1Jo 2:22-23 | KingComments | STEP | . After John has addressed the fathers and the young men, he now addresses the children or babies in faith. He ensures them that they live in the last hour. Of course that applies to all other believers, including himself. We all know that we live in the last hour. Nevertheless, the babies in faith are especially addressed because they in particular form a prey to the dangers that characterize this “last hour”. Actually the last hour is characterized by the coming of “many antichrists”. You also come across expressions that are similar to the expression ‘the last hour’, such as ‘later times’ ( ) and ‘the last days’ ( ). In ‘the last days’ spirits will appear in professing Christianity that are of a more serious nature than the things of ‘later times’. The situation that is described here by John is even more serious, for it is about the antichrist here. In him you see the exaltation of man that takes the place of Christ. The meaning of the word ‘antichrist’ is twofold. It means both ‘against Christ’ and ‘instead of Christ’. Both characteristics appear in 2 Thessalonians 2 ( ). There Paul speaks about the antichrist as the man of sin who exalts himself ‘against’ God and who displays himself ‘as being’ God, thus who takes the place of God. The antichrist has not come yet, he still is to come, but he, as a matter of fact, has his heralds and trailblazers. These are the antichrist s and they are many. As already said, the danger of antichrists is the greatest for the children. Antichrists are persons who bring false teachings about the Father and the Son. The antichrists for instance may possibly say sensitive things about the Lord Jesus, but they deny Him as the Son of God. False teachings about Christ are more easily accepted by new converts than by fathers in Christ, the matured believers to whom Christ is everything they need. . In the days of John the antichrists went out from the midst of the believers. That also caused the ‘children’ to be confused. They formerly had those teachers in their midst and had accepted their ministry. Now all of a sudden they were not there anymore. But John eases them. Their going out reveals that none of those false teachers belonged to the company of believers. They were deceivers who did not care at all about the children, but on the contrary they tried to catch them. They certainly did not belong to the children of God. If that were the case they would have remained. John uses this simple reasoning to make clear that they were wrong people. You might wonder about that in relation to the times in which we live. The antichrists do not go out anymore, but establish themselves in professing Christianity. The antichrists do not go out anymore because of the confusion in professing Christianity. The Christians are no longer a unity and they have not collectively resisted against the false doctrines anymore for a long time already. At the time I am writing this, it is allowed (here in the Netherlands) that a reverend of the protestant church of the Netherlands, can even deny God in his teachings, and can still keep his position as a reverend. Nonetheless nothing changes the fact that such people are not from us from the beginning and do not belong in the Christian fellowship of the family of God. . As a young believer you may possibly meet all kinds of teachings. What is true and what not? What should you believe and what not? It often happens that a false teaching is brought in a pleasant way and by eloquent people. Still, I sometimes hear from the young believers: ‘I don’t know what it is, but it doesn’t ‘feel’ right’. That is the work of the Holy Spirit. As a young believer you may actually be a favorite target of satan to deceive you in your faith, but through your conversion to God and your faith in the Lord Jesus you have “an anointing from the Holy One”, due to which you know all things. With ‘the anointing from the Holy One’ is meant that you have received the Holy Spirit, He is ‘the anointing’. He is given to you by the Lord Jesus, He is ‘the Holy One’, when you came to faith in Him ( ; ). The word ‘anointing’ implies that you have been enabled to discern whether something comes from God or from His enemy. The Lord Jesus is called here ‘the Holy One’. That emphasizes the contrast to the unholy teachings that inevitably lead to unholy practices. In the Holy Spirit the Lord Jesus has given you a resource to recognize the lie. The lie is everything that goes against God’s Word, which is the truth. What is contrary to the Word of God, you can reject immediately. The Holy Spirit uses only the Word of God in order to teach you about the Father and the Son. In the light of the Bible you can reject all talks as lies from people who draw from other resources and who want you to believe that they can give you a deeper insight in Christ. . John does not write this because you do not know the truth. He confirms that you know the truth. You also know that there is no lie of the truth. It is not possible to mix lie with truth. But that is just the way the deceivers want to exert their influence on you. They will never come up with a plain lie, but they wrap the lie in truths. A person who says many true things and also a little bit of lie is not of the truth. His source is the lie and what he says comes from the devil, the father of the lie ( ). All good things are used by the devil to cover the lie and thus gain access to the children of God. The truth is what you have in the Scriptures. Everything outside of it is lie. It is good to consider that believers may differ in insight in the truth. But that is an entirely different matter than what is at issue here. Here the point is the contrast between lie and truth. You are not to accuse a person for telling a lie if he thinks differently than you about a certain truth, nor is the other person allowed to do that with you. . “The liar”, that is he who uses the lie, can be recognized by a twofold denial. It is someone 1. “who denies that Jesus is the Christ” and 2. “who denies the Father and the Son”. The liar is the antichrist, the top instrument of satan in whom his deceitfulness is fully revealed. The spearhead of his denial is the Lord Jesus. First you read that he denies ‘that Jesus is the Christ’. That means that he denies that the Man Jesus is the same as the Christ of God. ‘Christ’ means the same as ‘Messiah’. As Christ or Messiah His relation to the Jewish people is in the forefront. Then you read that he ‘denies the Father and the Son’. That means that he denies that there is a relationship of perfect unity in the Godhead between the Father and the Son. This relationship is the core of the Christian faith . Jesus the Christ is the Son of the Father. . The Father and the Son are inseparable from each other. Therefore, whoever denies the Son, neither has the Father. If you confess the Son, His Father is also your Father. The Son reveals the Father. There is no revelation of the Father outside the Son. The only way to know the Father is through the Son ( ); only through the Son you can see the Father ( ); honoring the Son is the only way to honor the Father ( ). You see that it is all about the Son. The many talks about ‘God’ in professing Christianity is deceptive, because it often happens without any thought about the Son. Speaking about ‘God’ also bridges the distance between Christendom and Judaism and islam. Orthodox Judaism and islam deny the essential truth of Christendom and are in the fullest sense antichristian. The rapprochement between the religions doesn’t change Judaism and islam, but it erodes Christendom by taking the core out of it. The big question to test the truth of a statement still remains: “What do you think about the Christ?” ( ). . John presented the liar in his activity. It is important for you as a young believer, a child in Christ, to watch out for that liar. You must not let yourself be confused by the deceitful way in which he tries to present the truth to you. The simple protection for that, is that you let that which you have heard from the beginning abide in you. If you do that you will also abide in the Son and in the Father. You are referred back to the beginning. What did you hear about the truth back then? Then you heard about Him Who is from the beginning, the Word of life that was with the Father and which was manifested ( ). When you accepted what you have heard from Him from God’s Word, you received Him as your life. He is in you now, He abides in you. Because that is a fact you abide in the Son and in the Father. That implies that you live in fellowship with the Son and the Father. Be aware of that and don’t let yourself be robbed from that enjoyment by false teachers who want to tell you that it can all be more beautiful. Now read 1 John 2:18-24 again. Reflection: What is John warning you of and how does he encourage you?

