“A hidden strength”

By Rev. Michael Stonhouse

Meditation – Wednesday, April 30, 2025

1 John 2: 12-17 (Forward, p. 91) CEV p. 1286

Today’s passage has a something weird and surprising ‘preamble’. John begins by mentioning three audiences that he is writing to, namely the children, the parents, and the young people. Here it is most instructive as to what he says, for it provides a setting and background to what he says next:

Children:

Your sins are forgiven in the name of Christ.

You have known the Father.

Parents:

You have known the one who was there from the beginning.

(He says this twice, so it must be important).

Young people:

You have defeated the evil one.

You are strong. God’s message is firm in your hearts and you

have defeated the evil one.

Here we have seen several themes, some of which are repeated:

-there is an intimate relationship with God the Father.

-there is a sense of forgiveness and an ability to start all over again.

-and there is a strength from being grounded in God’s word,

a strength that actually enables them to defeat the evil one.

This ties in directly with John has to say next. The evil one is, of course, the ruler of this present world, so John then lets his readers know what to expect from it:

-He tells them, and us, not to love the world or anything that belongs

to it.

-If we love the world, we cannot simultaneously love the Father.

-There are several things come from ‘the world’, rather than from the

Father:

Our foolish pride.

Our selfish desires.

Our desire to have everything we see, that is, our

covetousness.

-The world and the desires it causes are disappearing, whereas, if we

obey God, we will live forever.

Now, it needs to be said, by way of clarification, that John is not speaking of planet earth when he refers to ‘the world’, and nor is he targeting the entire human population of this planet. (As the apostle Paul points out, we are not warring against ‘flesh and blood’ but against unseen spiritual powers—see Ephesians 6:12). Instead, John is speaking of the systems, values and organizations of this world that stand in opposition to God and His ways and which are actively working against Him.

Sad to say, the spiritual powers that Paul mentions work in and through the people of this world and use, often unknowingly, the very systems (etc.) that they have come to value and rely upon. And so, knowing God, experiencing the new life that we have in Him, and being grounded in His word, become even more necessary and crucial if we are to stand our ground against the enemy and stand our ground for Jesus.

Forward notes: “I write to you, young people, because you are strong and the word of God abides in you” (verse 14c).

“As I write my last reflection for this month, I leave you with these words from 1 John because they bring forward my greatest prayer for the church. The Body of Christ is not complete without our young people, and in too many Episcopal churches, the young people are missing. Even though I

have been a part of family, youth, and children’s ministry for most of my adult life, I don’t have a single, easy solution. In recent conversations with millennials in an effort to understand their absence from organized religion, I have learned that they long for dialogue and discussion; they are tired of being lectured or sung to, all the while not having a chance to ask questions, disagree, and engage.

“I charge those of us who are older to reach out to the young people in our lives and our churches and remember that they are strong and the love of God abides in them.”

Moving Forward: “Find young people and remind them they are beloved.”

A concluding note: I must ask whether today’s author is not being a bit too glib, a bit too assuming in where our young people stand. Are they indeed strong in the faith, strong in the word of God, God’s message, as John suggests? And do they really know God personally and know His forgiveness? I would suggest that for many of them, neither is true, meaning that we have not met them where they are and communicated the gospel to them in ways that they can understand and accept.