Paul McKenzie

Memory Verse, Monday, June 23, 1 John 2:13a

I write unto you, fathers, because ye have known him that is from the beginning." (KJV)

"I am writing to you fathers, because you know him who is from the beginning." (NIV)

John then turns to the "fathers", those who have walked long in the faith of Christ, knowing Him from "the beginning". They have gone through the walk of faith and are now mature believers, able to mentor others.

I found a disturbing trend in many modern churches, where the leadership is so set on developing large churches with large programs based quite a bit on entertainment and pleasing the public, that they shove aside the elderly with all of their spiritual experience, and "go for the show".

They seem to be successful because they amass large audiences, but their teaching is surfacy, with very little meat. They lose the wise counsel of the elderly believers and repeat mistakes unnecessarily. I was told once by one excited, but misguided youth, that the elderly should just sit back and quietly support the younger generation of believers.

The pattern is just the opposite in Scripture, "Likewise ye younger, submit yourselves unto the elder." (1 Peter 5:5) My pastor likes to say that it is good to learn from experience, but better if you learn from someone else's experience, so you do not have to make the same mistakes.

I recommend that the youth of the church look to be mentored by the elderly. To go out of their way to reach out to them, and take time to listen to their experiences. And when I speak of "elders" in this way, I speak of those who are mature in their faith, and not necessarily in their age, for there are some people within the church who may be elderly, but have not served Christ. By their fruit, one can know the difference.

And, on the other hand, we see that John is writing to all three walks, elderly included, for no matter how long we have walked in the Lord, the constant reminders are needed to keep us walking on the path of light. I see this the longer I serve in my local church. My role from learner to teacher has grown more toward the "teaching" or "mentoring" end in the church, and I have heard the same principles repeated a number of times. But God's word is so vast that He speaks to us in many facets, according to our seasons of life.

So, people can read the same passage at the same time, and many times it will speak to each person differently, depending on what season of life they are in. Here, the "fathers" will be growing in the path they are walking, and what they glean may be far different from what the "little children" pick up. But all will grow stronger in the Word of God which is being conveyed by "God breathing" on the great Apostle, who also is now an elder, and very possibly the last Apostle alive who had walked with the Lord.

Today if you hear His voice, harden not your heart.

Memory Helps:

"I am writing to you fathers,
because you know him
who is from the beginning." (NIV)

You could move on with our "writing" picture, where now "I am writing to you fathers". I could picture the fathers with their children, and given a different sheet of paper. They all walk to a "starting line" on a racetrack where they see the Cross. I use the cross a lot to represent Christ, and the starting line, of course, represents "from the beginning".

And for 13, I use Tiny "TIM" from "A Christmas Carol", because T-M=1-3. He will be with his father "Bob Cratchit", watching him receive his "brand NEW" letter and walking with him to the starting line. Of course, the price tag is still on this NEW letter to help us remember we are in chapter 2, because 2 is represented by the "N" sound in our phonetic alphabet. This way we link 1 John 2:13 to the beginning of this verse.