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Who is the liar but he who denies that Jesus is the Christ? This is the Antichrist, he who denies the Father and the Son. Whoever denies the Son doesn’t have the Father. He who confesses the Son has the Father also.
Therefore, as for you, let that remain in you which you heard from the beginning. If that which you heard from the beginning remains in you, you also will remain in the Son, and in the Father.
1 John 2:22-24 sits inside this longer paragraph.
Little 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. They 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. You have an anointing from the Holy One, and you all have knowledge. I 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. Who is the liar but he who denies that Jesus is the Christ? This is the Antichrist, he who denies the Father and the Son. Whoever denies the Son doesn’t have the Father. He who confesses the Son has the Father also.
Therefore, as for you, let that remain in you which you heard from the beginning. If that which you heard from the beginning remains in you, you also will remain in the Son, and in the Father. This is the promise which he promised us, the eternal life. These things I have written to you concerning those who would lead you astray. As for you, the anointing which you received from him remains in you, and you don’t need for anyone to teach you. But as his anointing teaches you concerning all things, and is true, and is no lie, and even as it taught you, you will remain in him. Now, little children, remain in him, that when he appears, we may have boldness, and not be ashamed before him at his coming. If you know that he is righteous, you know that everyone who practices righteousness has been born of him.
Who is the liar but he who denies that Jesus is the Christ? This is the Antichrist, he who denies the Father and the Son.
Whoever denies the Son doesn’t have the Father. He who confesses the Son has the Father also.
Therefore, as for you, let that remain in you which you heard from the beginning. If that which you heard from the beginning remains in you, you also will remain in the Son, and in the Father.
Who is a lyar: but he that denyeth that Iesus is Christ? The same is the Antichrist that denyeth the father and the sonne.
Whosoever denyeth the sonne the same hath not the father.
Let therfore abyde in you that same which ye hearde from the begynnynge. Yf that which ye hearde from the begynnynge shall remayne in you ye also shall continewe in the sonne and in the father
Who is a liar, but he that denyeth that Iesus is that Christ? the same is that Antichrist that denyeth the Father and the Sonne.
Whosoeuer denyeth the Sonne, the same hath not the Father.
Let therefore abide in you that same which ye haue heard from the beginning. If that which ye haue heard from the beginning, shall remaine in you, ye also shall continue in the Sonne, and in the Father.
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John Calvin 1540 · Public Domain On vv22–24 22 Who is a liar He does not assert…
22 Who is a liar He does not assert that they alone were liars who denied that the Son of God appeared in the flesh, lest no one in unloosing the knot should above measure torment himself; but that they surpassed all others, as though he had said, that except this be deemed a lie, no other could be so reckoned; as we are wont commonly to say, “If perfidy towards God and men is not a crime, what else can we call a crime?”
What he had generally said of false prophets, he now applies to the state of his own time; for he points out, as by the finger, those who disturbed the Church. I readily agree with the ancients, who thought that Cerinthus and Carpocrates are here referred to. But the denial of Christ extends much wider; for it is not enough in words to confess that Jesus is the Christ, except he is acknowledged to be such as the Father offers him to us in the gospel. The two I have named gave the title of Christ to the Son of God, but imagined him to be man only. Others followed them, such as Arius, who, adorning him with the name of God, robbed him of his eternal divinity. Marcion dreamt that he was a mere phantom. Sabellius imagined that he differed nothing from the Father. All these denied the Son of God; for not one of them really acknowledged the true Christ; but, adulterating, as far as they could, the truth respecting him, they devised for themselves an idol instead of Christ. Then broke out Pelagius, who, indeed, raised no dispute respecting Christ’s essence, but allowed him to be true man and God; yet he transferred to us almost all the honor that belongs to him. It is, indeed, to reduce Christ to nothing, when his grace and power are set aside.
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So the Papists, at this day, setting up freewill in opposition to the grace of the Holy Spirit, ascribing a part of their righteousness and salvation to the merits of works, feigning for themselves innumerable advocates, by whom they render God propitious to them, have a sort of fictitious Christ, I know not what; but the lively and genuine image of God, which shines forth in Christ, they deform by their wicked inventions; they lessen his power, subvert and pervert his office.
We now see that Christ, is denied, whenever those things which peculiarly belong to him, are taken away from him. And as Christ is the end of the law and of the gospel, and has in himself all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge, so he is the mark at which all heretics level and direct their arrows. Therefore the Apostle does not, without reason, make those the chief impostors, who fight against Christ, in whom the full truth is exhibited to us.
He is Antichrist He speaks not of that prince of defection who was to occupy the seat of God; but all those who seek to overthrow Christ, he puts them among that impious band. And that he might amplify their crime, he asserts that the Father, no less than the Son, is denied by them; as though he had said, “They have no longer any religion, because they wholly cast away God.” And this he afterwards confirms, by adding this reason, that the Father cannot be separated from the Son.
John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain On vv22–24 Is the true Messiah.
Is the true Messiah.
He showeth now plainly the false doctrine of the Antichrists, to wit, that either they fight against the person of Christ, or his office or both together, and at once. And they that do so do in vain boast and brag of God, for that in denying the Son the Father also is denied.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv22–24 22 Who is a liar but he that denieth…
22 Who is a liar but he that denieth that Jesus is the Christ? He is antichrist, that denieth the Father and the Son.
Ver. 22. That denieth that Jesus] Papists deny him as a King, in setting up the pope; as a Priest, in setting up the mass; as a Prophet, in piecing their human traditions to the Holy Scriptures.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain On vv22–24 Especially may the ill accord be discerned between Divine…
Especially may the ill accord be discerned between Divine truth and a lie, when the lie is so directly levelled against the foundations upon which the whole fabric is built, as the denying Jesus to be the Christ strikes at all. And though he that doth so, seems not only an
antichrist as directing his opposition but against Christ, he really as much
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denieth the Father, who testified of him.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
William Burkitt 1703 · Public Domain On v24 These words are an exhortation to hold fast, and…
These words are an exhortation to hold fast, and not to forsake the doctrine of Christianity, which from the beginning they have received, and not to turn to novelties. Let that abide in you which ye have heard from the beginning; that is, from the first preaching of the gospel .
