1 JOHN: DISCERNING TRUE FROM FALSE SPIRITUALITY

Part VI: Practical Maturation Levels In True Spirituality, 1 John 2:12-27

C. The Fathers Maturity Level

(1 John 2:13a, 14a et al.)

I. Introduction

A. One may be in spiritual fellowship with the Lord, but his spiritual maturity level is an entirely different matter: fellowship relates to one's spiritual health while maturity relates to his growth level in that healthy state.

B. 1 John 2:12-27 addresses the three practical maturation levels in true spirituality, and we continue with the advanced level, that of the Fathers Level in 1 John 2:13a, 14a (et al.) as follows:

II. The Father's Maturity Level, 1 John 2:13a, 14a et al.

A. Spiritual fathers have learned the lesson God had for them when they were in the Little Child level, that they must handle their vulnerability to false teachers that in turn is caused by the spiritually immature believer's reliance on people around him in organized Christendom. Spiritual fathers have thus learned to rely on the indwelling Holy Spirit (1 John 2:20, 27) and God's Word (1 John 2:21-24) to discern and avoid false teachers.

B. Spiritual fathers have also learned the lesson God had for them at the Young Man level, that they cease loving the world and its lusts of the flesh, the eyes and pride of this earthly life, 1 John 2:15-16. Spiritual fathers have come to realize the incompatibility of loving the world with loving the Father and the total separation of the Father from the world system that is under Satan's control (1 John 2:16a,c; 5:19). Along with this insight has come the knowledge that to avoid being disappointed in life, one must not live for the world and its lusts, but for God the Father, doing His will, and thus seeing the fruit of their works last to eternity, 1 John 2:17.

C. Thus, fathers discern and resist Satan's work (1) through false teachers and (2) through the world system.

D. John offered no new insight for the spiritual fathers, but in addressing them in both 1 John 2:13a and 1 John 2:14a, he stated that spiritual fathers have permanently come to know (egnokate, perfect tense of ginosko, "to know," U. B. S. Grk. N. T., 1966, p. 815; Arndt & Gingrich, A Grk.-Eng. Lex. of the N. T., 1967, p. 159-161; The Analyt. Grk. Lex. (Zon.), 1972, p. 114) "Him Who was from the beginning."

E. 1 John 1:1 defines this One Who "was from the beginning" as Jesus Who was sent by God the Father into the world. Thus, spiritual Fathers have come to realize that (1) in place of the vacuum created by not relying on people in the Church around them as Little Children and (2) in place of the vacuum created by not relying on the world and its lusts for fulfillment as Young Men, (3) Christ is their All-Sufficiency. The subtle idols of others around them and of the world system and its lusts have been replaced by Jesus, the Head of the Church Who fills all in the Church in every way (Ephesians 1:22-23) for fulfillment and blessing.

F. The fact that John repeats his description of the Fathers in 1 John 2:13a with his 1 John 2:14a description of them suggests the need for spiritual Fathers to STAY dependent on Christ versus lapsing into dependence on fellow Christians (as a Little Child) or lapsing into indulgence in the world and its lusts (as a Young Man).

G. Thus, contrary to the instability in the experiences of both Little Children and Young Men maturity level believers, spiritual Fathers typically remain STABLE in life's events, unshaken by the world and unsettling issues in even organized Christendom as they have found in fellowship with Christ all they need for life and service. Paul wrote about this state as his goal for his readers in Ephesians 3:16-19: "That he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man; that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; and to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God."

Lesson: May we who believe in Christ (1) grow BEYOND the Little Child maturity level of relying on people around us in Christendom for fulfillment through heeding Scripture and relying on the Holy Spirit to avoid false teachers. (2) May we also grow BEYOND the Young Man maturity level of relying on the world system and its lusts of the flesh, the eyes and the pride of life to heed and do the will of God for lasting joy that spills over into eternity. Finally, (3) may we arrive at the Father maturity level of finding CHRIST our ALL-SUFFICIENCY for life and service. Then, (4) may we NOT RELAPSE into Little Children or Young Men states, but STAY RELIANT by FAITH on CHRIST for all of our fulfillment and blessing needs, that we live STABLE lives amid life's many ups and downs in a very unstable world, both as to the secular realm and as to much of organized Christendom.

Application: May we GROW in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ for blessing, 2 Peter 3:18.