Years ago, a “Dear Abby” (Arizona Daily Sun [1/10/99]) column ran a story by a retired schoolteacher. One day she had her students take out two sheets of paper and list the names of the other students in the room. Then she told them to think of the nicest thing they could say about each of their classmates and write it down by their names.

She took the papers home that weekend and compiled a list for each student of what the others had said about him or her. On Monday she gave each student his or her list.

Before long, everyone was smiling. “Really?” one whispered. “I never knew that meant anything to anyone.” “I didn’t know anyone liked me that much!”

Years later, the teacher went to the funeral of one of her former students, who had been killed in Vietnam. Many who had been in that class years before were there. After the service, the young man’s parents approached the teacher and said, “We want to show you something. Mark was carrying this when he was killed.” The father pulled out of a wallet the list of all the good things Mark’s classmates had said about him. “Thank you so much for doing that,” Mark’s mother said. “As you can see, Mark treasured it.”

A group of Mark’s classmates overheard the exchange. One smiled sheepishly and said, “I still have my list. It’s in my top desk drawer at home.” Another said, “I have mine, too. It’s in my diary.” “I put mine in our wedding album,” said a third. “I bet we all saved them,” said a fourth. “I carry mine with me at all times.” At that point, the teacher sat down and cried. And, she used that assignment in every class for the rest of her teaching career.

That story shows how much we all need encouragement. The apostle John has been dishing out some strong words as he warns the flock about the false teachers who were trying to deceive them.

John was writing to every believer in the church—his dear children who had experienced forgiveness through Jesus. Some were mature in the faith and had a long-standing relationship with Christ. Others had struggled with Satan’s temptations and had won. Still others had learned about Christ and were just beginning their spiritual journey.

Every person in the church needs to grow in Christ and to love every other person in the church. As children learn about Christ, they grow in their ability to win battles over temptation. As young adults move from victory to victory, they grow in their relationship with Christ. Older adults, having known Christ for years, have developed the wisdom needed to teach young people and start the cycle all over again.

John then warned the believers against worldliness, for one cannot love God and also love the world.

He has just said (2:11) that if you don’t love your brother, you’re in the darkness—not saved! He is about to say that if you love the world, you don’t have the Father’s love in you (2:15). But before he says that, he inserts this short section to encourage those who may have been troubled by what he had written.

John wants his readers, at whatever stage in the Christian life they are at, to consider what God has done in their lives. He wants them to know that they have authentic faith. (John inserts other similar assuring clarifications in 3:19-22 and 4:17-18.)

John Calvin put it (Calvin’s Commentaries [Baker], p. 182), “having faithfully spoken of good works, lest he should seem to give them more importance than he ought to have done, he carefully calls us back to contemplate the grace of Christ.”

Six times John uses the perfect tense in the explanatory (“because”) clauses. It describes action completed in the past with ongoing results.

John Stott (The Epistles of John [Eerdmans], p. 98) explains, “John is laying emphasis on the assured standing into which every Christian has come, whatever his stage of spiritual development.” To grow, we must be assured and encouraged about what God has done and is doing in our lives.

John’s main application is,

Wherever you’re at in your Christian walk, God wants you to be encouraged by His grace so that you will grow more.

1. There are stages of growth in the Christian life: Don’t be content with where you’re at, but seek to grow.

Others, however, argue that John is addressing three groups in terms of spiritual maturity (not chronological age). The odd order may be explained as his taking both ends of the spectrum first, and then showing the means of getting from the one end to the other.

I am comfortable with this three-fold breakdown, as long as we keep in mind that what John writes to the little children also applies to every stage of the Christian life.

Even mature believers need to remember that our sins have been forgiven and that we know God as our Father.

Also, the little children in the faith and the young men need to see clearly the goal of becoming spiritual fathers, who “know Him who has been from the beginning.”

And the children need to be prepared for the battles against the enemy that they must win in order to grow to maturity.

But the point is clear, both here and in other Scriptures, that we should never be complacent with where we’re at in our Christian walk, but should daily strive to know Christ better in order to grow to maturity.

Physical growth is normal for children, and it’s always abnormal when children do not grow and mature. Even spiritual adults should always press on toward the goal of knowing Jesus Christ better and growing in godliness:

Philippians 3:7–16 (ESV) — 7 But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. 8 Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ 9 and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith— 10 that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, 11 that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead. 12 Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. 13 Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, 14 I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. 15 Let those of us who are mature think this way, and if in anything you think otherwise, God will reveal that also to you. 16 Only let us hold true to what we have attained.

