Verses 21-23: I have not written to you because you do not know the truth, but because you do know it, and because no lie is of the truth. Who is the liar but the one who denies that Jesus is the Christ? This is the antichrist, the one who denies the Father and the Son. Whoever denies the Son does not have the Father; the one who confesses the Son has the Father also.
John continues to contemplate the final thought of the previous verse: ‘you all know’. Namely, that the false teaching of the antichrists is characteristic of the ‘last hour’ (v.18). We come to know this by the indwelling ministry of the Holy Spirit guiding us into all truth (John 16:13; cf. 14:26), accomplished supernaturally by the illumination of the Holy Spirit.
There is a terrible misconception within Christianity today that considers that not all believers are able to understand all Scriptural truths—that some Scripture is just ‘too deep’ and can only be understood by some. Those who advocate this are no different than the 1st Century Gnostics who believed they had a supreme ability over others in understanding divine truth.1 In contrast, those who are convinced that they are not able to know God’s Word sufficiently have unwittingly limited themselves in their advancement to spiritual maturity; losing out on the objective of being “adequate, equipped for every good work” (2 Timothy 3:17). The Apostle Paul corrects this misconception:
We speak God’s wisdom in a mystery, the hidden wisdom which God predestined before the ages to our glory...For to us God revealed them through the Spirit; for the Spirit searches all things, even the depths of God. (1 Corinthians 2:7, 10)
And then Paul conveys exactly how we are able to know:
Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may know the things freely given to us by God, which things we also speak, not in words taught by human wisdom, but in those taught by the Spirit, combining spiritual thoughts with spiritual words. (1 Corinthians 2:12–13)
Elsewhere, Paul asserts that we are “able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God” (Ephesians 3:17b–19, emphasis added). This is the work of the Holy Spirit as He guides us “into all the truth” (John 16:13).
The principle is that every believer has the illuminating Holy Spirit that enables them to learn and understand God’s Word when taught by a spiritually gifted pastor-teacher (Ephesians 5:11-12). This requires a careful analysis of Scripture—“accurately handling the word of truth” (2 Timothy 2:15). The Greek word for ‘accurately’ is used in the New Testament only here in this verse. The Greek lexicon interprets this word to mean to: “guide the word of truth along a straight path (like a road that goes straight to its goal), without being turned aside by wordy debates or impious talk.”2 Just as John resisted the Gnostic heresy in his day, we still have to contend today with those whose objective is to interpret God’s Word in light of cultural dictates, intent upon appeasing modern-day thinkers and for self-gratification, to gain their approval.
Lie vs. Truth
When John states that they indeed know the truth, he is complimenting them for their spiritual astuteness. But is John referring here to a particular truth or to truth in general? According to the grammar of the Greek, the phrase the truth with the Greek article emphasizes the identity of truth,3 and that this particular phrase “as used in the New Testament means that which may be relied upon as really in accord with God’s revelation in Christ.”4 It is what Our Lord meant when He stated that He is the embodiment of ‘truth’ (John 14:6), whereas the Apostle Paul proclaimed that truth is in Jesus Christ (Ephesians 4:21) suggesting both His Person and His example.5
We also learn from Our Lord that God’s “Word is truth” (John 17:17). In our passage, John goes even further, maintaining the impossibility for a lie to have its source from the truth. That presumes that the Word of God is absolute truth and that there is a clear difference between the error of lies and what truth is. Therefore, there are no grey areas or a neutral ground between truth and error,6 regardless of what is advocated by our present culture.
The Lie and the Liar
John hadn’t mentioned what the lie is yet, but in this next verse it will be revealed along with the liar. The lie perpetrated is the denial that Jesus is the Christ. And in no uncertain terms, John identifies this denier as the antichrist, the one who opposes, not just Jesus Christ, but “the Father and the Son,” which alludes to the denial of the deity of Christ. This is a powerful denial. To claim that Jesus is not the Christ, the Jewish Messiah, is to allege that all that Our Lord said and did while He was on earth, including His work of salvation, was a fabrication. This is an utterly dreadful offense to the character of Our Savior and the Father’s plan of redemption.
John concludes in verse 23 that there is no neutral ground between denying and confessing—a person is either a denier of the Son or a confessor of the Son. There is no one who is a ‘sort of’ denier or a ‘kind of’ confessor—they are either one or the other. It is an undeniable truth that those who deny Jesus Christ do not have the Father. To not ‘have’ the Father means denying the Son is to deprive oneself of an eternal relationship with the Father by rejecting the free gift of salvation He provides through His Son. And to confess that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God a person can enjoy the offer of salvation by faith in Christ’s finished work on the cross.
The Challenge
For us today as believers in Jesus Christ, we must be highly motivated in attaining the knowledge of God’s Word. A substantial understanding of His truth will enable us to identify the liars and deniers of the Father and His Son, Jesus Christ. R.M.L. Waugh observes:
A believer does not need to know all about the many lies that are peddled around; he only needs to have a grasp of the truth of God. The truth is like a yardstick which shows all false teachings fail to measure up to its standard. If the believer knows the truth, then he immediately knows everything that does not agree with it.7
We need to speak out against those who distort God’s Word and have given in to cultural dictates; and to live every day by example of our faithfulness to God’s absolute truth. We can then become dynamic witnesses for the truth of the gospel so that others might believe in Jesus Christ as Savior.
[1] Lightfoot J.B. (1999). St. Paul’s Epistles to the Colossians and Philemon, Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, p. 77.
[2] Arndt, W., Gingrich, F. W., Danker, F. W., & Bauer, W. (1979). In A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and other Early Christian Literature. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, p. 580.
[3] Wallace, D. B. (1996). Greek Grammar Beyond the Basics, Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, p. 207.
[4] Dana, H.E. & Mantey, Julius R. (1957). A Manual Grammar of the Greek New Testament, Toronto, Ontario: Macmillan Co., p. 141.
[5] Alford, Henry (1877). The Greek Testament, Boston, MA: Lee and Shepard Publishers, 3.123.
[6] Vine, W. E. (1996). Collected Writings of W.E. Vine. Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, 1 John 2:21.
[7] Waugh, R.M.L. (1953). The Preacher and His Greek Testament, London: The Epworth Press, p. 71.
© 2024 David M. Rossi
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