Monday, October 21, 2024

Assurance to Spiritual Children (1 John 2:13c)

EVENING SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 10/21/2024 8:29 PM

 

My Worship Time                                                          Focus:  “Assurance to Spiritual Children”

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                        Reference:  1 John 2:13c

 

            Message of the verse:  “I have written to you, children, because you know the Father.”

 

            Let us begin by looking at what the term rendered children is in the Greek.  Paidia is different from the term rendered “little children,” which is teknia in the Greek and is seen in verse 12.  We have noted above, teknia references to all children of God.  However paidia denotes more specifically young children, the ones still under parental instruction, and such children are ignorant and immature and in need of parental guidance and care.

 

            MacArthur writes:  “Immature spiritual children are those who know the Father (Ps. 9:10; cf. John 10:4, 14; Rom. 8:15; Gal. 4:6) in the same way as an infant has little more than a basic knowledge of his or her parents.  The distinguishing characteristic of babes in Christ is that they are consumed with their new-found relationship to God and Savior they have come to know savingly (e.g., Luke 19:5-6), and with the resulting joy and peace of that knowledge.  But they are still infants, who have yet to feast on the nourishing spiritual meat of sound doctrine (cf. Heb. 5:12-13.”  “12 For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you have need again for someone to teach you the elementary principles of the oracles of God, and you have come to need milk and not solid food. 13 For everyone who partakes only of milk is not accustomed to the word of righteousness, for he is an infant.”

 

            As similar with physical babes, is the ignorance of spiritual children makes them prone to weaknesses and highly susceptible to dangers.  These children are all too often motivated by fleshly desires and they lack discernment in order to avoid what is harmful and pursue what is beneficial.  The often naively attach themselves to their spiritual heroes or favorite teachers, for which Paul reprimanded the Corinthians as seen in 1 Corinthians 3:4 “For when one says, "I am of Paul," and another, "I am of Apollos," are you not mere men?”  Spiritual children also lack discernment and are vulnerable to the allurements of deceivers and their heretical doctrines.  This is why Paul warned the Ephesians in Eph. 4:14-15:  “14 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 in deceitful scheming; 15 but speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in all aspects into Him who is the head, even Christ.”

 

            MacArthur concludes:  “Mature believers can applaud new believers’ exuberant love, their eager and sincere devotion to God, their attachment to new-found friends in Christ, and their often optimistic viewpoint toward their new Christian life.  However mature Christians must also warn the less mature against the danger of being led astray by false teachers and their demon-inspired doctrines (2 John 10:11).   “10 The one who loves his brother abides in the Light and there is no cause for stumbling in him. 11 But the one who hates his brother is in the darkness and walks in the darkness, and does not know where he is going because the darkness has blinded his eyes.”  10/21/2024 8:52 PM

  

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