1 John 2: Choosing Sides

What comes to mind when you think of “choosing sides”? We choose sides many times in our lives. In childhood, we choose what team to play for in a intermural sport. In adulthood, we choose what team to root for. We choose what politician to vote for and what political party to align ourselves for. And of course, we choose what religion to adopt as our own personal doctrine. In 1 John 2, John is going to make a case to adopt true Christianity.

I’m not going to spend a lot of time on 1 John 2:1-6 because it repeats so much of what was already discussed in 1 John 1. In fact, a lot of scholars believe that 1 John 2:1-6 does belong with 1 John 1. What I am going to look at is the differences and what new things 1 John 2:1-6 brings to light on the subject. The first thing I notice, seen right away in verse 1, is that John wants to make sure the Christians in Ephesus and the rest of Asia Minor takes this to be a legalistic call to holiness. John is not saying it’s alright to sin, but rather, if one does make a mistake and sin, it’s not the end of the world and the end of your salvation. John uses the Greek term hilamos, a term that only found in the epistle of 1 John, and is only used twice. Some literal translations translate it, “propitiation,” but other literal translations will translate it “expiation.” If you know your Christian-ese, you’ll know those words have two different meanings. Propitiation means “God is satisfied with the payment of sins,” but expiation means “God forgives your sins.” Forgiving and being satisfied are two different things, if you think about it. But both of them are the effects of the same cause: Jesus died on the cross and paid for our sins. Thus, this time I will side with dynamic equivalencies who just say “atoning sacrifice.” Whatever the result of the atoning sacrifice, Jesus paid for it, so there is always a way out for sin.

Yet at the same time, John wants to make sure that the pendulum doesn’t swing to the other extreme. Christians can’t say that they believe in Him if they do not follow His commands. Any Christian that does make this claim is a liar because he does not have the truth. John makes it simple to understand in 1 John 2:6. If you are truly a Christian, you will live a life just like Christ. After all, the term “Christian” literally means “little Christ.” Christians are called to be just like Christ. Last time I checked, Jesus lived a perfect life, without sin. Jesus calls His followers to follow His example. But Jesus knows you’re not perfect. Jesus knows you’ll struggle with your sinful nature to do what is right. It circles back around to 1 John 2:1-2. When we do mess up and make mistakes, Jesus forgives.

So by the end of 1 John 2:6, the audience knows John wants Christians to obey God’s commands and Christ’s teachings. But what are these teachings? Could you give us an example, John? John picks the 2nd greatest commandment: to love one another. While Jesus used the term “your neighbor” for the 2nd commandment, John prefers to use the term “your brother.” The difference? While some have suggested that it’s the brotherhood of mankind, most likely “brothers” are fellow Christians. Still, the Christian brothers are among humankind, and the actions and feelings are to be the same. So why not choose the greatest commandment? Think of it as a social, or physical, test. Because God cannot be seen with the eyes, sometimes it’s difficult for humans to show love to God, simply because God cannot be seen. Humans, on the other hand are constantly visible to the human eye. They can be seen. Thus, there is no excuse for forgetting to love them. There is further support for this proof. Jesus said that when anyone does anything to his people, it’s like that person in doing it to Him. To love God’s people is to love God. To love Christians is to love Christ. I also believe that John is declaring if you can’t love the people God created, you can’t love God. If you can’t love the people Jesus has saved, you can’t love Jesus.

1 John 2:12-14 parallels three groups: “dear children,” “fathers” and “young men.” The three people groups are not paralleled just once, but twice. Now these three people groups are not equal. In fact, the second and the third people groups are subcategories of the first group. “Dear children” refers to all Christians. In this context, it would be the Christians in Asia Minor that John is disciplining. “Dear children” splits into two subcategories: “fathers” and “young men.” On one level, this can be taken the most literally as physical age. “Fathers” would be the older members of the church, while “young men” are the younger members of the church. On another level, this can be taken metaphorically as spiritual age. “Fathers” would be those spiritually matured in the faith, while “young men” are the newborn Christians. And you can tell it fits both ways. For “fathers,” both times John says that the fathers “have known him who is from the beginning.” Once again, I think John has a double meaning for the phrase “from the beginning” (John likes doing that). Obviously, “him who is from the beginning” is Jesus. Jesus is from the begging because He is the Word who gave life. These fathers knew Jesus, the one who is from the beginning, since the beginning of His ministry. The fathers know Jesus from the beginning since they are old enough to remember His ministry. Since they have been with Jesus from the beginning of His ministry, they have spiritually matured well. For the young men, both times it says they “have overcome the evil one.” Despite being new to the faith, John reminds the new believers that even though they are not fully spiritually mature, they already made a big step in accepting Jesus. By accepting Jesus, they have rejected the Devil and overcome him.

