Remain in the Son

1 John 2:12-27

Key verse: 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.

In this passage, the Apostle John encourages us to love God, to hold onto the truth, and to remain in Jesus. May God bless us to open our hearts to this message and accept it. 

Look at vereses 12-14: 

12 I write to you, dear children, 

    because your sins have been forgiven on account of his name. 

13 I write to you, fathers,

    because you have known him who is from the beginning. 

I write to you, young men,

    because you have overcome the evil one. 

I write to you, dear children, 

    because you have known the Father.

14 I write to you, fathers,

    because you have known him who is from the beginning. 

I write to you, young men,

    because you are strong, 

    and the word of God lives in you, 

    and you have overcome the evil one.

This is Apostle John's song in which he explains his purpose in writing this letter. He addresses three groups: children, fathers, and young men. John's message is for the young, the old, and everyone in-between. John has several reasons for writing this letter: 

- because your sins have been forgiven on account of Jesus' name

- because you have known him who is from the beginning

- because you have known the Father

- because you are strong, 

- and the word of God lives in you, 

- and you have overcome the evil one

This is really a song of encouragement. As we read John's letter, it might seem like these words are meant for some people who have totally forgotten what it means to be a Christian. John talks about basic things like sin, walking as Jesus walked, and loving our brothers and sisters in Christ. But John is not writing these things because we are weak and ignorant Christians. Rather, he is writing these things because we are capable of living by these words. We are capable because of Jesus. Our sins have been forgiven on account of his name. We are capable because we have known God. We known him through the Bible, and we known Him personally through the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives. We are strong because God's Sirit makes us strong; we are strong because the word of God lives in us; and on top of all that, we have already overcome the evil one. 

John wrote these things because it is easy for us to forget them. It is easy for us to start thinking only about how weak and poor we are. When we only think, "I'm  so weak; I'm so poor; I'm a terrible person and a terrible Christian," we end up giving up and giving in. But this is not the reality. No matter how beaten up or weak we feel, the truth is that in Christ we have already won the victory; we are already strong; we are already victorious; we already know God. Regardless of how we feel, this is the truth. John wants us to sing a vicotry song that encourages us to live as Jesus' disciples powerfully. When we are encouraged by the truth, we have strength to accept and apply the rest of John's message for us. 

Look at verses 15-17: 

15 Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. 16 For everything in the world—the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes and the boasting of what he has and does—comes not from the Father but from the world. 17 The world and its desires pass away, but the man who does the will of God lives forever.

John's primary message is about love: what to love and what not to love. Here John talks about what not to love. He says, "Do not love the world or anything in the world. He emphasizes the importance of this command by saying, "If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him."  The love of the world and the love of God are incomparable. As much as we love one, we do not love the other. But why? It is because the things of the world do not come from the Father. But what are the things of the world? They include: the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes and the boasting of what he has and does. When John talks about the things of the world, he isn't talking about physical things. An apple is a physical thing that many people love to eat. But apples come from God ultimately. The things of the world that don't come from God are things like the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes, and the boasting of what he has and does. All of these things have one thing in common: a perverted relationship between people and their environment.  

Let's think about the "cravings of sinful man." A craving is a powerful desire for something; its a longing. God created man in His image so that man could reveal the glory of God. Man's deepest desire should be to glorify God. We should long to be closer to God. But sinful man longs for things that do not bring glory to God; things that pervert God's intention. For example, God intended sexual relationships to be between a man and a woman for the purpose of building a family, but sinful man craves sex outside of marriage. Pleasures that we experience in this world are not themselves bad, but craving these things perverts God's purpose. Instead of enjoying what God has created in a way that glorifies God, we end up forgetting about God and abusing what he has provided us. 

Another form of loving the world is lusting after what we see. Of course, this includes things like viewing pornography. It also could include lusting after a cool car or a beautiful handbag. We may not do anything else but look at these things and lust after them, but even this is a big problem because it makes these things into idols that take God's place in our hearts. 

