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Sermon

A Measuring Stick for Spiritual Growth

Speaker
Greg Ho
Scripture
1 John 2:12-14

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Note: This transcript and summary was autogenerated. It has not yet been proofread or edited by a human.

Summary

The three stages of spiritual growth as outlined in 1 John 2:12-14 reveal what healthy Christian maturity looks like. Every believer begins as a “simple child” whose sins are forgiven and who knows the Father, then grows into a “strong young man” who recognizes the spiritual war and learns to overcome the evil one through the Word of God, and ultimately matures into a “spiritual father” who has deep, settled knowledge of God and leads others in the faith.

Key Lessons:

  1. Salvation is instantaneous and eternally secure — our sins are forgiven for God’s name’s sake, not our own, which means God’s own reputation guarantees our security.
  2. Spiritual growth (sanctification) is a gradual, lifelong process that requires active effort to resist sin and pursue righteousness.
  3. Every Christian is strong because the Holy Spirit dwells within us — we are not helpless victims of sin but overcomers who must pick up the Word of God and engage in spiritual warfare.
  4. Mature believers are called to function as spiritual fathers who lead, teach, and come alongside younger believers in the congregation.

Application: We are called to honestly assess where we fall on the spiritual growth chart — simple child, strong young man, or spiritual father — and take practical steps to advance to the next stage. We must stop believing we are weak and start acting on the strength God has given us through His Spirit and His Word. Those who have matured must invest in helping others grow.

Discussion Questions:

  1. Which stage of spiritual growth — simple child, strong young man, or spiritual father — best describes where you are right now, and what specific steps could move you forward?
  2. How does understanding that your salvation is secured “for His name’s sake” rather than your own change how you respond when you sin as a believer?
  3. In what practical ways can you engage more actively in spiritual warfare this week, both offensively (sharing the gospel, confronting falsehood) and defensively (resisting temptation, standing firm under trial)?

Scripture Focus: 1 John 2:12-14 provides the framework of three stages of spiritual growth. Supporting passages include Romans 8:38-39 (security of salvation), Ephesians 4:14 (spiritual children tossed by false doctrine), Ephesians 6:11-13 (the armor of God), 2 Corinthians 10:3-5 (weapons of spiritual warfare), 1 John 4:4 (greater is He who is in you), and 2 Timothy 4:7-8 (finishing the race).

Outline

Introduction

The Story of Brooke: A Picture of Arrested Growth

Well, it was a cold day in January of 1993.

There was a baby girl. She was born in Baltimore, Maryland, a month premature.

She weighed just four pounds.

Her name was Brooke.

At first, Brooke seemed like a perfectly normal child.

But by the time Brooke turned one, her parents began to become concerned because the baby wasn’t growing as fast as expected. Even though she was now one year old, Brooke was still the size that you would expect for a six-month-old baby.

Her parents took her to the doctor who examined her and found nothing was wrong. They said that Brooke’s development was a little bit delayed, but she would surely catch up.

But over the next few years, the opposite happened. By the time she turned five, Brooke stopped growing altogether.

At the age of eight, Brooke weighed just 13 pounds.

Brooke’s condition of arrested aging was so unusual that she actually began to garner national attention. Scientists and doctors across the country came to study her for possible clues on how to stop human aging.

Finally, in 2013 at the age of 20, legally an adult, Brooke passed away, inhabiting the mind and body of a 2-year-old baby.

“At the age of 20, legally an adult, Brooke passed away, inhabiting the mind and body of a 2-year-old baby.”

Now, Brooke’s mysterious condition is obviously the exception, thankfully, and not the norm because by and large, we expect our children to what? To grow.

In fact, when my wife and I had our kids, we would take them every week to get measured by the doctor. They would measure your weight, your length, your head size, and then they would show you where the baby fell in all of these charts.

