The evil one (4190)(ho poneros) - see above. Again a reference to Satan.
Barclay on overcoming the Evil One - There is the gift of victorious strength. John looks on the struggle with temptation as a personal struggle (James 1:13-15-note). He does not speak in the abstract of conquering evil; he speaks of conquering the Evil One. He sees evil as a personal power which seeks to seduce us from God. Once Robert Louis Stevenson, speaking of an experience which he never told in detail, said, "You know the Caledonian Railway Station in Edinburgh? Once I met Satan there." There can be none of us who has not experienced the attack of the tempter (cp Mt 4:3, 1Th 3:5), the personal assault on our virtue and on our loyalty (Ed: Now it is doubtful that any of us have ever personally been confronted by Satan himself, for he is finite, not omnipresent, but his minions are continually attacking us with fiery missiles, etc). It is in Christ we receive the power (dunamis) to meet and to defeat this attack. To take a very simple human analogy we all know that there are some people in whose presence it is easy to be bad and some in whose presence it is necessary to be good. When we walk with Jesus, we are walking with Him whose company (and Whose indwelling Spirit) can enable us to defeat the assaults of the Evil One. (1 John 2 - Daily Study Bible)
I Howard Marshall sums up the significance of 1Jn 2:12-14 - It is good for Christians to be reminded in this way of their spiritual standing. Too often we have to hedge such declarations with conditions: “We can be sure we know him—if we obey his commands” (1Jn 2:3-note). Of course this is necessary to avoid complacency and moral laxity. But it is possible to make Christian salvation into a very precarious possession that needs to be re-possessed every moment; such a faith lacks self-confidence. It is good to remember that in the last analysis our salvation depends on the promise and power of God, so that we can boldly declare that we have peace with God and that we know whom we have believed. John’s statements here are meant to awaken such confidence among his readers (cf. 1Jn 5:13), but the importance of Christian assurance is one of the notes in this Epistle which has aroused surprisingly little echo among expositors. Nor should we be reticent in expressing the joy that comes from this knowledge: "Let those refuse to sing, Who never knew our God; But servants of the heavenly King, May speak their joys abroad." (Isaac Watts) (The Epistles of John (The New International Commentary on the New Testament) (Bolding Added)
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Greek Word Studies ( - )
Read freely Greek Word Studies from the Austin Precept text commentary of the Bible in text and pdf format. Precept Austin is an online free dynamic bible commentary similar to wikipedia with updated content and many links to excellent biblical resources around the world. You can browse the entire collection of Commentaries by Verse on the Precept Austin website.We have been "bought with a price" to be "ambassadors for Christ" and our "salvation is nearer to us than when we believed" so let us "cleanse ourselves from all defilement of flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God" "so that when He appears, we may have confidence and not shrink away from Him in shame at His coming." (1Cor 6:20, 2Cor 5:20, Ro 13:11, 2Cor 7:1, 1Jn 2:28)