John is not against us learning from preaching and teaching (thankfully!) but warning us against those who are leading people astray through spiritual experiences that at the same time dethrone Jesus Christ. Now he affirms our position and has confidence that we will not be deceived.

“As for you, the anointing you received from him remains in you, and you do not need anyone to teach you. But as his anointing teaches you about all things and as that anointing is real, not counterfeit—just as it has taught you, remain in him.” (1 John 2 v 27)

As for you. Pause. How is it with you and the Holy Spirit? A questions that takes time to answer.

 ^“I am writing these things to you about those who are trying to lead you astray.” (1 John 2 v 26)

Charismatic figures through their false teaching were leading John’s people astray from the truth. John exposes them. This is the reason for his writing.

But what about us?

Would we be led astray by such personalities? There is a fine line sometimes between respect and honour and a culture where the charisma outweighs character.

Confidence, passion, optimism, great communication and gifting needs a culture which appraises on a regular basis whether the Christians are being drawn closer to Jesus or not. The lifestyle of those who are teaching/leading needs to be scrutinised. Can you see Jesus in their language and their attitudes? Are they loving people? Is there an atmosphere of fear circling them or one of vulnerability?

But it doesn’t stop in the pulpit. Look at the pews. Are there groups within the church trying to topple and oust their Pastor? Are they trying to lead people astray from their under-shepherd? Ask the same questions.

In our desire for a new season and new experiences let us never advance so far that we become detached from our alignment to what we had at the beginning. We must take the beginning with us, it must be in us and it must emerge through everything we do. This gospel of Jesus Christ is not something to believe but also to experience, to abide in. Jesus Christ is our beginning.

“As for you, see that what you have heard from the beginning remains in you. If it does, you also will remain in the Son and in the Father. And this is what he promised us—eternal life.” (1 John 2 v 24-25)

The benefits for not moving on from the beginning is the ongoing relationship with the Son and the Father. At the end of everything we will be asked by the Lord, “Do we know each other?” Take the beginning with you and your answer will be yes! And with this relationship we therefore have life!

John’s problem is that the Church were being fed teaching that held to a Christianity without Christ, a Christ without Jesus, the cross without Jesus paying the ransom for sin and therefore a Christianity without ‘Jesus the Christ’ transforming our lives. In 2023 there is still such a danger. What do I mean? The challenge within all our religious wars and hard-working programmes is where is the Lordship of Christ? Can we see the incarnation through our lives? What sin are we saved from? How are we being transformed by the intercessory work of the Son before the Father?

“But you have an anointing from the Holy One, and all of you know the truth. I do not write to you because you do not know the truth, but because you do know it and because no lie comes from the truth. Who is the liar? It is whoever denies that Jesus is the Christ. Such a person is the antichrist—denying the Father and the Son. No one who denies the Son has the Father; whoever acknowledges the Son has the Father also.” (1 John 2: 20-23)

BUT YOU!

A nice reminder from John to you and me.

We have an anointing (of the Holy Spirit) from the Holy One (Jesus Christ).

Whatever visions, revelations and special Spirit moments we might have in 2023 they must come from and point back to the truth rooted in history that Jesus is the Christ (meaning Lordship/obedience; incarnation; sin; transformation).

We live in a world that says, ‘what is true for you may not be true for me’, there are no right or wrong answers, it is all relative and truth is an experience.

That is John’s problem … and ours.

The anointing gives knowledge (truth). Oppose Jesus and you lose the truth. This is because truth is anchored in the history of what has happened with regards Jesus Christ. It is not an opinion, perception or an experience, it is more.

The result of the anointing:-

Is knowing the truth of what has been revealed by Jesus the Christ in the gospels.

It is to be in alignment with obedience to Jesus, the world seeing Jesus in us, the forgiveness of sin by Jesus and the change Jesus makes in our lives.

Next time you find yourself in the middle of a religious war or are planning the programme of your life or church ask yourself am I being obedient? Can people see Jesus in me? What sin is here? How will this change me/others to be like Jesus?

Of course you need to keep your eye on Jesus but you will see what I mean!

As we have seen John is so keen to uphold the person of Jesus Christ and to challenge those who are dethroning Him. It is still the greatest challenge to the church today. The question is not about the achievement of the Church but the obedience to the Lordship of Christ. Anything less is an antichrist.

For 2,000 years the church has believed in an Anti-Christ figure is to come and have pointed at many people who they think may be it. John will say many have arrived already.

 ^“Dear children, this is the last hour; and as you have heard that the antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have come. This is how we know it is the last hour. They went out from us, but they did not really belong to us. For if they had belonged to us, they would have remained with us; but their going showed that none of them belonged to us.” (1 John 2 v 18-19)

He is living in the last hour. He believes in the soon return of Jesus Christ and for John it is very soon. How does he know?

By what is happening in the church as much as outside in the world.

Either the decline or departing from the truth is what we must keep our eye on.

Maybe there was a short term mission’s team that went out preaching and teaching in the churches across the region and they departed from the truth and that is why John is writing to combat their deception. Maybe ‘they’ were leading personalities in the church who drifted away (3 John 1:9 Diotrephes) and John is saying they weren’t part of us really.

