1 John 2:18-19
"Dear children, this is the last hour; and as you have heard the antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have come. This is how we know it is the last hour. 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." 1 John 2:18-19
John is speaking in urgent terms. No one knows the time when Jesus will return, but John wrote and lived as if it were the last hour. This hour is not a literal 60 minute time period, it refers to a moment in time. We are living in that moment, the moment when Jesus could return. I love how Jesus addresses the timeline of His return in Revelation. He said He was coming "soon." We need to live with a since of urgency, especially as we see those who have turned the gospel into something its not and promoted themselves to be the "christ". It interesting that these false teachers are called antichrists by John who mentions that they "went out from us." They were a part of the church but left and promoted their own gospel. John makes a big deal about the fact that they did not belong to Christ and were not a part of "us"! They were never a part of Christ! Had they been a part of Christ they would have never left. You know salvation is a difficult thing to pinpoint. You don't come to know Christ by doing certain religious things (such as going to church, taking communion, confession, praying) or jumping through spiritual hoops (such as going forward to pray a prayer). You receive salvation by God's grace through your faith. Faith is something no one can make an intial judgement on. Faith can only be proved genuine if it is tested. If a person remains true to his or her faith after being tested then one can say with confidence that they truely know Christ. However, if they turn away from their faith when it is tested then their faith was proved not to be genuine. John was teaching this when he affirms that if they had belonged to "us" then they would have remained true to their faith in Christ. Certainly persecution is a test of our faith, but there are other faith tests as well. Everytime you are tempted to sin against God, your faith is being tested. Everytime you are flooded with all kinds of doubts, your faith is being tested. When life doesn't happen the way you thought it should, your faith is being tested! What about you? How are you doing when your faith is being tested? Are you broken over your sin? Are you still holding on during those times of doubts? Or have you given up and walked away?
God, keep my strong in those times of testing. Remind me to hold on to my faith in you. May I embrace it and live by it. May I turn to you instead of giving in. It is the desire of my heart to please you. This seems easy when my faith is strong, but much more challenging when it is weak. May you give strength to the weary, and increase the power of the weak! I love you!
John is speaking in urgent terms. No one knows the time when Jesus will return, but John wrote and lived as if it were the last hour. This hour is not a literal 60 minute time period, it refers to a moment in time. We are living in that moment, the moment when Jesus could return. I love how Jesus addresses the timeline of His return in Revelation. He said He was coming "soon." We need to live with a since of urgency, especially as we see those who have turned the gospel into something its not and promoted themselves to be the "christ". It interesting that these false teachers are called antichrists by John who mentions that they "went out from us." They were a part of the church but left and promoted their own gospel. John makes a big deal about the fact that they did not belong to Christ and were not a part of "us"! They were never a part of Christ! Had they been a part of Christ they would have never left. You know salvation is a difficult thing to pinpoint. You don't come to know Christ by doing certain religious things (such as going to church, taking communion, confession, praying) or jumping through spiritual hoops (such as going forward to pray a prayer). You receive salvation by God's grace through your faith. Faith is something no one can make an intial judgement on. Faith can only be proved genuine if it is tested. If a person remains true to his or her faith after being tested then one can say with confidence that they truely know Christ. However, if they turn away from their faith when it is tested then their faith was proved not to be genuine. John was teaching this when he affirms that if they had belonged to "us" then they would have remained true to their faith in Christ. Certainly persecution is a test of our faith, but there are other faith tests as well. Everytime you are tempted to sin against God, your faith is being tested. Everytime you are flooded with all kinds of doubts, your faith is being tested. When life doesn't happen the way you thought it should, your faith is being tested! What about you? How are you doing when your faith is being tested? Are you broken over your sin? Are you still holding on during those times of doubts? Or have you given up and walked away?
God, keep my strong in those times of testing. Remind me to hold on to my faith in you. May I embrace it and live by it. May I turn to you instead of giving in. It is the desire of my heart to please you. This seems easy when my faith is strong, but much more challenging when it is weak. May you give strength to the weary, and increase the power of the weak! I love you!
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