‏ 1 John 2:22-23

Characteristics of the Last Hour

1Jn 2:18. After John has addressed the fathers and the young men, he now addresses the children or babies in faith. He ensures them that they live in the last hour. Of course that applies to all other believers, including himself. We all know that we live in the last hour. Nevertheless, the babies in faith are especially addressed because they in particular form a prey to the dangers that characterize this “last hour”. Actually the last hour is characterized by the coming of “many antichrists”.

You also come across expressions that are similar to the expression ‘the last hour’, such as ‘later times’ (1Tim 4:1) and ‘the last days’ (2Tim 3:1). In ‘the last days’ spirits will appear in professing Christianity that are of a more serious nature than the things of ‘later times’. The situation that is described here by John is even more serious, for it is about the antichrist here. In him you see the exaltation of man that takes the place of Christ.

The meaning of the word ‘antichrist’ is twofold. It means both ‘against Christ’ and ‘instead of Christ’. Both characteristics appear in 2 Thessalonians 2 (2Thes 2:4). There Paul speaks about the antichrist as the man of sin who exalts himself ‘against’ God and who displays himself ‘as being’ God, thus who takes the place of God.

The antichrist has not come yet, he still is to come, but he, as a matter of fact, has his heralds and trailblazers. These are the antichrists and they are many. As already said, the danger of antichrists is the greatest for the children. Antichrists are persons who bring false teachings about the Father and the Son. The antichrists for instance may possibly say sensitive things about the Lord Jesus, but they deny Him as the Son of God. False teachings about Christ are more easily accepted by new converts than by fathers in Christ, the matured believers to whom Christ is everything they need.

1Jn 2:19. In the days of John the antichrists went out from the midst of the believers. That also caused the ‘children’ to be confused. They formerly had those teachers in their midst and had accepted their ministry. Now all of a sudden they were not there anymore. But John eases them. Their going out reveals that none of those false teachers belonged to the company of believers. They were deceivers who did not care at all about the children, but on the contrary they tried to catch them. They certainly did not belong to the children of God. If that were the case they would have remained. John uses this simple reasoning to make clear that they were wrong people.

You might wonder about that in relation to the times in which we live. The antichrists do not go out anymore, but establish themselves in professing Christianity. The antichrists do not go out anymore because of the confusion in professing Christianity. The Christians are no longer a unity and they have not collectively resisted against the false doctrines anymore for a long time already. At the time I am writing this, it is allowed (here in the Netherlands) that a reverend of the protestant church of the Netherlands, can even deny God in his teachings, and can still keep his position as a reverend. Nonetheless nothing changes the fact that such people are not from us from the beginning and do not belong in the Christian fellowship of the family of God.

