First John: 1 John 2:12-14-Third and Final Interpretative Problem
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I am writing to you, little children, because your sins are forgiven for his name’s sake. 13 I am writing to you, fathers, because you know him who is from the beginning. I am writing to you, young men, because you have overcome the evil one. I write to you, children, because you know the Father. 14 I write to you, fathers, because you know him who is from the beginning. I write to you, young men, because you are strong, and the word of God abides in you, and you have overcome the evil one. (ESV)
Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom
Wednesday June 28, 2017
www.wenstrom.org
-Third and Final Interpretative Problem
Lesson # 63
I am writing to you, little children, because your sins are forgiven for his name’s sake. 13 I am writing to you, fathers, because you know him who is from the beginning. I am writing to you, young men, because you have overcome the evil one. I write to you, children, because you know the Father. 14 I write to you, fathers, because you know him who is from the beginning. I write to you, young men, because you are strong, and the word of God abides in you, and you have overcome the evil one. (ESV)
The third and final interpretative problem with is that John employs the present tense of the verb graphō in and the first two declarations in .
However, in the last declaration at the end of this verse he puts this same verb in the aorist tense.
He also does this in .
Therefore, the first three times he employs this verb in , he puts it in the present tense whereas he puts it in the aorist tense the last three times he uses it.
The present tense of this verb graphō in these verses is a progressive descriptive or pictorial present used to indicate that which is now going on or taking place.
The descriptive present says that John is “at this particular time” communicating in writing to the Christian community in the Roman province of Asia and the hoti clauses which follow it identify the content of what he is writing to them.
On the other hand, the aorist tense of this verb is an epistolary aorist which is a use of the aorist indicative in which the author self-consciously describes his letter from the time frame of the audience.
Here it is of course from the standpoint of the recipients of First John who were members of the Christian community in the Roman province of Asia.
Here it expresses the idea that John was “presently” composing .
The present tense of the verb graphō is used of the apostle John’s perspective of writing whereas the aorist tense is speaking from the perspective of the recipients of this epistle.
The second time the word appears in the present tense is in where it is followed by a hoti clause which asserts that the older men in the Christian community knew Him (Jesus Christ), who is from eternity past experientially.
The second time the verb appears in the aorist tense is in where it is used with a hoti clause which asserts the same thing, that the older men in the Christian community knew Jesus Christ experientially.
Therefore, these two declarations regarding the older men in the Christian community parallel each other.
One is from John’s perspective and the other is from the perspective of the recipients of this epistle.
The third time the verb graphō appears in the present tense is in where it is followed by a hoti clause which asserts that the younger men in the Christian community were presently experiencing victory over the devil.
The third time the verb is used in the aorist tense is in where it is followed by a hoti clause which asserts that the younger men in the Christian community were presently experiencing victory over Satan.
Therefore, these two declarations about the younger men in the Christian community parallel each other.
Again, one is from John’s perspective and the other is from the perspective of the recipients of this epistle.
Connected to this, I am interpreting the perfect tenses of the verbs in these verses as an intensive perfect.
Therefore, in , the perfect tense of aphiēmi would indicate that the recipients of this epistle were existing in the present state of experiencing the forgiveness their sins as a result of the past action of confessing these sins to the Father.
The perfect tense of the verb ginōskō in each instance that the word appears in would indicate that the recipients of this epistle were presently existing in the state of knowing Jesus Christ and the Father experientially as a result of the past action of obeying John’s apostolic teaching which is the Word of God.
The perfect tense of the verb nikaō in this verse would indicate that the recipients of this epistle were existing in the present state of experiencing victory over Satan as a result of the past action of obeying the Word of God.
Lastly, the perfect tense of the verb ginōskō in would indicate that the recipients of this epistle were presently existing in the state of knowing Jesus Christ experientially as a result of the past action of obeying the Word of God.
The perfect tense of the verb nikaō in this verse would indicate that the recipients of this epistle were presently existing in the state of experiencing victory over Satan as a result of the past action of obeying the Word of God.
Therefore, we can see that is designed to encourage the recipients of this epistle to remain faithful to John’s apostolic teaching.
The recipients were the Christian community in the Roman province of Asia.
This passage encourages the recipients of this epistle because it affirms that they were remaining faithful to his apostolic teaching and they were in fact rejecting the false doctrine taught by the proto-Gnostic teachers.
Thus, he is commending them.
Therefore, contains six affirmations and not eight since two are repeated.
Two are addressed to the entire Christian community and one is addressed to the older men in the Christian community.
However, three are addressed to the younger men in this community.
The first affirmation in is addressed to the entire Christian community and asserts that their sins were existing in the present state of being forgiven for their benefit based upon the merits of the name of Jesus Christ.
This implies that they were confessing their sins to the Father when necessary, which is what he reminded them of in .
Thus, it is the view of this author that this first affirmation is directed at John’s teaching in , which emphasized the critical importance of the confession of sin in order to be restored to fellowship with God.
The second affirmation in asserts that the older men in the Christian community knew Him who was from eternity past experientially.
This is a reference of course to fellowship with Jesus Christ who John asserted in was from eternity past.
The third affirmation in this verse asserts that the younger men in the Christian community were presently existing in the state of experiencing victory over Satan and the kingdom of darkness.
The fourth affirmation in this verse maintains that the entire congregation knew the Father experientially.
The fifth affirmation in repeats the second affirmation but from the perspective of the Christian community and asserts that the older men in this community were presently existing in the state of knowing Jesus Christ experientially.
The sixth, seventh and eighth affirmations are all addressed to the younger men in the Christian community.
The sixth asserts that they were presently strong.
The seventh maintains that the Word of God was existing in the state of abiding or living in them.
The eighth and final affirmation repeats the third affirmation in that they were presently existing in the state of experiencing victory over Satan and his kingdom.