1 John 2:18-23: a reflection

18Little children, these are the end times, and as you heard that the Antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have arisen. By this we know that it is the final hour. 19They went out from us, but they didn’t belong to us; for if they had belonged to us, they would have continued with us. But they left, that they might be revealed that none of them belong to us. 20You have an anointing from the Holy One, and you all have knowledge. 21I have not written to you because you don’t know the truth, but because you know it, and because no lie is of the truth. 22Who is the liar but he who denies that Jesus is the Christ? This is the Antichrist, he who denies the Father and the Son. 23Whoever denies the Son doesn’t have the Father. He who confesses the Son has the Father also.

John writes to Christians unsettled by people who have left the faith and are spreading falsehood, denying that Jesus is the Christ. It is disorienting when those who once seemed to believe walk away and teach against the truth. But John gives his readers a steadying reassurance: you have an anointing from the Holy One, and you all know.

Notice the comfort in that. Believers are not left to sort out truth from lie by their own cleverness alone. They have received an anointing, the Spirit of God, who helps them recognize the truth and hold to it. When falsehood is swirling and confident voices deny what you have believed, you are not defenseless. The same Spirit who brought you to Christ abides in you to keep you in the truth.

That does not mean we stop thinking or ignore sound teaching; it means we are not alone in discerning. When you feel shaken by voices that seem sure of themselves as they deny the faith, remember that you carry an anointing they may lack, the indwelling Spirit who confirms the truth about the Son. Hold to what you know: whoever confesses the Son has the Father also. And trust the anointing within you to keep you steady when the confident falsehoods swirl.

Lord, when confident voices deny the truth and I feel shaken, thank you that I am not left to discern alone. You have given me your Spirit, an anointing to know and hold the truth. Keep me steady in confessing your Son, and let your Spirit within me guard me from falsehood.