1 John 2:18-23 Denying the Son

"This is the last hour". Now this was written almost two thousand years ago, so clearly we are not mean to take this in a literal chronological sense. What it means is that we are in the final phase of history. The work of Jesus Christ on the cross and the sending of the Holy Spirit marked the time when people are being saved. It means we are in a crucial phase.

The antichrist is a very popular term in films and various nonsense that is put about on the web. It is actually a term that is little used in the Bible (in fact only by John). Literally it means one who opposes Christ. So there is actually little need here to interpret it in wildly apocalyptic terms. All he means is that there are many who are offering alternatives to Christ as the way of salvation. Some of them had started off in the church, but had then gone away.

We know the truth and have an anointing from the Holy One. This may strike some as arrogant, but we need to be confident in the truth of the gospel. The gnostic type teachings would have tried to make the believers think that they were lacking something, lacking some "secret knowledge". John was writing to them to reaffirm the truth, to encourage them to have confidence in the truth. 

The antichrist is the one who denies the Son. And anyone who denies the Son is also denying God the Father.

1 John 2:15-17 - Not loving the world

We are not to love the world. Now we need to be careful about what John means here, which is essentially loving the world system. The way that God works and the way the world system works are completely different. The world system is man-centered, not God centered. If we are to be fully human we need to be God centered.

Now saying this will cause atheists and humanists to react, but the truth is that Satan has duped humanity into an enormous con-trick. He says that by ditching God and deciding for ourselves we become free. The reality is that by doing this we become slaves and lose freedom. When we give God His proper place in our lives we actually gain more freedom, more ability. 

John then names the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes,  and the pride of life as three key principles of the world system. 

Man without God is driven by natural desires. This includes what we might think of as sinful desires such as sexual lust. It is interesting and saddening when listening to debates in the media on sexual morals, that the very concept of exercising self-control seems so utterly unreasonable and unacceptable to many people and so-called experts. Conversely, part of the fruit of the Spirit is self-control. If we want true freedom then we need to follow Christ.

The lust of the flesh also includes things that we might not immediately think of as sinful. It includes anything where are are driven or led by natural desires.

The lust of the eyes is a life driven by what we see. Notice how much of today's culture is celebrity driven and driven by appearances. It is so superficial, and only destroys and demeans lives. It also applies to politics. There is such an emphasis on PR aspects of politics, and little on the substance of issues.

The pride of life includes thinking that we are totally self-sufficient. This again is futile. As John says the world and its desires will pass away. It is only the one who does the will of God who will live forever.

1 John 2:12-14 - Confidence

"I am writing to you ..." 

Why does John list these three groups and give the various "reasons" for writing? We need to think about the situation, which was one where false teachers were seeking to make inroads. Why do people fall for false teachings? It is not for pure intellectual reasons, though these are important, but for emotional reasons as well. False teachings play on people's insecurities, so John is trying to build up the esteem of his hearers, to make them confident in what they believe.

"Dear children" could refer to all the people, not just those that we think of as children. One of the things that false teachers play on is guilt, so John assures them that through Christ their sins have been forgiven. All people long to be free from guilt. Some seek the solution in denying that there is anything to be guilty about, but only the cross has the true solution to guilt.

Fathers are those who have been around a bit, maybe contemplating the end of their lives. They can be utterly confident in the one in whom they have believed, for He is from the beginning. 

The young men are assured that they have overcome the evil one. Moreover, they are are strong and have the word of God in them.

We can be confident in the one in whom we believe.

1 John 2:3-11 - Living in the light

We are not saved by our works, but the Bible is clear that obedience to Christ is a key sing of knowing Him. To say that we know Christ, but then to live a totally ungodly life is a nonsense. Change in our life is the sign that we belong to Him. It is the sign that everyone can see.

Now this does mean that we are perfect, far from it, and at the end of chapter one John made this point, but there must be change.

