THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE TRUTH IN DETAIL
[p. 278] THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE TRUTH IN DETAIL
JT This epistle is intended to develop the truth in detail; in the gospel it is more general; so the idea of age is given here in a threefold manner: fathers, young men and little children; and then this idea of detail is of great importance, especially for young believers. God takes account of us in our ages. “Little children” is more diminutive than ‘children’, which would indicate Christians generally, that is Christianity. We have no Sunday schools for the little children for them to learn in; but these epistles of John are not that, for “children” gives the full idea of Christianity, “My children” (verse 1); but then in verse 18 it is “Little children”. John’s exercise as to the persons he writes to shows that the servant is free to use his judgment as to the truth, and which designation he uses.
PL It adds dignity to them, adding growth in love; we are to hold them in love.
Ques Why is it “the last hour”?
JT It is a solemn thought; we shall not hear it again. In verse 14 it is the thought of “young men”, that is persons of greater growth; “I have written to you, young men, because ye are strong”; you can count on them in matters of controversy to abide in the truth.
PL So in John 21 we have sheep and lambs distinguished.
JT Yes, you can say something about that.
PL It is as if John would show the grades in the family. We have the Lord’s own utterance in John 17: 6, “the men”, He says.
JT Yes; there is full growth there, and more; there is responsibility, and so here in verse 14,
“[p. 279] I have written to you, fathers, because ye have known him [that is] from the beginning. I have written to you, young men, because ye are strong, and the word of God abides in you, and ye have overcome the wicked [one]. Love not the world, nor the things in the world”, They are all placed under great responsibility with such language to each of the three grades, and we must treat them accordingly, whether little children or fathers, if they are that.
Ques Any feature of the world marking the young men would put them at a distance, so lust is mentioned, thinking of the product in those who had tasted of the world. Can we not be worldly and yet go to the meetings? And then put oneself at a distance from the Father? Have we not to overcome?
JT Yes; and to consider that women, and young women, come under this; they may be marked by insubjection and irresponsibility, leaving all to the brothers, and John takes account of the saints as they are, and puts responsibility on them as it belongs to them.
Rem This word is like a fertiliser to make the saints more fruitful. John’s ministry is for that.
JT I would think so. The Lord regards him as a special man, “That disciple therefore whom Jesus loved” (John 21:7), and as to the sisters, it is a question whether they can defend the truth.
PL “The elect lady and her children” of 2 John 1, and Gaius, too, in 3 John?
JT Yes; a great sense of responsibility is to be in the brothers’ minds. We began reading at verse 18, “Little children, it is the last hour”; there is not much time to make up for any loss, so we are to make the most of the time we have. “Even now there have come many antichrists”, a remarkable word. We should have to look about to find these, those who are opposed to [p. 280] the truth.
PL Young people at school are confronted with the antichrists.
JT Yes; and the young people need to make friends with the older ones, and not club together. They are very responsible.
PL They are to be warned by what happened to the little boys who mocked Elisha in 2 Kings 2:23.
JT Yes; there were forty-two of them torn, two she-bears came out after them.
ESH Everyone breaking bread is responsible.
JT Yes, he has put his hand to it.
Ques At twelve years old?
JT Yes, even ten years in the United States.
Ques There should be some sense of responsibility, do you think?
JT I do indeed.
Rem “Paul’s sister’s son” in Acts 23:16.
JT Yes, he brought a message to defend the truth.
PL Joseph at seventeen accepted responsibility.
JT He suffered, too.
Rem The acceptance of responsibility is a great help to maturity. What is needed is manhood to bear the burdens of the testimony.
JT You would like the brethren, especially the young people, to read the books?
Rem We are helped by our minds spiritually.
JT Yes.
Ques Should we ask the young people if they read the ministry?
JT I agree.
AH “One shall say, I am Jehovah’s; and another shall call himself by the name of Jacob”, Isaiah 44:5.
JT Yes.
Rem Our children should grow up in the environments of God’s house.
JT But you have no [p. 281] children!
Rem They have spiritual children!
Rem Samuel “opened the doors of the house of Jehovah”, 1 Samuel 3:15.
JT He had a splendid mother and he learnt from her, “And his mother made him a little coat, and brought it to him from year to year”, 1 Samuel 2:19.
Ques Is “the unction from the holy one” the Holy Spirit, and would you look for that in one asking for his place?
