7. Its Stages (part 1)
7. Its Stages
I
In the last chapter we called attention to the fact that Christians may be graded into three classes according to their “stature” in Christ or their spiritual development and progress. In proof thereof appeal was made to Mark 4:28 and 1 John 2:13. In addition to those passages we may also take note of our Lord’s Parable of the Wheat, wherein He represented the good-ground hearers as bringing forth fruit in varying degrees or quantities. That parable is recorded in each of the first three Gospels and there is, among others, this noticeable difference between their several statements: that Mark says of those who received the Word, they “bring forth fruit: some thirty-fold, some sixty, and some a hundred” (4:20); whereas in Matthew’s account that order is reversed: “brought forth some a hundredfold, some sixty, arid some thirty” (13:23). Evidently the same parable was uttered by our Lord on different occasions and He did not employ precisely the same language, the Holy Spirit guiding each Evangelist according to His particular design in that Gospel.
Since Matthew is the opening book of the New Testament it is obviously the connecting link between it and the Old, and accordingly the nature of its contents differ considerably from that of the three which follow. The prophetic element is far more prominent and its dispensational character more marked. Many have regarded the parables of Matthew 13 as supplying a prophetic outline of the history of Christendom. Personally, we still believe in that view: that, instead of its course being steadily upwards, it was to be definitely downwards, and that so far from the gospel converting the world to Christ this age would witness the whole public testimony of God being corrupted. Thus we regard the “hundredfold” of Matthew 13:23 as being descriptive of the primitive prosperity of Christianity in the days of the apostles, the “sixty” of the noticeable and lesser yield during the times of the Reformers and Puritans, and the “thirty” as that which resulted from the labors of men like Whitefield, Jon. Edwards, and later, Spurgeon; while today nothing is left but the mere gleanings of the harvest. Thus the course of this Christian dispensation has been very similar to that of the Mosaic, with its reformations in the days of David and then of Ezra, but ending as Malachi shows!
But in Mark 4:20 it is not the corporate testimony which is in view, hut the spiritual experience of individual believers: “and brought forth fruit: some thirty-fold, some sixty, and some a hundred,” which corresponds with the three grades of verse 28—”first the blade, then the ear, after that the full corn in the ear,” and the apostle’s more definite description—”I write unto you fathers, because you have known him that is from the beginning. I write unto you young men, because you have overcome the wicked one. I write unto you little children [babes] because you have known the Father” (1 John 2:13). As Thomas Goodwin pointed out: John “had an advantage over all his fellow apostles in that he lived the longest of them, so that in the course of his life he went through the several ages or seasons that Christians do, and having also had an experience of other Christians and what was eminently in and proper to each age of men in Christ, writes to all sorts accordingly, and sets down what things spiritual belonged into those several stages.”
In the preceding chapter we dwelt upon some of the features which characterize the “babes” or “little children,” pointing out that those very designations intimate that which distinguishes them from the “young men” and “fathers,” for God has made the natural to shadow forth the spiritual. “Brethren, be not children in understanding” (1 Corinthians 14:20). As in a young child reason is undeveloped, so in a spiritual babe there is but a feeble apprehension of the deeper things of God; yet as that exhortation shows, the believer ought soon to pass out of a state of infancy. What is said of them in 1 John 2:13 describes another mark: “you have known the Father.” Little children acknowledge their parents, are dear to them, hang about them, cannot endure to be long absent from them. They expect to be much noticed and fondled, and accordingly it is said of the good Shepherd “He shall gather the lambs with his arms and carry them in his bosom” (Isaiah 40:11). Little ones must be dangled on the knees, cannot endure the frowns of a father, and are not yet strong enough for conflicts: and hence God tempers His providential dealings with them accordingly. The babe has “tasted that the Lord is gracious” (1 Peter 2:3), but as yet knows not of the “fullness” there is in Him.
