Introduction The great theme of this little epistle is fellowship. John gives us three broad tests to determine whether or not we are in genuine fellowship with the Lord and with each other. We looked at the tests of obedience (1:5-2:6) and the test of love (see 2:7-17) and now the test of truth (2:18-29). How does God reveal Himself? Through His word which is truth (John 17:17). God reveals Himself by His Spirit and by His Son. John wants us to know that we cannot believe lies about God and the Lord Jesus Christ and remain in fellowship with God. Now John warns about antichrists (v.18). John reveals the antichrists origins (v.19); John tells us how to recognize them: (1) they have left the fellowship of the truth (v.19) and (2) they deny that Jesus Christ is the Son of God come in the flesh (v.22) and (3) they try to seduce believers (v.26). In broad terms this section will deal with those who deny the Christ (vv.18; 22-23); those who desert the church (or depart from fellowship v.19); and those who deceive the true Christian (little children v.18; v.26). We need an anointing from the Holy One who will instruct us in the truth. The Spirit of God uses the Word of God to teach us truth. In the most basic and plain language available the Christian who desires to have fellowship with God and Christ and the saints must obey the Word, love God s people and believe the truth! The Arrival Of The Antichrists (v.18) 1 John 2:18 (NKJV)18Little children, it is the last hour; and as you have heard that the Antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have come, by which we know that it is the last hour. John s message is to little children the true believer. Scholars believe this little epistle began life as a letter to the Christ followers in and around Ephesus. Paul had taught there for at least three years and warned the Ephesian elders; I know full well that false teachers, like vicious wolves, will come in among you after I leave, not sparing the flock. Even some of you will distort the truth in order to draw a following. Watch out! Remember the three years I was with you my constant watch and care over you night and day, and my many tears for you (Acts 20:29-31 NLT). Paul s prediction came true! And both Paul and now John knew it was necessary to be able to recognize the false teacher and discern the false teaching! Paul labored and gave the Christians at Ephesus good teaching. The term; the last hour is used only here. Some have suggested it refers to the last days or the end times. When did the last hour begin? It would appear that it began with the resurrection of the Lord Jesus and will end with the second coming of Christ. The early church believed the end of all things is near (1 Peter 4:7 NIV). The darkness is past, and the true light now shines (1 John 2:8). All of human history was a prelude to this time. 1
John makes reference to the antichrist who is coming and antichrists who have come. The term antichrist is used exclusively by John (1 John 2:18; 22; 4:3; 2 John 1:27). The word describes three things: (1) a spirit in the world that opposes or denies Christ. (2) the false teachers who embody this spirit. (3) a person who will head up the final rebellion against Christ. The spirit of antichrist has been in the world (1John 4:3) since Satan declared war on God in Genesis 3. The spirit of antichrist is behind every false doctrine and every religious substitute that seeks to undermine and displace Christ and the gospel of grace. The prefix anti has a dual meaning in the Greek language it can mean against and instead of. Therefore it can mean against christ or instead of christ. Satan in his frenzy is fighting Jesus and His eternal truth and Satan is substituting his counterfeits for the realities that can only be found in the Lord Jesus Christ. John mentions the future coming of the Antichrist. The present false teachers are simply sneak previews of the coming man of sin and the son of perdition. Where did the readers of John hear about the coming man of sin? It would appear they heard this teaching from the apostles. Paul wrote about this in 2 Thessalonians 2:3-10. Paul calls him the man of lawlessness (2 Thess. 2:3); the son of perdition (2Thess.2:3) and the wicked one (2 Thess.2:8). Daniel called him the little horn (Dan.7:8) and the willful king (Dan.11:36); and John calls him the beast (Rev. 11:7). This future leader will attempt to destroy Israel (Rev.12) and will destroy the false religious systems so that he can rule unhindered (Rev.17). He will be utterly crushed by Jesus (Rev.19) and will be the first creature thrown into the lake of fire (Rev.19:20). We do not look for the antichrist but rather Jesus Christ. Jesus warned about false teachers and false christ (Matt.24:24). Jesus said they would come in sheep s clothing but were inwardly ravenous wolves (Matt. 7:15). The New Testament is filled with warnings about people who practiced sexual immorality (1 Cor.5:1); false teachers (Gal. 1:6-9); enemies of Christ (Phil.3:18-19). In the church at Colosse there were heresies of rationalism, ceremonialism, occultism, and asceticism (Col.2). The false teachers had grown in numbers and influence. In this last hour these false teachers who pretend to be Christ followers seduce the weak and the gullible. We should not fear them and we must be grounded in God s Word. The Bible teaches us the truth and warns us about deception. And so we must teach the Bible simply, carefully, faithfully. False teachers have been with us since the beginning of the Church. The false teachers deny that Jesus is Christ (v.22); that Jesus is God s Son (v.23) and that Jesus was God incarnate in human flesh (4:2; 2 John 7). They are liars and deceivers (Matt. 24:24). 2