I’ll admit that I would kind of obsess over these numbers and these percentiles. This one’s head is in the 90th percentile, so she must be smart. But this one’s weight is only in the 70th percentile. That’s like a C minus, so we got to work harder on that.

Measuring Spiritual Growth

It’s easy to measure physical growth. But what if we were to measure your spiritual growth as a Christian?

Where would you land on the spiritual growth chart?

And have you been growing as you should?

“What if we were to measure your spiritual growth as a Christian? Where would you land on the spiritual growth chart?”

In our passage this morning, the Apostle John will hold up to us a measuring stick to our spiritual bodies to help us see whether our growth is healthy or arrested.

Scripture Reading: 1 John 2:12-14

Please turn with me in your Bibles to the book of First John. We were just in the book of 1 John last week, but today we will be in chapter 2 and it will serve us to start at verse 12. If you are using pew Bibles, it is on page 1219 or 1229.

It’s up on the screen as well if you can see that.

Let’s read 1 John 2:12 before we begin.

I am writing to you little children because your sins have been forgiven you for his name’s sake. I am writing you fathers because him who has been from the beginning.

I am writing to you young men because you have overcome the evil one.

I have written to you children because the father.

I have written to you fathers because him who has been 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 evil one.

Let’s take a moment now to ask for God’s blessing as we look at this passage.

Father, we’re so grateful for your word that gives us clarity on so many things in life and how we ought to live, not only for your glory, but for our good. Lord, we want to be a church that is full of growing Christians, that would grow up to maturity and then be honoring to you as a lampstand, a faithful lampstand here in New Jersey.

We thank you, Lord. We pray that you would help us to pay attention to your text today and to learn from your apostle, the Apostle John. In Christ’s name we pray. Amen.

Background: False Teachers Threatening the Church

By way of background, the book of First John was written by the Apostle John to a group of churches that were in grave danger. They were either in a state of spiritual stagnation already or about to fall into it. This was for a very simple reason: false teachers had crept into the area and possibly even into the church.

These false teachers were the antichrists that we learned about last week where Mark Schwambbley helped us unpack in 1 John 1:4. These false teachers taught numerous heresies and lies, and John deals with them throughout his letter. For example, they taught that Jesus did not come in human flesh, but was a spirit and did not really die on the cross.

John directly rebuts this heresy in 1 John 4:2. These false teachers also claimed to have special knowledge about God obtained outside of God’s word that conveniently only they knew about.

Yet at the same time, these false teachers who claimed they knew God openly practiced lives of unrepentant sin, possibly and most likely including sexual sin. They claimed that God was fine with it.

John deals with this false belief in the beginning of 1 John 2:3-4 and actually all of chapter 3.

This type of false teaching, as it crept into the church and infected it, was threatening to throw the church into a tailspin, into a state of deep confusion and stagnation. Nothing stops spiritual growth in its tracks like bad doctrine and a failure to deal with sin. Bad doctrine clouds the mind and unchecked sin deadens your heart.

“Nothing stops spiritual growth like bad doctrine and a failure to deal with sin.”

The Apostle John combats these false teachings and writes this letter to the churches in Asia Minor out of great pastoral concern. He wants these churches to get back to a place where they are growing again.

The Structure of 1 John

And he structures the letter in this way. It’s helpful for us to understand the structure of the letter. The beginning of 1 John from chapter 1 to 1 John 2:12 is where John is primarily laying out the theological basis and ethical groundwork that he needs to lay out in order to combat this false teaching. This section then is mostly focused on what you would say maybe theoretical matters.

But then after 1 John 2:15, John switches to the imperative mode. He switches to giving them commands, looking the church in the eye and saying, “Okay, now this is what you have to do. These are your marching orders.” He delivers them in a very soft, in a very loving way as the apostle John generally does. But yet these are directives nonetheless so that they can successfully throw off the yoke of these false teachers and get back to what they as a church ought to be doing.

