In 1 Yochanan 2:12-23, Yochanan addresses different spiritual stages, emphasizing that all Believers, whether children, young adults, or fathers in faith, have a role in the Kingdom of God. It’s like a family where each member contributes uniquely: children bring innocence, youth bring vigor, and elders provide wisdom. We need to recognize and honor everyone’s spiritual journey while staying rooted in Yeshua, the true foundation of our faith, so we don’t get led astray by the world.
Reason for Writing
2 12 I am writing to you, little children, because your sins have been forgiven because of Yeshua’s name.13 I am writing to you, fathers, because you have come to know the One who is from the beginning. I am writing to you, young men, because you have had victory over the evil one. 14 I have written to you, children, because you have come to know the Father. I have written to you, fathers, because you have come to know the One who is from the beginning. I have written to you, young men, because you are strong; God’s word remains in you, and you have had victory over the evil one.
Children … fathers … young people … Believers of increasing degrees of maturity in the faith. In other words, Yochanan has something to say to everyone. For His sake, literally, “for the sake of His name” or “by His name.”
A Warning about the World
15 Do not love the world or the things that belong to the world. If anyone loves the world, love for the Father is not in him. 16 For everything that belongs to the world – the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride in one’s lifestyle – is not from the Father, but is from the world. 17 And the world with its lust is passing away, but the one who does God’s will remains forever.
Because his readers have experienced the positive results of faith (vv. 12–14) and therefore have an alternative to this world’s order of things, Yochanan can tell them, Do not love the world or the things of the world (compare Yochanan 17:14–19). The three main kinds of temptations were present already in the Garden of Eden, as is clear from Genesis 3:6: “When the woman saw that the tree was good for food” (the desires of the old nature or “flesh,” Romans 7:5), “and that it was a delight to the eyes” (the desires of the eyes), “and a tree to be desired to make one wise” (the pretensions of life), “she took of the fruit and ate.” HaSatan later used the same temptations with Yeshua, but He resisted them (Matityahu 4:1–11, Messianic Jews 4:14–16). Yochanan’s readers and we are to do the same.
The Last Hour
18 Children, this is the Last Hour. You have heard that an Anti-Messiah is coming; and in fact, many anti-Messiahs have arisen now – which is how we know that this is the Last Hour. 19 They went out from us, but they weren’t part of us; for had they been part of us, they would have remained with us.
An anti-Messiah or “antichrist” is coming. See 2 Thessalonians 2:3 on the Man of Lawlessness and his role in the drama of End-Time history; see also Revelation 12–13. Yochanan is less concerned with this unique anti-Messianic figure than with the practical danger to Believers from the many anti-Messiahs who went out from us, but they weren’t part of us, who deny that Yeshua is the Messiah (vv. 22–23 or that He came as a flesh-and-blood human being (4:2–3, 2 Yochanan 7).
20 But you have received the Messiah’s anointing from HaKadosh, and you know all this.
You have received the Messiah’s anointing, literally, “you have an anointing”; but, because of the context, this could be rendered, “you have been ‘Messiah-ed.’ HaKadosh (“the Holy One”) is understood here to mean God the Father (see Revelation 3:7). Because the Holy One has ‘Messiah-ed’ you with the real Messiah, Yeshua, you know all this about the danger of anti-Messiahs (vv. 18–19).
21 It is not because you don’t know the truth that I have written to you, but because you do know it, and because no lie has its origin in the truth. 22 Who is a liar at all, if not the person who denies that Yeshua is the Messiah? Such a person is an anti-Messiah—he is denying the Father and the Son. 23 Everyone who denies the Son is also without the Father, but the person who acknowledges the Son has the Father as well. [1]
This passage invites comparison with Yeshua’s own statements – “If you knew me you would know my Father too” (Yochanan 8:19), “I and the Father are one” (Yochanan 10:30), and “I am the Way – and the Truth and the Life; no one comes to the Father except through me” (Yochanan 14:6). All these verses refute the Two-Covenant theory (see Yochanan 14:6 [2] ), which says that Jews and Christians each have their own independent but equally valid covenants with God, so that Jews do not need to relate to the Brit Hadasah or to Yeshua.
Even though Yochanan is writing primarily to Gentile Believers, he makes his statement universal: Everyone, Jew and Gentile alike, who denies the Son – which, in context (v. 22), means denying Yeshua’s Messiahship – is also without the Father. Thus does the Brit Hadashah directly contradict a central tenet of non-Messianic Judaism, that a Jew can have God as his Father while rejecting Yeshua. On the contrary, the person who acknowledges the Son has the Father as well, as taught in Yochanan 14:6, cited above. But everyone who denies the Son is also without the Father.
In your home, you may experience discord because of misunderstandings. In light of 1 John 2:12-23, where love is the focus, implement a ‘family share time’ each week. During this time, allow each family member to express feelings or concerns while others listen actively. Emphasize loving responses rather than reactions. This practice nurtures a safe space for open communication, modeling respect and love that mirror God’s love for us.
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[1] 1 Yochanan 2:12 – 23.
[2] Yochanan 14:6 ~ Because you have known me, you will also know my Father; from now on, you do know him – in fact, you have seen him.”