PL The unction is what is rubbed in?
JT That is a good word.
Rem This section for the little children is the longest of all.
JT That is just the point. Verse 18 indicates a very solemn time. There is very little time left.
Rem The Lord as a boy of twelve was the perfect example, “did ye not know that I ought (to be in the things of my Father)?” Luke 2:49 (see note).
Rem John is counting on the little children being early in the good of this word as to the Spirit being the unction.
JT So that they are persons who can deal with questions and be able to rub things in.
PL They are thrown on the Spirit. Would that be spiritual intuition?
JT Yes.
EuR Would that involve the effect of household readings?
JT I know how concerned you are as to the children.
Ques Does Psalm 144:12 indicate an advance in the household?
JT Yes; it comes late in the Psalms, and shows a great deal of experience.
Rem It is good for the children to be encouraged in acts of service.
AH The reference to the truth, “Because ye know it” (verse 21), does that imply that it was learnt in the household?
JT Yes; it is most important for the children to have the household readings and prayer first, before they go into the world.
Rem They are to begin the day with God, to counterbalance the antichrist.
JT Yes, for all that has to do with the schools, and the teachers are defective in things and teach error.
Ques Can they challenge the lie then?
JT Just so, they would go back to what their parents say.
Rem So Paul commends Timothy’s upbringing, “that from a child thou hast known the sacred letters”, 2 Timothy 3:15.
JT Yes; so he speaks of the faith that was in his grandmother and his mother and then in him; 2 Timothy 1:5.
Rem Psalm 127:5 says, “They shall not be ashamed when they speak with enemies in the gate”. Many children have spoken boldly as to creation.
JT These readings refer to certain courses of instruction, not to be found in the systems, so that the brethren are the more responsible; the Holy Spirit is here for that express purpose; He is sent down from heaven to encourage the parents, and as the Paraclete to help them on these lines. We all know that humanity is divided up into families, so that He especially helps parents.
JH-n The present truth is to help us to see that we cannot do without His help in any service.
JT In the Liverpool area, where you come from, the truth has been able to hold its own.
Rem In these meetings there are several large families.
JT The more the better, for there should be no restriction. God claims the little ones.
[p. 283] Ques Should they be instructed as to the enemy’s camp? He speaks of the antichrist to the children, and Paul speaks of the man of sin to the Thessalonians; 2 Thessalonians 2:3.
JT They were a company of young Christians.
Ques Is the mother’s place important? There were great results from the service of Samuel’s mother, and of the wealthy woman of Shunem, 2 Kings 4:8.
JT So Phoebe in Romans 16 is a good example for all mothers; she cared for the saints in a motherly way.
Rem Timothy would have received a splendid education from both his mother and his grandmother.
PL The reference to children as “an inheritance from Jehovah” in Psalm 127:3 would show that they are to be richly exploited.
JT Yes.
ECM The Lord in Luke 8:51 asked for both the parents of the child to be present, and asked them to give food to her, so that He puts the responsibility on them.
JT Yes.
Rem It says in Genesis 46:6,7, “they ... came to Egypt, Jacob and all his seed with him; his sons and his sons’ sons with him, his daughters and his sons’ daughters and all his seed he brought with him to Egypt”.
JT Very good.
Rem Many testings but no casualties!
JT So scripture is to furnish us. It is a most important matter, this about the little children, “Little children, it is [the] last hour, and, according as ye have heard that antichrist comes, even now there have come many antichrists, whence we know that it is [the] last hour. They went out from among us, but they were not of us” — that is, they were not real — “for if they had been of us, they would have [p. 284] surely remained with us, but that they might be made manifest that none are of us”. How many have been lost in the one hundred and fifty years of the recovery. Open-brethrenism began almost at once, and still remains, and we need to watch that.
Ques I had that in mind. Should the children be instructed in church history?
Rem They are to learn to walk in the truth.
JT Yes; walking in it refers to conduct; a controlled mind in the truth.
Rem “And I it was that taught Ephraim to walk”, says Jehovah; Hosea 11:3.
JT Just so.
Rem “Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings hast thou established praise because of thine adversaries, to still the enemy and the avenger”, Psalm 8:2.
