Knowledge From Above

1 John 2:18-20 ESV

18 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. 19 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. 20 But you have been anointed by the Holy One, and you all have knowledge.

One of my favorite verses in the Bible is from the book of Amos, chapter nine, and verse nine. There we read the words of the Lord, where He says, “behold, I will command, and shake the house of Israel among all the nations as one shakes with a sieve, but no pebble shall fall to the earth.”

One of the common tools used in ancient agricultural practice was a sieve. A sieve was used towards the end of the wheat harvest. After the crops had been gathered, they would brought to the threshing floor to separate the wheat from the chaff. Once these had been separated, the farmer would scoop what remained with a winnowing fork. After scooping it up, he would toss it in the air. The chaff would be carried away by the wind while the wheat would fall to the earth.

Then, to ensure that there was no chaff remaining with the wheat, the farmer would place what was left in a sieve. He would then vigorously shake the sieve so that every piece of unwanted chaff would fall to the ground, with the good grain remaining in the sieve.

Well, in this verse, when God speaks of “shaking” Israel as one shakes with a sieve, He is saying that He is going to shortly bring disaster upon them which separate true believers and false believers in Israel. The false believers will prove themselves to be false believers by openly turning from the Lord, while the true believers will remain faithful throughout the hardships.

This is essentially what was happening to those whom John the apostle was writing to here in his first epistle. First John was written by the apostle John to believers who were living in the region that he was then living in, in Ephesus. And so, this epistle was likely written to a general audience of believers who were found in churches throughout the province of Asia, the province that Ephesus was in.

John’s general purpose in writing this letter was to address a growing heresy that was gaining traction in many churches. A heresy that denied the humanity of Jesus. The true, orthodox understanding of the humanity of Jesus is that He is fully man while simultaneously being fully God. But there was a growing heresy in the early Church that was saying otherwise.

The leading heretics in the early Church age were those known as Gnostics. The word gnostic comes from the Greek word “gnosis”, which means knowledge. Thus, the Gnostics were those who claimed to have knowledge, what they considered to be secret, mystic knowledge.

And among the Gnostics, there were two leading opinions. The most popular opinion was what was called Docetism. According to this view, everything material is evil. In their opinion, everything physical is bad, including human bodies. And because these feel as though human bodies are evil, they then said that Jesus did not possess a physical body, but only appeared to possess one. Well, that of course, removes the humanity from Jesus.

As I said, Docetism was the most popular Gnostic opinion, but another, lesser popular opinion among Gnostics was what was known as Cerinthianism.

According to this belief, Jesus was God sometimes and He was human sometimes, but He was never both at the same time. And so, they believed that was human from the time that He was born all the way until His baptism. And then, from His baptism to His crucifixion they believe that He was God. But then they believe that from His crucifixion to His death, He stopped being God and became human again. And believe it or not, these kind of teachings are still circulating to this day.

But at the time in which John wrote this letter, these heretical understandings were picking up a lot of steam and even being embraced by people who once seemed to embrace orthodox Christianity and thus, be legitimate believers. And so, John writes this inspired letter to bring this ungodly spread to a halt and to reassure, encourage, and comfort the legitimate believers who remained.

And in this first message in our series, we read of how John informs and reminds his readers of the fact that what was then happening in their midst was not unusual and that it is in fact to be expected.

As we begin our exposition of this passage, we observe the kind, loving, and familial tone of the apostle as he addresses them as “children”. In calling them “children”, he declares that these are legitimate believers he writes to, children of God. These whom he writes to he considers to be fellow-children, beloved brethren and friends.

And to them, John tells them, “it is the last hour”. When John speaks of it being “the last hour”, he is speaking of what is also often referred to as “the last days”. It is the time period between the ascension of Jesus to the return of the resurrected Jesus. And so, John tells his reader that this “last hour”, this time period before the return of Christ is upon them right now.

And because it is the “last hour”, that means that it will be sometime during this period that “the antichrist” comes.

Now, who is “The antichrist”? Well, from what the scriptures tell us, he will be an individual person, the spawn of Satan. He will publicly make himself known near the end of what is described here as “the last hour”.