So then that section is going to be more commands. John tells them to turn away from sin. In 1 John 3:4, he tells them to forsake false teachers. In 1 John 4:1, he implores them to get back to loving one another. In 1 John 3:11 and to get back to prayer in 1 John 5:14.

Between these two sections of what you would say maybe theory and practice is this short transition section where John, before he gets to commanding the church, looks each of the groups of the church in the eye and with love and concern calls them to attention. And it’s as if he’s saying, “You, you and you, you need to hear this. You need to listen up.”

And buried into this short transition section, John intentionally lays out for them a picture of healthy spiritual growth. And it’s as if he’s saying this: “This is what a healthy church ought to look like. This is what healthy spiritual growth ought to look like. And if you listen to me, if you obey the commands that I’m going to give you in the rest of the letter, then you can get back onto this track.”

“This is what a healthy church ought to look like. This is what healthy spiritual growth ought to look like.”

Three Stages of Spiritual Growth

So then in our section today in chapter 2:12-14, we’ll see that the apostle John is giving us this vision of spiritual growth in three pictures, three stages of growth. We’ll call this the three stages of spiritual growth.

If you like outlines, before we dive into it, I’ll just give you the outline up front: we’ll see simple children, then we’ll see strong young men, and then we’ll see spiritual fathers.

“Three stages of spiritual growth: simple children, strong young men, and spiritual fathers.”

Now, before we dive too far into the text, I want you to notice a few things that are interesting about the text and its structure.

First, you’ll notice that when John goes through the groups of people in the church, he goes through them how many times? Twice. He goes through twice. There are some slight differences, but mostly it’s the same.

Second, you’ll notice that the first time he goes through, he’s writing in the present tense in our English. Then the second time he switches to “I have written.” So he starts writing “I am writing” and then he switches tense to “I have written.”

Finally, you’ll notice that the order he does it in is from children to fathers to young men. He addresses fathers before young men. So why does John do it this way?

The answer is nobody knows. I looked in a lot of commentaries, and no one has a clue. These just seem like stylistic choices that John uses, perhaps for emphasis.

We’re not going to belabor those choices. But just so that you are aware, we will be taking them a little bit out of the order that John presents them in a way that makes sense in our progression. So we’ll look at children first, then young men, then fathers.

Stage 1: Simple Children

So let’s get into it. The first category that John shows us is simple children.

If you have that up there, it’s a little small. Simple children.

Now John is not talking about little kids in physical age like those in our nursery. But throughout the letter, he actually uses this term “little children” as a term of endearment to refer to the entire church. He’s talking about the whole church regardless of physical or spiritual age.

If you want to see this, he does this twice more in just this chapter. In 1 John 2:1: “My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin.” And also in 1 John 2:18 and throughout the book.

So I think that when he says “little children,” he’s talking about all believers. But he’s also talking about the common denominator of every believer. This is true of you even when you are first saved. This is really the first thing that’s true about you and therefore the first stage of spiritual growth.

This is where everyone starts out and then we never really get away from it.

“This is where everyone starts out and then we never really get away from it.”

But it’s where we start out.

Your Sins Are Forgiven

What then do simple children, even simple spiritual children, know at the very beginning of their spiritual journey? Look at the text—it says, “Your sins are what? Are forgiven.” That’s the most basic thing about a Christian.

He does not say that your sins are forgiven if you continue to grow or your sins are forgiven if you do enough good works.

No, this is a statement of finality and certainty. It is done. It is a done deal that your sins are forgiven.

“This is a statement of finality and certainty. It is done. It is a done deal that your sins are forgiven.”

Salvation vs. Sanctification

At this point, I think we need to take a small moment to just be super clear about the relationship between the spiritual growth we’re talking about today and forgiveness of your sins.

You see, your sins as a Christian are forgiven you once and for all at a single moment of your life. In a single moment, it is forgiven. The moment is that you confess that you are a sinner before God. And the moment that you believe that Jesus Christ is the son of God who came in human flesh, died on the cross to pay the penalty for your sins, boom, that’s it. You are part of this club. Your sins are forgiven.

