Download discussion questions:  1 John 2:9-17

After spending ten minutes or so looking at the passage individually, our discussion started with, “What questions come to mind as you read this passage?”  The numerous responses were mostly about the central section (verses 12-14).  “Those verses don’t seem to fit with what John was saying.  Who is he writing to?  Does he mean literal children and fathers and young men?  Is he describing stages of spiritual life?  Why doesn’t he mention women?” 

Questions are an integral part of studying and understanding Scripture.  Too often we read the Bible to focus on what we already believe or understand.  We can be uncomfortable asking questions, or the questions others ask can make us uneasy.  Dealing with questions takes work.  The benefits of questions justify the discomfort and effort they require.  Questions (especially those without immediate answers) open us to what the Holy Spirit may want to show us from Scripture.  Questions force us to dig deeper and more vigorously into the text of the Bible.  “Raking is easy, but you get only leaves; digging is hard, but you might find diamonds.”^[1]

With our questions in mind, we spent some time looking at the passage as a whole.  Contrasts and repetition were combined throughout the passage, but there seemed to be some clear concentrations.  Our group made the following observations:

• In the beginning section (v. 9-11), “love and hate” and “light and darkness” dominated John’s writing, focusing on loving others (“brothers,” or “brothers and sisters” in the CSB translation used this week[2]).
• The end of the passage (v. 15-17) resumed the theme of love, but with a different emphasis. In contrast to loving others, the end of the passage is negative and repeatedly discourages loving “the world” (a word used five times in three verses).
• The center section (v. 12-14 and the focus of our questions) has its own set of repeated or related words: “writing and written” and “children, fathers, young men.”

The connections between the beginning and ending of the passage may be why the center portion seems out of place.  It almost disrupts the flow of the passage.

Since John’s writing didn’t start with verse 9, we discussed the preceding context.  What had John said just before this passage?  Thinking back to last week’s discussion, the Apostle had emphasized at least two points:  “I am writing that you may not sin” and “if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father” (1 John 2:1).  The beginning of the present passage continues John’s theme of light and darkness (from 2:8).  Here he made his figurative language very specific and practical:  loving others is the primary characteristic of the light.  As we saw last week, the “old” and “new” commandments (2:7) of his message are about love for one another.

A member of our group suggested that the last section of the passage contrasts loving “things” of the world with loving people.  Things (material objects, circumstances, events) often can be the biggest obstacles to loving people.  As one person pointed out, the passage emphasizes that the world of things is short-lived, but people last forever (v. 16).

The consensus of the group was that the beginning of the passage is a caution, and the end of the passage is stronger, more of a warning.  We still had not explored the curious center section.

In the midst of all the structure and the repetition of that center section, one puzzling observation came up.  The word “because” is used in v. 13-14, but “since” is used in v. 12.  A reasonable question is, “Why?” or, “Is there a significant difference in what John was saying?”  Sometimes when the wording of a verse seems unusual, different translations can be helpful.

The website Bible Gateway is a useful resource for many reasons, but comparing different translations is especially easy.  Looking up a single verse displays the text in one translation.  The “all English translations” link shows fifty or more versions.  An example of this process for 1 John 2:12 shows that only the Christian Standard Bible makes that change to “since.”  The large majority of other familiar translations use “because” in all three verses of the passage.  Apparently there is no difference in the usage in the verses.[3]  I include this seemingly tangential comment for two reasons.  (1) This is an example of using the function in Bible Gateway, and (2) observation is a key part of the process of methodical inductive Bible study, even though some observations prove to have minor importance.

The repetition and structure of the center section of the passage certainly seems to reflect a clear intention on John’s part.  Although it was not planned, the Christian Standard Bible used for this week’s study formats the passage to reflect the structure of John’s writing.  (Different versions vary.  ESV and NIV use a format similar to CSB; NASB and RSV present the verses in a simple paragraph form.)  Using a word processor, it is reasonably easy to further change the format (not the content!) of the text to help us see the writer’s thought process.[4]  A different format for the text puts the parallel phrases (to children, fathers, and to young men) side-by-side for comparison:  Who was he writing to? Why was he writing to each group?