Note here, What is truth and true doctrine, namely, that which was delivered from the beginning. Truth is error’s elder, though error is not much truth’s younger.
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Note, 2. By what means they received the evangelical doctrine, namely, by hearing let that which ye have heard abide in you, No sense more needful than that of hearing, for the benefit and advantage of man; both as he is by nature a reasonable creature, by converse a sociable creatue, and may be by grace a new creature; Faith cometh by hearing.
Note, 3. The duty required with reference to what they had heard; let that which ye have heard abide in you, namely, by a careful remembrance of it, and by resolute adherence to it. The sum of this exhortation is, that we retain and maintain the ancient catholic and apostolic faith; and verily when we consider how tenacious heretics are of their novel errors, it may bring a blush into our faces to consider how ready we are to be withdrawn from primitive truths.
Observe next, The motive with which our apostle doth enforce and back his exhortation If that which ye have heard remain in you, you shall continue in the Son, and in the Father; that is, in the love and favour of the Son, and of the Father, and in communion with both.
Quest. But why is the Son put before the Father here? Partly to insinuate, that the Son is no less in essencce and dignity than the Father, but equal in both; accordingly, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ in the apostolical benediction, is mentioned before the love of God the Father: And partly, because no man cometh to, or continueth in the Father, but by the Son, He is the way, the truth, and the life.
The doctrine of the gospel comes from Christ; it leads to Christ, and by him unto the Father. If a man keep my word, we will make our abode with him. Joh 14:23
William Burkitt's Expository Notes on the New Testament (1700–1703) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain On vv22–24 Who is a liar, but he that denieth that…
Who is a liar, but he that denieth that Jesus is the Christ?.... Or that very Christ, and true Messiah, who was spoken of by all the prophets, since the beginning of the world, and so much, and so long desired by the Old Testament saints: he that denies that Jesus of Nazareth is the Messiah of the prophets, is not indeed the only liar in the world, but he is the greatest of liars; this is a consummate lie, being opposed to a glaring truth, to a fact clear an indisputable; and which rests not merely on the testimony of Jesus, who is truth itself, and who, in express words, more than once, declared and asserted himself to be the Christ; but all the characters of the Messiah, everything that is said of him in the Prophets, meet in Jesus, and the miracles which were done by him are flagrant proofs and undeniable evidences of his being the Christ of God; and all the apostles believed, and were sure that he was Christ, the Son of the living God: to which may be added the testimony of John, who was sent, and came to bear witness of him, and did; and who was a prophet, and a man of great probity and integrity. But there was a greater witness than he; even God himself, by a voice from heaven, bore a testimony to him; and angels, at his incarnation, declared him to be the Saviour, which is Christ the Lord; yea, the devil himself, who is a liar, and the father of ties in other things, knew and owned Jesus to be the Christ; so that those that deny him are the worst of liars, even worse than the devil himself. This may have regard not only to the Jews, that deny Jesus to be the Messiah, but chiefly to such who went by the name of Christians; who denied either his proper deity, or real humanity, as Ebion and Cerinthus, which was denying him to be the God-man, the Mediator, and Messiah; and is true of all such that deny him in any of his offices, or in things relating to them, as his Gospel, and any of the peculiar doctrines of it, delivered by him, and so deny his prophetic office; or any of his ordinances, institutions, and appointments, as lawgiver in his house, and King of saints, and so deny him in his kingly office; or reject him as the alone Saviour, joining their own works with him, in the business of salvation, and oppose his sacrifice and satisfaction, and despise his imputed righteousness, and so deny him in his priestly office. Now these are some of the liars, and these some of the doctrinal lies, which are not of the truth, as in 1Jo_2:21.
He is antichrist that denieth the Father and the Son: that denies the Father of Christ to be the Creator of the world, but asserts that it was made by angels, as some ancient heretics did; or that the Father of Christ is not the God of the Old Testament, as Marcion; or that denies that God is the Father of Christ, and that Christ is the Son of God; who will not allow that there is any such relation in nature between them; who affirm that Christ is only the Son of God by adoption, or because of his love to him, or because of his incarnation and resurrection from the dead; or that he is not his true and proper Son, only in a figurative and metaphorical sense; that he is not the natural and eternally begotten Son of God, only by office, and as Mediator, and that God is only his Father, as having installed him into an office; or he that denies that these two are distinct from each other, but affirms that Father is the Son, and the Son is the Father, and so confounds them both, and, by confounding both, denies that there are either Father or Son; and all such persons are antichrists, or opposers of Christ.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain On vv22–24 Who is that liar - Who is guilty of…
Who is that liar - Who is guilty of that lying, but he who denies that truth which is the sum of all Christianity? That Jesus is the Christ; that he is the Son of God; that he came in the flesh, is one undivided truth. and he that denies any part of this, in effect denies the whole. He is antichrist - And the spirit of antichrist, who in denying the Son denies the Father also.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On vv22–24 Verse 22. Who is a liar but he that…
Verse 22. Who is a liar but he that denieth that Jesus is the Christ?] Here we see some of the false doctrines which were then propagated in the world. There were certain persons who, while they acknowledged Jesus to be a Divine teacher, denied him to be the Christ, i.e. the MESSIAH.
