The Culture of Hope Founded on Faith

1 John, Part 9 – Error

One of the purposes that John wrote the First Epistle of John to the early Christians was to confirm the truth of who Jesus is and that He is the source of our salvation. 1 John 5:13 says, “These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that you may know that you have eternal life, and that you may believe on the name of the Son of God.” It is clear that his concern was also that we not be drawn into error related to this. As 1 John 4:1-3a states, “Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God because many false prophets are gone out into the world. Hereby know ye the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God and every spirit that confesses not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God.”

To confess that Jesus Christ is come into the world in this passage is not just agreement that a man named Jesus once lived on this earth. John’s carefully worded admonition confirms that Jesus Christ is, in fact, the Son of God. Jesus Himself said, “I and the Father are one” (John 10:29). Furthermore, John 1:1-4 describes Jesus as God: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by Him and without Him was not anything made that was made. In Him was life and the life was the light of men.” John 1:14-15 cites John the Baptist declaring Jesus to be the Word made flesh who “…dwelt among us (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father) full of grace and truth. John bare witness of him, and cried, saying, ‘This was He of whom I spake. He that comes after me is preferred before me for He was before me.’”

In 1 John 2:22-23 the warning about error is taken a step further: “Who is a liar but he that denies that Jesus is the Christ? He that denies the Father and the Son is antichrist. Whosoever denies the Son, the same has not the Father.” We as Christians frequently understand the designation of “antichrist” in connection with the beast and dragon of end times who are described in Revelation 13. 1 John 4:3b, however, makes it clear that it is a more generic term and representative of a pervasive attitude: “This is that spirit of antichrist, whereof ye have heard, that it should come and even now already is it in the world.” The writer of 1 John pronounces his era in history roughly two thousand years ago as “…the last time. As ye have heard that antichrist shall come, even now are there many antichrists whereby we know that it is the last time” (1 John 2:18). Defined by John, then, “antichrist” is anyone who does not believe that Jesus Christ is God incarnate, sent to earth to save our souls through His death, burial, and resurrection.

Throughout 1 John, the writer asserts relationship dynamics as a primary indicator of our relationship with God; for example, the fellowship that comes from walking in the light: “But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanses us from all sin” (1 John 1:7). Another example is brotherly love found in 1 John 2:9-10: “He that says he is in the light, and hates his brother, is in darkness even until now. He that loves his brother abides in the light, and there is none occasion of stumbling in him. But he that hates his brother is in darkness, and walks in darkness, and knows not whither he goes because that darkness has blinded his eyes.”

Likewise, with regard to the error of the antichrists, the relationship dynamic is a termination of fellowship with the people of God: “They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would no doubt have continued with us: but they went out, that they might be made manifest that they were not all of us” (1 John 2:19). In other words, people who had falsely called themselves Christians demonstrated their lack of belief in Jesus as Son of God, the Christ, and personal Lord and Savior by discontinuing their association with true Christians. Darkness has a hard time surviving in the presence of light.

John tenderly refers to his audience as “my little children” when he calls upon us to “Let no man deceive you” about salvation in 1 John 3:7. 1 John 5:1 summarizes the recognition of genuine salvation among those who call themselves Christians with “Whosoever believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God: and every one that loves Him that begat loves him also that is begotten of Him.”

Update/Prayer Request: Thank you for praying for all of us during our recovery from the collision last week. We praise God for His mercy and answers to our prayers. Please pray for on-going healing. Rob and Carolyn had an uneventful trip home and Carolyn is resting to slowly recover from her broken ribs. Dan’s lungs are beginning to clear as he continues to use the nebulizer four times a day: coughing is still very painful, but he is not having to cough as often. Coughing and sneezing is also painful for me, as I am entering my worst allergy season of the year. I spend a lot of time hugging a heating pad to my left side and chest to calm the damaged muscles and connective tissue there. Please pray for comfort for the Coleman family who lost three members of their family in this crash.