"I AM writing unto you, little children, because your sins are forgiven you for His Name's sake.  I am writing unto you, fathers, because ye know Him Who is from the Beginning.  I am writing unto you, young men, because ye have overcome the Wicked One.  I wrote unto you, little ones, because ye know the Father.  I wrote unto you, fathers, because ye know Him Who is from the Beginning.  I wrote unto you, young men, because ye are strong, and the word of God is abiding in you, and ye have overcome the Wicked One."

    This parenthetical address to the readers is, at first sight, difficult to account for.  Not only is there a lack of obvious connection either with what precedes or with what follows; it is thrust like a wedge into the middle of a paragraph, separating the positive exposition of the Law of Love (2^7-11) from the negative (2^15-17), and thus obscuring the continuity of thought.  It seems, indeed, as if its introduction here might be cited as one of the strongest instances of that lack of logical coherence by which, in the view of many critics, the Epistle is characterised.  On closer examination, however, these first impressions are dispelled.

    The paragraph consists of a six-fold statement of the reason which justifies the writer in addressing to his readers such an Epistle as the present.  And this six-fold statement is, in effect, one - that the impulse to write thus does not spring from doubt of their Christian standing or of their progress in Christian experience, but that, on the contrary, it is his confidence in their Christian character and attainments that inspires him to write as he does.  The motive of the address is, in the first place, apologetic¹ and conciliatory - to obviate possible misunderstanding, or even possible offence.  It might be felt that in the preceding paragraphs the tone was somewhat acrid and severe.  The ill-omened "he that saith" has been much in evidence, while the sentence just completed² strikes a peculiarly sombre note.  At this point, therefore, the writer might very naturally guard himself against the supposition that his words implied a gloomy view of his readers spiritual state, or that they were barbed by any invidious personal application.  But there is a deeper motive also.  He secures a vantage-ground from which to press the yet more stringent demands that are to follow:  "Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world" (2^15-17).  It would be idle to make such a requirement of those in whom the foundations of the Christian life were not already firmly fixed; and it is because he so gladly recognises that his readers have already "tasted of the heavenly gift," and that in good measure, that he is encouraged to incite them to fuller realisation of what is within their reach.  That men "know the Father" is the strongest reason why they should not love the world, the love of which is so incompatible with the love of the Father (2¹⁵); that men "know Him Who is from the Beginning" is the strongest reason why they should not set their affection upon things transient and evanescent (2^17a), but upon the abiding life (2^17b); that they have overcome the Wicked One in the past, furnishes strong reason why they should not allow themselves to be now ensnared by "the lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh, and the vain-glory of life" (2¹⁶).  It is because his readers are what they are that he can spur them to fuller achievements; and it is by reminding them of what they are that he can best apply the spur.

    The introduction of this parenthetical address to the readers may be regarded as thus satisfactorily accounted for.  The passage itself, however, as to both form and contents, presents some peculiar features.  Of the six clauses it contains, the second three are an almost verbatim repetition of the first three; with, however, the singular variation that, in the first triplet, the writer uses the present tense, "I write" (gra,fw); in the second, the aorist (e;graya).  Now, a Greek letter-writer, when referring in the course of his letter to the writing of it, may do so in either of these ways.  He may describe the process from his own immediate point of view, in which case he uses the present indicative, gra,fw; or, placing himself at his reader's point of view, he may describe the action as completed and already in the past, by using the "Epistolary Aorist,"³ e;graya.  Why does St. John here change from the one form to the other, and why does he repeat under the second form what he has just said under the first?  There is nothing in New Testament usage⁴ to justify the view (Huther, Ewald, De Wette) that gra,fw, refers to the Epistle as a whole, e;graya to the part already written.  The supposition that e;graya is to be explained as an allusion to some other writing, whether the Gospel (Ebrard, Hofmann, Plummer) or an earlier Epistle (Rothe), has still less to commend it.  And, while it may be argued (Haupt) that in the first triplet (the gra,fw clauses) the writer is assuring his readers of his confidence in them, but in the second is preparing the way for the injunction that follows, "Love not the world," this, though it may explain the repetition, does nothing to account for the change of tense.  I venture to suggest,⁵ as the simple solution of the problem, that after writing the first (gra,fw) triplet the author was interrupted in his composition, and that, resuming his pen, he very naturally caught up his line of thought by repeating his last sentence, with "I wrote" instead of "I am writing."  Every one does this mentally in the supposed circumstances, and the Apostle may easily be imagined to to have done so literally.

    A more important question concerns the classification of the persons addressed.  Of these, St. John distinguishes apparently three grades, the "children" (tekni,a, 2¹²; paidi,a, 2^13b), the "fathers," and the "young men."  These terms have been understood as all indicating Christians in general.⁶  But this is a gratuitous subtlety.  By others, they have been taken in their literal sense (Calvin, with the majority of the older commentators).  But the Epistle can scarcely be regarded as having been written for those who were actually "children"; and, besides, the order, "children," "fathers," "young men," is, on this view, unaccountable.  The same objection applies to their designating three different stages of proficiency in the Christian life.

    A closer consideration of the Apostles usus loquendi reveals that he has in view, not three, but two classes of readers; whom he addresses in common as "little children," and, separately, as the older (pate,rej) and the younger (neani,skoi) members of the Christian community.  "Little children" is the affectionate appellation which the writer habitually⁷ applies to all to whom he stands in the relation of spiritual mentor.  To them he writes because their sins are forgiven them for His Name's⁸ sake.  Fittingly does this stand in the first place.  It is an impotent religion which cannot declare to men the forgiveness of sins, and make it the basis of fruitful aspiration and moral effort.  The first and universal human need, the presupposition of all human fellowship with God, is the forgiveness of sins.  Therefore it is the first and fundamental announcement of the Gospel (Luke 24⁴⁷), the first element in the salvation which is given to men "for His Name's sake."  Therefore, also, the first common characteristic of all who believe on that Name, at whatever stage of Christian advancement they be, is that their "sins are forgiven them."