He is antichrist, that denieth the Father and the Son,] He is antichrist who denies the supernatural and miraculous birth of Jesus Christ, who denies Jesus to be the Son of God, and who denies God to be the Father of the Lord Jesus; thus he denies the Father and the Son. The Jews in general, and the Gnostics in particular, denied the miraculous conception of Jesus; with both he was accounted no more than a common man, the son of Joseph and Mary. But the Gnostics held that a Divine person, AEon, or angelical being, dwelt in him; but all things else relative to his miraculous generation and Divinity they rejected. These were antichrists, who denied Jesus to be the Christ.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain On v24 1Jn 2:24-25. Let that therefore abide in you —…
1Jn 2:24-25. Let that therefore abide in you — Namely, that doctrine concerning the Father and the Son; which ye have heard from the beginning — Of the preaching of the gospel: retain a firm belief of it, and let your minds be so impressed with a sense of its certain truth and infinite importance, that it may have the desired influence on your spirit and conduct. If that which ye have heard, &c., shall remain fixed and rooted in you — If you persevere in the faith of the gospel, and show that you do so by your life and conversation; ye also shall continue in the Son and in the Father — Genuine members of Christ’s mystical body, and consequently in the love of God, and in communion with him. And, to encourage you in this, remember the promise, that he, the Son, hath made to us, if we abide in him, even eternal life.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain On vv22–24 Who is a liar - That is, who is…
Who is a liar - That is, who is false; who maintains an erroneous doctrine; who is an impostor, if he is not? The object of the apostle is to specify one of the prevailing forms of error, and to show that, however plausible the arguments might be by which it was defended, it was impossible that it should be true. Their own knowledge of the nature of religion must convince them at once that this opinion was false.
That denieth that Jesus is the Christ - It would seem that the apostle referred to a class who admitted that Jesus lived, but who denied that he was the true Messiah. On what grounds they did this is unknown; but to maintain this was, of course, the same as to maintain that he was an impostor. The ground taken may have been that he had not the characteristics ascribed to the Messiah in the prophets; or that he did not furnish evidence that he was sent from God; or that he was an enthusiast. Or perhaps some special form of error may be referred to, like that which is said to have been held by Corinthus, who in his doctrine separated Jesus from Christ, maintaining them to be two distinct persons. - “Doddridge.”
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He is antichrist - (See the notes at 1Jo 2:18). He has all the characteristics and attributes of antichrist; or, a doctrine which practically involves the denial of both the Father and the Son, must be that of antichrist.
That denieth the Father and the Son - That denies the special truths pertaining to God the Father, and to the Son of God. The charge here is not that they entertained incorrect views of God “as such” - as almighty, eternal, most wise, and good; but that they denied the doctrines which religion taught respecting God as Father and Son. Their opinions tended to a denial of what was revealed respecting God as a Father - not in the general sense of being the “Father” of the universe, but in the particular sense of his relation to the Son. It cannot be supposed that they denied the existence and perfections of God as such, nor that they denied that God is a “Father” in the relation which he sustains to the universe; but the meaning must be that what they held went to a practical denial of that which is special to the true God, considered as sustaining the relation of a Father to his Son Jesus Christ. Correct views of the Father could not be held without correct views of the Son; correct views of the Son could not be held without correct views of the Father. The doctrines respecting the Father and the Son were so connected that one could not be held without holding the other, and one could not be denied without denying the other. Compare the Mat 11:27 note; Joh 5:23 note. No man can have just views of God the Father who has not right apprehensions of the Son. As a matter of fact in the world, people have right apprehensions of God only when they have correct views of the character of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain On vv22, 24 He who denieth that Jesus is the Christ? He…
He who denieth that Jesus is the Christ? He is antichrist: is in a special manner an adversary of Christ and the Christian religion, when he denies Jesus to be the Messias, or to have been from eternity the true Son of God. --- He who denieth him to be the Son, neither hath he the Father. He who denies either of these truths denieth both. He who denies the Son of God to be the eternal Son, denies the Father to be the eternal Father. (Witham)
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain On vv22–24 a liar--Greek, "Who is the liar?" namely, guilty of…
a liar--Greek, "Who is the liar?" namely, guilty of the lie just mentioned (Jo1 2:21).
that Jesus is the Christ--the grand central truth.
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He is Antichrist--Greek, "the Antichrist"; not however here personal, but in the abstract; the ideal of Antichrist is "he that denieth the Father and the Son." To deny the latter is virtually to deny the former. Again, the truth as to the Son must be held in its integrity; to deny that Jesus is the Christ, or that He is the Son of God, or that He came in the flesh, invalidates the whole (Mat 11:27).
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain On vv22–24 22. A liar—Rather, the liar; or, as Wesley, more…
22. A liar—Rather, the liar; or, as Wesley, more pointedly, that liar.
Jesus is the Christ—The errorists, who believed matter the source of all evil, denied that the material bodily Jesus was the real Christ, and affirmed that the Christ descended upon him at baptism. Hence the trinity was doctrinally disorganized. The antichrist of that last time, therefore, really denied the Father and the Son.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain On vv22–24 22. Who is a liar] More accurately, as R.V.,…
22. Who is a liar] More accurately, as R.V., Who is the liar: the A.V. here again follows the earlier English Versions. But we must beware of exaggerating the article in interpretation, although it is right to translate it. It merely marks the passage from the abstract to the concrete: ‘Every lie is absolutely alien from the truth. Who then is the one who speaks lies? There are no liars if he who denies that Jesus is the Christ is not one’. The exactly parallel construction in 1Jn_5:4-5 shews that ‘the liar’ here does not mean ‘the greatest liar possible’. Moreover, this would not be true. Is denying that Jesus is the Christ a greater lie than denying the existence of the Son, or of God?
The abruptness of the question is startling. Throughout these verses (22–24) “clause stands by clause in stern solemnity without any connecting particles.”
