1 John 2

Children, these are the end times; antichrist was heard of, and many antichrists have come. Wesley: the last dispensation of grace, to continue to the end of time. Under antichrist he includes all false teachers and enemies to the truth, whatever doctrines or men are contrary to Christ. Antichristianism has been spreading from his time.

The age of the gospel is already the last; vigilance is the mood, not date-setting. Many antichrists already: the danger is present teachers, not only a future figure.

Calvin: many sects had risen. He fortifies the faithful and turns the offense to a contrary purpose: the last time has come, therefore greater vigilance. Antichrist was a thing well known; they had been warned from the beginning. There were already many antichrists as forerunners; properly Antichrist was not yet, but the mystery of iniquity was working.

So many ages since John do not prove the prophecy false; nothing more remained but that Christ should appear. No time is fixed. Watch, because the signs are already in the churches.

They went out from us, but they didn’t belong to us; if they had been, they would have continued. Wesley: when they went, their hearts were before departed from God; otherwise they would have continued. They went out that this might be made manifest.

Departure reveals a heart already gone. Continuance is the mark of belonging. The verse is a fork on whether that belonging can be lost: Wesley still treats going out as proof they didn’t belong to us when they went—hearts already departed—without turning the rest of the letter’s warnings into theater.

Calvin: they had occupied a place in the Church and were counted among the godly, yet were never of them—as chaff mixed with wheat is not wheat. Those who fell away had never been members. Three sorts profess: feigned piety, self-dazzled hypocrisy, and those with the living root of faith. The last cannot be separated; the Spirit’s seal cannot be obliterated. He speaks of God’s election, not man’s constancy.

Going out manifests they were not all of us. Perseverance is certain where calling is effectual. They who fall away had only a light, transient taste of Christ.

You have an anointing from the Holy One, and you all have knowledge. Wesley: a chrism, perhaps against the name antichrist; inward teaching from the Holy Ghost, knowing all things necessary for preservation from seducers and for eternal salvation.

The Spirit’s teaching is authentic in ordinary believers, not only in a few. Knowledge here is saving enough to refuse the lie, not omniscience.

Calvin: modestly he excuses the warning, lest they think themselves treated as rude. Unction from the Holy One alludes to priestly oil from the sanctuary. Men are not made wise by their own acumen but by the Spirit’s illumination, and not otherwise than through Christ.

You know all things is confined to this subject. The Spirit as guide; Christ the true sanctuary and only high priest.

I write not because you don’t know the truth, but because you know it, and no lie is of the truth. Wesley: to confirm you in the knowledge you have already; all the doctrines of these antichrists are irreconcilable to it.

John is reminding them, not teaching a first lesson. Known truth still needs confirming. Lies are not “of” the truth—they cannot be baptized into it.

Calvin: he concedes a judgment by which they could distinguish truth from falsehood. Not a school proposition, but practical: they were fortified against impostures. Whatever deception Satan might contrive, they could distinguish light and darkness, having the Spirit as guide.

Known truth is still written. The Spirit’s discernment is the church’s shield, not a reason to dismiss teaching.

The liar denies that Jesus is the Christ; this is the antichrist, denying Father and Son. Wesley: that He is the Son of God, that He came in the flesh, is one undivided truth; deny any part and you deny the whole. He who denies the Son denies the Father also.

The lie is about Jesus, not a side issue. Antichrist is anyone whose denial of the Son is a denial of the Father. Shared with Calvin against a reduced Christ.

Calvin: not that they alone were liars who denied the appearing in flesh, but they surpassed all others. Denial extends wider: it is not enough to confess Jesus is the Christ except He is acknowledged as the Father offers Him in the gospel. Arius, Marcion, Sabellius, Pelagius, and later the Papists, in different ways, denied the Son.

Christ is denied whenever what peculiarly belongs to Him is taken away. The chief impostors fight against Christ, in whom the full truth is exhibited.

No one who denies the Son doesn’t have the Father. He who confesses the Son has the Father also. Wesley: whosoever denies the eternal Son has not communion with the Father; he that truly and believingly acknowledges the Son has communion with the Father also.

The Father is not available around the Son. Confessing is believing, not a formula only.

Calvin: a remarkable sentence, among the first axioms of religion. After confessing one true God, this second article: He is no other but He who is made known in Christ. The Father, who is invisible, has revealed Himself only in His Son. Turks, Jews, and such as are like them have a mere idol and not the true God.

No right confession of God except the Father be acknowledged in the Son. Shared axiom with Wesley: deny the Son, lose the Father.

Let that remain in you which you heard from the beginning abide; if it abides, you remain in the Son, and in the Father. Wesley: if that truth concerning Father and Son, heard from the beginning, abide fixed and rooted, you shall abide in that happy communion.

Remaining is commanded because remaining can fail. The beginning-gospel is the thing to keep, not a later improvement on Christ.

Calvin: perseverance in the faith, retaining what they had learnt. From the beginning does not mean antiquity alone proves a doctrine; they had been rightly instructed in the pure gospel. Discrimination first, then inflexible perseverance. If that remains, they remain in God.

The highest commendation of sound doctrine is that it unites us to God. He who has not the Father through the Son is empty, whatever knowledge he possesses.

This is the promise He promised us, the eternal life. Wesley: He—the Son—hath promised us, if we abide in Him.

Eternal life is attached to abiding in the heard gospel. The promise is Christ’s, not the church’s invention.

Calvin: happiness when God dwells in us. The sum: we cannot live otherwise than by nourishing to the end the seed of life sown in our hearts. Not only the beginning of a blessed life is in the knowledge of Christ, but also its perfection.

“Promise”—stay with Christ; wandering beyond the simple doctrine of the gospel has been the ruin of men.

I write these things concerning those who would lead you. Wesley: from v. 21; according to his custom he begins and ends with the same form.

The letter is not abstract. Seducers are why the anointing and the old commandment are pressed. Deceit is a live ministry problem.

Calvin: he wrote concerning seducers. It is the duty of a good pastor not only to gather a flock but to drive away wolves. No one can faithfully teach except he is diligent in banishing errors.

Proclaiming the pure gospel includes refusing impostures. The unction received is from Christ.

The anointing abides; you don’t need for anyone to teach you; as it taught you, you will remain in him. Wesley: you need not that any should teach you, save as that anointing teacheth—always the same, always consistent. This does not exclude our need of being taught by those who partake of the same anointing. Of all things necessary to know. Ye shall abide in Him—comfort and exhortation.

The Spirit’s anointing is sufficient against the lie, and still uses teachers who share it. Abide is both gift-language and command.

Calvin: he did not intend to represent teaching as useless. Fanatics absurdly exclude the outward ministry. The faithful, taught by the Spirit, already understood what he delivered; still no one knew so much that there was no room for progress. The Spirit is a seal; He endues with judgment lest we be deceived. Abide in Christ, as the Spirit has taught you.

Children of God are illuminated for this end—that they may know Christ. Turn not aside from Him. The fruit of perseverance is confidence at His appearing.