2:12-14
The next three verses refer to children, fathers and young men. This can be taken as either referring to the natural age of people, or to the spiritual maturity of people. Or it may be a mixture of the two. In this case “dear children” refers to all believers, with Jon expressing his affection for them. Fathers then refers to mature believers, and young men to younger believers.
It is not that crucial which of these lines one takes, there are things to be learnt from all that is written here.
Our sins have been forgiven because of Christ. False teachings will often seek to use guilt or doubt as a means of worming their way in, sowing uncertainty. John assures his readers that their sins are already forgiven. Moreover, they know the Father. Of course, we need to know Him better, and can know Him better, but we do already know Him. If someone is claiming to offer some sort of deeper knowledge, as the gnostics did, we can safely reject their claims.
To the fathers, John repeats that we know Him who is from the beginning. We know the one true God, the eternal Lord. The One by whom all things were created.
We have overcome the evil one. If we are in the Lord then we are strong, the Word of God lives in us, and so we overcome the evil one. We do not need to be afraid of evil in the world. We are right to be horrified by it, because of its terrible effects, but we do not need to be afraid. As John will say later, the One who is in us is stronger that he who is in the world. We overcome the evil one.
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