Hebrews 5:11–6:3 (ESV) — 11 About this we have much to say, and it is hard to explain, since you have become dull of hearing. 12 For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the basic principles of the oracles of God. You need milk, not solid food, 13 for everyone who lives on milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, since he is a child. 14 But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil. 1 Therefore let us leave the elementary doctrine of Christ and go on to maturity, not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God, 2 and of instruction about washings, the laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment. 3 And this we will do if God permits.

Hosea 6:3 (ESV) — 3 Let us know; let us press on to know the Lord; his going out is sure as the dawn; he will come to us as the showers, as the spring rains that water the earth.”

If you become spiritually complacent, you will not remain neutral; you will go backwards.

I’m convinced that God’s grace as shown to us on the cross is the greatest motivator to keep growing.

2. God wants us to be encouraged by His grace so that we will be motivated to grow.

Frankly, often it is more difficult for those of us from Christian homes to appreciate God’s grace as the motivator to grow. Those who have been saved from a difficult past know where they would be if God had not intervened in their lives. They are more likely to see that they have been forgiven much, and thus to love Christ much (Luke 7:36-50).

Those of us who grew up in the church are prone to think pharisaically that we didn’t need as much forgiveness as the person with a sordid past. We need to see how wretchedly sinful our hearts really are.

If God had let me go, I’d be enslaved to a multitude of terrible sins. With the hymn writer, we need to sing often, “O to grace, how great a debtor, daily I’m constrained to be; let Thy goodness, like a fetter, bind my wandering heart to Thee” (Robert Robinson, “Come Thou Fount”). God’s grace encourages me to grow in my walk with Him. John presents three stages of growth:

A. The foundation of the Christian life is to know that your sins are forgiven and to know the Father.

Here we’re focusing on John’s twofold address to the “little children” (2:12) and the “children” (2:13). If there is a nuance of difference between the two terms, “little children” (from a Greek word meaning, to beget or bring forth) points to the relationship by birth between a child and his parents. “Children” (from a Greek word emphasizing training) points to children under discipline or training.

By using both terms, John shows his authority as an apostle and his affection as a spiritual father to his family.

(1). As God’s little children, we need to be encouraged by the truth that our sins are forgiven for His name’s sake.

2:12 “I’m writing to you, little children, because your sins have been forgiven you for His name’s sake” (2:12).

The next three verses contain two sets of triplets that describe John’s readers as children (2:12), fathers (2:13), and young people (2:13). There are three main views about the meaning of these classifications:

The term “dear children” has no reference to age; rather, it was a term of endearment that John used for all those to whom he was writing. Christ used the same words when speaking to his disciples (John 13:33). All who have believed in Jesus Christ as Savior become God’s children. Many had come to Jesus through John’s ministry, so he called them his own “children.” These true followers have in common the fact that their sins have been forgiven because of Jesus. They have accepted the fact of their sinfulness, have confessed their sins, and have been forgiven because of Jesus’ death on the cross.

It seems, therefore, that each group has qualities that bear resemblance to all John’s readers. For example, viewed as little children, people knew their sins were forgiven. Viewed as fathers, they not only had a relationship with God, but they also had knowledge of God that comes from obedience to his commandments. Viewed as young people, they are strong. These qualities ought to be true of all believers. All Christians should know that their sins are forgiven, should be strong against the evil one, and should have mature knowledge of God and his Word. The repetition of the categories provides stylistic difference and poetic emphasis and allows additional comments on two of the categories.^[1]

Don’t ever allow yourself to read a verse like that and think, “Ho hum!” The forgiveness of all of your sins for His name’s sake is the greatest blessing in the whole world! Never get over the amazing truth that although you were a rebel who deserved God’s wrath, He graciously sent His Son to bear the penalty in your place!

As David exclaims (Ps. 32:1-2), “How blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered! How blessed is the man to whom the Lord does not impute iniquity, ….”

After rehearsing the sins of Israel in the wilderness, Nehemiah (9:17b) proclaims, “But You are a God of forgiveness, gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in lovingkindness.”

Jesus’ last words to the disciples before He ascended into heaven were (Luke 24:47), “that repentance for forgiveness of sins would be proclaimed in His name to all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem.”

John Bunyan has a wonderful book, “The Jerusalem Sinner Saved,” where he expounds on the fact that the good news of forgiveness of sins be proclaimed first in the very city that crucified the Savior.

