Stages of Christian maturity.

1 John 2.12-14.

John already stated in previous verses he wrote this letter so his joy might be full, 1Jn 1.4 and so his readers won’t sin. 1Jn 2.1 Here he gives a few more reasons for its composition—along with the people he attached to his particular reasons. This letter is to τεκνία/teknía and παιδία/pedía, children and invants; πατέρες/patéres, parents; and νεανίσκοι/neaníske, young people. (And since adulthood back then began when you were 13, these’d be teenagers.)

1 John 2.12-14 KWL

12Children, I write you²

because your² sins are forgiven in God’s name.

13Parents, I write you²

because you² knew this from the beginning.

Youths, I write you²

because you² conquer evil.

14Infants, I wrote you²

because you² know the Father.

Parents, I wrote you²

because you² knew this from the beginning.

Youths, I wrote you²

because you’re² strong,

and God’s word remains in you,²

and you² conquer evil.

The repetition is Hebrew-style poetry, where you repeat ideas instead of phonemes. Sometimes the very same idea, ’cause John wrote twice that he’s writing parents because they knew this already, and that he’s writing teenagers because they conquer evil. The first three statements are in present tense (γράφω ὑμῖν/gráfo ymín, “I write you”). The second three are in aorist tense, which is a tense we don’t have in English; it’s set in neither past, present, nor future, so it’s timeless. Translators tend to make it past-tense (ἔγραψα ὑμῖν/égrapsa ymín, “I wrote you”) but perhaps it’s better expressed as “I wrote you, write you, and will keep on writing you.” The first three are about why John’s currently writing to his readers, but the last are why John would always write such stuff.

Not necessarily literal maturity.

Many of commentators assume these age groups—kids, teens, parents—refer to different stages of Christian maturity:.

• INFANTS would be spiritual infants, i.e. brand-new Christians.
• CHILDREN would be relatively new followers; I’d call them newbies. They still make a ton of mistakes, and clearly need to grow as Christians, but they’re definitely in God’s family now, and are often zealously excited about it. Sometimes too much so, but they’re learning, and will hopefully learn to temper that zeal with sober judgment.
• TEENS would be just a little more mature than literal Christian teenagers. (In my experience, Christian teens are often newbies themselves. Still making tons of mistakes!) Still zealous for God, but now they have a little wisdom and experience under their belts.
• PARENTS would be Christian elders, who’ve been following Jesus long enough to be able to mentor others; in other words spiritual parents.

I tend to agree with this interpretation. It makes sense. But I wonder just how far we oughta consider “children” to be a metaphor. After all, 1 John is written in basic Greek with a simple vocabulary, and teaches elementary concepts and basic theology. You gotta teach Christianity to children at some point… so I gotta wonder whether 1 John wasn’t written with a very literal audience of children in mind.

There are those commentators who speculate the groups work a little differently. “Infants” and “children,” they claim, are the Christian community at large, but “teens” would be the Christians in leadership, the people helping John run the place; and that’d include the elder Christians. “Parents” would refer to the top leaders, the ones in charge. I don’t care for this interpretation ’cause it presumes John’s church had special code-words for people in leadership which nobody else in Christendom seems to know about: It’s kinda overlaying gnosticism atop a very anti-gnostic letter!

Nah; the letter’s primarily for new believers. But more mature Christians can read it too, and get something just as valuable out of it. True, we know all this stuff already (or should); we learned it back when we were newbies. It’s still good to review it.

Anyway, where do you find yourself? Awestruck newbie, vigorous relatively-new disciple, or well-grounded elder?

Hopefully not wandering newbie, apathetic disciple, or jaded oldtimer.