"Since 1:5 the author has been discussing the conditions for living as a Christian in the world. Starting from the leading statement of the good news that God is light' (1:5-7), John outlines four practical conditions whereby believers may practice and test their own spiritual commitment: by renouncing sin (1:8-2:2), by being obedient (2:3-11), by rejecting worldliness (2:12-17), and . . . by keeping the faith (2:18-29). . . . the four conditions described by the writer follow the pattern ABAB, where the generally negative appeals for renunciation and rejection (AA) are followed in each case by the more positive demands of obedience and faith (BB)."86
John needed to alert his readers to special deceptions they would encounter to enable them to identify and defend themselves against these temptations. Previously John had been less direct in dealing with false teachers who perverted the truth about intimacy with God. Now he became more direct and labeled them antichrists (vv. 18-19). First, he exposed their method. They lie and deny that Jesus is the Christ (vv. 20, 23).
John again used a three-fold structure at the beginning of this section of the text. He described three signs or marks: of the end (vv. 18-19), of the believer (vv. 20-23), and of living in the light (vv. 24-25). Verses 26-27 recapitulate and develop the content of verses 18-25, and verses 28-29 summarize the first major section of 1 John and anticipate the second major section respectively.87
2:18 John probably used a different Greek word translated "children"(paidia, also in v. 12) because it implies a child who learns. His readers needed to learn what he now revealed.
In the drama of human history all of John's readers including ourselves play our part in the last act. Throughout the New Testament the writers regarded the present age before the Lord's return as the last hour or the last days. This is the final period before the Lord Himself breaks into history again. Then the first stage of the new age will be judgment (the Tribulation) and the second stage blessing. In the second stage Jesus Christ will rule directly over human beings first in the Millennium and then in the new heavens and the new earth.
The revelation concerning the appearance of the world ruler who will exalt himself against God had reached John's audience (Dan. 11:36-45; 2 Thess. 2:3-5; et al.). However even as John wrote many little antichrists, people who exalt themselves against God, had arisen. John saw this as evidence that the appearance of theAntichrist was not far away. Antichrists are those who oppose Jesus Christ and His teachings, not just people who profess to be the Messiah.88
2:19 Those who were opposing Christ had gone out from "us."Probably "us"means the apostolic eyewitnesses as elsewhere in this epistle (cf. 1:1-5; 4:6). This would mean that these false teachers had gone out from among the apostles, not that they were apostles themselves, claiming that their message was what the apostles endorsed (cf. Acts 15:1; 2 Cor. 11:5). "Us"may include the Christian community at large. The physicalseparation of these men from the apostles and the faithful eventually illustrated their doctrinalseparation from them.
"From other references to antichrists' in this letter it is evident that when the writer uses this term he means the heterodox ex-members of his own community: those who, in one way or another, were denying the true identity of Jesus, and the fact of God's saving activity mediated to the world through him."89
". . . it is possible, in this instance, that those who later allowed their heretical thought and actions to run away with them (when it could obviously be said, ouk esan ex emon, they were not of us') were in the first place believers with a genuine, if uninformed, faith in Jesus."90
". . . a person who makes a genuine confession can be expected to persevere in his faith, although elsewhere John warns his readers against the danger of failure to persevere [cf. v. 24; 2 John 8]."91
Whereas divisions within Christendom create obvious problems, God causes some good to come out of them by using these divisions to clarify doctrinal differences and deviations from the truth.
2:20-21 In contrast to the heterodox secessionists (v. 19), the faithful believers within the community were "keeping the faith."The "anointing"referred to is evidently the Holy Spirit whom Jesus gives to each believer at conversion (Rom. 8:9; 1 Cor. 12:13; cf. Luke 4:18; John 6:69; 14:17; 15:26; 16:13; Acts 10:38; 2 Cor. 1:21-22). John said it abode in his readers to teach them and that it was truthful (v. 27). John referred to the Holy Spirit as the anointing. This seems preferable to the idea that the Word of God is the anointing.92John previously spoke of Jesus Christ as the life (1:2). The presence of the Holy Spirit in every believer enables him or her to perceive the truth of the gospel and to distinguish it from error (John 14:26; 16:13). Of course some Christians have more perception than others due to God-given ability, Satanic blindness, the influence of human teachers, sin in the life, etc.
