Whoever denies that Jesus is the Christ.
Whoever denies the Father and the Son, this is the antichrist.
Since such an individual was opposed to the fact that Jesus was this Christ he was fitting called an antichrist. Jesus was the one who received the fullness of God's anointing and could thus share that anointing with others. He was the Word at the beginning whose words were the beginning of transforming others into new creations in himself. Jesus was the nonnegotiable starting point. Rejecting him was to ultimately cut oneself off from, not just that specific truth, but the source of all truth. It was not possible to intentionally dispute and willfully disbelieve the role of Jesus while still maintaining a relationship with the Father. It was only through the Son that one had access to the Father.
Anyone who denies the Son does not have the Father,
but whoever confesses the Son has the Father as well.
Why would anyone want to deny the Son? Well, perhaps because the reality of the Son was less convenient than that of the Father. There was so much messy real life history caught up in his identity. The idea of the Father was a harder one to falsify. But the truth of the story of Jesus, as we know, had many opponents. Among those who might have accepted the outlines of that story were many who refused to accept it because they didn't like his teachings or felt threatened by his moral demands. The Father could be imagined as nonthreatening abstract philosophical principle. Of course, doing so involved discounting much of the Old Testament as well. But among people who thought of themselves as innovators in the arena of truth this was not a deal-breaker. But, although they thrived on novelty, novelty was the greatest weakness of their doctrines.
Let what you heard from the beginning remain in you.
If what you heard from the beginning remains in you,
then you will remain in the Son and in the Father.
Many other lesser men would have responded in a different and inferior way to the challenges of the heretics. They would have simply said what was not true and then explained again from the beginning what was true according to them. But, although John pointed out the deficiencies in false doctrine, he did not articulate a positive argument. Rather he deferred to a truth his readers already received. In doing so he recognized that it was not chiefly he who could persuade others. It was God, working through the anointing of his Holy Spirit.
As for you,
the anointing that you received from him remains in you,
so that you do not need anyone to teach you.
The way his listeners received the truth about Jesus was not finally through clever arguments. It was through illumination by God. They did not accept the truth that Jesus was the Christ in the way that they accepted other truths. As with Peter, "flesh and blood" did not reveal it, but rather the Father (see Matthew 16:17). These were a different class of truths. They were not merely facts or arguments to be considered. They were revelation from God that one could either accept, ignore, or reject. It was important for John's readers to remember this. If they forgot, they would be at risk of being deceived any time they couldn't win an argument. But no matter how well a heretic argued, no matter how plausible or desirable was their doctrine, it did not present itself to heart of another with the same gravity and authority of the reveled Word of God. One was human cleverness. The other was revelation. Thus the hearers of John, even though they be simple and untrained, could look within themselves and realize the falsity of the claims being made by the antichrists. They were who they were because of the Word they learned and the anointing that they received. When in doubt, they could fall back on those as fail-safes.
And now, children, remain in him,
so that when he appears we may have confidence
and not be put to shame by him at his coming.
Not succumbing to the lies of the antichrists was more important than merely being correct. It was necessary to remain in relationship with Jesus himself. The stakes were higher than any specific argument. It was his presence within them that had changed their lives in the beginning. And it was their presence in him that was at work drawing them home. Thus it was this presence that John argued should be defended above all else.
Skillet - Jesus, Jesus (Holy And Anointed One)
No comments:
Post a Comment