Re-arranging the verses to compare the similar statements did seem helpful in our group.  Different members pointed out several similarities and differences in the words to the three groups:

• The order of the three groups is unexpected (children, fathers, young men). The sequence is neither young to old nor old to young.
• John first describes his “writing” to each of the groups, then changes to what he “has written” to each. Perhaps he was clarifying that what he was writing at the moment was a consistent continuation of what he had written at the beginning of the letter, or perhaps what he had written earlier in his gospel.
• The “fathers” might be Jewish converts who had known the true God. The “young men” conquering the evil one might be converts from paganism, overcoming years of idol worship.
• He first addresses a group as “little children” and then a few lines later as “children.” Could those actually be two separate groups (further complicating the passage!)?  Also, John has already used an affectionate term “little children” (2:1) for all his readers.
• The terms could refer to literal age, or stage of life, or to levels of spiritual maturity. (John referred to maturity or “perfection” in verse 5 just before this passage.)  If he used the terms metaphorically as stages of spiritual development, the figurative language would include women as well as “fathers” and “young men.”
• The first statement to “little children” is passive (“sins forgiven”) while all the other comments sound more active (“come to know,” “conquered”).
• Could the titles be poetic, without meaning actual distinctions of physical or spiritual maturity?
• The descriptions all relate to past events or circumstances, except for “you are strong, God’s word remains in you” in the present tense for the young men.

These comments (and more than I wrote down or can remember) took most of the rest of our time together, and we tried to piece together these observations into an interpretation.  The consensus of our discussion was that John is addressing three groups based on three broad levels of spiritual development:

• An enthusiastic and excited number of new believers knew that they were forgiven. They were in the early stages of knowing God better.
• A seasoned assembly of believers had known and lived by the gospel for a significant time. They knew both the enthusiasm of early belief and the intense struggles of spiritual growth.  They also knew that whatever life held, their deepest satisfaction was in knowing “the one who was from the beginning.”  That truth was so fundamental and so profound that John used exactly the same words both times he addressed this group.  Perhaps he was thinking of their progress toward his earlier goal:  “that you may have fellowship with us; and our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ” (1 John 1:3).
• A group of believers, perhaps the largest segment, were experiencing the struggles of following Jesus, the constant pull between “loving your brother” and “loving the things of the world.” All believers face that struggle, but John may have had in mind a particular stage of spiritual formation.  The freshness of conversion seems far in the past, and the ripeness of age is unimaginable.  John’s most inspiring and reassuring words in the present tense are for this group.

If, as mentioned before, the passage begins with a caution (v. 9-11) and ends with a warning (v. 15-17), our group concluded that this center section is John’s encouragement for all the church, of every spiritual level and maturity.  The part of the passage that at first seemed “out of place” comes to be the core of John’s concern for the people.  His concern continues to alternate between warnings about the consequences of sin and the assurance of our forgiveness when we fail.  Verses 12-14 are his reminder to his readers:  “Remember what God has already accomplished in your life!”  Each stage of spiritual growth has the same confidence in our Advocate with the Father (v. 1).

One of our members pointed out the very end of this passage:  “the one who does the will of God remains forever.”  The enthusiastic children, the tested veterans, the conquering strugglers all look forward to that same promise.  John’s reminder to each group (and to us) is to be encouraged by what God has done and continues to do in our lives.  Walking in the light in love for each other outlasts the passing distractions of the world.  We have something much better now and forever:  our fellowship with each other and with the Father and with His Son.

[1] John Piper, Future Grace (Sisters, Oregon: Multnomah Publishers, 1995), 16.

[2] I mentioned to the group that I have been intentionally using a different English translation each week to help us be more familiar with the options available to us.

[3] For those who are interested, the Greek text of the passage uses the conjunction ὅτι in all six phrases.

[4] The original text had no paragraph divisions.  In fact, to save precious parchment, many early manuscripts did not even include spaces between words.  So our reformatting the text of Scripture is a further attempt to make the writer’s meaning more clear.