Big Idea: As we think about the nature of the church and our love for our brothers and sisters in Christ, we see that there is strength in our diversity. That each one of us have something to offer to the spiritual growth and doctrinal fidelity of the church. And that each stage of growth has strengths and weaknesses.
John is talking here about 3 stages of spiritual maturity. He is not necessarily speaking to physical ages, although our physical age can contribute to our maturity. He is addressing children, fathers, and young men as three categories of spiritually mature believers.
Proverbs 20:29 (ESV) — 29 The glory of young men is their strength, but the splendor of old men is their gray hair.
Infants in Christ
Spiritual Young Men
Spiritual _____________________
1 John 2:13 (ESV) — 13 I am writing to you, fathers, because you know him who is from the beginning. 1 John 2:14 (ESV) — 14 I write to you, fathers, because you know him who is from the beginning.
W_______________
Proverbs 4:1–2 (ESV) — 1 Hear, O sons, a father’s instruction, and be attentive, that you may gain insight, 2 for I give you good precepts; do not forsake my teaching.
Proverbs 13:1 (ESV) — 1 A wise son hears his father’s instruction, but a scoffer does not listen to rebuke.
Fathers” are persons of maturity, men who are not raw and green; not fresh recruits, unaccustomed to march or fight, but old legionaries who have used their swords on others, and are themselves scarred with wounds received in conflict. These men know what they know, for they have thought over the gospel, studied it, considered it, and having so considered it have embraced it with full intensity of conviction.
C________________
Psalm 103:13 (ESV) — 13 As a father shows compassion to his children, so the Lord shows compassion to those who fear him.
Deuteronomy 1:30–31 (ESV) — 30 The Lord your God who goes before you will himself fight for you, just as he did for you in Egypt before your eyes, 31 and in the wilderness, where you have seen how the Lord your God carried you, as a man carries his son, all the way that you went until you came to this place.’
The fatherly role on earth is given to us so that we might understand, at least in part the love and care that God the Father has for us.
Matthew 7:9–11 (ESV) — 9 Or which one of you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone? 10 Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a serpent? 11 If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him!
But there is something more than this in Christian fatherhood. The fathers of the church are men of heart, who naturally care for the souls of others. It is a grand thing when Christian men and Christian women come to this, that they are not perpetually thinking of their own salvation and of their own souls being fed under the ministry, but they care most of all for those who are weak and feeble in the church. During a service their thoughts go out for those assembled. They are anxious as to how that stranger may be impressed by the sermon, how an anxious spirit may be comforted, how a backsliding brother may be restored, how one who is growing somewhat chill may be revived. This paternal care betokens a true father in the church.
E____________________
1 John 2:13 (ESV) — 13 I am writing to you, fathers, because you know him who is from the beginning…
These spiritual fathers are those who have personal experience of Jesus’ saving capacity in the midst of trials because they have been tested and their faith has been proven to be genuine.
Hebrews 12:3 (ESV) — 3 Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted.