At that moment, you are saved. And that’s the gospel. And if you are not a believer currently, you literally can believe this right now as you sit there and your sins will be forgiven forever.

At that moment, your sins are forgiven completely and you were given a new life. You were transformed. Your eternal destination was permanently changed from being on the way to hell and eternal damnation to heaven and eternal life.

And we call this moment of conversion salvation.

That’s an instantaneous transformation.

The moment you believe, nothing can reverse it. Nothing you do or nothing anyone else does, nothing Satan does, nothing that can happen to you by accident, nothing can reverse it. You cannot sin your way out of salvation.

No power or height or depth or angels or demons, nothing in the future or in the present. Nothing can ever separate you from the love of God. That’s in Romans 8:38.

So you are saved the moment you believe.

However, at that moment, you are not yet perfected in practical holiness. That is, you are not yet morally perfect. Even though you hate sin and you don’t want to do it, lest you dishonor your God and Savior, you will find as a believer that you do sin.

So then spiritual growth, what we’re talking about is the process of gradually shedding your sin over the course of your life in a practical way and instead putting on righteousness that shows itself in good works.

And unlike salvation that happens in one instant, spiritual growth starts at the point that you are saved and then happens gradually over your lifetime. It doesn’t end until you die. We call that process sanctification.

“Spiritual growth is the process of gradually shedding your sin and putting on righteousness. We call that sanctification.”

And unlike salvation, sanctification actually requires you to actively work on your part to resist sin, to put it off, and to do righteous works.

So although believers do sin and will sin until we get to glory, it will hopefully become less and less.

But here John wants to be very clear and he says your sins as a believer even do not ever affect your standing before God. And that’s why John even makes sure to say in 1 John 2:1, he says this: “My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you what? May not sin.” But listen, he says this. If anyone sins because you will sin, we have an advocate with the father, Jesus Christ the righteous, and he himself is the propitiation or the satisfaction of God for our sins.

So then because of this, John can tell you confidently that as a believer, all your sins have been forgiven now and in the future. Past, present, and future.

Forgiven for His Name’s Sake

But then he says, he adds this little mysterious phrase at the end of verse 12. Your sins have been forgiven for what? For your sake?

No, for his name’s sake. And this really changes everything.

This changes how we think about this because we are not saved for our own sake. You are saved for his name’s sake. And what does this mean? It’s not about you in the end. It’s not about you at all. Your salvation is in fact all about God’s name and God’s glory.

God’s name is his reputation, his glory and his honor. He is not saving you for your sake, but for his name’s sake. And that is great news for celebration for us.

Because what does scripture tell us? It tells us that if God cares about anything, he cares about his name. Listen to what he says in Ezekiel 36:22.

This is where God is addressing a sinning Israel. He says, “Therefore say to the house of Israel, thus says the Lord God, it is not for your sake, oh house of Israel, that I am about to act, but for my holy name which you have profaned among the nations where you went.”

And then he says in verse 23, “I will vindicate the holiness of my great name.” God is extremely concerned about his name. And in this verse, even though Israel was in a horrible state of sin, God is saying, “I will still rescue you because it is my name on the line.”

And when it comes to your salvation, it’s the same. God is putting his name on the line for you.

“Your salvation is all about God’s name and God’s glory. God is putting his name on the line for you.”

If somehow he breaks his promise, God would then be shown to be unfaithful and his name and his reputation and his glory would be tarnished. This is something that God would never let happen.

So instead, God—John here wants to show us and wants us to know that our salvation is actually part of God’s plan to glorify his name. It’s part of his larger plan and God can never fail at that.

So this should give us immense peace as believers, assurance and security in our salvation. This is John’s intention in 1 John 5:13 when he says this: “These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life.”

He’s writing this entire letter. One of the purposes is for them to know with security and certainty that they have eternal life.

