I am a young man. I mean this in the physical and the spiritual sense. I have been a child (perhaps even recently, in the spiritual sense) and I am now a young man in the Lord. The status I can safely say I have not yet reached in this list of characters is that of father.
John says, “I write to you dads because you've known Him from the beginning.” This implies an intensely mature relationship, with a depth that can only be acquired over time. It comes with age, a long life of walking with Christ and living in the reality of His grace. And while I have not lived long enough to say this of myself, I have witnessed it in others around me and am grateful for their influence in my life. They are my mentors, my seniors, my local church elders and deacons; those who are ahead of me in years and Christ is evident – nay, prevalent – in their lives.
I can't help but think of Joshua, who sat in his childhood with the great leader Moses. He was the elder's shadow, so to speak, learning from him through experience. As a young man, he ran missions for Moses, entering Canaan as a spy, leading armies into battle, even holding up the aging Moses' arms when they were tired. As a young man, he stood beside the elder, still learning but active in applying what he'd learned, contributing under leadership. The time came then, eventually, when he took up the mantel of father, or elder. He became the leader of the people, and the Lord was with him; he was wise and good, because he had been raised and nurtured in the Lord by a man of God, a father who knew Him from the beginning.
Much like Joshua (though I am half the man he was), I have been blessed with a host of great leaders around me. Fathers who have known Him from the beginning. I look at my family alone and am overwhelmed at the Christian heritage there. My great-great grandfather was a missionary doctor to Argentina, a legendary messenger of Christ. My grandfather and father are both elders in their church fellowships, and regarded as men of wisdom. My brother (though he may argue he is still a young man), has carried on the torch as an unshakable man of the Word and a leader in his community. In all of these men, I see not only leaders in the community but, to use John's term literally, amazing dads to their children, raising them as Moses raised Joshua to carry on the legacy. Aside from family, I see the leadership of my local church, as well as other mentors around the world (some living, some long-since past), to whom I can look and learn from and grow and contribute , just as Joshua did under Moses' leadership.
But this is a charge to the fathers, that you carry on strong in your walk with the Lord. That you allow Him whom you've known so long to be manifest in your life, in ways that the children and young men may see and recognize. Then again, if this isn't the case in your life, perhaps you're not a father after all, according to John.