JT A very important scripture; it is like Psalm 127:5, “They shall not be ashamed when they speak with enemies in the gate”. Now we have this idea of antichrists, “They went out from among us, but they were not of us”; so young people seek other matters, “they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have surely remained with us, but that they might be made manifest that none are of us. And ye have the unction from the holy [one], and ye know all things”. The”ye” is emphatic; the “unction” refers to the Holy Spirit; “ye know all things” is being brought up in the truth, and so it says, “I have not written to you because ye do not know the truth, but because ye know it, and that no lie is of the truth. Who is the liar but he who denies that Jesus is the Christ? He is the antichrist who denies the Father and the Son”. It is a very solemn way of putting it, “he is the antichrist”, there is no hesitation as to who antichrist is against. So he goes on, “Whoever denies the Son has not the Father either; he who confesses the Son has the Father also”. There is, too, the great subject of eternal life, as in F.E.R.’s time, and it is in this epistle also, as in verse 25 here, and in verse 26, “those who lead you astray”. Note this, they were potentially taught to “abide in him” (verse 27).
Rem The “him” there would be the Holy Spirit, while in verse 24 it is the Father and the Son, so that the little children are encouraged to abide in each of the three Persons.
JT The question arises whether we can tell which divine Person is speaking at any given time.
Rem We may not have thought enough of abiding in the unction, “but as the same unction teaches you as to all things, and is true and is not a lie, and even as it has taught you, ye shall abide in him”.
JT It is this thought of rubbing things in, so that the person is impressed, and so in verse 29 it says, “If ye know that he is righteous, know that everyone who practises righteousness is begotten of him”; we practise it.
Rem This links on with verse 17, “he that does the will of God abides for eternity”; it would involve our hands.
JT “Abides for eternity”, a great idea.
Ques Is the coming of the Lord regarded as imminent? It is mentioned in verse 28.
JT I should think so. “And now, children, abide in him, that if he be manifested we may have boldness, and not be put to shame from before him at his coming” “Children” here is the whole family.
Rem The Lord’s coming seems here to be brought forward to press the urgency of the thing he is speaking of.
JT Yes; this epistle helps us to work out details.
Rem He presses the “last hour” on us all.
JT Yes.
Rem The detail shows the divine care, and we need the same for each [p. 286] other.
JT We are quite entitled to use the word ‘brethren’, not as a party thought, but as a family. It is most important to know who is speaking; all are equal in Deity, but not in frequency of speaking.
Rem It says, “Now Samuel did not yet know Jehovah”, 1 Samuel 3:7. The Spirit is the power for this.
JT Very important. Who is speaking? The Son alone is spoken of as being made “both Lord and Christ”, Acts 2:36. The Spirit and the Father are not said to be made Lord.
Rem The Son speaking generally implies the word of authority.
JT Yes; all things are in His hands; a peculiar responsibility. The Father is not made Lord, though called Lord.
Rem The Son is over God’s house; Hebrews 3:6.
JT That is the idea, so that “If therefore the Son shall set you free, ye shall be really free”, John 8:36.
Rem You have awakened a great exercise in all our hearts.
Rem The attuned ear of the bride knew the beloved’s voice; Song of Songs 5:2.
Rem The parental voice of the Father speaks with its own quality.
JT In the economy it is of the greatest importance to know who is speaking, and we should know, and the Holy Spirit was sent by Him for that express purpose.
Rem At the Supper we should know.
JT Yes; we begin with the saints in looking at them. Then there is authority in the Lord, His authority; so He is in mind from the very outset. It is His supper.
Ques Would you expect the Spirit to speak?
JT Yes, it is right that He should speak.
Rem “A revelation to another sitting there”
([p. 287] 1 Corinthians 14:30) shows the Spirit has liberty to speak.
Rem If we understood more the titles used of the Spirit in ministry we should be more accustomed to receive spiritual impressions.
JT Just so; Their voice is to us, not to every one, and we can speak to Them; the Father comes in later in the service.
Ques Would the speaking be especially at the Supper because we are kindred with Christ?
JT So it says (Psalm 45:10), “Hearken, daughter, and see, and incline thine ear”. In Acts 20:7 Paul had liberty by the Spirit to speak, and Peter (Acts 10:14) calls the Spirit “Lord”.
Rem It says in Acts 15:28, “For it has seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us”; He must have spoken.
Rem Paul says, “The Spirit speaks expressly”, 1 Timothy 4:1.
JT That would be a special matter; “in the last days difficult times shall be there”, 2 Timothy 3:1.