John is so eager for believers to walk as Jesus walked—to walk in his love, that even in his warning against antichrists, he reminds them that they have been anointed by Christ and know the truth. They have what it takes, so to speak, to discern the ways of the Evil One. The verses in our passage today continue to press this point:
I have not written to you because you don’t know the truth, but because you do know it, and because no lie comes from the truth. Who is the liar, if not the one who denies that Jesus is the Christ? This one is the antichrist: the one who denies the Father and the Son. No one who denies the Son has the Father; he who confesses the Son has the Father as well. What you have heard from the beginning is to remain in you. If what you have heard from the beginning remains in you, then you will remain in the Son and in the Father. And this is the promise that he himself made to us: eternal life.
1 John 2:21-25 CSB
What is the opposite of the truth we possess? Lies.
To further define and distinguish antichrists, those who he earlier said, “did not really belong to us,” John calls them liars. What does a liar say? Jesus is NOT the Christ. What makes this such a line in the sand? Because to claim that Jesus was a prophet, a good man, and a great teacher, though all good and true, are not sufficient for the work of redemption. Only in acknowledging Jesus as the Christ—the Sent One—do we testify to his purpose in coming as Savior and Lord. Sent from God to accomplish what no ordinary man could accomplish.
When a person denies Jesus is the Christ, he is also denying the relationship that is intrinsic in the Trinity—that between God the Father and Christ the Son. Not only does Satan seek to destroy earthly family relationships, but he does it because he wants us all to deny the relationship of relationships that is made known throughout Scripture.
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The Word became flesh and dwelt among us. We observed his glory, the glory as the one and only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.
John 1:1,14.
Let this truth remain in you.
From Genesis through Revelation, God has revealed this truth. One in Three—the God of relationship who desires relationship with us through Christ. He has made the way. Only in accepting Jesus as the Christ and acknowledging our inability to find a solution to our sin, has God granted us eternal life. That truth, in the form of his Spirit, comes and lives in us and nothing is ever the same.
As long as we focus on this truth and meditate daily upon it in our Bible study and prayer, the liars have no inroads into our hearts. May you remain in the truth today and always by his…
Grace and Peace