E. Exhortation to Various Groups of Believers (2:12-14)

Addressing his readers directly, John appeals to the believers at all stages of their spiritual development, warning them about the dangers that lurk in the shadows of the world of darkness.

Wesley used this passage to illustrate various stages of Christian experience. He identified fathers as those who were entirely sanctified, the spiritually adult in the congregation (see Works, 7:236-38). However he definitely did not consider the children and young men as second-class citizens, to be condemned for their level of maturation. They were simply pilgrims on the path toward their divinely intended destiny of being renewed in the image of God.