When John tells the little children in the faith that their sins are forgiven “for His name’s sake,” he means that their sins are forgiven on account of the person and work of Jesus Christ on the cross.

Our sins are not forgiven because of anything that we do. We cannot do penance to work off our debt of sin, because Jesus paid the debt in full. We cannot add good works to atone for our sins, because Jesus atoned for them fully through His blood.

Maybe you’re thinking, “But you don’t know all the terrible things that I have done. Doesn’t a really bad sinner have to do something to qualify for God’s forgiveness?”

Learn from the apostle Paul, who calls himself the foremost of sinners (1 Tim. 1:15). In Ephesians 1:7-8, he writes, “In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace which He lavished on us.”

Forgiveness of sins is for His name’s sake, not for anything you have done or can do. All you can do is receive it by faith.

Notice, too, that forgiveness of sins is something that the youngest child of God can and should experience. It is foundational to your Christian walk that you know that your sins are forgiven, not because of anything in you, but solely because of what Jesus did for you on the cross.

The enemy will repeatedly come to accuse and condemn you for your sins. Answer him every time, not with your performance, but with the name and blood of the Lord Jesus Christ.

2:14 I write to you, children, because you know the Father. I write to you, fathers, because you know him who is from the beginning. I write to you, young people, because you are strong and the word of God abides in you, and you have overcome the evil one. 

This verse repeats the message of 2:13 to fathers and then amplifies the message to young people. The overlap of the advice can be seen here where John wrote to you, children, because you know the Father. The phrase refers to experiential knowledge. All Christians ought to have personal knowledge of God the Father through Jesus Christ his Son; otherwise, they cannot be believers. The fathers … know him who is from the beginning. Again, “him” refers to Jesus Christ, who is eternal. To the young people, John wrote that they are strong and the word of God abides in them, and he repeated that they have overcome the evil one. This strength is not the natural physical vigor of young people but the power of God’s Word in them through the Holy Spirit. Isaiah wrote, “Even youths will faint and be weary, and the young will fall exhausted; but those who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint” (Isaiah 40:30–31 ). God’s people can enjoy this power and can be victorious over Satan, John went on to affirm, only by freeing themselves from the grasp of the evil things of the world (2:15). Since Satan controls the minds of those in revolt against God (the world, see 5:19), believers must constantly guard against his assaults by becoming saturated with God’s Word. They can remain strong only as the word of God abides in them.

(2). As God’s children, we need to be encouraged by the fact that we have come to know the Father.

Believers have been set free from Satan’s authority and have been given power over him. Yet the battle rages as spiritual warfare continue between Satan’s forces and God’s forces. Satan battles against anyone who loves the Lord. But believers are promised power in times of intense spiritual battle. The following steps will help you if you sense that you a fighting a spiritual battle:

1.  Realize that the battle is not against “flesh and blood” but against the spirit world and evil forces.	Ephesians 6:12
2. Trust that Satan’s power can be broken in any specific area of his domain, and utilize the powerful spiritual weapons given to you by God for the destruction of Satan’s power.	Acts 26:18, 2 Corinthians 10:4–5; Ephesians 6:16; 1 Thessalonians 5:8
3.  Challenge Satan and his power by believing in Jesus’ name, using God’s Word, praying in the Spirit, and fasting.	Matthew 6:16; Acts 16:16–18; Ephesians 6:17–18
4.  Stay fervently committed to God’s truth and righteousness….	Romans 12:1–2; Ephesians 6:14
5.  Proclaim the gospel of the kingdom in the fullness of the Spirit.	Matthew 4:23; Acts 1:18; Romans 1:16: Ephesians 6:15
6.  Pray especially for the Holy Spirit to convict the lost.	John 16:7–11
7.  Keep morally fit by loving God, not the temptations of this world.	1 Corinthians 10:13; 1 John 2:15–17

As with the forgiveness of sins, so knowing God as your Father is foundational to your Christian walk. In his classic book, Knowing God ([IVP], p. 182), J. I. Packer wrote, You sum up the whole of New Testament teaching in a single phrase, if you speak of it as a revelation of the Fatherhood of the holy Creator.

In the same way, you sum up the whole of New Testament religion if you describe it as the knowledge of God as one’s holy Father. If you want to judge how well a person understands Christianity, find out how much he makes of the thought of being God’s child, and having God as his Father. If this is not the thought that prompts and controls his worship and prayers and his whole outlook on life, it means that he does not understand Christianity very well at all.

