Here the apostle puts the young men in contrast, as overcoming the world, and shows where their real strength is: divine strength. “The word of God abides in you,” not merely you refer to it, but it abides in you. If you look to Christ in the temptation, His answers to Satan, there was no lust of the flesh, there could be none; but He was hungry. Satan says, “Make these stones bread,” to tempt Him; “Throw Yourself down”; then shows Him all the glory of the world, and says, “All the glory of this world is given to me; the world is given to me; worship me, and all shall be Yours; own me as the prince of this world, and You shall have it all.” His answer was in every case the Word of God.

All Christ’s thoughts and life were the expression of the Word of God abiding in Him. He was the Word, the living Word. So what characterizes the young men is having the Word abiding in them. It is not merely recollecting something to say, or finding out something in the Word when one wants it; but the Word of God must be the spring of one’s actions, and that is what he means by the Word of God “abiding in you.” A “young man” does not fly to it just when he wants it, but lives in it. With God’s words living in his mind, he knows all that is in the world is not of the Father.

The Spirit of God has a world of His own, and the written Word becomes the guide for everything. That is how we are to judge everything by the Word of God. I can do so according to the state of my soul. If the Word of God is abiding in me, the world and everything beside will be judged by it.