Studies Through 1John - Lesson 8
1John 2:18-27
Dear children, this is the last hour; and as you have heard that the antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have come. This is how we know it is the last hour. 19 They went out from us, but they did not really belong to us. For if they had belonged to us, they would have remained with us; but their going showed that none of them belonged to us.
20 But you have an anointing from the Holy One, and all of you know the truth. 21 I do not write to you because you do not know the truth, but because you do know it and because no lie comes from the truth. 22 Who is the liar? It is whoever denies that Jesus is the Christ. Such a person is the antichrist—denying the Father and the Son. 23 No one who denies the Son has the Father; whoever acknowledges the Son has the Father also.
24 As for you, see that what you have heard from the beginning remains in you. If it does, you also will remain in the Son and in the Father. 25 And this is what he promised us—eternal life.
26 I am writing these things to you about those who are trying to lead you astray. 27 As for you, the anointing you received from him remains in you, and you do not need anyone to teach you. But as his anointing teaches you about all things and as that anointing is real, not counterfeit—just as it has taught you, remain in him.
In this passage we get a good glimpse of John's purpose for writing this letter. It appears that a false teacher came in and taught church members a false view of Jesus and a number of them believed and not only left the body but disassociated with them. John is comforting and encouraging the believers that this was not unexpected as Jesus and the apostles have predicted that false teachers would come to try to deceive them because Satan, though defeated was not going to just give up. The church had heard about the antichrist from Daniel 7,8,11 and also from Paul's letters written approximately 35-40 years earlier and certainly circulating to these churches. Now John is introducing them to a new use of that term meaning everyone that either is opposed to Christ or introduces a false, distorted Christ.
Today we have the spirit of the antichrist all around us. First of all people are very opposed to Jesus in general. You can thank God all you want in public and even pray to Him but when you mention the name of Jesus it is a lightening rod. Suddenly people know which God you are thanking and which God you are praying to and it is the God that says bow your knee to me alone and that is intolerable to the world. No wonder so many Christian music artists don't mention the name Jesus because their music could not garner the secular acceptance that many of these artists desire either for noble or ignoble purposes. Most animosity to Jesus is just verbal and hate but some is actually violent and deadly as seen in other parts of the world. We even saw this in the early years of Saul of Tarsus who went from city to city trying to get people to blaspheme - say Jesus is God - so he could arrest them and kill them. Nothing is new in Satan's schemes.
Not only do people despise the name of Jesus but they desire to portray a different Jesus that is no Jesus at all. I remember a young man I mentored who in retrospect was never really "with us" although during his radical Jesus years you never would have guessed it. He went to a liberal "Christian" college because he got the presidential scholarship granting him 4 years free ride, and when I saw him again I asked him, "Do you still feel Jesus is the only way to Heaven?" His answer confounded me - he said, "Depends what you mean by Jesus." I know to him that was profound but to me it made no sense. Now as I reread 1John it does; this is the spirit of the antichrist. Jesus now can be a mythlological character, a spirit being, a prophet, a teacher, a good man, a huckster, an angel, a benevolent god who could never punish anyone, one of many gods, brother of Lucifer, Michael the archangel or any host of false Christs. It DOES matter which Jesus you believe in because only one is the Way. The below video may not be in the best taste but it is a comedic clip that illustrates the point well. Watch at your own discretion
The other reason for John writing 1st John is to give them assurance of salvation. In review we had talked about internal evidence and external evidences and we can add to the list in this passage
Internal evidences
1. Inner confidence
2. Conviction of sin
3. conviction of righteousness
4. Bible starting to make sense
5. Putting Jesus ahead of yourself
6. Craving God
7. Desiring fellowship
8. Desiring worship
* 9. Discerning real and counterfeit doctrines
*10. Doctrinally believing the truth about Jesus
External evidences
1. Love
2. Growth
*3. Enduring till the end
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