I John, 2:12-14

Okay, well today we're in chapter 2, and we're down to verses 12 to 14. And actually, could I have someone read maybe the first 14 verses? I think it's kind of good to kind of go back, and 1 John chapter 2 down to verse 14, through 14. My little children, these things I write to you, so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ, who is righteous. And He Himself is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only, but also for the whole world.

Now by this we know that we know Him, if we keep His commandments. He who says, I know Him, and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him. But whoever keeps His word, truly the love of God is perfected in him. By this we know that we are in Him. He who says he abides in him ought himself also to walk just as he walks.

Brethren, I write no new commandment to you, but an old commandment which you have had from the beginning. The old commandment is the word which you heard from the beginning. Again, a new commandment I write to you, which thing is true in him and in you, because the darkness is passing away and the true light is already shining. He who says he is in the light and hates his brother is in darkness until now. He who loves his brother abides in the light and there is no cause for stumbling in him. But he who hates his brother is in darkness and walks in darkness and does not know where he is going because the darkness has blinded his eyes.

I write to you, little children, because your sins are forgiven you for his name's sake. I write to you, fathers, because you have known Him who is from the beginning. I write to you, young men, because you have overcome the wicked one. I write to you, little children, because you have known the Father. I have written to you, fathers, because you have known Him who is from the beginning. I have written to you, young men, because you are strong and the Word of God abides in you and you have overcome the wicked one. Great.

Well, just one point. I noticed this. I don't know if the other guys have noticed it, but in most of the Greek text, the last part of verse 13 is actually in 14. The part about the children is actually in verse 14. Oh, man, I told you that was going to happen.

They've been having thermal problems with it. Just close to the ceiling, it's warmer. And so it shuts, the thermal protection shuts it down. So we'll have to wait a few moments. So maybe we can, this will be good because this part we can kind of look at, It's not hard. We can look at our handout. Hopefully it will come. I can turn it back on here in a few minutes. I'll have to tell Roy. The one upstairs shut off almost immediately. They had it next to the ceiling. It was so warm in that room upstairs there. The one in what's called the red carpet room.

Anyway, so actually when you look through the Greek text, the I have written to you children is actually in verse 14. I don't, you know, I don't know enough to know why it's in one verse and not in the other. I mean, and it was, you know, that was done by somebody back and I've forgotten the person or group of people that did that. Men made the verses up. God didn't do that. This is an interesting section. This section is going to talk about, first of all, it makes a wonderful statement about our sins and what God has done in terms of our sins. But then it starts.

If you look on page two of the handout, basically the chart for if you look at that, I kind of went through and looked in chapter two and this I am writing is used. you know, several times, and of course we kind of go into hyper mode, as Vern would say, when we get to 12 through 14.

He just, he uses I am writing, I am writing, and he even changes the tense a little bit. And there's some discussion about that tense change. You wouldn't believe, just over that tense change, oh my goodness, I, you know, they've made a big deal about that.

I don't know whether it's a big deal or not. It didn't, it didn't bother me, but he hasn't liked in the past since I have written. And some people say, well, is that, is that another letter? And, you know, or, They've even they even have coined a term, a pistol, logical presence or something like that to say that past tense really is present tense. And I'm not sure that's all that valuable to us. The fact that John wrote it and what he says, I'm writing it or I have have written it to us.

It's it happened in the past. It does happen in the past anyway. So anyway, so it's interesting things about that. I think as Josiah kind of went through, it occurs ten times that phrase, I am writing, in 1 John, and in the gospel it occurs a bunch of other times.

I wonder if this thing will, I don't know. I have to be, I haven't thought about this part of it. I don't know whether we're going to be able to get this thing back on again. Oh, actually, it's coming on, yay! Yep. It's going on. Well, it's going to shut down about every. So we do it real fast. We'll get the class done before it shuts off. OK. There we go. OK. So let's jump all the way there. OK. Actually, it's too far. And it's too.

So actually what I just did, I just kind of went through and just kind of highlighted, you know, I am writing to you. I'm writing to you. And then it kind of hears of the verb change to the past. Actually, it's aorist past tense. OK. And then basically another thing to observe here is that. Let's see. So this is the place I want to talk about. OK, let's go on to the next one.

It's important to look at the original language because what we're going to see is that he addresses Technon, which actually is referring, and Josiah covered this a little bit, to all believers. And then he's going to go through and talk about the fathers, the young men, and the children. more than one time. He repeats himself down in about the fathers and young men again. But it talks about it seems like spiritual maturity and kind of some aspects of their spiritual maturity.

