1 John 2:12Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

Or were you baptized in the name of Paul?” (1 Cor 1:13). What does he mean? I do not want you to belong to me, but to be with me. Be with me. We all belong to Him Who died for us and was crucified for us. Therefore it is said here also: “Your sins are forgiven you for His name’s sake,” and not in the name of some man. See verse 13.

“I write to you, children, because your sins are forgiven you for His name’s sake,” that is, for the sake of Christ, the Savior of the world. Addressing all who have received from God the grace of adoption, John reminds them of the greatest gift of God. This gift obliges all who have been regenerated in the font of holy baptism to live for God, not for the world. It is the gift by which all believers in Christ received forgiveness of sins in holy baptism and were thereby reconciled to God, through the merits of the Lord, the Savior of all men. Therefore, as those redeemed by the blood of the Son of God, we must wholly dedicate ourselves to the service of God. We must love Him above all things and fulfill His holy commandments with all our strength. Serving God in this way, we must not attach our heart to the world or to its goods.

For the Apostle ascribes special qualities to each of these ages. To children he ascribes forgiveness of sins, pointing to their recent spiritual birth, baptism. In it they received only forgiveness of sins. They had not yet grown strong either for battle with the enemy, as the young men had, or become established in knowledge of the One Who Is. This belongs already to mature men. To the fathers, as those eldest in age and established in faith, he ascribes knowledge of the One Who Is from the beginning. This is the eternally begotten God the Word. He calls them fathers because, having known God, they can also instruct others in these great truths and beget them into spiritual life. He calls the young men strong because they have made the word of God their own. With it, as with the spiritual sword (Eph 6:17), they can conquer, and have conquered, the devil. To the little ones, as beginners in learning, he ascribes only knowledge of God in general. This is as it were the lower degree of knowledge of God. On this level man knows only the general properties and actions of the Godhead, manifested in the creation of the world and in Providence. But knowledge of God’s extraordinary acts, manifested in the Incarnation of the Son of God and in the redemption of man, the Apostle regards as the higher degree of knowledge of God, inaccessible to little ones.

We direct the particular attention of the Shtundists to the fact that in the Church of Christ not all have knowledge, but only the fathers. Therefore there are those who need instruction from others, and there are those who are obliged to share their knowledge with others. This accords with the word of the Apostle Peter: “Serve one another, each with the gift he has received” (1 Pet 4:10).

“Children,” “fathers,” “young men,” and “little ones”: by these ages he indicates degrees of spiritual perfection and qualities more than natural ages. Yet the latter cannot be excluded, since one age often coincides with another, the natural with the spiritual. In the Kingdom of Christ it can happen, and truly does happen, that elders in age may be children, or even infants, in intellectual and moral perfection. The reverse can also occur. “Children”: in this epistle the Apostle more than once addresses his readers, the Christians, with this name, “children.” He uses it in the sense of the closest relation between them, as a father to his children in spirit and faith, or as a beloved teacher to beloved disciples. Thus in 1 Jn 2:1, 18, 28; 3:1, 18, and the like. But in the present place the address is made not in this general sense, but in a more particular sense. Here it denotes children by age, of course spiritual age, though in a certain correspondence with natural age in the sense indicated. That children by age are meant is clear from the fact that they are set alongside fathers, young men, and little ones. It is likewise clear from the construction of the speech, especially in Greek: “I write to you, children; I write to you, fathers,” and so forth. In giving instruction to Christians according to ages, the Apostle points out a special motive for each age. Each age is not to cling to the world or to what is in the world. Yet this is done in such a way that no strict division or boundary should be supposed between them. Rather, the motive proper to one age is also proper to the others. They differ from one another only by predominance, not by exclusion. Thus, for example, children have been forgiven their sins, but fathers and little ones have also been forgiven. Or, little ones have known the Father, but children, fathers, and young men have also known Him. The perfections and qualities chiefly proper to one or another age are characterized, but not exclusively. “Children, your sins are forgiven you.” Childhood, together with infancy, is the first age. In it the faithful, being reborn in the font of baptism, receive, or have already received, forgiveness of sins. Through this they have been reconciled to God by the death on the Cross of Christ the Savior. Therefore, having received forgiveness of sins for Christ’s name’s sake, they must from the earliest age, both spiritual and natural, wholly dedicate themselves to God and Christ by fulfilling the commandments. They must reject service to the world and to what is in the world. The forgiveness of their sins for Christ’s name’s sake is their chief motive, in accordance with their age, to love God, Christ, and neighbor, and not to love the world or anything in it.

This childlike purity and forgiveness is the most natural motive for children to guard their holiness from defilement through contact with the sinful and adulterous world. “I write to you, fathers, because you have known Him Who is from the beginning” (1 Jn 2:13). The Apostle urges the fathers by the perfection of Christian knowledge, which is naturally assumed in them precisely as fathers. They have grown and become perfected in Christian knowledge to the point of teaching children. “I write to you, young men, because you have overcome the evil one” (1 Jn 2:13). The holy Apostle rightly hints at struggle and stirs the young men to victory, for this age is especially subject to battle with the passions and temptations of the world. “I write to you, little ones, because you have known the Father” (1 Jn 2:13). By this the Apostle impressively outlines the most natural and simple rule for little ones: to take examples from the Father and to become like Him.

For young men, whose age is marked both by impulses and by strength, freshness, and ardor in struggling against them, the motive for renouncing the world should be the progress they have already made in victory over the evil one. It should also be the knowledge of the all-powerful word of God which they have already mastered by diligently studying Holy Scripture. For fathers, that is, men who have reached a high degree of moral perfection, knowledge of the Beginningless One serves as a sufficient foundation. This is knowledge of the highest mystery of man’s salvation, appointed by God from the beginning through His Only-begotten Son, Jesus Christ. Love for the Beginningless One should restrain them from attachment to the corruptible and swiftly passing goods of this world.