1 John 5:13: “These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life.”

The Importance of Assurance of Salvation

And why is this assurance of salvation so important for us as believers? It is a blessing for us to have assurance of salvation.

But I think it is because even though sometimes as new believers, we know in our heads our sins are forgiven, we don’t always act like that’s true.

Sometimes the new believer who sins is prone to doubt God’s forgiveness in his heart or to doubt God’s love. And then guilt creeps in. And what do we do?

We run away from God. We avoid prayer because we are ashamed. We don’t come to church and we don’t take communion because we are afraid.

The Danger of Running from God After Sin

This just makes everything worse. Then we spiral into a vicious spiral of destruction. One actual famous example of this is John Bunyan. You may have heard of John Bunyan, who is the author of the famous book “The Pilgrim’s Progress.”

In his autobiography, “Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners,” Bunyan tells the story of his life after his conversion, where he underwent agonizing struggle with blasphemous thoughts that would appear in his head. He would be tempted to swear because that’s how he lived his life before his conversion.

After his conversion, the temptation to swear actually increased. As a result, John Bunyan was tormented with guilt and fear.

John Bunyan recounts running away from God, avoiding prayer, keeping away from the Bible, forsaking church, and feeling that God had left him.

For you and me, when we sin as believers, don’t do what John Bunyan did and let that drive you away from God. Confess your sin and remember that your sins are forgiven for the glory of God’s name. This should drive you to your knees with joy and thanksgiving.

“When we sin as believers, don’t let that drive you away from God. Confess your sin and remember your sins are forgiven.”

Children Know the Father

Now, we’re going to skip down to the second yellow text here where he addresses children again.

The second time he addresses children, he says something different: that they know the father.

Now an interesting bit of trivia here is that the word for children in verse 13 is a little bit different than the word for little children. This actually does mean child. This actually does mean small child.

I think the idea here is to bring to mind the kind of knowledge that a small child would have of his father.

If you’re a young human child, you know certain things about your father. Some of you have small children. His name. Maybe what food he likes and what food he dislikes. His favorite couch. His favorite meal. He loves you and protects you. You know that he will provide for you and care for you. But that’s actually about how much you know about your father.

“A child’s knowledge of his father is intimate — he knows he is loved — but it is an incomplete knowledge.”

Even to this day, my teenage children, I don’t think any of them know what I actually do for my job.

I think they mostly think I stare at the computer, mutter to myself, and somehow that results in food on the table. But they don’t actually know how any of that works.

Spiritual Children Are Easily Confused

Because a child’s knowledge of his father is incomplete. It’s intimate. He knows he is loved, but it is an incomplete knowledge. Just like young human children, spiritual children who are young in the faith can sometimes be easily confused.

Listen to how Paul describes this. The Apostle Paul in Ephesians 4:14 describes spiritual children. He says, “As a result, we are no longer to be children tossed here and there by waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, by craftiness and deceitful scheming.”

Why are children so easily tossed here and there? Because even though they know the gospel, they don’t really know much else yet. They can be easily conned by false teachers.

When I was a child, I remember we would go to the mall. That was actually a thing you did back then. Nobody ever does that anymore.

My mom would take me to the mall and she would tell me over and over again to never talk to strangers. She would tell me stories, made up or real, I’m not sure, but she would tell me stories of when the mom is distracted and the child is over here, somebody would come up with a lollipop and lure the child away and then they would be on the back of a milk carton, never to be seen again.

When I became a parent, I would tell my children whenever they went to the park by my house that if they ever see a white van without windows to run because they’ll probably get grabbed and a bag would be thrown over their head, they would never be seen again. I bet they still remember me telling them that.

Why did we tell kids those stories? Because they’re kids and they are gullible and easy to be taken advantage of. They don’t yet know how dangerous the world can be.

And so it is with spiritual children. They know the basics. They know that the father loves them. They have a childlike faith.