Now the young convert is not to remain a spiritual babe but is bidden to “grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ” (2 Peter 3:18), yes, to “grow up into him in all things” (Ephesians 4:15). God has made full provision for him to do so, and by his availing himself of that provision is He honored and glorified. But the sad fact is that many Christians never do so, and many others who “run well” for a while lapse back again into spiritual infancy. We are warned against this very danger by the solemn example of the Hebrews, to whom the apostle had to write, “Of whom we have many things to say and hard to be uttered, seeing you are dull of hearing. For when for the time you ought to he teachers, you have need that one teach you again which be the first principles of the oracles of God, and are become such as have need of milk and not of strong meat. For every one that uses milk is unskillful in the word of righteousness: for he is a babe” (5:11-13).
Three things marked those believers who had failed to advance in the school of Christ. First, they were “dull of hearing” which connotes not slow-wittedness, but failure of affection and will to respond to the teaching they had received. They were unconcerned about what they heard, unsearched by it, and consequently it effected no change for the better in their characters and conduct. In Scripture, to “hear” God means to heed Him, to bring our ways and works into accord with His revealed will. God’s Word is given to us as a Rule to walk by (Psalm 119:105), and walking signifies to go forward in the highway of holiness. Thus, to be “dull of hearing” is a species of self-will, it is a non-response to the call of God, it is to disregard His precepts. As intelligence begins to dawn, the first thing required of a little child should be subjection to the will of those who have its best interests at heart; and the first thing required by the Father of His children is loving obedience to Him.
Spiritual babes need to be taught “the first principles of the oracles of God.” What were the “first principles” which God taught Adam and Eve in Eden? Why, that He was their Maker and required obedience from them. What were the “first principles” inculcated by Jehovah at Sinai? Why, that Israel must be in dutiful subjection unto the One who had redeemed them from Egypt. What were the “first principles” enunciated by Christ in His initial public address? His sermon on the mount must answer. The “first principles” of spirituality or genuine piety are personal faith in God and loving obedience to Him. While they be in operation the soul will prosper and make progress; as soon as they become inoperative we deteriorate. Hence, the second thing complained of is, the Hebrews were “unskillful [margin “inexperienced”] in the word of righteousness.” Observe the particular title by which the Word is here called—that which emphasizes the practical side of things: they were not walking in “the paths of righteousness” (Psalm 23:3). They had degenerated into self-pleasers, following the by-ways of self-will.
Third, they were incapable of receiving “strong meat.” The force of which may be gathered from verses 10, 11. The apostle desired to open unto the Hebrews the mystery of “Melchizedek” and bring before them deeper teaching concerning the official glories of Christ, but their state cramped him. He must suit his instruction according to the condition of their hearts, as it was evidenced by their walk. He was similarly restrained by the case of the Corinthians: “And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, as unto babes in Christ. I have fed you with milk and not with meat, for hitherto (because of their perversity and naughtiness) you were not able to bear it, neither yet now are you able” (1 Corinthians 3:1, 2; see Mark 4:33). “Milk” is a figurative expression denoting precisely the same thing as “the first principles of the oracles of God”—faith, obedience. As it would be senseless to teach a child grammar before it learned the alphabet, or arithmetic before it knew the values of the numerals, so it is useless to teach Christians the higher mysteries of the Faith or to take an excursion into the realm of prophecy when they have not learned to be regulated by the practical teaching of Scripture.
Here, then, are two of the chief reasons why so few Christians really advance beyond spiritual babyhood and become “young men” that are “strong” and who “overcome the wicked one.” Here are the worms which, it is to be feared, have been eating at the root of the spiritual life of some of our readers. Because they were “dull [not of intellect, but] of hearing.” The Creek word for “dull” is rendered “slothful” in Hebrews 6-12. It denotes a state of slackness and inertia. It means they were too indolent to bestir themselves. They were spiritual sluggards. They were not willing to “buy the truth” (Proverbs 23:23)—make it their own by incorporating it in their daily lives. They failed to “gird up the loins of their minds” (1 Peter 1:13) and earnestly and resolutely set about the task God has appointed them, namely, to deny self and take up their cross daily and follow Christ. They did not lay to heart the precepts of the gospel and translate them into practice. They made no progress in practical godliness.
