In 1 John 2:8-9 we discovered two commandments: an old one and a new one. The new one is to love the brethren and John speaks to that in v9-11 as well as in the description of the “family of God” in v12-14. Now he speaks to the old command. By old, John means the one that has been around “from the beginning” (2:7). The word that they had heard from the beginning is the gospel, and the command of the gospel is to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.
Keep in mind we are still in the context of
joyous fellowship. Sin breaks that
fellowship. Having commanded “do not
love the world” John now recognizes that the time in which we live is
difficult. He calls it “the last hour,” and
it is characterized by deception. John speaks
of “the Antichrist” and of “many antichrists.”
The Antichrist is the master of deception. Paul warned against deception related to the Antichrist
(2 Th. 2:3-4,9-12). John is saying the
Antichrist is coming, but that in the meantime there are many antichrists, all
of them so-called because they too are tied to deception. We need to understand this so that sin does
not overtake us and destroy the joy of our fellowship with the Father and His
Son.
The ultimate deception of Satan has to do with
our Lord. The gospel, “the word that you
heard from the beginning,” is about what Jesus did (1 Cor. 15:1-5, His death
and resurrection) and who Jesus was and is (Rom. 1:1-4, Son of Man and Son of
God). When a person believes on the Christ,
Christ is revealed in them (Gal. 1:16).
That person knows who Jesus is in truth.
This is God’s work in the life of that believer. John refers to this as the “anointing from
the Holy One.” The person who believes
in Christ knows the truth about Christ, not because that person is so smart but
because God has enabled that person to know Christ in truth.
Todays reading included the prophecy of the
New Covenant in Jeremiah 31. This “anointing”
is a fulfillment of this New Covenant.
Jeremiah prophesied, No more shall every man teach his neighbor, and
every man his brother, saying, ‘Know the LORD,’ for they all shall know Me
(31:34a). Jeremiah goes on to say that
the reason God can do this is because He will have forgiven Israel of their
sins. That is what John is saying to
us. The forgiveness of sin earlier in
this section (1 Jn. 1:5-2:2) makes it possible for us to be in this deep
fellowship with the Father and Son. The
sin issue that separates us from God has been resolved in Christ. We know Christ in truth as God who became
flesh.
This explains 1 Jn. 2:22-23. If someone comes, a teacher or preacher, and
denies the truth about Jesus, that person is an antichrist, a deceiver. Furthermore, if I accept this deception, I am
not a believer in Christ. John says in
v19 that there were some among the visible body of believers who denied Christ,
so that they left the group, manifesting that they had not really been one of them.
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