1Jn 2:18-29

1) v18: What did John mean by ‘the last hour’?

• What book(s) was he likely referring to when he said ‘Children,… you have heard…’? (e.g. Dan 9:27b; Mt 24:15; Rev 13:5-7)
• When addressing this subject, why did John (again, cf 1Jn 2:1) call his readers ‘children’? Is this (or is it not) John’s R-rating of this subject? Why or why not?
  • YES: It requires humility, see Mt 19:14 and Q2 about 1Jn 2:1;
  • NO: Even young believers (1Jn 2:12) need instruction about it
  • A teaser for the book of Revelation: Since John also wrote Revelation, does that book describe another ‘last hour’? Or did John write about only a single last ‘hour’ (between the first and second coming of Christ)? cf Rev 1:1
• How did John become certain that the last hour had already begun in his days?

2) v19: How did John recognize ‘many antichrists’?

• How did they ‘go out from us’?
  • Did John mean that if you do not stay within his ‘denomination’ you are an antichrist? Why not?
  • Is ‘going out’ a resignation from church membership, or a parting with Christian doctrine of the Scriptures? cf 1Jn 4:6
  • What doctrine(s) exactly did John have in mind, v22? cf 1Jn 4:2 (incarnation), and 1Jn 3:10 (sanctification, i.e. how disciples are transformed from within)
• v19: In what sense is the antichrist “anti”? By suppressing religion, or by making a show of it in the name of Jesus so that churches worship him as their counterfeit Christ? cf Rev 6:1 vs 19:11; 13:11;17:6.
• Why does it matter to know? v26
• How could John know that none of these false teachers were ‘of us’? How could he be so sure that not even one of them was once a ‘born again’ believer before their apostasy?

3) vv20-25: What made John confident that his readers were not like apostates?

• Is v25 meant to answer that question?
  • How ‘eternal’ would the promised new life be if believers could have it one day and lose it on another?
• A characteristic of the gnostic sect was that they relied on special (secret) knowledge (1Tim 6:20). By contrast, how did John describe the knowledge of Christians? cf Jn 14:7-9; Lk 1:76-77 *
• Sects and cults come in two flavors, those that subtract from Jesus, and those that add to Jesus – who he is and what is needed to be saved. Can you think of examples?
  • On which side(s) do Gnosticism and its modern offshoots err nowadays? [On both? v22 and 1Tim 6:20]
• How can true believers recognize such deception?
  • v27: By ‘anointing’, John described the fact that all (!) believers are endowed with the Holy Spirit, or else they are no Christians (cf Ro 8:9): How does v24 explain how this anointing came upon them? cf Eph 1:13**

4) vv26-27: How does this anointing teach believers?

• Did John tell? v24
  • What is this “What you have heard from the beginning…”? cf 1Cor 3:10-11
  • Read 2Pet 3:16. When and how do you test whether the tradition (interpretation) in which you were brought up rests on the foundations of the faith laid down by its founder?

5) vv28-29 (Personal and application)

• By ‘abiding’, the context means to remain in true fellowship by not shrinking from the one true gospel: How do you practice to so ‘abide in Him’?
• What works, and what does not (in your experience) to help one another in that regard?
• How does your motivation to ‘abide’ compare to the one in v28?
• Given the context, do you read v29 as a challenge to question your own faith, or as a sure guide what teachers you can trust?
• v29: When you choose teachers by that guide, what should be (and what is) your standard/point of reference: Perfection?
  • ESV translates: ‘…practices righteousness’ (lit. who does righteousness). Why/how does the rendering by the ESV lower this bar?
• What did the context of chapter 2 define as ‘righteousness’? [Love for the brothers]
  • Who defines what is ‘loving’?
  • How can you make sure that your own standard of what is truly ‘love’ is defined by Jesus, and not by your culture or tradition?

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* One of the gifts of the Holy Spirit is knowledge, in the sense of new knowledge (1Cor 12:8; Eph 3:1-7; 2Cor 11:6). While the gift of having these new ‘revelations’ was predicted to become superfluous and pass away in time (1Cor 13:8), the knowledge itself was made public to be shared by all (2Tim 2:2) and to last forever (cf Mt 24:35).

** Repentance and faith in Jesus, confirmed by baptism into his name, are necessary to receive the Holy Spirit, Acts 2:39. Whether they are also sufficient is contested by the pentecostal movement, e.g. based on exceptions in Acts 8:14-17 and 19:5 (for sound exegesis of these texts, see Gill or Ellicott). John’s own teaching on the matter is in 1Jn 5:1