Second, lack of progress was due to their being “unskillful in the word of righteousness.” The word “righteousness” means right doing, up to the required standard. God’s Word is the alone Rule of righteousness, the Standard by which all our motives and actions are to be measured, the Rule by which they are to be regulated. That Word is to govern us both inwardly and outwardly. By that Word of Righteousness each of us will be judged in the Day to come. Now it is not said that those Hebrews were ignorant of this Word, but “unskillful in” it. The word “unskillful” here means inexperienced, that is, inexperienced in the practical use they made of it. I may be thoroughly familiar with its letter, understand much of its literal meaning, able to quote correctly scores of its verses, yet so far from that serving any good purpose it will only add to my condemnation if I am not controlled by it. To be “unskillful in the word of righteousness” means I have not yet learned how to mortify the flesh, overcome temptations, resist the Devil; and as long as that be the case, if I be saved at all, I am only a spiritual infant, undeveloped in the spiritual life.
Another thing which holds back many a young convert from spiritual progress is his making too much of his initial experience. Unless he be on his guard there is great danger of making an idol of the peace and joy which comes from the knowledge of sins forgiven. God requires us to walk by faith and not by feelings, for though the latter may for a while please us, the former is that which honors Him, and the faith which most honors Him is that which rests on His bare Word when there are no feelings to buoy us up. Moreover, God is a jealous God and will not long suffer us to esteem His gifts more highly than Himself. If we are more occupied with lively frames and inward comforts than we are with God in Christ, then He will take from us a sense of His comforts, and the soul will sink and be cast down under a sense of the loss of them. In such a case, Revelation 2:5 prescribes the remedy: the sin of idolatry must be penitently confessed and we must return to the Storehouse of grace as a beggar, and make Christ our all.
Many babes in Christ have their spiritual growth retarded by (negatively) the lack of suitable instruction, and (positively) by the cold water poured on their joy and ardor by theft elders. It is neither necessary nor kind for some would-be wiseacres to tell them, this joy of yours will not last long: your bright sky will soon be overcast with dark clouds. Many of them are likely to discover that soon enough for themselves, while others may live to disprove such doleful predictions. This writer was often told that he would quickly lose his assurance of God’s acceptance of him in Christ, but though more than thirty-five years have passed since sovereign grace “plucked him out of the fire” (Zechariah 3:2), his assurance has never wavered or weakened, for it has always rested on the unchanging Word of Him that cannot lie. Others are greatly stumbled by empty professors and the inconsistencies of some real Christians, and they allow that to keep them from striving after a closer walk with God.
Many are kept weak in faith through failure to attain unto a proper acquaintance with the person and work of Christ. They do not realize how sufficient and able He was for everything He undertook to do for them, and how perfectly He finished the same. They have no clear views of either the fullness or the freeness of His so-great salvation. Consequently, a legal spirit working with their unbelief puts them upon reasoning against their being saved freely by grace through faith. Those unbelieving reasonings gain great power from their defeats in their warfare between the spirit and the flesh, or grace and nature. They hearken to and trust more in the reports of self than to the testimony of God’s Word. Thereby their faith is checked in its growth and they remain but babes in Christ. Their weak faith receives but little from Christ, and it continues weak because they have so little dependence upon the fullness of grace there is in Him for sinners. They appropriate not His promises, nor trust in His faithfulness and power. Growth in grace and in the knowledge of Christ are inseparable, and experimental knowledge of Christ is entirely dependent upon the exercise of faith on Him.