But to advance to spiritual adolescence, to get out of the first stage of simple faith, they have to grow up in their understanding of God and they have to grow up in their understanding of the world.

Ephesians 4:14: “We are no longer to be children tossed here and there by waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine.”

Stage 2: Strong Young Men

There’s a point at every Christian’s life, I think, where they begin to realize a terrible and shocking truth.

It’s especially difficult for us, I think, to grasp it because we live in a safe and comfortable environment.

But the truth is this: the whole world is actually a war zone. It’s a giant active war zone. And at the moment of your conversion, you were dropped into the front lines of that war.

“The whole world is actually a war zone, and at the moment of your conversion, you were dropped into the front lines.”

It’s only when your spiritual mind is expanded to understand the true nature of the world you live in that you are ready for the next stage of spiritual growth. This is what John refers to as young men. We’ll call this next stage the strong young man or strong young men, and this is in verse 13.

“I am writing to you young men because you have overcome the evil one.” In this stage, you have not only grasped that the Christian life is a life of warfare.

But amazingly, you have learned to overcome the war and be victorious.

The World Is a War Zone

Who is this war between? Who is fighting? Well, the war is between the powers of the world ruled by the evil one, that is Satan, and the kingdom of God.

Now, some of you may immediately look up and say, “Wait, what do you mean the world is ruled by Satan?” Well, John himself is the one who tells us this. In John 12:31, he calls Satan the ruler of the world. The Apostle Paul agrees. He calls Satan the god of this world in 2 Corinthians 4:4. And in Ephesians 2:2, Satan is described as the prince of the power of the air.

It’s a prince of the power you see around you. That is the reality of our world. We live in many ways in the kingdom of Satan.

A lot of things in the world that you see start to make a lot more sense once you understand this.

You are an enlisted soldier of God and you are deep in enemy territory.

Now, I want to be clear here. The battle is between Satan, Satan’s evil world system, and the kingdom of God. In this battle, Satan is by no means more powerful than God. In fact, the Bible makes it clear that Satan is only able to do this because of God’s permission. You could say that Satan operates under God’s leash.

But I think a helpful way to think about it is just as God once gave Satan permission to tempt Job, God has given Satan during this time to rule over the world system and the levers of power in the world to tempt and test the saints.

That’s why there’s so much false religion in the world. That’s why the world seems so corrupted because Satan has rigged everything to be against God and the people of God.

Satan has set up this world to promote evil agendas, to trap people in false religion and idolatry, to persecute the true church, and to set up minefields of temptation in hope of ensnaring Christians.

“Satan has rigged everything to be against God and the people of God.”

As a spiritual young man, you slowly begin to see that this invisible battle is going on all around you. And Satan’s kingdom is bearing down constantly on the people of God and you’re on the front lines.

Your Mission in Spiritual Warfare

And what is your mission in this war?

Well, Paul explains it this way in 2 Corinthians 10:3. He says, “We do not war according to the flesh.” It’s not a physical war. It’s not a war you wage with guns.

But the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but divinely powerful for the destruction of fortresses. We are destroying what?

Speculations.

And every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God. And we are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ. By the way, that verse is commonly misunderstood to think we’re taking our own thoughts captive. This is actually saying we are going out there and taking other people’s thoughts captive. That’s your mission.

The picture here is that you are part of an invading army and you’re invading the fortress of evil.

Your mission is to use your weapons, which is the word of God, the gospel, and to tear down the fortresses, to tear down the false philosophies and religions of the world constructed by Satan to trap sinners and to free them from those systems.

“You are part of an invading army, and your mission is to use the Word of God to tear down the fortresses of evil.”

But it’s not an easy mission because while you are doing that, you are taking enemy fire in the form of temptations and persecution that are trying to take you out of play.

This is really the thrust of the famous verse in Ephesians 6 about the armor of God. In verse 11, he says, Apostle Paul says to put on the full armor of God so that you will be able to stand firm against the schemes of what?

The devil. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against what?