So we're going to see that. OK, I think that's it for that. So so basically, you know, it's really here's where the Greek really, you know, pays dividends. You could some you could if you weren't careful, think this little children might be referring to these children. But it seems like it's not they're talking. We'll see what the Greek is really specific about what's going on here. OK, you confused me. Oh, I guess you're going to go into. Yes, actually, we're going to have to go through all these. I mean, I hadn't gotten there. I was trying to prep you. Okay.

Now, basically, I'm writing to you, little children, because your sins have been forgiven for his name's sake. And little children is this word technion. It's a term of affection used by teachers to his disciples under circumstances requiring a tender appeal. And actually, it's related to this word to give birth, tiktu. I think that's how you pronounce it. And actually, Wiest will translate tekneon. He'll translate that little born ones in a lot of his writings in his New Testament.

So I think that kind of really captures a good part of that. And there's really a cool verse. here I want to look at. Let's look at Galatians. If someone could read Galatians 4.19 for us. 4.19. My children, with whom I am again in labor until Christ is formed in me.

I kind of thought this usage, using this word, was kind of, in a way, the sense of what John is kind of concerned with. And he's writing us all these wonderful things, and he's telling us he wants us to walk in the light. He wants us to walk with Christ. He wants us to let our life be evidence that we know him. And he just keeps over and over coming back to that.

So it seemed like that Paul here kind of captured, in my mind, what 1 John is all about. He wants to see Christ formed in them. Weiss kind of rendered that to be the idea of being formed in you, to be outwardly expressed in you. He wants to see Christ lived out in you so that you see it by your life. So I thought that was a really neat verse that kind of, I think, captured a lot of what 1 John is about.

And then another one in John 13, 33. Let's look at that just for a sec. That's actually a usage of the word where it kind of shows another aspect here. John 1333. Little children, I shall be with you a little while longer. You will seek me, and as I said to the Jews, where I am going, you cannot come. So now I say to you.

OK. That's fine. That's fine. Your version had the words a little bit changed. I was waiting for the last word, and my word didn't come. OK. So here, this is kind of, as is pointed out, it's an appeal. It's a tenderness speaking, and trying to, you know, comfort's involved in that, too. So I thought this was kind of an interesting verse.

And then the rest of them are, this is the places it's used in 1 John. I don't think this is talking about maturity. This is just because he used it back in verse 1 of chapter 2. I think this speaks to all believers, but tenderly in saying, you know, his desire that his Christ be formed in you. We're going to see the children, young men, fathers, we're going to see that growth aspect. Okay. So the next part of the verse is talking about sins. Basically, if you look at the construction, the first part, I am writing to you little children, is modified by this clause here, because your sins have been forgiven for his namesake.

So sins here, if you notice, is in the plural, and we'll talk about that in a second, but basically sins is, you know, harmatia, a missing of the mark, and this is a Hal chart, which they're all, you know, he did this back in 95, and basically it's showing the idea that, you know, missing the mark, what mark are you missing? You're missing, you know, the mark is the righteousness of God, his total character. And he actually is kind of addressing a different verse here, for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.

So in Christ, we obtain the mark. We hit the mark. But when we sin, we miss the mark. We miss God's righteousness, who he is, his very character. OK, so that's the next chart. Just briefly, we've talked about this before, that we're talking about sins, plural here. and verses, singular. So we're talking about the fruit of the sin nature. And God has dealt with both of those in terms of our sins. He died for our sins. And He died unto the sin. He actually tells us in Romans 8, He condemned the sin nature. He condemned the sin in the flesh. So this verse is talking about sins. All right. So it says, your sins have been forgiven, and sins is...

I'm ahead of myself. Aphamy, to send away from, to send away, and it's kind of a compound word from and to send combined together. And the verb here is in the perfect tense and the passive voice. So it's something that's happened in the past and has continual results up into the present. So it happened in the past, when we believed on Christ, basically the passive voice says it was done to us, so you were acted upon when you believed on Christ. So that became effective, that became applicable to you as a believer.