But we must pass on now to the second class. “I have written unto you young men because you are strong, and the Word of God abides in you, and you have overcome the wicked one” (1 John 2:14). Although the classification which this passage makes of the Lord’s people does not regard them simply according to their natural ages, but rather to the several degrees of stature in Christ, yet the characters given them are more or less taken from and assimilated unto what prominently distinguishes each class in their natural life. Infants rejoice in the sight of their parents and in prattling to them: thus the spiritual babes are said to “know the Father.” Proverbs 20:29 tells us “the glory of young men is their strength,” and accordingly those who reach the second stage of Christian development are termed “young men” and it is said of them you are strong.” Young men are renowned for their athletic vigor and are the ones called upon to fight in the defense of their country, and here they are pictured as victorious in conflict, as having “overcome the wicked one.”
7. Its Stages
II
“I have written unto you young men because you are strong, and the Word of God abides in you, and you have overcome the wicked one.” Though these words were most certainly not written by the apostle in order to flatter, but were beyond doubt a sober statement of fact concerning those he addressed, yet—because of our dullness of understanding—they are by no means free of difficulty to us, Therefore, as the Lord is pleased to enable, we shall endeavor to supply an answer to the following questions. Wherein do the “young men differ from the “babes”? In what sense can they be said to be “strong”?—Is there such a thing as out-growing spiritual weakness! Exactly what is signified by “the Word of God abides in you,” and are those words to be understood as explaining the preceding clause or the one which follows? In view of the many defeats which apparently all Christians experience, what is meant by “you have overcome the wicked one”?
Wherein do “young men” differ from babes”? First, because having been longer engaged in the practice of godliness, they have learned more seriously to consider their ways in order that they may avoid sin and the occasions thereof. They have sufficiently acquainted themselves with God as to realize the need of watching, praying, striving both against inward corruptions and outward temptations. They frequently present before the throne of grace such petitions as these: “Teach me, O Lord, the way of your statues, and I shall keep it unto the end. Give me understanding and I shall keep your law, yes, I shall observe it with my whole heart. Make me to go in the path of your commandments, for therein do I delight. Incline my heart unto your testimonies and not to covetousness (Psalm 119:33-36). Sins which formerly they regarded as blotted out by the general pardon received at conversion, are now thought of with shame and bitterness.
Second, they are more diligent in the use of means. Not that they necessarily devote more time thereto, but that they are more conscientious and spiritually exercised therein. As they have become increasingly acquainted with their corrupt inclinations, rebellious wills, the workings of unbelief and pride, they attend more closely to that basic duty “Keep your heart with all diligence, for out of it are the issues of life” (Proverbs 4:23), and accordingly they can truthfully say “I have inclined my heart to perform your statutes always, even unto the end” (Psalm 119:112), though they will often have to confess lack of power to perform their desire. That makes them the more concerned to learn how to make use of their spiritual “armor,” for none so conscious of its need and so earnest to put it on as this grade of believers.
Third, they are better versed in the Word of God. Though not so experienced and proficient in the Word of Righteousness as the “fathers,” yet they are not as unskillful as the “babes.” They have learned much in how personally to appropriate the Scriptures, how to apply them to their several cases, circumstances, and needs. They long to make further progress in piety and therefore they meditate in the law of God day and night. Deeply exercised that their daily lives may be pleasing to God and adorning to the profession which they make, they are concerned to inquire “Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way?” and discover the answer to be “by taking heed thereto according to your word” (Psalm 119:9). Thus they are daily furnishing themselves with spiritual knowledge and fortifying themselves against their enemies.
Fourth, they have learned to look more outside of self. They neither make so much of inward comforts nor do they lean so much unto their own understanding as once they did. They look more to Christ and live more upon Him. As formerly they trusted Him for cleansing and righteousness, now they turn to Him for wisdom and strength. They have discovered from experience that these can only be drawn from Him by the exercise of faith. They have realized themselves to be poor, helpless creatures, continually in need, and as having no means of their own to supply them. Thereby the Lord teaches them to live more out of themselves and more upon His fullness. When the enemy comes in like a flood, they look to Christ for victory. When conscious of their impotency they do not give way to despair, but trust Christ to renew their strength. Thus by such means they pass from the weakness of infancy and become “young men.”
