1 John, Part 6: Beware of Antichrists

1 John 2:18-23 (BSB)

We are in week 6 of our series on the book of 1 John. We’ve been going slow, really digging into a few verses at a time. At first reading, it might feel as if John is repeating himself. But I hope you’ll agree with me that he’s not just repeating the same message. Like a careful teacher, he’s trying to get a message across. If you’ve been following along these past weeks, let me know if this is a fair summary of what he’s said so far: In order for the love of God to be perfected in us we have to obey His Word, because if we love the world and walk in darkness—instead of obeying Jesus and walking in the light as He walked—then God’s love is not in us and we are liars.

Now today, still in chapter 2, we are looking at a longer section, where John expands on a thought he touched briefly on before. Back in verse 4, he had said, “If anyone says, ‘I know Him,’ but does not keep His commandments, he is a liar and the truth is not in him.” Now he’s saying, in the same way, if someone denies that Jesus is the Christ, that person is an antichrist.

I want to encourage you not to miss anything he says in this next part, because this is one of the most important theological sections of Scripture in the whole Bible. And so, it’s vitally important that we pay attention and understand what John is saying, because, as I think you’ll agree, what he’s describing is exactly what is happening in our world today.

Let’s read this section in its entirety, and then we will go back and look at it verse by verse.

1 John 2:18-29 says:

18 Children, it is the last hour; and just as you have heard that the antichrist is coming, so now many antichrists have appeared. This is how we know it is the last hour. 

19 They went out from us, but they did not belong to us. For if they had belonged to us, they would have remained with us. But their departure made it clear that none of them belonged to us.

20 You, however, have an anointing from the Holy One, and all of you know the truth.

21 I have not written to you because you lack knowledge of the truth, but because you have it, and because no lie comes from the truth. 

22 Who is the liar, if it is not the one who denies that Jesus is the Christ? This is the antichrist, who denies the Father and the Son.

23 Whoever denies the Son does not have the Father, but whoever confesses the Son has the Father as well.

24 As for you, let what you have heard from the beginning remain in you. If it does, you will also remain in the Son and in the Father. 

25 And this is the promise that He Himself made to us: eternal life.

26 I have written these things to you about those who are trying to deceive you. 

27 And as for you, the anointing you received from Him remains in you, and you do not need anyone to teach you. But just as His true and genuine anointing teaches you about all things, so remain in Him as you have been taught.

28 And now, little children, remain in Christ, so that when He appears, we may be confident and unashamed before Him at His coming.

29 If you know that He is righteous, you also know that everyone who practices righteousness has been born of Him.

John doesn’t want the believers to be deceived. He wants them to watch out for liars, whether it’s lies about obeying Jesus’ commands or lies about who Jesus is. Earlier, John told his readers how they could know if they were saved or not. And here, he’s restating this again, too. If they remain in Christ and don’t believe the deceptions of liars and antichrists, then they won’t be ashamed when Jesus returns, and they can be assured they will receive the promise of eternal life.  

Calling them children again, he wants them to listen closely and really understand what he’s saying. Let’s do the same thing. So, going through this again, let’s start at verse 18, which says, “Children, it is the last hour; and just as you have heard that the antichrist is coming, so now many antichrists have appeared. This is how we know it is the last hour.”

We don’t know if John thought Jesus’ return was imminent or not. Some theologians think that maybe he simply meant that we are in the last era until Jesus returns. But maybe he, like other New Testament writers, expected Jesus to return within his lifetime. He wouldn’t be any different from all generations since then, for I think everyone looks at the times in which they live and expects Jesus to return soon.

But John says the fact that antichrists have appeared is proof of how he knows “it is the last hour.” Before we look at why that would be proof, I want to make sure we all understand what John means by “antichrists.”

That word “antichrist” is front and center in our world today, yet I don’t know if most people know what it really means. I think the connotations surrounding this word have overcomplicated it, and most people probably think the Antichrist is one person who will appear in the world right before Jesus returns. But did you know that these epistles of John are the only place where the word “antichrist” is used in the entire Bible? And only five times at that.