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but he that denieth] These Gnostic teachers, who profess to be in possession of the higher truth, are really possessed by one of the worst of lies.—For the way in which the Gnostics denied the fundamental Christian truth of the Incarnation see the Introduction, p. 19.
He is Antichrist] Better, as R.V., This is the antichrist, or The antichrist is this man: ‘this’, as in 1Jn_2:25 and 1Jn_1:5, may be the predicate. The article before ‘antichrist’, almost certainly spurious in 1Jn_2:18, is certainly genuine here, 1Jn_4:3, and 2Jn_1:7. But ‘the antichrist’ here probably does not mean the great personal rival of Christ, but the antichristian teacher who is like him and in this matter acts as his mouth-piece.
that denieth the Father and the Son] This clause is substituted for ‘that denieth that Jesus is the Christ’. By this substitution, which is quite in S. John’s manner, he leads us on to see that to deny the one is to deny the other. Jesus is the Christ, and the Christ is the Son of God; therefore to deny that Jesus is the Christ is to deny the Son. And to deny the Son is to deny the Father; not merely because Son and Father are correlatives and mutually imply one another, but because the Son is the revelation of the Father, without whom the Father cannot be known. ‘Neither doth any know the Father, save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son willeth to reveal Him’ (Mat_11:27). ‘No one cometh unto the Father but by Me’ (Joh_14:6). Comp. Joh_5:23; Joh_15:23. Some would put a full stop at ‘antichrist,’ and connect what follows with 1Jn_2:23, thus; This is the antichrist. He that denieth the Father (denieth) the Son also: every one that denieth the Son hath not the Father either.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain On vv22–24 Who is the liar, but he that denieth, etc.?…
Who is the liar, but he that denieth, etc.? From the lie St. John passes on to the utterer of it. "Ye readily distinguish any lie from the truth. Who, then, is the liar? "The liar" does not mean the liar kat ejxochn, as if this denial constituted the very acme of falsehood. To deny the very existence of God is surely a worse lie. Still less can we say that "the context leaves no doubt that "the liar" is the same with "the antichrist. The article oJ yeusthv refers to the preceding yeudov, just askh. 1Jn_5:4, 5 oJ nikwn refers to the preceding ni The very form of sentence is the same: tiv ejstin oJ nikwn eij mh oJ k.t.l. and there oJ nikwn cannot mean the victor, kat ejxochn, who is Christ, and not the believer. So that the Authorized Version is not so very inaccurate in rendering oJ yeusthv "a liar." "Who tells lies, if not he who denies (and says) that Jesus is not the Christ?" This was the great Gnostic lie to which St. John"s Gospel and Epistle give the answer. The antichrist is this, he who denieth the Father and the Son. "The antichrist" here is not the great adversary, but one having similar characteristics. He denies the Messiahship of Jesus, and thus virtually denies both the Father and Son. (2Th_2:4) This truth St. John proceeds to restate and develop.
The greatest possible lie.
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Connecting link: The chrism from the Christ will ward off antichrist, because it will give such clear and quick intuitions concerning what is true and what is false, that the lie of antichrist will be instantly seen to be such, and Christ"s anointed ones will not be deceived by him. And the value of this safeguard against antichrist is seen in the fact that the lie he would propagate being not merely on a minor point of detail, but concerning the Person of the Christ himself, it covers so much ground and carries so much along with it, that this lie of antichrist is the greatest which could be uttered. "Who is the liar," etc. oJ yeusthv? Hence the topic presented to the homiletic expositor. Topic The lie of antichrist the greatest falsehood possible.
I WHAT IS THAT WHICH ANTICHRIST DENIES? The several references to antichrist indicate that the main, if not the sole, mischief of antichrist lies in denial. It is not unfrequently so. To deny, or, if that be too daring an effort, to call in question, Divine testimony and even first principles, is the favourite method of the father of lies. It is an easy way of seeking to unsettle and beguile unstable souls, to cast doubt on everything. And as if he himself did not know the difference between a spirit of inquiry and a spirit of doubt, one of our foremost men of science has laid it down as an axiom that the first step in science is to doubt everything! The evil one knows too well that it is much quicker work to throw down than to build up. And hence he tries this easy way of ruining souls by attempting to overthrow all that is sacred in their religious beliefs. As he could not prevail against the King when he met him in single combat, he aims his deadly blow at his subjects, in order to seduce them from their loyalty by casting doubts upon and even denying the Christ. This denial, not without motive, gathers round the Son of God. If we lose him, all is lost that is peculiar to our faith, as we shall presently see. The denial of Jesus as the Christ may take one or more of four forms.
1. The denial of Jesus as the Messiah, the Anointed of the Father. In this respect the minds of the Jews (among others)are blinded to this day.
2. The denial of Jesus as combining the Divine and human natures in oneperson: according to the Gnostic theory that the Christ descended upon the man Jesus at his baptism, and left him before his Passion (see Westcott, in loc. ).
3. The denial of Jesus as the eternal Son of the Father, and the consequentdenial of the Incarnation. All the present systems of unbelief are at one on this point; though "neither so does their witness agree together" in aught save the denial.
4. The denial of Jesus as the Lord of his Church enthroned in heaven. Thelatest result of theology is affirmed to be, inter alia, "that the Christ holds no office whatever." The same in substance, the denial changes its forms.
II WHAT DOES THIS DENIAL INVOLVE? Many errors are not only serious in themselves, but are even more so on account of others which they drag along with them. (cf. 1Co 15) We have remarked that if we lose our Christ, we lose all. So, indeed, the apostle himself argues. "Whosoever denieth the Son, the same hath not the Father;" i.e., as Westcott aptly puts it, "He hath not the Son, whom he rejects, nor yet the Father, whom he professes to regard." According to this denial:
1. There is no Fatherhood and Sonship in the Divine Nature.
2. God is not the Father as Christ represented him (see "Speaker"sCommentary" on verse 23).
3. We have no personal revelation of God, nor any message of love fromthe eternal throne.
4. We have no redemption.
5. We have no Saviour and no salvation.
6. We have no Head of humanity with living and regenerative power toquicken the dead mass of souls. We may have from one source or other, to some extent, a revelation of law, order, and duty; but we have no disclosure of any power or provision to quicken to obedience to the Law, observance of the order or fulfillment of the duty.
