Reading: 1 John 2:12–14
Frantic—if there’s one word that often characterises the approach to the December holidays, frantic is it. End-of-year projects, deadlines, exams, packed matatus, intense traffic, long and expensive travel, relatives with high demands and low tolerance for disappointment: the holidays can be hectic. It’s no wonder some of us decided long ago that they were more trouble than they were worth.
From such a situation, we read a section with no commandments. Our reading today has no exhortations, and that should make us pause. God wants us to take a moment to reflect on the position and status that we have been granted as members of his household. He wants us to rest assured in our conquest of the evil one because we know the forgiving God.
John writes to three groups within his network of churches: children, fathers, and young men. These categories probably do not refer to physical age or station, though they may refer to the levels of experience in the Christian life. Surprisingly, he uses these groups not to divide up the congregation but to unite them by showing how the truths he says about each group apply to all believers regardless of maturity. Remember he is writing to all of them “so that they may know that they have eternal life” (5:13) and to exhort all of them, “dear children, keep yourselves from idols” (5:21). So the children know both the Father and the Son, who is “from the beginning.” The young men have had their sins forgiven (1:9), and the fathers have conquered the evil one (5:4). All of these truths apply to all of us because the Word of God (that is, the Word of life, God’s Son) remains in all of us.
So, dear child of God, take a moment to contemplate and rest in this reality: your sins are forgiven. What we have done that is inexcusable, that defames our Maker, that harms our neighbour, that corrupts ourselves—in the name of the Son, our sins are forgiven. This audacious reality has been brought about by the mission Jesus entered that night in Bethlehem. The suffering of the Son of God was the only way forgiveness could be secured.
Also think of this: you have come to know the Father through the One who is from the beginning, the Word of God. “No one has ever seen God, but the one and only Son, who is himself God and is in closest relationship with the Father, has made him known” (John 1:18). Life itself may be accounted as nothing without this treasure. “Now this is eternal life: that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent” (John 17:3). To know God is to be alive.
Furthermore, consider the assurance that you have overcome the evil one. Those who remain in the Son, who trust in his accomplishments, who do not desert him for another—they are the ones who have conquered the devil. We have a powerful, intelligent enemy, whose design is to devour us. He will use the temptation to sin and the trouble of suffering to derail our faith, but in Jesus victory has already been won. Stop, take a deep breath, and rest assured.