The Greek word John uses is “antichristos,” and according to HELPS Word-studies, it means, “opposite to Christ; someone acting in place of (against) Christ.” In other places in Scripture, we see the idea of antichrists, but they aren’t called that. In Mark 13:22 Jesus says, “For false Christs and false prophets will appear and perform signs and wonders to deceive even the elect, if that were possible.” Those false Christs are the same thing as saying an “antichrist.”

So why would the appearance of antichrists mean it’s the last hour? There were a lot of troubling things happening at that time. If John wrote this after 70 A.D., which seems to be the consensus, then the temple in Jerusalem had already been destroyed, and so part of what Jesus had foretold in Mark 13 or Matthew 24:23-25 in which Jesus warns the disciples to watch out for false Christs, had already come true. Jesus says: “At that time, if anyone says to you, ‘Look, here is the Christ!’ or ‘There He is!’ do not believe it. For false Christs and false prophets will appear and perform great signs and wonders to deceive even the elect, if that were possible. See, I have told you in advance.”

I also think John thought Jesus would return soon because, right before this in verse 17, he said that one of the reasons we should not love the world is because “The world is passing away, along with its desires; but whoever does the will of God remains forever.” Now, over two thousand years later, we too would be wise to keep that perspective—that it is the last hour. Therefore, we must be on the lookout, ready and on guard against antichrists who try to deceive us.

Then John says, in verse 19, that these antichrists, “They went out from us, but they did not belong to us. For if they had belonged to us, they would have remained with us. But their departure made it clear that none of them belonged to us.”

Some people use this verse to support the idea that all people who fall away from Christ were never true Christians in the first place, but it isn’t good hermeneutics to try to make this verse prove the doctrine of “eternal security.” John is referring to a specific group of people who left a specific congregation of believers, and he explains exactly why they left. It wasn’t because they weren’t predestined to believe. The text doesn’t tell us if these people ever believed in Jesus or not. John is simply saying that “their departure made it clear that none of them belonged to us” because their leaving proved beyond any doubt that what they were teaching was false. Their breaking fellowship with the community proved it.

It was a good thing those people left, because they didn’t believe the same things John and the other believers knew to be true: that Jesus was who He said He was. They didn’t believe that Jesus was the promised Messiah, God’s Son, born in the flesh. As I said in part 1, John was countering a dangerous lie that claimed Jesus was only spiritual and had not truly come in the flesh. That’s part of why John spent so much time emphasizing that he had physically heard, seen, and touched Jesus in the flesh.

Wanting to encourage them, John says next in verses 20-21, that unlike these deceitful liars, “You, however, have an anointing from the Holy One, and all of you know the truth. I have not written to you because you lack knowledge of the truth, but because you have it, and because no lie comes from the truth.”

The “anointing from the Holy One” is a reference to the Holy Spirit. We see in John 14:26, when Jesus told His disciples that He would be leaving, that He also reassured them by saying, “But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have told you.” Jesus repeats this again in John 15:26, which says, “When the Advocate comes, whom I will send to you from the Father—the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father—He will testify about Me.”

If we believe in Jesus, then we too have the Holy Spirit living inside of us, teaching and reminding us of everything that we have read in Scripture. But as John has been warning everyone, we who believe must continue to believe in order to remain in fellowship with Christ and with one another. We must remain in Jesus. We must not let antichrists deceive us.

Then John explains exactly who an antichrist is. He says in verses 22-24: “Who is the liar, if it is not the one who denies that Jesus is the Christ? This is the antichrist, who denies the Father and the Son. Whoever denies the Son does not have the Father, but whoever confesses the Son has the Father as well.”

Do you see why I said this might be one of the most important theological sections of Scripture in the whole Bible? Who is the antichrist? The person who denies that Jesus is the Christ. If someone doesn’t acknowledge that Jesus is the Son of God, that person does not have the Father. But if they believe Jesus is the Christ, they also have the Father as well. We can’t separate one from the other.

Again, John is echoing something that Jesus said before. In John 8:19-24, after the Pharisees asked who Jesus’ Father was, He says: “’You do not know Me or My Father,’ Jesus answered. ‘If you knew Me, you would know My Father as well.’ He spoke these words while teaching in the temple courts, near the treasury. Yet no one seized Him, because His hour had not yet come. Again He said to them, ‘I am going away, and you will look for Me, but you will die in your sin. Where I am going, you cannot come.’

