Week 2 - 1 John 2:18 - 3:10

Warnings Against the Antichrist (1 John 2:18-27)

Interesting tidbits:

The Letters of John: An Introduction and Commentary 1. The Heretics and the Genuine Christians (2:18–21)

The word ‘antichrist’ occurs in the Bible only in the Johannine letters (1 John 2:18, 22; 4:3; 2 John 7), but the conception is found elsewhere.

The Apostle John is applying 3 doctrinal test:

(3-11) Draws a clear distinction between the heretics and the genuine Christians

The word antichrist used here by John most likely means those who are against christ and in denial of christ.

In other references, John refers to a “false” Christ using the term pseudochristos as he does in 1 John 4:1 with the term pseudoprophetes. Jesus also speaks of pseudochristoi as recorded in Matt 24:24 and Mark 13:22.

John’s use of antichrist here is possibly an emphasis on a principle of antichrist drawing attention to THE Antichrist who is still to come. Therefore, it is likely that Johns choice of the word antichrist signifies an adversary of Christ.

Perhaps both ideas are present: counterfeit christs (false teachers/profits) and those opposing christ (antichrists)

John also distinguishes between they that left and the us who remain.

Not all who initially believe the Gospel message will remain in the faith, some will walk away.

The precedent for this is the disciple who betrayed Jesus (Judas) who “went out” from the disciples at the Last Supper.

Further, John is stating clearly, that if they had “belonged” to us, they would have “remained” with us. We have here a reminder of Jesus steadfast love and promise we see in 1 John 1:5

The Letters of John: An Introduction and Commentary 1. The Heretics and the Genuine Christians (2:18–21)

Light is shed by this verse upon two important doctrines: the perseverance of the saints and the nature of the church. ‘He who stands firm to the end will be saved’ (Mark 13:13), not because salvation is the reward of endurance, but because endurance is the hallmark of the saved. If the false teachers had belonged to us, they would have remained with us. This is stated as a principle. Those who belong to us stay with us. Future and final perseverance is the ultimate test of a past participation in Christ (cf. Heb. 3:14). ‘Those who fall away’, on the other hand, ‘have never been thoroughly imbued with the knowledge of Christ but only had a slight and passing taste of it’ (Calvin).

2. (18-21) Defines the nature and effect of heresy

The Letters of John: An Introduction and Commentary 2. The Nature and Effect of the Heresy (2:22–23)

the theological error he is combating is defined more precisely as a denial that ‘Jesus Christ has come in the flesh’, or, as perhaps this expression should be translated, a denial that ‘Jesus is the Christ come in the flesh’. The antichrists probably taught (as some later Gnostics certainly taught) that Jesus was born and died a man, and that ‘the Christ’, by which they meant a divine emanation, was within him only during his public ministry, descending upon him at his baptism and leaving him before the cross. They thus denied that Jesus was or is (estin, 22) the Christ or the Son. They made him a mere man who for a brief period was invested with divine powers or even adopted into the Godhead, but they denied that the man Jesus and the eternal Son were and are the same person, possessing two perfect natures, human and divine. In a word, they denied the incarnation.

3. (22-23) Describes the two safeguards against heresy

The Gospel Truth - that which you have heard from the beginning.

The Anointing of the Holy Spirit received from God and as promised by Jesus to all who believe in Him. “remain in the Son and in the Father”

We can reference Isaiah 59:21:

The New Revised Standard Version Injustice and Oppression to Be Punished

21 And as for me, this is my covenant with them, says the LORD: my spirit that is upon you, and my words that I have put in your mouth, shall not depart out of your mouth, or out of the mouths of your children, or out of the mouths of your children’s children, says the LORD, from now on and forever.

Children of God

Our discussion narrowed in on 1 John 3:9 which states: “9 Those who have been born of God do not sin, because God’s seed abides in them; they cannot sin, because they have been born of God. 10 The children of God and the children of the devil are revealed in this way: all who do not do what is right are not from God, nor are those who do not love their brothers and sisters.”

If you were to read 1 John 3:4 - 8 and stop there, you may glean a false impression that if you sin you are not abiding in God and only those who do not sin may abide in God. But this is not the truth, which is why in verse 9, the apostle John clarifies one of the key truths regarding Jesus sanctifying work on the cross. When Jesus died on the cross, descended into hell and on the 3rd day rose from the dead, he conquered sin once and for all and for all, and that means you! If you abide in Christ, you sin is gone! Your sin tomorrow is gone, your sin 3 years from now is gone, your sin is gone? Let that soak in for a minute if you have yet to believe this, as THIS - IS - GRACE!

Remember in our study of Billy Graham’s Peace with God: The Secret to Happiness, he writes: It is the infusion of divine life into the human soul. It is the implantation or impartation of divine nature into the human soul whereby we become the children of God. Christ through the Holy Spirit takes up residence in our hearts. We are attached to God for eternity.” If you remember from our Study of Billy Graham’s book The Holy Spirit: he says, (paraphrase) the giving of the Holy Spirit at our rejuvenation (born again moment) is as if God is putting His seal on us, He claims us forever, we are HIS! Hallelujah, this my friends is the Gospel news worth sharing.

So then why do we then continue to ask for forgiveness when we sin, as we continue to do. Because it is the confessing of our sin that enables repentance to begin its work, and in our confession, the Holy Spirit living and abiding in us leads us down the path righteousness (as it says in Psalm 23, “He leads me in the paths of righteousness”), which is repentance, and repentance is part of the sanctification process that we must endure when we abide in him, it is the process of us becoming who He has called us to be. We cannot know to ask for forgiveness until the Holy Spirit reveals our sins to us. When we lived in darkness, our sin was not recognized like it is now with the Holy Spirit living in us. The true challenge for the believer is to abide in Christ and let Him be Lord, repent and believe without ceasing.

Billy Graham says about sin after our incarnation with the Holy Spirit, “Things that you used to laugh at as foolishness you now accept by faith. Your whole mental process is changed. God becomes the hub of you intellectual thinking. He becomes the center. The ego has been dethroned.

The New Revised Standard Version The Renewal of Israel

26 A new heart I will give you, and a new spirit I will put within you; and I will remove from your body the heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. 27 I will put my spirit within you, and make you follow my statutes and be careful to observe my ordinances.

The Holy Bible: New Revised Standard Version. (1989). (1 Jn 3:9–10). Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers.