Apostle John’s Three Letters . . . 1 John 2:18–27

   Don’t Deny the Son; Remain in Him

Not everyone who speaks confidently about Jesus speaks truthfully about him. John warns that false teaching can arise close to the church, even from people who once appeared to belong. Yet believers needn’t be paralyzed by fear: They’ve received the Holy Spirit’s anointing, know the truth, and are called to remain in the message about Christ they heard from the beginning.

Today’s ten-verse passage contrasts two responses to Christ and the apostolic message. John describes opponents whom he calls false-teaching “antichrists”: They’ve departed from the fellowship, seek to deceive others, and deny the truth about the Father and the Son. In contrast, genuine believers confess the Son, remain in the truth they received from the beginning, and abide in Christ.

In last week’s commentary (shown here), John warned believers not to love the world or its passing desires. This week he turns to another danger: false teaching. Christian discernment isn’t a matter of suspicion or fearfulness; it’s the ability to recognize error by holding firmly to the truth Father God has revealed concerning his Son.

John’s letter addresses at least three closely connected areas of Christian life: love for fellow believers, obedience to God, and faithfulness to the truth about Jesus. These aren’t separate battles fought independently. A distorted view of Christ affects how a person lives, how he or she treats God’s people, and whether that person remains faithful to the gospel.

In vv. 18–27, John uses the term “antichrist” for those who oppose Christ by denying the truth about him. He doesn’t call his readers to panic or to become fascinated with identifying a future figure. He calls them to remain in the message they heard from the beginning, rely on the Spirit’s anointing, and abide in the Son and in the Father.

Starting with v. 18 today, we’ll learn even more of what John needs to tell and warn us about regarding this third “doctrine” battle.

The Departure of False Teachers and Antichrists (1 John 2:18–19)

John now warns his readers about a grave danger: People who’d once been associated with the Christian community but had departed from it and began to deceive others. He calls them “antichrists,” not because each one is the final Antichrist, but because they oppose Christ by denying the truth about him.

John again addresses his readers tenderly as “dear children.” His purpose isn’t to frighten them, but to help them recognize deception and remain firm in the truth they’d received. Verse 26 makes clear that certain people were attempting to lead them astray.

“The last hour” refers to the period of redemptive history between Christ’s first coming, culminating in his ascension into heaven, and his promised return. John’s point isn’t to provide a timetable. Rather, the appearance of many antichrists shows that the final stage of God’s saving plan is underway and that believers must live with spiritual alertness.

John distinguishes between “the antichrist” — whom his readers had heard was coming — and the “many antichrists” already present. His concern in this passage is chiefly with the latter: real people who opposed Christ’s truth and sought to mislead the church. Later in the passage, John identifies the decisive error: denying that Jesus is the Christ, thus denying both the Father and the Son (vv. 22–23).

Verse 19 explains the division. “They went out from us” indicates an actual departure from the fellowship associated with John and the apostolic message. Their departure didn’t create their lack of belonging; it revealed it. Had they truly belonged to that fellowship, John says, they’d have remained. Their exit made visible what their teaching and conduct had already exposed.

This verse shouldn’t be used carelessly to declare that every person who leaves a modern church was never a genuine Christian. John is addressing a particular crisis involving people who separated from the apostolic community while denying essential truth about Christ and attempting to deceive others.

John doesn’t identify the opponents by the later labels “Gnostics” or “Docetists.” Their teaching may have shared features with ideas that later developed under such names, but John keeps the issue focused: They denied the truth concerning Jesus Christ. That’s sufficient reason for believers to reject their message.

The passage also gives needed assurance to faithful believers. The stability of their faith wasn’t based on secret knowledge or human leaders, but on remaining in the truth about Christ received from the beginning. Those who continue in the Son, the Father, and the apostolic gospel show that they belong to God.

Their Denial That Jesus Is the Christ (1 John 2:20–23)

After describing those who departed from the fellowship, John reassures the believers who remained. They’ve received “an anointing from the Holy One,” and therefore they know the truth. John isn’t telling them that they know every truth exhaustively; he’s assuring them that they possess the essential truth about Christ and aren’t dependent on the opponents’ supposed superior knowledge.

The anointing is most naturally understood as the Holy Spirit’s work in believers. God has given his people the Spirit, who enables them to recognize and remain in the truth about the Son. The point isn’t that each believer needs no instruction from faithful teachers, but that the church doesn’t need a new, secret, or competing message in order to know God.

John says that “no lie comes from the truth.” The issue isn’t a minor disagreement or a difference in preference. The opponents’ teaching contradicted the apostolic message about the person of Jesus. Truth and falsehood can’t be blended into a single Christian confession.

