1 John 2:18-29

1 John 2:18-29
¹⁸ Dear children, this is the last hour; and as you have heard that the antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have come. This is how we know it is the last hour. ¹⁹ They went out from us, but they did not really belong to us. For if they had belonged to us, they would have remained with us; but their going showed that none of them belonged to us. 

I look back on my lifetime of going to church and think of people that no longer walk with or serve the Lord.  Yes I sin.  Yes I backslide.  Yes I have my hypocrisies.  Yet not matter how much I've tried I can never wander too far from what I know to be right.  I always come back.  Sometimes weeping in repentance and sometimes kicking and screaming because I was actually enjoying my sinful lifestyle.  But it is empty.  There is no fulfillment outside of God.

²⁰ But you have an anointing from the Holy One, and all of you know the truth. ²¹ I do not write to you because you do not know the truth, but because you do know it and because no lie comes from the truth. ²² Who is the liar? It is whoever denies that Jesus is the Christ. Such a person is the antichrist—denying the Father and the Son. ²³ No one who denies the Son has the Father; whoever acknowledges the Son has the Father also.
²⁴ As for you, see that what you have heard from the beginning remains in you. If it does, you also will remain in the Son and in the Father. ²⁵ And this is what he promised us—eternal life. 

This world rejects Him and at times it will be hard for us as well, but in the end there is a reward for us to remain in Christ...eternal life. 

²⁶ I am writing these things to you about those who are trying to lead you astray. ²⁷ As for you, the anointing you received from him remains in you, and you do not need anyone to teach you. But as his anointing teaches you about all things and as that anointing is real, not counterfeit—just as it has taught you, remain in him. 

We study to know what we believe.  This is why John wrote this book.  When false teaching is present we recognize it not because we've studied their teaching, but because we know the word of God so well we will not be lead astray.


²⁸ And now, dear children, continue in him, so that when he appears we may be confident and unashamed before him at his coming. 

Have you ever been caught by your parents doing something you are not allowed to do?  It is the same with God.  Jesus is coming back someday.  We do not know when.  I'd rather not be caught engaged in my sinful habits upon his return.

²⁹ If you know that he is righteous, you know that everyone who does what is right has been born of him. 

Children tend to act like their parents.  My dad was not perfect, but he is a good man and a good example.  Many of my behavioral traits were learned behavior form him.  As we learn of God and follow God we will begin to look and act like him.  People will see that we are different.

God Bless.