So the Jews began to ask, ‘Will He kill Himself, since He says, “Where I am going, you cannot come’?”’ Then He told them, ‘You are from below; I am from above. You are of this world; I am not of this world. That is why I told you that you would die in your sins. For unless you believe that I am He, you will die in your sins.’”

Jesus told the Pharisees that they would die in their sins because they were of this world and did not believe in Him. They rejected Jesus, and as such, He said to them, “You do not know Me or My Father.”

Jesus repeats this in John 15:18-23. We looked at this last week, but I want to read part of it again. He said: “If the world hates you, understand that it hated Me first. If you were of the world, it would love you as its own. Instead, the world hates you, because you are not of the world, but…they will treat you like this because of My name, since they do not know the One who sent Me. If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not be guilty of sin. Now, however, they have no excuse for their sin. Whoever hates Me hates My Father as well.”

Jesus unmistakably says that anybody who hates Him hates the Father.

That’s a really big deal. It’s a fundamental theological truth to grasp, because there are a lot of people who say they believe in God, but they have rejected Jesus. Jesus says very clearly that it doesn’t work that way. You can’t reject Jesus and think that you’re worshipping God the Father. They go together.

It’s so important that we really understand this, because if we don’t, we open ourselves up to the influence of antichrists who are trying to deceive us. The antichrists who do not believe that Jesus is the One and only Son of God have rejected Jesus and thereby have rejected God. No matter what these antichrists would have us think, we do not worship the same God as they do. After Jesus established the new covenant by dying and rising from the dead, He became the only way to God the Father. As Jesus proclaimed in John 14:6, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.”

Obviously, this is a difficult position to hold on to because it excludes everyone who does not believe in Jesus. But that’s why John stressed that it’s so important that we don’t love the world. If we want the world’s approval, we will compromise the truth in order not to offend people. To be more acceptable to the world, we will go along with the idea that all these other religions who deny that Jesus is God are still worshiping the Father. But they are not. The only way to the Father is through believing in Jesus.

Then John encourages these believers. He says in verse 24, “As for you, let what you have heard from the beginning remain in you. If it does, you will also remain in the Son and in the Father.”

This word, “remain,” is the same Greek word John has been using throughout this letter. It’s “meno,” and it means remain or abide. It’s the same word Jesus uses in John 15:4 when He says, “Remain in Me, and I will remain in you.”

John must really like this word “meno.” So far, he’s told us that: in order to abide or remain in Jesus, we must walk as Jesus walked and obey His commands; if we want to abide or remain in the Light, we must love our brothers and sisters in Christ; and if we want to be strong and overcome the evil one, the Word of God must abide or remain in our hearts. Now he’s adding another element. If we want to abide or remain in the Son and in the Father, we must let what we’ve heard from the beginning remain in us.

John wants his readers to hold on to the teaching they had originally received and not leave it for a new gospel. John has said this before in 1 John 2:7, which says, “Beloved, I am not writing to you a new commandment, but an old one, which you have had from the beginning. This commandment is the message you have heard.” It is the message that Jesus gave us.

Paul, too, had to urge his followers to reject any “different gospel” than the one they had originally been taught. Galatians 1:6-9 says, “I am amazed that you are so quickly deserting Him who called you by the grace of Christ, for a different gospel; which is really not another; only there are some who are disturbing you and want to distort the gospel of Christ. But even if we, or an angel from heaven, should preach to you a gospel contrary to what we have preached to you, he is to be accursed! As we have said before, so I say again now, if any man is preaching to you a gospel contrary to what you received, he is to be accursed!”

 Jesus also warned everyone. John 8:31-32 says, “So He said to the Jews who had believed Him, ‘If you continue in My word, you are truly My disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.’” Jesus is saying, if we continue believing, if we “hold to My teaching” as some translations say, then we are His disciples. If we abandon the truth and listen to antichrists, then we will not remain in Him.