John asks and answers who “the liar” is (v. 22): The liar denies that Jesus is the prophesied Messiah. The truth that the church community professed, which the deceiving, lying antichrist denied, was that “Jesus is the Christ.”

John then identifies the central lie: denying that “Jesus is the Christ.” To confess Jesus as the Christ is to confess that Jesus is God’s promised Messiah, the Son sent by the Father. The antichrist opposes Christ by rejecting this truth, and in rejecting the Son also rejects the Father.

Verse 23 is one of John’s clearest statements about fellowship with God: No one can claim the Father while denying the Son. There’s no neutral position toward Christ. The Father has made himself known through his Son, so a relationship with God can’t be separated from a true confession of Jesus Christ. Conversely, whoever acknowledges the Son has the Father also.

This teaching calls believers to hold firmly to the apostolic gospel. Sound doctrine isn’t cold intellectualism; it protects and expresses genuine fellowship with the Father and the Son. A false view of Jesus ultimately produces a false view of God and jeopardizes the hope of eternal life that’s found in Christ.

Warning: If someone knowingly makes unorthodox, heretical statements about Jesus and isn’t willing to consider and agree to the revealed truth, their redemption of sin is doubtful. When God sends somebody to correct you, whether it’s your buddy or a stranger, it’s because God wants the best for you. His willingness to correct you documents how much he cares for you and his eternal relationship with you. The writer of Hebrews confirms this: “If you are not disciplined…you are illegitimate, not true sons and daughters at all” (Hebrews 12:8). So, bring doubts and distorted beliefs into the light of Scripture, and rest in the Son whom the Father has revealed.

Our Anointing by the Spirit (1 John 2:24–27)

False teachers often promise a deeper, newer, or supposedly superior spiritual insight. John gives the opposite counsel: Remain in the original gospel message about Jesus Christ — the message the believers had heard from the beginning. Their protection wasn’t a secret teaching, but continuing in the truth God had already revealed.

In verses 24–25, John calls his readers to let the message they heard “from the beginning” remain in them. This message is the apostolic gospel: the truth concerning Jesus Christ, the Son of God. To remain in that truth is to remain in the Son and in the Father; and the promise attached to this abiding fellowship is eternal life.

Verse 26 explains why John writes so urgently. Certain people were trying to lead believers astray. John doesn’t tell the church to chase every new claim or to become preoccupied with the deceivers. Instead, he directs them back to the truth they’d already received.

In verse 27, John returns to the believers’ “anointing.” This is commonly understood as the Holy Spirit’s continuing work in God’s people. The Spirit teaches believers by confirming and applying the truth about Christ; his teaching is real, not counterfeit like the message of those trying to deceive them.

When John says, “you do not need anyone to teach you,” he isn’t rejecting pastors, teachers, or biblical instruction. He himself is teaching them in this letter. Rather, he means that they don’t need the false teachers’ alleged secret knowledge or an alternative gospel. Through the Spirit, believers have what they need to recognize and remain in the true message about Christ.

John’s final command is simple and vital: “remain in him.” Christian perseverance isn’t achieved by chasing religious novelty or trusting in personal insight. It’s a continuing, Spirit-enabled commitment to the Son, the Father, and the gospel first received.

Apostle John herein appealed to his readers’ ability to discern, through the Spirit’s enlightenment and guidance, whether or not the message of the day conformed to the “Word of life” that they’d “heard from the beginning.” Critical to John’s house churches, and ours today, are a rightly taught Christian community having a well-thought-out understanding of the gospel message.

† Summary and Key Points of 1 John 2:18–27

John warns that many antichrists — people who oppose Christ by denying the truth about him — had appeared and were trying to deceive believers. Yet John doesn’t leave his readers fearful or defenseless. Those who remain in the apostolic message about Jesus, affirm that Jesus is Father God’s Son, and rely on the Spirit’s abiding anointing remain in fellowship with both the Son and the Father and possess the promise of eternal life.

•  The presence of many antichrists signals “the last hour” (v. 18). John calls believers to spiritual alertness because opponents of Christ and his truth were already active.

•  Departure from the apostolic fellowship exposed the opponents’ lack of true belonging (v. 19). Their going out revealed their rejection of the community centered on the apostolic message about Christ.

•  Believers have received an anointing and know the truth (vv. 20–21). God hasn’t left his people dependent on supposed secret knowledge or vulnerable to every new religious claim.

•  Denying the Son means denying the Father (vv. 22–23). The decisive issue is the confession that Jesus is the Christ; whoever acknowledges the Son has the Father also.

•  Believers must remain in the original gospel message and in Christ (vv. 24–27). The message heard from the beginning leads to abiding in the Son and Father, the promise of eternal life, and Spirit-enabled discernment against deception.

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