From the earliest stage of our Christian life, we should know God as our Father. He loves us and cares for us far more than any earthly father ever could. As John will go on to say (3:1), “See how great a love the Father has bestowed on us, that we would be called children of God; and such we are.” Knowing that God has forgiven all your sins and that He is your Father are foundational to your Christian life. Never forget these precious truths!

B. The goal of the Christian life is to be spiritual fathers, who know Him who has been from the beginning.

John jumps from the beginning to the end, before going back to the means of getting from one to the other. Both times, for emphasis, he repeats exactly the same thing, that the fathers “know Him who has been from the beginning.” The verb, know, is in the perfect tense, meaning, you have come to know Him and still know Him. The Greek verb means to know by experience.

But, why does John refer to God as “Him who has been from the beginning”? Why is this a distinctive of those who are spiritually mature? I suggest three reasons:

(1). The phrase focuses on the eternality of God, and spiritual maturity involves developing an eternal perspective on life.

This phrase prepares us for the next section, where John says (2:17), “For the world is passing away, and also its lusts; but the one who does the will of God lives [lit., abides] forever.” The older you get, the more you realize how short and uncertain this life really is. As you grow older, you see more clearly that all of the things that people strive to attain—riches, recognition, pleasure, adventure, or whatever—fade away in the face of death and eternity. The earlier in your Christian life that you can learn that the Lord Jesus Christ is the eternal One, who was with the Father in the beginning, and that you will quickly step out of time and into eternity, the more you will grow spiritually. That eternal perspective will help you not to get enamored by the world and the things in the world.

(2). The phrase points us to God’s eternal purpose in Christ, and to the wonderful fact that it included us by His sovereign choice.

Paul wrote (Eph. 1:8b-12), In all wisdom and insight He made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His kind intention which He purposed in Him with a view to an administration suitable to the fullness of the times, that is, the summing up of all things in Christ, things in the heavens and things on the earth. In Him also we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to His purpose who works all things after the counsel of His will, to the end that we who were the first to hope in Christ would be to the praise of His glory.

Babes in Christ often stumble over the doctrine of God’s sovereign election, but spiritual fathers submit to it and, as Jesus did, they rejoice in it (see Luke 10:21-22). We rejoice in it because it means that salvation is not a matter of our feeble human will, but rather of God’s mighty will and purpose. All praise goes to Him for the wonder that “He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world” (Eph. 1:4)!

(3). The phrase points us to Jesus Christ as the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and end, of our Christian experience.

(See Rev. 1:8, 17.) All of God’s riches are ours in Christ. We will spend all eternity plumbing the breadth and length and height and depth of the love of Christ, which surpasses all knowledge (Eph. 3:18-19). And so the goal of the Christian life is to grow into spiritual fathers, who “know Him who has been from the beginning.” Of course, that process never is complete, and so we should always be pressing on to know Him better. But, how do we grow from spiritual children to be fathers in the faith?

C. The means of attaining the goal is to be strong young men who overcome the evil one through God’s Word.

John writes to the young men, “because you are strong, and the word of God abides in you, and you have overcome the evil one” (2:14). These words show us that the Christian life is not a perpetual Sunday School picnic! It is an intense battle with the enemy of our souls, who seeks to devour us (1 Pet. 5:8).

While we can and should experience victories over the temptations that the enemy puts in our path, there is another sense in which such victories are never complete or final. He doesn’t give up! So we must understand the victories of these spiritually strong young men in a relative sense. Also, even when we win such victories, we are never strong in ourselves, but only in the Lord, and in the strength of His might (Eph. 6:10). Often the weapons that the enemy brings against us are not frontal, but rather deceptive. As Paul wrote (2 Cor. 11:3), “But I am afraid that, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, your minds will be led astray from the simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ.” So we must always be alert to his schemes (2 Cor. 2:11).

It is only when you allow the Word of God to abide in you that you will overcome the enemy’s schemes. The Lord Jesus overcame the tempter every time by citing Scripture (Matt. 4:4, 7, 10). The only way that you will grow strong spiritually and overcome the evil one is to let the Word of God dwell in your heart by meditating on it day and night (Ps. 1:2) and treasuring it in your heart (Ps. 119:9, 11).

Conclusion

Most of us probably can remember our defeats much more easily than we can remember our victories. God doesn’t want your defeats to sabotage your Christian walk. His grace means that your sins are forgiven and that you are now His child. Knowing that should not lead you to sin more, but rather to be encouraged to grow more.