And actually what I wanted to point out here, and the next chart kind of addresses that, That's one of the many blessings we have in Christ, that we have forgiveness of sins. We stand forgiven. Dr. Schaefer in his Systematic Theology has documented 33 riches of God's grace, and I just listed the first 12. And actually, in number two and number five, in his listing, he kind of addresses the fact that forgiveness of our sins is a possession of the believer. That describes who he is, just like it describes that we're adopted and a child of God and free from the law. The fact that we're forgiven is an aspect of who we are. That's our position in Christ. That's part of his grace.

Okay, and actually, I already kind of said it obviously, and let's just go back here for a sec. You know, you have been forgiven. Is that a positional truth, or is it a conditional truth? Is this depending upon us doing something to attain this? No. And this is not talking about our walk. This is just making the wonderful statement, I'm writing to you little children, those who have been born again, because your sins have been forgiven for His name's sake." Something that God did out of His grace. Okay. Okay. All right, so basically, your sins have been forgiven as a gift of His grace. There's two verses that I think are just really, kind of really nail it down.

In Ephesians 1-7, in Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses according to the riches of His grace. So I kind of wonder if Dr. Schaefer didn't kind of pick up on that, you know, that term is used a lot, the riches of his grace. Basically here in this verse, we have is present tense. So we have is a fact in the indicative mood. So it's a reality that we have redemption. in his blood.

And he kind of defines, it seems like, what's the scope of that redemption in his blood? It's the forgiveness of our trespasses according to the riches of his grace. And trespasses here is a word that kind of means a false step. And it kind of implies a false step or deviation from an upright or truth. And then Colossians, let's see. And basically, it's according to the riches of His grace, and it could be with reference to the riches of His grace.

And then Colossians 1.14, in whom, that's in, actually in the context, it's in the Beloved One, or in His Beloved Son, we have redemption, and then again he kind of elaborates on what redemption is, the forgiveness of sins.

And once again, it's a present tense, indicative mood, active voice. We have it right now. It's a present reality for the believer. So I mean, that's a wonderful statement about what the believer has in Christ. So I think that kind of sets the stage. And now he's going to kind of go on and talk about children, young men, and fathers. So any thoughts or questions about that?

Actually, I want to do I want to add more. I wore his namesake. I knew it was a part like this here. I'm not finished here. OK. His namesake. And it's this is this is really important, too. For his name's sake, it's Christ's name. And it's, for is dia, a preposition. And it's in the accusative case, and don't let that throw you. If you're in the Greek class, you maybe know, have a little more.

And it means it can be translated because, because of his name or because of the name of him. I thought that was really, and it's his character, the fact that he is the God man that died on the cross, his very nature, his very character. we have forgiveness of sins. And then basically in those two verses in Philippians, God highly exalted him and bestowed upon him a name which is above every name.

And then down in Acts 10.43, through his name, everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins.

And if you kind of notice here, there's kind of like two, almost two aspects we have. Let me see if I get it right here. Up in this verse, we have for his namesake or because of his name. And then down here, we have through his name. So we have two aspects. And actually, they're the same word, dia, in the Greek. But one's genitive and one's accusative. So that's why they're rendered differently. But it's through his name or because of his name that we have forgiveness of sins.

OK. else? Questions? Comments? All right. Well, we'll go on. I think I'm going to switch. Let's try this one for a while. Actually, I can't do this one. No, I can't do that one. You have to stand over here. I guess we're stuck with this, Josiah. We can go over here now because we haven't. You know, this is the new arrangements over here against the wall. So you have to put the thing over here, right? We need to find our own remote. Anyway, okay, let's see here. There we go.

Okay, so now we're going to move into the section here in verses 13 and 14. We're going to look at all these, I am writing to you fathers, I'm writing to you young men, I'm writing to you children. If you notice, he does fathers and young men, then he does children, and then he repeats father and young men again.

This, I mean, I know from what I can tell, I mean, you know, and actually I kept thinking there was a chart that Hal had done, but I couldn't find it. He wasn't available, so I couldn't find the chart. And we've all kind of seen the chart, actually both Hal and Vern have done it, which kind of show maturity. and kind of maturity curve over time. Well, this somewhat relates to that, I think.

In a way, it kind of describes what might be a person, a child in the Lord, so to speak, a young man in the Lord, and a father in the Lord. I'm a little bit leery about, you know, I'm a father. I'm a young man. I think that's not what the Lord wants. I think this is more trying to help us to see maybe kind of characteristics of a person that may be young in the Lord and a person that's older than the Lord. Try to define yourself and put a tag on you. That's the old man. I'm a young man. I'm a father. And you're a child. We wear buttons.

