Verses 19-20: They went out from us, but they were not really of us; for if they had been of us, they would have remained with us; but they went out, so that it would be shown that they all are not of us. But you have an anointing from the Holy One, and you all know.
In verse 19, John provides further evidence that ‘antichrists’ is a reference not to one individual but of many individuals who were prominent in his day. In subsequent verses he will explain their particular opposition to Christ, as deniers of the Father and the Son (2:22). In particular, they refute the Incarnation of Jesus Christ, that He had come in the flesh from God (4:2-3). This is the characteristics of the last hour in John’s day as well as in ours today.
Unfortunately, the origin of these antichrists in John’s day is no different than today. He states that “they went out from us” meaning that after having participated among the apostolic company they broke fellowship and separated themselves from them. John used the same expression in John 13:30 when Judas Iscariot broke fellowship with the twelve apostles and went out to betray Our Lord.
Next, John explains in absolute terms that “they were not really of us,” inferring that they were not aligned with us in the critical doctrines of Biblical truth. This stands to reason since being in the apostolic company would naturally require a commonality of belief and yet all along they consistently held false and erroneous beliefs. Could this phrase, as some suppose, also imply that they were not genuinely believers in Jesus Christ but merely unbelievers posing as Christians? Kenneth Wuest explains this possibility:
The antichrists did not have their source in the Mystical Body of Christ composed only of true believers. They were merely members of the visible, organized church on earth. They did not partake of the divine life animating the members of the Body of Christ, made up of true believers.1
John goes on to declare that if they had believed in the correct doctrines, they would have remained with us and there would have been no fracture in the fellowship of believers. However, that was not the case. Instead, the breaking of the fellowship on the basis of doctrinal differences was evidence that all of the antichrists were “not of us”—they were not fellow believers in Jesus Christ.
“But they went out from us—they all are not of us.” It might be thought that John is belaboring the point when he continues presenting additional evidence that supports his indictment of these antichrists. He maintains that based upon the fact that they broke fellowship makes it obvious that the false doctrine held by all of the antichrists did not have their source from the apostolic company. And therefore, just as Judas Iscariot, these also may have been unbelievers.
Our Anointing
Now John brings to conclusion verses 18-20. He presents us with a vital spiritual attribute that every believer possesses. Placing great emphasis on “you”, he states that what you have acquired was by means of a ceremonial anointing. The word ‘anointing’ refers to the substance that the anointing is performed with, which in some cases was a mixture of oil (Exodus 29:7; Leviticus 8:10).2 Here it denotes that the ‘substance’ is the Holy Spirit with whom the believer is anointed.3 All believers have this anointing at the moment they believe in Jesus Christ. The Apostle Paul affirmed this when he wrote:
Now He who establishes us with you in Christ and anointed us is God, who also sealed us and gave us the Spirit in our hearts as a pledge. (2 Corinthians 1:21–22)
What Paul means when he states that God establishes us is that He confirms the genuineness of our salvation. And not to be missed is that the anointing and sealing of the Holy Spirit is a pledge—His guarantee—of providing us “the whole heavenly inheritance which belongs to every believer through infinite grace (2 Corinthians 5:5; Ephesians 1:14; 1 Peter 1:4).”4 This anointing of the Holy Spirit upon every believer in Jesus Christ is known theologically as the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. Dr. L.S. Chafer maintains that “the anointing is seen to be, like the indwelling, a present fact in every believer’s life.”5
John emphasizes this in verse 27 by adding that this anointing continuously “abides in you.” This anointing of the Holy Spirit was “from the Holy One” referring to the Lord Jesus Christ (Mark 1:24; John 6:69; Acts 3:14), Who had promised His disciples before His departure that He would send them the Holy Spirit—“the Helper” (John 14:16; 15:26; 16:7) assuring them that “He will guide you into all truth (John 16:13). This is the second spiritual asset that John proclaims that we possess; the first is the Advocate (2:1) Who provides the remedy for sin.
Knowing What?
Concerning John’s final phrase “and you all know,” we are confronted with some Greek manuscript variations that challenge the interpretation. The modern translations of the Bible utilize Greek manuscripts that are older than what King James translators had available to them. The King James translated this phrase “and ye know all things,” which gives the impression of a blanket statement without limitations to what we know. Dr. Bruce M. Metzger refutes this apparent exaggeration by proposing that the copyists of the manuscript employed by the King James translators modified the word ‘all’ reasoning that the word ‘know’ needed an object.6
But when contemplating the phrase as it appears in the oldest manuscripts, it is best understood that it presents a wider interpretation of the entire passage of verses 18-20. “You all know” in actuality poses a question to the reader: what exactly do we all know? In verse 18 John maintained that there are antichrists presently amongst us and that they oppose the basic Biblical doctrines of the person and work of Jesus Christ. And by the process of hearing this evidence we have come to know that this is the characteristic of the ‘last hour.’ But now John asserts in verse 20 that “you all know” by using a different word for ‘know’, one that “implies fullness of knowledge.”7 And what we all know is that this indeed is the ‘last hour.’ John is giving his readers credit for following his line of thought concerning the antichrists who oppose the truth of Jesus Christ. For now, we have the indwelling Holy Spirit, Who guides and enables us to detect error and in the discerning of God’s truth.
[1] Wuest, K. S. (1997). Wuest’s Word Studies from the Greek New Testament. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 13.131.
[2] In the Old Testament, the ritual of anointing was for those chosen by God for a special ministry: priests (Leviticus 4:5, 16) and kings (Saul - 1 Samuel 10:1; David - 2 Samuel 2:4, 5:3; Solomon, -1 Kings 1:39).
[3] Wuest, 13.132.
[4] Chafer, Lewis Sperry (1976). Systematic Theology, Dallas, TX: Dallas Seminary Press, 6.134.
[5] Chafer, 6.133
[6] Metzger, Bruce M. (2001). A Textual Commentary on the Greek New Testament, Stuttgart: United Bible Societies, p. 641.
[7] Waugh, R.M.L. (1953). The Preacher and His Greek Testament, London: The Epworth Press, p. 33.
© 2024 David M. Rossi
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