Since Satan opposes Jesus and the truth it makes perfect sense that Satan s servants corrupt, distort and deny the true nature of Jesus, the true mission of Jesus and the true gospel. The Apostle s Of The Antichrist (v.19) 19They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us; but they went out that they might be made manifest, that none of them were of us. This is John s first statement about those who had left the church (see Life Application Bible Commentary 1,2,3 John; p. 49). Paul told Timothy about those who would depart from the faith (1 Tim.4:1) and those who would have a form of godliness (2 Tim. 3:5) as well as Demas the forsaker (2 Tim. 4:10). It would appear that Paul was right many of the false prophets, false teachers, antichrists, began life in fellowship with the saints. Remember Acts 20:29? For I know this, that after my departure savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock. (30) Also from among yourselves men will rise up, speaking perverse things, to draw away the disciples after themselves. The antichrists come from within the church. Their target disciples. Apostasy can come from the outside and the inside. These false teachers were not total strangers, they went out from us. It would appear that some knew John and were a part of the church fellowship. These people left the church and became promoters of false teaching about Jesus. When their teaching was rejected by the leaders of the church they left. John explains for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us. They were never really part of the fellowship. The verse reminds us that Christians remain in fellowship and persevere in faith. What happens to those who abandon their allegiance to Christ and Biblical Christianity? John argues they never really belonged in the first place. Some hear the truth even taste the truth but never accepted the truth in their hearts and allowed the truth to reign supreme in their lives! When persecution comes, when suffering comes, when doubt comes, they exit the faith. Apostates abandon the church or infect the church so that apostasy is welcome and comfortable. People who share John s views and John s heart and John s teaching rely on God s Spirit and God s Word. The person who rejects church and Christian fellowship is suspect. The person who says I can worship God on the golf course is not really worshipping Jesus but the green. Some Christians desert the church physically and some abandon the church morally. Some decide to stay in the church and drink and drug. But sometimes people abandon Christ intellectually. They profess to know Christ and embrace the fundamentals or essentials of the 3
faith and later deny those essentials! They go to Christian churches or Christian fellowship but they deny the doctrines that make Christianity distinctive. Some of these people become leaders and others even become pastors. But they deny the authority or inerrancy or sufficiency of the Scriptures. They debate the essentials and then weaken them or abandon them. True believers remain loyal in heart ache and head ache and persecution. The truth will come out. Perhaps on the day the apostate or the make believer leaves the church. But sometimes the truth will only come on the Day of Judgment. The Apostasy Of Antichrist s (vv.20-23) 20But you have an anointing from the Holy One, and you know all things. John warns about antichrists and now offers protections. And what are those protections? We have the Savior s anointing (v.20) and we have the truth (v.21). The word anointing is the Greek verb chrisma. It is a reference to the religious ritual of pouring oil on a person s head. Oil was used to consecrate kings or servants for service (1 Sam.16:1,13). The oil was a type or symbol of the Holy Spirit. The translation is based on reading panta (neut. pl. accus.) found in many manuscripts. In two fourth century manuscripts it is pantes (nom.pl. masc.) which would make the passage read You all know (NASB; NIV). If that s the case it would mean you know the truth (v.21). It is clearly not true that any given Christian knows all things but if the all things translation is correct in must mean all things necessary to salvation (see v.27). It is probably best to translate the verse you all know (see Ralph Earle Word Meanings in the New Testament p. 451). What is this anointing from the Holy One? The Holy Spirit who teaches us truth by the Word of God. The unction for service was a selective gift (kings, prophets etc). The unction for knowing right from wrong, good from evil, truth from error is a general privilege and belongs to all who are in the Body of Christ. In John s day false teachers would use two words to describe their experiences with God; knowledge (gnosis) and unction (anointing). They claimed to have a special anointing from God which gave them unique or exclusive knowledge. They claimed a special connection to God and that they were living on a higher level than everyone around them. But John points out you have an anointing from the Holy One all true Christians know God and have received the Spirit of God. And because they have believed the truth they can recognize the lie. John is saying that true Christians can understand the truth and God s Holy Spirit is capable of imparting discernment. 4