That's not what it's about, but there are some really neat things in here. Go ahead. Well, I don't, well, and that's the point. I don't think so. And we'll actually, I'm going to look at each of the words. We'll look at what the word means and we'll see that.

What you're saying, in John's time, he's just writing to children? Well, actually, the words, there's a physical, that child is a physical child, actually a child at birth almost. So you might say it would be kind of hard for the child at birth to comprehend that. If it's a spiritual meaning, that's a different situation, which I kind of think it is. What I didn't want to do, I didn't want to make these tags or We go around and say, hey, in our church, we got 27 fathers and three young men. That's where I was heading at, not the fact that I think this is speaking spiritually.

And here are the Greek words behind each of those. And if you'll notice here that he repeats, oops, man, how does that work? I know I've totally lost myself here. What are we doing here for 13 right now? I want to go to the next one. Thank you. I don't know. There we go. OK. Yeah, I don't know.

Okay, so if you notice the same phrase is used he repeats this phrase to the father twice I'm writing to you because you know the know him who has been from the beginning and repeats that again down here and Then the child he only he only says at one time because you know the father the young man. He actually is This part of what he says, because you've overcome the evil one, is contained in the bottom part, in this one, because you're strong, the word of God abides in you, and you've overcome the evil one. So really, my plan is just to cover, I want to cover children, young men, and fathers, and we'll just cover the, you know, one of those. We won't have to cover it twice. Okay. Alright, so let's go on. Okay, so here are the three.

Here's fathers, young men, and children. Fathers is Pierre. It's from a root signifying a nourisher, a provider. And Vine says this is one advanced in the knowledge of Christ. The young man is Nianisko, a youth. And actually, Strong's interesting. I found, actually, he attacked, in the physical sense, it was a person up to about 40. I guess that was just the usage in that time period. And then his children, Paideon, as a little child or a young child, and she was of an infant. And I actually wanted to look at this first. Let's look at that, 1621. Now, this side has to read.

It's getting heavy on the side. Thanks. Sixteen. Twenty one. Okay, so you're already doing it. I knew it was going to happen. Go ahead, I'm sorry. Whenever a woman is in travail, she has sorrow because her hour has come. But when she gives birth to the child, she remembers to anguish no more. OK, right. Well, extra extra juices here. That's good. All right. Well, that's great. OK. So actually, in this case, that were the same where we have here.

So it seems like the usage is many times in terms of an infant just born. And it comes from this idea of I didn't do it. I didn't have the time to go through the, and maybe you guys, I think Vernon's talked about this, this is a child, a pedagogo, or gagi, or however you pronounce that, it's a child instructor. So actually what you find is that this word kind of means a little child under instruction, which I think is really kind of cool, because that's kind of, you know, if you think about a young believer, that's where they're at. And actually I think, if you think about it, we're all in that position. I think we all have aspects of children, young men and fathers at different, you know, so literally a little child under instruction. So, so we're going to, sorry, go ahead. Sure. All right. Previous teaching in the first John. Okay.

Young men we have as warriors and little children as students. You're saying your, your, your translation or your, Oh, I see. Okay. Oh, and you made some notes in your thing. Okay. And you call children students. Okay. All right. Well, under instruction. Okay. I like that. Yeah. Okay. And actually when we're going to see that there's there's the word strong is it kind of captures that. No, that's good. That's good. Okay, okay. All right, so now we're going to talk about the children first.

OK, actually, let me talk about this part. One last thing about this. We're going to see, I have the latter verses. I have written verses. I am writing. And basically, this is the thing I mentioned earlier. And what someone has said, this is Vincent said, this is called an epistolary arist, by which they're written. which the writer places himself as the reader's standpoint regarding the writings as past. So anyway, that helped a lot, right? Anyway, so what you'll see is as we look through, you have I am writing, I am writing, I have written, I have written.

It didn't cause me to, I said, okay, fine, as I mentioned before, it's okay. I mean, I couldn't, you know, so basically, and I have written right here, which is gnosco, to be taking in knowledge, knowledge of experience, you're taking in knowledge, it's in the perfect tense, which means past completed action with abiding results, So what I was thinking here is just talking about the little children under instruction or or the student, if you will. It seemed to me and I didn't and I really couldn't find and I didn't, you know, it's sort of one of these things. How much how far do you go?

