“I write to you, fathers,
Because you have known Him who is from the beginning.
I write to you, young men,
Because you have overcome the wicked one.
I write to you, little children,
Because you have known the Father.”
I write to you, young men,
Each of the three times John uses “to you,” he points out an advantage of the group to whom he writes. All three categories have an advantage, a hallmark of spiritual experience.
Because you have overcome the wicked one.
The word “overcome” means to conquer. It is a victory achieved by exploits. The young men of this verse prevailed over Satan’s value system. The perfect tense in the Greek indicates that their victory had abiding results. They knew something about the abiding results of victory in spiritual warfare.
2 Co 2:14, “Now thanks be to God who always leads us in triumph in Christ, and through us diffuses the fragrance of His knowledge in every place.”
Re 12:11, “And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, and they did not love their lives to the death.”
PRINCIPLE:
The outstanding characteristic of a growing Christian is that they have victories over the satanic system.
APPLICATION:
Victory in youth makes for benefits for the rest of life. A fruitful life comes from fighting many battles and deliverance from many heartaches and regrets.
A teenage Christian moves beyond childhood spiritually, but he has not yet made it to spiritual adulthood. They are neither at the bottom of the spiritual experience nor the top. Yet, they are Christians on the move. They are going places spiritually. They are making a mark for the Lord.
The outstanding characteristic of adolescent Christians is that they know how to battle in the spiritual war. The Devil will try his utmost to put us in a state of spiritual retardation so that we never get to the place of victory. He will do his diabolical worst to keep Christians at the spiritual babyhood level. Some stay at spiritual childhood all their Christian lives. This is his infernal work. Growing Christians learn how to ignore Satan’s propaganda machine.
To overcome the infernal work of the Devil, we need to know how to meet him on God’s terms. We do not overcome the Devil by chance. We must know something about his strategy and how to resist that strategy. Every Christian faces three foes: the world, the flesh, and the Devil.
Re 3:21, “To him who overcomes I will grant to sit with Me on My throne, as I also overcame and sat down with My Father on His throne.”
It is possible to overcome sin. Jesus overcame the Devil by taking recourse in the Word of God. He knew how to draw on the principles of the Word and apply them to His life. He quoted three verses in Matthew 4, and the Devil left Him.
Some Christians have been carnal so long that they blunt their consciences. They no longer have a sense of conviction over their sin. They live in perpetual defeat.