There is both continuity and a quantum leap between the old and new Testament. The God who is revealed in the Old Testament is the same God that is revealed in Jesus Christ. There is no difference. Equally there is no difference in the way that we should live. What is new is that on the cross Jesus defeated sin, death and the devil. So what was once impossible is now possible in Christ. There is an enormous amount of grace in the Old Testament, yet people focus on the judgement. Conversely, there is an awful lot of judgement in the New Testament, yet people focus on the grace. The grace and the judgement go together.

Loving each other is a key sign of living in the light, and hating each other is a sing of living in the darkness. The light must affect our attitude towards people, especially those closest to us.

1 John 2:1,2 - Forgiveness of sins

The forgiveness of sins is not an excuse for sinning, it does not mean that we can sin and it does not matter. Yet this is how the gospel is sometimes caricatured. This letter, along with the whole Bible, makes it clear that we cannot treat sin lightly. Sin is bad for us and bad for other people, and we need to be set free from sin. There are two components to this: (i) we need to be forgiven, to be set free from the judgement on sin that we deserve; and (ii) we need to be set free to live life as we should, to be set free from the enslaving nature of sin. Both of these are achieved through the work of Jesus Christ on the cross.

The being set free does not take full effect immediately. Hopefully we sin less than we used to, but we still sin from time to time. We have an advocate, Jesus Christ. His death on the cross turned away God's wrath. Now God's wrath is not rage, but His righteous, considered, and just judgement upon our sin. Hell is what we deserve. Christ took the punishment upon Himself in our place. So we are no longer under judgement.

This death was for the whole world. Now this is not universalism in the sense that everyone is automatically forgiven. We have to appropriate that forgiveness for ourselves by putting our faith in Christ. What it does mean is that the atheist, the Muslim, the Hindu, the humanist, the nominal Christian, or whoever you might care to mention, if that person turns to Christ he or she will receive full forgiveness.

1 John 1:5-10 - Sin

The message was received directly form Jesus, and was declared to John's readers. Today we declare the same gospel. When people make up another message they are no longer declaring the message of God. 

God is light, and in Him there is no darkness. Jesus often referred to Himself as the light of the world, and used other light analogies. There is no darkness in God. 

So if we know God, then we will walk in the light. People sometimes make a virtue of not knowing, this is nonsense. We are not to be proud or arrogant, but Christ has given us the truth. Likewise, if someone's behaviour has not altered, then it shows that they do not really know the truth.

Walking in the light gives us fellowship with each other and with Jesus. The gospel brings unity between believers. We are purified by the blood of Jesus from all sin.

Some claim to be without sin. This is patent nonsense, and is deception. The truth reveals our sin. The correct response to sin is to confess it and to repent. Then we receive forgiveness and cleansing. Only the gospel is honest about sin. 

1 John 1:1-4 - God is real

The opening verses are reminiscent of the opening of John's gospel. Christ has always been, He was not part of creation for He is God and all things were created through Him. He was also physical. The gospel is no mere set of ideas, thoughts, or notions. Jesus is 100% real. John and the other apostles had seen Him, heard Him, touched Him. The gospel is about Jesus Christ, in fact the gospel is Jesus Christ. It is Jesus that we proclaim.

Now why does John use terms such as "the life appeared"? He probably did this to counter false gnostic type teachings. They would speak in ephemeral ways about life. We are not talking about anything ephemeral, we are talking about the living God. This God came to earth, He was born, He walked on earth and lived among people. We need to remind ourselves about the reality of our God. 

Eternal life is not just what happens after we die. Eternal life starts the moment we believe in Jesus. It is a whole new way of life which starts to take effect the moment we believe.

John wanted his hearers to have fellowship with him. This meant sharing in the same experience of the living God. Being a Christian is not a matter of adhering to set of beliefs, though beliefs are vital. It is not a matter of following a moral code, though how we live our lives is vital. It is about having fellowship with the living God. 

Today let us make it our ambition to know Christ better.