Paul speaks of him at length in his second epistle to the Thessalonians, chapter two, where he is described as “the Man of Lawlessness”.

In second Thessalonians chapter two, verse four, we read that he is said to oppose and exalt himself against every so-called god or object of worship. Also in that same verse, Paul writes that the antichrist will proclaim himself to be God. In verses nine and ten it is said that he will come by the power of Satan with all power and false signs and wonders, and will deceive those who are perishing and destined for destruction.

This is the antichrist who is still to come, and John tells his readers “as you have heard the (the) antichrist is coming, (that is, still to come) so now many antichrists have come”.

So, in this statement, John says that yes, the antichrist is still to come, but many antichrists, (plural) have already come in a similar way to that way in which the antichrist will come.

That these people who John speaks of are called “antichrists” suggests that they are what their name implies, they are “Anti-Christ”, Anti-Jesus. And when we say that these are anti-Christ or, anti-Jesus, we mean that they are opposed not only to Jesus, but they are also opposed to true, biblical doctrine. And we know that these are opposed to true, biblical doctrine because their beliefs and teachings aren’t biblical and they are opposed to sound teaching.

In this sense, we can positively identify every person and every institution that does not hold to an orthodox understanding of the Christian faith as “anti-Christ”.

John tells his readers that because these antichrists have made themselves apparent, it is obvious that it is “the last hour”, for Jesus Himself warned us that antichrists would arise in “the last hour” as the devil knows that his time is short. This gives the believer reassurance not only that we live in “the last hour”, but also that Christ’s return in imminent and come happen at any time.

But as John goes on to say in verse nineteen, because of the activity of such anti-Christian sentiments, a great many of those who once appeared to be legitimate Christians, were no longer in the midst of the various churches which John was writing to.

And so, in order to settle the great discomfort and uneasiness that these believers were experiencing, John tells his readers that yes, these “went out from us” that is, they left the outward, visible Church; they no longer fellowship or associate with us or with any other legitimate Christian body, but the truth of the matter is that “they were not of us”.

They were never of us; they had never been born from above. Yes, it may have outwardly appeared as though they were truly of us, but inwardly, they were never really believers.

This is made clear, John says, because “if they had been of us” that is, if they were truly born from above, “they would have continued with us”, they would have remained in the company and fellowship of legitimate believers. “But they went out” he says. They left the company of legitimate believers who held fast to orthodoxy.

And John says that this took place, so “that it might become plain that they all are not of us”. Think about what he is saying there for a moment; he says that these people leaving the church was not a bad thing, in fact, he says that it was a good thing. They were never really of us to begin with, so it is good that they left. And so, John says that these believers should not be moved by the fact that these had left, but instead, they should reaffirmed through it.

Daniel Akin, who writes commentary on the epistles of John in The New American Bible Commentary says concerning this: “The believers who have remained in the community can take heart that God has precipitated these events to remove this group that held to a heretical Christology so that the church would be purified and educated.”[1]

But John also says in verse twenty, the final verse of our reading for today, that while these who ant-Christ have proven themselves to be “not of us”, the opposite is true for those who remain.

To those who remain, John says that they “have been anointed by the Holy One”. This “anointing” is in reference to the possession of the Holy Spirit, to being truly saved. God the Holy Spirit is possessed by all legitimate believers, as He was sent from the Father and the Son, and thus, the believer’s reception of Him is an anointing “by the Holy One”.

When speaking of God the Holy Spirit, Jesus said that “He will bear witness about Me”. He will communicate truth about Jesus, and because these held to the truth concerning Jesus, it is then apparent that they have been anointed by the Holy One and thus, they, as John says, “all have knowledge”.

The Gnostics claimed to possess knowledge, secret knowledge, but this was no true knowledge, no, it was damning knowledge, knowledge that would ensure their damnation. Believers though, truly have knowledge, they possess true knowledge, knowledge which comes from God Himself.

May we rejoice in that God has determined to give us that knowledge!

Amen?

[1]Daniel L. Akin, 1, 2, 3 John, vol. 38, The New American Commentary (Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 2001), 117.