John continues the idea of overcoming into 1 John 2:15-17. This time, it’s the world. It’s also a continuation of John’s teaching to obey Christ’s teachings and God’s commands. Any love towards the world and its ways is breaking God’s commands and hatred towards God. Parallel 1 John 2:15-17 to John 16. John 16 also talks about not loving the world. More specifically, in John 16, Jesus tells his disciples that the world will hate him because they love Jesus. The dichotomy draws a sharp divide. A person either loves God and hates the world, or hates God and loves the world. There is no middle ground. For, as John says in verse 16, everything that comes from the world is from God. Those who side with the world will receive the same fate as the world, but those who side with God will receive the same fate as God. Just as the world passes away, so the followers of the world will also pass away. Just as Christ lives forever, so the Christians will also live forever.

Why is John so concerned about the following the truth, loving your brothers, and rejecting the world? The time is coming. John calls it the “last hour.” It’s quite possible John did take this eschatological. Most of the 1st century apostles believed Jesus would return before they died or would return before 100 A.D. While it is true that 2000 years have passed and the end has not come upon us yet, the last hour does hint at how quickly and how soon the end can come. It also reveals that the world is in the last stretch. No new revelation is coming. You have all the information you need to know. Now either accept Jesus or reject Jesus. This is the last chance.

For John, the biggest sign the last hour was near was the appearance of “antichrists.” In 1 John 2:18, John starts talking about “antichrists.” In verse 18, John says something along the lines of, “You’ve heard about the Antichrist, but let me tell you about antichrists.” Notice the difference between Antichrist with a capital A and antichrists with a lowercase a. Through other apostles, such as Paul, churches have already been receiving prophecy about the end times. One of them was that a man would set himself up to be the Christ, but in fact be quite the opposite, an Antichrist. The term “Antichrist” indeed means “false Christ.” John is telling his reader, “You don’t have to wait for the end of the world to see the Antichrist, as already antichrists are popping up around the world. Just as Christians are “little Christs,” so antichrists are little versions of the Antichrist. These men are like false teachers and false prophets, but they are worse, for they are false Christs. 1 John 2:18-19 paints a creepy picture for us. It’s like these men sneaked into the Christians, as if they are hard to point out.

Yet, this sentence serves as a double meaning. It is also an introduction on how to spot on these antichrists from the Christians among you. First, as found in verse 19, when antichrists are among Christians, they won’t really fit in. Their teachings will be much different from true Christian leaders. They will be the minority. They will be the odd man out. Second, as seen in verse 20, they will not know the truth. Well how are Christians to know what is the truth and what is not? The Holy Spirit! The Holy Spirit has anointed has His people, the Christians, with the truth. John seems pretty confident about this, for John says in verse 21 he writes because his readers know the truth and they should be able to distinguish truth from lies. An antichrist’s preaching will be far from the truth. They will be lies. Third, in 1 John 2:22, John says that an antichrist will deny that Jesus is the Christ. Fourth, following up in the next verse over, John further says that antichrists will deny the Father and the Son, which is probably a denial of the trinity. Both of these are closely interlinked. I remind you to go back to the historical context. False teachers, like Gnosticism and Docetism, are teaching that Jesus wasn’t God. Thus, they are also denying the trinity. John confronts this belief by reminding everyone of Christ’s teachings in John 14. The only way to get to God is through Jesus. The only way to see God is to see Jesus. To deny Jesus His deity is to deny God. The Father and the Son are so interlinked that one cannot exist without the other. John furthermore adds that if Jesus is not God, then Jesus is not the Christ. Those who deny Jesus is God deny Jesus is Christ. And if Jesus is not the Christ, then all humanity is screwed.

John wraps up 1 John 2 by stating that his purpose for writing this chapter (this section, really, since John didn’t write chapter numbers) is to simply make the Christians aware that there are people out there who are attempting to bring Christians astray. John provides an easy and simple solution to avoid the false teachings of false teachers: stick to the teaching that was taught from the beginning of Christ’s ministry. Nothing has changed since, so if anyone teaches something new that disagrees with Christ’s teachings, it is a false teaching to be discarded. And if anyone teaches these false teachings, he is a false teacher and an antichrist. But on the flip side, all who do good are righteous Christians. Their example is to be followed. Such example would be loving your brothers and sisters in Christ.

In 1 John 2, John draws a sharply divides Christ and Christians from antichrists and the world. The division is so sharp there is a deep and wide chasm between the two. They are complete opposites. Therefore, there is no middle ground for a person to stand on. A person must decide on following Christ and becoming a Christian or following an antichrist into the ways of the world. John helps his reader through this decision. Those who choose Christ remain in the truth, while those of the world lie to themselves. Those who chose the world will be doomed like the world is doomed, but those who choose Jesus will live eternally like Jesus does. I pray that everyone, both Christians and non-Christians make the right choice and choose the right side.