Nepaug Bible Church - http://www.nepaugchurch.org - Pastor's Adult Sunday School Notes - http://www.nepaugchurch.org/bb/bb20050213.htm

1 JOHN: DEFEATING MISLEADING SPIRITUAL ERROR TRULY TO COMMUNE WITH GOD
Part VI: Blessings The Mature "Father" Has In His Walk With God
M. The Blessing Of Seeing WHY "Fathers" Experience Various Degrees Of Compatibility With Others
(1 John 5:19 et al.)
  1. Introduction
    1. True fellowship with God produces a tremendous, multifaceted, spiritually fulfilling lifestyle even on this earth, something John briefly stated in 1 John 1:3-4.
    2. So, having revealed the basic levels of growth, John gave insight into the blessings mature "fathers" enjoy for overcoming a reliance on others (along with the world's lusts) as a "little child" and of overcoming reliance on the world's system and its lusts as a "young man." The thirteenth blessing noted is the edifying knowledge of why a "father" experiences varying degrees of compatibility with others:
  2. The Blessing Of Seeing WHY "Fathers" Experience Various Degrees Of Compatibility With Others.
    1. After addressing the three levels of maturity in 1 John 2:12-27, John began an extensive treatment of the blessings spiritual "fathers" experience as motivation for his readers to mature into spiritual fatherhood.
    2. The thirteenth blessing is seeing why "fathers" experience various degrees of compatibility with others:
      1. As John wrote to Christian readers that they MIGHT have fellowship with him and the apostles (1 John 1:3-4), he revealed fellow believers might NOT enjoy fulfilling fellowship with him!
      2. To see why even fellow BELIEVERS might NOT enjoy fulfilling fellowship with him, John revealed in 1 John 5:19 together with other passages in his letter that mature "father's" know various degrees of compatibility with others, be they the unsaved, "little children" and "young men" believers:
        1. John revealed spiritual "fathers" absolutely know (oidamen, cf. U.B.S. Grk. N.T., 1966 ed., p. 825; Theol. Dict. of the N. T., vol. V, p. 116-119) they are of God, that they God's true sons and that they fellowship with Him, 1 John 5:19a.
        2. Yet, they also come absolutely to realize by WAY of God's revelation that the whole world system "is under the control of" (NIV) Satan, 5:19b; that is, "the world lies in the devil, by whom it is controlled and rendered helpless and powerless," Ibid., T.D.N.T., vol. III, p. 654.
        3. Applying this truth to the other passages in 1 John that reveals how parties interact with the "world", we see spiritual "fathers" experience various levels of compatibility not only with the lost, but also with less mature believers to the degree even these believers are attached to and so influenced by the world that is in turn influenced by Satan: (a) We before learned that both immature "little children" and moderately mature "young men" have yet to conquer their love for the world and for its material things and lusts, cf. 1 John 2:12-27. Accordingly, as a "father" has stopped loving the world and since he realizes it is entirely under Satan's control, there is a deep barrier between what a "father" loves and tolerates and what fellow "little children" believers and even "young men" Christians LOVE or TOLERATE simply because the "father" sees them as being influenced by Satan! (b) In like manner, ((a)) in varying degrees of unholiness relative to how they relate to the world, the lost and "little children" and "young men" believers do not understand "fathers" (1 John 3:1). ((b)) Lost people, "little children" and "young men" believers thus tend to hate such "fathers" to the degree the "fathers'" lives critique their own unholy involvement with or allegiance to the world (1 John 3:13). ((c)) Truths "fathers" teach are variously not accepted by the lost, the "little children" and "young men" believers for the same reasons (1 John 4:5). ((d)) Finally, "fathers" enjoy spiritual impact over what the lost, "little children" and "young men" experience (to the obvious frustration of the latter) due to the "fathers'" higher levels of faith in God and a continual filling of the Spirit, (5:4-5; 4:4,6).
        4. Now, realizing all this sets a "father" at peace re: the compatibility problems he faces with less holy people -- he sees the fault behind this problem does not lie with him, but with OTHERS!
Lesson: When a "father" learns the entire world is under Satan's control, he stops fretting over the WALLS he sees go up in his relationships with others who still love the world that Satan controls.

Application: Let us not fret over seeing walls rise in our relationships with others as we grow in Christ; they should rise if we grow in holiness, for Satan from whose impact we are increasingly freed runs the world many others still love, and to the degree they still love it and we don't, those walls will RISE!