William Tyndale wrote Ye are not anointed with oil in your bodies, but with the Spirit of Christ in your souls: which Spirit teacheth you all truth in Christ, and taketh you to judge what is a lie, and what truth, and to know Christ from antichrist. All lies are bad. But some lies do greater damage than others. The biggest lie is to deny the true identity of Jesus and nature of Jesus and work of Jesus. In John s gospel we are told (John 14:26) But the Comforter, which is the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you. John contrasts light and darkness (1:5); the new command and the old (2:7-8); loving the Father and loving the world (2:15-16); Christ and antichrist (2:18); truth and lies (vv.20-21). 21I have not written to you because you do not know the truth, but because you know it, and that no lie is of the truth. What is John saying? Those who are anointed by the Holy Spirit (v.20) know the truth about the Father and the Son but can also discern when people misrepresent the Father or the Son. John knows the standard of truth is found in God s nature and God s Son and God s Spirit and God s Word. The false teachers insisted the Saints needed instruction not found in God s Word or God s Son! The false teachers were telling lies. The believers were grounded in the truth and could recognize when something wasn t true! No lie is of the truth!! The believers refused to follow the false teachers! I think it was Oliver Wendall Holmes who said, Sin has many tools, but a lie is the handle which fits them all. Years ago Clinton aide George Stephanopolous on Larry King Live let this slip; The President has kept all of the promises he intended to keep. 22Who is a liar but he who denies that Jesus is the Christ? He is antichrist who denies the Father and the Son. Liar is a strong word. Augustine wrote; A lie consists in speaking a falsehood with the intention of deceiving. The great truth of the Bible of God s revelation is that Jesus is the Christ. Jesus is Son of God. Mormons believe that Jesus is the Christ but he is also the spirit brother of Lucifer. The followers of Charles Taze Russell and the Watchtower and Tract Society believe Jesus is the Christ but He is also the archangel Michael. Cult groups gravitate by denying the humanity of 5
Jesus or the divinity of Jesus. Everything the Bible teaches about Jesus is true. Calvin is insightful here; I readily agree with the ancients, who thought that Cerinthus and Carpocrates are here referred to. But the denial of Christ extends much further; for it is not enough to confess in one word that Jesus is the Christ, but he must be acknowledged to be such as the Father offers him with the name of God but despoiled him of his eternal divinity. Marcion dreamed he was a mere phantom. Sabellius imagined that he differed in nothing from the Father (the same as modern Oneness Pentecostals i.e. TD Jakes etc). All these denied the Son of God, for none of them really acknowledged the whole Christ but adulterated the truth about him so far as they were able and made for themselves and idol instead of Christ. 23Whoever denies the Son does not have the Father either; he who acknowledges the Son has the Father also. Major religions might claim some divine status for Jesus. Islam declares Jesus a prophet but not the literal Son of God. In Islam God has no Son. The Jehovah s Witness claims special relationship with Jehovah but has neither the Father or the Son. You cannot be wrong about Jesus and have a right relationship and fellowship with the Father. Jesus Christ is denied when ever you remove any element of truth about His nature, His mission, or His message. To confess Jesus is to confess Jesus as He is found in the Bible in the Scriptures. To deny Jesus is to embrace the false teachings of a diminished deity or distortion of His humanity. You cannot reject the Son and know the Father since the Father is only known by the Son (see Matt. 11:27; John 14:6-9). When any person claims to know God while denying Christ contradicts all that the Father, the Son, the Spirit and the Bible teaches. You cannot have special knowledge about God while denying Christ s deity or humanity. John teaches that the Father can only be known through the Son. Denying Jesus means denying God. Affirming Jesus means affirming God. Confessing Jesus is confessing God. Do you remember the pained question of Philip in John 14:8; Lord, show us the Father and we will be satisfied. Philip thought that the Father was another person who could walk into the room. The Father is invisible. The Son is visible the Son is the express image of the invisible God (2 Cor. 4:4; Col. 1:15). Jesus told Philip Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. So why are you asking to see Him? Don t you believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words I say are not my own, but my Father who lives in me does his work through me. Just believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me (John 14:9-11). Conclusion There is true life and false life. The false teaching and false teachers are not simply people who are mistaken. A nurse in a Denver hospital gave a drip solution to a patient she thought was correct. The patient died. A man in a house heard a noise in the kitchen and decided a burglar 6
was trying to rob him. He got his gun and shot the intruder. The intruder turned out to be his daughter unable to sleep trying to get a late night snack. Both the nurse and the man sincerely believed they were right. But they were wrong. How do we judge truth? By the Spirit of Truth. The philosopher George Santayana wrote; Man has an inexhaustible faculty for lying, especially to himself. Be bold in what you stand for, but careful in what you fall for. Now you know about antichrists, and antichrist. Something cannot be both true and false in the same way at the same time. 7