Whatever happened John could see that what was happening to the Church indicated that the antichrist was already here and they had entered the last period of time of this world.

Having listed the privileges of the church: their sins are forgiven; they know Jesus who is from the beginning; they know God the Father; they are strong because the Word of God lives in them and so are able to overcome the evil one. Here is the reason why John is writing:

“Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, love for the Father is not in them. For everything in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—comes not from the Father but from the world. The world and its desires pass away, but whoever does the will of God lives forever.” (1 John 2 v 15-17)

How is it possible that the Church can move from experiencing Jesus Christ and loving each other to loving, desiring, lusting after other things?

It is possible.

Without falling into the trap of producing a list which alienates and produces arguments let me take what John says and apply to the Church today. The problem is far greater than lust and boasting. Here is what I see:

1. The revelation the Church should have is of Jesus Christ nothing else. That has to be the strategy, the vision, the mission, the plan, the desire of our lives personally and in the Christian community. Anything less is faulty revelation. Anything that doesn’t draw us nearer to Jesus is useless. Is this glorifying Jesus? A good question.
2. The Church should always be able to be seen to need a Saviour. We have never arrived. We need God. Some testimonies have a flavour of arrogant accomplishment where we end up scratching our heads at who actually did this amazing act. Pride tells us we are entitled to something. Pride focuses on achievement and not obedience. Pride talks to others not God.
3. If the Church falls into the above it will die with the world. If it does not abandon its position it will live.

John comes to the younger generation (in age and including females) and he encourages them also. The children (the church) are forgiven; and to be specific, the fathers (the older generation) have known Jesus from the beginning (many years experience) and so to the younger generation:

“I am writing to you, young men, because you have overcome the evil one. I write to you, young men, because you are strong, and the word of God lives in you, and you have overcome the evil one.”

1 John 2:13-14 NIV

As we have seen John is passionate about the Church and preserving it from the anti-Christs within. We will see in the upcoming verses that he wants to keep the church from loving the world.

To this younger generation he is reminding them of their position in Christ as overcoming.

Leaders that want to play around with a variety of models of Church often do it out of despair, discouragement and personal battles that no one sees. They can have successful ministries and churches and then suddenly overnight they pack it all up and decide to deconstruct what God has built. Next generation don’t let it happen. You have overcome despair. You have overcome discouragement. You have overcome every personal battle that the evil one presents. You are strong because of your experience and encounter of Jesus Christ the Word or God.

Let your decisions for the future of the church come from a place of victory and not defeat.

Don’t deconstruct what Jesus has constructed. Keep fighting for the church from the place of decided victory

We will find out the reason why John is writing this letter soon but here he is listing those he is writing to. Firstly the children which were the believers who knew forgiveness of Jesus and who knew God. Now it is fathers. But this not gender rather it is those who are the mature believers in the church, so female also.

“I am writing to you, fathers, because you know him who is from the beginning. I write to you, fathers, because you know him who is from the beginning.” (1 John 2 v 13-14)

Remember the opening? “That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched—this we proclaim concerning the Word of life.” (1 John 1 v 1) Remember the gospel? “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” (John 1 v 1)

The mature of the church are those who have a genuine experience of Jesus and from the beginning. Their experience is rooted in the things of the past. This in itself is a vital message for the church today!

Out with the old and in with the new does not involve people.

If the church truly moves into a new season or a new day they will do so with the mature who have been anchored to the experience of Jesus since the beginning. The world doesn’t need a rootless church.

Well there’s something to equal that certainly!

“I am writing to you, dear children, because your sins have been forgiven on account of his name. I write to you, dear children, because you know the Father.” (1 John 2 v 12, 14)

John is writing not to children as we may think but to the Church that he calls children. The word he uses is ‘teknion’ which has training attached to it. We are a work in progress. We are growing. But one thing is clear, because of Jesus, our sins are forgiven. There is more. Again because of Jesus you know God the Father (John 14 v 9).

Pause today. Those two things are fixed. So do not doubt you are forgiven or you know God. Yes you are still in training and we will be for the rest of our life. Yes we are all sinners. But do not let the accuser influence you away from the truth that because of Jesus you are forgiven and you know God.

Church people can claim a lot of things. They can claim to ‘know him’ (v4), to ‘live in him’ (v6) and now in v9 ‘to be in the light’ but for it all to be false. The reason being is somethings are just impossible.

“Anyone who claims to be in the light but hates a brother or sister is still in the darkness. Anyone who loves their brother and sister lives in the light, and there is nothing in them to make them stumble. But anyone who hates a brother or sister is in the darkness and walks around in the darkness. They do not know where they are going, because the darkness has blinded them.” (1 John 2 v 9-11)

Written to those within the Church:-

It is impossible to be in the light and hate at the same time.

It is impossible to get out of the darkness if you hate.

It is impossible to love and not be in the light.

It is impossible to stumble when there is nothing to sin about.

It is impossible to hate and not be in darkness.

It is impossible to receive guidance when you are blinded by darkness.

The problem is not only whether you love but whether you hate.

For John the problem was within not outside the Church.