Daily Devotions – Truth and lies

Daily Devotions – Truth and lies

 

 

Click this link to hear an audio version of the below text narrated by SOTH member Jerry Rhinehart:

1 John 2:18-27 (NIV)

Warnings Against Denying the Son

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. 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. 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.

This section from 1st John follows last Sunday’s reading, and precedes the selection (which begins at 2:28) for tomorrow’s sermon. This section includes important teachings on the anointing of the Spirit and resisting the antichrists. This theme will be covered in more depth in the upcoming Sunday sermon on 1 John 4:1-6 (October 23). Meanwhile, let’s take a quick look. Here John is talking about people who were formerly part of the church, but have left it because they claim to have their own truth about God. John reassures those who have been faithful and stayed with the church that it is they who have the truth and the anointing of the Holy Spirit, because they do not deny the Father and the Son. The “antichrists” are people who claim to be Christians, and claim to be speaking the truth. However, they twist God’s Word for their own advantage and power, and even claim to have received new revelations from God. John urges the faithful to cling to what they have “heard from the beginning.” Read Galatians 1:6-9 where Paul describes a similar situation that happened in his ministry.