Endure in the Truth you already know
Children, it is the last hour, and as you have heard that antichrist is coming, so now many antichrists have come. Therefore we know that it is the last hour. They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us. But they went out, that it might become plain that they all are not of us. But you have been anointed by the Holy One, and you all have knowledge. I write to you, not because you do not know the truth, but because you know it, and because no lie is of the truth. Who is the liar but he who denies that Jesus is the Christ? This is the antichrist, he who denies the Father and the Son. No one who denies the Son has the Father. Whoever confesses the Son has the Father also. Let what you heard from the beginning abide in you. If what you heard from the beginning abides in you, then you too will abide in the Son and in the Father. And this is the promise that he made to us — eternal life (1 John 2:18–25 ESV).
Given current world events, it may be easy to look at this passage and think, “Surely this time is the end of the last hour.” It may be tempting to hope these times are the end of the end and Jesus is on his way to enact justice. However, that is not the purpose of this section of John’s letter. The Church has been in the last hour since Jesus ascended into heaven. John’s discussion is one of theology, not chronology. Blaiklock (1959) noted,
“Nothing is so damaging in the study of the New Testament prophecy, it should be observed, as to imagine that the Eternal God, who stands above and outside of time, is bound by the clocks and calendars of men…The only event in world history which can equal the first interruption of God into human history, the First Advent of His Son, is the second interruption, His Second Coming” (27).
No one knows the hour of Christ’s return (Mark 13; Acts 1:6–11). Anyone claiming special insight or knowledge about days, times, or even dispensations speaks from darkness, either in ignorance or malice.
It was people claiming special insights apart from the gospel who were called antichrists in this pericope. These false prophets whose words appealed to reason instead of faith eventually left the fellowship of believers but continued to teach falsely. Then as now, false teachers serve their father, the devil, just as Jesus said of the Pharisees (John 8). They spread doubt: “Did God really say…” (Genesis 3) as they sow division and discord in the Church, both corporately and locally. They speak from and for the world, and the world prefers their words to the Truth. Antichrists may take various angles on how they twist the Truth, but they have one thing in common: they deny the deity of Jesus. John wrote without ambiguity, “Who is the liar but he who denies that Jesus is the Christ?” (1 John 2:22). The lie in the Ephesian church is the same lie that corrupts religion today: Jesus is not God. If Jesus is not who he claimed to be, that is, God Incarnate, then, as Paul wrote, “your faith is in vain…[and] we are of all people most to be pitied” (2 Corinthians 15:14–23).
John wrote to his audience not to be confused by false teachers, but to stand firm in the Truth they already knew. “If what you heard from the beginning abides in you, then you too will abide in the Son and in the Father” (1 John 2:24). And what had they heard from the beginning? That “God is light, and in him is no darkness at all” (1 John 1:5). That Jesus is “the propitiation for our sins, and not for our sins only, but also for the sins of the whole world” (1 John 2:2). Stott(1964/1988) wrote,
“The devil, through the spirit of antichrist, holds the world in unbelief; it is by faith in Jesus as the Son of God that we escape from the devil and thus overcome the world” (107).
John’s purpose was to remind his readers that they already knew the Truth and that by consistently living in Truth, they continued to abide in the Son and in the Father. The same is true today. Relative truths swirl around us on every side as we sink deeper into postmodern and post-Christian culture. Power is not truth. Wealth is not truth. Authority, ideas, philosophies, or influence are not truth. Truth is the Living Word, God Incarnate: Jesus who is the only source of salvation and reconciliation between creation and Creator. This is the gospel that believers from the first century until now know, and it is the Truth, the whole Truth, and nothing but the Truth.
Resources
The ESV Bible. Crossway, 2001, www.esv.org/.
Blaiklock, E.M. Faith is the Victory. Eerdmans Publishing Company. 1959. https://archive.org/details/faithisvictory0000embl/page/26/mode/2up
Stott, John R.W. The Letters of John. Tyndale New Testament Commentaries, vol. 19, InterVarsity Press, 1964, 1988.
Defaulting to Grace 
So good Stephanie! Keep
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