JOHN, “THE ELDER” (2 John 1:1), is the only one of the original Apostles who did not die a martyr’s death. The earlier accounts of John’s life written into the gospels show him as one caught up in the mystery that is Jesus at a young and impressionable age. He is, in one sense, apparently easily led in his youth. He is first, along with Andrew, to be drawn immediately into the spiritual vortex that exists around Jesus. He is with Jesus for Jesus’ entire ministry. He is at his side at the last supper, and the only Apostle to be with him at the Cross. He was beloved by Jesus to the extent that he was charged with caring for his mother Mary. He was first of the Apostles at the empty tomb. In short, he was indelibly marked early-on with the undeniable call of the Savior, and it shaped his life literally ever-after.
He did not live devoid of persecution – there is an anecdotal story of a king attempting to boil him in oil, he escaping such fate miraculously without injury. Scripture itself (cf. Rev. 1:9) records him exiled on the Isle of Patmos, where his three short late-in-life letters are written and recorded in the bible for our benefit. It is good for us to know these things about John, for it gives us insight to not only his motivation in writing his letters, but to the thought that we can trust him to guide us through some of the difficult points of our own journey of spiritual maturation.
In the first of his letters, John opens with the singular core truth about the strength inherent in the core of our faith. He expresses this in vivid symbolism and with authentic belief that resonates with our own sense of mystic experience. “That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched—this we proclaim concerning the Word of life. The life appeared; we have seen it and testify to it, and we proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and has appeared to us.” (1 John 1:1-2) This is his introduction for a message crafted to strengthen our hearts.
After some elementary cautions about the reality of our spiritual daily walk, he then writes – in a poetic structure similar to the Psalms – a parallelistic litany to “dear children… fathers… young men.” (1 John 2:12-14) It is meant to be sung as a mnemonic, devised to embed transforming insight to our progressive spiritual growth. At first glance it seems an odd progression – shouldn’t it be ordered ‘children… young men… fathers?’ But no, there is method to John’s structure.
He clarifies this for us. “Dear children, don’t sin” (v. 12), “because you know the Father.” (v.14) “Fathers, you know him who is from the beginning,” ( twice, vv.13, 14). What lies between childhood and old age is this: the shaping and refining of the characteristic traits that will lead us from the one to the other. And so, “I am writing to you, young men, because you have overcome the evil one” (v. 13), and, again, more deeply, “I write to you, young men, because you are strong, and the word of God lives in you, and you have overcome the evil one.” (v.14)
The transformational ‘Word of life’ that John wants to imbed in the footsteps of our long spiritual journey is ‘strength.’ To get from childhood to old age without becoming cases of arrested development will take a certain kind of strength, a mental and emotional and spiritual ‘toughness.’ As John uses this specific word – ‘ischuros’ (Gk.) – he means it in this way: *“one who has strength of soul to sustain the attacks of Satan, strong and therefore exhibiting many excellences.” Less we miss where such strength is found, John says it is because ‘the word of God lives in you, and you have overcome the evil one.’
It’s extremely difficult for any of us to take counsel from someone who speaks from a sterile examination of life’s processes, devoid of the shaping experiences that we may be personally struggling with. Not so John. In the common vernacular of “Been there, done that,” John’s words have the transforming pulse of a wounded but healed heart. He is authentic, believable, and most difficult of all for us, trustworthy.
The supreme example of trustworthiness is, of course, Jesus. It is also from John that we see the magnitude of this. “You are worthy to take the scroll and to open its seals, because you were slain, and with your blood you purchased for God persons from every tribe and language and people and nation. You have made them to be a kingdom and priests to serve our God, and they will reign on the earth.” (Rev. 5:9-10) Further, John writes, “This calls for patient endurance.” (Rev. 14:12)
Q. Can I truly endure “all things through him who gives me strength?” (Phil. 4:13)
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