By James Riley Strange, Ph.D.
Professor of New Testament, Samford University
SURE OF THE TRUTH
1 John 2:18–29
Today’s passage continues with what John’s readers already know (read 2:3–4, 12–14). Last week we noted that “antichrists” might have claimed special knowledge about Jesus (2:4). John reminds his readers they “have knowledge.”
We also find the urgency of “the last hour.” Because of the centuries that separate us and John, we can become jaded about this expectation. John taught in light of this urgency, and that should color how we read his words.
What if we lived as if we thought that everything to which we give our time and emotional capital could be gone tomorrow? What if we behaved each moment as if we expected to meet Jesus Christ the next?
Truth keeps us anchored in the faith. (18–21)
John calls his readers “children” about seven times, which suggests that he is writing to new converts. Remember, in the early decades of the Church, most people became Christians rather than being born to Christian parents. Nevertheless, schisms arose quickly.
John calls false teachers “antichrists” (in the New Testament, the word appears only here and in 2 John 7). The prefix “anti-” means “against” while “christ” means “anointed” or “Messiah.” The implication is that antichrists teach things that are opposed both to Christ’s teachings and to what the Church teaches about the Messiah.
We do not know everything they taught, but we get a glimpse from today’s passage and 2 John 7: They must have taught that Jesus did not have a body. Hence, he was neither the Jewish Messiah nor God’s Son.
Note the play on words in verses 18, 20 and 22: John’s readers have been anointed (they are christs with a lowercase “c”) by the very Christ whom antichrists deny.
Truth is grounded in who Jesus is. (22–26)
Antichrists are not merely wrong about doctrine. They also do not “have the Father” because their teachings deny what the Father accomplished through the blood of the Son. They deny the need for Christ’s sacrifice, which means they deny both the problem of sin (read 1:8–2:2) and God’s solution.
Recalling 2:10, John again uses the image of “living” (NIV) or “abiding” (ESV). He tells readers to “live in the Son and Father,” but also, “Let what you heard from the beginning live among you” (the second person pronouns in verses 24 and 27 are plural).
This is not an admonition to memorize doctrine, although John might have thought it was fine to do so. Rather, this is a metaphor of symbiosis: What we have learned lives among us as a congregation, helping us to evaluate what befalls us and to do God’s will in response (2:17). That is what will guard against the antichrists who would deceive us.
Following the truth leads to righteous living. (27–29)
As what we learned should live among us, so should our anointing: our cleansing by the blood of Jesus and the promise of eternal life.
John says this anointing teaches us “about all things.” This is the power of God’s mercy, for it demonstrates the depths and heights of God’s love for us and for the world (2:2), and it removes the barriers we build to loving others, even our fellow Christians.
John uses “if” with a twist of irony (see 2:1). His readers do “know that He is righteous,” so they “also know that everyone who does right has been born of him.” This is another way for John to remind them of what they have learned, and through them, to remind us.
As we grow in faith, God often teaches us, not by giving what is new, but by reminding us of what we know. By God’s grace, we already know how we must live in order to “do right.” And by God’s grace, we can do it.
Thanks be to God.
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