A study of 1 John 2:18-27
18 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. 19 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.
20 But you have an anointing from the Holy One, and all of you know the truth. 21 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. 22 Who is the liar? It is whoever denies that Jesus is the Christ. Such a person is the antichrist—denying the Father and the Son. 23 No one who denies the Son has the Father; whoever acknowledges the Son has the Father also.
24 As for you, 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. 25 And this is what he promised us—eternal life.
26 I am writing these things to you about those who are trying to lead you astray. 27 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.
Outline
‘This is the last hour.’ Christ inaugurated the new age to come. The last days mark the stage of transition: a period of grievous moral and religious decadence (2 Tim.3:1ff.; 2 Pet.3:3). The last time of this period will reveal our eternal inheritance (1 Pet.1:5). Christ will raise the dead and judge the world (John 6:39,40,44,54, 11:24,12:48). It is a theological truth rather than a chronological reference. A period of apostasy and tribulation would precede the End, including the rise of false Christs and false prophets. The powers of darkness were closing their ranks. The forces of evil were rallying. The coming of many antichrists proved that it was the last hour. A last desperate stand on the part of Christ’s enemies was expected. This was taking place. The stage was set for the end. What John wrote was true and it is still true. The fact that the end has not yet come since he wrote these words does not invalidate his argument or contradict his affirmation. The Eternal God, who stands above and outside of time, is not bound by the clocks and calendars of men. It is still the last hour, the hour of final opposition to Christ. The whole Christian era consists of the great tribulation through which we must pass (Rev.7:14). We still await the end.
We know that this is the last hour because of the presence of many antichrists – those who are adversaries of Christ, who deny Christ. They are human teachers (Mark 13:22) who left the church because they failed to win over the church leaders to their viewpoint. Their leaving show that they never really belonged to the church. If they had truly believed in Christ they would have stayed in the church. There is a distinction between the visible and the invisible church. All professing, baptized, communicant members of the church are not necessarily members of Christ’s body. Some are not. Only on the day of judgment will the weeds be separated from the wheat. Meanwhile some are revealed in their true colors by their defection.
All true Christians are anointed by the Holy Spirit and know the truth about Christ. Just as Jesus is the Christ, i.e. the Anointed One, so his followers share in his anointing by the Holy Spirit and know the content of the Gospel. They don’t need to know additional teaching from the false teachers who claim to know more than the apostles.
They are liars who deny that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the Father. If you deny Christ you deny the Father also, if you believe in the Son you know the Father also. They made Jesus a mere man invested for a brief period with divine powers and 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. The fundamental doctrinal test of the professing Christian concerns his view of the Person of Jesus. If he is a Unitarian or merely accepts Jesus as a great moral teacher but denies his deity he is not a true Christian.
The safeguard against error is to be confident of what you heard in the original message of the Gospel and allow it to remain in you. Christian belief is anchored in the message of the apostles about Jesus and what he came to do. He repeats what he said in the first verse of the letter: “That which is from the beginning” which echoes John 1:1ff. The promise is that of eternal life.
His purpose in writing all this is to warn us about those who seek to lead us astray. We are protected from error by the anointing of the Holy Spirit. The Word and the Spirit together counter the false teaching.
Questions for Reflection
- How does recognizing the nature of the ‘last hour’ help you to understand the trials and tribulations of life?
- How do we prepare for the End?
- Only John uses the term ‘antichrist’. How would you identify those who oppose Christ today?
- Why do people lose their faith or leave the church?
- In a culture of many different churches what do you think of church shopping?
- What attracts us to belong to a particular church?
- How can you judge between a true and a false Christian?
- How can you be sure that you are anointed by the Spirit?
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