The German poet, Goethe, said, “Correction does much, but encouragement does more.” The Bible has both, of course, in proportion to what we need. Here, John wants to encourage us, no matter where we’re at in our level of maturity. But to be effective, encouragement must be true, not mere flattery. The truest thing about you is what God says in His Word. If you have trusted in Jesus Christ, God says that your sins are forgiven for His name’s sake. He says that you have come to know Him as Father. He wants you to grow strong through His Word, so that you will overcome the evil one. As you do, you will grow into a mature believer, who knows Him who is from the beginning. That’s why John wrote these encouraging words.

 

ENCOURAGEMENT: “An Essential Part of Christian Life”

 INTRODUCTION: Today’s lesson is on encouragement.  I thought that it would be beneficial for everyone to appreciate more fully why we all need it and why it is important.  It seems in the present times we live in there is little place or time for encouragement. The news media focuses on tragedy and the latest crisis but seldom on human interest stories that provide hope and encouragement.   Think of a time when you were encouraged and what a difference that made. I remember, when running the NYC Marathon many years ago, that encouragement from a friend made all the difference (I was experiencing dehydration at the 14 mile mark and was considering quitting) that enabled me to continue the race to the finish line.

DEFINITION OF ENCOURAGEMENT: What does the word encouragement mean?  Webster’s Dictionary defines it as “…to inspire with courage, spirit or hope; spur on; give help or patronage to.”  In the biblical Greek there are many variations and tenses of the word “parakaleo,” however, it is generally translated as “to invite to come; to call upon for or upon someone as for aid, to invoke God, to beseech, entreat; to exhort, admonish as in calling upon someone to do something.”

WHAT IS THERE TO BE ENCOURAGED ABOUT? So what is there to be encouraged about?  Why does the Bible say that it is important to encourage one another? Let’s examine some scriptures that provide reasons to be encouraged.

God Has Overcome the World: We all know about the world we live in today and the ensuing chaos. In John 16:32-33, Jesus explains to his disciples the troubled reality that they will soon face yet reassures them that he has overcome the world: “A time is coming and in fact has come when you will be scattered, each to your own home.  You will leave me all alone. Yet I am not alone, for my Father is with me. I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace.  In this world you will have trouble.  But take heart! I have overcome the world.”

Jesus encouraged the disciples by reminding them of the reality they will face so that they would not be surprised or discouraged.  Despite their future predicament, Jesus reminds them that he is in control and that, despite his impending death, he will rise in victory and provide the lasting solution to sin.  Likewise, we should not be discouraged about our situation today because God is in control and that he has provided for our salvation through the cross!

God Has Prepared a Place for Us in Heaven:  In John 14:1-4, Jesus assures his disciples that he has prepared a place for them in heaven, where they will be with God for eternity. “Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God; believe also in me.  My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you?  And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. You know the way to the place where I am going.”

That assurance of a place in heaven with God applies to us as well!  We should be comforted and reassured about this great promise!

God Promises Us Eternal Life: Think about it—eternal life—in God’s presence.  Eternity is a very long time…really long—actually a never-ending length of time.  John 3:16 says “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”  If we remain faithful to him to the end, we can be assured that we will be with God for eternity.  Recall that John 6:40 states “For my Father’s will is that everyone who  looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life, and I will raise them up at the last day.”

God Provides Salvation: In Romans 10:11-13, Paul reminds us that “…anyone who believes in him will never be put to shame.  For there is no difference between Jew and Gentile—the same Lord is Lord of all and richly blesses all who call on him, for, ‘Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” We are assured of our salvation which is available for all—regardless of where we came from—is that not encouraging?

We Are Provided Forgiveness: Is it not encouraging to know that we are forgiven for our sins? In Numbers 14:18, the Lord is described as being “…slow to anger, abounding in love and forgiving sin and rebellion.”  Likewise, in Ephesians 1:7-8, in Christ we “…have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace that he lavished on us…” We are freed from the law of sin and death and that there is no condemnation for those in Christ.  In Psalms 103:10, God is described as one who does not “treat us as our sins deserve” or “repay us according to our iniquities.”

Encouragement By the Example of Others: The examples of faithful believers who have gone before us can also be a source of encouragement. The apostle Paul provides us with an example of faith    .

^[1] Bruce B. Barton and Grant R. Osborne, 1, 2 & 3 John, Life Application Bible Commentary (Wheaton, IL: Tyndale House, 1998), 39–40.