Sermon Tone Analysis

1 John 4:4 Little children, you are from God and have overcome them, for he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.

(ESV)

“Little children, you are from God” is composed of the following: (1) nominative second person plural form of the personal pronoun su (σύ), “you” (2) preposition ek (ἐκ), “from” (3) articular genitive masculine singular form of the noun theos (θεός), “God” (4) second person plural present active indicative form of the verb eimi (εἰμί), “are” (5) vocative neuter plural form of the noun teknion (τεκνίον), “little children.”

The apostle John is employing the figure of asyndeton to in order to emphasize the solemn nature of the assertion, which appears here in 1 John 4:4 and the causal clause which follows it.

As was the case in 1 John 2:1, 12, 28, and 3:18 the noun teknion here in 1 John 4:4 is a term of affection John employs for the recipients of First John who were Christians living in the Roman province of Asia at the end of first century.

He uses the word as a term of endearment for his spiritual children in this Christian community.

The word indicates his care and nurture for them.

The word teknion is a nominative for vocative or nominative of address, which is used for addressing an individual or group.

The vocative is the case used for addressing someone or, on occasion, for uttering exclamations.

Here in 1 John 4:4, it is specifically a vocative of simple address expressing the fact that John is making a solemn statement which expresses his deep concern for the Christian community who are the recipients of First John.

It also expresses the urgency that the recipients of this letter take to heart the encouragement he is giving in them in this verse.

In other words, it is expressing John’s deep concern that they would be encouraged that they have in fact overcome the proto-Gnostic teachers as a result of rejecting their docetic Gnostic teaching regarding the person of Jesus Christ.

The plural form of the personal pronoun su refers to the recipients of First John as a corporate unit and is used in a distributive sense emphasizing no exceptions indicating that each one of them had overcome these false teachers as a result of rejecting their false doctrine concerning the person of Jesus Christ.

The verb eimi, “are” means “to possess a particular characteristic.”

This would then indicate that each one of the recipients of First John perform the action of possessing the characteristic of truth which originates from the God of truth.

The noun theos refers to the Spirit which is indicated by its articular construction which is anaphoric which means that the article is pointing back to the use of this word in verse 3 indicating that it retains the same referent and meaning when it is used here in verse 4.

As we noted in our study of 1 John 4:3, the noun theos referred to the Spirit and not the Father.

The articular construction of this word also indicates that this word is in a class by itself expressing the idea that there were many spirits in the world but only one Spirit who is God.

This word is the object of the preposition ek which means “from” since the word functions as a marker of source.

Therefore, this prepositional phrase is expressing the idea that the recipients of First John possessed the characteristic of truth which “originates from or with” God the Holy Spirit.

The present tense of this verb eimi is a gnomic present which is used to describe something that is true any time.

It is expressing the idea that each one of the recipients of First John “does” possess the characteristic of truth which originates from God.

1 John 4:4 Each and every one of you, dear children, does possess the characteristic originating from this, the one and only God (who is the Spirit).

Consequently, each of you are victorious over them because the one in each of you is greater than the one in the world.

(Author’s translation)

The apostle John solemnly affirms with and commends the recipients of First John that they were remaining faithful to his Spirit inspired apostolic teaching concerning the person of Jesus of Nazareth.

Consequently, he is affirming and thus encouraging them that they were in fact experiencing fellowship with himself and the Trinity which is the overriding concern of this epistle (cf. 1 John 1:3).

John does this by asserting that each of the recipients of First John did possess the characteristic originating from this, the one and only God, which is a reference to the Holy Spirit.

This of course implies that they accepted by faith John’s Spirit inspired apostolic teaching which declares that Jesus of Nazareth is the God-man Savior, which is indicated by John’s assertions in 1 John 4:2-3.

1 John 4:2 By means of this, any one of you can at any time confirm the Spirit’s teaching who is the one and only God: Any spirit which does acknowledge Jesus as the Christ appearing in a human body does possess the characteristic which originates from this the one and only God who is the Spirit.

3 On the other hand, any spirit, which does not acknowledge this same Jesus (as the Christ appearing in human flesh) by no means possesses the characteristic which originates from this the one and only God (who is the Spirit).

Specifically, this (type of spirit) does possess the characteristic which can be described as antichrist, which each and every one of you have heard about through instruction is certain to come.

In fact, it now presently exists in the state of already being in the world.

(Author’s translation)

Now, in 1 John 4:6, the characteristic which the recipients of First John possessed as a result of accepting by faith John’s Spirit inspired apostolic teaching that Jesus of Nazareth is the God-man Savior is truth.

This is indicated by John’s statement in 1 John 4:6, which asserts that truth originates with the Holy Spirit and associates error with the devil.

The latter in this verse is called “the spirit of error” whereas the former is identified as “the Spirit of truth.”

Therefore, the characteristic of truth is referred to here in 1 John 4:4 since John in 1 John 4:6 associates truth with the Holy Spirit and the error with the devil, which is a reference to the false doctrine propagated by the false prophets or antichrists.