III ON WHAT GROUNDS IS SUCH A DENIAL MADE? Broadly and generally this denial comes either of a misguided intellect or a depraved heart. It may be made in the name of philosophy or of science (in both cases falsely so called). The Christ comes as Revealer and Redeemer. Antichrist denies both the revelation and the redemption, either on the ground
(1) that we know nothing beyond phenomena, and that the infinite and eternal are absolutely and hopelessly beyond our reach; or
(2) that humanity is working itself right by a method of evolution, in the struggle for existence casting off the weak and worthless, and letting only the fittest survive, that thus no redemptive force ab extra is needed, the vis medicatrix is within humanity; or
(3) that nothing at all of the supernatural can be entertained for a moment.
IV THE CIRCUMSTANCES UNDER WHICH THE DENIAL IS MADE.
1. In spite of the dearest testimony to the facts and doctrines denied testimony, given by blameless men, in the teeth of their own natural and
2. strongest prepossessions to the contrary. (Let this last clause be duly weighed.)
3. In spite of the tenderest seal. The blood of Christ. "The blood of the everlasting covenant.
1. In spite of the most powerful confirmation. The resurrection of Christ. The descent of the Holy Ghost. The sustentation of a living Church to this day, in spite of every conceivable effort to destroy it.
2. And in many cases the denial is made with a defiant recklessness, or aproud supercilious scorn, as if by the efforts of their pen men would wish the dearest hopes of millions to be dashed to the ground!
V THE CONSEQUENCES WHICH WOULD FOLLOW THE SUCCESS OF ANTICHRIST"S DENIAL.
If (as shown under division II) the denial drags along with it all other Christian doctrines, then the basis and support of the noblest life ceases. Men talk largely about the evolution of the race, forgetting to note:
1. That it is only the portion of the race which is leavened by Christianthought that is thus advancing.
2. That the advance is prompted by men who, because leavened withChristian thought, are inspired by faith, hope, and level But destroy Christian doctrine, then
(1) faith must expire for want of an adequate Object;
(2) hope must decline from the lack of a specific goal;
(3) love must die out through lack of a revealed Object worthy of the perfect love of the soul, and then love to man will die out when the great reason for it and inspiration to it are withdrawn. And when neither faith, nor hope, nor love have any sustaining food, what will human life be worth? Life is dependent upon environment. Withdraw the environment, and life must decline from want of sustentation from without. Clearly, then, the lie of antichrist is the master-lie!
VI APPLICATION AND INFERENCES.
1. If these things be so, then no one need be surprised that some of thecontroversies respecting Christian doctrine which have been carried on in the Church have been so sharp and bitter. The many who took
2. thoughtlessly over the history of the divisions of Christendom, and who laugh at or pour scorn on the sternness of religious war, would do well to look a little deeper. If they understood more, they would jeer less. Tolerance may arise from short-sightedness or indifference; intolerance, from the clear foresight of what must follow if such and such an error be permitted to flourish. And the more ardently a believer loves his Lord, the more angry is he likely to be at aught which would obscure his glory! Of all the apostles John loved most fervently, yet he it is who lashes most severely.
3. Let us, too, be very jealous for the honour of our Lord and Master; andif any, in our hearing, deny him the glory which is his due, let us not be found wanting in the defense. We should at least insist on such points as these:
(1) that men have no right to deny, any more than to affirm, save on adequate grounds;
(2) that violent prejudice against the admission of the supernatural is but a faulty prepossession, which hinders the reception of evidence;
(3) that it is never right to rob men of an inspiring power for virtue, unless the denier has something better to put in its place.
4. The confession of Christ, by contending for the right doctrineconcerning him, should in every case be attended with a Christ-like life. We shall best contend for him non sonando, seal amando.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain On v24 If that which ye have heard from the beginning…
1Jn_2:24-25
If that which ye have heard from the beginning shall remain in you, ye also shall continue in the Son, and in the Father
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The guileless spirit abiding through the Word in the Son and in the Father, so as to receive the promise of eternal life
I.
Let that therefore which ye have heard from the beginning abide in you. The phrase from the beginning must here refer to the first preaching of the gospel. Let all of Christ you have ever known, seen, heard, handled, tasted, abide in you. Let all you have learned of Christ--as being with the Father, from everlasting, in His bosom--as coming forth from the Father to reveal and reconcile--as purging your sin with blood, and bringing you to be all to the Father that He is Himself to the Father--let it all abide in you; always, everywhere.
II. So ye also shall abide in the Son and in the Father. First, Ye shall abide in the Son. What the Lord elsewhere enjoins as in itself a duty, Abide in Me (Joh_15:4), the apostle describes as the consequence of another duty being rightly discharged. We abide in the Son, as we may be said to abide in anyone when his words abide in us--or when that which we have heard of him, or from him, from the beginning, abides in us; when we understand and know him by what he says and what we hear; when what we thus understand and know of him takes hold of us, carries our conviction, commands our confidence and love, fastens and rivets itself in our mind and heart, and so abides in us. Thus we abide in the Son precisely as we abide in a friend whom we know, and trust, and love. Let us turn all that we learn into the materials of that personal communing of Him with us and us with Him, which is indeed the essence of our abiding in the Son. All the rather let us do so because, secondly, this abiding in the Son is abiding in the Father; for the Father and the Son are one. Into all that the Son is to the Father, in these and other similar views of His mediatorial character and ministry as the Son, we enter when we abide in the Son. And so we come to be to the Father all that the Son is to the Father. We abide in the Father as the Son abides in the Father. So we abide in the Son and in the Father. And still all this depends on our letting that which we have heard from the beginning abide in us. It depends on that faith which cometh by hearing, as hearing cometh by the Word of God.