2:22-23 The antichrists lie because they deny that Jesus is the Christ, God's Son and our Savior. This would have been the position of Jews who rejected Jesus as the Messiah and other false teachers whom John alluded to elsewhere. Among these were the Gnostics who believed that anything material was sinful and therefore Jesus could not have been God's Son.93Docetists taught that Jesus was not truly a man and therefore not our Savior. Followers of Cerinthus believed that Jesus was not fully God but that God only came upon Him at His baptism and departed from Him before His crucifixion.94These false teachers all claimed to have the truth from God. However, John pointed out that since the Son and the Father are one, a person cannot deny the Son without denying the Father as well (cf. Matt. 10:32-33; Mark 8:38).
". . . anyone who claims to know God, but disobeys his orders, is a' liar (. . . 2:4); but the person who denies that Jesus is the Christ must be regarded as the--archetypal--liar . . ."95
". . . we deny God by denying him his proper relationship with us."96
Some readers have understood the first part of verse 23 to mean that it is impossible for a true Christian, one who "has the Father,"ever to deny the Son. This interpretation seems inconsistent with other Scripture (2 Tim. 2:12) as well as human experience. Genuine Christians have denied Christ, to avoid martyrdom, for example. In the context John wrote about an abiding relationship with God, not just a saving relationship. So another explanation is that John meant that whoever denies the Son does not have the Father abiding in him. In this view, one who denies the Son does not have an abiding relationship with the Father. This describes all unbelievers and those believers who are not abiding in God. A third explanation is that John was describing what is typical: typically those having the Father do not deny the Son, though there may be a few exceptions. However the broad "whoever"in this verse seems to imply that what John wrote is true of all. I prefer view two.
The second part of the verse is the positive corollary to the first part. Confessing the Son is the opposite of denying Him. Confessing the Son results in the Father abiding in the confessor. Confessing the Son involves a public profession of faith in Him, not just exercising saving faith in Him (cf. Rom. 10:9-10; 2 Cor. 4:13). Belief in the heart results in imputed righteousness, and confessing with the mouth results in salvation (lit. deliverance, namely, from the consequences of being a secret, non-confessing, believer). A non-abiding Christian might not confess Christ even though he or she believes in Him. Both denying Christ and confessing Christ deal with giving personal testimony to one's faith in Him; they do not determine salvation. Thus denying Christ cannot result in the loss of eternal salvation nor can confessing Him obtain it. If John meant that no genuine Christian can deny the Son, the corollary is that every genuine Christian must confess the Son. That would make public confession of Christ a condition for salvation in addition to trusting in Him.
To summarize, John warned his readers of the danger to their intimate fellowship with God that the teaching of those who denied that Jesus is the Christ posed. If they rejected the Son, they could not expect an intimate relationship with the Father.
"The principle source of confusion in much contemporary study of 1 John is to be found in the failure to recognize the real danger against which the writer is warning. The eternal salvation of the readership is not imperilled. It is not even in doubt as far as the author is concerned. But seduction by the world and its antichristian representatives is a genuine threat which must be faced."97
John now called on his readers to abide in the true doctrine of Jesus Christ to enable them to abide in fellowship with God.
2:24 Christians should not reject the truth that they believed that resulted in their salvation (cf. the warning passages in Hebrews). Such faithfulness enables us to continue to abide in fellowship with God. John used "abide"in the same sense in which Jesus did in the Upper Room Discourse. Abiding refers to an intimate relationship with God determined by the extent to which we walk in the light of God's will that we have. Abiding, fellowship, and knowing God refer to the same thing, and we experience them by degrees rather than either completely or not at all (John 15:1-8). John's insistence that his readers really did know God and His truth would have strengthened them to resist the false teachers (vv. 12-14, 21).
