Especially for young people, the necessity of church attendance over a period of many years is a test of the Lord’s service. Does the desire to meet God with the congregation, to hear his voice, and to be spiritually nourished and strengthened, drive you and entice you on?

Young⤒🔗

John writes to born-again children of God who love one another and who keep God’s commandments. If, upon reading this, you do not recognize yourself in it, you should not turn away—quite the opposite!—but listen with holy jealousy to the apostle of love.

John is not referring here to all sorts of “stages” in the life of grace by using the expression “little children, fathers, young men,” but he addresses all readers in their diversity. We agree with Calvin when he also refers to the different stages of life. The repeated diminutive “little children” shows that John is thinking particularly of the youth here and that he loves the “little ones.”

The sooner you come to know and serve the Lord, the better! As a young person, you have to make many choices that will determine the rest of your life. Young people are open to everything that comes their way, and they are naturally inclined to do wrong. Therefore, you must be equipped from an early age on for the battle of faith against evil and sin. A soldier receives his training also when he is young.

Strong←⤒🔗

John tells the young people that they are strong and twice he tells them that they have overcome the evil one. Satan prefers to aim his poisonous arrows at you, young people! Jesus told his disciple Peter that Satan desired to sift him like wheat. Imagine lying in Satan’s sieve! You would not survive that. But Jesus’ intercession proves his power: with but one exception, through trials and errors, his disciples did not succumb. Their faith stood firm in the battle.

When John speaks of young Christians as being strong, he is not referring to their own strength. You are not resilient in yourself, but you are extremely vulnerable. The writer of Psalm 119, a trained child of God, had to honestly admit that, like a sheep, he had suddenly strayed from his shepherd. Peter believed he stood strong in his faithfulness to Jesus, but he stumbled over a straw along the way. It is encouraging that John speaks of strong young Christians! It was a time with many errors and temptations, just as it is now. They reach our young people from all sides. As parents, office-bearers, and teachers, we hold our breath! Yet it is surprising to see that there are young people who seek God’s Word and use it as a source and standard for their lives, as a shield and weapon in their spiritual battle—young people who also want to learn from others, from older and trained children of God, so that they stand strong in the battle against the evil one and overcome him! Thanks be to Christ, who crushed his head and broke and defeated him in his power!

Secret←⤒🔗

This can only be done with one weapon: the sword of the Holy Spirit, God’s Word. With it Jesus defeated Satan in his first frontal attack. Now John says that God’s Word remains in them. It is important to always have God’s Word close to you, but it must also speak to your heart and thus enter and remain within you. Like the seed that falls into the ground and remains, it germinates and bears much fruit, as you prayerfully ponder it and affirm it in faith.

Psalm 119:9-11 explains the secret of a militant and victorious faith: “How can a young man keep his way pure? By guarding it according to your word... I have stored up your word in my heart that I might not sin against you.” Blessed are you who know this secret, as young as you are and as old as you may grow. “Blessed is he who expects all his strength and help from God alone; they go from strength to strength.” You too?