“I have written unto you young men because you are strong, and the Word of God abides in you, and you have overcome the wicked one” (1 John 2:14). We have sought to describe some of the characteristic features of those whom we consider may justly be regarded as belonging to that class of Christians who are here designated “young men” particularly as they are distinguished from the “babes” or “little children.” Let it be understood that what we wrote thereon was in no spirit of dogmatism, but merely an expression of personal opinion. We consider that the spiritual “young men” are believers who have acquired a considerable knowledge of the Truth and are well established in the whole plan of doctrine as set forth in the Scriptures, though as yet lacking the deeper understanding thereof as pertains to “the fathers.” To which we would add, they know whom they have “believed” and “committed” their all, for we would certainly regard a Christian without assurance that Christ is his as still but a “babe,” though we do not expect all will agree to that.
“I have written unto you young men because you are strong, and the Word of God abides in you, and you have overcome the wicked one.” How different are the ways of God from men’s, even those of good men! Many elderly Christians today would deem it most imprudent to write or say to their younger brethren “you are strong . . . and have overcome the wicked one,” fearing that such an assertion was “dangerous” because having a strong tendency to “puff up” its recipients; which only goes to show how little some of our thoughts are formed by the Word of God and how prone we all are to fleshly reasoning. Such an attitude is but a “show of wisdom” (Colossians 2:23) and a poor show at that, for it betrays both ignorance and silliness. Those who are “strong” spiritually are not at all likely to be puffed up by telling them the truth. Contrariwise, any who are puffed up by such a statement would demonstrate they were weak! Let us not seek to be wise above what is written, but rather set aside our proud reasonings and receive what God says as “a little child.”
In making the above assertion the apostle was certainly not seeking to flatter them for he did not say “you have made yourselves strong.” Rather was he making a factual statement. In doing so, he, first, honored the Holy Spirit, by owning His work within them: the explanation of that statement of fact was the gracious operations of the Spirit in their hearts. Second. he was expressing his own joy: it was a matter of delight to him that they had, by the grace of God, reached this stage of spiritual health and vigor. Third, it was said by way of encouragement to them. If on the one hand it be our duty to rebuke and reprove what is evil in fellow Christians, it equally becomes us to recognize and own whatever is good in them. A word of cheer and stimulus is often a real help. If there be “a time to break down,” there is also “a time to build up” (Ecclesiastes 3:3). Paul did not hesitate to tell the Thessalonians “your faith grows exceedingly and the charity of every one of you all toward each other abounds” (2 Thessalonians 1:3).
But what did the apostle signify by his “you are strong”? Probably the majority of Christians would promptly reply, Why, only in the sense that they were “strong in the Lord and in the power of his might” (Ephesians 6:10). Yet we believe that answer is inadequate, and if the “only” in it he insisted upon, erroneous. We are in hearty accord with Thomas Goodwin who pointed out that, “There is a double spiritual strength: one that is radical in the soul itself, consisting in the strength and vigor of habitual graces; the other is assistant thereto from the Spirit, according as He is pleased to arm and fill the soul with Himself, joining with it by strengthening the graces in us, which we read of in Ephesians 3:16, ‘That He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might by His Spirit in the inner man.
