a fraud, you’re not pretty enough, you’re too tall, you’re too short, you’re too skinny, you’re overweight, you’re dumb, you’re too sensitive, you’re too emotional, you’re a bad mom, you’ll never get over that addiction, your life is pointless, no one cares about you, no one will ever want to marry you, you can never be used by God again after that, you’re a failure.”
How old are these accusations? There was a moment when evil first accused you of these things, most likely a moment of pain and heartache. The core accusations that plague you in your day-to-day life most likely have their origins in the heartache of some of the core stories of woundedness in your life. In other words, evil loves to prey on our pain, to kick us when we’re down so that we’ll stay down.
Until we become aware that these accusations are the voice of evil, we’ll feel like they arise from our own heart, not realizing that evil has a voice that speaks to us regularly. We’ll think that these are truths that our heart has always known, that these things are indisputably and irreversibly true about us.
What lies does evil routinely whisper in your ear? How long have you been hearing those things?
The antidote to shame is the “word of God which abides in you” (v. 14). The gospel says that our value isn’t based on performance, that God doesn’t accept us based on our performance but based on Jesus’ performance.
Shame says, “You’re only as valuable as your performance, that you have to perform well to be accepted, to have any value.” The gospel says, “You’re valuable despite your performance, you haven’t performed well but you’re still accepted, that you have value to God because you’re purchased by the blood of his Son to be his son or daughter.”
God never connects value to performance. Yes of course we’re supposed to obey God, but not to gain value through performance. We obey because we’ve been declared valuable despite our performance.
The lies and accusations of the evil one that fill your heart and head are meant to shame you so that you won’t feel loved and accepted and useful to God, even though you are.
One simple way to combat these lies is to pray, “God, help me believe the things you believe about me.” And talk openly with your brothers and sisters about the lies you believe and the shame you feel. Darkness grows in solitude, but darkness dies in the light.
John writes to the churches to encourage them by reminding them of several things that are irreversibly true about them, by reminding them of all the blessings they have as children of God.
These blessings include: the forgiveness of sins, knowing the Father and the Son, being strong and overcoming the evil one. This is how John would describe a Christian. And these truths destroy the shame that suffocates our souls.