My thoughts prior to teaching on 1 John 2:18-29 in Sunday School April 15th, 2012.
Children, it is the last hour, and as you have heard that antichrist is coming, so now many antichrists have come. Therefore we know that it is the last hour. They 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 it might become plain that they all are not of us. But you have been anointed by the Holy One, and you all have knowledge. I write to you, not because you do not know the truth, but because you know it, and because no lie is of the truth. Who is the liar but he who denies that Jesus is the Christ? This is the antichrist, he who denies the Father and the Son. No one who denies the Son has the Father. Whoever confesses the Son has the Father also. Let what you heard from the beginning abide in you. If what you heard from the beginning abides in you, then you too will abide in the Son and in the Father. And this is the promise that he made to us — eternal life.
I write these things to you about those who are trying to deceive you. But the anointing that you received from him abides in you, and you have no need that anyone should teach you. But as his anointing teaches you about everything, and is true, and is no lie—just as it has taught you, abide in him.
And now, little children, abide in him, so that when he appears we may have confidence and not shrink from him in shame at his coming. If you know that he is righteous, you may be sure that everyone who practices righteousness has been born of him.
(1 John 2:18-29 ESV)
Is truth important?
John writes so that we may know the truth, and in knowing the truth, have assurance of our salvation. He has presented two tests already, the moral test in 1 John 2:3-6, the test of obedience, and the social test in 2:7-11, the test of love. Here he presents the third test in 2:17-23, the test of doctrine. It’s interesting to note that if we fail the first two, we are ‘a liar‘, but if we fail the last, we are ‘the liar‘. In any case, the truth is not in us.
If so, what are the lies? Who are the liars?
In this section, John seems to be speaking about the Gnostics, a group of philosophers and religious leaders who believed that Jesus was a prophet, a teacher, and was divine for a portion of his life, but was not the incarnation of God. His divinity was granted to him at his baptism, and left prior to his death on the cross, so he was born and died as a man, completely human, not God. They “pirated Christian motifs to propagate an understanding of salvation based on esoteric “knowledge” (Gk. gnōsis). According to this view, redemption is through affirming the divine light already in the human soul, not through repentance of sin and faith in Christ’s death to bring about spiritual rebirth. ” (Introduction to 1 John, ESV study notes)
They had been a part of the church, but had gone out and began spreading this different story.
They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us. (2:19 ESV)
Almost as an aside, in this one statement, John touches on a couple of pretty strategic doctrines in this section, the nature of the church (“They went out from us, but they were not of us”) and perseverance of the saints (“if they had been of us they would have continued with us”). They were a part of the local church, although not true believers. Not every professing member of the local church is a true believer. Shocking, but true. If they were a true believer, they would have persevered, because that’s what true believers do. We’re not true believers because we persevere, but we persevere because we are true believers.
The lie these people were telling was the denial of Jesus as God, and as a result the denial of God. If Jesus was God, is God, then denying Him is denying God. Today this is seen in the movement that says Christians, Jews and Muslims all worship the same God, which cannot be true if two of the three deny the triune aspect of God, and Jesus’ divinity.
“No one who denies the Son has the Father” (2:23a ESV)
What is the truth?
The truth of the matter is this: Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God. John R W Stott had this to say: “The fundamental doctrinal test of the professing Christian concerns his view of the person of Jesus”.
“Whoever confesses the Son has the Father also.” (2:23b ESV)
So everyone who acknowledges me before men, I also will acknowledge before my Father who is in heaven, but whoever denies me before men, I also will deny before my Father who is in heaven.
(Matthew 10:32-33 ESV)
Nevertheless, many even of the authorities believed in him, but for fear of the Pharisees they did not confess it, so that they would not be put out of the synagogue; for they loved the glory that comes from man more than the glory that comes from God.
(John 12:42-43 ESV)
because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved.
(Romans 10:9-10 ESV)
Only the Son can reveal the Father to us:
All things have been handed over to me by my Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.
(Matthew 11:27 ESV)
No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father’s side, he has made him known.
(John 1:18 ESV)
And Jesus cried out and said, “Whoever believes in me, believes not in me but in him who sent me. And whoever sees me sees him who sent me.
(John 12:44-45 ESV)
Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you so long, and you still do not know me, Philip? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’?
(John 14:9 ESV)
and only the Son can represent and reconcile us to the Father:
My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world.
(1 John 2:1-2 ESV)
Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
(John 14:6 ESV)
For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all, which is the testimony given at the proper time.
(1 Timothy 2:5-6 ESV)
What protections do we have against heresy?
We have the teachings we have heard from the beginning, both from God’s Word as we’ve learned under the teaching of others, and from the anointing of the Holy Spirit. We continue in the truth as we continue to abide in Christ, study God’s Word, and fellowship with the body of Christ on earth.