And I I couldn't easily find something that I did some searches on knowing the father. It seemed to me that and what we're going to see is we're going to see knowing the father versus knowing him. We get we get we get to fathers versus children. The fathers, they say they know him, and the children say they know the father. So it seems like it's talking about a young person, a young believer, and they've learned about salvation. They've learned about who they are, and they've learned about the Savior.

We'll just do it from the handout. Okay. Okay, what page are we on here? Page eight. So, in terms of the children, it's page 8, but it's chart 16. If you look at a lot of what Miles Stanford writes, which I like a lot, he talks about the birth truths.

To become a believer, you have to know that Christ died for your sins, He was buried and he rose again. You have to believe that. I have 1 Corinthians 5, 1 Corinthians 15, 1 through 4. You have to know that to become a believer. So it seems like that when it says, you know the Father, and you know him in the past for salvation, you continue to know him, that you're kind of in that realm. You're in the realm of a student learning, and you haven't grown enough to know more.

But the thing is, you have a hard time finding a lot of verses that say that. At least I did. So I don't know, that's something to think about. And I kind of want to be careful about trying to make up stuff. But I think there is a truth that we come as believers, we trust Christ, but we really don't know what we have. We don't know those wonderful riches of God's grace. I certainly didn't when I became a believer. I certainly didn't realize that.

But over time, I began to understand that. So let's go to page 9. So now he addresses young men, and he says, Because you are strong, and the word of God abides in you, and you've overcome the evil one. So there are three things. This is what I thought was very good. He's going to talk about You are strong, the word of God abides in you, and you've overcome the evil one. So each one of these I thought was just really valuable for us to know as believers. And he calls that person a young man. I'm writing to young men because of these aspects.

And the verb here is amy, are. is a me. And so this is saying that this young man, as he calls it, is in a state where he is strong. And it's the idea that it modifies, that word strong is modifying who he is. It's a predicate adjective. It's describing you. You are strong. And strong is this mighty and powerful, And it's the adjective that describes the subject, you.

And Zodiatis says it means firm in the faith. So if you take the sense of the verb, this is a to be verb, that this is the state, this believer is at. He's strong in the Lord, and he's So what was your word again that you had for that for the student warrior? A warrior. OK. Warrior. OK. Interesting. All right. And actually, in that. Let's look at let's look at Matthew three. Eleven is a place where this word is used.

I'd rather look at Hebrews 11.43. Okay, we'll look at both.

Would you like to read Matthew 3.11?

Or do you want to read Hebrews 11.43? All right. Let's see. Is that a father or I guess I got it. Sorry, man. I got it. We can see it's already gone to our heads already. We can't get through this. That verse doesn't exist, probably, right? 43 doesn't exist? I didn't catch on.

You're absolutely right. That's good, Roger. Actually, I might have a chance here. Go ahead and read that one first. As for me, I baptize you with water for repentance. But he who is coming after me is mightier than I, and I am not fit to remove his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. Right. The word mightier is is the same word is strong. Same same Greek word.

And let me see if I can correct the problem with the reference here. Thanks, Ben, for pointing it out. I didn't take you. So you see, I erred in the wrong direction. OK, let's see here real quick. Is it 34? Thanks. Yeah. Thank you very much. All right. So if you correct that in your. Right. Right.

That's a mighty yes. So the term is that this young man is mighty and powerful in the things of the Lord. And that's his present ongoing condition, which is cool. That's wonderful. Hopefully this is the last time. OK, let's go on to, while waiting for it to come up here, let's go on to the next chart, which is 18. And actually, this is the next phrase.

The word of God abides in you. And actually, when I looked at this one, I saw two ways to look at this. One, it could be referring to the written word, the Word of God referring to the written word. The other one, which I thought was actually more interesting and possibly maybe more his point, it could be either one, referring to the Lord Jesus Christ. Because the Lord Jesus Christ is called the Word of God, and it is this word Logos, which we actually saw in your verses that you covered. So it seems like that kind of has crept up in, you know, and certainly in the first part of the, in 1 John 1, we saw the word there as well.

So, and Christ says, abide in me and I in you. So I wondered if this wasn't, when it says the word of God abides in you, speaking of as you abide in him, he abides in you. So it's a maturity thing. You're learning to walk in the Lord, abiding in him, And by that very aspect, he's abiding in you and living out his life. So I thought that was an interesting aspect of this young man in the Lord, that he was abiding in the Lord and the Lord was, you know, his Lord, the very Lord Jesus, was abiding in him. So that was a different... And certainly there's plenty of verses that talk about how we're to be skilled in God's Word, we're to be workmen, you know. And that's certainly an aspect too. Okay. Yes, go ahead. Okay.

