they have acquired. John can evaluate them and say “you are strong” and on that basis, I know I am not wasting time as I exhort you on the issues I am writing to you about. The present tense menei translated as “remains” can be taken as a durative present. As their general habit, they allow the word of God to control their lives. This has helped them to achieve what they are now (conquerors and strong) and forms a good basis for what John is writing to them about. The phrase “the word of God” (ho logos122 tou theou) is making reference to the will of God as expressed in the Scriptures as his readers knew it. God has revealed it for the believer to be led by it. Jesus’ victory over the evil one as recorded in Matt 4:1–11 and Luke 4:1–13 is a clear demonstration on the centrality of God’s word in being conquerors. This is a clear reminder of the relationship between the place we give to the word of God and the victory we are able to attain. Paul in Eph 6:17 refers to the word of God (rhema theou) as the sword of the Spirit (machaira tou pneumatos). God has given or spoken the word (taking theou as genitive of source) and the Spirit uses the word (taking pneumatos as subjective genitive) to enable us to win the battle.
“Fathers” is the third level and John describes them twice but in the exact same way. They have known the one from the beginning (“you have known the one from the beginning,” egnōkate ton ap’ archēs, 2:13, 14). They have the experience of walking with him. Whether the one from the beginning is God the Father or God the Son makes no difference.123 Knowledge of one is knowledge of the other (John 14:7–11).
Taking the three verses together we note that John writes to the “children” because:
1. Their sins have been forgiven on account of his name (2:12b)
2. They have known the Father (2:14a)
He writes to the “Fathers” because:
1. They have known the one from the beginning (2:13a)
2. The same is repeated exactly in 2:14b
He writes to the “young men” because:
1. They have overcome the evil one (2:13b)
2. They are strong (2:14c)
3. The word of God remains in them (2:14c)
4. Exact repetition of no. 1 above, in 2:14c
Whether one views these classifications as referring to the same group of people from different perspectives or to three different groups, each of them has come to the level of believing in Jesus. By virtue of that experience, they are able to appreciate the command of love John writes to them in this section.
The fourth issue of using the present tense (graphō) in the first set (2:12–13) but the aorist tense (egrapsa) in the second set (2:14) also calls for comment. The literal translation of graphō is “I write” or “I am writing” and that of egrapsa is “I wrote.” While the present tense, graphō, is clear John means this epistle (1 John), the aorist tense, egrapsa, can imply that John had written another epistle earlier, to these same readers.124 This, however, is not necessary because it is not uncommon for a writer to write either within the perspective of where he/she sits as the writing is taking place or the perspective of the reader when he/she is reading the already written letter. This means that a writer can use “I write” and “I wrote” while referring to the same letter, depending on the glasses he/she has on at a given time. In the Greek language studies, this use of the aorist tense is referred to as “epistolary aorist”125 and this is what we most likely have here (2:14). This is why the NIV, for example, uses “I write” in both sets of statements even though the Greek has two different tenses. This provision in the Greek language can be utilized simply for purpose of variation or emphasis. As Kruse says, the use of both present and aorist tenses here probably serves “as a stylic device to heighten the rhetorical effect of what he is writing.”126
Love Toward the Father
John is not only interested in his believing readers exercising the horizontal love but also the vertical love. In fact, it is the vertical relationship (with God) that makes it possible to have harmonious relationship with other persons.
The love of the Father is expressed within the context of prohibition not to love things that would strangle the love of the Father. This calls to mind Jesus’ words that one cannot serve two masters (Matt 6:24). John tells his readers, “Do not love the world nor the things in the world” (2:15, mē agapate ton kosmon mēde ta en tō kosmō). The prohibition here is expressed using mē and present imperative,127 and this allows for the possibility that John’s readers (at least some) were already at fault in this matter.128 John, however, tells them that love for the world and the things in it (kosmos here understood as that system which is in opposition to the things of God129) excludes love of the Father. He says, “If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him” (ean tis agapa ton kosmon, ouk estin hē agapē tou patros en autō, 2:15b). The use of the third class condition here (projecting a possible situation, and not asserting a particular occurrence as a first class condition would130) does not necessarily mean that the prohibition above cannot be an actual happening for some of his readers. He could here be stating the general principle that would apply to anyone if the condition is allowed so as to enforce the prohibition as it actually affected some. The genitive “of the Father” (tou patros) is here best taken as objective genitive. The one who loves the world is not able to love the Father also. There is a choice one must make for the two cannot go together. The reason for this exclusion is that what is in the world does not come from the Father (ouk estin ek tou patros). It is not his will. Specifically, what is in the world, in this negative usage, include, “lust of the flesh,” “lust of the eyes,” and “pride of life” (hē epithumia tēs sarkos kai hē epithumia tōn ophthalmōn kai hē alazoneia tou biou, 2:16)
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