Bible Snack #24

​I have written to you, fathers, because you have known Him who is from the beginning. I have written to you, young men, because you are strong, and the word of God abides in you, And you have overcome the wicked one (1 John 2:14).
 
Two of the spiritual stages are mentioned here with more explanation. “Young men” are described with three attributes. 1) Being strong. 2) The Word of God abides in them. 3) They have overcome the wicked one.
 
To be strong is to know where your strength lies—in God—and to know how to use that strength: apply His Blood, apply His Word, and apply His Name. How do we apply these three weapons? With our words backed by our faith. We believe in these three, and therefore, they perform for us in strength beyond any natural capacity when we speak.
 

To get the Word to abide in us we have to literally force feed it to ourselves. Even if we don’t understand what we are reading, we make ourselves read the Bible.
 
That Word gets in us, and since it is alive, it inflames us to speak it out of our mouths right when the Word can produce miracles for us. But it can’t come out to help us if we haven’t put it in there.
 
As for “Fathers,” their spiritual level is once again listed in the exact words we read in the last verse. Why is this? Remember the repetition rule?
 
This explanation is important because it is the highest level we can achieve—being a friend of God’s. He is already your friend, and He is asking you to be His friend.