    The second is that they have known⁹ the Father.  This is the common privilege of the least and the most advanced, to "know the Father" as He is revealed in Christ (John 17³); not so as to comprehend all He is, but so as to be sure that there are in Him love, wisdom, and power beyond the measure of man's mind, and that our whole strength and blessedness lie in trusting Him.  For human frailty and helplessness there is at last no other refuge, for the sinful and dying no other deliverance, for men beset before and behind by a darkness that neither sense nor intellect can penetrate, no other light, than to know Him of whom Jesus Christ said, "He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father."  These two possessions of the "children," the forgiveness of sins and the knowledge of the Father, as they are both communicated in the "Name" of Christ, are necessarily coexistent in Christian experience.

    The Apostle next addresses his readers according to their stages of growth; and, first, the "fathers," among whom would be included not only the Church-leaders or official elders, but all who, in contrast with the "young men," were more advanced in years and, presumably, of riper Christian attainment.  That which peculiarly befits the mature Christian is to "know Him Who is from the Beginning."  Obviously the title "He that is from the Beginning" is here given to Christ as the Eternal Word (John 1¹, I John 1^1,2); and obviously also, it is given with a special significance, as adding to the conception of the Divine already expressed by "the Father," the thought ot eternal and changeless duration.  In Christian experience the consciousness of the immediate personal relation to God, with its ethical and emotional elements the certitude of God's fatherly character and forgiving grace, apprehended simply as a present and personal reality - may be, at first, everything.  To "know the Father," to "know and believe the love which God hath toward us," is enough.  It is by the rough pressure of the actual problems of existence that men are awakened to discover the fuller contents and issues of their faith.  By the poignant experience Life brings of the evanescence of all creaturely good, fellowship with God is revealed as not only a present possession, but the one abiding reality.  The conflicts, in which the soul has to fight for its faith in a Divine fatherly purpose ceaselessly operating in our own and the world's history, first disclose the full significance of that faith.  Hence it is the "fathers" that "know Him Who is from the Beginning."  We look to mature experience for a largeness of view, a calm untroubled depth of conviction, a clear-eyed judgment upon life, which youth cannot have; for the pattern of the cloth is more clearly displayed in the web than in the patch.  In the course of a moderately long life a man may have witnessed great changes and commotions in society, violent oscillations of opinion, temporary eclipses of truth and triumphs of wrong; but he may have learned, at the same time, how through all these the undeviating purpose of God pursues its way, how the great principles of truth and right assert themselves, amid all changes, as things that God has settled, and that cannot be shaken.

    It is no merely speculative knowledge that is here in view, but knowledge which has become part of a man's own being.  It has been learned in a costly school.  It is the prize of conflict.  "I write unto you, young men, because ye have overcome the Wicked One" (2¹³).  "I wrote unto you, young men, because ye are strong, and the Word of God abideth in you, and ye have overcome the Wicked One" (2¹⁴).  The "young men" thus addressed have already fought and conquered; and the victorious attitude has been maintained up to the present time.¹⁰  That they have thus warred a good warfare is proof that they are strong, and that with a strength whose source and sustenance are Divine - strong, because the Word of God abideth in them.  That the Word of God, the eternal principles of truth and right implanted in the soul and realised as being the Word of the living God, is the sole weapon by which all temptation is to be met and conquered, is one of the grand commonplaces of Scripture (Ps. 119¹¹, Luke 4^1-13).  The everlasting "No!" of the Word to every sin (Gen. 39⁹, Eph. 6¹⁶), and its everlasting "Yea!" to every duty (Acts 4²⁰), are nowhere more trenchantly expressed than in this Epistle (3^6-10, 5^17-19 etc.).

    Thus, while the privilege of age is knowledge, the task of youth is conflict.  Not that age also may not have its conflicts.  But conflict is not characteristic of age, as it is of those years when the powers of the body and mind are coming to their full development, and when all the most critical decisions of life must inevitably be made.  It is through such conflict faithfully waged, as the Apostle here so clearly implies, that the one path to true knowledge lies.

"As it was better, youth
Should strive, through acts uncouth,
Toward making, than repose on aught found made:
So, better, age, exempt
From strife, should know, than tempt
Further!  . . .
Youth ended, I shall try
My gain or loss thereby;
Leave the fire ashes, what survives is gold;
And I shall weigh the same
Give life its praise or blame;
Young, all lay in dispute; I shall know, being old,"

    To take as starting point the gift of God in Christ, the forgiveness of sins and the knowledge of the Father, then to advance, with this as our strength and the of God as our weapon, to faithful and victorious warfare; finally through this, to arrive at the sure perception of the Everlasting, in union with Whom our human life and its results become an eternal and blessed reality, - such is the curriculum which St. John here maps out for human experience.  It is well to remember what is the alternative to this - the experience which teaches with equal intensity the illusiveness of all good; which writes vanity of vanities upon the life of man and all with which it is concerned; which proclaims, as the sum and end of all wisdom, that "The world passeth away and the lust thereof," because it has not "known Him that is from the Beginning," nor that "whosoever doeth His will abideth for ever."