Rulers, against the powers, against the world’s forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places. Therefore, take up the full armor of God so that you will be able to resist in the evil day.

That’s today, by the way.

And having done everything to stand firm.

The Apostle Peter puts it like this. 1 Peter 5:8, “Your adversary, the devil, crawls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to what?

Devour.” But resist him firm in your faith.

You see, Satan is trying to take down your character because he knows that if he can tempt you to sin and to destroy your witness, he can neutralize you as a force for God. And if that doesn’t work, then he will throw trials and persecutions your way to see if that will discourage you and slow you down.

The battle here is both offensive and defensive.

And as a spiritual young person, spiritual young man, you have somewhat amazingly figured out how to win this war. You are an overcomer.

You Are Strong in the Lord

You are an overcomer in both offense and in defense. And listen, this seems like a tough, very difficult war, but victory is not only possible, but is actually expected as you see here of the believer. And if you look in the parallel verse in verse 14, he says, “You are strong.” He does not say you are weak and you have no hope.

He does not say this is going to be too hard for you. He says you are strong.

And in what sense are you strong?

You would have to turn over to 1 John 4:4 to see this.

He says, “Greater is he who is in you than he who is in the world.” If you have the Holy Spirit in you as a Christian, how can you not be strong?

You see, every Christian can enjoy victory in this battle. And you need to stop telling yourself that you can’t.

Somehow I think we’ve gotten to this idea that Christians are weak and victims of our sin. And nothing can be further from the truth. We need to tell ourselves that we are strong because God is in us.

“Every Christian can enjoy victory in this battle. Stop telling yourself that you can’t. We are strong because God is in us.”

And then to advance in this war, Paul says this in 1 Corinthians 16:13. He says, “Be on the alert as a soldier. Be on the alert. Stand firm in the faith. Act like what? Act like men. Be strong.

That is, you already are strong as a Christian because of who is in you, and now you just need to start acting like it. You need to really go do something.

And indeed we as Christians can do everything through him who gives us strength.

The Word of God: Your Source of Strength

And what is the source of our strength?

Well, let’s look at verse 14 there. In verse 14 it says the word of God. What abides in you is the word of God. The source of your strength all comes down to learning, memorizing, obeying, applying, and hiding the word of God in your heart.

So that when the day comes that you need to cross swords with the devil, you can come out on top. You can come out on top.

Let me just pause here and ask you: Do you feel like you have matured as a Christian to the place where you can call yourself a spiritual young man? How active and skillful are you at the offensive and the defensive requirements of this war?

Or on the other side, are you just sitting out the battle? Are you sitting it out? Are you not going on the offensive? Are you watching as other people do that?

If that’s you, then maybe you have let Satan win this round. Don’t let Satan take you out before you even get started. Wake up and see the war around you and realize that you are strong.

You are a strong soldier in this war because God dwells within you. You are to pick up your sword, the word of God, and advance toward victory.

“Pick up your sword, the Word of God, and advance toward victory.”

Amen. That’s how you grow.

Stage 3: Spiritual Fathers

There’s one more category that we need to look at even after a young man. This will be brief, and that is a spiritual father. This is in the first half of verse 13: “I am writing to you fathers because him who has been from the beginning.”

This is the end goal: to become a spiritual father.

This man has fought faithfully. He has seen God grant him victory time and time again in the spiritual war zone. He is a veteran of many battles, offensive and defensive.

And he knows how to use the word of God to tear down the ideological forces of Satan. He knows how to defend against temptation. He knows how to deal with persecution.

And through it all, he has seen and experienced the faithfulness of God. He can point even to specific times in his life where things seemed hopeless, yet God granted him victory.

And having known God through his meditations on the word of God as well as his experiences of God’s faithfulness, the spiritual father now knows God not just in a way a small child would know, not just the basic facts, not just in an incomplete way, but a deep and settled and unshakable knowledge.

“The spiritual father knows God in a deep, settled, and unshakable way.”