By nature the Christian was entirely devoid of spiritual power. Writing to the saints at Rome Paul said, “For when you were yet without strength, in due you Christ died for the ungodly” (5:6). Now that “yet” would be quite pointless if those to whom he was writing were still “without strength.” “For God has not given us the spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind” (2 Timothy 1:7). We dishonor the work of the blessed Spirit if we view the regenerate as being in the same helpless plight as the unregenerate. At regeneration we received spiritual life, and as Goodwin pertinently asks “what is strength but life in an active vigor.” Are we not told “the joy of the Lord is your strength” (Nehemiah 8:10), that is, the more the believer delights himself in the Lord and rejoices in His perfections and his relation to Him, the more will his soul be invigorated and his graces quickened. Does not the Psalmist acknowledge You “strengthened me with strength in my soul” (138:3), so that he was no longer feeble in himself,
But let us not be misunderstood at this point. We are not arguing in favor of any kind of “strength” being imparted to the Christian which renders him in any wise self-sufficient. No indeed, perish the thought. Even the “fathers” are as completely dependent, moment by moment, upon Divine grace, as the youngest and feeblest babe in Christ. Paradoxical as it may sound to the carnal mind, the very “strength” which is communicated at the new birth makes its recipient conscious (for the first time) of his utter weakness. It is the purity of the new nature in the soul which makes manifest the corruptions of his flesh: it is his reception of the earnest of his inheritance which makes him poor in spirit: it is the gift of faith which causes him to be sensible of the workings of unbelief. It is the life of God in the renewed which causes them to thirst and pant after God. Nevertheless, there is a real sense in which the Christian is strong, both comparatively with his unregenerate impotency, and relatively in himself.
“A wise man is strong, yes, a man of knowledge increases strength” (Proverbs 24:5). In proportion as spiritual knowledge increases so also does spiritual strength. The spirit is nourished and enriched both for spiritual work and warfare by true wisdom. As we have so often reminded the reader, growth in grace and in spiritual knowledge are inseparably connected (2 Peter 3:18). There is a strength of courage, of fortitude, of resolution, which enables its possessor to stand firm against opposition, to overcome difficulties, to endure trials and afflictions. But the reverse of that is expressed in “if you faint in the day of adversity, your strength is small” (Proverbs 24:10). If in the day of testing and trial spirits sink so that your hands hang down and your knees become weak, if when afflictions come you take the line of least resistance, neglect the means of grace and are unfitted for duties, then your “strength” is “small,” and such an attitude will further weaken it. Unto such that word is especially appropriate, “Wait on the Lord: be of good courage, and he shall strengthen your heart; wait, I say, on the Lord” (Psalm 27:4).
The order there is to be carefully noted: first, an acknowledgment of our dependency upon the Lord. Second, a being of good courage. Third, the Divine promise unto those who are of good courage. Fourth, trusting God for the fulfillment of His promise of further strength. It is unto those who have that more is given (Matthew 24:29), it is those who make use of the grace bestowed who receive larger supplies. “God more ordinarily given adjuvant (extra-assisting) efficacious grace to overcome temptations according to the measure of grace habitual or inherent, and therefore when men (we) are grown up to more radical inward strength He gives more effectual assisting strength, and (accordingly) He meets forth temptations to the ability our inward man is furnished withal, as that we are able to bear them (1 Corinthians 10:13). He vouchsafes His actual supplies of aiding strength according to the proportion of that inherent stock of ability He sees in the inner man, and then as the conflicts grow greater our additional aids are together therewith increased” (Thomas. Goodwin).
Without further quoting verbatim from this writer we will summarize and paraphrase his next paragraph, with which we are in hearty accord. The grace of God indeed works freely, and He ties Himself absolutely to no rules and measures, but ever acts according to his own good pleasure. He takes liberty to withhold His supplies of assisting grace even from those who have most inherent grace, to show us the weakness of all our grace as it is in us, withholding from “the strong” (Romans 15:1). His further influencing grace which moves us both to will and to do—to evidence that His grace is tied to none. This we see both in David and Hezekiah when they had grown up to this middle age in grace. Yet that alters not the fact that in His ordinary dispensations God gives more grace to those who make good use of what they already have: “every branch that bears fruit, He purges it that it may bring forth more fruit” (John 15:2). The promise of being “made fat” is not to the sluggard but to “the soul of the diligent” (Proverbs 13:4).
