1 John 2:18-27 looks at how we can discern truth from lies and at the form of the lies which abound in the world today. John reminds us that the antichrist (anything which ultimately is against Christ) will deny that Jesus is the Christ (i.e. God’s anointed one who is the only means of salvation) and that He is God’s Son, thereby also denying the Fatherhood of God. We might expect doctrinal tests to tackle practices as well as beliefs, but it is interesting to note that it is primarily what we believe about who God is which determines whether the truth is living in us.
Jesus reveals God to us as a loving heavenly Father. He shows us the closeness of the relationship within the Godhead and shows us that God is not an impersonal force but a loving God who desires to have a relationship with us. It was His insistence on the relational nature within the Godhead which enraged the Jews of His time (John 5:18, John 10:36-37) and which is also a stumbling-block to many today. He repeatedly cut away at religious practices which were legally motivated rather than fuelled by relationship and taught of the personal relationship we now have as adopted children (teaching us to pray ‘Our Father in heaven’, for example; see also Rom 8:15)
What we believe is crucial to how we live. Belief shapes action; it acts as our ‘operating system’ and provides the framework for our whole life. All of us have many wrong ideas and beliefs about God and need God’s Word to re-shape our thoughts so that we can believe the truth, rather than lies. We have an enemy who is a liar (his native language is lies, we read in John 8:44), yet those lies can often seem so plausible to us. We need to dwell in God’s truth, for He is truth, speaks truth and works out of truth (John 14:6, Is 45>19, John 16:33). He is totally incapable of lying! (Num 23:19) It is only by truth that we can be set free (John 8:32) and so we need to dwell in the truth of God’s Word. (Ps 119:160)
The strategies we need to employ if we are to recognise truth from lies (made possible because we too have an anointing from God, even as Jesus is the anointed One) involve:
- transformation through the renewing of our minds (Rom 12:1-2) as we tear down everything that sets itself up against God and take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ (2 Cor 10:5)
- weighing everything in the light of God’s Word rather than being influenced by cultural norms
- being led by the Spirit of God as John tells us in these verses (he reassures us that ‘all of you know the truth’ 1 John 2:20 and continue to remain (abide) in Christ 1 John 2:24)
- test what we hear by the plumbline of truth (fruit takes time to grow, but ‘the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness and truth’ (Eph 5:9))
- recognise Christ’s Lordship over us (1 Cor 6:19-20) and choose to agree with Him and submit to Him in every area of our lives
- worship God alone!