John is saying, ‘Don’t do that.’ That’s why he’s writing this letter. Verse 26 says, “I have written these things to you about those who are trying to deceive you.”

He wants them to be on the lookout so that they are not deceived. Because in the same way we can know if someone is a believer or a liar by whether they keep Jesus’ commandments or not, we can know whether someone knows God or not. The test is this: Do they deny that Jesus is the Christ? If so, then that person doesn’t actually know God, and we should not listen to them.

There are many antichrists who try to “unite” everyone under the idea that all roads of belief lead to God. But that’s not true. We must reject that lie. Even though there are multitudes of people in the world who say they believe in God, John is clearly saying that unless those people believe that Jesus is the Christ, they are not speaking about God the Father.

Again, in our world that is full of people who follow many different religions, it is a difficult belief to hold on to. People don’t like the idea that there is only one way to God. They want the world’s approval, so they are willing to compromise the truth in order not to offend people. But we need to remember that it’s not our ideas that they hate. It’s the Word of God, and we must fear God and not man. Remember, this is simply the message that Jesus spoke in John 14:6, when He said, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.” Let us not change what God’s Word says in order to make people like us. There is too much at stake.

It is only if we remain in Jesus that we have the assurance of what verse 25 states. John says that Jesus made a promise, “And this is the promise that He Himself made to us: eternal life.”

Not only is that promise of eternal life ours if we remain in our faith in Jesus, but we must share that message with the whole world. Why would we compromise the truth and withhold the way to eternal life from all the multitudes of people of who are dying in their sins? Why would we give them false assurance? We must proclaim that truth, that in order to be saved, all people must believe in Jesus.

The world and the devil are constantly trying to capture our thinking and deceive us. Colossians 2:8 says: “See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deception, which are based on human tradition and the spiritual forces of the world rather than on Christ.” We must hold on to the truth and not let our minds be captured by a lie.

Then, John gives us encouragement. He says in verse 27: “And as for you, the anointing you received from Him remains in you, and you do not need anyone to teach you. But just as His true and genuine anointing teaches you about all things, so remain in Him as you have been taught.”

John’s not saying that these believers don’t need the teachers whom God has placed within the Body of Christ to teach the Church. He’s saying that they don’t need the sort of teachers he has been warning against—the antichrists who were trying to deceive everyone. John is saying they don’t need anyone to teach them some new or special revelation or “truth” that is outside of what they’ve already been taught from Scripture. Scripture is complete. There isn’t anything to add to it.

Again, this is a big problem today. I think there is a general feeling within people that makes us itch for something “more.” We want something new, something novel. People get bored hearing the same things over and over again, and so they go looking for a new idea. Antichrists love to provide that “new” idea to people eager for some new thought.

What’s true is that as we return to God’s Word and read it over and over, the Holy Spirit will speak “new” thoughts to our hearts and minds. They won’t be thoughts that contradict Scripture, but these thoughts will appear new to us as we suddenly realize what we hadn’t seen before, while still holding on to what we have been taught.

Then, John ends this section by saying, in verses 28-29, “And now, little children, remain in Christ, so that when He appears, we may be confident and unashamed before Him at His coming. If you know that He is righteous, you also know that everyone who practices righteousness has been born of Him.”

He wants to reiterate yet again that if we say we know Jesus, then we will obey His commands—but this time he says that we will “practice righteousness.” That means that we will do what is right and walk as Jesus walked.

If we abandon Jesus’ teachings, then we won’t remain in Him. But if we remain in Christ, then when He returns (soon as it may be), we can be confident and unashamed when we see Him.

Isn’t that what we want? Let us hold on to our faith in Jesus Christ. Let us not listen to the antichrists who try to deceive us. There is only one way to God, and that is through faith in Jesus. We can’t proclaim this too many times. It is the key to our salvation, and to the salvation of the world.

Pray: Heavenly Father, we thank You for sending us Jesus, Your one and only Son, to be the sacrifice for our sins. Thank You for making a way for us to come to You. Please help us by Your Holy Spirit to hold on to the truth. Please give us wisdom to reject the lies of antichrists who try to deceive us. Help us to remain in Jesus until You call us home. Amen.