“The word of God lives in you”

In 1 John 2:14, John writes to “young men because the word of God lives in you.” Whether he means “young” in age or young in their Christian journey (or both) – the same point would apply, that they’d caught on to the essential ingredient in the growth and development of their fellowship with God. 

It was the same essential ingredient that created the fellowship of Jesus with his Father, as Jesus himself explained in John 14:10, that “The words I say to you are not just my own. Rather, it is the Father living in me who is doing his work.” So it was the word of the Father living in Jesus that created their fellowship together, and gave Jesus the ability to speak and act as strongly and effectively as he did.

Well, John is now writing to young men, or young Christians, who are displaying the same strength in their words and actions, and for the same clear reason too, that “the word of God is living in you.” In context, John is referring to Jesus as “the word of God,” so it was Jesus’ words that were being lived in these Christians, and that’s what created their fellowship with him and the strength they had. Or as John put it in 1 John 2:3, “We know we have come to know him (enter into real fellowship with him) if we obey his commands,” because what happens to “anyone who obeys his word,” is that “God’s love,” verse 5, “is truly made complete in him.” And when God’s love happens, creating a love for God and each other in us, “we know we are in him” (5). 

John is talking about how “our fellowship (comes about) with the Father and with his Son” (1:3). It comes from obeying the word or commands of Jesus, which came from the Father (John 12:49-50). And John is adamant on this point: “The man who says, ‘I know him,’ but does not do what he commands is a liar, and the truth is not in him,” 1 John 2:4. And in verse 6, “Whoever claims to live in him must walk as Jesus walked.” And Jesus’ walk was always love, which is why John wrote in verse 10, that “whoever loves his brother lives in the light, and there is nothing in him to make him stumble.” God’s love in us creates that kind of strength and integrity and stability in us. 

And John was seeing the effect of that love that came from Jesus’ words living in people. A mighty powerful effect it was too, as even young men were “Overcoming the evil one”….(next blog)