Even though we may literally be talking about God's truth by name, I think when we're meaning that, it would mean that we've understood his word and we're depending upon it, which would mean that Christ is going to move through us at the same time. Or you could say that Jesus Christ is actually by name. I know, actually.

And that's what kind of struck me. I looked at and I said my first reaction, OK. And it's funny, I just glanced at a few commentators and people just take off on that, the written word. And I'm thinking, well, is that really what's going on here? And the more I looked at it and the more I thought about it, I said, I don't know. The second one seems almost more to the point.

And you're right. If he's abiding in us, his word is his life, and he knows the word perfectly. That's good. That's very good. It's more consistent with how we've interpreted it to date. He's using the same term, and every time we've said, well, you know, it probably refers to the written word, but mostly it's talking about Jesus. Every time thus far, it seems like we've run into it, and I've read a lot of that on tape, but it seems like every time we've run into it thus far, we've been interpreting it as Jesus Christ. To start now...

And do it the opposite way, right. Okay, good. It's fine, but it's just not as consistent with what we've done thus far. Okay, good, good. Thanks. Okay, and now this next one here, the third statement about the young man. is that, yikes, I see what happens. I just figured something out here. I'm talking to myself here. I have a private conversation here. Let's see here. Where do I advise in you? There we go. Okay. You have overcome the evil one. Overcome is, this is an interesting word. This is, and so if you guys wear the, you know what. Actually, I don't know, maybe it's just like, I looked at that word.

Actually, it's Nikkei is actually what we call Nike here, Nikkei. I think it's. I'm not. I'm not real. Yeah. Right. Right. I think it's I actually I listen to my my computer pronounce it. You know, I have this talking, talking strong, talking vines and eight pounds of Nick, Nick, a friend for Nike, what we call Nike. I don't know. Anyway, OK. Overcome is is Nikao. to be victorious and prevail, and it's from this word, Nikkei, which means victory, and it's in the perfect tense, so it's that we were victorious in the past and we continue to be victorious. And that's kind of why I said, wow, that's really interesting.

We're victorious in the past in terms of the evil one. I mean, you know, this truth in this page here, for some parts of Christianity, I mean, they've gone off and they've got to get out there and they've got to do stuff. And it's sad when we see that God has provided both in the past and continuing on for our relationship to the evil one. So, you know, in the past or positionally, that through death he, Christ, might render powerless him who had the power of death, that is, the devil. And that render powerless is the same word that's used in Romans 6 that says about our sinful nature. It's been put offline, taken offline, rendered powerless. So in terms of the evil one, he's been rendered powerless.

But in terms of our condition, as Vern taught us recently, put on the full armor of God so that you'll be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil. So our place is to stand where he's placed us, where to stand firm against the schemes of the devil. So this overcoming, this young man here is victorious because Christ is victorious.

So now, remember we had for the children, You know the Father. So now we have for the... This gets a little confusing. We got children, young men, fathers, and then we refer to the Father and the Son. So it gets to be... With the Father it says, you know Him, you know the Lord Jesus.

And I thought of Philippians 3.10. And this is what Paul said. This is Paul's goal. That I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His suffering and be conformed to His death. So to know Him is to know Christ. Knowing Him is walking with Him, abiding with Him.

And I thought the last part, from the beginning, actually just modifies Him. And so it's just describing that Jesus Christ, and we've seen this already in the first verse, Jesus Christ was from the beginning. And then in the Gospel, Jesus Christ was in the beginning. So it just kind of described, kind of nailing down who he's talking about here.

So I didn't have a lot of, like I said, interaction with trying to place these. And I don't know whether that's the Lord's intent. I think these are just wonderful verses to tell us about aspects of a person who's a child, a young man, and a father. Not to have us try to, like I said before, wear buttons, or I'm the father club, I'm the young man club, or whatever. So I don't know. Any other thoughts? OK, let's close in.

Dear Father, we thank you so much, Lord. We thank you for this day. We thank you for your word that tells us about our Savior, Lord, that how he cares for us, how he has given us everything that we need, Lord. And we thank you for the wonderful truths about our Savior. In Christ's name, amen.