The principles of all genuine fellowship with God
Today we find out more about why John wrote this letter to us, and discover again how important it is for us today. Although I’m tempted to post the whole passage, I think it would be best to break it up so we can look at it closer.
1 John 2:18-19 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.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.
We know that here “the last hour” is referring to the end times in which we are living. The end times started when Jesus ascended to Our Father. We can see from this passage as well as many others that Satan lost no time in attacking the Gospel and trying to prevent the Truth from spreading.
John says of these antichrists, which we usually refer to as false teachers and false prophets now, that they “went out from us, but they didn’t really belong to us”. What he is saying is that the ones he is specifically talking about most likely studied directly under him or one of the other apostles, but they were never really saved. They therefore didn’t really belong to the inner circle of teachers as they apparently were claiming to be. Instead they denied the Truth, apparently denying the divinity of Christ and the security of believers salvation, and attempted to sway the rest who had also been taught by the apostles.
John says that if they had belonged to that inner circle, they would have never left, but because they did not share the spirit of fellowship with the Lord, and with the other believers, it showed that they were not ever in a real close personal relationship with the Lord as they claimed to be. Their lives were worldly and didn’t have the fruit of the spirit as they should have. We know all of this because of all that John wrote prior to this passage in this letter. The whole purpose of his letter was to show true believers that they were indeed really saved and show them how to tell the difference between someone who was and someone who wasn’t, so they could discern for themselves that these people were antichrists/false teachers. His intent was to reassure them of their salvation and of the deity of Christ and all they had learned, and let them know that their discernment that these false teachers were antichrists was correct and they had no reason to fear. He was reminding them that those who are in a close personal relationship with the Lord would sense this disharmony of the spirit from these false teachers. He was most likely writing to other church leaders though and not “baby Christians” since baby Christians don’t have that kind of discernment all the time yet, but mature Christians do.
1 John 2:20-27 But you have an anointing from the Holy One, and all of you know the truth.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.Who is the liar? It is the man who denies that Jesus is the Christ. Such a man is the antichrist—he denies the Father and the Son.No one who denies the Son has the Father; whoever acknowledges the Son has the Father also.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.And this is what he promised us—even eternal life.I am writing these things to you about those who are trying to lead you astray.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.
All Christians, even baby ones are indwelt by the Holy Spirit and do not “have” to have a teacher, but here we know John is speaking to those who are mature because he says they already know the truth of everything he has said. Immature Christians are the most vulnerable because they’re relationship with the Lord is still so new that they often need other people to teach them the basics of living in Christ until they have become secure in their relationship with Him and comfortable with having Him as their teacher.
Usually we humans fight tooth and nail against having God teach us. We want another human to do the job. I was the same way to my great shame and embarrassment. I told the Lord so. I begged Him to give me someone “with skin on” to teach me, as I wanted to make sure I wasn’t misunderstanding Him. I can almost imagine Him pulling His hair out over my requests like that now. But He honored my request and sent someone to disciple me. Like any good teacher, they always answered my questions by pointing me right back to God’s Word and asking me what God said about it there and/or what He’d told me about it. The reason I say “like any good teacher would” is because a good teacher isn’t there to just “teach you what God’s Word says. They are there to constantly teach you how to find the answers for yourself, confirming you when you’re right, showing you the errors when you’re wrong and how they knew it was an error—right back to God and God’s Word every time. They’re there to constantly ask you “Did you ask the Lord?”, “what did the Lord say”? and other inspired things like, “hmmm what do you think He could have meant by that?” The point being that immature believers are still very accustomed to the world and the worlds ways. They aren’t used to “talking to the Lord” and especially not used to hearing back from Him. They often don’t understand how to read His Word or even that they need to and why. This is why it’s so important that new believers be discipled. While the Holy Spirit will guide them, they aren’t accustomed to that guidance and often ignore His leading to their own peril, not really realizing they’re doing so. This is one reason we know that John was writing to mature believers when he wrote this letter. These people had discernment and simply needed to be encouraged since these antichrist’s (false teachers) were apparently saying they they had gotten their “truth” when learning under John or another apostle. John simply lets them, and us, know in no uncertain terms that anyone who denies the divinity of Christ, or denies that they are secure in their salvation is not saved and is not teaching the true Gospel. They are not one of us.
John constantly since the beginning of this letter has told them to “remain” in what they already know is the Truth. This is something that’s important for us to remember too. It seems like every day there’s some kind of “new truth” being offered to us from someone. Someone is always finding something that changes the gospel and wants to sell it to us. John says, don’t buy it. Remain in what we already know and have. This is the truth, and we don’t need any other. We are saved, we are indwelt by the Holy Spirit who will guide us into all Truth, and we will and do have eternal life guaranteed to us.
1 John 2:28-29 And now, dear children, continue in him, so that when he appears we may be confident and unashamed before him at his coming.If you know that he is righteous, you know that everyone who does what is right has been born of him.
John ends this portion of his letter with these final words, telling us that as long as we continue in our close fellowship (relationship) with the Lord that we will be able to be confident and unashamed when He comes for us at the rapture. Of course this means then that those who do not maintain that close personal relationship with the Lord and wind up wandering off into false teachings etc, will not be confident, and will instead be ashamed of themselves when they are finally face to face with their Lord. This does NOT say they will lose their salvation, it simply says that when they face our Lord, and finally see the “real truth”, that they will be ashamed of themselves.
The last line, about knowing that He is righteous means that we can know that those who do what is right are the ones that are really born again, John uses as a lead in to continue his discussion of how we can tell someone who is really saved from who isn’t. How we can tell an antichrist (false teacher) from someone that isn’t. We’ll pick up with this verse tomorrow as this is more then long enough already.