The love of the world also includes boasting of what we have or what we have done. Why do we boast? We boast because we desire the praise and recognition of other people. This is a problem because we should desire the recognition of God. As Christians, it's easy for us to realize that we need to struggle against sinful sexual cravings and lust, but it's much harder to recognize that we need to be equally dilligent in struggling against the desire to be recognized and praised by people. "Boasting" of what we have and do can be subtle; we don't even need to say anything, yet we desire that others would know and praise us. When I clean up or fix something around the house, I usually point it out to my wife so she can praise me. I'm not sure if that kind of boasting is included in this message. However, I am sure that it is possible to love the praise of people so much that this becomes the true goal of one's life: to bring glory to oneself rather than God. That is the love of the world.  

Not only does the love of the world push God out of our lives, but it also opens the door for antichrsits to come into our lives. 

Look at verses 18-19: 

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.

Here John warns against antichrists. The word "antichrist" literally means someone who is against Christ. It also means someone who is not Christ and yet who tries to take Christ's place. But what does "Christ" mean? Christ is the one sent by God to be our savior and king. There is only one true Christ -- Jesus. An antichrist will try to take Jesus' place. As the day of Jesus' return approaches, more and more antichrists will pop up, and many of them will originate from within the church. Church leaders, therefore, must be careful that they don't love being leaders so much that they end up trying to take Christ's place in people's lives. 

How can we be on guard and protect ourselves against antichrists? Look at verses 20-23: 

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 the man who denies that Jesus is the Christ. Such a man is the antichrist—he denies the Father and the Son. 23 No one who denies the Son has the Father; whoever acknowledges the Son has the Father also.

The first thing we need to do is to hold onto the truth that we have already learned. One of the main strategies of antichrists is to claim that they have some special secret information that other people have not been able to figure out or don't understand. Such messages are attractive because they usually come with some kind of promise: the secret to being holy; the secret to experiencing God; the secret to living a powerful life. But the gospel is not a secret; God doesn't want it to be a secret. God wants the truth to be known. No one hides a lamp under a bowl; the lamp is put on a stand so that everyone can see by its light. God has given us his word which is a shining lamp that is accessible to everyone. What we need to watch out for is anything that contradicts the clear truth of the gospel. Anyone who denies that Jesus is the Christ contradicts the truth. In John's day, there were people who said that Jesus was not the Christ; that he was just a prophet or a spiritual man. But this clearly contradicts the truth that we know. Jesus is the Son of God and whoever denies the Son has the Father. 

 All of this seems pretty straight forward, and it is. Yet many Christians have been deceived. It is most easy to be deceived when we have a serious problem or when our relationship with God is not that great. We want to find some solution. I think that the desire to find quick solutions is a major reason people end up being deceived. We would like to believe that the reason we are having a hard time is because there was something we didn't know. But the truth is that we already have the truth. We have a hard time mostly because we are trying to hard to make things perfect here on earth rather than putting our hope in the kingdom of God and Jesus. We might also be having a hard time because we love the world. In that case, the answer is not found in new and better teachings; the answer is to repent and turn back to God. 

 

Therefore, we must hold onto the truth we have received and the hope of eternal life, as John says in verses 24-25: 

24 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—even eternal life.

Again, what we need is not new knowledge; we need to remain. Look at verses 26-27: 

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.

As Christians, we have been anointed by the Holy Spirit. We know this annointing is real because it came with power that changed our life direction and desire. Although we still live in this world and still have to struggle to love God instead of this world, our feet have been set on a new path by the power of God. We are followers of Jesus. We are branches, and Jesus is our trunk. As long as we remain in Jesus, we will bear fruit that glorifies God. That is basically our job as Christians. In that respect, we don't need anyone to teach us. We already know what we should do. No one can teach us anything new or better in this sense. We can benefit a lot from being taught the Bible and about the Christian life, but all these teachings are only footnotes to the key message that we already know: Jesus is the Christ and everyone who remains in him will have eternal life. 

May God help us to hold onto the truth and love Him with all our heart, mind, soul, and strength. 

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