April 23, 2011

Where am I?

At first, I was distracted by the fact that the rest of the verses Neil is talking about weren’t written out.  How is John showing a progression when the steps are out of order?  It seemed kind of vague. 

Then I looked up the rest of the passage (this is from the New Living Translation):

I am writing to you, my dear children, because your sins have been forgiven because of Jesus. 

I am writing to you who are mature because you know Christ, the one who is from the beginning. 

I am writing to you who are young because you have won your battle with Satan. 

I have written to you, children, because you have known the Father.

I have written to you who are mature because you know Christ, the one who is from the beginning.

I have written to you who are young because you are strong with God’s word living in your hearts, and you have won your battle with Satan.

1 John 2:12-14

Yup, there it all is.  Why does it seem to loop back and repeat?  My two (non-scholarly) ideas are these…  In Hebrew poetry, things are often written in parallel, either comparing two things that are opposite, or that are the same for emphasis.  The book of Proverbs has tons of examples.  The format of these verses is really different from those before and after, which makes me think John was waxing poetic… 

My other thought was about the emotion behind the verses.  It seems like a place where John took a break from explaining stuff to address his audience directly.  He’s reminding them of who they are and what they know.  Pretty strong stuff.

So it seems like we go from being forgiven to learning what to do with that forgiveness, until we finally know Christ in a significant way.  We don’t just know about Him, we know Him.

Where am I?  Where are you?