1Jn 2:20. As a young believer you may possibly meet all kinds of teachings. What is true and what not? What should you believe and what not? It often happens that a false teaching is brought in a pleasant way and by eloquent people. Still, I sometimes hear from the young believers: ‘I don’t know what it is, but it doesn’t ‘feel’ right’. That is the work of the Holy Spirit. As a young believer you may actually be a favorite target of satan to deceive you in your faith, but through your conversion to God and your faith in the Lord Jesus you have “an anointing from the Holy One”, due to which you know all things.

With ‘the anointing from the Holy One’ is meant that you have received the Holy Spirit, He is ‘the anointing’. He is given to you by the Lord Jesus, He is ‘the Holy One’, when you came to faith in Him (Eph 1:13; Jn 14:26). The word ‘anointing’ implies that you have been enabled to discern whether something comes from God or from His enemy.

The Lord Jesus is called here ‘the Holy One’. That emphasizes the contrast to the unholy teachings that inevitably lead to unholy practices. In the Holy Spirit the Lord Jesus has given you a resource to recognize the lie. The lie is everything that goes against God’s Word, which is the truth. What is contrary to the Word of God, you can reject immediately. The Holy Spirit uses only the Word of God in order to teach you about the Father and the Son. In the light of the Bible you can reject all talks as lies from people who draw from other resources and who want you to believe that they can give you a deeper insight in Christ.

1Jn 2:21. John does not write this because you do not know the truth. He confirms that you know the truth. You also know that there is no lie of the truth. It is not possible to mix lie with truth. But that is just the way the deceivers want to exert their influence on you. They will never come up with a plain lie, but they wrap the lie in truths. A person who says many true things and also a little bit of lie is not of the truth. His source is the lie and what he says comes from the devil, the father of the lie (Jn 8:44b). All good things are used by the devil to cover the lie and thus gain access to the children of God.

The truth is what you have in the Scriptures. Everything outside of it is lie. It is good to consider that believers may differ in insight in the truth. But that is an entirely different matter than what is at issue here. Here the point is the contrast between lie and truth. You are not to accuse a person for telling a lie if he thinks differently than you about a certain truth, nor is the other person allowed to do that with you.

1Jn 2:22. “The liar”, that is he who uses the lie, can be recognized by a twofold denial. It is someone

1. “who denies that Jesus is the Christ” and

2. “who denies the Father and the Son”.

The liar is the antichrist, the top instrument of satan in whom his deceitfulness is fully revealed. The spearhead of his denial is the Lord Jesus.

First you read that he denies ‘that Jesus is the Christ’. That means that he denies that the Man Jesus is the same as the Christ of God. ‘Christ’ means the same as ‘Messiah’. As Christ or Messiah His relation to the Jewish people is in the forefront.

Then you read that he ‘denies the Father and the Son’. That means that he denies that there is a relationship of perfect unity in the Godhead between the Father and the Son. This relationship is the core of the Christian faith. Jesus the Christ is the Son of the Father.

1Jn 2:23. The Father and the Son are inseparable from each other. Therefore, whoever denies the Son, neither has the Father. If you confess the Son, His Father is also your Father. The Son reveals the Father. There is no revelation of the Father outside the Son. The only way to know the Father is through the Son (Jn 8:19 ; Jn 14:7); only through the Son you can see the Father (Jn 14:9); honoring the Son is the only way to honor the Father (Jn 5:23). You see that it is all about the Son. The many talks about ‘God’ in professing Christianity is deceptive, because it often happens without any thought about the Son.

Speaking about ‘God’ also bridges the distance between Christendom and Judaism and islam. Orthodox Judaism and islam deny the essential truth of Christendom and are in the fullest sense antichristian. The rapprochement between the religions doesn’t change Judaism and islam, but it erodes Christendom by taking the core out of it. The big question to test the truth of a statement still remains: “What do you think about the Christ?” (Mt 22:42a).

1Jn 2:24. John presented the liar in his activity. It is important for you as a young believer, a child in Christ, to watch out for that liar. You must not let yourself be confused by the deceitful way in which he tries to present the truth to you. The simple protection for that, is that you let that which you have heard from the beginning abide in you. If you do that you will also abide in the Son and in the Father.

You are referred back to the beginning. What did you hear about the truth back then? Then you heard about Him Who is from the beginning, the Word of life that was with the Father and which was manifested (1Jn 1:1-2). When you accepted what you have heard from Him from God’s Word, you received Him as your life. He is in you now, He abides in you. Because that is a fact you abide in the Son and in the Father. That implies that you live in fellowship with the Son and the Father. Be aware of that and don’t let yourself be robbed from that enjoyment by false teachers who want to tell you that it can all be more beautiful.

Now read 1 John 2:18-24 again.

Reflection: What is John warning you of and how does he encourage you?