Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit · Sermon No. 1711
Delivered on Lord’s-Day Morning, March 18, 1883
“I write unto you, little children, because your sins are forgiven you for His name’s sake.” 1 John 2:12.
“I write to you, little children, because you know the Father.” 1 John 2:13. (Revised Version).
PROBABLY you ask, “Why does John say, first, ‘I write,’ and then, in verse 14, ‘I have written’?” There is a beautiful touch of nature in this speedy change of tense. John was an extremely old man and, therefore, while he says, “I write,” he adds, “I have written,” as if he felt that it might be the last time that he should take his pen in hand. Very soon with him, the present tense would change into the past—and he indicates the fact by changing his mode of speech. Perhaps he even felt that, possibly, before the letter reached the Brethren to whom he addressed it, he would be no more among the sons of men. Therefore he says, “I write,” indicating that while he was still with them, with warm and loving heart he solemnly exhorted them. And then he adds, “I have written,” as if he had recorded his dying testimony and left it as his last legacy of love.
To us, today, John’s words run altogether in the past tense—“I have written.” But we need not, therefore, forget that they were the well-considered words of a venerated father in Christ and that he wrote them as one so near to his departure that he regarded himself as already on the move and, therefore, scarcely knew which tense to use. Ah, my Brothers and Sisters, how soon our, “I speak,” will change into, “I have spoken!” Let this invest every word with solemnity. Remember, also, what order of man John was—that disciple whom Jesus loved, whose head had leaned on Jesus’ bosom, whose eyes had seen the King in His beauty and whose strengthened gaze had looked within the gates of pearl! This is he who, at one time, saw the pierced heart of the Well-Beloved pouring forth blood and water! And at another beheld the Lion of the tribe of Judah prevail to take the book and loose the seven seals thereof! It is the Apostle of Love who says to us, “I write to you,” “I have written to you.”
Let us carefully note what the Spirit says to us by His servant, John. Observe that our text is addressed to the “little children.” It is thought by many wise interpreters that under this term John includes the whole Church of God and that afterwards He divides that Church into two companies—the fathers and the young men. Those who, under one aspect, are all “little children,” but are, under another, regarded as young men or fathers. There is very much to support this view. In several instances in this Epistle, John is evidently addressing all the saints when he speaks of them as, “my little children,” as, for instance, in the 18th verse of the third chapter, and also in the closing verse, “Little children, keep yourselves from idols.”
Surely, all the saints are included in these exhortations. There is a sense in which every Christian is still a little child, a sense in which he ought to be so—always dependent upon the great Father, always ready to receive the Word of the Father without question, always teachable—always restful in the Father’s care and full of love to Him who is his All in All. Of necessity we must always be children before God, for our finite capacity is so limited that we are mere babes in knowledge in the Presence of Infinite Wisdom and as very sucklings in understanding, when contrasted with the great Father of Spirits. We know enough to make us know that we know very little! The most advanced intellects in the Church are but as infants compared with the Ancient of Days. We are of yesterday and know nothing—with all our experience, with all our study, with all our meditation, with all our illumination we remain, “little children,” when measured by the boundless knowledge of the Lord.
Yes, I mean the fathers, the men who bring sinners to Jesus, the men who teach others and are, themselves, taught of God—even these must, each one, cry out with Jeremiah, “Ah, Lord God! Behold, I cannot speak: for I am a child.” I
mean the young men who have overcome the Wicked One, whose holy valor sets them in the forefront of the battle where they turn to fight the armies of the aliens. “They are strong,” says John, and yet, in the Presence of the mighty God of Jacob, what are our champions and our valiant men? Are they not, still, but as, “little children”? It may do us all good to join the infant-class this morning, or, at least to sit with the boys in the school of grace. Even those who have made the greatest advances in Divine Grace may do well to ” become as little children,” that they may more fully enter into the Kingdom of Heaven and have closer fellowship with “the Holy Child Jesus.” It may even be an advance for some who have grown self-willed as they have advanced in knowledge, if they will say with David, “Surely I have behaved and quieted myself. As a child that is weaned of his mother, my soul is even as a weaned child.” Happy childhood when it means entire submission to the Father and sweet delight in His will!