To sum up: by the apostle’s “young men, because you are strong,” we understand that through using the means of grace, by increased spiritual knowledge, by appropriating the strength which is in Christ Jesus (2 Timothy 2:1), through exercising the graces of the new man, by improving (profiting from) the varied experiences through which they had passed, and by the assisting operations of the Holy Spirit, they had developed from “babes” into a higher spiritual stature and were the better qualified to use their spiritual muscles. It is written “They that wait upon the Lord [which refers not so much to an act as it is descriptive of an attitude found in all the regenerate who are in a healthy condition] shall renew their strength: they shall mount up with wings as eagles, they shall run, and not be weary; they shall walk, and not faint” (Isaiah 40:31). There is such a thing as overcoming spiritual weakness or babyhood, but not of continual dependence on the Lord. There is such an experience as going on “from strength to strength” (Psalm 84:7). Though without Christ I can do nothing (John 15:5), yet through Him strengthening me “I can do all things” (Philippians 4:13).
“And the Word of God abides in you.” We regard that clause as connected first, with the preceding one, as casting fight upon and furnishing a (partial) explanation of why these “young men” were “strong,” as revealing to us one of the principal sources and means of their spiritual strength. And at the same time it also serves to define the nature of the strength mentioned, namely, as inherent grace, as something within themselves. It is by the pure milk of the Word that the babe in Christ grows (1 Peter 2:2), and it is by that Word abiding in him that he becomes strong, that the faculties or graces of the new man are kept healthy and vigorous. But, second, we regard that clause as having an intimate bearing on the one that follows, seeing that it ends as well as begins with the word “and.” For it was by means of the Word of God abiding in them that these young men had been enabled to “overcome the wicked one”—”by the word of your lips have I kept me from the paths of the destroyer” (Psalm 17:4).
“And you have overcome the wicked one.” Note, first, this is not an exhortation or intimation of duty: it is not “you ought to” but “you have” Second, this is not predicated as a rare experience, peculiar to some exceptionally exalted saint, but is postulated of the whole of this company: “you have.” Third, it is not described either as a present process or a future attainment, but as an accomplished thing: not “you are overcoming” or “will” do so, but “you have overcome the wicked one.” Little wonder that Goodwin said on this point, “There is a second and greater difficulty [beyond defining the “you are strong”] namely, How and in what respect they are said more eminently [that is, than the “babes”] to have overcome Satan? For are they not in their conflicts apt to be overcome and to yield to corrupt affections? and how far they may be overcome [by those] is not to be determined by man”—words in brackets are, in each instance, our own additions.
“You have overcome the wicked one.” Whatever difficulty we may experience in understanding the meaning of those words, there is surely no occasion for us needlessly to add to the difficulty. We must be very careful with this verse, as with all others, not to read into it what is not there. It does not say “you have overcome the flesh,” that the young men had obtained victory over their inward corruptions. It is a most significant fact, and one which should exert great influence on our thinking at this point, that while this Epistle speaks of overcoming “the wicked one” and overcoming “the world” (5:4), it does not speak of believers overcoming their lusts. It is true we are bidden to mortify our members which are upon the earth (Colossians 3:5), and that in varying degrees all the regenerate do so. It is also true that the grace of God effectually teaches its recipients to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts, and to live soberly, righteously and godly in this present world” (Titus 2:12), but Scripture nowhere affirms that any saint “overcame the flesh.”
As intimated above, we believe that the preceding clause “and the Word of God abides in you” throws light upon those words which have presented such a difficulty unto so many—”and you have overcome the wicked one.” First, because they declare unto us the principal means by which the enemy is overcome, namely, the Word of God, which is expressly designated “the Sword of the Spirit”—the one offensive weapon which is to be used against the “wicked” (Ephesians 6:16, 17). Supreme demonstration of that was given by the Lord Jesus when He was attached by the Devil. He then gave proof that the Word dwelt richly in Him, that the Word of God abode in His affections and thoughts and was the Regulator of His ways. To each of Satan’s temptations He replied “It is written.” He did not parley with the Enemy, He did not reason or argue with him; He took His stand on the authoritative and all-sufficient Word of God and refused to turn aside therefrom, and thereby He overcame him. In that Christ has both left us an example that we should follow His steps and given us such encouragement as ensures success.