III. Of all this the fruit is unto holiness, and the end everlasting life. For this is the promise that He hath promised us, even eternal life. The meaning here may be that the promise of eternal life is superadded to the privilege or condition of our abiding in the Son and in the Father, that it is something over and above that held out to us in prospect; or it may be that our abiding in the Son and in the Father is itself the very life eternal that is promised. The difference is not material; the two thoughts, or rather the two modifications of the same thought, run into one. (R. S. Candlish, D. D.)
Christian doctrine, duty, privilege, and hope
I. Christian doctrine. It is the doctrine of the Father and of the Son. Christianity, while it by no means robs the eternal Father of His honour, at the same time promulgates the Saviours declaration, that it is the pleasure of the Father that all men should do honour to the Son even as they do honour to the Father. It is a dispensation of which Christ is the head, is the chief subject, is the principal Person, to whom all eyes are to be directed; while all honour, and glory, and majesty, and worship, and thanksgiving are poured out upon the Father in all ages, at the foot of the mediatorial throne.
II. The duty and privilege of the Church. What is the duty? Let them abide in you. And what the privilege? If that which ye have heard from the beginning shall remain in you, ye also shall continue in the Son, and in the Father. Let it abide in you: but it must first obtain admission. Ah! and not only so, it must take its mighty grasp of the heart. And so it does wherever it comes in truth; it enters there to have its own way, first, to resist sin, then to imprison sin, and ultimately, by the grace of God, to cast it out.
III. The Christian hope. This is the promise, even eternal life. We are not content to live here always. No; we know there is a better land, a land of peace, of purity, and perfect bliss. (T. Mortimer, B. D.)
Vital godliness
There is a peculiar importance attached to these three little ins. There is a blessed union, a holy identity, an inseparable oneness between the persons and experience of real Christians and the persons and perfections of all the glorious Trinity in unity. Doctrinal godliness is union with Deity; experimental godliness is the enjoyment of Deity; practical godliness is the glorifying of Deity.
I. The antiquity of our religion. That which ye have heard from the beginning. What beginning? The beginning of the gospel? I grant that, if you wish; the beginning of the Christian dispensation. But go a little further back; the beginning of the prophetic vision--the beginning of the Mosaic economy--the beginning of the Abrahamic covenant--the beginning of the creation--go back as early as you will, and we will bear testimony that our faith is the faith of the ancients. If not, we will abandon it. Mark that beautiful account of the patriarchal faith recorded in the seventeenth of Genesis, and compare it with what is recorded by Paul in the Epistle to the Galatians, and the Epistle to the Romans and the Epistle to the Hebrews, and inquire whether they are not precisely the same faith, taught to both of them by the Holy Ghost. What was this ancient system? Our Lord tells us in plain terms, that Abraham rejoiced to see His day, and he saw it and was glad. Well, then, Abrahams religion, Abrahams faith, that which was from the beginning, simply consisted in seeing everything in Christ, beholding all he wanted in Christ, the Substitute, the Surety, the Daysman, the Sponsor of His whole Church. But we go further back than we have hitherto gone. Where then? say you? Up to the eternal councils of peace. I mean to.. say that all the religion worth having originated in heaven; it is the offspring of Deity. All that pertains to real godliness originates with God. Now here are certainties; here are securities. These are old-fashioned truths. Old-fashioned guineas, you know, are almost obsolete; but when we find them, we know they are valuable. Blessed be God, these truths are of sterling value and infinite importance; that which we have heard from the beginning our souls delight to dwell upon.
II. The living participation of this old-fashioned religion. If it shall remain in you. It must be in you in order to remain there. So that here is a religion put in a man, and of such a nature, and of such value, that it remains--abides, continues. What, then, is it? It is nothing less than a communication made from the throne of God, by the Holy Ghost, to the sinners heart. I should never be the better for what God my Father has given and God my Saviour has done, but for God the Holy Spirits communications to my soul. Every act of quickening is from His power; every whisper of love is by His voice. It is nothing less than the indwelling, the witnessing, the comforting, the instruction, the anointing of the Holy Ghost, resting upon the soul of man, that imparts one spiritual motion. I pass on to the term remain: If that which ye have heard from the beginning shall remain in you. The Spirit of truth, whom ye know; for He dwelleth with you, and shall be in you. The Father shall give you another Comforter, that He may abide with you forever. He never gives up His charge; He never forsakes His residence; He never abandons His work. It is a remaining religion. Now for the words--remain in you. Blessed be God, then there is no possibility of alteration. What is round about me, I cannot secure. But what is within me, secures me. It remains within: a vital principle, the life of God in the soul. It is Christ in you, the hope of glory; and the world and the devil must conquer Christ before they can turn Him out. Therefore He remains--remains in you.