2:25 Our eternal life is not in question when we believe that Jesus is the Savior, as some of the antichrists then and now suggest that it is. It is secure because it rests on God's promise, "He who believes on the Son has life"(John 3:36; et al.).98
2:26 The "these things"in view probably refer to what John had just written (vv. 18-25).
"The author concludes his attack on the false teachers with a warning and a word of encouragement for his followers."99
2:27 The "anointing"is the Holy Spirit (cf. v. 20). The readers had the Holy Spirit within them whose ministry it is to guide believers into all the truth and to teach us what God has revealed (John 14:26; 16:13). Consequently they were not dependent on other human teachers, especially the false teachers.
From this verse some Christians have concluded that we should not listen to any human teacher. That is not what John said. He wanted his readers to remember that the Holy Spirit was theteacher, the real source of illumination. He did not rule out secondary teachers through whom the Holy Spirit works in teaching. If that had been his view he would not have written this epistle in which he taught his readers. His point was that we should not look to other human beings as the ultimate source of our learning, an attitude the false teachers were encouraging. Of course the Holy Spirit uses the Word of God to teach us (John 16:14-15). John was not saying we can discard our Bibles. Since immature believers need human teachers (Heb. 5:12), though they are not completely dependent on them, John's readers appear to have been fairly mature in the faith. God has given human teachers as a gift to His church (Eph. 4:11; 1 Cor. 12:28; cf. Rom. 12:7).
The readers' anointing was real. The false teachers appear to have claimed that God had inspired them, but He had not. John was warning his readers about false teachers who claimed revelation beyond what Jesus Christ and the apostles had taught. We need simply to abide in God and to respond to the Holy Spirit's ministry to us (cf. John 15:4-7).
John's original readers were doing well in the Christian life. All they needed to do was continue to grow. John began this section of his epistle (2:12-27) by affirming their healthful spiritual condition (2:12-14). He then warned them of the world's enticements (2:15-17) and the false teachers' error (2:18-23). Finally he reminded them of their duty to keep on abiding in God (2:24-27).
There is a parallel between what John urged his readers to do in this section of his epistle and what Moses commanded the Israelites to do. In both cases the holiness of God demanded that those who came into the closest and most intimate contact with God, in the Tabernacle and in the church, be holy. Moses advocated renouncing sin, obeying God, rejecting worldliness, and keeping the faith in the "Covenant Code"(Exod. 20-23; 25-31), the "Priestly Code"(Exod 35--Lev. 16), and the "Holiness Code"(Lev. 17:10-25:55). John similarly urged his readers to renounce sin (1:8-2:2), to obey God (2:3-11), to reject worldliness (2:12-17), and to keep the faith (2:18-29). In both cases the prophet's concern was that those under their care would be holy as God is holy (Lev. 11:44-45; 19:2; 20:7; 1 Pet. 1:15-16). Holiness is imperative for God's people to "know,""see,"and "have fellowship with"a holy God (cf. Heb. 12:10-14).
2:28 John introduced the new idea of the believer's meeting Jesus Christ at death or the Rapture to motivate his readers to continue to cultivate intimate fellowship with God. The prospect of this meeting remained the basis for John's instruction through 4:19.
"If"might better be "whenever."The fact of the Lord's appearing is certain even though its time is indefinite.100John meant that Christ's return for His own might be while his readers were still alive.101"Confidence"(Gr. parresia) is freedom or boldness of speech that comes as a result of a clear conscience. John's idea was that if we walk in fellowship with God now we will not feel embarrassed to meet Him whenever we see Him (cf. Mark 8:38). The prospect of our seeing Jesus Christ one day soon should motivate us to abide in Him now (cf. James 5:8).
"This verse makes the transition from concern about false teachers to concern for the children of God."102
2:29 Because God is righteous every abiding child of God will demonstrate righteous behavior. Righteous action is a mark of the Father that God reproduces in every abiding Christian just as surely as every child does some things like the physical parent he or she seeks to imitate. We intellectually know that God is righteous from Scripture. However we experientially come to know that certain people are abiding Christians by the righteous works they do. The facts that some unrighteous people behave righteously and some righteous people behave wickedly do not vitiate this point.
