Read with Me
1 John 2:26-28 (HCSB)
I have written these things to you about those who are trying to deceive you.
The anointing you received from Him remains in you, and you don’t need anyone to teach you. Instead, His anointing teaches you about all things and is true and is not a lie; just as He has taught you, remain in Him.
So now, little children, remain in Him, so that when He appears we may have boldness and not be ashamed before Him at His coming.
Listen with Me
In a very real sense, most of Chapter 2 of John’s letter has been a warning and a corrective based on the foundational truths he presented in chapter 1. And the warnings were not hypothetical or academic. There really were people going about trying to coopt the gospel message for their own gain, and they were leading some astray and destroying completely the faith of others. It was a soul threatening problem.
John’s hope in the face of the reality of these wolves in sheep’s clothing (Matthew 7:15), is the anointing that the believers had received, being filled with the Holy Spirit who was living in them, and guiding all who are willing to respond to His leading. The Holy Spirit, just as promised by Jesus Himself, was able to teach the followers of Jesus all things, remind them of all that He had said to His followers while He was with them (John 14:26), and guide them into all truth (John 16:13). That wisdom would serve to protect them from the snares of the enemy which were embedded in the false teachings that were being presented so attractively.
But in order to avail themselves of that divine insight, wisdom and guidance, the believers themselves had to take an active role, remaining in Jesus not only through faith, but through obedience (John 15:5-14). It was only through remaining in Jesus that the people of the kingdom could continue to live in the wisdom and power that was needed to avoid the snares being laid out for them.
And it is the same today, but on a much larger scale. The same spirit of antichrist is present in the world today, attempting to draw God’s people away from wholehearted devotion to Him, cutting them off from the power of the Holy Spirit by undermining their faith and obedience, and using fine sounding arguments to persuade people to turn to what is billed as a more sophisticated faith but which is really the same lies of the enemy repackaged for a modern audience (“Did God really say…?” “Oh, you won’t really die…” Genesis 3:1, 4). Now as then, far too many Christians have been led astray, persuaded to doubt the truth of the Scriptures, and to even receive a different gospel, a gospel of “social justice”, or “liberal thinking” or “acceptance” in place of the truth that all are lost and broken without Jesus, and that no amount of “right thinking” or “social activism” or “acceptance” can save them. Only repentance, belief in who Jesus truly was and what He truly did, and a deep commitment to follow and obey him can truly save.
Pray with Me
Father, it’s interesting, but sometimes I think that people believe that until the Antichrist himself appears, that the spirit of antichrist is absent from our world, and we don’t have to worry. But in this chapter, John has clearly showed that that belief is wrong, and that it is leading people astray, sometimes clear off the narrow road of salvation. Lord, we need the divine wisdom that can only come through the power of your Holy Spirit if to going to successfully navigate the times in which we are living. Open our eyes to clearly see the enemy’s traps for what they are, and help us to avoid every one of them and to hold tightly to You, all the way to the end. Amen.