III. Wherever this remaining, abiding, unconquerable, unchanging religion dwells in the soul, a lasting union between jehovah and that soul is demonstrated. Continue in the Son and in the Father! An inheritor of all the Sons merit and of all the Fathers love; an heir of God, a joint heir with Christ; interested in all that Christ did and suffered, and interested in all that paternal love planned, ordained, and predestinated. The warrior may boast of his fame, the statesmen may carry their projects, the merchants may secure their fortunes, the pleasure taker may revel in his wickedness, worldlings of all sorts may have their gods; but give me mine. An interest in all that covenant love has bestowed, and all that covenant blood has bought, and all that covenant grace can impart. But, say you, how am I to know this? I am to know it by something remaining in me; I am to know it by having a covenant gift; I am to know it by having an old-fashioned religion remaining in my soul that the devil and earth and sin cannot turn out. And, therefore, if thou hast the earnest, the pledge given by Jehovah, the Spirits work in thy soul, thou hast all that constitutes assurance of interest in the Son and in the Father. If children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ. (J. Irons.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
B. W. Johnson 1891 · Public Domain On vv22–24 22. Who is a liar, etc.? Hence they will…
22. Who is a liar, etc.? Hence they will know how to reject these antichrists who lyingly deny Jesus Christ.
B. W. Johnson's The People's New Testament with Notes (1889–1891) — public domain. Electronic text from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL) ThML edition.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary 1892 · Public Domain On v24 1Jn_2:24.—Omit “therefore. “Which ye have heard.—Concerning Christ, and Christ’s…
CRITICAL AND EXEGETICAL NOTES
1Jn_2:24.—Omit “therefore. “Which ye have heard.—Concerning Christ, and Christ’s truth, on the authority of His apostles. Remain … continue—In both cases prefer the word “abide.” Dr. Plummer paraphrases thus, “Let the truths which were first taught you have a home in your hearts: if these have a home in you, ye also shall have a home in the Son and in the Father.” Developments of the primary truths there must be, but all developments, adjustments, and adaptations must be in the strictest harmony with the primary truths.
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1Jn_2:27. Any man teach you.—That is, any man who claims personal authority to teach, and does not speak by the inspiration of the Holy Ghost. Anointing.—Which implies and involves that the Spirit is in you, leading you into all truth. St. John seems to suggest that the Spirit dwelling in the disciple will always make him sensitive to the recognition of the Spirit in his teacher. As he has shown that the new Divine life will keep us from sin, so now he shows that it will keep us from error.
1Jn_2:28. Ashamed before Him.—Better, “shamed away from Him”; or, “shrink in shame from Him.”
1Jn_2:29. Ye know.—Better, “know ye.” Doeth righteousness.—Note the emphasis on doing: see chap. 1Jn_3:7. “A sober, righteous, and godly life is the fruit, and consequently the proof, of spiritual birth—the token by which the sons of God by adoption and grace are distinguished from other men.”
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.—1Jn_2:24-29
Persuasions to letting the Truth abide in us.—“Abiding” is one of St. John’s key-words. What had to be feared in the early Church has to be feared in every age of the Church. It is restlessness, that tends to shift men from their foundations. Nothing more effectually hinders Christian living than perpetual uncertainty about the grounds of our confidence and hope. Souls are like plants—they cannot thrive if their roots are continually being shaken. They grow in atmospheres of quietness and peace. They must abide as they have begun.
I. Abiding in Christ is holding fast the truth received concerning Him.—“That which ye have heard from the beginning.” Apostles, and all true teachers, never attempted to shift the foundations of primary truth concerning Christ which they had laid. They are willing enough to build on those foundations, but absolutely unwilling to alter the foundations. It would be useless and mischievous work for Englishmen now to try and alter Magna Charta, which is the basis of English liberty. “Holding fast the profession of our faith without wavering” is “abiding in Christ.” The primary truths about Christ concern His Divine-human person, and Divine-human mission: Son of God; Son of man; and God saving man.
II. Abiding in Christ is the guarantee of continuous spiritual life.—It brings the “eternal life.” That life can be ours only by vital union with Him. It is the communication of His own Divine life through the channels of our faith. Break the connection, and the life can but flag and fail. Our Lord Himself said, “Without Me ye can do nothing.”
III. Abiding in Christ is the work for us done by the Holy Spirit, who is with us.—This appears to be the idea St. John tries to express under the figure of the “anointing.” The believer is sealed by the anointing of the Spirit. That Spirit has, for His supreme mission in the believer, to keep him in vital relations with Christ—abiding in Christ.
SUGGESTIVE NOTES AND SERMON SKETCHES
1Jn_2:24. Jealousy concerning Primary Truths.—In our day it has been anxiously asked, “What is the minimum of evangelical truth which must be accepted to constitute a saving belief? “The answer is difficult, and will probably vary according to the religious school to which the answerer belongs. It is quite clear that there were some primary and essential truths to which apostles required full assent and absolute faithfulness; but they are much more simple truths than we usually admit, and they are sufficiently general to allow of various unfoldings and expressions. We may see how simple the truth required to be witnessed before baptism was in the case of Philip and the eunuch. If the words of Act_8:37, “I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God,” are a later addition to the text, they meet our case by representing the earliest tradition. The primary truth, of which we must be supremely jealous, and which constitutes the minimum of the Christian demand, is this—Jesus of Nazareth is the Christ of God, the Son of the Father, sent by Him to be the Saviour of the world from sin.
