Daily Thought

John outlived the other apostles. Even before his homecall, he was aware of features he recognized as those that will mark the period just prior to the Lord’s return to rapture His own to glory. He writes about virulent opposition to Christ, even to denying the very fundamentals of Christianity: that He is the Christ and that He has revealed the Father, vv. 22, 23. John names these pedlars of lies as antichrists, and advises the Christians to whom he writes that those who had imbibed their false doctrine were not true Christians - ‘they were not of us’, v. 19.

Under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, John underscores how God undergirds the faith of His people. Firstly, the saint has apostolic teaching, initially delivered orally; note the verb ‘heard’, vv. 18, 24. Thereafter, that teaching was committed to writing, now forming the New Testament; note John’s thirteen references to his own writing in this epistle. Secondly, the Holy One has sent the Holy Spirit in order to ‘guide [the saint] into all truth’, John 16. 13. John assures His readers that the ‘unction’ (anointing), 1 John 2. 20, teaches the truth every Christian needs to hear, truth that will enhance his appreciation of Christ, and form in him features of Christ. When Paul wrote of the anointing, he wrote that God has anointed every child of God with the Holy Spirit, 2Cor. 1. 21. John now adds that the anointing abides with us, 1 John 2. 27. Christians need not to ask to be anointed by the Holy Spirit, nor to fear the anointing being taken from them, Rom. 8. 9.

John would have us recognize the denial of Christ ‘as not merely erroneous teaching but as diabolically inspired’ (D. E. HIEBERT). Such false doctrine cannot produce in a life the righteous character of Christ that only those born of God exhibit, 1 John 2. 29. Ultimately, the work of those many antichrists already at work in John’s day will culminate in the revelation of the ‘wicked one’ with ‘all deceivableness of unrighteousness’, whom the Lord shall destroy with the brightness of His coming, 2 Thess. 2. 8, 9. But those born of God have confidence that they will not be ashamed, when at His coming they give account before the One the many antichrists have denied, 1 John 2. 28.