He can now confidently answer all the big questions of life. Why are we here? What is the point of my life? Where is it going? How did it begin? And how did it end?

And he is no longer deceived easily. Having studied the word diligently, he can smell a false teacher from a mile away.

And this spiritual father also knows how to please God. He knows how to please God because he has in fact walked with God.

Deep Knowledge of Christ

Actually, to see this particular point, we can ask the question of this verse. Why does God—why does John say it this way? Why does John refer to God as he who has been from the beginning?

Why does he choose this peculiar phrase?

Just turn back one page with me to 1 John 1:1 and let’s see how he begins the book of 1 John.

He begins it like this: “What was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we have looked at and touched with our hands concerning the word of life.” Okay, so he’s talking about God. But then he says, what we have touched with our what? Hands.

What we have seen with our eyes. So who is he referring to?

Jesus. He’s talking about Jesus.

What was from the beginning.

That is, John is talking about Jesus here. He is saying that just as John himself, the apostle John, when Jesus was on this earth walked with Jesus, touched Jesus, saw Jesus with his own eyes as a disciple.

John is saying that the spiritual father has just as real and as deep a relationship with the risen Christ as he had.

So through the word of God, we can walk with Jesus in no less of an intimate way than the Apostle John.

“Through the Word of God, we can walk with Jesus in no less of an intimate way than the Apostle John.”

We could truly know Jesus.

Fathers Lead the Troops

Finally, just notice that the fact that this man is referred to as a father brings to mind the fact that he is thought of as a father in the church as well. Not only is he engaging in the battle himself, he is now expected to be a leader of the troops.

He is protecting and loving and exhorting and providing spiritual sustenance for the troops. He’s coming alongside the rest of the congregation in the battle and passing down the knowledge and experience that he has won through hard-fought victories to the next generation of believers.

Just as the apostle John has done here, spiritual fathers ought to act like fathers in the congregation to teach, to exhort, to encourage, and to teach them how to fight.

“Spiritual fathers ought to pass down knowledge won through hard-fought victories to the next generation of believers.”

Application: Assess Yourself and Grow

Well, then these are the three stages of spiritual growth: the simple child, the strong young man, and the spiritual father.

Out of these categories of growth, where would you place yourself?

Your responsibility before God this morning is to assess yourself accurately. Understand clearly what it is that you are lacking to get to that next stage of growth, and then make practical changes in your life to get there by the grace of God and the power of the Holy Spirit.

Once you get to the spiritual father stage, you are not just to sit there. You are also to help others in the church to climb that same ladder.

We are to get there together. The spiritual warfare is not just you as one soldier against the world. It’s an army of God’s soldiers against the powers of Satan.

And the army is right here.

Calvary, don’t be satisfied where you are. Grow up and progress upward for your good, for your joy, for the goodness of the church.

“Don’t be satisfied where you are. Grow up and progress upward for your good, your joy, and the goodness of the church.”

When you can finally hang up your boots as a spiritual father, you can say with the Apostle Paul in 2 Timothy: the time of my departure has come. I have fought the good fight.

I have finished the course. I have kept the faith. And in the future, there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness.

Closing Prayer

Let’s pray.

Father, as we think about what you have told us today in this small section of scripture, we’re overcome by how much you have blessed us in giving us first of all assurance of our salvation. That once we believe, we are saved fully and forever.

Thank you for helping us understand that we are not weak as believers, but we are strong because of him who dwells within us.

Thank you that we are able to fight the battle that you have put in front of us, to understanding that when we get to the spiritual father stage, you expect us to act like fathers, to come alongside, to teach, to protect, and to make sure that your war is won.

Lord, we know that in this war it is really you doing all of the work.

We know that at the end your victory is unquestionable.

But Lord, we are so thankful you allow us to participate and you allow us even to be rewarded on the basis of what we do here.

To you be the glory forever. In Christ’s name we pray. Amen.

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