1Jn_2:25. The Promise of Eternal Life.—The term “eternal life” is a figurative one. Mere continuance is not the manifestly most desirable thing; and all time-measures are unsuitable to the after-life, “time” being strictly one of the present earthly conditions of thought. As a figure, the term “eternal” represents, in part, what we mean by “spiritual”; or perhaps it would be more precise to say that it stands for “the highest conceivable,” “the best that is attainable.” When applied to “life,” it suggests full, unhindered life in God, life unto God. From the point of view of the tripartite division of human nature into body, animal soul, and spirit, what is meant by “eternal life” can readily be apprehended. It is the Divine quickening, and consequently the holy activity, of the “spirit” which man really is. Much has been missed by the confounding of the “eternal life” with the “after-life.” It may be found in the after-spheres, but it may also be found in the present earthly spheres. A man may have the eternal life now. As soon as this is clearly seen, the figurative character of the word comes to view, and the impossibility of its being strictly descriptive is recognised. There are many passages in which the “time” idea is manifestly unsuitable; in them the idea of “quality” is prominent. As instances see Deu_33:27—“The eternal God is thy refuge”; where it is evidently intended to suggest high and inspiring estimates of God, as the infinitely trustworthy One. In Isa_60:15, the prophet, speaking in the name of God to Israel as a nation, says, “I will make of thee an eternal excellency.” Continuity of existence cannot be predicated of any nation. A supreme excellency is evidently meant. St. Paul, in Rom_1:20, refers to God’s “eternal power”; and in 2Co_4:17 he writes of an “exceeding and eternal weight of glory.” Save as a figurative expression, “an eternal weight” can have no intelligible meaning. The following suggestion deserves consideration: One of our common “notes of value” is the length of time that a thing will last. Ephemeral things are regarded as worthless; enduring things are estimated as valuable. The nettle is worthless; the oak is valuable. The gnat of a summer evening is worthless; the elephant of a century is valuable. The coal that burns through in an hour is worthless; the diamond that outlasts all the generations is valuable. God, then, would impress on us the very highest conceivable value, as attaching to His gift to us in Christ Jesus. So He meets us on our own level, fits His figure to our usual thoughts and estimates, bids us realise what must be the value of a thing which can not only outlast all generations, but even outlast all world-stories, and so apprehend the infinite value of that gift which He gives to us, even “eternal life.” The “eternal life” is the life which cannot be measured by years or days, but is the enjoyment of the blessedness of virtue. This is a present fact, begun as soon as the believer begins to be in Christ, growing more and more as he walks more and more closely with God, secured for ever when he enters his rest, and perfected in the glory of heaven. But this life, depending on knowledge of God, as begun here, does not lessen the reasonableness of its being perfected hereafter, any more than its future completion prevents its present beginning. F. D. Maurice took a firm stand in resisting the association of the idea of “duration” with the term “eternal.” A striking passage from his Theological Essays may be given: “The word ‘eternal,’ if what I have said be true, is a key-word of the New Testament. To draw our minds from the temporal, to fix them on the eternal, is the very aim of the Divine economy. How much ought we then to dread any confusion between thoughts which our Lord has taken such pains to keep distinct—which our consciences tell us ought to be kept distinct! How dangerous to introduce the notion of duration into a word from which He has deliberately excluded it!” And yet this is precisely what we are in the habit of doing, and it is this which causes such infinite perplexity in our minds. “Try to conceive,” the teachers say, “a thousand years. Multiply these by a thousand, by twenty thousand, by a hundred thousand, by a million. Still you are as far from eternity as ever.” “Certainly I am quite as far. Why then did you give me that sum to work out? What could be the use of it, except to bewilder me, except to make me disbelieve in eternity altogether? Do you not see that this course must be utterly wrong and mischievous? If eternity is the great reality of all, and not a portentous fiction, how dare you impress such a notion of fictitiousness on my mind as your process of illustration conveys?” “But is it not the only one?” “Quite the only one, so far as I see, if you will bring time into the question—if you will have years and centuries to prevent you from taking in the sublime truth, ‘This is life eternal—to know God.’ The eternal life is the perception of His love, the capacity of loving; no greater reward can be attained by any, no higher or greater security. The eternal punishment is the loss of that power of perceiving His love, the incapacity of loving; no greater damnation can befall any.” Bishop Weslcott, writing of the phrases used in St. John’s epistles, says: “In considering these phrases it is necessary to premise that in spiritual things we must guard against all conclusions which rest upon the notion of succession and duration. ‘Eternal life’ is that which St. Paul speaks of as ἡ ὄντως ζωή, ‘the life which is life indeed’ (1Ti_6:10), and ἡ ζωὴ τοῦ Θεοῦ, ‘the life of God’ (Eph_4:18). It is not an endless duration of being in time, but being of which time is not a measure. We have, indeed, no power to grasp the idea except through forms and images of sense. These must be used, but we must not transfer them as realities to another order. The life which lies in fellowship with God and Christ is spoken of as ‘eternal life,’ in order to distinguish it from the life of sense and time, under which true human life is veiled at present. Such a life of phenomena may be ‘death,’ but ‘eternal life’ is beyond the limitations of time; it belongs to the being of God.”—From “Handbook of Scientific and Literary Bible Difficulties”.
1Jn_2:26. False Teachings as Spiritual Seduction.—“Concerning them that seduce you.” The term which St. John uses brings out very prominently that the moral mischief of false teachings is of much more serious concern than the intellectual. We need not undervalue the importance of correct opinion on religious subjects. But as mere intellectual differences, keeping in the mental range, they are too often little more than logomachies. Every shape of opinion bears some direct relation to moral conduct, and every wrong setting of Christian truth has an evil influence on morals, and can be fairly judged in the light of that influence. Concerning all teaching submitted to us we can ask two questions:
1. Is it true? That question is often beyond all our power of solution.
2. Does it work out unto righteousness? That can always be answered.
CHAPTER 3
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv22, 24 Who is the liar but the one who denies…
Who is the liar but the one who denies that Jesus is the Christ?
"Who is the liar? Anyone who denies that Jesus is the Christ." John used a question to emphasize who liars are. (See: Rhetorical Question)
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denies that Jesus is the Christ
"refuses to say that Jesus is the Christ" or "says that Jesus is not the Messiah"
denies the Father and the Son
"refuses to say the truth about the Father and the Son" or "rejects the Father and the Son."
Father ... Son
These are important titles that describe the relationship between God and Jesus. (See: Translating Son and Father)
has the Father
"belongs to the Father"
acknowledges the Son
"speaks the truth about the Son"
has the Father
"belongs to the Father"
translationWords
Jesus
Christ
antichrist
God the Father
Son of God
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv22, 24 2:22 John marks out as a liar any false…
2:22 John marks out as a liar any false teacher who denies that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, the unique revealer of the Father (4:2).
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.