But second, it seems to us that the clause “and the Word of God abides in you” not only signifies the means to be used, but also and perhaps chiefly, intimates the very nature of wherein the young men had overcome the wicked one.” In other words, the very fact that it could be said of them “the Word of God abides in you” was itself the grand proof of their victory over the great Adversary. In His parable of the Sower our Lord taught that the seed sown was the Word, and that which fell by the wayside “the birds of the air came and devoured it up.” In His interpretation Christ explained that to signify: “Satan comes immediately and takes away the Word that was sown in their hearts” (Mark 4:15). That shows plainly that the primary and principal aim of the Devil is to prevent the Word of God finding a permanent abode in the human heart, and in the case of the vast majority of our fellows he is permitted to succeed. To a very large percentage of professing Christians the Lord says, as He did to the Jews, who had much head knowledge of the Scriptures. “You have not the Word of God abiding in you” (John 5:38).
We are living in a day of such darkness that this generation is “ignorant of his devices” (2 Corinthians 2:11). Many of God’s own people seek to blame Satan for what originates with themselves. Note well the following statements: “From within, out of the heart of men, [not “from the Devil”] proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, murders . . . all these evils come from within.” (Mark 7: 21, 23) “Now the works of the flesh [not “of the Devil”] are manifest, which, are these: adultery . . . envyings, murders, drunkenness, ravelings, and such like” (Galatians 5:19-21). “Every man is tempted when he is [not “assailed by the Evil one,” but] drawn away of his own lust” (James 1:14). But pride works, and we do not wish to think that we are so evil and vile, and so we attempt to escape the onus by attributing to Satan what we ourselves are responsible for. There is no need for Satan to tempt men to such things as those passages mention. He works far more subtly and insidiously than that.
If we go back to Genesis 3, where we have the earliest mention of Satan—and the first mention of anything in Scripture invariably supplies time key to subsequent references—we are shown the realm in which he works and the central object of his attack. That realm is the religious, and that object is the Word of God. His opening words to Eve were “Yes has God said?” calling into question a “thus says the Lord.” As he seeks night and day to prevent God’s Word entering the human heart, so he labors incessantly to remove it when it has entered. One of his favorite tactics is to inject doubts into the minds of spiritual babes, to get them to question the inspiration and veracity of the Scriptures. Under the imposing terms of “modern thought,” “scholarship,” “the discoveries of science,” he seeks to sap the foundation of faith. Where that fails, appeal is made to the conflicting views of the sects and denominations to discredit the inerrancy of the Word. Where that fails, recourse is had to human “tradition” in order to set aside the Oracles of God.
It is far too little realized that every attack which is made upon the Word of God, every denial of its verbal inspiration and Divine authority, every repudiation of its sufficiency as being our alone Rule of faith and practice, every corruption of its doctrine and every perversion of the ordinances and worship of the Triune God, are from the Devil. Many of the “babes” in Christ are severely shaken by those attacks and are tossed to and fro by various winds of erroneous doctrine. Nevertheless, Divine grace preserves them, and as they grow in grace and knowledge, as they become more cautious of whom they hear and what they read, as they become established in the Truth, they triumph over the Enemy. He fails to destroy their faith in the Scriptures, to lead them astray by “damnable heresies,” to catch away the Seed sown in their hearts, and therefore the Word of God abiding in them is sure proof that they have “overcome the wicked one.” As the same apostle goes on to say in his fourth chapter, “many false prophets are gone out into the world,” and then he added, “you are of God little children [the term of endearment] and have overcome” (4:1, 4).
